The Useful Idiots Will Always Be With Us

Posted on September 20, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

“The useful idiots, the leftists who are idealistically believing in the beauty of the Soviet socialist or Communist or whatever system, when they get disillusioned, they become the worst enemies. That’s why my KGB instructors specifically made the point: never bother with leftists. Forget about these political prostitutes. Aim higher. […] They serve a purpose only at the stage of destabilization of a nation. For example, your leftists in the United States: all these professors and all these beautiful civil rights defenders. They are instrumental in the process of the subversion only to destabilize a nation. When their job is completed, they are not needed any more. They know too much. Some of them, when they get disillusioned, when they see that Marxist-Leninists come to power—obviously they get offended—they think that they will come to power. That will never happen, of course. They will be lined up against the wall and shot.”

― Yuri Bezmenov

Barack Obama, the Hannibal Lecter of Politics

Posted on September 20, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

Through clever innuendo and seemingly noncommittal suggestion, Barack Obama has spent two decades subtly dividing America socially, racially, and politically.

Obama is known for making his points with surgical precision. No one can deny that, armed with a sharpened teleprompter, an emotionally detached Barack Obama appears as a methodical, unemotional speaker skilled at disguising deep-seated hostility as civility.

The former president’s detached eloquence bears resemblance to that of the fictional character, serial killer and cannibal Hannibal Lecter.

Hannibal had a complex psyche that could be hidden behind a refined manner of expressing rage, with his wrath concealed behind a façade of feigned grace and collegiality; that is precisely what Barack Obama does.

From the beginning, Obama worked hard to craft the narrative that the real threat to this nation was patriotic Americans who adhered to the Constitution. It started in April 2009, when the newly elected president directed Janet Napolitano’s DHS to focus on nonexistent right-wing threats in America. The administration’s assessment titled, “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Radicalization and Recruitment,” became the basis for a tone that would define an aggressive presidency — where everyone from pro-lifers to the military, pro-Second Amendment activists, and Americans advocating for immigration law were viewed as threats.

The racial element that sparked division in America was fueled by the statement in the document that mentioned recruitment for right-wing extremism was vigorous among those most upset about “the election of the first African-American president.”

Fast forward sixteen years, and like Hannibal Lecter sending condolences to his victim’s family, at the Jefferson Educational Society’s 17th annual global summit in Erie, Pennsylvania, a blasé former president decided he needed to extend sympathy for the death of Charlie Kirk, who was murdered on September 10th by a trans activist’s assassin’s bullet during his American Comeback Tour at Utah Valley University

After calling Kirk’s death “horrific and a tragedy,” void of even a modicum of self-awareness, Obama proceeded to blame none other than Donald Trump for sowing political division and inciting a “political crisis,” which resulted in the slaying of Trump’s most ardent defender.

About Charlie Kirk, Obama had this to say:

Obviously, I didn’t think his ideas were wrong, but that doesn’t negate the fact that what happened was a tragedy and that I mourn for him and his family.

Coolly, Obama informed global summit attendees that for him, ideas like devout Christianity, patriotism, intellectual brilliance, the sanctity of life, and all things good, holy, and sane were “wrong.”

Calling shooting someone through the jugular on live stream TV a “tragedy,” Obama forgot to mention his participation in fueling years of transgender activism.

The former president also forgot to inform his audience that, unlike the LGBTQ community, he did not “see” nor “stand” with the likes of Charlie Kirk, nor did he ever state that “dignity, equality, and justice are fundamental to ensuring that [people like Charlie Kirk] feel safe and protected.”

Besides trying to shame a dead man by taking everything he ever said out of context, Obama haltingly went on to tell his captivated audience that the country is facing a “political crisis of the sort that we haven’t seen before.”

Then, while distancing himself from decades of promoting far-left ideas, with the precision of a surgeon dividing a skull from a brain without causing harm, Obama offered the opinion that extremism is common at both ends of the political spectrum.

The entire encounter can be compared to Lecter picking his teeth with a human thigh bone, all the while claiming he’s a vegetarian.

Then, the author of the April 2009 treatise on right-wing extremism, the person who coined the term “tea baggers,” agrees with abandoning babies born alive in botched abortions without medical intervention, sending transgenders into restrooms with women, and is the agitator who weaponized the federal government to pursue and prosecute his political enemies, continued by saying:

Those extreme views were not in my White House. I wasn’t empowering them. I wasn’t putting the weight of the United States government behind them. When we have the weight of the United States government behind extremist views, we’ve got a problem.

When an extremist is authorized to use the “weight of the United States government” to indoctrinate and oppress a nation for eight years, and then calls those exposing that corruption “extremists,” that’s when it’s time to point out that he’s the one who’s “got a problem.”

