Trump canonizes Charlie Kirk, the right blames “the Left,” Britain sacks Mandelson, and America shrugs off another school shooting while inflation and incompetence pile higher.
It is really difficult to write the truth, however necessary, about an assassination of a young man and father. Charlie Kirk was a provocateur selling his brand of hate in a bottle, much like the snake oil salesmen of yore, but he wasn't selling a cure was he? He was selling his own tried and true remedy against peace and love: chaos and hatred. I am sad that he got shot like that - in that traumatizing way for all to see - sad for the witnesses. I just read someplace else this morning (might have been you, Mary) that mass shootings have become so common in America that 1 in 15 people have been a witness to one. Is that possible? Since the ILA of the NRA was formed, this country has been sold a load of bullshit - 400 million guns worth of pure manure. those people have destroyed the political careers of many good persons in the name of keeping Americans safe by arming as many people as possible. But 400 million guns later, do you feel safe?
There are many ,including myself, who will say NO! Katy..No we don’t feel at all safe . In fact the US is probably the most vulnerable right now…I hope we’re all praying the real devastation like slipping into an authoritarian country doesn’t happen , it was tried before and IS successful in many countries. But…the normalization of all this is far too telling a tale many already admit… they “never voted for this”..and the southern mostly poor states will pay the highest .
I’m am very proud of the coalition of blue states taking a stand and growing numbers of Democrats winning seats…more to come, carry on with the resistance.👏
Let us mourn, again, for 9/11. Not heroes, just those of us lost from extremism. Ask not for whom the bell tolls…
And again, ENOUGH. I am certainly not a Kirk apologist. There is a dreadful irony to his assassination. Karma, if you will. Condolences to his family. But the hagiography from Trump and his minion is pathetic, performative. The flag at half mast? A Medal of Freedom, further debased as a political token? Before the gun smoke dissipated, Trump was expounding in divisiveness and the violence of the “radical left.” So, we enter the thoughts & prayers cycle. The Right ignores the school shooting in Evergreen, CO. There was no half-mast for the MN legislature woman, Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, who were shot and killed. There was only a snide comment from Kirk when Paul Pelosi was assaulted.
And we are walking on egg shells. No to violence, most certainly. But for the media to observe Kirk contributed to the divisiveness, a guarded silence. Incredibly MSNBC fired Matthew Dowd for uttering the truth of Kirk. Katy Tur, as I read now, facing calls for her being fired for uttering the simple truth, Kirk was no choirboy.
Enough to violence. Enough to celebrity for those who promote division. For the GOP, some reflection re: this President. The better course, condemn rhetoric like the “radial left,” the “vermin,” and all the other derisive comments from the WH. Focus on victims from the Sandy Hook children to Charlie Kirk as casualties, not causes.
and for those who really understand trump, i suspect that Charlie Kirk is better for him dead than alive... he knows there will be more Charlie Kirks to rise and speak, and now, like with the trans woman who shot through the church windows, he has renewed license to create a bigger enemies list, to go after anyone he wants and to work up his followers into a foaming-at-the-mouth frenzy... mob mentality, and will turn them loose on the rest of us. what's more, is that they know that no matter what they do, they will be pardoned by trump and possibly idolized by his followers.. this was all predictable, this was all preventable. as a nation, we were too self absorbed, too ignorant of history, economics, and psychology to avoid it. now we are living it and how it will all end no one knows, but it will not be pretty. we have become a 3rd world nation with a first world (for the moment) economy. and yet we all fall in line and go along to get along...
I feel your anger and frustration and share it. I am sick and tired of lies being shoved down the throats of Americans through social media. Could we get every decent person and media to stop providing eyes on Twitter/X? Why not a mass boycott. Just step away and let them all fight among themselves.
would love to see that... would love to see more people vote with their pocketbook and stop supporting some of these companies that support this regime and help propagate the misinformation, the lies, the hate... especially the misinformation on the environment...
Democratic officials, major Democratic donors and federal judges who stand up for the rule of law need to buttress their personal security details now.
Wired magazine has recapped the details of the past day’s Trump regime and MAGA propaganda targeting the “radical left”, and it’s terrifying.
Despite no evidence of the killer or motive, alarming calls for violent revenge against Democrats and other Trump opponents - many identified by name - have been pouring out from MAGA officials, influencers and enablers.
