Current possible meanings of "the tower is everywhere", I offer boldly while trembling....

Mon Jul 15 13:42:05 UTC 2024

Have you ever been to a rock concert? Are you familiar with the area
normally fenced off and left open for photographers in front of the stage?
And on/off the stage, the photographer was in an area made accessible for
only the select few.  He was there to take photos

On Mon, Jul 15, 2024 at 8:43 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> But this photographer was NOT THERE---do the good ones stay in their
> pen???---he was way to the left of Trump via the TV cameras and the video
> footage shows him running to the right after the first shots and noises
> where he stationed himself where he knew from the moment Trump went down
> where he and the SS would be and the direction---to the armored vehicle
> stage right---they would go.
>
> If you want to argue that and the whole thing was staged, I am not going
> to argue out of principle and time-savingness...MINE.......
>
> On Mon, Jul 15, 2024 at 7:39 AM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> The pose. The area for photographers directly in front of the stage (in
>> front of the front row).  Fits all the definitions of “staged.”
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 15, 2024 at 7:19 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> It was found in the moment by the war photographer [Iraq] who ran to
>>> position himself. (He is also the photographer
>>> who caught moment right after the shoe left the hand--all fingers
>>> spread--of the guy who threw his at President Bush
>>> back when.
>>>
>>> Remember 'the tower is everywhere" is, in* Lot 49 *about a 'bad'
>>> America that Oedipa flees.
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jul 15, 2024 at 7:11 AM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> It was STAGED. No coincidence, its Iwo Jima composition.
>>>>
>>>> But, practically speaking, I don’t think it moves the needle, even a
>>>> smidge. It only excites the base which Trump was needing badly at that
>>>> point. His polls were starting to sink. All kinds of questions are being
>>>> raised about why the Secret Service would allow him to be so exposed
>>>> immediately after having been shot once. No indication that they expected a
>>>> second or third shot from anywhere. Like they were confident it was over
>>>> already.
>>>>
>>>> And a rooftop with a view directly to the stage where Trump will be
>>>> speaking would be the first place. The Secret Service would stage
>>>> protection for Trump. It would not be left exposed with a direct line to
>>>> Trump. These people are stupid and they’ve been protecting people since,
>>>> Bobby Kennedy. They check for everything.
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, these are some tidbits that I’ve been leaning from the
>>>> Internet. I hate conspiracy theories, but I admit this one looks staged.
>>>> And if so, two people died for their dramatic production.
>>>>
>>>> David Morris
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Jul 15, 2024 at 7:06 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> That fuckin' Iwo Jima-like photo of Trump after he hurt his ear.
>>>>>
>>>>> A Legendary American Photograph
>>>>>
>>>>> The photo of Trump after the attempt on his life is a badly needed
>>>>> window
>>>>> into the MAGA mindset.
>>>>> By Tyler Austin Harper
>>>>> <https://www.theatlantic.com/author/tyler-austin-harper/>
>>>>> [image: Donald Trump with blood on his face, raising his fist, after an
>>>>> assassination attempt at his rally]Evan Vucci / AP
>>>>> JULY 14, 2024, 2:17 PM ET
>>>>> SHARE & GIFT
>>>>> SAVE
>>>>>
>>>>> Donald Trump raises a fist. Blood streaks his face. The sky is high,
>>>>> blue,
>>>>> and empty except for an American flag caught in a hard wind. A Secret
>>>>> Service agent has her arms around his waist. The former president’s
>>>>> mouth
>>>>> is open, in the middle of a snarled shout. We know from video footage
>>>>> that
>>>>> he is yelling “Fight!,” that the crowd is chanting “USA!”
>>>>>
>>>>> The photograph
>>>>> <
>>>>> https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/13/politics/gallery/in-pictures-trump-injured-at-pennsylvania-rally/index.html
>>>>> >,
>>>>> by the Associated Press’s Evan Vucci, became immediately legendary.
>>>>> However
>>>>> you feel about the man at its center, it is undeniably one of the great
>>>>> compositions in U.S. photographic history. Although I am deeply
>>>>> relieved
>>>>> that Trump survived this assassination attempt, I am no fan of his.
>>>>> But the
>>>>> first time I saw the photo, I felt an emotion that I later recognized,
>>>>> with
>>>>> considerable discomfort, as a fluttering of unbidden nationalist zeal.
