I don’t even need to tell you what the big event of the week was, you already know. As for the cartoon above, yes Mr Kirk really did take that stance.
We also now appear to live in a world where any factual criticism of him can result in the loss of a job. Pope Trump has declared him to be an official MAGA Saint, so anything negative said is now officially blasphemy.
The fact that he was divisive, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-trans, anti-science, deeply deeply ignorant, and vigorously promoted whacky conspiracy claims, is all being whitewashed away.
Having said all that, I will add that I do also feel sorry for both him and his family. One big reason for taking that stance is because it goes directly against his wishes …
He was an individual who was influential in all the wrong ways, and so if you are struggling with how to respond to what happened, then this is how you should do it …
He may indeed have been utterly obnoxious and deeply divisive, but that truly does not merit a death sentence.
What also happened is that it stoked up the heat of political division from the right …
What is wholly factual is that all the violent rhetoric very much comes from the right-wing …
You need not take my word on the observation that most of the violence is from the Right. Instead you can check it out yourself because some keep all the receipts and then bring them out at moments like this …
Mehdi can also prove he is not cherry picking, and point to independent detailed analysis …
- Quote from that report: “All the extremist-related murders in 2024 were committed by right-wing extremists of various kinds, with eight of the 13 killings involving white supremacists and the remaining five having connections to far-right anti-government extremists. This is the third year in a row that right-wing extremists have been connected to all identified extremist-related killings“
Many have also used his death as a soapbox to promote false claims. Thankfully Mehdi also does a public service by pushing back in a wholly appropriate way by calling out the crass hypocrisy …
What is also worth remembering is that a shooting is now something that happens on an almost daily basis. Up until now, unlike Democrats who have vigorously campaigned for meaningful action, as highlighted by Jon Stewart, they have not shown any interest in actually doing anything to tackle the problem, not even when a registered Republican attempted to take out Trump …
The reveal, as we all now know, is that the shooter was a disgruntled kid from a gun-loving Republican MAGA family. His motive – the deeply nutty and rather extreme Charlie Kirk, was not extreme enough or right-wing enough for him…
The “radical left” had nothing to do with the horrifying assassination of Charlie Kirk, which all Democratic Party leaders have condemned and which I too condemn. This is not the Reichstag Fire that Trump, Miller, and other villains want this to be.
All those, and that includes the orange turd, once again owe yet another huge apology for once again falsely claiming it was “The Left”.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for that.
Yes, Seth is going to be disappointed …
Meanwhile, Fox continues to a just propaganda and not facts …
As for Saint Kirk himself, here are a few more receipts regarding his rhetoric …
Slaughtered by a right-wing nut job because Kirk was not extreme enough for him.
Meanwhile …
Motives – A deeper Dive
Governor Cox and Kash Patel can deliberately misread the evidence all they like, but the truth always comes out eventually. Tyler Robinson is a Groyper; it is that theory of the case that explains everything about how we got here.
Seth brings the receipts for that …
- That YouTube clip is here. Be cautious about clicking that link, Seth is right, it’s bilgewater, and yes the entire clip is this right-wing extremist dishing out hate for Kirk. Twenty something kids buy into this rhetoric and become radicalised by it.
Oh and if you are wondering about this weird shell case etchings … well here you go, it’s a very Groyper shitpost thing to do.
And here is a visual explainer …
The Cult of Fools
MAGA has no actual values or beliefs at all, the only thing they have is membership of a cult that worships a con man whom they give a free pass to for literally anything …
It really is a cult that will tolerate all the weird stuff he says.
Here is Leavitt spinning with the claim that what Trump meant is that women in DC are falsely reporting domestic violence against them just to make him look bad on his crime stats.
It’s his signature
Yes, this was this past week, but everything else has eclipsed it.
“It’s not his signature” is the new “the election was stolen”, a loyalty test.
Of course it is his, we all know what was going on.
