Victor Davis Hanson

When merit is replaced with ideology, fires rage unchecked, killers walk free, and fragile systems collapse—leaving lives and cities in ruin.

America has a lot of built-in safety backups and redundancies.

But every once in a while, when tradition, science, time-tested protocols, and common sense are ignored, a fragile system utterly collapses.

Usually, an iconic event reveals how vulnerable the entire country has become, and predictably occurs when suicidal ideologies and nihilism, in perfect-storm fashion, wreak havoc.

The media, academia, the bureaucracy, and higher education can mask the dangers of their political agendas—at least until their sheer incompetence or toxicity can no longer be hidden or excused, and a predictable disaster ensues.

Take the January 4-5, 2025, Pacific Palisades fire that destroyed an entire historic neighborhood of Los Angeles. The embers had not even cooled when we were lectured that “climate change” was responsible for the historically predictable annual autumn and early winter Santa Ana winds that whip up horrific fires before the first winter rains arrive—a phenomenon documented for over two centuries.

The media, in reporting the conflagration, downplayed human culpability. But over the next few weeks, outraged former homeowners and independent journalists began cataloging the real symptoms of a total system failure that turned the normal end-of-year fire season into a catastrophic inferno.

A lot of things had to go wrong to utterly destroy an ancient, coveted neighborhood. But DEI managed to do all of that with ease.

First, we learned that the incompetent mayor, Karen Bass, had cut the fire budget. Then, despite warnings of dry hillsides, underfunded fire protection, and predicted high winds, Bass was nowhere to be seen during the most dangerous weeks of the year.

Why would the state allow those with little legal certification to become de facto judges? Why would their records of freeing dangerous criminals not come under scrutiny.

The result of those unanswered questions was that DeCarlos Brown entered a train with a knife, silently jumped up, and lethally slashed the throat of Ms. Zarutska in the seat ahead. She had no idea she was sitting in front of a career, violent, and released felon from a family of violent felons—and was now to become the prey of a cold-blooded, racist killer.

Four passengers sitting adjacent to, ahead of, and behind Brown did nothing as he attacked Zarutska. Nor did they render her aid, as they callously sidestepped her in her death throes. He seemed to have muttered, “Got the white girl,” as he walked away from that lethal attack and got off the train.

The system was now breaking: why did riders not have to buy tickets to enter the train? Why was there no security on the train? Why did not one nearby passenger intervene either to stop the attack, render assistance to the dying Zarutska, or seek to apprehend Brown for the police?

When merit is replaced with ideology, fires rage unchecked, killers walk free, and fragile systems collapse—leaving lives and cities in ruin.

America has a lot of built-in safety backups and redundancies.

But every once in a while, when tradition, science, time-tested protocols, and common sense are ignored, a fragile system utterly collapses.

Usually, an iconic event reveals how vulnerable the entire country has become, and predictably occurs when suicidal ideologies and nihilism, in perfect-storm fashion, wreak havoc.

The media, academia, the bureaucracy, and higher education can mask the dangers of their political agendas—at least until their sheer incompetence or toxicity can no longer be hidden or excused, and a predictable disaster ensues.

Take the January 4-5, 2025, Pacific Palisades fire that destroyed an entire historic neighborhood of Los Angeles. The embers had not even cooled when we were lectured that “climate change” was responsible for the historically predictable annual autumn and early winter Santa Ana winds that whip up horrific fires before the first winter rains arrive—a phenomenon documented for over two centuries.

The media, in reporting the conflagration, downplayed human culpability. But over the next few weeks, outraged former homeowners and independent journalists began cataloging the real symptoms of a total system failure that turned the normal end-of-year fire season into a catastrophic inferno.

A lot of things had to go wrong to utterly destroy an ancient, coveted neighborhood. But DEI managed to do all of that with ease.

First, we learned that the incompetent mayor, Karen Bass, had cut the fire budget. Then, despite warnings of dry hillsides, underfunded fire protection, and predicted high winds, Bass was nowhere to be seen during the most dangerous weeks of the year.

Why? She was junketing in Ghana, an African nation rarely considered vital to the running of the third-largest city in the United States.

The now-convicted felon, Deputy Mayor Brian Thompson, was under house arrest for phoning in a bomb threat to the city hall. So a mayoral apparatus did not exist.

Next, the clueless and vastly overpaid Janisse Quiñones, the CEO and Chief Engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, was likely hired based on diversity, equity, and inclusion criteria despite a prior uninspiring record in her administrative roles at PG&E. She was utterly unprepared for the fire.

When the fires swept in, a key reservoir that might have saved the community had been bone dry for months while under superficial repair. Dozens of fire hydrants were nonfunctional.

