You write, "Trump’s refusal to condemn political violence on the right underscores his inability to act as president for the entire country."
I disagree. Trump's refusal underscores not his *inability* to act as president for the entire country, but rather his *refusal* to do so. "Inability" carries with it the idea of something attempted but not achieved, as in "I am unable to bench-press 300 pounds."
But Trump has made it abundantly clear that he has *no interest* in being president for the entire country. His only interest is in growing his own wealth; he cares only for those who can help him reach that goal -- and only while they remain potentially useful to him.
You have a good point, but I think it's not an either/or, especially in the case of Trump. While you're right that he has "no interest" in being president for the entire country, I think he is also "unable" to do so because of his personality disorder (being a psychopathic narcissist). For him, unwilling and unable are basically the same thing. In my view, his mental illness makes him incapable of caring for anyone other than himself, and unable to even consider the broader national interest (or seek fact-based analysis of the issues). And it is very scary to have such a deranged individual in the White House!
I agree, having had a narcissistic personality in the family. Although they can be charming and pleasant a lot of of the time, they will always turn on you when you least expect it because it’s always all about them and it’s never about you, no matter what it seems like at the time.
Yes, BOTH unwilling and unable. He lacks some key component in his psychological makeup that would allow him to see or care about anyone or anything beyond himself.
Right on both counts. Our so-called legacy press ought to make a greater effort to investigate Trump's interest in serving Russia and his interest in burying his Epstein connection.
He does refuse, he is also unable. He is as unable to criticize the violence as I am to bench press 300 pounds. He is a coward and a weakling, and to criticize or condemn as other presidents (even Nixon or Shrub) would have done is beyond his capability as a human being. It is one of the many reasons he should not be infesting the Oval Office.
Good point, Hiro -- Charlie Kirk's murder is easily seen as a way to distract from the Epstein files as well as a way to resume control over those MAGA who were upset about the Epstein files....
I wonder every day how much of Trump is Trump and how much is that of his handlers. This is a scary question in itself, but we need to think about it. Those who call for the impeachment and removal of Trump don't pay enough attention to what comes next: JD Vance, with Peter Thiel and who knows who else in the wings? Stop focusing so much on Trump, people! Pay more attention to those to benefit from having him in place and helped put him there.
But the fish rots from the head, and no one can miss the stink from the rest of the body. Trump is the magnet for all the rest. I think without him in power the rest of them eat each other alive. And already happening.
Charlie Kirk was murdered; he was a private citizen, not a political entity. His murder was appalling and while I did not agree with his positions, I would defend to my death his constitutional right to speak them.
That bit is irksome to me, also. After several people have pointed out the definition to me, and how it really does fit....it is still irksome. It makes it abundantly clear that the PTB and the "mainstream media," believe he was of more worth, and his murder was more heinous, than that of the children who were murdered on the same day.
Only one child died , and he was the shooter who took his own life. The shooting is still horrific, but fortunately, the two students who were shot are still living.
"Only" one child died? None should have died. Ask his/her parents about that kid's death. Are they ok if their child was the only one? I understand that you are trying to clarify the situation, but I think we have to become more careful with how we use words these days. We have every right to say what we want, although the WH says we don't, but as we already have a president who says whatever comes into his bleak mind, we need to be better.
I thought the same thing, the Merriam Webster dictionary states killing for political reasons, & we don’t know exactly why he was killed, & the Oxford dictionary description did not fit his death description as well, even more rigidly. We have seen more and more how the message just doesn’t fit the reality. I was informed that perception is what counts, from my long deceased brother in law, a republican & Army Colonel, & this stuck with me. He was the only republican in the family on both sides, some lively discussions did happen.
Not assassinated, but murdered, just as the poor Ukrainian girl was in NC, how children were in their schoolrooms, how many people are by simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This man was not a statesman of any sort, but a college drop-out with a charismatic personality and ability to persuade millions with his glib, engaging manner, and ability to build up a monetary fortune through persuasive abilities, as well as good verbal skills. I am sorry that he was murdered, again, NOT assassinated, presumably by a young man who cannot even explain why it happened, but holding a state viewing in the Rotunda, or a statue of him in same??? The right needs to get a grip.