This despite the reality that most political violence comes from the “radical right”, not “left”. In 2022, data compiled by the Anti-Defamation League showed right-wing extremists committed approximately 3/4 of the 450 political killings from 2012 to 2022, with more than half connected to white supremacists.
This cancer of violence must be stopped before the tragedies compound.
Plus - There are and will be violent lunatics across the political spectrum. The real issue is that violent lunatics have too easy access to guns in this gun-worshiping society.
Our politicians should be asking "Is this the life we want?"
Thank you Mary Geddry. Can feel the emotion in your posting today.
Finding today as a difficult day to be an American. There are those yearly events that no one wants to recall, but we do. We remember them today as we have done for these past 24 years. Not for the event that occurred but the lives lost that affected so many of us as we saw those planes in New York, the Pentagon and the airplane that crashed in Pennsylvania due to the courage of those on that flight. Lost what one would call a family member, not by blood but by friendship who perished 24 years ago today. One would think after 24 years the pain of their loss would diminish but for some reason today the flooding of memories have come back full force.
Maybe it’s because of the ongoing onslaught of daily events that have occurred since January 20, 2025. The country, Qatar, in which the airplane was illegally accepted by the occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and knowing that this country Qatar was the principle architect of the 9/11 attack. The ever ending assault on our country’s ideals, our founding father’s principals and all from the dismantling of every department in the federal government. Just the whole kit and caboodle of this plus the misinformation, hate speech, rhetoric of division and just a conglomerate of vileness. The continued rhetoric that is spewed that persists to divide, lay blame and at this point doubting seeing any light at the end of the tunnel. So tired and weary by one political party that has become more of a cult than what Abraham Lincoln, and all other Republicans came afterwards held true.
Just less than three days ago the occupant in the Oval placed out on social media an AI generated video about Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul, being brutally attacked.
For years, far-right leaders, media personalities, and politicians have mainstreamed violent rhetoric. January 6th was not an aberration—it was the direct outcome of years of incitement, culminating in thousands storming the U.S. Capitol, some wielding makeshift weapons and chanting, “Hang Mike Pence.”
Political violence is not random. It is the predictable result of a culture where leaders glorify guns, mock victims, ridicules the disabled, calls all immigrants as rapists and criminals, insinuates that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country”, demonizes transgender youth, attacks the LGBTQ+ community with abandonment, and excuses insurrectionists.
And now instead of calming any waters he and so many others are stoking so much more hate, divide and rhetoric. At this point the FBI hasn’t even caught the individual who shot Charlie Kirk. No idea of this individual’s motif if there is one or anything about this individual.. other than our country has become a sickened cesspool of hate, divide and political rhetoric. A country which allows hatred and firearms to intermingle unchecked who will continue to bury its own.
The truth is, selective outrage has become a political weapon. Sympathy is extended only when it suits a partisan narrative, and silence—or even mockery—meets tragedies that don’t. This has got to stop. And if leaders continue to play out this continued rhetoric of hate on a continuous loop these occurrences will happen even more frequently. It’s not hypothetical it will become a fact.
There are simple but brutal lessons: you reap what you sow and an eye for an eye renders you blind.
* If you sow hate, hate comes back.
* If you stoke violence, violence will eventually visit you.
This is the country that elevates Kyle Rittenhouse into celebrity status, that hands pardons to violent insurrectionists, that disregards the deaths of capital police that protected legislators with their lives, and that treats political violence as theater until it hits close to home. Leaders who protect the vileness of a convicted pedophile, gives grace to his co-conspirator and refuses to listen to their victims.
Violence begets violence, and again this is our country which allows hatred and firearms to intermingle unchecked will continue to bury its own. If we are ever to break free from this cycle, it will not be by lowering flags or holding moments of silence alone. It definitely will not be by making Charlie Kirk a martyr. It will be by choosing, finally, to value human dignity more than the applause lines that come from tearing it apart.
Personally Charlie Kirk was a person who I saw as foul and apprehensible. He displayed everything that created even more of a divide not just politically but morally, spiritually and I saw as not having any empathy, sympathy or humanity.