Unhinged environmental mandates had prevented homeowners from clearing nearby combustible brush on the hillside, the proverbial fuel of the Santa Ana wind-powered fires.

The chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, Kristin Crowley, had bragged about her diversity hiring but had done little to ensure her firefighters had enough water to put out the fires.

In other words, the wages of electing, appointing, or selecting officials on the basis of race, gender, or sexual orientation, or making policy on the basis of radical green orthodoxy, rather than proven meritocracy and empiricism, finally came due in a systems collapse of the city government, utilities, fire protection, and prevention.

There have been lots of Palisades events in the past. And there will be far more to come in the future, as our ever more complex society that requires meritocratic operators cannot afford social engineering and ideological agendas at the expense of lives and property.

Similar to the Palisades disaster was the train of events that led to the needless murder of a 23-year-old Ukrainian immigrant, Iryna Zarutska, on a light-rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina.

DeCarlos Brown, a 14-time felon, was out on cashless bail, despite his lengthy record of violent offenses that should have ensured imprisonment. He was homeless with a lifelong record of recidivism.

Who let him out? And why? A magistrate, Terese Stokes. She had never passed the bar but seemingly enjoyed impunity from apparent conflicts of interest by sentencing the convicted to an alternate treatment center in which she and her partner had financial interests.

Why would the state allow those with little legal certification to become de facto judges? Why would their records of freeing dangerous criminals not come under scrutiny ?

The result of those unanswered questions was that DeCarlos Brown entered a train with a knife, silently jumped up, and lethally slashed the throat of Ms. Zarutska in the seat ahead. She had no idea she was sitting in front of a career, violent, and released felon from a family of violent felons—and was now to become the prey of a cold-blooded, racist killer.

Four passengers sitting adjacent to, ahead of, and behind Brown did nothing as he attacked Zarutska. Nor did they render her aid, as they callously sidestepped her in her death throes. He seemed to have muttered, “Got the white girl,” as he walked away from that lethal attack and got off the train.

The system was now breaking: why did riders not have to buy tickets to enter the train? Why was there no security on the train? Why did not one nearby passenger intervene either to stop the attack, render assistance to the dying Zarutska, or seek to apprehend Brown for the police.

And then the broken system utterly collapsed—as happened in Los Angeles, where fires raged, no official either cared or had any solution, and nine months later, the charred ruins sit mostly untouched.

Once disgraced Mayor Bass tried to restore her reputation by hogging TV microphones and blasting the Trump administration for arresting and deporting violent and criminal illegal aliens, living exempt and free in her city, as the ruins of an entire neighborhood sit mostly untouched.

Almost immediately after the Zarutska murder, the left-wing media nexus was confronted with a dilemma. The light rail video had already been released by the police. Yet left-wing mayor Vi Lyles immediately lectured the public not to blame the homeless Brown. She urged the video not be seen so it would not stir up animosities. She called the evil work of Brown a “tragedy” and pontificated that arresting people would not be a solution.

North Carolina Governor Josh Stein was silent too long about the murder, despite posting all sorts of extraneous news stories. In contrast, he had earlier been quick to editorialize upon the death of George Floyd.

Once popular rage forced his public statement, Stein blabbered about all the anti-crime bills he introduced, but the former Attorney General of North Carolina kept quiet about his state, which allows an incompetent Stokes, with zero legal training, to release lethal criminals onto the public.

Add up the systemic failures to find the common denominator.

Victor Davis Hanson

Barack Obama is such a soulless fraud. He’s spent the last week trying to downplay the significance of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. First, he pretended that the motive behind Charlie’s murder was impossible to ascertain. Then he blamed President Trump for welcoming “extremism” into the White House. Finally, he insinuated that Charlie was a racist and at least partially responsible for his own death. As always, America’s foremost “divider in chief” excels at rubbing salt in gaping wounds.

The Soros network of NGOs must have recently sent out marching orders instructing Democrats to speak favorably of Obama’s presidency because every prominent Donkey Party politician has tried to rewrite Obama’s divisive reign as some kind of unifying era of social harmony.

I suppose they’re attempting to brainwash the fifteen-year-olds who can’t remember a thing about the ugly Obama years but who will be voting in the next presidential election. The quick and dirty version, kids, is this: When Obama left office, even the leftist propagandists at the AP acknowledged that his presidency had greatly divided the country.

Obama could have been a remarkable figure in American history. When he entered office, he enjoyed phenomenal approval ratings because Republicans who had voted for John McCain recognized the real possibility that the worst chapters in American race relations might finally be closed for good. For several decades, in fact, black and white Americans had been getting along better than ever.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s exhortation that we view people by the “content of their character” and not by the “color of their skin” had won hearts and minds everywhere. Forty years after MLK Jr.’s assassination, Obama became president. His campaign promised “hope and change.” Americans of all political backgrounds wanted to believe that the country’s best years lay just ahead. Even Republicans who voted against Obama in 2008 recognized the remarkable opportunity his presidency provided to bring all Americans together.