If Trump were honest (obviously, he's not) he would blame himself for the political violence we're encountering. If Trump were any kind of leader any American should want, he would think about how to lead by setting a good example instead of continuing to subject America to Trump's Bad President reality TV show.
Only a week before Kirk's political murder, Trump and Hegseth publicly admitted--they publicly boasted--that they murdered 11 people on a boat off the coast of Venezuela. Those killings were at least as blatantly political as Kirk's killing. And Trump boasted that he would kill again if given the chance. To this day Trump and Hegseth still haven't informed us of the identity or citizenship of any person on that boat or of any fact tending to establish any reason any person was on that boat.
As a fairly famous SCOTUS decision, Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), quoting the wise and great Justice Brandeis (joined by the wise and great Justice Holmes) dissenting in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928)) put it:
"Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."
That would be the same ‘wise and great’ Justice Holmes who supported the US eugenics movement in the first quarter of the twentieth century in Carrie Buck v John Henderson Bell, the movement that was part of the inspiration for the Nazi party’s eugenics programs.
James, everybody makes mistakes, and a lot of mistakes were made by a lot of people that we easily can judge harshly 100 years later with the benefit of a lot of hindsight and with the benefit of vastly different circumstances. Some people have the ability to learn from mistakes and they have the courage to be better. That's part of what makes them wise and great.
‘Everybody makes mistakes’ Sure, but when substantial members of an entire species keep making the same mistakes over and over again, even with the history of those mistakes lying clearly in front of them, one has to question our capacity to learn from them.
My favorite example is the Stele of the Vultures now in the Louvre. It is the oldest depiction of warfare that we know of, going back over four millennia. And yet right next door to where it came from, the hot wastes where mass warfare itself was born, thousands are being slaughtered in Gaza.
Linnaeus named us Homo sapiens. He really ought to have rethought that one.
Yesterday, the Governor of Utah proclaimed that the murderer of Charlie Kirk "held" a "leftist ideology." Aside from the obvious word silly putty that you don't "hold" an ideology, the entire statement is an exercise in masturbatory, nonsensical blather.
Whoever this deranged young man was, he didn't fit into any little box MAGA built and wants to stick him into. If he "held" any ideology, it was a psychiatric one -- a gamer one, an artificial silicon one, full of its own symbols, violence, incoherence and brain rot, wholly divorced from life itself. This is so obvious it shouldn't even have to be said. But these people found some little "transgender" whiff -- and off the whole drooling wolf pack goes!
MAGAland is occupied by those who feed themselves bullshit so often they don't even know which end is up, so to speak. They make no sense. Refusing to use their lies and play with their prisms in order to reflect their "light" in order to make something coherent out of their own brain salad is THEIR problem, not ours.
There have been few sane and honorable Republicans since they contrived to put the old actor in the White House, using American hostages as pawns, to do so. That was 45 years ago. There have been some, but today's Republicans are compelled to give up conscience and spine, to hold political office - and they do, because the lure of Party, Power, and Pelf, is too great to overcome. It is not the short-fingered vulgarian that has poisoned the world - it is the political party that chose him as their WMD.
Trump is only the latest iteration of a Republican cant going back at least as far as the 1870’s and 80’s. They’ve been calling Democrats a collection of socialists and communists out to destroy America for well over a century (see Heather Cox Richardson’s grimly and exhaustively detailed history of The ‘party of Lincoln’, To Set Men Free) One suspects that most of those doing so today have no idea of that long heritage. By now it is like that old kiddie exercise where you repeat a word so often that it loses any meaning and becomes merely a collection of sounds.
Those calling for a civil war have no idea what they're asking for. If it happens, most of them will be hiding in terror while the stores are emptied out, electricity and cell towers stop working, etc. There will be blood everywhere, especially for the innocents.
Unfortunately, from president through his incredibly shitty cabinet to MAGA voters, they are trying as hard as best they can to make it our problem as well as theirs.
It is important to remember that ice is engaging in political violence on a daily basis, and that is only going to increase in the scope of people being accosted.
The Trump administration is trying to start a civil war so that he can use his secret police to control Everything and everyone
He just speaks nonsense, Trump does. It’s the very sane and very smart and very evil people around him who manipulate him and his followers whom I fear.