Fictional character Hannibal Lecter is depicted as a master manipulator who uses gaslighting tactics against his enemies, which is not surprising. A former forensic psychiatrist, Lecter is skilled at blurring the line between rapport and rivalry, causing his victims to lose their ability to think clearly or know who to trust. This is similar to how Barack Obama’s twisted interpretation of facts has affected the American public’s ability to discern that they have been victims of his psychological manipulation.

In the wake of Kirk’s death, the man known for insisting that the First Amendment should be limited to control his definition of “disinformation” took the opportunity to accuse the current White House of seeking to “silence discussion.”

Obama shared that the Trump administration promised to take action against social media users who celebrated Charlie’s death. Like Hannibal Lecter using his position to frame his colleague, the man who publicly and privately silenced every critic — from the Supreme Court to conservative businesses seeking tax-exempt status to critics of Benghazi — dared to accuse the Trump administration of exactly what his far-left critics have been guilty of doing for years.

Obama, whose party labeled patriotic Americans racists, extremists, terrorists, and fascists, exploited projection like Hannibal Lecter, yielding a karambit knife when he said:

When I hear not just our current president, but his aides, who have a history of calling political opponents ‘vermin,’ enemies who need to be ‘targeted,’ that speaks to a broader problem that we have right now, and something that we’re going to have to grapple with — all of us.

Attempting to place a proper-fitting “bite restraint muzzle” on Obama, the Trump White House spokeswoman, Abigail Jackson, responded to the former president’s comments in the following way:

Barack Hussein Obama is the architect of modern political division in America — famously demeaning millions of patriotic Americans who opposed his liberal agenda as ‘bitter’ for ‘cling(ing) to guns or religion,’ Obama used every opportunity to sow division and pit Americans against each other, and following his presidency more Americans felt Obama divided the country than felt he united it.

His division has inspired generations of Democrats to slander their opponents as ‘deplorables,’ or ‘fascists,’ or ‘Nazis. If he cares about unity in America, he would tell his own party to stop their destructive behavior.

Barack Obama set the table and, during his eight years in office, he carefully sliced up his political enemies while displaying both the charm and brutality embodied by the fictional character Hannibal Lecter.

Lest we forget, it was Obama who once said this about Republicans, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.”

Therefore, if it’s true that “words cut deeper than a knife,” thanks to the animosity Obama has been skillfully fueling since he entered politics, Charlie Kirk, a man whose honest words strike at the core of the agenda Barack Obama has been nurturing throughout his career, lost his life to a bolt-action rifle brought to the fight by one of Obama’s star pupils.

Jeannie DeAngelis, American Thinker

Jeannie hosts a blog at http://www.jeannieology.us

Related Topics: Obama

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Senate Rejects Spending Bills, October 1 Shutdown Looms

Posted on September 20, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

The Senate rejected competing measures on Friday to fund federal agencies for a few weeks when the new budget year begins on Oct. 1, increasing prospects for a partial government shutdown on that date.

Leaders of the two parties sought to blame the other side for the standoff. Democrats accused Republicans of not negotiating with them to address some of their priorities on health care as part of the funding measure, even though they knew some Democrat votes would be needed to get a bill to the president’s desk.

Republicans said Democrats were making demands that would dramatically increase spending and were not germane to the core issue of keeping agencies fully running for a short period of time while negotiations continued on a full-year spending measure.

The Republican bill is a clean, nonpartisan, short-term continuing resolution to fund the government to give us time to do the full appropriations process. And the Democrat bill is the exact opposite,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said shortly before the votes. “It’s what you might call, not a clean CR, a dirty CR – laden down with partisan policies and appeals to Democrats’ leftist base.”

The Democrat proposal would extend enhanced health insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, plus reverse Medicaid cuts that were included in Republicans’ big tax breaks and spending cuts bill enacted earlier this year.

“The American people will look at what Republicans are doing, look at what Democrats are doing, and it will be clear that public sentiment will be on our side,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who has repeatedly threatened a shutdown if health care isn’t addressed.

The Senate action came after the House earlier in the day passed the Republican-led funding bill. The measure would extend government funding generally at current levels for seven weeks. The bill would also add about $88 million in security funding for lawmakers and members of the Supreme Court and executive branch in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The vote was 217-212. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the lone Democrat member to support the bill.

House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana said he knew he had few votes to spare as he sought to persuade fellow Republicans to vote for the funding patch, something many in his conference have routinely opposed in past budget fights. But this time, GOP members see a chance to portray the Democrats as responsible for a shutdown.

“The ball is in Chuck Schumer’s court. I hope he does the right thing. I hope he does not choose to shut the government down and inflict pain on the American people,” Johnson said.