Unfortunately for America, Obama and his “wingman” attorney general, Eric Holder, had no intention of uniting Americans. They had been incubated in the politics of hate and inculcated with Marxism’s prime directive to divide people and turn them against each other for partisan political gain. Once in office, Obama and Holder transformed every political debate into a new excuse for cynically accusing ideological opponents of racism. During the Obama presidency, the “race card” was the unofficial cover sheet for every administration policy.

With the race-obsessed duo of Obama and Holder at the helm, Christians were smeared as “white supremacists” and “Christian nationalists.” Grassroots members of the Tea Party movement were marginalized as “racists” who wanted to take the country back to a time before black Americans could vote. And police officers were demonized as “slave catchers” dedicated to beating up and murdering black men.

What Obama and Holder did in the name of “criminal justice reform” made Americans less safe to this day. They went out of their way to paint law enforcement officers as villains and actively sought to inflame tensions in black communities whenever possible. They put targets on the backs of good cops while celebrating lifetime criminals as civil rights “heroes.” They led a devastating effort to “defund police” and criticized police officers for proactively working to prevent crime.

Cops quickly got the Obama White House memo: When you put your life on the line to protect civilians, Democrats will throw you under the bus and turn every busted suspect into a victim. The result of the Obama-Holder police reforms was a drastic rise in violent crime across the country and a spike in police officer assassinations. While all Americans have suffered from a drawn-out hangover following the Obama years, minority neighborhoods have suffered most of all, as capable cops decided to protect their lives and jobs from unfair accusations of racism.

The Obama-Holder legacy of using false charges of racism to divide the country, pass unpopular legislation, and put cops in criminals’ crosshairs did incalculable harm to America. So when Barack Obama takes a break from retirement to take credit for the imaginary “unity” during his presidency while defaming Charlie Kirk as a “racist,” his outrageously obscene observations are particularly galling.

Charlie Kirk is dead because people such as Barack Obama lied about who he was. Police officers and civilians in this country are dead because people such as Barack Obama lie about what law enforcement officers do. Time and again, Obama and his friends portray good men and women as evil, while defending evil people as good. Then they interview each other, pat themselves on the back, and congratulate each other for being morally superior to all the Americans they’ve managed to kill.

Right now, Obama is whining about Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension from his late-night propaganda show that delivers hate for laughs. Kimmel’s in timeout because the jackass couldn’t resist the impulse to lie about Charlie Kirk even after his murder. Blaming a MAGA gunman instead of a leftwing zealot for Charlie’s assassination, Kimmel spoke of this American tragedy as if it were as meaningless as one of his unfunny jokes. In this regard, Kimmel’s flippant disregard for the value of Charlie’s life mirrors Obama’s own disregard for the country he worked so hard to divide. That’s no surprise. America-haters never think of anyone but themselves.

J. B. Shurk, American Thinker

Those who wish to disarm us shouldn’t have armed guards.

Sundance over at The Conservative Treehouse brought to my attention an effort by some House Republicans to increase private security for members of Congress. The Treehouse links to an article from Politico that describes one budgeting option that would grant as much as $25,000 each month to individual lawmakers so that they may “have access to around-the-clock personal security.” These security guarantees would be in addition to current levels of federal spending for lawmakers’ safety — including those funds that assist Capitol Police in partnering with state and local law enforcement.

Over a haunting still image that shows defenseless Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zarutska sitting on a North Carolina train just before a black man brutally stabbed her from behind and murdered her last month, Sundance poses this question: “What incentive exists to make sure American society is safe from domestic regional violence, if the representatives of the regions don’t ever have to concern themselves with such matters?”

It is an excellent question. It is astounding to me that Democrats (and squishy RINOs) can get up in front of television cameras and demand gun confiscation while insisting on taxpayer-funded security details for themselves. Ordinary people can’t afford private security. That’s precisely why they have a natural right to defend their lives in the best ways that they can — and why the Second Amendment explicitly protects that right in the Constitution. Lawmakers who walk around with armed guards have no business disarming citizens.

Before Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jeffries, or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez moans, “It’s different because members of Congress are public figures,” allow me to say, “Hogwash!”  Most Americans can’t identify federal lawmakers.  Even the more famous ones look completely different in real life without an inch of makeup on their faces.  But try walking down certain city streets with a red “Make America Great Again” hat for everyone to see!  Or try waving an American flag in neighborhoods filled with foreigners who view that flag with contempt!  

