A reader picked up on a nugget from the top of Monday’s issue: Would-be assassin “Thomas Crooks’ high school years were doubtlessly upended by pandemic lockdowns,” I wrote.

“I pieced the same puzzle pieces together about the confusion in this kid’s head,” Peter W. responds, “and the impact of COVID during his high-school years.

“Two of my kids sandwich the shooter's age, and both have been impacted by lockdowns and the loss of normalcy, even though we reside in Florida.

“These kids are messed up from our government's response to COVID (not from the virus itself and, hopefully, not from the vaccines they were forced to take).

“Some, like this shooter Thomas Crooks, act out in a desperate attempt for recognition, knowing full well that the ultimate outcome is ‘death by cop.’

“With kids wearing victimhood like a purple heart, our society today is much more fragile than it was 50 years ago,” he concludes. “It is extremely sad and disturbing.”

Discussing victimhood is a fine line…

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Your Rundown for Wednesday, July 17, 2024...

Pandemic of Desperation

Children who struggled through pandemic lockdowns were victims — mainly, of overzealous public-health bureaucrats.

Alternatively, as a kid growing up in Massachusetts, my neighbor Nick lived through the polio epidemic in the 1950s.

Did public schools close? No, Nick tells me.

Instead, they pivoted to a rotating half-day schedule.

Common sense, at the time, prevailed.

Assuming, however, the Bethel Park, PA school district enforced COVID lockdowns similar to the majority of U.S. public schools…

Thomas Crooks’ 10th and 11th-grade years would have been a patchwork of off-and-on-again school closures.

Lockdowns, at first, might have been a respite for Crooks.

He was a loner in school and bullied by classmates, we’ve learned.

But who knows what Crooks got up to with hours of extra free time everyday?

We do know one thing about his social media habits.

When a sniper shot the 20-year-old dead on Saturday evening…

Crooks was wearing a T-shirt for YouTube channel “Demolition Ranch.”

Which bills itself as “not your average gun channel.”

By all accounts? Crooks was your average disaffected mass shooter.

With one caveat:

• Post-pandemic research this year from three UK universities finds: “Lockdown has had a horrific impact on mental health, particularly in boys and young men,” summarizes psychologist Wendy Gregory. [Emphasis mine]

I’m not excusing Thomas Crooks.

But I have to believe COVID lockdowns contributed to his behavior. With tragic consequences.

By blindly adhering to guidance from Anthony Fauci — and other bureaucrats of his ilk — the Trump and Biden administrations set in motion a secondary pandemic of desperation.

Afflicting, especially, young men.

Market Rundown for Wednesday, July 17, 2024

The S&P 500 has pulled back about 1% to 5,610.

Oil is up 1.5% to $81.95 for a barrel of West Texas crude.

Gold is up 0.50% to $2,480.30 per ounce.

But Bitcoin is down 0.20% to $64,850.

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