I agree that he and his followers are trying to start a civil war. The evidence from their own mouths proves that. We have to try as hard as we can not to give it to them for as long as it makes sense to do so. I admit that ever since I heard of the murder, I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I propose that we start fundraising for a series of memorials to the victims of school shootings. One in every place where a charlie kirk memorial tentacle springs up.
Surely the maggats are not opposed to remembering dead children? After all they pretend to do it all the time when the talk about abortions.
Also: where are the Epstein files? Surely the FBI under the amazing leadership of "Cash" Patel can walk and chew gum at the same time?
To MAGA-man, admitting that gun nuts murder actual born children can not happen, because to them the gun nut's rights are more important. In addition, fetuses are more important to MAGA-man than actual.born children, as they oppose providing financial id to new moms. Hence, MAGA-man is forced birth/pro death.
It's 1963 in America again but this time Bull Connor was elected President and has empowered ICE & the FBI to use the firehoses and attack dogs. MAGA can't be embarrased or shamed. If your aren't MAGA your are the NEW BLACK.
From Paul, Weiss to Columbia University to Chuck Schumer et al to Mike Johnson to John Roberts to King Charles: everyone caves, everyone treats him as if he has the power he claims. Despite their toadying when it suits their purposes, the diabolical irony is that only Putin and Netanyahu treat him like the little man he is.
Charlie Kirk got exactly what he said America deserves. There's no reason to think Kirk's killing was more tragic than Kirk thought of other deaths due to gun violence. Kirk's own words are most relevant to whether Kirk's killing was tragic or just a sort of poetic justice:
"I think it’s worth it to have [ ] gun deaths every single year so that we can have the second amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational."
To use Kirk's own words, Kirk was one of the "gun deaths every single year" that Kirk actually advocated "to protect our other God-given rights," and that's exactly what he got. Kirk, himself, supported what happened to him. As Kirk said, "I think it’s worth it." "That is a prudent deal. It is rational."
I worked with a manager once whose favorite response, after mercilessly imposing discipline on some employee who'd broken the company rules, was to say "What goes around comes around." Then the day came when this manager's very serious malfeasance was discovered and What went around circled right back to her and she was fired.
I guess it's okay until it affects him or his family. I wonder what he would say now? I'm saddened and unsettled at his murder. He's being made into a martyr. Is this our Horst Wessel moment?
Is there any doubt in your mind that this is that moment? I expect even now Trump is pressuring the Pope to make Kirk a saint.
You're right, it would be interesting to know Kirk's final thoughts about the "cost" imposed on other people (and their children) that Kirk thoughtlessly said was "worth it" before he actually had to bear that cost.
Kirk said even more that revealed the symmetry between his own words and his own death. Kirk's statement that I quoted above included his insistence that "The Second Amendment is there" precisely "so that you can defend yourself against a tyrannical government."
On The Charlie Kirk Show also in 2023 Kirk even advocated (at least) buying and actively bearing arms in public because "You have a government that hates you. You have a traitor as the president. Buy weapons, I keep on saying that. Buy weapons. Buy ammo. If you go into a public place, bring a gun with you." https://www.newsweek.com/bluesky-chariie-kirk-assassination-warning-2128023
We live in a deep red area of a deep red state. If our kids didn't live here, we'd be long gone, but I digress. We don't dare to put up political signs or put political bumper stickers on our cars for fear of vandalism. It's that bad. I can list the number of liberals I know on the fingers of one hand.
I don't carry, but I bought a handgun several months ago and go to the range weekly. (I was raised in a hunting family, but didn't care much for it.) I feel uneasy these days, and have decided to become a porcupine rather than a sitting duck. I hope I never have to use it in anger. Some will say that I'm part of the problem because of that. They're entitled to their opinion.
We've also bought some nonperishables in case we have to hole up due to civil violence. I'm an old fart and I never thought that I'd spend my retirement in times like these.
I understand that it's common parlance (and even famous) to refer to shots fired "in anger." Free advice: don't even suggest the thought of using deadly force anytime other than when it's actually necessary and to the extent that it's actually necessary. I was a soldier, and then I taught others the limits of legitimate use of force. For many years, I carried a firearm for the U.S. and I led people who did so. Never did I fire a shot in mere anger; never did I suggest doing so.
