You can say the right-wing reaction to Charlie Kirk’s killing is beyond ridicule … and you’ll be literally right. Ridicule bounces off that crowd: Trump, the evangelicals, MAGA. Trump will bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom on a racist rabble-rouser, and an entire swath of the electorate will go to its grave believing a tranny-loving Democrat pulled the trigger, no matter the facts. People who dare go on social media to voice anything less than fawning praise for a man who said the Civil Rights Act was a “huge mistake,” who declared Black women don’t have the “brain processing power” to be taken seriously, are losing their jobs, victims of Twitter lynch mobs. Trump, along with members of his cabinet, threatens revenge on anyone who disagrees. Never mind the unconstitutionality of such a threat: he’ll get away with it in the end, because after lower court battles waged by the few victims who can afford to seek justice in our system, the Supremes will side with their king. So ridicule away. That and five bucks’ll buy you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
If you haven’t been paying attention, Wonkette has a pretty good summary what’s going on in MAGA-land: Regime Already Working Overtime to Punish Wrongthink on Death of Charlie Kirk.
Related: military members, under UCMJ Article 88, Contempt Toward Officials, can be prosecuted if they use “contemptuous words against the president, the vice president, Congress, the secretary of defense, the secretary of a military department, the secretary of security, or the governor or legislature of any state, commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present.” Exactly how and where Charlie Kirk belongs on that list I don’t know, but the Pentagon has ordered service members to watch what they say about Mr. Kirk on social media. Per Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesperson, in comments reposted by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Twitter/X: “We WILL NOT tolerate those who celebrate or mock the assassination of a fellow American at the Department of War.”
I think Trump has always assumed criticism of him is illegal. He certainly reacts to it as if it is. He may be thinking of Europe, where citizens of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Iceland, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden are not allowed to speak ill of their kings, queens, or heads of state. There are no such laws in the USA (except for those applying to military members), where under the First Amendment we have the right to criticize anyone we want, but I would not be surprised to see that change before Trump’s second term is over. Would you?
Here’s a news article I ran across this morning: Service Academies to Accept Conservative Alternative to SAT and ACT. The “conservative alternative” to standard college admissions tests is the CLT, the Classic Learning Test, which grades knowledge of classical literature and the writings of Christian thinkers. The CLT is currently accepted by around 350 schools, primarily small, private Christian colleges and Bible schools and a few public schools in red states. Starting in 2027, it’ll be accepted by West Point, Annapolis, the Air Force Academy, the Coast Guard Academy, and the Merchant Marine Academy.
For all the right’s bitching about Black folk being graded differently on standardized testing (because such testing favors whites and white culture), here they are asking for the same kind of break. Because their home-schooled progeny can’t hack the SAT.
You know what, though? If Charlie Kirk’s shooter jumped off the roof of that university building without the rifle, who put the rifle in the wooded area where it was found? Some say he took the rifle apart and had it in his backpack when he jumped … if so, why did he take the time to reassemble it before abandoning it?
At the rate I’m going here, pretty soon I’ll be saying jet fuel doesn’t melt steel.
Stay fresh, cheese bags!