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Tracy's avatar
3hEdited

Let me get this straight:

A conservative kills a Republican at a republican rally, and

The response is to crack down on the “left“

… it was never about rational excuses

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Aurora M's avatar

I’m a classical veteran. I didn’t serve for this shit, let alone being called dishonorable by the C in C.

I served for ALL Americans. Including the people that came here “illegally”. That’s the American dream. This shit hurts my fucking soul.

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Ellen Adele Harper's avatar

Holy sh*t. They are going nuts. The Kirk assassination is being used as the brewer's yeast to ferment hatred and murder in the hearts of MAGA. How can we counter this? At its basis, our movement is about love, acceptance, and the strength to be true to ourselves. All of these impetus are more powerful than hate, which is a reactionary force. But to win the field, we must suffer through this storm without losing heart and becoming drunk on hatred ourselves. What a tough road we must walk. 💔😥🫶💖

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Sadie C.'s avatar

There is no objective reality anymore. Nothing actually matters, they will always just do whatever they want, regardless of what is true. I'm afraid, legitimately afraid.

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Veronica Erin's avatar

Antifa is not an organized group but rather an ethos 🫠……………..

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Janet's avatar

That is literally the point. Because then no one can prove they aren't a member. It's the perfect scam so they can lock us all up.

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Joan the Dork's avatar

Whoever it was to first make the connection between Charlie Kirk and Horst Wessel... they nailed it.

But it's plainly obvious that Trump, Vance, et. al. didn't need an assassination to use as a pretext. They would have found something else, and it could have been as minor as one of the MAGA faithful getting roughed up a little during an incident completely unrelated to their politics. That isn't speculation. Trump literally initiated a military occupation of Washington DC based on two unrelated incidents: one, a DOGE staffer getting carjacked and beaten up; two, Trump passing by a homeless encampment on his way to play golf. That's all it took. That's how low the bar is.

If the President of the United States can get away with using military force against 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 to answer a carjacking and a couple of tents ruining his view, then he and his movement did 𝘯𝘰𝘵 need the assassination of Charlie Kirk to justify further crackdowns on dissent and further persecution of LGBTQ+ people. Whatever they do using Kirk's murder as a pretext for, they were going to do anyway with or without him- and regardless of how we or anyone else reacted to his death. Or, for that matter, who the assassin turned out to be.

𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘺.

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Talia Perkins's avatar

"Whoever it was to first make the connection between Charlie Kirk and Horst Wessel... they nailed it."

No question, they are waving their bloody shirt towards suppression of dissent.

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Talia Perkins's avatar

"𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘺."

Maybe or maybe not, but they are certainly now saying they will do what is that.

Question is will they go for some pseudo formal enabling act via the Houses of Congress ?

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Yasha's avatar

I've seen the Krystallnacht comparison used a couple of times and I really really hope that comparison is far-fetched. But goddamn, they complain about being called fascists and yet keep doing fascist-shaped things...

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William Flug's avatar

We are left to hope that the Foundations and NGOs will find the courage that media corporations, hospitals, universities and other "foundational institutions" have previously lacked. I think we're f*cked, folks. I do not understand, for example, why journalists are passively accepting the "Robinson was a radicalized Leftist" scenario - spoon-fed by Utah Gov. Cox in a very "gentle" way while Miller, Vance et al grab the microphones and spew vengeance - when there is AMPLE factual and circumstantial evidence linking Robinson to Bannon, Fuentes and the whole Gr0yper thing. WTF???

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Bibiane Tiphane's avatar

actually I know someone at a foundation, they're going into a virtual lockdown (disappear from the Internet, avoid public statements and appearances...). Earlier this year we were expecting "progressive" non-profits to lose their 501(c)3 status, which is a way to starve them (churches that have always preached hate are safe, of course), but we didn't know when and how. Just as they're really trying to blame the murder on trans people. Expect things to get worse...

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William Flug's avatar

Yes, indeed.

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Talia Perkins's avatar

It would be helpful to get rid of anything to do with any "nudge" including the idea anything is so virtuous it is a non-profit.

