Week of Assassination and Threats of Revenge
Kirk Killed, Vengeance Vowed, Trump War on Tents, Anti‑democracy, Boat Killings, Epstein Birthday, Trump as Undercover Informant

As law enforcement continued to investigate, at that point not having identified the sniper who took the life of Charlie Kirk, tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors contrasts political reactions (elevation of the victim, condemnation of political opponents, and so on) with responses to the recent assassinations of Democrats.

Including this:

As might be expected, I left my own comment:

Key ethic:
The murder of Kirk is absolutely inexcusable. I too, extend condolences to his family. Nobody should have to suffer such horrible grief. They deserve our empathy.

Key racial extremism (One of many examples)…
Charlie Kirk on Rep. Jasmine Crockett:
What she represents is very serious, which is the continue attempt to eliminate the white population in this country.

Key contrast:
Newsom’s response to Kirk’s murder demonstrated a level of empathy, (the word Kirk can’t stand,) we never hear from Trump and his MAGA mob.

He begins with a photo and a comment:

The above image is all anybody should concentrate on right now. A father, a mother and their young kids. They are forever scarred by the murder of their husband and father. Gunned down while speaking conservative talking points. Graphic footage is just horrifying. I am sorry I saw it. So, for now, all we should focus on is Charlie Kirk’s family. The grief is real. But the grift is over. I condemn this hit. Cuz it WAS a hit.
 
Now the BUT.

He then gets to the BUT.

(Note: I had to look up “Horst-Wessel-Lied”. It was the Nazi anthem in Germany before the defeat of Hitler)

…with conservative calls for compassion and understanding as the killer becomes known.

Key compare:
As the details of the alleged shooter emerge, and he’s a young white male, heavily into guns, video games, and violent rightwing on-line culture the roiling rightwing internet has cooled.

Included are these:

As media covered the Epstein survivors’ press event, the 2003 birthday creepiness, and the weird denials, Juliet at Decoding Fox News totals up last week’s Fox coverage (let’s see…okay, and carry the one) and discovers TWO mentions. Two mentions of Epstein all week.

Key contrast:
Fox producers did include a few short segments about Sydney Sweeney’s jeans commercial – no really, they did that.
 
Sydney Sweeney’s name appeared 14 times in the transcripts last week while the word ‘Epstein’ only appeared twice.

Juliet also includes:

A more detailed report is available in audio form as Juliet narrates.

Key denial (Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt):
As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it.

Key Problem:
But it also requires the belief that someone forged Trump’s signature in 2003 and snuck it in with the rest of the creepy birthday cards to embarrass Trump 22 years later.

Key consciousness of guilt:
It shows that when the story was first released, Trump had to know that the letter was real and placed a $10 billion bet that no one would be able to produce it. He felt it was damaging enough to go to DEFCON One to create whatever doubt he was able to.

Julian Sanchez seems to regard Trump’s Epstein birthday book denials as a form of consciousness of guilt:

Key warning:
If we make it a crime just to be at a pedophile’s birthday, tell him what a great pedophile he is, and hint that you joined him in his pedophilia, then you could be in trouble next.

Key Democratic caution:
When it comes to Trump being friends with a chronic sexual abuser, we need to offer a moderate path.

Shamelessly stolen from driftglass:

Key work ethic:
I’ve been working my ass off, shaking down universities, law firms, and media companies…

He asks what they are:
Soviet propaganda, or gay porn novel covers?

They really are creepy, although not on a Trump/Epstein level.

Key answer:
None of the above! These are actual posters from the US Department of Labor.

He posts a couple of weird, icky examples.

Consistent view:
Trump—who almost certainly has not read Schmitt himself—asserted this view on August 26: “I have the right to do anything I want to do. I’m the president of the United States. If I think our country’s in danger—and it is in danger in the cities—I can do it.”

Plan of action (Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell):
Trump may try to declare that “there is a threat to the national sovereignty of the United States” in order to claim “emergency powers to protect the federal elections going forward,” overriding the Constitution’s clear designation that states alone have control over elections.

The same analysis is now available in audio format, as Richardson narrates in podcast.

