"It is Slow, Meticulous and Can be an Extremely Deadly Process"

"We haven't seen big movements [since the U.S. bombing in June]. Maybe a car or a truck [but] not bulldozers digging things out." 

"[The cylinders are] not very big [and] not specially protected [though it is possible that some] decoys [have been placed among them to confuse and impede anyone trying to remove them]."

"[While not privy to any military decisions] what I can say is that this considerable amount of material ... is highly contaminant, so there could be some contamination if there was a direct hit on it."

Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general, IAEA

 

"[To get to the buried Isfahan stockpile], you have to get excavation equipment, break through the concrete and lead shield [and any other protective covering], and then you somehow have to get to the bottom of this silo and remove the containers full of nuclear material and fly them out."

Anonymous expert 

 

"There's a lot of risks associated with it. This is a very high order of complexity. There likely will be casualties."

"But this is the problem set for U.S. Special Operations forces. It's what we do."

"We have people who are specifically trained to go into these types of environments."

"[The best way to recover the material would be following a ceasefire and accompanied by IAEA personnel.] But if you have to fight your way in [it could be feasible]."

Retired General Joseph Votel, U.S. Central Command/U.S. Special Operations Command 

U.S. President Donald Trump appears to be mulling over the possibility of monitoring or retrieving highly enriched uranium believed to be buried at the Iranian nuclear sites attacked by the U.S. last year at Isfahan. "Intense satellite surveillance" could help to monitor the location of the nuclear material. Should the plan be to seize Iran's uranium it "would be one of, if not the largest, most complicated special operations in history" in the opinion of former deputy assistant secretary of defence, retired CIA and Marine officer, Mick Mulroy. "It's a major risk to the force." 

"It's the job of the Pentagon to make preparations in order to give the commander-in-chief maximum optionality."

"It does not mean the president has made a decision."

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt 

Iran, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, has stockpiled some 970 pounds of uranium enriched to 60 percent; short of weapons-grade level. A nuclear facility outside Isfahan holds over half of that total stored in tunnels over 300 feet deep. Satellite imagery from early June analyzed by the Institute for Science and International Security show a large flatbed truck carrying 18 blue barrels toward the southern entrance of the Isfahan facility. The barrels, it was conjectured, contained highly enriched uranium cylinders moved for storage within the tunnel mere days prior to Israel and the U.S. launching airstrikes on Iranian targets. 

 

The logistics of an operation of recovery of those barrels are extraordinarily complex; to begin with, striking Iranian defences and equipment to clear a safe passage for ground troops to fly hundreds of miles into the country to establish a defence perimeter at the facilities. The Army's 82nd Airborne and Rangers parachuting to seize the ground within range of enemy artillery, missiles and drones. Engineers might build an airstrip to bring in supplies and equipment airdropped from cargo aircraft; operations vulnerable to enemy fire.

 

A large number of support troops -- mechanics, drivers, refuellers and others would be required to work 24-7 with food and water resupplied constantly. Nuclear specialists would be on site to assess risks and supervise the removal of uranium. The need to blast through rock and enter the storage area would be a yard-by-yard process for commandos to enter an unknown facility. Saws and blow torches would be needed to breach the area, possibly the Army Delta Force or Navy SEALS, to pass underground facility obstacles. 

South tunnel entrance of the Isfahan underground complex near the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center, Iran. (Bulletin / Google Earth)

 

Commandos geared with protective uniforms and rebreathers, carrying radioactive detection sensors while shooters covered them. Anything shot at, that might explode or cut through, could hit dangerous material. Radioactive exposure requires arduous and repeated decontamination of personnel and equipment. "It is slow, meticulous and can be an extremely deadly process", stated a former operator. Troops, equipment and nuclear material would be exposed to possible attacks by Iranians through the exfiltration process as personnel are airlifted through enemy airspace.  

 

An Iranian woman walks past a view of Tehran's research reactor in Tehran. Morteza Nikoubazl/Getty

 

There's That Ten-Letter Word: C O R R U P T I O N

"The Gordie Howe Bridge has been a bipartisan priority because it supports jobs, makes transport easier, and will lower costs."

"At the last minute, the President wants to derail this hugely important project because a billionaire campaign donor told him to."

"This kind of blatant corruption hurts working families, and needs to end. For the sake of Michigan's economy, let's pass this bill."

Kristen McDonald Rivet, Democratic U.S. Representative 

 

"Twenty-five years in the making. Seven years of construction, and, at its peak, 2,500 workers on-site. Costing $6.4 billion and stretching 2.5 kilometres—the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America, rising 46 metres above the Detroit River—the Gordie Howe International Bridge is much more than these impressive numbers."

"“The Gordie Howe International Bridge is a symbol of the friendship between Michigan and Canada and a testament to what’s possible when we work together,” said Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer when the bridge deck was completed last July."

"Construction started on October 18, 2018, and after more than 19 million work hours, the structure is complete. What remains before the first vehicle crosses the bridge is testing, re-testing and training."

David McPherson, ReNew Canada

Could Trump block bridge opening? Workers are shown at the Gordie Howe International Bridge in Detroit on Tuesday, February 10, 2026. Photo by Dan Janisse /The Windsor Star

 

After having praised the building of the Gordie Howe International Bridge linking Windsor, Ontario to Detroit Michigan, as a second bridge crossing, after the century-old Ambassador Bridge, in 2017, President Trump suddenly diverted from pushing for the "expeditious completion" of the bridge, to posting outraged messages on his social media site. His apoplectic charges have no base in reality, however.  