I have no intention of doing so. I thought about it for a few months and talked to some some people I respect before bought it. No one other than my wife and people at the range even knows I have it.
My instructor is a retired Marine and police officer. He stressed what you're saying.
Excellent commentary, as usual. However, this was a murder, NOT an assassination. Kirk was a private citizen, not a politician or government official, and using the term "assassination" empowers those exploiting his death without adding any clarity.
Thank you for that! It is a worthy clarification, and the term was used, no doubt, to raise his undeserved importance. And flying flags at half-staff was an incorrect use of it. To honor a odious podcaster was inappropriate.
Has Trump said anything at all about Brian Kilmeade's appalling suggestion that homeless people who refuse psychiatric treatment should be killed by lethal injection? That sounds a lot to me like a Nazi "final solution," just as Elon Musk's infamous "random gesture" on Jan. 20 looked very, very much like a Heil Hitler salute. If you don't want to be called a Nazi, condemn the people around you who act and talk like Nazis.
Jen - I liked that you described his behavior as 'odious' in my rotation of tRump epithets, I sometimes call him 'The Orange Odium'. But his behavior is pathological. He believes his own propaganda and that of his minions - most especially Stephen Miller who was, himself, particularly odious this weekend. tRump's awful collections of personality disorders is being worsened by his progressive dementing process. Our nation is in extreme danger from within.
We cannot believe anything the FBI or MAGA politicians say about what's on the shooter's phone or how he was radicalized. WaPo insists on inserting in the headline that the shooter may have been influenced by the left even though this is not at all established; to the contrary, there is evidence against it! MAGA is shouting about free speech even as they strive to eliminate it for Democrats -- consider the people fired for expressing their opinions on private social media accounts. Too many corporations and media outlets are scared of Trump and acting in a cowardly fashion. And there is a difference between allowing free speech and allowing the country to be taken over by a tyrant using "free speech" as a weapon against his opponents, while spewing hateful rhetoric reminiscent of Germany, 1933. Facts still exist, even if MAGA makes every effort to bury them under a torrent of lies.
Do not expect sanity from a malignant narcissist who has told thousands of lies. You will be disappointed. The problem is that when something happens, the press rushes to the White House for a comment as if they are going to the Mount to hear a sermon. Whatever comes out of his lying mouth (the right side of which is now drooping) and his deteriorated brain is going to be either hate or total nonsense. Please do not give him a larger platform from which to brainwash and threaten us. And if the Press must report, please preface it with a disclaimer that the speaker is a convicted felon, rapist and liar.
I feel sorry for the kids that they will be raised by their mother ….. I do not feel sad for him or his wife who might be worse than he was. He was killed by what he preached more than anything else- he is the one who said a few people must die to defend the second amendment….. he should be blamed for the deaths of all the kids killed in school shootings, drive by accidental deaths, etc., etc….. and trump is more focused on the ballroom in the gold house that the death of his friend so why should we care????
You write, "Trump’s refusal to condemn political violence on the right underscores his inability to act as president for the entire country."
I disagree. Trump's refusal underscores not his *inability* to act as president for the entire country, but rather his *refusal* to do so. "Inability" carries with it the idea of something attempted but not achieved, as in "I am unable to bench-press 300 pounds."
But Trump has made it abundantly clear that he has *no interest* in being president for the entire country. His only interest is in growing his own wealth; he cares only for those who can help him reach that goal -- and only while they remain potentially useful to him.
You have a good point, but I think it's not an either/or, especially in the case of Trump. While you're right that he has "no interest" in being president for the entire country, I think he is also "unable" to do so because of his personality disorder (being a psychopathic narcissist). For him, unwilling and unable are basically the same thing. In my view, his mental illness makes him incapable of caring for anyone other than himself, and unable to even consider the broader national interest (or seek fact-based analysis of the issues). And it is very scary to have such a deranged individual in the White House!
I agree, having had a narcissistic personality in the family. Although they can be charming and pleasant a lot of of the time, they will always turn on you when you least expect it because it’s always all about them and it’s never about you, no matter what it seems like at the time.
George Soros needs to sue his ass.
Yes, BOTH unwilling and unable. He lacks some key component in his psychological makeup that would allow him to see or care about anyone or anything beyond himself.
Well, he has a vested interest in serving Russia and covering up his Epstein association.