Regular Americans understand that they are sitting ducks in some parts of the United States.  If Kyle Rittenhouse had been unarmed amid the Antifa-BLM riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin five years ago, he would not be alive today.  Because of his heroic actions, Democrat politicians have painted a target on Kyle’s back for the rest of his life.  Why should members of Congress receive thousands of dollars of taxpayer-funded security each month when Kyle does not?

This brings us to a larger point.  Why should members of Congress be insulated from the consequences of their destructive policies?  In the Rittenhouse case, the Antifa-BLM riots of 2020 caused billions of dollars in property damage and resulted in numerous deaths across the country.  They were the most costly riots in American history.  None of the destruction would have occurred had Democrat mayors, governors, and lawmakers not cheered on the arson, violence, and murder.  

Vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris and other prominent Democrats in Congress openly promoted leftist fundraising platforms that promised to bail rioters out of jail.  It was one of the most brazen examples of elected officials actively inciting violent crimes across the United States — actions that sensible observers would describe as “insurrection” against the U.S. government and the American people — yet no lawmakers were ever held accountable for their crimes.

The same Democrats who fueled that summer of fire and bloodshed simultaneously demanded that regular Americans — including Kyle Rittenhouse — be disarmed.  Consider how outrageous those dual policy positions really are.  While Democrat lawmakers encouraged Antifa and BLM domestic terrorists to burn down businesses, drag people out of their vehicles, and put Americans in harm’s way, they had the temerity to call for the repeal of the Second Amendment and the confiscation of Americans’ weapons.  

Anybody with any appreciation for American history knows that the Founding Fathers included explicit protections for gun ownership within the Second Amendment of the Constitution precisely as a check on government overreach.  Their experience with British Redcoats taught them that armed citizens are the ultimate safeguard against government tyranny.  Twenty-first-century Americans who have perhaps forgotten why civilian gun ownership is an indispensable component of true human liberty need only look at footage of Minneapolis, Kenosha, or D.C. burning during the summer of 2020 while Democrats denounced armed citizens as “racists.”  Lawmakers with security details can survive Democrat-sponsored riots.  Ordinary citizens without the “privilege” of self-defense are sacrificial victims.

Taking another giant step back from the Democrats’ 2020 Antifa-BLM riots, consider all the ways that U.S. lawmakers have made Americans less safe over the last fifty years.  Since the ’70s, Americans have consistently highlighted (1) crime and (2) illegal immigration as significant challenges to their way of life.  Knowing this, Democrat and Republican politicians have cycled through various promises, lies, and excuses over the last five decades as they pretend to fight crime and illegal immigration while really doing little to address either threat.  

During the Obama and Biden presidencies, Democrats went so far as to call for open borders, mass amnesty for illegal aliens, the defunding of local police forces, an end to the enforcement of many property crimes, and clemency for violent offenders serving time in prison.  Once again, Democrats pushed for these policies while simultaneously demanding that the Second Amendment be repealed and Americans be disarmed.

Lawmakers’ pro-crime policies and “criminal justice” reforms have occurred at exactly the same time that they sense their personal security in jeopardy.  Coincidence?  Of course not.  When you put murderers, rapists, and thieves back on the streets, incidents of murder, rape, and theft rise.  When you open up America’s borders to foreign soldiers, narco-terrorists, and America-hating zealots, you get a concomitant rise in industrial sabotage, cartel violence, and acts of terrorism.  Members of Congress take one look at the chaos and general threats to their lives and demand around-the-clock personal security.  Meanwhile, ordinary Americans living inside Democrat-controlled jurisdictions have to jump through administrative hoops and beg municipal authorities for permission to carry firearms. 

To me, it seems only fair that those who intentionally put our country at greater risk should be the first ones to disarm.  At the very least, they should not receive the benefits of extra security while dooming regular Americans to lives with less security and greater violence.

Congress’s hypocrisy when it comes to the security of lawmakers versus the security of regular Americans is part of a much broader problem: Lawmakers see themselves as separate from and superior to the rest of society.  Adam Schiff and his colleagues apparently believe that they are entitled to commit mortgage fraud with impunity.  Congresswoman Ilhan Omar apparently believes that she can commit immigration fraud while putting the interests of Somalia ahead of those of the United States.  Nancy Pelosi and the many rags-to-riches members of Congress apparently believe that they should be able to use nonpublic information to make a fortune on the stock market.  Lawmakers apparently believe that it is appropriate to flood public schools across the country with illegal aliens who struggle to speak English while sending their own children to well guarded private institutions.  In other words, members of Congress insist on one set of rules for the public while exempting themselves from the consequences of the very laws they pass.

