willedoo

No shortage of face marks at the finish line.

For a Queenslander, this is as good as it gets - Origin 3 decider at Lang Park. It's a cold night; the lads will have to wear an extra pair of cockroach stomping socks.

Cheer up Marty, it's only four years and after that his only influence will be if the Republicans win in 2028. If he wins this November, Trumpism will dominate the Republican party for some time beyond his term.

I think you'll find them up a certain creek.

And just for balance (no pun intended), one from the Trump side.

There's some footage online of Trump arriving at the Milwaukee convention and he's certainly got the A Team now.

There's been a lot of critisism of the performance of the female members of the Secret Service team and general critisism of the new Secret Service DIA hiring policy which aims towards 30% women employed. In the video footage I saw they didn't do too well, and one lady in particular seemed very flustered. The problem with social media video footage is that video is often clipped to suit the agenda of the person posting it and context can be lost. It can show what looks like bad performance only, with any good performance cut out. To have a balanced opinion, you would have to see the footage in it's entirety.

Just some thoughts on the above points: 1. He probably brought the rifle on site concealed under a coat. 2. He probably wasn't a good shot. Also a crowd of 50 or more people spotted him as soon as he started crawling on the low side of the reverse gable slope. They alerted police officers who were too close to the building to see him on the roof. The shooter had been exposed and law enforcement was looking for him, so he had to get to the top of the gable and get his shots off as best he could. He knew he was compromised so wouldn't have had time to frame an accurate first shot let alone the subsequent shots. 3. Three spectators were hit, one dead and two critically wounded. He also hit a hydraulic line on the elevated crane boom. In one video you can see fluid spurting out and the boom retracting. It might have been a ricochet as the crane was a fair way off target. As for the rest of the points, all I can think is Secret Services incompetence. There's a lot of current opinion that the SS has gone downhill. I'd guess the sitting President gets the 'A' team and the others get the dregs. The SS only had control over the inner secured area. All the outer areas like where the shooter was located were under the responsibility of the local police. It seems stupid that a rooftop 150 metres from the protectee was not under SS control and was left to the local Sheriff and Deputy Barney.

I don't think there are any hypersonic speed (Mach 5+) air to air missiles but a lot of them are up around the Mach 4 speed. As far as chasing helicopters goes, the drone can't match them on speed by a long way, it's only chance would be to sneak up on them when the choppers are at a slow speed for some operational reason. The Mi-8M cruise speed is around 240 kph with a maximum not much higher. The Ka-50 and Mi-28 have 270 kph cruise speeds with maximums close to 320. Intercepting other drones is probably all the Bullet will be able to do.

Another thought: wouldn't you think the SS would have surveillance drone coverage of the surrounding rooftops. Cheap and easy to do with the operators wired into the other agents earpieces. They would have identified the shooter at least five minutes before the shooting started.

At least the Secret Service will be able to use those photos in the 'what not to do' section of their next operation manual update.

Cousin Bill might be looking for a new job soon.

The moment they messed up Donald's hair:

They are talking about possible snow in the Granite Belt tonight or tomorrow night.

Footage from the tests of the Ukrainian 'Bullet' jet UAV that is reportedly able to intercept reconnaissance or strike drones and engage helicopters. Although its specifications are unknown, the drone reached a speed of 130 km/h during tests. The cost of a system, which includes five UAVs and a ground station, is 5.8 million UAH (€130,000).

Trump is lucky to be alive. The security was that bad that a low shooting skilled kid with his dad's rifle was able to climb onto a roof 150 metres away and wing him. An average shooter could reasonably have ended his life. I read an opinion by a shooting expert who gave distance and windage estimates (about 50 mm drift with the 5.56mm rounds on the wind level at the time), so a head shot was quite achievable for a fairly average shooter. If it was a professional hit, it would have been easy, especially if there was a second shooter given the below average performance of the Secret Service operatives on the stage with Trump. Two minutes elapsed between the time the public started alerting the police and the first shots. If the police on the ground near the shooter had comms with the SS, the shooter probably wouldn't have been able to get a shot off before being neutralised.

He was in the raised seating behind Trump. I'd guess it was for higher paying people and those with invites. Most of the crowd was on the flat ground in front.

I'd say there will be no shortage of memes in the next few days.

Taking the opportunity of the fist pump thing could have just been quick thinking. More likely, Trump has rehearsed what to do on stage in the event of something like that happening. He's smart enough to know that in that type of situation he can either look weak or strong depending on his actions at the time. The Secret Service broke their own protocol by allowing him to stick his head up and do it, and making himself a clear target in the process. A lot of them will be getting their backside kicked.

A bad taste meme:

There's very few buildings where the rally took place and it makes you wonder why the Secret Service weren't on every roof. It seems incredible that the shooter was able to get up on a roof 152 yards from a protected ex President and get shots off. People on the perimeter of the secured area saw the shooter crawling on the roof and pointed it out to police before the shots were fired.

This one will probably be a better campaign photo as it shows the whole flag in the background.