Right on both counts. Our so-called legacy press ought to make a greater effort to investigate Trump's interest in serving Russia and his interest in burying his Epstein connection.
these should have been addressed years ago !
Didn't Charlie Kirk make some noise about releasing the Epstein files recently?
He does refuse, he is also unable. He is as unable to criticize the violence as I am to bench press 300 pounds. He is a coward and a weakling, and to criticize or condemn as other presidents (even Nixon or Shrub) would have done is beyond his capability as a human being. It is one of the many reasons he should not be infesting the Oval Office.
You might be missing his true motive. He wants to declare marshall law over the country to stop all elections making him a dictator for life.
Martial Law.
Thank you for correction.
Good point, Hiro -- Charlie Kirk's murder is easily seen as a way to distract from the Epstein files as well as a way to resume control over those MAGA who were upset about the Epstein files....
I wonder every day how much of Trump is Trump and how much is that of his handlers. This is a scary question in itself, but we need to think about it. Those who call for the impeachment and removal of Trump don't pay enough attention to what comes next: JD Vance, with Peter Thiel and who knows who else in the wings? Stop focusing so much on Trump, people! Pay more attention to those to benefit from having him in place and helped put him there.
But the fish rots from the head, and no one can miss the stink from the rest of the body. Trump is the magnet for all the rest. I think without him in power the rest of them eat each other alive. And already happening.
Yes.
Thank you for this eloquent summation of free speech principles and the untangling of the messy reporting on the Charlie Kirk assassination.
Kirk was merely killed. Check the definitions for assassination - he didn't fit it. To use the term elevates him to levels not of his importance.
Charlie Kirk was murdered; he was a private citizen, not a political entity. His murder was appalling and while I did not agree with his positions, I would defend to my death his constitutional right to speak them.
That bit is irksome to me, also. After several people have pointed out the definition to me, and how it really does fit....it is still irksome. It makes it abundantly clear that the PTB and the "mainstream media," believe he was of more worth, and his murder was more heinous, than that of the children who were murdered on the same day.
Only one child died , and he was the shooter who took his own life. The shooting is still horrific, but fortunately, the two students who were shot are still living.
That's good news. The story dropped off the radar almost immediately.
There was a Substack about the shooter. I’ll see if I can find it, and let you know who wrote it.
Thank you.
"Only" one child died? None should have died. Ask his/her parents about that kid's death. Are they ok if their child was the only one? I understand that you are trying to clarify the situation, but I think we have to become more careful with how we use words these days. We have every right to say what we want, although the WH says we don't, but as we already have a president who says whatever comes into his bleak mind, we need to be better.
I thought the same thing, the Merriam Webster dictionary states killing for political reasons, & we don’t know exactly why he was killed, & the Oxford dictionary description did not fit his death description as well, even more rigidly. We have seen more and more how the message just doesn’t fit the reality. I was informed that perception is what counts, from my long deceased brother in law, a republican & Army Colonel, & this stuck with me. He was the only republican in the family on both sides, some lively discussions did happen.
He’s also NOT a martyr.
Ah, but wait - there are those who will start to bandy the term about. It's a given.
Hear, hear! I stand corrected!
I looked it up and I agree with you completely.
Not assassinated, but murdered, just as the poor Ukrainian girl was in NC, how children were in their schoolrooms, how many people are by simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This man was not a statesman of any sort, but a college drop-out with a charismatic personality and ability to persuade millions with his glib, engaging manner, and ability to build up a monetary fortune through persuasive abilities, as well as good verbal skills. I am sorry that he was murdered, again, NOT assassinated, presumably by a young man who cannot even explain why it happened, but holding a state viewing in the Rotunda, or a statue of him in same??? The right needs to get a grip.
If Trump were honest (obviously, he's not) he would blame himself for the political violence we're encountering. If Trump were any kind of leader any American should want, he would think about how to lead by setting a good example instead of continuing to subject America to Trump's Bad President reality TV show.
Trump was the candidate who boasted that his supporters would continue to support him even if he murdered someone on 5th Avenue. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-i-could-shoot-somebody-and-i-wouldnt-lose-any-voters/
Only a week before Kirk's political murder, Trump and Hegseth publicly admitted--they publicly boasted--that they murdered 11 people on a boat off the coast of Venezuela. Those killings were at least as blatantly political as Kirk's killing. And Trump boasted that he would kill again if given the chance. To this day Trump and Hegseth still haven't informed us of the identity or citizenship of any person on that boat or of any fact tending to establish any reason any person was on that boat.
