Another Assassination Attempt

This week the podcast goes over Cole Allen, the would-be assassin. 

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SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hey everybody, this is OnlyDads Podcast. This is our Earth Day special. We're coming to you and recorded on a Sunday, April 26th, about 1.07 Central Time. Uh, we're going over a few topics today. The main topic we're gonna hit cover today is the shooting that unfolded last night at the White House Correspondence Center. We're gonna hit on Earth Day, uh Arbor Day, whatever you like to call it. But that was on the 22nd. Uh, but this is the weekend, so a lot of events got pushed to the weekend. Um, we're gonna end on our weekend with the kids. Uh, without further ado, I think we just kind of go in with the elephant in the room. And uh, Ricky, that's obviously the White House correspondence dinner. Uh so basically, Trump and top officials were rushed to safety after shots were heard outside outside the ballroom at the Washington Hilton, where this dinner is at. Now, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch said the suspect got off a few shots before he was subdued by law enforcement near a staircase leading to the ballroom, which is at a security checkpoint. And it's my understanding, the way I read it, is that the guy came in fully armed to the teeth and he made a beeline. And it's unclear whether he was going for Trump or Trump officials, but he was not looking to not cause damage. He was looking to cause a lot of damage. And immediately, I think a circuit secret service member got shot, but his vest, I think, protected him. And they immediately tackled the suspect. And his name is Cole Allen, he's a 31-year-old from California who just got his master's in computer science. So uh, and as he was going down, he got a few shots off. So uh luckily no one was seriously injured. The suspect is alive, so that's a good thing. That's what you want in these situations, so you can you know interrogate them, see what's going on. But early indications, as far as I can tell, his writings suggest that they're going targeting Trump officials. Kind of Ricky, this is a breaking news. What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Uh, it's interesting that yeah, it was lack security. He he wrote a letter to his parents and his family members apologizing, uh, saying that he doesn't expect forgiveness, but saying that he wasn't trying to hurt like randoms, so he wasn't trying to hurt uh hotel employees. But what's interesting is in his note he talked about how relaxed the hotel security is. And so I don't know what his justification is or what his motives are. That's why you want him alive because you want to fucking ask him. Um, the press has gotten a hold of his like LinkedIn profile, uh, all his social media accounts posting pictures of him all over. Uh, there is a picture of him wearing uh an Israeli defense uh forces uh sweater. Um, and then that that picture was taken down after uh it was like published, which is unique because it shows some ties with Israel, um, whether he's a fan or whatever, but it's just interesting. Why would they take it down? And who who are they? Is it the FBI that's taking us down? Why do they care? You know, it's like this is his his individual account. Why are you trying to make it seem one way? But he's an educated person, which is interesting. He's like an engineer, uh, and then uh, you know, computer science, um, a master's degree, and then he was a teacher as well in California. So by all accounts, kind of like Luigi, where it's just like this isn't somebody that you would expect to go off the rails, you know. The guy from uh the the assassination check the butler, that guy he looks and seems like the kind of guy you would expect, right? Yeah, kind of in the basement living of his parents, you know what I mean? Like that kind of guy, like he doesn't have a lot of friends, he's socially isolated, kind of like a weirdo. That's the kind of guy you expect to do this. But this dude's like a you know, like tall, good-looking dude, educated. You know, it'd be interesting to talk to him. Um, and hopefully they they ask him, they don't just throw the book at him and say, We don't care what you have to say. I hopefully they they ask him, like, did anybody pay you? Did anybody reach out to you? Like, why are you why are you doing this? Because if it's like uh a hate man for hire kind of situation or something like that, then like we need to know. So I'm hoping hoping that uh we can learn more than just like what he did as a job.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