Canada, he states, has treated the U.S. "very unfairly for decades", including the charge that the bridge was built "with virtually no U.S. content". "With all that we have given them, we should own, perhaps, at least one half of this asset", he grumped. Well, in fact, Detroit does 'own one-half' of the bridge, a gift from Canada. Canada, as it happens, footed the entire $6.4 billion cost of the bridge, but has granted joint ownership between Canada and the state of Michigan. Once the cost of the bridge has been paid through collected tolls, toll receipts are to be divided evenly between Canada and Michigan.

This is called mutual partnership generosity. In the building of the bridge, American workers were employed alongside their Canadian counterparts. The bridge was built with the use of American steel included in the process. "I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them", thundered the American president in righteous fury on a Truth Social post. 

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to the Detroit Economic Club on Jan. 13. (Ryan Sun/The Associated Press)

"I know the importance of Michigan manufacturing and that's why I'm demanding Trump drop this reckless threat, let the bridge open, and stop playing games with our jobs and our economy." 

"[By threatening to block the opening of the bridge, Trump is] unsurprisingly [placing jobs and] billions of dollars in economic growth at risk."

U.S. Representative Haley Stevens 

It has been reported by the New York Times that the president's post was prefaced by a meeting mere hours before, when U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik and Matthew Moroun, the billionaire private Lebanese-American owner of the Ambassador Bridge, took place. This is a bridge that rivals the new Gordie Howe Bridge which has enjoyed its monopolistic trade conduit between Windsor and Detroit since 1929. The company representing the owners has parted with millions of dollars over the past decade in an attempt to thwart government plans for a competing, publicly-owned bridge.

 

Trucks line up to clear customs and cross the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest commercial vehicle crossing between Canada and the U.S. (Patrick Morrell/CBC)

 

Major Republican donors, the Moroun family expended some $30 million on a failed Michigan ballot proposal in 2012 to block construction of the Gordie Howe Bridge. Dozens of lawsuits toward the same end have also been launched. In the background is the fact that Michigan entered a bilateral agreement in 2012 to advance construction of the bridge, with no direct cost to the taxpayers of Michigan. The project was known for "demonstrating the project's nonpartisan importance to American workers, manufacturers, and national competitiveness". 

 

The Gordie Howe Bridge between Windsor, Ont., and Detroit, seen here on May 10, 2024, is expected to open sometime in 2026 after almost a decade of construction. (Patrick Morrell/CBC)

 

Cuban Missile Crisis Redux...

"Based on the highly provocative statements of the former President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that."

"Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences. I hope this will not be one of those instances."

"Medvedev said some things that are very bad, talking about nuclear. When you mention the word nuclear my eyes light up and I say we better be careful, because it's the ultimate threat."

"A threat was made and we didn't think it was appropriate, so I have to be very careful. So I do that on the basis of safety for our people. A threat was made by a former president of Russia, and we're going to protect our people."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump 

Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine USS Maine transits Puget Sound during routine operations, March 18, 2025.   Specialist 1st Class Ryan Riley/U.S. Navy

 

"Trump's playing the ultimatum game with Russia: 50 days or 10… He should remember 2 things: 1. Russia isn't Israel or even Iran. 2. Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war."

"Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country."

"Don't go down the Sleepy Joe road!"

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, currently deputy chair, Russia's security council

 

"[The Patriot transfer to Ukraine was made possible by an agreement with the U.S. that Germany would be] the first nation to receive newly produced, latest-generation Patriot systems at an accelerated pace [which Berlin would pay for]."

"[The delivery to Ukraine would also include] additional system components within the next two to three months."

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius 

Dmitry Medvedev (right) has sparred with Donald Trump on social media in recent days. Getty Images

 

After Trump shortened the timeline for his ceasefire-or-sanctions ultimatum, Medvedev responded Monday by warning him that was a step towards war. He added, "Don't go down the Sleepy Joe road!"

• Trump responded in a post on Truth Social calling Medvedev a "failed former President" and warning him to "watch his words" as he's entering "dangerous territory."
• On Friday morning, Medvedev fired back with an allusion to Russia's "Dead Hand" automated strike system — which purportedly could unleash a full-scale nuclear response in the event Russia was struck first.
• Medvedev also mocked Trump, saying "if a few words from the former President of Russia can provoke such a jittery reaction from the mighty President of the United States, then Russia must be completely in the right."

Axios

 More bodies pulled from under rubble in yet another aerial bombardment from Russia, with numbers of dead doubling, to reflect the deadliest strike so far this year on Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. While recovery operations commence, Germany has stepped in to announce it plans to provide two Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine, in coming days. Berlin is poised at the top of a list to obtain new-model replacements of the Patriot systems from the United States in an exchange agreement.

 

Ukraine desperately needs more air defences to stave off strikes from unrelenting Russian missile and drone attacks, and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pleaded with Ukraine's western allies to provide them. In July alone, stated President Zelenskyy, Russian forces launched some 3,800 drones, 250 missiles -- including 128 ballistic missiles and 5,100 guided bombs. Ukrainian forces are using outdated equipment in attempting to intercept the drones and missiles; whatever they have in their antiquated arsenal is clearly lacking effectiveness.

