Again, someone has taken a shot or two at Donald Trump. It fascinates me how the mainstream media, including the Beeb, have leapt on the analysis train, offering all sorts of psychobabble regarding what has happened in America such that this sort of thing is somehow the new mainstream.

Historically, no. The last spate of this sort of thing was the last time the population was stirred up and divided, the mid 1960s and early '70s, an era very much like the social turmoil of today. I'm old enough to remember it and this is familiar ground. Then, it was the Kennedy boys and Martin Luther King, most famously; the killing of whom the jewels in the crown of social malaise bubbling over into the violence of Watts, Kent State, even York Pennsylvania.

The shooters from the '60s up to today, including the one who wounded Reagan, the ones who have tried to get Trump, were all nutcases, not politically driven assassins of some sort. Indeed, my gut says the mutt that got Trumps ear in Butler would have taken the same course and the same shot if it were Biden speaking that day.

Yet another piece of my gut says this is a little different, in that the unrest is artificially created this time; created for political gain, power, wealth, notoriety. That last one is also the goal of those who have taken the shot, not just the targets, especially the target de jour.

That same other piece of my gut says it isn't a coincidence that the target is the same man twice. The hatred and division created by these people, arguably starting with Gingrich and the Tea Party, has flowered (in the manner of nightshade) to this man, one who thrives on the negative emotions, call it the Dark Side if you will, the emotions of despair, hate, suspicion, play very nicely with victimhood and blamelessness of self, be it true self or collective; race, religion, nationality.

Does it herald a new lawlessness in America, historically a more violent, emotional, self-identified, crude, cowboy-town of a culture through its history? I don't think so, but more of a reaction to the angst artificially created first by the Tea Party of the '90s and now stirred to a fine froth by this man seeking power and his disciples who follow him.

Those two pieces of my gut really do speak as one after some thought. These are still nutcases, not representative of the mainstream here in the slightest, seeking notoriety for themselves just like those who have preceded them in American history. However, the target this time is indeed reaping the whirlwind he and those he represents have sown in their lust for power.

Objectively, I have to think all this "analysis" we are being regaled with really is far more complicated than needs be to understand these events. It should come as no surprise to those aware of American history that these people once again, in the traditions of Sirhan, Hinckley, Booth, Oswald, Ruby, Ray, feel their time is now. It should also come as no surprise the target is himself the most notorious American today, an accolade he has sought with vigour and a mantle he wears with relish.