I do think the time has passed in which Trump could potentially have made a big move. It seems that he wasn’t even thinking of it, actually. You’ve probably seen the clip in which a reporter asks Trump how he’s holding up after Kirk’s death. Trump doesn’t really seem to grasp the question, says, “I’m holding up well,” and then starts talking about his ballrooms and shit.
I really don’t see Trump lasting more than a few more months, although they might try to hide the corpse for a few more after that.
Also, the combination of Trump doing nothing about Kirk’s murder while all his nazis go on the record with their threats and vitriol is really bad for MAGA strategically:
Don’t make threats that you don’t back up. You’ll look weak later.
Don’t give your enemies ammunition to use against you.
Don’t telegraph your moves (if you’re actually going to do something).
Trump is going away soon, MAGA is going to implode, and all the RWNJ fuckheads are going to be disgraced for the above and infinitely more reasons.
I just heard on the news that the suspect is being held in a mental health facility, most likely for his own safety.
I also saw a post from a Facebook friend, a HS teacher of mine who divides her time between the U.S., Vilnius, Lithuania, and Kyiv, and is now in Kyiv, about how the grocery stores have announcements if an incoming drone or missile has been spotted. I hope that doesn’t happen here, anywhere.
So wait a minute. You mean to tell me that a trans person in the heart of deep red Mormon MAGA country started up a relationship with this deep red Mormon MAGA dude, converted him to the LGBT agenda (extremist version) and convinced him to become an assassin with a mission of taking down a specific figure that he used to revere as much as Joseph Smith? And then the trans person got away with it by cooperating with the police? That’s some Keyser Soze shit right there! And these are the people Trump wants to go after?!
I am surprised they didn’t charge him with domestic terrorism so they could throw him in Guantanamo Bay. I’ll bet he’s not in Camp Bryan, that’s for sure (For those who are wondering what that is, Camp Bryan is the cushy prison Ghislaine Maxwell was transferred to after agreeing to help Trump cover up his perverted past).
Ah, so a facility where he can be drugged against his will. Well, I’m sure Trump’s Justice Department will make the best of that.
The far-right lunatics have really cranked up the hate machine against anyone even remotely expressing any kind of positive sentiments about Kirk’s death. The level of divisive venom from these nutjobs is just startling …
Prominent far-right influencer Laura Loomer, a US senator, and a site called “Expose Charlie’s Murderers” have all drawn attention to people who have posted messages about Kirk’s Wednesday assassination …
… The Charlie’s Murderers site, whose domain was registered anonymously and which says it is not a doxxing site, claims it has “received nearly 30,000 submissions,” according to a message on the site’s front page on midday Saturday …
… “This website will soon be converted into a searchable database of all 30,000 submissions, filterable by general location and job industry. This is a permanent and continuously-updating archive of Radical activists calling for violence.”
Most people whose messages have been posted on the site do not seem to refer to themselves as activists, nor did it seem many were calling for violence. Administrators for the site did not respond to a request for comment. The site also opened an X account on Friday.
Loomer posted on X on Wednesday, hours after the fatal shooting, that “I will be spending my night making everyone I find online who celebrates his death Famous, so prepare to have your whole future professional aspirations ruined if you are sick enough to celebrate his death.”
If he says the evil Left made him do it, and promises to say as much publicly, he might be in for a pardon.
…Ok I’m not being serious…but only because it’s the assassination of a prominent right-wing pundit, and others on the right don’t want to normalize it. But I think we’re not far from the pardon of a murderer on the grounds of being politically or ideologically useful.
Yep. Currently all the right-wing commentators, including Trump himself, begin their monologues with saying that the violence and political demonisation has gone too far…then finish them with saying we need to shut down left-wing speech and go after those on the political left. They also refuse to denounce (or even mention) any violence against those on the left, because that’s A-OK.
I’m assuming you are being sarcastic here because otherwise it would mean you are making things up. The article I linked said none of the things you are suggesting and I certainly didn’t either.
As to Robinson’s partner, the charging documents released today make it clear the partner knew nothing of this and was just as surprised as everyone else in Robinson’s life. I actually have a great deal of sympathy for them as MAGA will do everything they can to ruin this person’s life. It is tragic.