Regardless of his political beliefs, or how I perceived Charlie Kirk he had every right in our nation to exercise his freedom of speech without fear of being shot. Charlie Kirk was a son, a husband, and a father of two children— and now, his children will grow up without their dad. That is unforgivable because someone decided upon that political violence of any kind is acceptable. It’s not, nor should it ever be.
So today it’s difficult to remember a dear friend who perished 24 years ago. Who lost the opportunity of being a husband, a father and now grandfather. And if spiritually he decided to visit his country, our country he probably wouldn’t even be able to recognize it and would weep for what he left behind 24 years ago after serving and sacrificing so much for this country. It is a difficult time to be an American, but will continue to press on to hold elected officials accountable and fight for better days ahead.
You put in an appreciative word about the UK sacking their Ambassador, Peter Mandelson (who used to be known as the "Prince of Darkness" a few years back) but things over here are looking somewhat bleak, as there appears to be a sufficient supply of people with half-formed brains willing to consider Nigel Farage as a potential Prime Minister. All you need to know about him is that he is Trump's best mate and has distinctly 'Trumpian' ideas about how our Country should be governed.
I had read that the rifle in the Kirk shooting was found with bullets that had inscriptions on them regarding transgenderism and anti fascism. I sure hope not because if this shooter is transgender, ALL LGBTQ+ people in this country will have Trump's minions breathing down their necks 24/7.
Thank you Mary. I felt your heart in this post. Today is a difficult day to be an American. While there is much to be thankful for compared to some countries, our country struggles from all the political changes this year appearing to put us on a course of implosion. With the memory of 9/11 attacks where our country was attacked from abroad, to have attacks internally from people in power, people responsible for creating a monster who continues to this day to disenfranchise most Americans…well again, it is a difficult time to be an American
PS…I’m reading your post about Brazil and Bolsonaro’s conviction. Uplifting news for democracy.
Unfortunately in Britain, Starmer just welcomed the president of Israel and proudly shook his hand outside number 10 Downing Street where he lives. It's a disgrace.
It is really difficult to write the truth, however necessary, about an assassination of a young man and father. Charlie Kirk was a provocateur selling his brand of hate in a bottle, much like the snake oil salesmen of yore, but he wasn't selling a cure was he? He was selling his own tried and true remedy against peace and love: chaos and hatred. I am sad that he got shot like that - in that traumatizing way for all to see - sad for the witnesses. I just read someplace else this morning (might have been you, Mary) that mass shootings have become so common in America that 1 in 15 people have been a witness to one. Is that possible? Since the ILA of the NRA was formed, this country has been sold a load of bullshit - 400 million guns worth of pure manure. those people have destroyed the political careers of many good persons in the name of keeping Americans safe by arming as many people as possible. But 400 million guns later, do you feel safe?
There are many ,including myself, who will say NO! Katy..No we don’t feel at all safe . In fact the US is probably the most vulnerable right now…I hope we’re all praying the real devastation like slipping into an authoritarian country doesn’t happen , it was tried before and IS successful in many countries. But…the normalization of all this is far too telling a tale many already admit… they “never voted for this”..and the southern mostly poor states will pay the highest .
I’m am very proud of the coalition of blue states taking a stand and growing numbers of Democrats winning seats…more to come, carry on with the resistance.👏
Let us mourn, again, for 9/11. Not heroes, just those of us lost from extremism. Ask not for whom the bell tolls…
And again, ENOUGH. I am certainly not a Kirk apologist. There is a dreadful irony to his assassination. Karma, if you will. Condolences to his family. But the hagiography from Trump and his minion is pathetic, performative. The flag at half mast? A Medal of Freedom, further debased as a political token? Before the gun smoke dissipated, Trump was expounding in divisiveness and the violence of the “radical left.” So, we enter the thoughts & prayers cycle. The Right ignores the school shooting in Evergreen, CO. There was no half-mast for the MN legislature woman, Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, who were shot and killed. There was only a snide comment from Kirk when Paul Pelosi was assaulted.
And we are walking on egg shells. No to violence, most certainly. But for the media to observe Kirk contributed to the divisiveness, a guarded silence. Incredibly MSNBC fired Matthew Dowd for uttering the truth of Kirk. Katy Tur, as I read now, facing calls for her being fired for uttering the simple truth, Kirk was no choirboy.