As a fairly famous SCOTUS decision, Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), quoting the wise and great Justice Brandeis (joined by the wise and great Justice Holmes) dissenting in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928)) put it:
"Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."
You have to give Louis Brandeis kudos. I am also fond of Ruth Bader Ginsberg's statement, "When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty."
I think Ruth Bader Ginsberg may have based her statement on something Thomas Jefferson said, "When tyranny becomes law rebellion becomes duty."
M.B., I like that thought. But it seems it wasn't from RBG: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jefferson-injustice-resistance-quote/
If he was honest, he wouldn't constantly try to ramp up political violence.
That would be the same ‘wise and great’ Justice Holmes who supported the US eugenics movement in the first quarter of the twentieth century in Carrie Buck v John Henderson Bell, the movement that was part of the inspiration for the Nazi party’s eugenics programs.
‘
James, everybody makes mistakes, and a lot of mistakes were made by a lot of people that we easily can judge harshly 100 years later with the benefit of a lot of hindsight and with the benefit of vastly different circumstances. Some people have the ability to learn from mistakes and they have the courage to be better. That's part of what makes them wise and great.
‘Everybody makes mistakes’ Sure, but when substantial members of an entire species keep making the same mistakes over and over again, even with the history of those mistakes lying clearly in front of them, one has to question our capacity to learn from them.
My favorite example is the Stele of the Vultures now in the Louvre. It is the oldest depiction of warfare that we know of, going back over four millennia. And yet right next door to where it came from, the hot wastes where mass warfare itself was born, thousands are being slaughtered in Gaza.
Linnaeus named us Homo sapiens. He really ought to have rethought that one.
Talk about words and phrases we could do without.
Yesterday, the Governor of Utah proclaimed that the murderer of Charlie Kirk "held" a "leftist ideology." Aside from the obvious word silly putty that you don't "hold" an ideology, the entire statement is an exercise in masturbatory, nonsensical blather.
Whoever this deranged young man was, he didn't fit into any little box MAGA built and wants to stick him into. If he "held" any ideology, it was a psychiatric one -- a gamer one, an artificial silicon one, full of its own symbols, violence, incoherence and brain rot, wholly divorced from life itself. This is so obvious it shouldn't even have to be said. But these people found some little "transgender" whiff -- and off the whole drooling wolf pack goes!
MAGAland is occupied by those who feed themselves bullshit so often they don't even know which end is up, so to speak. They make no sense. Refusing to use their lies and play with their prisms in order to reflect their "light" in order to make something coherent out of their own brain salad is THEIR problem, not ours.
In contrast to most MAGAs constant stream of corrosive blather, Gov. Cox at least could utter a coherent plea for civility
But then he immediately jumped back onto the MAGA crazy train and tried to cast the shooter as something of a trans-influenced leftist lunatic.
Why can't Republicans just be sane and honorable?
Trump has poisoned the world.
There have been few sane and honorable Republicans since they contrived to put the old actor in the White House, using American hostages as pawns, to do so. That was 45 years ago. There have been some, but today's Republicans are compelled to give up conscience and spine, to hold political office - and they do, because the lure of Party, Power, and Pelf, is too great to overcome. It is not the short-fingered vulgarian that has poisoned the world - it is the political party that chose him as their WMD.
Trump is only the latest iteration of a Republican cant going back at least as far as the 1870’s and 80’s. They’ve been calling Democrats a collection of socialists and communists out to destroy America for well over a century (see Heather Cox Richardson’s grimly and exhaustively detailed history of The ‘party of Lincoln’, To Set Men Free) One suspects that most of those doing so today have no idea of that long heritage. By now it is like that old kiddie exercise where you repeat a word so often that it loses any meaning and becomes merely a collection of sounds.
Those calling for a civil war have no idea what they're asking for. If it happens, most of them will be hiding in terror while the stores are emptied out, electricity and cell towers stop working, etc. There will be blood everywhere, especially for the innocents.
It's not fucking "Call of Duty."