And maybe we'll only do that as podcasts. We'll send him a letter in jail and he'll accept the phone call and maybe we'll get him on the podcast. We can ask him these questions directly. But I don't know if that's gonna happen or not. But um, it's also interesting that you bring that up because there's been, I think, a surgence of vigilanteism that's going on since the uh Luigi Mangioni uh killing of that healthcare CEO. And there's been some changes that's happening. And there's just recently there was a guy who's complaining that he didn't get paid enough and he just got paid enough, he wouldn't do this, and he literally let some toilet paper on fire, and the whole warehouse went up in flames. Luckily, nobody was hurt, but and he videotaped himself. Like, I mean, that's just in terms of criminality, that's that's just stupid. Like, why would you do that? You you literally, but I think the whole point of it was he was trying to send a message like, hey, I don't care if I get in trouble. This is literally you he was pushed to the point that he took matters into his own hands and he made a political statement. And that's I think the crux of the of what's going on in today's America. And I think it's I think it's scary. I think it's uh obviously because of what's going on, because the price of living has gone up, because you know how much wages has gone, not kept up with inflation. And you know, I guess when you feel like you have nowhere to turn, you just take matters in your own hands, and this is what's becoming of it. So who knows what's in the future? But I do know there have been some CEOs have given out bonuses to their employees specifically to not happen, not to have this situation happen like Luigi Mandioni. But I think if you just literally pay people a living wage, I mean I think you bypass it. I don't think it's asking for a lot. No, we've gone over a lot of topics in this podcast, but you know, you want to, you know, it's cost of doing business. You know, you want if you're not gonna do it yourself and you want to hire people to do it, then pay them a living wage to give them that product. And if that paying them a living wage does not sustain your business model, then maybe you shouldn't be in business and try something else. I don't know. That's kind of the thoughts. But Ricky, your last topics before we switch on to our next one. Last comments.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Uh yeah, just it's I think you're right. I think people are just pushing the edge. And I don't know if it's deliberate, if it's a bunch, because it's you know, we forget America's the third largest country by population in the world. It's Russia or sorry, it's China, then India, then us. I think maybe India has just passed China, but either way, like we're the largest populated country, and so there's a lot of fucking people. And so when you have a lot of people, odds are some of this shit's just gonna happen. But when you look at these events and you draw the line in between them, you say, Well, do these have events have in common? You find like, okay, there is this sense of vigilanteism, there is a sense of injustice, and people taking it into their own hands, maybe because they don't believe in the system to keep their interests uh at heart, you know, like they they lost trust in the system, uh, whether it be the political system, the court systems, uh, you know, the the justice system, whatever it may be, and they have nowhere else to turn. And when that happens, again, people get violent because they're still gonna act out, they still want to have some justice. So uh hopefully it gets figured out. Um, but yeah, I think it needs to come from the top down. Uh, it can't come from us, like we because that's a revolution, you know what I mean? Like that's literally like you know, like the French Revolution beheading the king and queen kind of thing. And if America doesn't want that, which I don't want that, um then the powers that be need to figure it the fuck out quickly.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

And if you watch the video, literally JD Vance got out of there first, which was surprising. He's not he's the vice president, not the president, and then Trump got shooed away. Um, so I mean it just it felt lax, like it seemed like people in the audience knew before Trump knew what it was. They were like trying to figure it out. Obviously, it happened all of a sudden, and you know, it was happening in real time, and it was so fast you got to react. But it maybe it was too lax, and you think that you know our president of the United States, because it doesn't get attacked as often as assassinated as often, this this president has been, I guess, attacked the most. Uh there, I don't know, but there's also attempts that we don't know about, obviously, they don't make the news, but in terms of ones that make the news, this president's been attacked the most. And who knows you, you know, what's who's to blame, what have you, but it'd be good to tamp down the rhetoric and tamp down the temperature. And I don't know if this president can rise to that moment, but and we've seen that before before. But that's all that's that's the the shooting. Our next topic is Earth Day weekend. Uh, what I what do we do this weekend? Well, for me personally, Ricky, well, they at Sioux Housewood Park, they just did a uh major rehab along it. They have bike trails, they have running