 

The "vile blow" of the Thursday overnight attack demonstrated that additional pressure on Moscow was required, stated Mr. Zelenskyy, going on to say that Ukraine's allies in the west should tighten their sanctions regime against the Kremlin, something that U.S. President Donald Trump has been threatening to do. "No matter how much the Kremlin denies their effectiveness, [the sanctions] are working and must be stronger -- to hit everything that allows such strikes to continue."

 

President Trump is preparing to slap additional sanctions on Moscow to place pressure on Russia to accept a ceasefire. Trump characterized the Russian airstrikes on civilian targets in Ukraine as 'disgusting' and 'a disgrace', even while himself questioning the effectiveness of further sanctions to convince Russian President Putin to agree to a ceasefire. "I don't know that sanctions bother  him. I don't now if that has any effect, but we're going to do it", said the U.S. president.

 

He also said on Friday that he had ordered two nuclear submarines positioned "in the appropriate regions" after former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev reminded the U.S. that Moscow still has robust nuclear strike capabilities. President Trump had earlier in the week tightened the deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire from the previous stated 50 days to ten days, for Russia to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine or face new sanctions.

 

Explosions seen in Kyiv during Russian attack   Still from video

 

Ukrainian air defences have been overwhelmed by the numbers and frequency of cruise and ballistic missiles, along with drones fired at Ukrainian targets by Russian forces. The missile clusters in combination with waves of drones have been devastating for the ill-equipped, overworked Ukrainian military teams, with no relief in sight. Expectation of the receipt of the Patriot missile systems will substantially boost both Ukrainian morale and the functionality of Ukraine's response to the bombardments.

 

Thursday's overnight attack saw over 300 drones across Ukraine, with 21 drones striking  targets, the brunt borne by Kyiv, stated Ukraine's air force. Of the eight cruise missiles fired, five penetrated Ukraine's air defences, according to the Ukrainian military. 

 

Sputnik/Alexei Maishev and REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

 

 

 

Reeling International Markets ... A Trump Specialty

 

"The reaction from the worlds of business and finance has been swift."

"Wall Street witnessed its worst two-day sell-off in the past five years last week."

"International markets continued their downward trend on Monday, with Japan's Nikkei index and the Shanghai Composite Index dropping over seven percent."

Jesse Kline, The National Post

A drone view of Stellantis's Chrysler Windsor Assembly facility in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio

World markets are reacting to the Trump White House announcements on everything from its realignment of chosen allies, to its characterization of NATO members as free-loaders on the American military, to punishing nations across the globe for their protectionism in trade through tariffs on American goods. A very similar protectionism in President Trump's own 'Make America Great Again', prioritizing U.S. jobs and production by suddenly heaping stiff tariffs on imports to the United States worldwide, leaving all those targeted reeling, and international markets in a confusion of utter chaos.

 

Business confidence and investment, high finance hardly knows where next to look for additional shocks to global markets. One man and his seemingly irrational decision-making has managed to roil the world with a major economic crisis, one that threatens to take not only the countries he has targeted into recession, but the United States as well. It was, after, all, North American and European consumers that decided they preferred to buy manufactured goods produced in cheap-labour markets and their buying power bypassed home-produced goods effectively shutting down factories in favour of inexpensive overseas-produced goods ranging from kitchenware to footwear, bedding and clothing.

 

Lululemon said 40 per cent of its products were manufactured in Vietnam, which was slapped with a 46 per cent tariff initiated by U.S. President Donald Trump. Photo by Joe Raedle /Getty Images

There have been a plethora of tariff statements linked to specific dates, complicated by second-thought reprieves which simply had the effect of destabilizing markets even more, and leaving economists and trade authorities in the dark over what next to expect from a mercurial president of the powerful United States of America. Universal tariffs ranging from ten to 49 percent set to come into effect on the 10th of April have now been temporarily suspended, once again. When they are  reinstituted they will be applied to imports from 180 different countries. 

 

In Canada, America's northern neighbour, President Trump's order to carmakers that he expected manufacturing to return to the United States and the closure of U.S. manufacturing plants in Canada and Mexico to facilitate that move, one that in practical terms will raise the price of the finished product to bite the bank accounts of Americans, yet a transition that would take years in the making, to undo a complex system of established integrated manufacturing between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, both of which Mr. Trump accuses of ripping off America.

 

Automaker Stellantis last week announced its production pause at two of its North American plants -- one in Canada, affecting 3,200 employees, the second in Mexico where 900 workers are to be laid off at five U.S. factories. Canada, as a result of this turmoil, lost 33,000 jobs in March and even greater numbers of full-time jobs. So that's how America's partners in the CUSMA Free Trade agreement are faring at the present time.

 

Employees working in a clothing sewing workshop in Guangzhou, China’s southern Guangdong province. Photo by PEDRO PARDO /AFP via Getty Images

And in the United States, textile and footwear industries have warned that 97 percent of the clothing and footwear sold in the U.S. are imported; the new tariffs on textile-producing countries like Vietnam, Cambodia and China could raise prices by over 50 percent. With free trade, offshoring and strong competition keeps prices down, leaving U.S. consumers with stable pricing on goods over extended periods of time. 