>>>>> What
>>>>> encapsulates our American ideal more than bloody defiance
>>>>> <https://x.com/EsotericCD/status/1812289350865948960> and stubborn
>>>>> pride
>>>>> that teeters just on the edge of foolishness? No hunkering and no
>>>>> hiding—standing undaunted and undeterred, fist-pumping your way
>>>>> through an
>>>>> attempted murder. It was a moment when Trump supporters’ idea of
>>>>> him—strong, resilient, proud—collided with reality.
>>>>>
>>>>> I can’t help but be moved by this remarkable image, taken by a Pulitzer
>>>>> Prize winner
>>>>> <
>>>>> https://www.thedailybeast.com/ap-photographer-evan-vucci-spills-on-historic-trump-rally-shooting-pic
>>>>> >
>>>>>  who ran toward the danger <
>>>>> https://x.com/RonenV/status/1812282594584916108>,
>>>>> camera in hand, rather than away from it. There is a perverse and
>>>>> paradoxical disjunction between Trump the man, who many argue is a
>>>>> threat
>>>>> to American democracy, and this image of Trump, which seems to capture
>>>>> that
>>>>> same democracy in all its pathology, mythos, and, yes, glory. The
>>>>> *Compact* editor
>>>>> Sohrab Ahmari tweeted
>>>>> <https://x.com/SohrabAhmari/status/1812275114580509145> that Trump’s
>>>>> instinct—to reflexively gesture in rebellion after being shot at—is
>>>>> “evidence of a truly extraordinary man.” He is more than a little
>>>>> right.
>>>>> Extraordinary, after all, is not so much a moral descriptor as an
>>>>> aesthetic
>>>>> one.
>>>>>
>>>>> David Frum: The gunman and the would-be dictator
>>>>> <
>>>>> https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/07/donald-trump-democracy-dictator/679006/
>>>>> >
>>>>>
>>>>> The image of Trump, bloody with a raised fist, is destined to adorn
>>>>> T-shirts, magazine covers <
>>>>> https://x.com/yashar/status/1812513859690999941>,
>>>>> full-page spreads in history books, campaign ads. I do not think it is
>>>>> an
>>>>> exaggeration to say that the photo is nearly perfect, one that was
>>>>> captured
>>>>> under extreme duress and that distills the essence of a man in all his
>>>>> contradictions.
>>>>>
>>>>> Many commentators have already surmised that this image alone will
>>>>> cost our
>>>>> current president his reelection bid. Some rushed
>>>>> <https://x.com/ritaresarian/status/1812267751471460831> to juxtapose
>>>>> pictures of Joe Biden, staring awkwardly and looking frail, with an
>>>>> angry,
>>>>> almost-assassinated Trump. One writer took to X to place the Vucci
>>>>> photo side
>>>>> by side <https://x.com/mannyfidel/status/1812278618019803593> with a
>>>>> still
>>>>> from the film *Oppenheimer*, implying that the photographer, like the
>>>>> inventor of the atomic bomb, may one day come to feel that his greatest
>>>>> achievement slipped out of his control and ushered in a darker world.
>>>>> The
>>>>> left-wing political commentator Cenk Uygur summarized
>>>>> <https://x.com/cenkuygur/status/1812386902236160373> things more
>>>>> simply
>>>>> still: “Trump sticking the hand up and saying, ‘Fight, fight, fight!’
>>>>> while
>>>>> the crowd chanted ‘USA, USA, USA!’ was bad ass.”
>>>>>
>>>>> All of these reactions, whether fear or resentment or grudging
>>>>> admiration,
>>>>> are understandable. But I wonder whether they miss the point. The real
>>>>> subject of this photograph is not Donald Trump but his supporters.
>>>>> Many of
>>>>> us have mocked Trump stans—their ridiculous fan art
>>>>> <
>>>>> https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/8/8/17376824/trump-fan-art-maga-dinesh-dsouza-jon-mcnaughton
>>>>> >
>>>>> that
>>>>> reimagines him with bulging muscles or fighting in the Revolutionary
>>>>> War
>>>>> <https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-mocked-bizarre-july-4-133353095.html
>>>>> >;
>>>>> their unshakable and cultish belief in his vigor; their desperate
>>>>> desire to
>>>>> see him as he wants to be seen rather than as he is. Yesterday, for a
>>>>> few
>>>>> moments at least, the Trump of MAGA’s imagination and reality became
>>>>> indistinguishable. Not even the most slavish devotee of the former
>>>>> president could have dreamed up a more iconic portrait.