trails, it's really nice. They got a lot of shrubs and a lot of trees, but they planted some trees and they planted like a bunch of trees. And me and the kids were there early in the morning. We did the nature trail walk, we're walking, and we got to see them plant those trees, and it was pretty cool. And then this weekend also happens to correspond with this food festival that happens at the mall every year. It's a two-day event, and it's all kinds of different cuisines. And uh, we went there, went to the mall, and we got to see there was different voice actors from different anime shows. Um, so that was pretty cool. There's a bunch of merchandise. We went to a few stores, and just but dude, also, this is the most I've been like going out with the kids and going shopping and all that. Stuff is expensive. There's some things that are cheap, like there's like specific cheap stores, like $1.45, everything's like $1.45. There's some more expensive things. But then the other stores, things are like $12, $20, $25, $17. I'm like, man, that's and it just really hit me like, man, that's expensive. Like, I'm not buying that. I can't justify that. But you know, we still got to eat, you know, we still got to buy food, we still gotta buy drinks. But just the cost of everything I've seen around me is is really skywalking. Um and I got to the point I'm like, this is ridiculous. I'm not paying, I'm not paying this. But that's just me. I mean, there's a lot of people who will pay that because that's you know, that's what it is. Uh, I'm not one of them. But uh, one of the things I am doing for Earth Day, I'm gonna be planting a few trees alongside the back side of my fence. And the reason why I'm doing that because there's some grass at the corner at the edges that's not has not grown. So I'm like, well, why don't I just make that into like a flower garden and I'm gonna plant some trees because I want to cover up this um power line pole and some shrubs, and I think it'll look real nice once it's done. And so that's the project for me here in the next couple of weeks. Uh Ricky, what about you? How was your weekend?

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Uh so I didn't have Tom, I moved my apartment. Um, because like for those of you that don't know, I had an apartment in Atlanta for school, and I needed it definitely for the first year because the first year is just like drinking water from a fire hose. Like it's just so much. And I felt like if I didn't have that apartment, I would be spending too much time commuting, and I would have been for sure. Uh and so, or like I would have had more sleep because I'm driving so much or whatever. Uh, so I needed it for the first year, and then after that first year, I started realizing it. Maybe I could maybe I can get away with not having it, and so I would start playing with commuting some days and some days not. So finally, this last semester I commuted basically like 90% of the time, and I realized, okay, I really don't need an apartment up here. And then I used that as an opportunity to kind of test that out. And if I wasn't, if I wasn't able to keep up, if I was like struggling with it, I would just keep it for you know the the just kind of ride it through the end of law school. Um, but it wasn't that difficult. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna get rid of it. Um and it it was easy for the most part. Um I had a buddy with a truck who helped me out, and he was able to you know pack all my shit in the back of it, and then I was able to so I did that, and it took fucking forever because I live in like this weird building with like a you know, um and then I had to move all the furniture back into my house, and like just I don't have a lot of stuff and so finally now my house feels like lived in appropriately, like there's shit everywhere now, which is nice because like my bedroom didn't have anything in it, it was just a bed, and now I have like a TV in there, I have a TV stand, I have like a distresser in there, it's nice, and all my stuff has like stuff now, um, so it doesn't look so bared. Um but yeah, I did a lot of outdoor stuff this morning. I was just fucking I woke up early, um, had a good breakfast, and then I had to do all my outdoor yard work. Um, and then now I'm gonna hit the gym and I gotta study. I fight the my last final exams next Thursday, so I got like five days including today. So I'm gonna hit some fortnight and study, and then I pick up Tommy and then do some other stuff, but like during the day, it's all studying that way. I can fucking like finish the semester out uh strong.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