An average car cost is likely to rise between $5,000 to $10,000. These new tariffs are set to cost American households an estimated $1,900 for starters this yer, according to the Tax Foundation think tank; "the largest tax hike since 1982". 

President Trump's endgame is to force production in manufacturing back to the United States as it was before the global community gave its complacent blessing to China to become a colossus of manufacturing, flooding the world with cheap products to please the ordinary consumer focused on cost to the exclusion of closing down their own job markets. In his determination to haul production back home, some matters have not been taken into account.

 

Such as the fact that the low-skilled workforce in the United States no longer exists; goods currently made in developing countries in economies of scale will not be reproducible in the U.S. Even as the Trump White House is sending notices to temporary residents of the U.S. that their freeloading on the U.S. taxpayer is over and millions of undocumented immigrants are being rounded up and returned to sender. Is the U.S. prepared to reduce its high minimum wages to challenge the low wages received by skilled workers in 'undeveloped' countries of the world? 

 

Another example was brought to the fore when the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America contacted the new U.S. Trade Representative informing him that the typical shoe contains 70 materials that cannot be sourced within the United States. Even should American companies begin producing domestic footwear, tariffs would still apply on many of the raw materials they would have to import to produce footwear. 

And then there's the issue of moving automobile production back to the United States. Transplanting auto part producing factories and vehicles would take years to come to fruition. American-made vehicles also contain thousands of components sourced world-wide.  For producing companies to make long-term reshoring plans they would be risking hundreds of millions at a time of uncertainty and instability; both complicating economic conditions the Trump administration has made itself known for.

 

Getty Images

 

 

Canada in His Crosshairs

"Governor Trudeau understood that [President Trump's characterization of Canada's former finance minister Chrystia Freeland as a 'whack']. And he actually fired her because of a meeting he had with me."

"I said, 'She is so bad. She's bad for the country."

"[Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's] biggest problem is he's not a MAGA guy."

"[Poilievre is] not positive about me. I don't know. I mean, I can't tell you, Pierre. I just don't know. I don't like what he's saying about me. It's just not positive about me."

"And we've done a great job."

U.S. President Donald Trump

 

 

Evidently the current political scene in Canada as it prepares for an election that most Canadians hope will result in seeing the last of current prime minister Justin Trudeau has caught President Trump's attention. Trudeau's governing Liberal party has been a decade of declining Canadian fortunes. In the sphere of economics, of social cohesion, of mass immigration that has seen a proliferation of ardent Islamists infiltrating society and government. A lack of adequate attention to incoming migrants and their capacity to accept Canadian culture, laws and social mores has led to increasing criminality and total lawlessness.

 

Their numbers have helped to overwhelm the country's universal medicare system. The housing market is facing severe shortages due to increased demand. The nation's social safety net has been stretched out of proportion to its capacity to do justice to the needs of the established population, now exacerbated by the entry of millions of immigrants, illegal migrants, refugees, foreign students and migrant farm workers. The incompetence of the governing Liberals led by the preening, political/social divisiveness of Justin Trudeau whose normalization of Critical Race Theory, DEI and environmental 'concerns' have torn Canadian society apart, and beggared the economy.

 

 

Through all of this, the last possible thing the country needs is the needling interference of a foreign government, one that threatens to bring the Canadian economy to its knees, offering relief should Canada agree to become the 51st State in the American union. The stiff tariffs he has threatened to impose on Canadian imports to the United States, the country's largest trading partner and neighbour, would be ruinous to Canadian industry and just incidentally impact the American economy deleteriously as well.

 

In the auto sector, for example, the two countries' production is massively intertwined. An additional tax burden would be reflected in an equally troublesome burden for American consumers as well. The former Canadian finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, viewed as distastefully by the Canadian electorate as her formerly-adored boss, Justin Trudeau, is now running for election to replace him, following his resignation after her own, when it was revealed that he had once again undermined one of his top Cabinet ministers. 

 

President Trump recalls his personal distaste for Ms. Freeland who played a key role in the continental trade pact that replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement, during his first tenure as U.S. President. "I don't back down -- and Trump and Putin know it. I'm ready to fight for Canada -- and win", she responded to President Trump's insults expressed during an interview with The Spectator.

 

Canada has been thrown into the disarray of uncertainty following President Trumps executive order implementing a 25 percent tariff on Canadian and Mexican imports, which many experts interpret as a move by the president to place pressure on both countries prior to a re-negotiation of the successor to NAFTA by the Canada-Mexico-United States trade agreement, due to take place in a year's time.

 

Canadian officials have been travelling to Washington and to border U.S. states for months in an effort to rally American support against the imposition of trade tariffs, potentially ruinous to both countries. Canadian law enforcement and border officials have also travelled to the U.S. capital to meet with lawmakers and members of President Trump's inner circle in government. Among the issues Canada and Mexico were charged with, was their lax attention to the opioids and illegal migrants flooding into the U.S. across Mexican and Canadian borders.

 

In the instance of both, Canada is responsible for a vanishingly low number; some 2%, as opposed to maximum numbers around 70% through Mexico. Canada's Public Safety Minister responded that "any test that was put on this country, on Canada, in terms of showing progress and meeting standards for the border -- I believe those have been met."  The President's targets of complaints against his North American neighbours have wide range -- from defence spending to trade deficits. And throughout these complaints have been added President Trump's vision of Canada succumbing to America's Divine Destiny, as a 51st State.