America is not a country of kings, queens, and assorted royalty.  This is a place in which the people who represent Americans in Congress are meant to have no additional privileges relative to anyone else.  What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, and members of Congress should endure equally the policies they force upon American society.  At the very least, they shouldn’t be entitled to armed guards while working to disarm everyone else.

J.B. Shurk, American Thinker

As mourners gathered for conservative leader Charlie Kirk’s stadium-sized memorial, FBI Director Kash Patel repeated his “pursuing every lead” statement shared in last week’s Senate testimony, saying the investigation is looking into the “possibility of accomplices.”

“We are meticulously investigating theories and questions, including the location from where the shot was taken, the possibility of accomplices, the text message confession and related conversations, Discord chats, the angle of the shot and bullet impact, how the weapon was transported, hand gestures observed as potential ‘signals’ near Charlie at the time of his assassination, and visitors to the alleged shooter’s residence in the hours and days leading up to September 10, 2025,” Patel wrote in a lengthy X post.

The 22-year-old assassin has been arrested and charged with aggravated murder, with prosecutors seeking the death penalty.

Patel confirmed the FBI is also analyzing messages allegedly posted on Discord hours before the assassin’s arrest, including a confession to friends.

“It was me at UVU yesterday,” the alleged assassin wrote on Discord. “I’m sorry for all of this.”

Patel told senators last week that agents are reviewing everyone tied to that chatroom, adding that “a lot more than 20 people” could face questioning.

“As the Director of the FBI, I am committed to ensuring the investigation into Charlie Kirk’s assassination is thorough and exhaustive, pursuing every lead to its conclusion,” Patel’s X post read. “The full weight of America’s law enforcement agencies are actively following the evidence that has emerged, but our efforts extend beyond initial findings. We are examining every facet of this assassination.”

Patel also shared news to dispel conspiracy theories, including questions about a plane mysteriously turning off its “transponder after departing from an airport near the assassination site.”

“Regarding specific details, such as questions about the plane that allegedly turned off its transponder after departing from an airport near the assassination site, we can share updates when answers are confirmed,” Patel wrote. “After interviews with the pilot and consultation with the FAA, we determined the transponder was not turned off. Incomplete flight data in rural areas caused the apparent gap.”

“The entire FBI mourns the loss of Charlie Kirk. We will not rest until justice is served, and our investigation into this assassination will continue until every question is answered.”

Eric Mack ✉

Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.

By Ron Wright

That doesn’t mean the American experiment is over. It does mean, though, that we must understand what we’re up against.

I’m emotionally still coming to grips with Charlie Kirk’s assassination by a young kid caught up in the nonsensical Alice in Wonderland world contrived by the Deep State, the Marxists, the elite, and the Globalists; that is, by the Radical Left (“RL”). I am still angry about the vile murder of Iryna Zarutska, which was the result of the Democrats’ push to abandon common-sense policies.

Americans who have been browbeaten and gaslighted for their common sense were jolted awake by Charlie’s assassination. This young assassin is merely a pawn in a game of 3D chess.

The RL has crossed the Rubicon of the tolerance and patience of many Americans, from which there is no return. The RL brings nothing of value and no solutions to political debate. These RL policies are not from stupidity but are intentional. They are meant to sow chaos to destabilize our country by evil dark forces.

There are no two sides to this debate. RL preaches victimization, identity politics, points to scapegoats as the root of the problem, and sanctions violence. To leftists, “Orangeman bad.” The RL brands those with differing opinions unscrupulously without context, dehumanizing them as Nazis and Fascists and as a threat to democracy, ironically using the Big Lie of the Nazis of WWII.

However, the RL has created an army of Charlies with this assassination, an army no longer so intimidated by the RL’s tirades that it is afraid to speak the truth. (See Erika Kirk.)

Charlie Kirk went bravely into the belly of the beast to counter the RL infiltration of our culture, government, and public education (Big Ed). 

Vital to countering the Big Lie is the public education system. Our public schools have been distracted by the latest fads, demands by teacher unions, and infiltration by RL ideology of anti-meritocracy, DEI, and teaching gender fluidity in elementary education instead of focusing on their core mission of life skills and civic knowledge.

Their core mission has become transitioning of children whose brains are still developing, with permanent, life-changing alterations to their bodies, based on flawed social science constructs driven by RL identity politics without the knowledge or consent of their parents. Remember, trust the science and COVID, the lockdown of the country? The long-term consequences to society from “transitioning” children (a factual impossibility) are not known, but there is a pattern developing of trans violence. Ask the question, who are the customers of public education?