Enough to violence. Enough to celebrity for those who promote division. For the GOP, some reflection re: this President. The better course, condemn rhetoric like the “radial left,” the “vermin,” and all the other derisive comments from the WH. Focus on victims from the Sandy Hook children to Charlie Kirk as casualties, not causes.
and for those who really understand trump, i suspect that Charlie Kirk is better for him dead than alive... he knows there will be more Charlie Kirks to rise and speak, and now, like with the trans woman who shot through the church windows, he has renewed license to create a bigger enemies list, to go after anyone he wants and to work up his followers into a foaming-at-the-mouth frenzy... mob mentality, and will turn them loose on the rest of us. what's more, is that they know that no matter what they do, they will be pardoned by trump and possibly idolized by his followers.. this was all predictable, this was all preventable. as a nation, we were too self absorbed, too ignorant of history, economics, and psychology to avoid it. now we are living it and how it will all end no one knows, but it will not be pretty. we have become a 3rd world nation with a first world (for the moment) economy. and yet we all fall in line and go along to get along...
I feel your anger and frustration and share it. I am sick and tired of lies being shoved down the throats of Americans through social media. Could we get every decent person and media to stop providing eyes on Twitter/X? Why not a mass boycott. Just step away and let them all fight among themselves.
would love to see that... would love to see more people vote with their pocketbook and stop supporting some of these companies that support this regime and help propagate the misinformation, the lies, the hate... especially the misinformation on the environment...
Democratic officials, major Democratic donors and federal judges who stand up for the rule of law need to buttress their personal security details now.
Wired magazine has recapped the details of the past day’s Trump regime and MAGA propaganda targeting the “radical left”, and it’s terrifying.
Despite no evidence of the killer or motive, alarming calls for violent revenge against Democrats and other Trump opponents - many identified by name - have been pouring out from MAGA officials, influencers and enablers.
This despite the reality that most political violence comes from the “radical right”, not “left”. In 2022, data compiled by the Anti-Defamation League showed right-wing extremists committed approximately 3/4 of the 450 political killings from 2012 to 2022, with more than half connected to white supremacists.
This cancer of violence must be stopped before the tragedies compound.
Brilliantly discussed.
Plus - There are and will be violent lunatics across the political spectrum. The real issue is that violent lunatics have too easy access to guns in this gun-worshiping society.
Our politicians should be asking "Is this the life we want?"
Radicalization by the far-right media along with easy access to guns and ammunition: the perfect recipe for creating mass murders.
You've said it all this morning, Mary, and all I have to add to this truthful writing is, I'll share it! Thank you for this difficult message.
Thank you Mary Geddry. Can feel the emotion in your posting today.
Finding today as a difficult day to be an American. There are those yearly events that no one wants to recall, but we do. We remember them today as we have done for these past 24 years. Not for the event that occurred but the lives lost that affected so many of us as we saw those planes in New York, the Pentagon and the airplane that crashed in Pennsylvania due to the courage of those on that flight. Lost what one would call a family member, not by blood but by friendship who perished 24 years ago today. One would think after 24 years the pain of their loss would diminish but for some reason today the flooding of memories have come back full force.
Maybe it’s because of the ongoing onslaught of daily events that have occurred since January 20, 2025. The country, Qatar, in which the airplane was illegally accepted by the occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and knowing that this country Qatar was the principle architect of the 9/11 attack. The ever ending assault on our country’s ideals, our founding father’s principals and all from the dismantling of every department in the federal government. Just the whole kit and caboodle of this plus the misinformation, hate speech, rhetoric of division and just a conglomerate of vileness. The continued rhetoric that is spewed that persists to divide, lay blame and at this point doubting seeing any light at the end of the tunnel. So tired and weary by one political party that has become more of a cult than what Abraham Lincoln, and all other Republicans came afterwards held true.
Just less than three days ago the occupant in the Oval placed out on social media an AI generated video about Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul, being brutally attacked.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/115168511297310412
Who does this?!? Why do this?!?
For years, far-right leaders, media personalities, and politicians have mainstreamed violent rhetoric. January 6th was not an aberration—it was the direct outcome of years of incitement, culminating in thousands storming the U.S. Capitol, some wielding makeshift weapons and chanting, “Hang Mike Pence.”