President Donald Trump had urged House Republicans to pass the bill and put the burden on Democrats to oppose it. GOP leaders often need Trump’s help to win over holdouts on legislation.

“Every House Republican should UNIFY, and VOTE YES!” Trump said on his social media site.

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said that in opposing the continuing resolution, Democrats were working to protect the health care of the American people. He said that with Republicans controlling the White House and both branches of Congress, “Republicans will own a government shutdown. Period. Full stop.”

The Senate moved quickly after the House vote to take up the measure plus the Democratic counter. Both fell short of the 60 votes needed for passage. Now, it’s unclear how things will shake out.

Senators could then potentially leave town until Sept. 29 — one day before the shutdown deadline. The Senate has a scheduled recess next week because of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year. Meanwhile, Johnson said Republicans were discussing whether to stay back in their home districts through the rest of September, essentially forcing the Senate to approve the House-passed measure or risk a shutdown. He said lawmakers have a lot of work to do in their districts.

Democrats on both sides of the Capitol are watching Schumer closely after his last-minute decision in March to vote with Republicans to keep the government open. Schumer argued then that a shutdown would be damaging and would give Trump and his White House freedom to make more government cuts. Many on the left revolted, with some advocates calling for his resignation.

The vote in the spring also caused a temporary schism with Jeffries, who opposed that particular GOP spending bill and said he would not be “complicit” with Schumer’s vote.

The two Democrat leaders now say they are united, and Schumer says things have changed since March. The public is more wary of Trump and Republicans, Schumer says, after the passage of Medicaid cuts.

Most Democrats appear to be backing Schumer’s demand that there be negotiations on the bill — and support his threats of a shutdown, even as it is unclear how they would get out of it.

“Look, the president said really boldly, don’t even talk to Democrats. Unless he’s forgotten that you need a supermajority to pass a budget in the Senate, that’s obviously his signal he wants a shutdown,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.

While the Democrat measure to fund the government had no chance of passage, it does give Democrats a way to show voters their focus on cutting health care costs. Unless Congress act, tax credits going to low- and middle-income people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act will expire. That will mean a big increase in premiums for millions of Americans.

“There are some thing we have to address. The health insurance, ACA, is going to hammer millions of people in the country, including in red states,” said Sen. Angus King, I-Maine. “To me, that can’t be put off.”

Republicans have said the tax credit issue can be dealt with later this year. They’re also using Schumer’s previous arguments against shutdowns to make the case he’s playing politics.

“Democrats voted in favor of clean CRs no fewer than 13 times during the Biden administration,” Thune said. “Yet now that Republicans are offering a clean CR, it’s somehow a no-go. It’s funny how that happens.”

President Donald Trump had urged House Republicans to pass the bill and put the burden on Democrats to oppose it. GOP leaders often need Trump’s help to win over holdouts on legislation.

“Every House Republican should UNIFY, and VOTE YES!” Trump said on his social media site.

The Senate moved quickly after the House vote to take up the measure plus the Democratic counter. Both fell short of the 60 votes needed for passage. Now, it’s unclear how things will shake out.

The vote in the spring also caused a temporary schism with Jeffries, who opposed that particular GOP spending bill and said he would not be “complicit” with Schumer’s vote.

The two Democrat leaders now say they are united, and Schumer says things have changed since March. The public is more wary of Trump and Republicans, Schumer says, after the passage of Medicaid cuts.

Most Democrats appear to be backing Schumer’s demand that there be negotiations on the bill — and support his threats of a shutdown, even as it is unclear how they would get out of it.

Republicans have said the tax credit issue can be dealt with later this year. They’re also using Schumer’s previous arguments against shutdowns to make the case he’s playing politics.

Leftists Melt Down So Easily

Posted on September 20, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

Dear leftists: If you don’t like having the FCC, I’m all in. Let’s abolish the FCC. Right now. Forever. NO REGULATION of media whatsoever. But no regulation means no regulation. It doesn’t mean you get to censor and intimidate like you openly did during the Biden and Obama regimes. It doesn’t mean conservatives get regulated and censored while “progressives” get to say (and do) whatever the hell they wish. It means across the board — no regulation. Are you ready for that? Or are you only angry and a principled libertarian when the existence of an FCC appears to harm your Communist-fascist-terrorist-totalitarian buddies?

In red states like South Carolina, Texas and Florida, “educators” have been fired for celebrating Charlie Kirk’s brutal murder and, in the process, further reinforcing their views that anyone who doesn’t agree with their militant Communism, fascism and woke (i.e., psychotic) ideas about the need for state-sanctioned hormonal alteration of children is a racist, Nazi and savage. In other words, they get to be paid money by the government to brainwash and intimidate young people into adopting the stupidest and most toxic ideas and attitudes ever to present themselves in a classroom going back to ancient Greece. Adding insult to injury, these toxic “teachers” get to call reasonable people all the things that they, the teachers and professors themselves, actually ARE: bigots and tyrants.