So I have the kids this this week, and we've been doing a lot. We've got I got back, we got back into the groove of us going to the park in the mornings, like early in the mornings, like before eight o'clock. Like we'll do breakfast and then we'll go do the park. And we went to the park, we walked the trail, and it was really exciting because you get to see all the birds along the trail. And I've been walking a lot lately, and my leg's been killing me, but I'm like, this is good. I like I like it. This is good, this is solid. I need to get back doing that. So it was pretty exciting to get the kids out walking the trails. But we also we watched a movie today, and it was a pretty good movie. And I and our listeners, I encourage you to watch it. It's called Hoppers, and this is the one about this the animated show, a movie that's about these animals that get taken from their habitat because this mayor wants to build a highway and you know make your commute four minutes shorter, you know. So it's a good movie. My daughter ends up liking it because she didn't want she was like, but we're going to the movie. I was like, Yeah, I'm going to the movie. Like in the middle, like, oh, she's like, Oh, this is really good. And she really started paying attention. So I recommend Hoppers. Uh, if you guys are thinking about it, I highly recommend it, and uh, you should go watch it. But overall, it was a great week, it was a great weekend, crazy news about Trump. Uh, we're gonna be teasing up a new episode or negative next episode. We hopefully have enough, but basically, we're gonna be going over the bets, futures, insider trading. We're gonna go over all of it. We're gonna we're gonna flip the lid. But um, Ricky, uh, before you give us our last word, let's let everybody know this is OnlyDads Podcast. You have any tips, comments, or suggestions, please reach out to us at only dadspodcast at gmo.com.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Uh the NBA playoffs are in full swing. So if anybody out there is like an NBA fan, right now it's the first uh the first round, and things like some of the best uh matchups are the Denver Nuggets versus the Minnesota Timberwolves. Um, it's a really good series, and yesterday they got into a fight at the end of it because uh the Minnesota Timberwolves were gonna win. Like they were they were up by like I think 10 points, and there was like 10 seconds left, you know. So, like you really in basketball terms, like that's not you could maybe score six points in that time, but you're not gonna score like 10 or whatever the amount was. It was like double digits, right? And so uh they inbounded the ball and he was just gonna dribble it out, right? The winner, the winning team. But instead of just dribbling it out, wasting the clock, he like sprinted towards the goalpost and dunked the ball. So some would say that that's in bad taste, right? And one person that would say that is Nikola Jochik, which is the uh the star of the Denver Douglas team. He's a great, like one of the best centers of all time uh already, and he still has a bunch of career left. Uh so he like sprints, like, and I'm talking an all-out sprint from from the half-court line to the fucking sideline where this player who just dunked the ball, and he didn't throw it down like in a disrespectful way, he just like ran up to the ball and like just dunked it nice, you know. It wasn't like a fucking like you know, bounced it, spun around or anything like that. It was just a dunk. And he like, like I say, he like ran into his face. And I'm like, holy shit, dude. If I'm that guy and I see this big dude coming at me, I'm assuming he's gonna fight me. So it's it's going down. And so like they're getting into it, their hands are on each other's jerseys, they're pushing and shoving, and then the whole bench comes off, and then when the bench comes off, the whole Denver Nuggets bench comes off and runs towards you know Nikola Jochik, who's on the way other side, and now everybody's fighting each other. No punches were thrown, but everybody's shoving, everybody's in each other's face, and it was just pretty crazy to see it in like that. Um, part of me thinks, like, yeah, like it's kind of in bad taste, but that's it, it's just bad taste. There's not if you don't want someone to do that, don't put him in that position. Like, don't then fucking win, buddy. I don't know what to tell you. He's a sports, like you're that's gonna happen. Um, but because it's Nikola Jokic, uh, they call him Joker, because it's him, I think the NBA is gonna take his side because he's such a big star and be like, This isn't this wasn't appropriate, like this was disrespectful or taunting or whatever. I don't buy that. If you don't want that to happen, don't fucking just you know win the game. Um, and then Wimby, obviously, uh Victor Rimboyamba, the the young San Antonio Spurs star, he got hurt with a concussion. He sat out on game three on Friday. Uh, hopefully he comes in on game four. I think game four is today. So those are gonna be uh games to watch. Those two series are the ones that I'm looking forward to. Uh, but yeah, that's it. NBA's NBA players are in it.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Uh, last thing, real quick, Steve Carr remember getting onto a rookie for doing that exact same thing. So I think that's an unspoken rule in the NBA is that once you're winning, you're up obviously to win. Don't make a mockery of it. Okay.