 

In a Fox News interview on Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump said his wish to make the 51st state is real. Photo by JIM WATSON /Getty

 

Who Was Thomas Matthew Crooks?

• 5:10 p.m. Crooks was first identified as a person of interest
• 5:30 p.m. Crooks was spotted with a rangefinder
• 5:52 p.m. Crooks was spotted on the roof by Secret Service
• 6:02 p.m. Trump takes the stage
• 6:12 p.m. Crooks fires first shots

"While Crooks was making his way to his shooting position, Secret Service agents were listening to radio traffic about a suspicious person police were looking for and heard local law enforcement talking about some sort of confrontation involving police, the sources said."

"Butler County Sheriff Michael T. Slupe told ABC News that he was informed by other law enforcement officials that a Butler Township police officer searching for the suspicious person was vaulted onto the AGR building's roof and briefly confronted the gunman, who turned his weapon to the officer, causing him to retreat back down. Shots rang out moments later."

ABC News

 

 Bit by excruciating bit, details are emerging about the Saturday evening shooting in the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump at the Butler, Pennsylvania election campaign rally, when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was identified as the shooter and as the FBI is laboriously investigating, while its specialists "continue to analyze his electronic devices". 

It was explained that the shooter's residence and vehicle were searched, and close to a hundred interviews took place, questioning law enforcement personnel, attendees at the rally, along with other witnesses to fine-comb sources for details of interest. Photos and videos shot at the scene are also being thoroughly reviewed.

 

Prior to the Saturday shooting Crooks went to a shooting range where he was a member and there he practised firing. He was known to have gone to Home Depot where he bought a ladder and 50 rounds of ammunition from Allegheny Arms and Gun Works in Bethel Park, Penn. He had with him a rifle bought by his father in 2013. Following his purchases, an hour's drive north took him to the rally site.

 

An "Improvised explosive device" was found on inspection of his car trunk, a Hyundai Sonata. An unidentified official described the device as having been connected to a receiver with wires, and a remote control detonator was in Crooks' possession. "That suggests the gunman may have been planning to set off an explosion remotely, and investigators are considering the theory that he may have been planning a distraction during the shooting."

 

Before Secret Service snipers on a roof neighbouring the one Crooks was crouching on, he was able to get off several shots -- an estimated eight in total, including the first one, that grazed Trump's ear --until he was shot and killed. Those shots fired from the roof killed one person at the rally -- Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old engineer and firefighter -- shot in the head, while two others were critically wounded.

 

Bethel Park is a quiet suburb of Pittsburgh, south of where the Saturday rally took place. Crooks lived there with his parents and he worked at a nursing home. He graduated with an associate's degree in engineering science from the Community College of Allegheny County in western Pennsylvania in May. "Like all Americans, we are shocked and saddened by the horrific turn of events that took place", stated the community college.

 

High school yearbook and graduation photos of Thomas Matthew Crooks

 

According to a former classmate who asked to remain anonymous, Crooks was reserved, seldom discussing politics at school and seemed centre-right and moderate. Hearing that Crooks was identified as the gunman, the classmate texted Crooks that he was sorry that someone attempted to impersonate him. When he later saw the photo of Crooks on the roof of the building where he was fatally shot, he understood why he received no text back.

Despite having ample access to Crooks' family and friends, his phone and those of some people he communicated with, investigators find themselves with scant information that might point to a motive for his actions. According to FBI officials, there is no evidence of any ideology that drove Crooks to commit such an act of violence. 

Police block roads around the home of Thomas Matthew Crooks in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, on Monday, as the FBI continues its investigation into the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.    Rebecca Droke/AFP/Getty Images

Awaiting Inauguration Day

"People were automatically already looking for evidence that the protesters were Antifa, and that narrative came roaring back on these platforms."

"The people they were identifying as Antifa are actually some of the most well known QAnon believers, neo-Nazi leaders and far-Right social media personalities, and they personally have been pushing back angrily in some cases saying, 'No, this is me, stop trying to take away credit."

Cindy Otis, former CIA officer, disinformation pundit

"Trump said come to Washington, D.C., 'It's going to be wild' and people took time off work, travelled for hours across the country to what they thought would be watching him win the election."

"What I have seen mostly is confusion, disappointment and betrayal ... because until now, they were told Trump was going to win or that there may have been some big reveal of hidden votes or evidence in Trump's favour."

"There are a lot of people out there who have had their world view shattered. I wouldn't write off the possibility of one guy with a gun taking matters into his own hands."

Arish Kovler, disinformation specialist

A Capitol police officer and members of the national guard stand near a fence surrounding the Capitol. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

 

For months Arish Kovler monitored social media channels. What he saw and what  he heard convinced him that trouble was brewing. And so, when a mob of thousands of Trump supporters descended on Washington and chaos and violence broke out as they stormed the Capitol, he was the lost person to be shocked and surprised; he had anticipated just that to happen, and it did with a vengeance, on January 6th, disrupting the proceedings meant to validate and confirm the popular vote and the Electoral Collage votes that would bring in a new president on January 20.