In red states, a few of them are being held accountable–for now. In blue states they’re having a field day. We need to 100 percent federally DEFUND all schools and universities immediately. Let Soros, Oprah and the Obamas pay them to spew poison. This has got to stop.

As for President Trump going after political enemies like Obama? We should be so lucky. Obama should literally hang for treason, but we know he never will. We’ll be hearing his Marxist-fascist lecturing 30 years from now, maybe beyond.

Obama complains about “cancel culture” in the firing of Jimmy Kimmel by far-left Disney/ABC.

It’s like Stalin complaining about starvation. Or Hitler complaining about the poisonous gas showers.
The audacity of projection.

Obama also brags that when he was President, he didn’t respond to a tragedy by going after political enemies.

Good grief. There are no words for this stunning evasion of truth, this openly orchestrated inversion of sensory-level facts. People applauding this? Even one? THIS is how you get Nazi Germany.

I am sometimes shocked almost speechless by the inconceivable hubris, the profound dishonesty and utterly brazen lack of awareness exhibited by these freaks. How can even minimally decent and intelligent people fall for any of it?

Jimmy Kimmel, in one respect, has nothing to worry about. He will simply run for President. All Democrats want to be President. They think–correction: they FEEL–it will give them the elusive visibility and metaphysical significance that, on some level, they know they do not possess. He can fantasize he will get his revenge by being President, by becoming the Stalinesque dictator he imagines Donald Trump to be. However, one problem for Jimmy : All the other grotesque leftist celebrities like himself will also be running for President in 2028. And it will not matter; Party officials, not voters, will be picking their nominee anyway.

Michael J Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Timothy Cardinal Dolan on Fallen Hero Charlie Kirk

Posted on September 20, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

BREAKING: Timothy Cardinal Dolan on fallen hero Charlie Kirk: “The more I learned about him, I thought this guy is a modern-day Saint Paul. He was a missionary, an evangelist, a hero.” Charlie should be made a SAINT!

On May 28, 2021, I ran for my life through the streets of downtown Portland, Oregon

Posted on September 20, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

On May 28, 2021, I ran for my life through the streets of downtown Portland, Ore.

Antifa had discovered me working undercover after one of their members, John Hacker, exposed me to the mob.

I screamed for help as I fled, but drivers and pedestrians looked away. The businesses were all shuttered, remnants of the ongoing destruction from the 2020 BLM-Antifa riots. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

They caught me. Antifa tackled me to the ground, tearing my knee tendon in the process as I slid across the pavement. They punched me over and over and tried to choke me out. I barely managed to stumble into @theNinesHotel, begging the staff to call 911. Instead, they tried to force me back outside and told me to wear a Covid mask. I dropped to the floor, refusing to move, pleading for them to call the police. They refused.

Outside, Antifa gathered. One of their ringleaders, Elizabeth Richter — the blonde woman — began rallying the crowd. She called on others on a livestream to come finish me off. She went inside the hotel and threatened me. Antifa also tried breaking their way into the hotel.

I escaped only by jumping into an elevator with a hotel guest. After that, I was taken by ambulance to the hospital with a police guard. I was soaked in my blood. On social media, Antifa immediately began trying to track which hospital I was in, hoping to finish the job.

As soon as I was discharged, I had to flee Portland. I moved between safe houses in different states. Antifa’s hunt for me was far from over.

@PortlandPolice closed the case a few weeks afterward, saying they couldn’t identify anyone. Nobody was ever arrested, just like in 2019 when I was beaten to the point that my brain bled.

Andy Ngo, X

Dems Outraged Over Kimmel Suspension [semi-satire]

Posted on September 20, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

On Monday, Jimmy Kimmel used his monologue to accuse MAGA of “trying to cover up the fact that the person who killed Charlie Kirk was one of them.” This was after Utah Attorney General Derek Brown had disclosed evidence that the shooter had admitted that he hated Kirk for his anti-trans views, had a trans lover, and had been planning the assassination for a week.

Andrew Alford, President of Broadcasting for Nexstar, an affilate of ABC, called Kimmel’s comments “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located.”

Sinclair, another ABC affiliate vice chairman Jason Smith said “Mr. Kimmel’s remarks were inappropriate and deeply insensitive at a critical moment for our country. We believe broadcasters have a responsibility to educate and elevate respectful, constructive dialogue in our communities.” Both affiliates refused to broadcast Kimmel’s show. ABC then announced it was suspending the show.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va) called the suspension “a betrayal of what Charlie Kirk stood for. I never met Charlie Kirk and I didn’t know him, but everybody says he was a free speech guy — including speech that you may not like. So this is what we’re going to do? I’m very pissed off.”

Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt) called the suspension “the biggest attack on First Amendment rights that we’ve seen since the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798. This is censorship.” When Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla) reminded Welch that “President Biden sent the FBI out to intimidate social media companies into suppressing dissent over his covid policies and the truth about Hunter Biden’s laptop,” Welch insisted “folks have no right to say things that could endanger public health or national security.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) blamed Trump, saying “I am just outraged by it! This is just despicable and disgusting, and against Democratic values. This is what dictators do. It proves that Trump is the Nazi we said he was. I hope voters realize this before they ever cast a ballot for a Republican again.”

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr observed that “there are only a limited number of over-the-air broadcasting licenses that can be accommodated without the signals interfering with each other. The expectation is that the holders of these licenses will serve the broader community and offer a more balanced coverage of controversial topics. Yet, it seems that the coverage is extraordinarily lopsided in favor of the extreme left wing of politics.”

Stephen Colbert, host of “The Late Show,” pointed out that “both Jimmy and I have faithfully represented the perspective of this tiny minority of the political spectrum. Yet, now it looks the 1% to 2% of the viewing audience we attracted are going to be denied their fair share of the airwaves. This is how our democracy is being destroyed.”

In related news, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) just released documents entailing a probe of 92 Republican groups ordered by President Biden in 2022. Grassley said, “this probe improperly used taxpayer funds to turn FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors into weapons that were used to achieve partisan objectives.”

Sen. Schumer dismissed Grassley’s complaint, saying, “as President Obama so wisely reminded us, ‘elections have consequences.’ Biden won the 2020 election and consequently was entitled to rule the nation as he saw fit.”

John Semmens

Charlie Kirk Was Wise Beyond His Years, and a Master Builder

Posted on September 20, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

In 2012, I read an article on Breitbart.com that called out liberal bias in the teaching of economics. The author pointed to “distortions” in a high school textbook co-authored by Paul Krugman that dismissed the thinking of supply-side economists. It denied that the tax reduction they helped bring about during the Reagan administration had any effect on economic growth—despite government data showing exactly the opposite: a dramatic surge in job creation and a marked decline in unemployment.

The author declared, “If a student were to submit an essay with such disregard for basic evidence, it would ensure a failing grade.” He concluded, “Students are being pushed towards an education that demonizes free enterprise while advocating top-down government, deficit spending and class warfare.”

The piece featured references to iconic supply siders Robert Mundell and Arthur Laffer, among other respected sources. Its authoritative critique was worthy of a seasoned policy analyst. Yet the author was an unknown named Charlie Kirk, then just a senior in high school.

I reached out to congratulate Charlie and sent him How Capitalism Will Save Us, the book I had recently co-authored with Steve Forbes that was aimed at a wide audience including younger readers. The correspondence eventually led to meetings in New York with Charlie and Bill Montgomery, the retired publisher and restauranteur who was Charlie’s early mentor and backer. At one point, I introduced them to Steve Forbes, who provided encouragement over a steakhouse lunch.

It was clear immediately that Charlie was no ordinary 18-year-old. The writer of the Breitbart article had a maturity beyond his years. He was passionate, eloquent and, at 6 foot 5, a compelling physical presence.

Charlie had co-founded a group—then called SOS Liberty—to counter the anti-capitalism student protests of the Occupy Wall Street movement. I thought the story of his band of young activists had media potential. So I asked if he had a press release to send to places like Fox News. His somewhat sheepish reply caught me by surprise. “What’s a press release?” It took a second to remember he was just 18 years old.

SOS Liberty was eventually renamed Turning Point USA. After a brief stint on its board of advisors, we eventually lost touch. Since then, I have watched awestruck as Charlie evolved from a young spokesman for free market principles into a magnetic evangelist for traditional values to—tragically last week—a history-making leader cut down in his prime.

Media accounts describing Charlie Kirk as an “influencer” are overly simplistic. He realized that a society based on economic freedom cannot function unless its citizens value hard work, personal discipline, family and civil debate. He knew that bringing about this cultural change required not only a message but a movement.

Charlie was an organizational genius on a par with some of America’s most successful entrepreneurs. The college dropout built Turning Point USA into a multimedia content and event producer that reportedly generates $100 million in annual revenue.

Like the president he supported, he also understood that, to attract attention to your message in a cluttered media universe, you had to stage a performance. As he did in his campus

debates, books and podcasts, you had to challenge people to think. Yes, he was provocative and occasionally overstepped. But there is no challenging his success at bringing viewpoint diversity to college campuses suffocated by years of indoctrination and partisanship.

