In Solidarity With Jimmy Kimmel, I have One Thing to Say (Updated)

Fuck Charlie Kirk.

I don't know if, in his heart, Kirk was a bigot. But he was a performative bigot, slinging around racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic claptrap. If he played music, he would have been a classic shock jock, stirring up people in order to build an audience.

So yes, fuck him.

And fuck Sinclair and everybody who works for them.

And remember this guy?

Fuck him, too.

Trumping These Down, Here

Extortion as Media Policy

ABC canceled Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the heinous offense of making fun of Our Manbaby President. One of the owners of a number of affiliates said they'd not air the show, so ABC pulled it.

Don't believe their story about the show being inappropriate. What happened was that Nexstar is seeking to merge, they need FCC approval for that, and the last thing they want is Trump using the FCC to fuck with them because he is mad at ABC for Kimmel's making fun of him and MAGA.

"Nice merger you got planned. Be a shame if something happened to it."

This wasn't any form of cancel culture. This is cancellation under state pressure, de facto censorship. Even Tucker Carlson knows that's wrong.

So, to recap: Make fun of The Obese Orange Dementia Patient-in-Chief and he and his minions will figure out how to bring the wrath of the government down on your head. Call for an entire classification of people to be exterminated, crickets.

We're living in an authoritarian state.

And everything he does now is a distraction.

Bangity

A new S&W .44 Mountain Gun:

First target with mid-power Magnum rounds at 25':

I have wanted a 4" .44 Special for awhile, but they seem to be scarce or really costly. This'll do.

I had talked to the LGS owner months ago about one. He told me that he'd keep an eye out. His distributor notified him that they had one, he ordered it and gave me first dibs. I jumped at it. Glad I did.

Next up is a set of Hogue Tamers and some .44 Specials.

It's OK to Not Bake a Cake or Provide Flowers to a Gay Wedding, But We'll Prosecute Anyone Who Doesn't Print Kirk Flyers

Attorney General Pam Bondi has threatened to prosecute a former private employee at Office Depot for refusing to print flyers for a Charlie Kirk vigil.
...
“Businesses cannot discriminate,” Bondi said, referring to the Office Depot incident. “If you wanna go in and print posters with Charlie’s pictures on them for a vigil, you have to let them do that. We can prosecute you for that.”.

If Charlie Kirk had thrown a gay wedding and he couldn't get a cake, Bondi would have spun her head around in confusion as to whether or not she should be outraged.

Perfidity, Thy Name is "Republican"

Republican pols are pleading for calm in their official social media accounts and calling for violence in their personal accounts.

If you happen to follow Rep. Derrick Van Orden’s official account on X, you’d see his swift rejection of violence in response to last week’s horrific killing of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk.
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But on his personal account, Van Orden is giving a different message: He’s inviting war against “these leftist scumbags” as retaliation for Kirk’s murder.

Mike Lee, Nancy Mace, Randy Fine, probably others, they're calling for nice-nice in public and violence in private.

And, of course, the Elderly Orange Dementia Case is being consistent in calling for hatred and violence.

Smashing These Down, Here

Truth:

One of the Good Guys Left

Robert Redford has died at age 89.

His last scene:

He lived for a time in a town where my family lived. He was a regular guy who didn't go around all full of himself.

Pissing Off Friends and Making Enemies

Noem's battery plant raid may have major repercussions. The Korean workers' stories of their barbaric treatment are being well-covered there.

Since the 330 workers arrested in an immigration raid at a Hyundai-LG battery plant under construction in Georgia returned to Korea on Friday, many have begun to speak out about the human rights violations they were subjected to during custody.

Testimonies made public on Sunday showed that the detention center failed to meet any of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, also known as the Mandela Rules, when it came to hygiene, contact with the outside world, complaints regarding treatment, and providing information on circumstances.
...
Hands bound to their waists, they had to bow their heads to lap up water to quench their thirst. When using the toilet, they were only given a piece of fabric to cover their lower bodies, as there were no private stalls. Almost no sunlight came in through the “window,” which was nothing more than a fist-sized hole in the wall, and they were only allowed to go outside for two hours a day to wander around a tiny yard.
...
Early on in their incarceration, the workers were crammed into a temporary detention center, which was a room that could house 72 people. A worker’s account made public by Yonhap News Agency described the facility as having rows of bunk beds with moldy mattresses. Hygiene products such as toothpaste, toothbrushes and blankets appear only to have been provided on their second day of detention. Workers wrapped themselves in their towels to protect themselves from the chilly air. The stench in the water prevented many from quenching their thirst, and the only food the workers received came in the form of canned beans and toast.

The Administration is basically trying to apologize without having to apologize to South Korea for treating their citizens as though they were Hispanics. Trump delayed the repatriation of the Korean workers to try and persuade them to stay and continue working and, with one exception, they declined.

The Administration seems to be bent on making everybody in the world hate this country. After this, why would any foreign company set up an American plant when their installation crews would run the risk of being arrested by the mouthbreathers of the ICEstapo?

And Americans in South Korea might want to be careful about running afoul of the law.

The "Free Speech for Me, But Not for Thee" Party. (Updated)

Vice President JD Vance on Monday jumped onto the conservative movement demanding consequences for those who have cheered Charlie Kirk’s killing, calling on the public to turn in anyone who says distasteful things about the assassination of his friend and political ally.

Killing somebody for their political beliefs is wrong.

But it would be nice if that was an ideal followed by the dead guy, who celebrated the attempted murder of Paul Pelosi. I am absolutely sure that if the perp had found Nancy Pelosi at home and killed her, Kirk and his ilk would have been figuratively dancing in her blood in celebration. Just like Republicans celebrated the murders of Melissa and Mark Hortman.

It is becoming clearer and clearer after Kirk’s slaying that freedom of speech, like every other constitutional right, is one that is to be freely enjoyed only by straight, white, conservative, christian men.

In that, they are dishonoring the man they seek to honor:

And it is no coincidence that whenever the Feds began looking at domestic terrorism, they found out every time that the threat was coming from the Right and the Republicans made them shut down the programs/inquiries.

As Sen. Murphy warns, we may be in for some dark times. For the Right is doing its best to turn this killing into their Reichstag moment and use that to quash freedom for everyone else. And they are not shy about their aims.

And above all, Trump needs to distract people from the fact that he is prominently mentioned in the Epstein files.