In the annals of 'it's not over 'till it's over', thee are now expectations that a similar crowd of Trump supporters will amass a presence in Washington to storm the proceedings on inauguration day. The signature of just such organized mayhem is to be seen online by anyone interested in perusing the urgent calls for a repeat of the earlier storming. President Trump's video in which he conceded the election released on Thursday, calling for a peaceful transition of power shocked his followers, some of whom characterized the video as having been doctored, that the president was forced to release it.

Then there was his tweet promising that "American Patriots" would "not be disrespected", certainly more like the Trump they knew and loved, representing proof he wasn't really committed to what he said in the previous video, but coerced to surrender his fight. Should a mob gather once again around the January 20 inauguration ceremony -- though experts doubt there will be a repeat, they also warn to expect greater violence if it does materialize. It's called hedging their bets.

The non-profit group Coalition for a Safer Web has been targeting the presence of extremism online appearing in free speech network Parler, private messaging group Telegram and thedonald.win forum all of which were involved in the formation and promulgation of plans resulting in the siege of the Capitol. Hundreds of references to guns and violence were found, one Parler post from last week cited reading: "To all the Patriots descending on Washington DC on #jan5 ... come armed..."

On thedonald.win posters mused over why it was that Trump had been absent from public view since his speech prior to the storming of the Capitol, where someone suggested a mob should be put together to "find him". Videos shred on social media appearing to show the Capitol police leniently interacting with protesters had the effect of "encouraging" radical Trump supporters. One of the largest online pro-Trump communities, the forum r/donaldtrump was shut down by Reddit over fears of further mayhem, for having violated policies against violence.

The Make America Great Again movement seems to have split between those celebrating Wednesday's bloodshed and others who want no part of it, while others yet blame the episode on Antifa irrespective of a a lack of evidence for a 'false flag' operation. Many Trump supporters migrated to Parler following notice of having violated Twitter's policies. 

"What Donald Trump did was a betrayal of public trust and a violation of his oath of office.There’s no question that what we saw this week was incited by the rhetoric that he has been using now for weeks and that inspired and mobilized extremist right wingers and conspiracy theorists."

"On 9/11 we worried that one of the planes was going to hit the Capitol building. In this case, the Capitol building was hit. It was domestic terror, and absolutely shocking."

Michael Chertoff, former homeland security secretary

Security has been stepped up at the US Capitol following deadly violence last week  Reuters

The Will Power of a Fantasy World

President Donald Trump (Evan Vucci/The Associated Press)

"The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry. And there's nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you've re-calculated."

"So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state."

"[There was] no way [I lost in Georgia]."

U.S. President Donald Trump

"If any other person did this ... there is no doubt in my mind that at the very least a criminal investigation would be opened right away."

Anthony Michael Kreis, law professor, Georgia State University

"Trump's contempt for democracy is laid bare. Once again. On tape."

"Pressuring an election official to 'find' the votes so he can win is potentially criminal. And another flagrant abuse of power by a corrupt man who would be a despot, if we allowed him."

"We will not."

Representative Adam Schiff, chairman, House intelligence committee

On Sunday, U.S.President Trump publicly revealed he had had a telephone conversation about voter fraud with Georgia's top election official, fellow Republican, Georgia Secretary of State Paul Raffensperger. "He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the 'ballots under table' scam, ballot destruction, out-of-state 'voters', dead voters, and more. He has no clue!", the president informed his public through his usual mode of presidential official communication: Twitter.

Trump alternately flattered, begged and threatened Raffensperger  The Washington Post

 

This is a man irreconcilable to fact and reality for he is accustomed to inventing his own to suit his very personal narrative. He appears to believe, irrationally, that conspiracies exist for the sole purpose of foiling his plans to continue representing the best interests of the United States. His fate conjoined with that of America. There must be a reason that the global community of former U.S. allies will breathe a sigh of relief at his forthcoming departure.

"Respectfully, President Trump: What you're saying is not true. The truth will come out", responded Mr. Raffensperger. Who had earnestly attempted to dissuade his president from his self-serving fantasy world of fake news and skulduggery. All revealed through a recording of an hour-long call that had been released to the U.S. media. The call shared between the two the day before represented clear evidence of Mr. Trump's fantasy world that voter fraud has deprived him of a second term in office.

Mr. Raffensperger and the general counsel to his office informed the president outright throughout the call that his assertions had no basis in reality. Joe Biden won the presidential election by a margin of 306 to 232 in the state-by-state Electoral College vote, and in the overall general vote by over 7 million. Figures that are real and accounted for. All of which place Mr. Trump in the rare category of a one-term president, a well earned rejection of another four years of chaos overwhelming some successes.

 

Trump demands of Georgia's Secretary of State that additional votes be 'found'

When Electoral College results are set to be formally tallied in Congress on January 6, several of President Trump's allies in a long-shot effort to disrupt formal recognition of Mr. Biden's presidential win is scheduled to take place, led by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz. The narrow victory realized by Mr. Biden in Georgia represented the first by a Democratic presidential candidate in a normally Republican state.

"[This recording captures] the whole, disgraceful story about Donald Trump's assault on American democracy."

"We now have irrefutable proof of a president pressuring and threatening an official of his own party to get him to rescind a state's lawful, certified vote count and fabricate another in its place."

