We should also consider the non-zero chance that he was shot by someone not for being too far to the right but rather for not being far enough to the right. Remember there are a lot of MAGA folks who are tripping over each other to see who can be the most extreme; years ago the GOP passed a point where they would have thrown out Reagan for being too far left and now the MAGA party is even further yet to the right.

There is a long list of times during this - and the previous - Trump Administration when it seemed clear that would happen. We thought they finally got to the point where they wouldn't be able to stand each other and they would annihilate their own. Never before did it happen; indeed they only rallied harder each time and came out stronger.

Now they have a new martyr. Any time anyone doesn't toe the MAGA line they will be accused of leading towards "another Charlie Kirk". In fact they could have hardly asked for a better event, as they can use it to also brush any other gun violence crime under the rug as well.

Say goodbye to democracy. Charlie Kirk managed to do exactly what he wanted - he killed it. He wasn't wise enough to realize it would take his own blood to take it down, but it is dead and buried now. The new Single Party State rises up now, and by the end of next month it will be illegal to be a democrat.

Right now is a good time to invest in your exit strategy if you don't align yourself 110% with the MAGA party.

Where did I encourage violence? You must have me mistaken with someone else. I have multiple times very plainly advocated against violence in all forms. I don't approve killing anyone by anyone else. Not by or for politics, not by or for the state. Murder is wrong, period.

In the 1960s the assassinations were of people who wanted to improve our country and bring about progress. This decade we're seeing assassinations of people of all stripes. There is no rhyme or reason to the violence any more. The only difference is that one party advocates exclusively for "thoughts and prayers" after any killing, because they are afraid their owners will drive them out of their cushy jobs if they ever propose any kind of legislative reform.

I didn't say anyone would make a new amendment. I said that the MAGA party would ignore the 22nd Amendment, and that the SCOTUS would not stop them from doing so. That's a big difference. Indeed a constitutional amendment is only passed by congress; the SCOTUS cannot make one. Up until now, the POTUS has been expected to follow the constitution, but that is no longer the case. Nobody is willing to apply any laws to Trump.

Again, nobody is looking to pass a new amendment, nor are they looking to repeal one on the books. They have license to simply ignore the constitution, and they will do exactly that. The constitution is no longer worth the paper it was written on.

Indeed strangely enough by killing a liar the MAGA party likely killed truth itself . This just gives them more momentum for squashing dissent and labeling those they don't agree with as undesirable and "UnAmerican". They never let an opportunity like this go by without making political hay from it.

I'm not praising him or his hateful ignorant rhetoric. I'm merely forecasting what comes next.

The MAGA party is hard at work canonizing him. They will absolutely make political hay from this for some time to come. We will see a call to arms - both physical and metaphorical - as the MAGA party rallies ever harder around Saint Donald. This will become a push for more persecution of "the left" as MAGA folks claim they are themselves being hunted. This will also become a push to discard the 22nd amendment - which the SCOTUS will not prevent - to keep Donald as god-king for all eternity.

Very convenient that this came up for the MAGA party while they were desperately trying to find a way to distract America from the Epstein files. Notice how far down in the news feeds anything relating to that has fallen since. The front page of CNN no longer mentions Epstein at all; MSNBC barely mentions it in referencing a congressman asking for the files to be released and NPR buries it far down discussing the UK firing an ambassador to the US over Epstein ties.

In other words, mission accomplished for the MAGA party. The longer the manhunt continues for the shooter the longer we're distracted from matters of real consequence and the stronger the MAGA party gets against the rest of America.

Go ahead, mod me down. I know this is a little off topic but it warrants being said. Matters of climate change will soon be forbidden discussion topics in the MAGA world.

He's already getting a complimentary ride on Air Force Two. I'm trying to think of other non-politicians who were not war heroes whose corpses got Presidential or VP escorts and not thinking of any...

Except each time the rage machine gets louder and more profane. At some point if it doesn't come back down to earth we're going to have a real problem. Time to get more supplies for the bug-out bags.

You're probably right on that. However there are plenty in Trump's orbit who would be willing to enable something like this to happen to draw their base away from the Epstein saga. I probably gave him way too much credit to suggest he could have dreamed this up on his own. He wasn't even of above-average intelligence when he hosted The Apprentice, and he's shown just how little one can learn in 4 years when they really try hard.

I don't support murder, regardless of how awful the murdered person is. Violence doesn't end violence, it only triggers more violence. I will say though that the current POTUS is not one to follow any laws at all any more, so I can't help but wonder if he's connected to this murder himself - it is certainly drawing attention away from the Epstein saga.

As a chemist I can tell you that glass bottles leach out ions into water constantly. It's not microplastics, but it's plenty of ions. Most glass on the market - even high quality lab glass - is made with sodiated glass, so the best water you can put in it will end up carrying a substantial about of sodium ions over a short amount of time. Other trace elements will get pulled out by the water as well.

You forgot to tell us how this ties in to Barack HUSSEIN Obama, to Hillary Clinton's email server, to Hunter Biden's laptop, to Benghazi, to the Iluminati, and to pizzagate. But it's still enough to get us to forget about the thousands of illegal acts that have been partaken or endorsed by the current administration, right?

Yes, I know I'm going to get downmodded into oblivion on this. Go ahead, bring it.

I travel a fair bit for work, and if I'm going to a new (to me) city I'll often google "X hotel chain Y city" to see what options I have. Unfortunately Google has been victimized in their search results on this for a long time; it's not just redirects to various third-party hotel sites but it can be other sites entirely as well. This can lead to outdated or completely inaccurate information, and bad phone numbers too. Sometimes I'll see the correct link about 5-6 entries down, but that's not guaranteed - and if chain X has more than one hotel of name A in or near city Y the results could well be missing some locations on the first page.

This is the old googlebombing technique from years ago (remember "miserable failure"?), but deployed for profit instead of politics.

All this noise from Trump is intended to get you to forget about his ties to Epstein. Is it working?

Granted, the SCOTUS has already declared that laws do not apply to him, so it doesn't really matter. Nonetheless, he is wearing himself thin trying to run his own interference plays here.

That is an offense that has been committed by very nearly every automaker that sells cars or trucks in the US, and it is exceptionally well documented.

Today's Nissan Altima is larger than the Nissan Maxima of the 1990s.

Today's Subaru Outback is bigger than the Subaru Forester of the 1990s.

Today's Toyota Corrolla is bigger than the Toyota Camry of the 1990s.

It's just manufacturers responding to how they read the market. It doesn't mean it's right, it just is. But this is not a matter of just the big 3 doing it, everyone else is as well. Even Hyundai/Kia are selling large SUVs and several years ago they launched a premium / luxury line as well.

There are quite a few vehicles with CVTs but quite a few more that don't use them. My work car is a mass market 2025 Chevy Equinox and it has a regular automatic with real gears. Conversely I had as a family car a Ford Freestyle years ago that had a CVT, and it made it over 200,000 miles without ever needing any kind of transmission service (never even changed the transmission fluid). A CVT is not inherently a bad thing, depending on the application and manufacturer.

Some people just hate the American big 3 automakers, and will jump at any (perceived) opportunity to dunk on them. Don't bother trying to hold a discussion on this matter with them; they may be completely reasonable people in other aspects but they will keep telling you about how much they hated their mom's 86 Oldsmobile and how it somehow justifies hatred of every single vehicle ever made by the big 3, ever.