What Trump had drawn are the breasts of an underage girl. Everyone sees that—whether they’re willing to say it or not. What is happening here is the exposure that not just Epstein but also Trump had a thing for underage girls. We can all fully understand what Trump is conveying to his co-conspirator here.
Now we are faced with many who are in denial and so end up striving to defend the indefensible.
You know how it works, you can see it as you roll out the solid evidence …
As for Leavitt, you know she is lying, I know she is lying, she knows we know she is lying, but she says it anyway because she is his officially appointed Secretary of Lying …
… and so the gaslighting prevails to enable it to be dismissed as “fake” by MAGA in public, even though they know deep down inside that it is all true.
Denying reality has always been their superpower.
Robert Garcia on Republicans denying that Trump actually signed the Epstein letter:
“The reality is that they are bold-faced lying. And they know that they are lying for Donald Trump … what’s happening right now is the White House coverup.”
Author Seth Abramson who has deeply researched Trump also has this insight …
The core truth is this – We don’t actually need any signature to verify or prove anything at all, but instead simply listen to the voices of the multiple of victims.
If facts and evidence actually mattered to MAGA, then we would not be where we are now. In the end what will eventually turn the mob against Trump will be pain, the actual consequences of their deeply rotten backing of the fraudster and felon – job losses, bankruptcies, higher prices, and impoverishment.
Meanwhile, now that we have the actual birthday book, here is a reminder that this tweet has not aged well at all …
Let’s move on now to see what else has surfaced this past week.
Putting the FFS in Tariffs
26% increase …
ZERO ORDERS so far from the largest buyer of the crop …
The actual “Trump economy” is summed up by one word … stagflation …
Fox Host calls for the Murder of the Homeless
Am I permitted these day to point out that this is literally what the Nazi’s did …
- What the fuck??? How is lightly criticizing CKs hate speech an instant pink slip, but openly suggesting we JUST MURDER THE HOMELESS completely ignored?
- Fox has standards … very rigid Nazi standards.
- Violence is at the heart of MAGA to a degree the average person cannot possibly comprehend.
Multiple layers of Lunacy and utter incompetence
Trump can’t even get the names of nations right for his bogus claims …
Update on the pretext used to try and fire Lisa Cook from Fed – it was a totally bogus …
- What … are you telling me a 34 count convicted felon, who was found liable for mortgage fraud, found liable for university fraud, found liable for charity fraud, found liable for rape and defamation, lost 65 court cases because he lied about voter fraud…wasn’t telling the truth? …..Get outa town…
Cancel Culture update
Apparently all the complaints about cancel culture have now been cancelled …
Don Jnr attacked himself on Fox …
The primary Source of Political Violence
The study that identifies the right as the primary source of US political violence got scrubbed and buried by the DOJ …
- Article link is here
- The original paper, authored by six researchers and published last year, is still available thanks to The Internet Archive at this link
ICE Gestapo updates
Hey, do you remember all those South Koreans arrested and chained … for the “crime” of being the the US legally on a valid visa to help build a factory. Well, they are home now, and the message is out “Don’t do business in the US“. There will now be no factory, and they will not be back.
Actions have consequences: Sources said at least 22 other factory sites involving Korean business groups, in autos, shipbuilding, steel and electrical equipment, have been nearly halted. You can thank ICE incompetence for this.
The very blatant racism is about to get a lot worse …
Obama is also horrified by it …
Dennis Goris – Listen carefully as our menu has changed #SCOTUS
MAHA – Alternative “Science”
Yet another example that actions really do have consequences. Cassidy is not only a qualified medical doctor, but he also had the deciding vote to confirm RFK Jnr …
Joe Heller – Gambling with lives
Gaza Update
Oh come now, you know how this works by now. Trump will come out for the 150th time and say “the killing has to stop” but it’s “Biden’s war” and “both sides” are to blame for it, and he’s “going to talk to Putin” and he’s “pretty sure we will get a deal done very soon” or there will be “serious consequences” in “2 weeks.”. Rinse and repeat …
Christian Nationalists
The nuttier right-wing religious fanatics within the MAGA cult are as always doing their thing, and so here are a few samples from the past week …
- HUD Secretary Scott Turner announced that the Trump administration is launching a national prayer campaign by citing the time when the Founding Fathers … explicitly rejected a call to prayer. — (Launching a prayer campaign by citing the Founders’ rejection of prayer? That’s like starting a keto diet with a box of donuts.)