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Joel W. Crump's avatar

Yeah, I just posted on X about this when I happened to see an early article (unfortunately from WaPo) about this. https://x.com/joelwcrump/status/1967715567801942041

Suffice to say, Vance is pointing fingers, this was *one* young man, not some grand conspiracy as far as anyone knows, he wasn't indoctrinated or something to anyone's knowledge - if the fucking vice president of the United States has to publicly do this shit, we're in a bad situation.

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Sean's avatar

If I was paranoid (telling the gerbils in my head to SHUT UP!), couldn’t you see the Trump Administration finding some kid…social outcast…with a short lifespan, to do something like this in order to target the Left even more? Notice the first thing they said was TrAnS sHOotEr! before looking at any evidence?

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Joel W. Crump's avatar

The irresponsibility of Nancy Mace and others does bother me, is why I called out Vance as well. He's literally the vice president. I'm not glad Kirk is dead. But his rhetoric apparently gave a motive to Robinson. It's tragic, but predictable.

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Krikit's Songs's avatar

The very first thing Putin did when he came to power in 2000, was to eliminate authority for Russian NGOs to work with NGOs in other countries. The very first thing. He also immediately cut cooperative projects on environmental protection between Russian government entities (their Forestry Service, their Weather Service) and parallel U.S. government agencies (Fish & Wildlife, the Park Service, the National Weather Service), etc. Probably affected other countries' cooperative programs as well. Next out: cultural exchange programs, the Peace Corps, etc. There was no way he wanted Russians to be exposed to or learn from foreign experience or expertise. I was there. I saw it happen.

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Mike Gelt's avatar

They are treating Kirk as if he was g-d using him as an excuse to target any organizations or individuals that speak truth to power (which they can’t take) that uses free speech to tell the truth Kirk was a racist, a homophobe, and an antisemite to make him some kind of hero just pisses me to no end

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JC Harvey's avatar

Vance is evidencing the tyrannical government we supposedly need the Second Amendment to work against. Fascism must not succeed in dominating our society.

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Becca Eversole-Robinson's avatar

I know the Vice Presidency is famously referred to as not worth a “bucket of warm (bodily fluids),” but doesn’t he have better things to do with his day than host a podcast?

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Rachel Walker's avatar

He is desperate to be loved by and popular in the right wing world the same way Trump and even Kirk was. This is his chance and we all know he doesn’t get to have any real authority elsewhere as VP.

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Talia Perkins's avatar

My suspicion is: they won't do this as it has been presented, but are hoping to make their doing less than their "said in anger/heat of the moment" trial balloons seem reasonable in comparison -- and -- they are hoping a reaction does more to justify their doing more than they think they can sell now.

They've already done far too much that is criminal to not end up having totalitarian power.

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Tommy Lamont's avatar

Is the assassination of Charlie Kirk a "Reichstag Fire" moment? The administration and the far right are behaving like it is. Today's announcement is right out of the totalitarian's takeover playbook and should terrify every American, especially if congressional republicans and Supreme Court continue to prevaricate. Kirk's murder is likely very personal for Trump; the president is truly both frightened and fearful about his own life and legacy. But the president also wants to distract the public from the faltering US economy and the embarrassment of Epsteingate. Most Americans are probably shaking their heads, wondering if Trump is going around the bend, like Jack Nicholson's character in "The Shining". I'm having a hard time believing that most Americans don't smell the shit the president is selling and will either timidly allow, if not actively support, his threatened campaign against so-called "domestic terrorists". I mean, it's a pretty big reach to equate Ru Paul or the Ford Foundation with real terrorists like Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Most Americans do not feel threatened by drag queens or a charitable foundations. Regardless, far more Americans need to realize that it is time for them to stand up for their rights by loudly and consistently criticizing the dangerous and deeply unconstitutional, undemocratic, and unAmerican policies of the administration.

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Sean's avatar

I find it bemusing that when publications, journalists, organizations on the/perceived as being Left directly quote Kirk, that people like McGobbles Miller and JD “Do A Futon” Vance say they post lies.

They really learned from Nazi Germany about projecting the evil that you do upon your enemies and lie about it.

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