Bob Bauer, senior adviser, President-elect Joe Biden

The Imponderable Dichotomy of an Incorrigible Outlier Administration on COVID

"The USSS [United States Secret Service] is taking all necessary precautions and putting anyone who is considered close contact in quarantine." 

"There has been zero impact on the mission. Staffing levels are high enough to manage."

"The Secret Service maintains well-established protocols inclusive of testing, conducting contact tracing related to confirmed and suspected exposure, and immediately isolating of any employee who tests positive for COVID-19."

"This program ensures that every precaution is taken to keep our protectees, employees, families, and the general public, safe and healthy."

United States Secret Service Official

It was unclear how the Secret Service officers contracted the virus. Many had traveled to campaign events in the final weeks of the election, according to people briefed on the matter.  Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

Over 130 Secret Services officers assigned to protect the White House and President Trump on his travels have been ordered to isolate or to go into quarantine, either as a result of their having tested positive for the novel coronavirus or that they have had contact with others infected with COVID-19. There has been no official public announcement, but three unauthorized insiders in the Secret Service who are familiar with agency staffing recently divulged details of the situation.

The situation has led to ten percent of the agency's core security team having been sidelined, the spread believed to have been linked in part to a series of campaign rallies held by President Trump in weeks prior to the November 3 election. Although the three insiders spoke freely to some news media in interviewed they spoke on condition of anonymity on a matter whose very nature represents a breach of security. There is irony in the outcome of Secret Service officers assigned to protect a president coming to harm by actions of that president.

The Secret Service's presidential security unit has been struck particularly hard, echoing in part the growing numbers of White House intimates, prominent Trump campaign allies and officials who have fallen like dominoes following campaign events at which many of those attending habitually spurn mask-wearing. Judd Deere, speaking for the White House, emphasized that the administration takes "every case seriously" referring questions to agency officials who themselves declined comment, as they would.

President Trump held to a tough, efficient and gruelling campaign schedule that led to five campaign stops each on the last two days of the campaign. At each of which events five disparate groups of Secret Service officers were deployed; each group comprised of 20 to several dozen officers tasked to screen spectators and secure the perimeters of the president's events. By comparison, his challenger made two campaign stops, requiring Secret Service protection in smaller numbers.

Following the example of Donald Trump, White House staffers typically eschew the wearing of face masks. Leading the agency to examine whether some of the infections among their officers might have resulted from positions right around the White House itself. On some occasions Secret Service officers have emulated the staffers at the White House, and not themselves taken to wearing masks.

A U.S. secret service agent stands guard as US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Prescott Regional Airport in Prescott, Arizona on Oct. 19, 2020.A U.S. secret service agent stands guard as US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally

 

About a thousand, three hundred Secret Service officers are deployed in guarding the White House and the residence of the vice-president, just as they also are tasked with security for presidential trips out of town, and at official events. As a result of the pace of the frenetic activities related to the election campaign, the team had been under performance stress. Now that the number of officers has been so significantly reduced, the overworked team is in further stress.

A blue-ribbon panel struck in 2015 had identified overworked Secret Service officers as a key factor contributing to White House security breaches. This, needless to say, predates Donald Trump's time in office. It is undeniable that the president's penchant for underplaying the serious nature of the SARS-CoV-2 contagion in the greater interests of maintaining the economy has influenced those members of the vast American public who trust and admire him not to themselves wear protective face masks.

He has routinely made light of the medical community's urging to the public to practice social distancing, hand hygiene and mask-wearing, jeering at those who trustfully follow those instructions while himself insouciantly defying such namby-pamby instructions, even after he had himself been struck with COVID. Many tens of thousands of Americans, needless to say, were not as fortunate as he was, to receive the most expert professional medical aid for a speedy recovery. 

 

His influence continues to instruct his followers to defy medical advice in precautionary measures at a time when the United States has become the centre of the worst global outbreak of COVID.

 

President Trump hinted he may 'fire Fauci' after the election, to the cheers of the audience at a campaign rally in Florida. Associated Press

 

Matters, however, are never as simple as they appear to be. While he has been a backward influence in the U.S. on necessary precautions the public should adhere to in an effort to protect themselves and their neighbours from the global pandemic threatening life on a heretofore unseen scale in living memory, his administration has also been responsible for shaping events to the extent that a U.S. pharmaceutical giant in collaboration with a German company has developed the first efficient and safe vaccine for COVID.

 

It was his administration's early, sustained focus on development of a vaccine as public policy that spoke to good governance, a reflection that modern medicine could ultimately find a way out of a global threat. Operation Warp Speed; government in partnership with the private sector worked expeditiously to accelerate, develop, manufacture and distribute a vaccine. The expedited regulatory processes, the $2 billion of federal funds pre-purchasing 100 million doses benefited the discovery of Pfizer's vaccine.

 

Graphic of positive people at Rose Garden event, October 2     Javier Zaccarina

 

Heads Will Roll

"Why do you think Rupert [Murdock] attacks me so often?"

"Rupert always tells me to my face that he loves me, but I guess he doesn't."

U.S.President Donald Trump

 

"[While the president has for many years considered launching 'Trump TV', he often underestimates costs and infrastructure involved, along with opposition of] liberal [cable operators."

"The president has been a fantastic media personality ... but if he does [Trump TV] he's gonna have a super hard time."

"[Could Trump partner with Newsmax? I] never closed the door [on the option]."