Political violence is not random. It is the predictable result of a culture where leaders glorify guns, mock victims, ridicules the disabled, calls all immigrants as rapists and criminals, insinuates that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country”, demonizes transgender youth, attacks the LGBTQ+ community with abandonment, and excuses insurrectionists.
And now instead of calming any waters he and so many others are stoking so much more hate, divide and rhetoric. At this point the FBI hasn’t even caught the individual who shot Charlie Kirk. No idea of this individual’s motif if there is one or anything about this individual.. other than our country has become a sickened cesspool of hate, divide and political rhetoric. A country which allows hatred and firearms to intermingle unchecked who will continue to bury its own.
The truth is, selective outrage has become a political weapon. Sympathy is extended only when it suits a partisan narrative, and silence—or even mockery—meets tragedies that don’t. This has got to stop. And if leaders continue to play out this continued rhetoric of hate on a continuous loop these occurrences will happen even more frequently. It’s not hypothetical it will become a fact.
There are simple but brutal lessons: you reap what you sow and an eye for an eye renders you blind.
* If you sow hate, hate comes back.
* If you stoke violence, violence will eventually visit you.
This is the country that elevates Kyle Rittenhouse into celebrity status, that hands pardons to violent insurrectionists, that disregards the deaths of capital police that protected legislators with their lives, and that treats political violence as theater until it hits close to home. Leaders who protect the vileness of a convicted pedophile, gives grace to his co-conspirator and refuses to listen to their victims.
Violence begets violence, and again this is our country which allows hatred and firearms to intermingle unchecked will continue to bury its own. If we are ever to break free from this cycle, it will not be by lowering flags or holding moments of silence alone. It definitely will not be by making Charlie Kirk a martyr. It will be by choosing, finally, to value human dignity more than the applause lines that come from tearing it apart.
Personally Charlie Kirk was a person who I saw as foul and apprehensible. He displayed everything that created even more of a divide not just politically but morally, spiritually and I saw as not having any empathy, sympathy or humanity.
Regardless of his political beliefs, or how I perceived Charlie Kirk he had every right in our nation to exercise his freedom of speech without fear of being shot. Charlie Kirk was a son, a husband, and a father of two children— and now, his children will grow up without their dad. That is unforgivable because someone decided upon that political violence of any kind is acceptable. It’s not, nor should it ever be.
So today it’s difficult to remember a dear friend who perished 24 years ago. Who lost the opportunity of being a husband, a father and now grandfather. And if spiritually he decided to visit his country, our country he probably wouldn’t even be able to recognize it and would weep for what he left behind 24 years ago after serving and sacrificing so much for this country. It is a difficult time to be an American, but will continue to press on to hold elected officials accountable and fight for better days ahead.
Well said. Unfortunately, with Trump showing the way, revenge and retribution have become what our country stands for.
You put in an appreciative word about the UK sacking their Ambassador, Peter Mandelson (who used to be known as the "Prince of Darkness" a few years back) but things over here are looking somewhat bleak, as there appears to be a sufficient supply of people with half-formed brains willing to consider Nigel Farage as a potential Prime Minister. All you need to know about him is that he is Trump's best mate and has distinctly 'Trumpian' ideas about how our Country should be governed.
I had read that the rifle in the Kirk shooting was found with bullets that had inscriptions on them regarding transgenderism and anti fascism. I sure hope not because if this shooter is transgender, ALL LGBTQ+ people in this country will have Trump's minions breathing down their necks 24/7.
Thank you Mary. I felt your heart in this post. Today is a difficult day to be an American. While there is much to be thankful for compared to some countries, our country struggles from all the political changes this year appearing to put us on a course of implosion. With the memory of 9/11 attacks where our country was attacked from abroad, to have attacks internally from people in power, people responsible for creating a monster who continues to this day to disenfranchise most Americans…well again, it is a difficult time to be an American
PS…I’m reading your post about Brazil and Bolsonaro’s conviction. Uplifting news for democracy.
Unfortunately in Britain, Starmer just welcomed the president of Israel and proudly shook his hand outside number 10 Downing Street where he lives. It's a disgrace.
We now know it was a fellow right-winger. And that isn’t surprising - they are the ones who collect guns.