- George Barna declares that “government reports to God, God doesn’t report to the government.” —(Barna: “Government reports to God!”Constitution: “Bro, check the org chart — you’re missing ‘We the People.’”
- Eric Metaxas declares that “America was on the verge of going away forever” until President Donald Trump saved religious liberty: “So I praise Jesus for this commission, for this president, and for this nation.” — (A claim that Trump saved religious liberty, is more or less akin to a claim that McDonald’s invented fine dining, or that reality TV saved literature, or that the Titanic saved cruise ship safety. In other words, he is thanking a tornado for “home improvement”. Religious Liberty means freedom for all beliefs and also freedom from Religion. It does not mean one strand of batty belief can impose its crazy intolerance and bigotry as state sponsored policy … but hey, you grasp that even if religious “intellectual” Metaxas does not)
- Joshua Haymes proclaims that “every single politician should be giving special treatment to Christianity.” — (For some it would appear that the constitution is just a suggestion to be dismissed and ignored. I should also add some context. Mr Haymes is not referring to the actual teachings of Jesus, but rather his extreme bigotry and intolerance. For this deeply racist neo-Nazi fascist pastor the word “Christianity” is used to dress all that vile stuff up and made it socially acceptable.)
- MAGA podcaster and Religious-right pundit Steve Turley cheers SCOTUS rulings that dismantle judicial checks on Trump’s power–including green light for racial profiling by ICE.—(Cheering less checks on Trump is like applauding fewer seatbelts on roller coasters.)
- Shane Vaughn proclaims that Trump’s denial of writing a seemingly incriminating letter to Jeffrey Epstein is good enough for him: “If a man says he’s innocent, you are duty bound as an American citizen to believe him, otherwise you’re not a real American.” — (If denial makes you innocent, I guess prisons are just full of people who forgot to say ‘nuh-uh.’)
Saint Kirk has Disciples
- If Kirk were in 1776, the Founding Fathers would’ve drafted a constitutional amendment just to keep him out of the meetings.
- ‘Assassination attempts are the domain of the left’ — except for when they’re literally not every single time. These guys never let facts ruin the vibes.
- What Mario has done is to add yet more data that confirms his reputation as a deceitful and quite malicious liar.
- Every single damn time, the chaos comes directly from the religious right. The only chaos I see is what happens every time evangelicals get access to a microphone.
Meanwhile, any criticism of Saint Kirk will not be tolerated …
Weirdest of the Weird
Yes, let’s drop Joel in here into this category. He truly deserves his own special category.
Christian nationalist pastor Joel Webbon says white Christian parents need to have “the talk” with their children about avoiding black people: “It is actually a failure of your parental duty … if you lie to them and you say all people and all races of people in our country are the same.“
- He’s right about one thing: not all people are the same. Some people raise kids, while others like him just raise red flags.
Even More Political Cartoons from the past week
As always, there are many excellent cartoons.
Lalo Alcaraz – I boo, you boo, we all boo this baboon!
Clay Jones – The Trump regime is about to make citizenship tests more difficult.
Rob Rogers – “Trump promised to end foreign wars but he never said anything about all of his own personal wars. Now he’s renaming the DOD to reflect his desire to be a military despot“
Media Sane-washing of Tyranny
The conquest of the media by the Oligarchs continues …
Finally
If you have been watching all those on the extreme right complaining that they are being called Nazi’s, (while they themselves have been calling everything else a Nazi), well, here is a German created and produced skit you might enjoy …