Teaching our kids the necessary skills and tools to succeed in our society is essential. These include critical thinking, the culture and history of our country, and the founding principles of our government. I’m astounded by the many public employees and teachers who are cheering the death of Charlie Kirk. As Ben Franklin warned (and I’m paraphrasing), we have a constitutional republic if we can keep it. This is a challenge requiring an informed electorate with common sense and critical thinking ability to be ever vigilant to hold its government accountable.

Today’s youth, if properly educated, should challenge our current government and capitalist ideology. Since the Woodrow Wilson era, we’ve abandoned a free market with true capitalism. Instead, we have drifted into Crony Capitalism because of unabated corruption in our government. The youth are misdirected to the wrong enemy by RL propaganda and misinformation. The RL promises pie-in-the-sky utopias in exchange for the surrender of civil rights to totalitarian rule.

Our country’s survival as a Constitutional Republic (versus a totalitarian collective) is at risk, but, ironically, the RL declares that President Trump and MAGA are an existential threat to democracy. We are fighting an asymmetrical enemy that has infiltrated our government, institutions, and public education. This enemy intends to destroy our Judeo-Christian heritage, culture, and core beliefs by luring youth and adults with false promises of radical ideologies like some Pied Piper or false prophet.

Marxist ideologies and their ilk with centralized control and power are destined to fail because they don’t recognize the free will of men and women, free markets, and meritocracy. They can’t distribute goods and services on an equitable basis, for as Lord Acton said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

We must strive to return to limited government that provides the essential functions of government: the common defense, maintaining order, resolving conflict, and providing for the public good. A government that ensures a level playing field for businesses to prosper with minimal regulation. One that weeds out corruption that comes from crony capitalism. Global conglomerates and corporations can gain monopolistic power by corrupting the government for favorable regulatory laws that exclude other competitors in the market, creating the tragedy of the commons.

So, why did I say that Charlie’s assassin was a pawn in a 3D game of chess?

There is an entrenched, unelected Deep State that is an ongoing RICO criminal conspiracy. I would include the legacy and, in some cases, social media as co-conspirators acting as agents of the Deep State to create or echo false narratives or censor true stories (here and here).

The grand conspiracy operates with a common purpose, involving many conspirators, co-conspirators, and those who aided or abetted in the commission of numerous overt criminal acts, as well as acts to conceal the conspiracy. The motive and purpose are clear: to retain power, gain power, and cover up its illegal activities, stealing or diverting public funds for its own benefit or purpose. One example of many is USAID’s theft by fraud, abuse, and money laundering.

This grand conspiracy extends as far back as the Raid on Benghazi, the 2016 election, and the 2020 election until the present. I believe the two assassination attempts (here and here) on President Trump, as well as potentially other assassinations, including Charlie’s (here and here), are connected to this conspiracy.

The most egregious criminal act of the grand conspiracy was a coup to prevent the election of Donald J. Trump in 2016, followed by sustained efforts to unseat a duly elected President Trump by sabotaging his first term in office, and to prevent his reelection in 2020.

Our government has violated the Constitution, is corrupt, and has lied with impunity to the American people, who are the sovereign. The American people elected Trump to drain the swamp, akin to Jesus overturning the tables in the Temple.

In support of my opinion, see my investigative reporting since 2019 (here and here). My opinion and analysis are being confirmed by ODNI Director Tulsi Gabbard with the recent release of declassified documents secreted by the Deep State (here) and further by Mollie Hemingway, Editor-in-Chief, The Federalist.

Ron Wright is a retired detective, having served thirty-five years with Riverside P.D., Calif. Ron earned a B.A. in political science from Cal State University, Fullerton, and a Master of Administration from the University of California, Riverside. X @RonTcop

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has come out on the decidedly losing end of a debate against a cardboard cutout of Charlie Kirk.

Despite her best efforts, AOC simply could not outclass the piece of cardboard set up to oppose her.

“Alright, you got me this time, Cardboard Charlie,” said AOC. “I tried to defeat fascism and bigotry, but today, it was too strong. Even for me.”

Then, staring down the cardboard cutout, AOC cried, “You haven’t heard the last of me, you hate-spewing paper product! I’ll get you next time, Cardboard Charlie!”

According to eyewitnesses, the debate started off with AOC declaring that Kirk opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which gave Black people the right to vote. As Cardboard Charlie stood unblinking, a Black member of the audience gently informed AOC that he had voted in 1960, and that she might be thinking of something called the 15th amendment passed in 1870.

“Well, well. I guess that’s one point for you, Charlie,” growled AOC.

The rest of the debate proceeded in similar fashion. Sources on the ground declined to provide any additional specifics after AOC threatened to eat them.

At publishing time, AOC had called on the country to unite, but to please wait until after she was done attacking a man who was just assassinated.