Over the years I have often recalled something that Bill Montgomery—who sadly passed away from COVID in 2020—said to me that day at lunch. “He’s got it.” This wunderkind was going to go places. The forecast was more prescient than either of us knew.

Elizabeth Ames is an author and producer.

Reflections on the Coming Days of Rage

Posted on September 19, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was already positively impacting the world with his indefatigable, peaceful, joyful, godly work to change hearts and minds, but in mere days, his assassination by a cowardly sniper’s bullet has already launched a tsunami of change he likely could not have imagined. The world is entering a different epoch now, and as with all shifts into a new age, there will be birthing pains.

I can’t recall whose insight this was, but someone online observed that Charlie’s murder was an “Archduke Ferdinand moment” – referring to the assassination that triggered World War I. I think that captures the sobering magnitude of Charlie’s martyrdom (yes, literal martyrdom; as others have pointed out, Charlie was killed not for his politics but for his Christian faith, which shaped his political positions). But his brutal murder drives home the point that we are already in a hot civil war in this country – not just a culture war, not a figurative civil war, but a hot civil war.

But so far only one side has been waging that war. From the assassination of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson at the hands of a terrorist-turned-Left-wing-folk-hero, to the slaughter of Catholic schoolchildren at the hands of a demonic trans terrorist, to Charlie Kirk at the hands (allegedly) of a Left-radicalized young man (with a trans partner) who declared that “some hate can’t be negotiated out,” the Left has already declared war on the political opponents they deem to be fascist threats to democracy who must be exterminated like vermin (hence their dehumanizing rhetoric over the years since the reign of Barack Obama, intensified under Joe Biden).

I am old enough to remember another time when the Left normalized political violence in America. As Bryan Burroughs notes in his book Days of Rage: America’s Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence, “radical violence was so deeply woven into the fabric of 1970s America that many citizens, especially in New York and other hard-hit cities, accepted it as part of daily life.” Burroughs quotes a retired FBI agent who noted, “People have completely forgotten but in 1972 we had over nineteen hundred domestic bombings in the United States. It was every day. Buildings getting bombed, policemen getting killed. It was commonplace.”

My record at predictions is mixed at best, so I hope I’m wrong about this one, but I believe we are about to enter a new Days of Rage. Political violence is about to become even more “commonplace.” The Left’s repugnant response to Charlie’s murder has already demonstrated that they are not going to be shocked into policing themselves and de-escalating the violence, much less their demonizing, vicious rhetoric. Some Democrat leaders, like Barack Obama, have issued obligatory, tepid statements denouncing political violence, but do not expect that any “moderate” elements on the Left will prevail. The Democrat Party is controlled by the radical Left, and has been since well before the calculated, meteoric rise of Barack Obama.

And the Right is going to have to be prepared to confront that and take the necessary steps to shut it down. I interacted personally with Charlie only a couple of times and didn’t know him that well, but I do know he would not be calling for violent retribution over his killing. And I’m not calling for it either. Nevertheless, those of us on the Right are going to have to come together and get on the same page regarding a just and appropriate response to a political movement that gleefully embraces assassination as a tactic.

We didn’t want this civil war, and we didn’t start it, but we need to be determined to end it. We can and should have many open conversations about what that might entail, but ending it has to be our end game. Our nation cannot sustain itself as things currently stand politically and culturally.

What about finding common ground and calling for unity, you ask? In an address after Kirk’s murder, Vice President JD Vance forcefully delivered a dose of hard reality about the possibility of reconciliation between Left and Right:

“There is no unity with people who scream at children over their parents’ politics. There is no unity with someone who lies about what Charlie Kirk said in order to excuse his murder. There is no unity with someone who harasses an innocent family the day after the father of that family lost a dear friend. There is no unity with the people who celebrate Charlie Kirk’s assassination. There is no unity for the people that fund these articles who pay the salaries of these terrorist sympathizers who argue that Charlie Kirk, a loving husband and father, deserved a shot to the neck because he spoke words with which they disagreed.”

Vance went on to note that unity is only possible “with people who acknowledge that political violence is unacceptable.” True, but this is essentially saying that unity is impossible, because the Left by and large believes not only that such violence is acceptable, but that it is a necessary tactic to dismantle what they see as the fascistic, systemically white supremacist, Trump regime. Indeed, they believe violence, when they wage it, is a form of speech, while speech, when the Right exercises it, as Charlie Kirk did, is violence – against their designated, “oppressed” victim categories.

I have written and spoken about this often in recent years: bridging the gaping political chasm in America is not possible because there are two distinct Americas today, each side passionately supporting starkly opposed and irreconcilable worldviews.