News Corpse relates the story and a post containing the video. Trump finds out that there exists a protester with a small tent adorned with anti-Trump signs in a public park near the White House. Trump orders aides to have the tent removed and the protestor expelled.

From The Associated Press:
The vigil was started in 1981 by activist William Thomas to promote nuclear disarmament and an end to global conflicts. It is believed to be the longest continuous anti-war protest in U.S. history. When Thomas died in 2009, other protesters like Melaku-Bello manned the tiny tent and the banner, which read “Live by the bomb, die by the bomb,” around the clock to avoid it being dismantled by authorities.

Key excuse:
It’s laughable that the drones “lost their course” as war games got underway in war criminal Vladimir Putin’s puppet state of Belarus.

Within the link,

Key evidence (within the link – from AP):
It was not immediately clear how many drones were involved. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament 19 violations were recorded over seven hours, but he said information was still being gathered.

Apparently, oops is not to be believed when it happens 19 times in waves over a period of 7 hours.

Hackwhackers shows at least one prominent MAGA member of Congress finally getting fed up, demanding action against Russia.

Comrade Misfit has a brief explanation.

Key Do:
Democrats should withhold their votes for an annual budget, but only to ensure that they aren’t funding lawlessness, or cutting a deal that Republicans will renege on. That’s it.

Key Don’t:
But they should not, under any circumstances, take hostages: They should not withhold their votes unless Republicans cough up extraneous policy concessions…

He explains why.

She describes a social media exchange:
… on BlueSky — a supposed safe space for lefties — someone asked what Iowa voters say when I visit them. I told them there are a lot of folks in rural Iowa concerned with water quality and school vouchers and windmills right now.
 
I was immediately berated by a fellow progressive for using the word “windmill.”
 
Now, I know the proper name for a windmill. It’s a wind turbine.

This has long been a pet peeve of mine. Those of us immersed in issues can put an exaggerated emphasis on terminology, woke or otherwise. A care not shared by ordinary folk more concerned with daily experience.

Key disregard:
They will tell people how to feel and how to speak and what to be concerned about, and when these voters don’t vote for Democrats, because no one actually listened to them, the party and the strategists will scratch their heads and proclaim that rural folks are obviously racist. Stupid. Simple. Low-IQ voters.
 
That they vote against their self-interest. That they are ignorant, and one can’t carry on a conversation with a rural person because they lack the correct terminology and the correct voting issues. The issues the Democrats told them they are supposed to be concerned about.

Key joy:
Good news. According to the CDC, no need to get another vaccination booster. My insurance company will be thrilled to learn I’m in the age range where I can just die from Covid Pneumonia, just like my father did. I’m not too old. I’m not too young. I’m just right to die.

Okay, so maybe an individual death from national official ignorance is not so good.

Key prognostication:
I remember my dad was quite cheerful when he went, when all of the oxygen being pumped into him by the hospital couldn’t save him. We couldn’t even bring him home to die because we would need a tanker truck of oxygen to follow the ambulance. Breakfast that morning, dead by the afternoon. Good to know it’ll be quick.

James goes into more detail about the incredibly dumb thinking behind the policies that may cost him his health or his life.

He is right to be concerned. In our extended family, a little more than a dozen came down with covid.

The not quite half who died did not get vaccinated, mostly because they contracted the deadly illness before lethargic state government made vaccination possible.

Key racial caution:
White parents, please hear me. If you teach your children growing up, if you lie to them and say all people, and all races of people in our country, are the same, they are not.

Lately, he wonders if he has become complicit in the harm.

Key victims:
Every day, I sit with people who, because of their gender or who they love or the color of their skin or their nation of origin or the faith they profess, have known only condemnation, sustained only injury, received only sorrow from people claiming to speak for Jesus.

Key hesitation:
The more I argue for them not to discard or reject Christianity, the more I feel complicit in their wounding because it is putting them in proximity to those so hell-bent on inflicting those wounds.

Beginning with:

Better my own path to Hell than someone else’s path to Heaven.

Ending with:
I never worry about being a burden on society. Society has been one hell of a burden on me.

Including:
Liberal Christians shouldn’t tell me to be more tolerant of Christianity. They should tell other Christians to be more tolerant of me.

Note: Agreement is not a prerequisite to thoughtful enjoyment.