The Babylon Bee

There’s a quiet crisis unfolding beneath the surface of the U.S. economy: over a trillion dollars in credit card debt, the majority of it unsecured, with no collateral, no real oversight, and no meaningful limits. It’s not just a number — it’s a ticking time bomb.

It may not look like 1929 — but in structure, in risk, and in who will bear the fallout, it feels dangerously familiar.

📉 We’ve Seen This Movie Before

In the 1920s, Americans were allowed to buy stocks on margin — putting down just a fraction of the cost, borrowing the rest. It gave the illusion of prosperity. Until the crash came.

Today, we are doing the same thing with unsecured consumer credit. Millions of people have multiple credit cards, with combined limits that exceed their income — sometimes by tens of thousands of dollars.

Some carry balances of $40,000 or more on cards charging 25–30% interest. They pay every month, but the balance barely moves. It’s not “credit” anymore — it’s debt servitude.

🔒 It’s Time for Practical, Preventive Reform

This isn’t about taking away credit or punishing responsible borrowers. It’s about putting boundaries on a system that currently has none.

✅ 1. Limit Total Credit Across All Cards

No one should be allowed to carry $50,000 in unsecured credit card limits unless their income truly supports it.
Credit scoring agencies already track all open accounts. A total cap based on verified income is feasible — and long overdue.

✅ 2. Cap Interest Rates on Unsecured Debt

30% interest is not risk-based lending — it’s legalized usury.
Allow a fair return (such as Prime + 2%), but stop trapping people in endless compounding cycles.

✅ 3. Limit Excessive Fees

Late fees, penalty rates, and obscure charges have turned into billion-dollar profit machines.
Lenders should make money by lending responsibly, not by penalizing distress.

✅ 4. Protect Young and Vulnerable Borrowers

No 18-year-old should get a $5,000 credit line without income to back it.
Credit should grow with experience, not be granted recklessly at the start.

🧱 Regulation Already Exists — Let’s Use It

Banks and credit card companies are already heavily regulated by the federal government:

• The FDIC, Federal Reserve, and OCC all monitor the banking system.
• The Credit CARD Act of 2009 placed guardrails around some lending practices.
• We regulate mortgages, auto loans, and insurance — because they carry systemic risk.

So this isn’t a radical idea. It’s an extension of existing oversight — aimed at an area that’s spiraled out of control.

I’m not against businesses making a profit.
But when those profits depend on pushing working Americans into unsustainable debt — and when the collapse of that system could drag down the entire national economy, or even the world economy — it’s time to act.

🌍 This Is Bigger Than Us

If the U.S. consumer debt system crashes, the entire global financial structure is at risk. We’ve seen this before:

• In 2008, the housing bubble in the U.S. triggered a worldwide recession.
• In 1929, American over-leverage helped plunge the globe into a decade of depression.

The credit card crisis could be the next chapter — unless we change course.

🧠 This Isn’t Political — It’s Structural

This issue doesn’t belong to the left or right. It affects:

• Families trying to keep up with inflation
• Young adults entering financial independence
• Seniors managing fixed incomes
• Small business owners using credit to stay afloat

Unchecked credit expansion threatens all of us. And it threatens the very foundation of the American economy.

🛑 It’s Time to Fix the System — Before It Breaks Us

We have the tools. We have the data. We have the regulatory bodies. What’s missing is the political will to say:

Enough.
No more financial traps disguised as credit.
No more profit models based on national instability.
No more silent servitude buried in the fine print.

This isn’t a call for ideology. It’s a call for sanity — and security.

– The Hermit

Muslim terrorist groups are planning horrific multi-city attacks on America, according to Newsmax. It wouldn’t surprise me if Democrats and leftists in Obama’s shadow government are assisting them. They will sacrifice America, if necessary, to get rid of Trump and what he represents. Terrorists and the Democratic Party are on the same team.

Democrats are the terrorists, and are the biggest threat to America since World War II, or maybe ever. Attacks on America may be the next COVID.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Those who refuse to serve YHWH find themselves actively serving the fallen elohim, even if they don’t even know they exist. They release themselves to wild orgies of emotion at raves, parties, and “radical self-expression” events like Burning Man. But without a moral law in view, these approaches only lead to self-destruction. For example, the LGB-alphabet soup cadre is well known for high suicide rates, which only increase as “gender affirming care” is administered.

