Everybody’s tabbing for the weekend …
I’m no fan of Bernie Sanders and disagree with him on many issues while also agreeing with him on others, makes a very strong case here for the condemnation of political violence.
We should all heed his words. pic.twitter.com/8w3xEB9ZGD
— Zev Nadel (@ZevNadel) September 12, 2025
Ed: Kudos to Sen. Sanders for this very clear condemnation of political violence. We need much more of this from our political leadership. I am very impressed that he named several attacks on Republicans/conservatives, including the one on Steve Scalise that nearly killed him.
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Charles C.W. Cooke at NRO: We are, quite rightly, highly critical of our politicians in America. But this is only useful if we also commend those who get it right. To that end, I want to praise Utah’s governor, Spencer Cox, for his conduct in the two days since Charlie Kirk was murdered. From start to finish, Cox’s handling of this situation has been exemplary. His tone has been appropriate. His message has been correct. And, most important of all, he has hidden nothing from the public. Unlike some other public figures, Cox neither got ahead of the story and spread rumors that turned out to be untrue, nor dragged his feet and withheld crucial details that he didn’t trust us to receive. If we are to have governments, we need people to run those governments. Governor Cox has fulfilled his duties with aplomb.
Ed: That which is rewarded is incentivized. That which is not rewarded is disincentivized. As my friend John Ondrasik asks in his song “World,” what kind of world do we want?
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Governor Spencer Cox called social media ‘a cancer’ and emphasised the collective need to ‘touch grass’ following the shooting of Conservative activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University.
Cox spoke about the viral video of Kirk’s killing, saying ‘it’s not good to consume.’ pic.twitter.com/rDs96iEFz5
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 12, 2025
Ed: Social media can be cancerous. It can also be put to good use, as the exposure of Iryna Zarutska’s murder shows. We have to do better at breaking the cancerous impulses, but X/Twitter in particular is too valuable for its ability to bypass the Protection Racket Media to shut down or set aside.
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Fox News via RCP: CLAY TRAVIS, OUTKICK: I am tired of hearing people say, like Barack Obama did, like Hillary Clinton did, oh we condemn this violence. Guess what? You can’t call the President of the United States for 10 years Adolf Hitler, and you can’t say that he’s a fascist dictator, and you can’t say that anyone who voted for Trump or advocated for him like you, me, Riley, and Charlie Kirk are Nazis, and then when someone tries to kill us, you can’t suddenly say, oh we condemn this violence.
You caused it. Look at me right now. You caused this.
When you tell people that someone is Hitler, you are telling crazy people, go kill them. And I am sick of pretending that that is anything other than what they’re doing.
Ed: I am more in agreement with Spencer Cox that the one person who caused it got arrested last night. To argue otherwise will eventually lead us to censorship and thought police. It’s the “words are violence” mentality that has taken root in the UK. HOWEVER, having said that, these demagogues have gotten away with it for far too long. Trump’s election in 2024 was the first round of accountability. Now let’s work to ensure that their demagoguery becomes even more electorally toxic.
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The man who asked Charlie Kirk the tr*nsgender question before he was shot breaks his silence.
“The point I was trying to make is how peaceful the left was (long pause) right before he got shot.” pic.twitter.com/NkF6yqsr6B
— Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) September 11, 2025
Ed: I truly feel for this young man and the trauma he just lived through. We may disagree and think each other have it wrong, but this young man showed up to engage Charlie in a civil debate. In terms of what I wrote yesterday — and which Governor Cox said so eloquently this morning — this young man believes in America. And because he does, he’s my compatriot even though we may disagree on nearly everything else. Pray for him today, along with prayers for Charlie’s soul and for his wife Erika, two children, and many friends and family.
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Chad Prather: The reason you feel Charlie’s death so deeply is because grief doesn’t measure itself by proximity. It measures itself by meaning. You didn’t have to know him personally to feel the sting of his absence, because when a voice like his goes silent, something in the atmosphere shifts.
The reason it feels heavier than so many other tragedies is because your spirit recognizes that this is not just about a man, it is about a battle. Scripture says eternity is written on our hearts, and when someone who carried truth with boldness is suddenly gone, eternity aches within us. It’s like our souls know instinctively that the darkness celebrated, and that strikes us at the core.
Ed: This hit me pretty close to the bone. It answered a few musings over the last couple of days. Be sure to click through and read it all.
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I strongly suspect Charlie would have accepted this apology and invited you to come talk with him. I hope you think about that. https://t.co/xbvk2SgvN7
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 12, 2025
Ed: King spread BS rather than check his assumptions. I ended a long-time correspondence today with someone who accused me of supporting the stoning of gays based on the same crap the Left spread about Charlie. I wish her well, but frankly, I don’t need that in my life, especially this week.
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Matt Taibbi: The New York Times obituary of Charlie Kirk, “Charlie Kirk, Right-Wing Force and a Close Trump Ally, Dies at 31” will go down as an infamous entry in the genre for many reasons. It’s an obvious understatement/provocation to write “Dies at 31” in a headline about a man assassinated by rifle round to the neck. The Times also leaned on the worn trope of alleging racist or anti-Semitic comments without elucidating them (“He tweeted relentlessly with a brash right-wing spin, including inflammatory comments about Jewish, gay and Black people”), a tendency that’s been common in coverage today. …
Unquestionably, antagonists of Kirk and Donald Trump recognized that he was an important Internet voice, and the repeated actions sent a signal that he needed to be removed — either for spreading “disinformation” or for more dubious claims of “inauthentic” activity. That there were repeated efforts to go after the same person before the 2020 election also speaks volumes.
Ed: Charlie was targeted for years by those who wanted to silence him. The NYT had to issue a retraction today after still targeting him for smear campaigns after his assassination. Matt goes deep into the Twitter Files to show just how bad it got. It’s behind the paywall, but again, this is one subscription worth having.
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— PopularPersonalityDisorder (@ProllyTrending) September 12, 2025
Ed: After my post yesterday, a couple of people sent me the video of the chase, making the same points. The latter tweet does a very good job in this presentation to show the TMZ explanation is a lie. There was nothing happening in this car chase to elicit cheers and applause; they were laughing and clapping over Charlie’s murder. It may well be that the staffers lied to Levin and Latibeaudiere, or that the latter lied to cover it up, but it’s very clearly a lie.
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Axios: Democrats have little to show for years of demanding gun control after past shootings, and some fear GOP allegations of politicization will hit extra hard given that the victim was a major figure on the right. …
- Another House Democrat, speaking on the condition of anonymity to offer candid thoughts on the matter, said the post-shooting demand for gun legislation “never really works.”
- “Is it the right time to call for it? No. … That shouldn’t be our first move,” the lawmaker added. “They’ll say it’s us playing politics.”
- A senior House progressive, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, similarly warned against the appearance of trying to use the shooting to push a policy agenda: “The tweets of people trying to make it into something else just make them look stupid.”
Ed: It would make them look stupider than usual, more like it. This is the kind of firearm that gun-grabbers claim to support. It wasn’t a pistol or an “assault rifle,” but instead the assassin used a long-barreled rifle with a bolt action that can’t be used in semiautomatic mode.
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Ed: What kind of world do we want? Make a decision and start now.
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