Yeah, this way he can have it both ways, seen as reasonable by anyone left of Kirk and seen as “our guy” by the remaining minority.
I bet we’ll be seeing more of him.
Unfortunately, from president through his incredibly shitty cabinet to MAGA voters, they are trying as hard as best they can to make it our problem as well as theirs.
Mad Libs for MAGA.
It is important to remember that ice is engaging in political violence on a daily basis, and that is only going to increase in the scope of people being accosted.
The Trump administration is trying to start a civil war so that he can use his secret police to control Everything and everyone
He just speaks nonsense, Trump does. It’s the very sane and very smart and very evil people around him who manipulate him and his followers whom I fear.
I would agree with all, except sane, there are no sane people around Trump
I agree that he and his followers are trying to start a civil war. The evidence from their own mouths proves that. We have to try as hard as we can not to give it to them for as long as it makes sense to do so. I admit that ever since I heard of the murder, I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I propose that we start fundraising for a series of memorials to the victims of school shootings. One in every place where a charlie kirk memorial tentacle springs up.
Surely the maggats are not opposed to remembering dead children? After all they pretend to do it all the time when the talk about abortions.
Also: where are the Epstein files? Surely the FBI under the amazing leadership of "Cash" Patel can walk and chew gum at the same time?
To MAGA-man, admitting that gun nuts murder actual born children can not happen, because to them the gun nut's rights are more important. In addition, fetuses are more important to MAGA-man than actual.born children, as they oppose providing financial id to new moms. Hence, MAGA-man is forced birth/pro death.
Fine. Let's do it without magamen
It's 1963 in America again but this time Bull Connor was elected President and has empowered ICE & the FBI to use the firehoses and attack dogs. MAGA can't be embarrased or shamed. If your aren't MAGA your are the NEW BLACK.
From Paul, Weiss to Columbia University to Chuck Schumer et al to Mike Johnson to John Roberts to King Charles: everyone caves, everyone treats him as if he has the power he claims. Despite their toadying when it suits their purposes, the diabolical irony is that only Putin and Netanyahu treat him like the little man he is.
Charlie Kirk got exactly what he said America deserves. There's no reason to think Kirk's killing was more tragic than Kirk thought of other deaths due to gun violence. Kirk's own words are most relevant to whether Kirk's killing was tragic or just a sort of poetic justice:
"I think it’s worth it to have [ ] gun deaths every single year so that we can have the second amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational."
– Event organized by TPUSA Faith, the religious arm of Kirk’s conservative group Turning Point USA, on 5 April 2023 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/11/charlie-kirk-quotes-beliefs
To use Kirk's own words, Kirk was one of the "gun deaths every single year" that Kirk actually advocated "to protect our other God-given rights," and that's exactly what he got. Kirk, himself, supported what happened to him. As Kirk said, "I think it’s worth it." "That is a prudent deal. It is rational."
I worked with a manager once whose favorite response, after mercilessly imposing discipline on some employee who'd broken the company rules, was to say "What goes around comes around." Then the day came when this manager's very serious malfeasance was discovered and What went around circled right back to her and she was fired.
I guess it's okay until it affects him or his family. I wonder what he would say now? I'm saddened and unsettled at his murder. He's being made into a martyr. Is this our Horst Wessel moment?
Is there any doubt in your mind that this is that moment? I expect even now Trump is pressuring the Pope to make Kirk a saint.
You're right, it would be interesting to know Kirk's final thoughts about the "cost" imposed on other people (and their children) that Kirk thoughtlessly said was "worth it" before he actually had to bear that cost.
Very little. Some are saying it's our Reichstag, but I don't think so.
Kirk said even more that revealed the symmetry between his own words and his own death. Kirk's statement that I quoted above included his insistence that "The Second Amendment is there" precisely "so that you can defend yourself against a tyrannical government."
On The Charlie Kirk Show also in 2023 Kirk even advocated (at least) buying and actively bearing arms in public because "You have a government that hates you. You have a traitor as the president. Buy weapons, I keep on saying that. Buy weapons. Buy ammo. If you go into a public place, bring a gun with you." https://www.newsweek.com/bluesky-chariie-kirk-assassination-warning-2128023
We live in a deep red area of a deep red state. If our kids didn't live here, we'd be long gone, but I digress. We don't dare to put up political signs or put political bumper stickers on our cars for fear of vandalism. It's that bad. I can list the number of liberals I know on the fingers of one hand.