One side acknowledges that America is imperfect but still takes pride in our exceptionalism; the other side believes America is the villain of history and must be fundamentally remade from the foundations up.

One side wants secure borders, legal immigration, and America First; the other wants open borders, amnesty for millions of illegals, and submission to globalist institutions.

One side holds to the principles of the Constitution and our God-given rights such as freedom of speech; the other believes the Constitution is outdated and unwoke, that God is dead anyway, and that free speech only empowers fascists.

One side believes in the sanctity of unborn lives; the other considers the unborn a mere clump of cells that can be discarded when inconvenient.

One side believes fairness means equality of opportunity; the other believes the remedy for past discrimination is present discrimination.

One side believes nothing justifies rioting and looting; the other defends rioting and looting as reparations for slavery, and considers the terms “rioting” and “looting” themselves to be racist dog-whistles.

One side believes the news media should strive for objectivity; the other believes objectivity is a racist Western concept and that journalists should openly embrace social justice activism.

One side believes, like Charlie Kirk did, in reasoned debate; the other believes that words are violence, that there are no universal truths, and that reason itself is an oppressive tool of white privilege.

One side believes political violence is a sign of Third-World lawlessness; the other believes pre-emptive violence against political opponents is self-defense and anti-fascist.

I could go on, but the obvious point is that on literally every issue facing America today, there is a Grand Canyon-sized gulf between Left and Right perspectives. There is no way to bring these two Americas together, not even in a contentious coexistence. Matter cannot exist in the same space as anti-matter. To borrow from the tagline of the 1986 movie Highlander, “there can be only one.” For the country to survive, one of these worldviews must resoundingly defeat the other in the marketplace of ideas, in the halls of power, and if necessary, in the streets.

We are way past the point where the Left will heed pleas for unity and civility; their lust for total power has vaulted them beyond law and order, beyond morality itself when it comes to crushing political opposition.

For the two Americas to find any common ground to work toward unity, they must share at least a few essential points of agreement like a love for country, a respect for law and order, and a shared sense of American identity, among others. But as long as the country is stretched to the breaking point between such ideological, existential, and moral opposites, the two repelling poles cannot come together. There can be only one.

Mark Tapson

Amazon, eBay, Etsy Sell Merchandise Calling for Trump’s Death

Posted on September 19, 2025 by theartfuldilettante

Unlike Amazon, which is dominated by Chinese third party seller spam, Etsy’s sellers are usually authentic American leftists and their products a genuine expression of partisan hatred.

Etsy knowingly allowed this climate of hate to proliferate on its platform in violation of its terms of service which ban “violent language” even while it was cracking down on anything that was in the slightest politically incorrect.

It’s not just Amazon and Etsy. “Is He Dead Yet” merchandise is commonplace on other giant online retail platforms like eBay, and across smaller merchandising sites.

While some of the “Is He Dead Yet” merchandise claims to come from America, the vast majority is being produced in Communist China.

The People’s Republic of China does not actually turn a blind eye toward what it mass produces. Merchandise critical of Xi or the PRC being produced in China is unthinkable and writers trying to get books critical of Communism printed in China have run into problems.

China’s mass production of merchandise calling for President Trump’s death or murder is a decision that would have been made at some point within the Communist Party bureaucracy which maintains extensive censorship over any kind of speech in the giant dictatorship.

And Chinese companies not only produce products celebrating Trump’s death for third parties, but Chinese companies are deeply immersed in the business of marketing these products on their largest retail platforms.

Temu, a Chinese Communist company, has a large selection of “Is He Dead Yet” merchandise specifically targeting Trump. Critics have pointed out that Temu “maintains documented connections to the Chinese Communist Party” meaning that the slogan is being promoted to Americans by a company linked to an enemy regime.

So this is not simply a decision by one Chinese retail platform to stock Trump death gear.

Shein, the second largest Chinese retail ‘fast fashion’ platform used by Americans, also lists “Is He Dead Yet” t-shirts explicitly referencing Trump. Alibaba, one of the world’s largest retailers, has “Is He Dead Yet” t-shirts listed on its AliExpress direct sales platform. “Is He Dead Yet” is not a Chinese information op, but China’s Communist system is happy to promote it.

As are Amazon, Etsy, eBay and other major retail giants that censor conservatives, but empower leftists to celebrate and call for the deaths of Trump and other conservatives.

Charlie Kirk’s murder was marinated in internet memes. These memes are promoted and enabled by a Big Tech system that practices two-tier content policing. The “Is He Dead Yet” merchandise is an example of the kinds of popular leftist memes that make the murder of conservatives into a knowingly hip joke that eventually leads to an assassin’s bullet.

The Left has traded debate and democracy for fantasizing about the deaths of its enemies.

