I Didn't Say It ...

Barack Obama, former President of the United States, and calming force in the nation speaking plain common sense in the way of the Kirk shooting:

“What happened to Charlie Kirk was a tragedy … [but] we can also, at the same time, say that I disagree with the idea that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a mistake. That’s not me politicizing the issue. It’s making an observation about who we are as a country. We have to recognize that on both sides, undoubtedly, there are people who are extremists and who say things that are contrary to what I believe are America’s core values. But I will say that those extreme views were not in my White House. I wasn’t embracing them. I wasn’t empowering them. I wasn’t putting the weight of the United States government behind extremist views. And when we have the weight of the governemtn behind extremist views we have a problem.”

And the problem is Cankles and his Regime of boot-licking goose-stepping Nationalist Christians, AKA Nat-C’s, Nazis, bigots, homophobes, transphobes, pedophile rapists and racists.

Vote them out at every single level of government.

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Hannah Einbinder, on the backlash after she shouted ‘Free Palestine’ during her Emmys acceptance speech:

“It is my obligation as a Jewish person to distinguish Jews from the state of Israel. Our religion and our culture is such an important and long-standing institution that is really separate to this sort of ethnonationalist state.”

The Jews aren’t trying to demolish Gaza and the Palestinians; it’s Israel and Netanyahu who are the war criminals.

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Eric Swalwell, Democratic Representative from California, suggesting FCC Chair Brendan Carr “get a lawyer” for when Democrats take the majority in Congress:

“I want to make it clear, there’s going to be a Democratic majority in just over a year and to the FCC chairperson and anyone involved in these dirty deals, get a lawyer and save your records because you’re going to be in this room and you’re going to be answering questions about the deals that you struck and who benefited and what the cost was to the American people because that happened.”

I am already investing in a popcorn machine so I have something to nibble on when Democrats destroy the fascists.

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Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania Democrat Governor, speaking at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit:

“During moments like this, I believe we have a responsibility to be clear and unequivocal in calling out all forms of political violence and making clear it is all wrong. That shouldn’t be hard to do. Unfortunately, some from the dark corners of the internet all the way to the Oval Office want to cherry-pick which instances of political violence they want to condemn. Listen: Doing that only further divides us and it makes it harder to heal. There are some who will hear that selective condemnation and take it as a permission slip to commit more violence, so long as it suits their narrative or only targets the other side. He [Trump] claimed, in the wake of the killing of Charlie Kirk, that he wanted to heal this nation. You don’t heal this nation by attacking your fellow Americans, by calling some of your fellow Americans ‘scum’—his word choice, not mine. The president is using this as a pretext to go and undermine people’s constitutional rights. That is dangerous, it is wrong, and it needs to stop.”

The fish rots from the head and that fetid orange gelatinous gasbag  in the White House is spreading its stink all over America.

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Jon Green, chair of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors in Iowa, defying an order from GOP Governor Kim Reynolds that flags on public buildings be flown at half-staff in honor of Charlie Kirk:

“On my personal authority as Chairman of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, I have determined to defy [Governor Reynolds’] order that our colors be at half-staff through Sunday on behalf of Charlie Kirk. I condemn Kirk’s killing, regardless of who pulled the trigger or why. But I will not grant Johnson County honors to a man who made it his life’s mission to denigrate so many of the constituents I have sworn to protect, and who did so much harm not only to the marginalized, but also to degrade the fabric of our body politic. Johnson County flags will fly as usual. I will accept any consequence, whether legal or electoral, for my decision. It is mine alone.”

Green said he came to the decision in part because a similar order was not given for other victims of political violence, specifically Minnesota Democratic lawmaker Melissa Hortman, who with her husband was killed in June.

This is the Resistance

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Starex Smith, AKA The Hungry Black Man, food critic and citizen with zero fucks to give, on the death and subsequent canonization of Charlie Kirk by the right:

"America lost Charlie Kirk a couple hours ago, violently, tragically, and in a moment that was recorded, and is circulating social. I will not post it because it’s absolutely horrific. Charlie was not a figure of grace or empathy; history will not remember him as a voice of unity or a champion of justice. He will be remembered for the words he chose, words that often wounded and divided. As he lay bleeding out onstage, those words, once weapons, became dust. When he was shot, he was speaking about one of America’s deepest wounds: mass shootings. When asked about school shootings, his response was not measured compassion but deflection. 'Counting or not counting gang violence?' he said, as if the grief of families who send their children to school only to bury them could be minimized by a technicality. And then, almost instantly, a shot rang out. He fell, his voice instantly silenced. This is not eulogy-flattery, this is memory. We remember the things he said about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: 'MLK was awful. He’s not a good person.' We remember his calculation on gun violence: 'I think it’s worth … some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.' These are not the words of healing, not the words of unity. And yet they, too, are part of the ledger he leaves behind. So what do we do with a legacy like this? First, we tell the truth. We acknowledge what he said, how he said it, and the hurt it caused. Second, we resist the temptation to let violence beget violence. For if this act tells us anything, it is that political violence has become a siren call to the unhinged, a spark they would gladly use to ignite the tinderbox of racial and class resentment. Today it was a conservative voice silenced. Tomorrow, it could just as easily be a progressive one. We must not let this become the currency of politics. We should also understand the warning buried in this moment; what we say matters. How we live matters. The words we choose, the causes we defend, the way we treat one another, these become the bricks of our legacy. Kirk’s words were often sharp, sometimes cruel, but they are now etched into his memory as surely as his death. Let the rest of us take note: legacies should be rooted in love, in justice, in equality, not in division or deflection. Rest, if you can, Mr. Kirk. May your final act teach us something lasting: that even in grief, we are called to choose better."

Kirk's assassination is a dark time in America when you have one political party trying to glorify and sanctify and celebrate hate and it’s a direct result of allowing the United States of Guns to push guns over children, citizens, politicians, and rightwing podcasters.

If we want to create a safer, more peaceful America we need to see the things that Kirk said and spread as hate speech, albeit Free Speech.

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