Christopher Ruddy, founder, conservative media group Newsmax

It was a useful collaboration benefiting both parties while it lasted. Fox News got the inside source for its support of a president who loathed mainstream press and media sources because they were all irremediably biased against him, unable to recognize the fine qualities he brought to the Oval Office, while Fox News was amenable to join its less staid, conservative bent to the unorthodox comportment of a president whose coarse demeanor and questionable values and behaviour failed to strike the right chord with the mainstream.

"The president's going to — he's very transparent in terms of what he wants. And he's been very clear about his views … I'm not trying to make anybody happy."

"What I'm trying to do is, fulfill what he wants — I mean, he's the duly elected commander in chief — and make the best out of it."

"My frustration is I sit here and say, 'Hmm, 18 Cabinet members. Who's pushed back more than anybody?' Name another Cabinet secretary that's pushed back."

"Have you seen me on a stage saying, 'Under the exceptional leadership of blah-blah-blah, we have blah-blah-blah-blah'?"

"I serve my country in deference to the Constitution, so I accept your decision to replace me."

(former) Defence Secretary Mark Esper

President Donald Trump is in a mean, rip-raging mood. And there will be consequences. Some have already surfaced. The President of the United States of America, dignified as always, respectful of those who have served the American people well and who have managed to stifle their sense of equanimity in the face of unorthodox interference in their service to their country, took to Twitter today  to 'terminate' an important member of his Cabinet; a not-unusual state of affairs with this president.

 

Defence Secretary Mark Esper sacked by Trump, Reuters

He had the unmitigated gall, after all, of refusing a presidential order to intervene militarily in the protests that took place across from the White House months earlier in contravention of his duty to a president who feels that national law applies only to others. When Defence Secretary Mark Esper demurred over using the military for an action that local police should be called upon to monitor, the stage was set for a future come-uppance. Which arrived when a brooding, offended president unwilling to accept that enough Americans voted against a second four-year term for a flawed, petulant, egotistical ignoramus to make way for a semblance of normalcy in the White House decided that in the time left to him before he proved without a doubt that his Democratic rival would not sit in the Oval Office come January to clean house.

 

And among others who will soon fall to the Twitter guillotine-in-waiting, there is Fox News which chose to declare on Tuesday election night that the state of Arizona had voted in the majority for Joe Biden, thus giving the Democrat the first 'flip' victory in a state Donald Trump felt certain would continue to support him. The first response was from that considerable portion of the public that supports Mr.Trump, shouting "Fox News sucks!" And then the Associated Press followed and the Trump prospects began to waver leading the president to glower over 'betrayal'.

 

Fox News became the premier media organization to watch because it was Donald Trump's media voice aided and abetted by loyal presenters including Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson who have doubled as counsellors and advocates for the Trump presidency. The president had the inside track with the channel and Fox News had coveted access directly to the White House. Its new style of coverage has wildly displeased Trump, however; little perceived slights here and there, ticking  him off, engendering Twitter reprisals.

 

Fox News Channel and radio talk show host Sean Hannity (L) interviews U.S President Donald Trump before a campaign rally at the Las Vegas Convention Center on September 20, 2018. 

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Fox and Rupert Murdoch were resistant to an intervention by Jared Kushner on behalf of his father-in-law to defer to the inescapable reality that the election was being 'stolen' from the estimable Donald Trump. Within the Fox network itself there is dissension with Republican senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham brought to testify on air by Hannity to support the unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud as a deliberate attempt to diminish support for the president's second term of office. 

 

Similarly the most popular personality on Fox, Carlson openly defied his network's Arizona call informing viewers he couldn't be certain "how the decision was made", but was sure that "people are concerned". Print titles clarified nothing other than that there appeared to be a fissure between Fox and Trump which the New York Post headline reading "Downcast Trump makes baseless election fraud claims" further infuriated the good man. Horror of horrors! Trump's most favourite print source for news.

 

The collaboration over the course of four years between the president and the conservative news media that Fox represents allowed it to attain unforeseen heights of influence and commercial success. Since Trump won office in 2016 Fox News became the most-watched cable channel sweeping American television in prime time -- and for the 2020 election unfolding last Tuesday a memorable 13.7 million watched Fox News in contrast to CNN's 9 million and MSN-BC's 7 million, according to Nielsen. 

How events turn in upon themselves ... Fox is now nervous about an idle thought Trump once expressed about starting his own channel. Fox profited by over $12 billion in revenues in the last fiscal year reflecting operating profits at its cable news division which climbed 8 percent to $2.7 billion even while facing a structural decline in cable television in the face of hyper-charged news cycle transitions. With the loss of entree to Trump-insider-news the prospect that an ex-president may begin a media network of his own on leaving the White House must send  shivers down the spine of Fox.

The merest suggestion of that coming to fruition saw Fox shares fall over four percent, underperforming its peers and the broader market. Fox Corp's investors are now concerned with the prospect of Trump TV but in the opinion of media analyst Michael Nathanson, investors are "overestimating the impact of a potential new entrant", even though Trump is considered the biggest crowd-puller in cable news history. 

Dozens of protesters converged at Fox News headquarters, as the corporation held an “emergency” meeting to court nervous brands to continue advertising on the network, on March 13, 2019.  Photo: Michael Nigro/Sipa USA/AP