And some leftists do more than fantasize. That is how a bullet clipped President Trump’s ear. It’s why Charlie Kirk is dead. Woke corporations pretend that they had nothing to do with it, but the moment you search their platforms, you find that they were actually profiting from the death cult.

After Charlie Kirk’s murder, two Muslim men in Utah were arrested for planting an incendiary device under a FOX affiliate’s news van. The most striking thing about their house, as Front Page Magazine had reported, was that it appeared to be covered in anti-Trump signage.

Including a black flag reading, “Is He Dead Yet?”

“Is He Dead Yet” merchandise also made a recent appearance when a New York City public school teacher posted a photo of himself wearing that t-shirt and celebrated Charlie Kirk’s death.

In a famously sensitive era, where do you go to buy a “Is he dead yet?” t-shirt or flag? Anywhere as it turns out. Especially from those retailers that have relentlessly censored conservatives.

Amazon had censored everything from books against transgenderism and BLM to banning the sale of the Confederate flag (and even at one point pulling episodes of the Dukes of Hazzard) but you can get a “Is He Dead Yet” flag which the Amazon description openly bills as “an anti-Trump flag” making it clear that it’s not a reference to any other memes with that line.

(The actual Amazon seller is in Eastern Europe, so Amazon is helping a foreign national sell materials to Americans calling for the death of the President of the United States. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also owns the Washington Post which spent a lot of time warning about foreign interference and foreign disinformation, but its owner actually profits nicely from it.)

Amazon also stocks mugs, t-shirts, stickers and bumper stickers with that phrase that specifically refer to Trump. One ‘Is He Dead Yet’ mug features various possible tombstones for President Trump including “Psycho”, “8647”, “Epstein’s Bestie” and “Rapist”. The same seller also sells Newsom memes including ‘Newsom Was Right About Everything’ merchandise.

Another seller features an orange toupee over the “He”. Others are mock MAGA hats. Some of the Chinese sellers pushing merchandise calling for Trump’s death also responded to Charlie Kirk’s murder by pushing merchandise commemorating his killing to conservatives. Nothing else could or should be expected from China, but it’s Amazon that bears the responsibility here.

So much so that Amazon appears to have paid for Google ads for “Is He Dead Yet”.

Amazon allowed all of this to proliferate on its platform even after two assassination attempts against President Trump and has taken no action to remove it and enforce its terms of service.

Etsy, which had relentlessly censored not only conservatives, but anything un-woke including Dr. Seuss merchandise (after he was deemed racist) and the slogan “I Love JK Rowling”, and recently once again rewrote its TOS to prohibit “degrading language” towards illegal aliens, is awash in every possible variety of Trump death merchandise including mock wine labels and a mug reading “Is He Dead Yet” with Trump’s signature as an EKG line from the ‘resistance’.

Including a black flag reading, “Is He Dead Yet?”

“Is He Dead Yet” merchandise also made a recent appearance when a New York City public school teacher posted a photo of himself wearing that t-shirt and celebrated Charlie Kirk’s death.

In a famously sensitive era, where do you go to buy a “Is he dead yet?” t-shirt or flag? Anywhere as it turns out. Especially from those retailers that have relentlessly censored conservatives.

So much so that Amazon appears to have paid for Google ads for “Is He Dead Yet”.

Amazon allowed all of this to proliferate on its platform even after two assassination attempts against President Trump and has taken no action to remove it and enforce its terms of service.

RIP Trump postcards” feature a dead Trump with X’s over his eyes in clown makeup. “It won’t solve everything when he exits this mortal stage, but it will feel f*cking great,” the description reads. An ‘Anti-Trump’ wine label features a skull and the motto “open drink, dance on grave.” There are stickers with an orange toupee on a skull, a “we’ll be grateful when he’s dead” sticker of dancing skeletons, and a scented soy wax candle titled “Smells like his funeral”.

Unlike Amazon, which is dominated by Chinese third party seller spam, Etsy’s sellers are usually authentic American leftists and their products a genuine expression of partisan hatred.

It’s not just Amazon and Etsy. “Is He Dead Yet” merchandise is commonplace on other giant online retail platforms like eBay, and across smaller merchandising sites.

While some of the “Is He Dead Yet” merchandise claims to come from America, the vast majority is being produced in Communist China.

So this is not simply a decision by one Chinese retail platform to stock Trump death gear.

As are Amazon, Etsy, eBay and other major retail giants that censor conservatives, but empower leftists to celebrate and call for the deaths of Trump and other conservatives.

The Left has traded debate and democracy for fantasizing about the deaths of its enemies.

Daniel Greenfield, Front Page Magazine

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Amazon, eBay, Etsy Sell Merchandise Calling for Trump’s Death