I don't carry, but I bought a handgun several months ago and go to the range weekly. (I was raised in a hunting family, but didn't care much for it.) I feel uneasy these days, and have decided to become a porcupine rather than a sitting duck. I hope I never have to use it in anger. Some will say that I'm part of the problem because of that. They're entitled to their opinion.
We've also bought some nonperishables in case we have to hole up due to civil violence. I'm an old fart and I never thought that I'd spend my retirement in times like these.
I understand that it's common parlance (and even famous) to refer to shots fired "in anger." Free advice: don't even suggest the thought of using deadly force anytime other than when it's actually necessary and to the extent that it's actually necessary. I was a soldier, and then I taught others the limits of legitimate use of force. For many years, I carried a firearm for the U.S. and I led people who did so. Never did I fire a shot in mere anger; never did I suggest doing so.
I have no intention of doing so. I thought about it for a few months and talked to some some people I respect before bought it. No one other than my wife and people at the range even knows I have it.
My instructor is a retired Marine and police officer. He stressed what you're saying.
Excellent commentary, as usual. However, this was a murder, NOT an assassination. Kirk was a private citizen, not a politician or government official, and using the term "assassination" empowers those exploiting his death without adding any clarity.
Thank you for that! It is a worthy clarification, and the term was used, no doubt, to raise his undeserved importance. And flying flags at half-staff was an incorrect use of it. To honor a odious podcaster was inappropriate.
And thank you for noting the flag angle--I meant to include that in my post.
Has Trump said anything at all about Brian Kilmeade's appalling suggestion that homeless people who refuse psychiatric treatment should be killed by lethal injection? That sounds a lot to me like a Nazi "final solution," just as Elon Musk's infamous "random gesture" on Jan. 20 looked very, very much like a Heil Hitler salute. If you don't want to be called a Nazi, condemn the people around you who act and talk like Nazis.
Has Kilmeade's employer fired him? Has Trump denounced him?
No, they let him off with an "apology."
Jen - I liked that you described his behavior as 'odious' in my rotation of tRump epithets, I sometimes call him 'The Orange Odium'. But his behavior is pathological. He believes his own propaganda and that of his minions - most especially Stephen Miller who was, himself, particularly odious this weekend. tRump's awful collections of personality disorders is being worsened by his progressive dementing process. Our nation is in extreme danger from within.
We cannot believe anything the FBI or MAGA politicians say about what's on the shooter's phone or how he was radicalized. WaPo insists on inserting in the headline that the shooter may have been influenced by the left even though this is not at all established; to the contrary, there is evidence against it! MAGA is shouting about free speech even as they strive to eliminate it for Democrats -- consider the people fired for expressing their opinions on private social media accounts. Too many corporations and media outlets are scared of Trump and acting in a cowardly fashion. And there is a difference between allowing free speech and allowing the country to be taken over by a tyrant using "free speech" as a weapon against his opponents, while spewing hateful rhetoric reminiscent of Germany, 1933. Facts still exist, even if MAGA makes every effort to bury them under a torrent of lies.
Do not expect sanity from a malignant narcissist who has told thousands of lies. You will be disappointed. The problem is that when something happens, the press rushes to the White House for a comment as if they are going to the Mount to hear a sermon. Whatever comes out of his lying mouth (the right side of which is now drooping) and his deteriorated brain is going to be either hate or total nonsense. Please do not give him a larger platform from which to brainwash and threaten us. And if the Press must report, please preface it with a disclaimer that the speaker is a convicted felon, rapist and liar.
I feel sorry for the kids that they will be raised by their mother ….. I do not feel sad for him or his wife who might be worse than he was. He was killed by what he preached more than anything else- he is the one who said a few people must die to defend the second amendment….. he should be blamed for the deaths of all the kids killed in school shootings, drive by accidental deaths, etc., etc….. and trump is more focused on the ballroom in the gold house that the death of his friend so why should we care????
It was touching that Kirk's organization almost immediately began flogging a $35 Charlie Kirk Memorial T-Shirt.
Thanks for speaking the truth so clearly.