>>>>> RECOMMENDED READING
>>>>>
>>>>>    - [image: A human caregiver uses a laptop to operate a robot
>>>>> caregiver
>>>>>    in the hallway of a nursing residence.]
>>>>>    <
>>>>> https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/02/ai-keeps-mastering-games-but-can-it-win-in-the-real-world/554312/
>>>>> >
>>>>>    AI Keeps Mastering Games, But Can It Win in the Real World?
>>>>>    <
>>>>> https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/02/ai-keeps-mastering-games-but-can-it-win-in-the-real-world/554312/
>>>>> >JOSHUA
>>>>>    SOKOL <https://www.theatlantic.com/author/joshua-sokol/>
>>>>>    - [image: A woven bag containing carrots, apples, two oranges, and
>>>>> some
>>>>>    greens, against a lavender background]
>>>>>    <
>>>>> https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/04/rules-eating-fight-climate-change/618515/
>>>>> >
>>>>>    Your Diet Is Cooking the Planet
>>>>>    <
>>>>> https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/04/rules-eating-fight-climate-change/618515/
>>>>> >ANNIE
>>>>>    LOWREY <https://www.theatlantic.com/author/annie-lowrey/>
>>>>>    - [image: a chimpanzee covering its eyes]
>>>>>    <
>>>>> https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/01/cringe-culture-everywhere/621272/
>>>>> >
>>>>>    How Did We Get So ‘Cringe’?
>>>>>    <
>>>>> https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/01/cringe-culture-everywhere/621272/
>>>>> >KAITLYN
>>>>>    TIFFANY <https://www.theatlantic.com/author/kaitlyn-tiffany/>
>>>>>
>>>>> Today, Americans are not unified. We are not “All MAGA,” as a viral
>>>>> headline this morning suggests
>>>>> <
>>>>> https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/today-were-all-maga-trump-shooting-assassination/
>>>>> >.
>>>>> We are angry, bitter, and divided; paranoid and afraid; governed by two
>>>>> parties that seem constitutionally incapable of putting America above
>>>>> their
>>>>> own interests. What happened yesterday does nothing to change that.
>>>>> Nor do
>>>>> a few seconds of real bravery absolve Trump of his sins, or make his
>>>>> political platform more palatable. But I would suggest that Democrats
>>>>> and
>>>>> anti-Trumpers take a break from contextualizing and problematizing and
>>>>> hypothesizing and worrying, and instead spend some time contemplating,
>>>>> if
>>>>> only for a minute or two, this photograph. The man, the flag, the
>>>>> blood,
>>>>> the fist.
>>>>>
>>>>> Pete Wehner: The power of restraint
>>>>> <
>>>>> https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/07/trump-pennsylvania/679004/
>>>>> >
>>>>>
>>>>> It is often difficult for Trump critics to inhabit the mind of one of
>>>>> his
>>>>> supporters, to understand Trump’s appeal without immediately
>>>>> defaulting to
>>>>> simplifications like racism and misogyny, explanations that have become
>>>>> less of a skeleton key and more of a shibboleth, particularly as the
>>>>> former
>>>>> president continues to see his support among minorities swell. Vucci
>>>>> has
>>>>> provided us not with an alternative theory of the case but with a badly
>>>>> needed window into the MAGA mindset, allowing all of America, and
>>>>> indeed
>>>>> the world, to see Trump through the eyes of his devotees, people we
>>>>> share
>>>>> this country with.
>>>>>
>>>>> If Democrats hope to beat Trump and Trumpism, they need to understand
>>>>> the
>>>>> appeal. Which means they need to be able to look at this image and see
>>>>> a
>>>>> promise—one I do not believe Trump can deliver, but a promise
>>>>> nonetheless—of toughness, vitality, and unbowing resolve at a moment
>>>>> when
>>>>> we are wavering, weak, and irresolute before a graying future. The
>>>>> photograph is not a portrait of a man but a through-the-looking-glass
>>>>> vision of America as she would have herself and as many in this country
>>>>> would have her. Our oldest myths briefly became real one bright
>>>>> evening in
>>>>> Butler, Pennsylvania.
>>>>> Tyler Austin Harper
>>>>> <https://www.theatlantic.com/author/tyler-austin-harper/> is an
>>>>> assistant
>>>>> professor of environmental studies at Bates College and a contributing
>>>>> writer at *The Atlantic*.
>>>>> ReplyReply allForward
>>>>> Add reaction
>>>>> --
>>>>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>>>>
>>>>