Well, its been a week and the Yanks have yet to start cracking each other’s heads open to feast on the goo inside.
For all those personally involved in this murder, their worlds have been destroyed; but for wider society its mostly likely: just another day, another gun death, another statistic.
I wonder about the youths who were wanting to stand in a field and listen to this guy drone on. And then cheer and clap. They should have been seeking the cool, whatever their Utah version is, rather than this macrocephalic bore. And I don’t think this is going to trigger a war. CK will soon just be a fond memory as his fundraising ability has been impaired.
I tend to agree with this, and I certainly hope you’re right. We’ve had vigils everywhere and probably will have more until he’s buried, and then hopefully the furor will lessen.
Nobody else will take his place in his rallies, podcasts, and pseudo-debates, and that’s how he kept his name and face in the RW circles.
But meanwhile, the fallout is ruining lives. Over 180 teachers in Texas are being “investigated” for Kirk-related social media posts. One of these teachers is a friend and former student of mine. She is an outstanding educator who posted one sentence – along the lines of “Send thoughts and prayers and act like he was just a school kid.” (Not an exact quote. I don’t precisely remember her exact words.)
A student at Texas State University (my alma mater) has been somehow disassociated from the University for mocking Kirk’s murder at a vigil on campus intended to honor Kirk. I’m sure this has happened at other schools, too.
Right-wing politicians (like Vance and Cruz) are continuing to publicly declare that Kirk was murdered by a left-wing activist. This is simply not true. It’s a straight-up lie, but it will be believed.
Have we finally arrived at our Reichstag moment? All of this for a two-bit podcast huckster? My greatest fear is that some outside actor (or maybe an inside actor) will successfully pull off a 9/11-style terrorist attack. Such a thing would be the end of our Republic.
It’s not quite a ‘Reichstag Fire’ moment but definitely a point of ‘separating the wheat from the chaff’ in terms of who will be performatively compliant (even if they were opposed to Kirk’s message and mindset), and those who will speak out about who Kirk really was and that while his death, while tragic for his family, is also a consequence of the kind of violent and oppositional rhetoric of right-wing MAGA populism. The irony of his final words is, of course, lost in the rush to appeal to the better natures of people who do not have empathy within them.
I’ll say that it is has been pretty disappointing—if not surprising—at the parties who have elected to prostrate themselves at the alter of ‘narrative balance’ and ‘expression of all points of view’, even those as hateful as those of Charlie Kirk by not just expressing concern over an act of political violence but by participating in the lionization of a truly malevolent political actor. If there were ever a moment to test the mettle of the American public in resistance to emergent fascism, this is it, and the fawning over Kirk’s legacy of a misogynistic, racist, contemptible interlocutor of fanciful pseudoconservative orthodoxy whose notion of ‘fair debate’ was shouting down college sophomores with a stream of disinformation, prevarication, and pettifogging demonstrates just how compliant the polity is to authoritarianism.
I desperately wish Charlie Kirk had not been shot, not because I give a shit about him but because I didn’t want to see this from the institutions that are expected to defend actual democracy and free expression, but if it wasn’t this it would have been something else.
Leavitt, who describes herself as a devout Christian, shared a post on Instagram that read: “On the night Charlie was shot, a 4.1 earthquake struck Utah. In scripture, 40 represents trials; 41 signifies a shift. It hit at 5:57 local time, 7:57 Eastern.”
“Acts 7:57 describes Stephen, the first martyr, stoned as the crowd silenced his truth. The Bible says the earth trembles when God is angry. That night, as a voice was silenced, the ground groaned.”
She reposted the screenshot of a Twitter post, adding: “Wow.”
…
The post shared by Leavitt suggests a connection between the time of the earthquake — which was 7:75 pm Eastern Time — and the Bible passage Acts 7, verse 57, which recounts the story of Saint Stephen being stoned to death.
These people aren’t fucking around. It’s not the performance that it is for Trump; for them, it is a real eschatological battle to the End Times. They’re absolute nutters.
I am actually am surprised that this type of End Times talk is NOT more common among Evangelical and other Christians considering the 2000th anniversary of The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ is only a few year aways. (It supposedly happened between 30 to 33 AD.)