Unfortunately, self-destructive behavior only makes the psychiatric difficulties worse. Complete hopelessness accompanied by the sight of happy “normies” leads to desperation. At times, this extreme sense of failure plays out in a suicide-by-cop type of event, such as an “I’m going to hurt as many normies as I can” mass shooting. Or it’s when an evil person murders the one he and his ilk see as the source of their pain (e.g., murdering Charlie Kirk). Add to this the well-publicized hostile transformation of depression by SSRI antidepressants, and we have a perfect storm of evil. Fallen elohim have to be celebrating like Leftist commentators. Oh, wait. The commentators are celebrating like the fallen elohim that they serve.

“Evil,” in the simplest public sense, is service to fallen elohim. They operate to destroy, while YHWH creates and enhances. Every left-wing politician, commentator, and useful idiot is in open rebellion against YHWH, and thus in league with the fallen elohim. They ridicule the two divinely created genders. Christian values are belittled as repressive. Simply failing to bow to the evil ones is an “aggression.” Free speech that disagrees is “violence.”

Many are coming to realize that the Left has fully sold out to evil. The sequence is simple. Some of God’s celestial created beings rebelled. They were given a chance to straighten up and fly right, but instead subverted the humans they were tasked with protecting. YHWH declared their death sentence if they did not repent, but they doubled down. Huge numbers of gullible people have followed their lead, not recognizing that that choice is the source of their troubles.

Peace and fulfillment are good and come from serving YHWH, not the fallen gods. The war has now broken out into the open. The only real question is in the details, but the outcome is certain. As my wife’s license plate frame says, “I know the future. God wins.” Our allegiance will determine our ultimate fate.

I am well aware that many will find a “religious” post on this “political” site to be somewhat off the beaten path, but this is the nature of the war we find ourselves in. For more details, read Supernatural by Michael S. Heiser, PhD.

With the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the word “evil” is being tossed around. It seems to be little more than a verbal equivalent to “fascist,” “racist,” and a handful of other words that are used without a second thought for what they actually mean. We are appropriately repulsed by the act, so we call it evil. But few of us truly understand that these “horrific” acts have a fundamental connection to the realm we cannot see. Yes, I’m going to discuss theology, because there is no other proper explanation for the acts of the assassin and any co-conspirators. Argue all you want, but it is the truth, and the truth remains the truth, whether you agree or not.

“Evil” is a concept in the realm of morals. The late Christian philosopher Ravi Zacharias trenchantly noted that “there is no moral law without a moral law-giver.” If any of us declares a “moral law,” our proclamation will have as much authority as that pack of space monkeys typing out the collected works of Shakespeare in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Consider the prohibition on theft.

If you steal my stuff, I’ll get upset. But it’s the state statute that makes it criminal, and that law was created by a legislative body that has the right to make laws governing our behavior. It has the higher authority required for law-making. The law against theft echoes “Thou shalt not steal” from the Ten Commandments for a good reason. Good laws follow God’s moral commandments.

Good and evil are actually descriptions of loyalty to God or rebellion against God. It’s just that simple, and evil’s as old as creation. We all know the story of the snake in the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The “shining one” (literal Hebrew) tempted Adam and Eve, and the rest is history. But this doesn’t tell us the back story. (Bible geeks can read Ezekiel 28:1-19 and Isaiah 14:1-20. Just don’t let theologians tell you those are just metaphorical. They’re real.)

Genesis 6:4 talks about how the “Sons of God” saw that our women were beautiful. So, they left their position in heaven to party and have giant children (Nephilim). Wait! That isn’t what the text says? Actually, it does. First, the term “Sons of God” refers to celestial beings. Don’t let theologians deter you. Do your own word study. Then read Jesus’ answer to the lawyer in the story of the seven brothers in Mark 12:20-25 (Also in Matthew 22:25-30 and Luke 20:29-36). He tells them that they’re making a mistake because they don’t understand “the Scriptures.”

You can search the entire Old Testament, but you won’t find a word supporting Jesus’ comment. That’s because the scripture He’s referring to is The Book of the Watchers in 1 Enoch 1-36. It’s part of the Ethiopic canon, and gives the story of fall of the elohim (Hebrew for “gods”) in detail. It also explains how these celestial beings rebelled and left their proper station and role in heaven.

While their story is told in detail in 1 Enoch, we see parts of it in the rebellion at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. Deuteronomy 32:8 makes it clear that the seventy family groups of Genesis 10 were parceled out to the fallen “Sons of God.” They were to “Vindicate the weak and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and destitute. Rescue the weak and needy; Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.” (Psalm 82:3-4 NAS) But instead, these judges were unjust and showed favoritism to the wicked. (Verse 2 – Sounds like many district court judges.) YHWH pronounces the verdict in verse 7. They “will die like men.”

You can search the entire Old Testament, but you won’t find a word supporting Jesus’ comment. That’s because the scripture He’s referring to is The Book of the Watchers in 1 Enoch 1-36. It’s part of the Ethiopic canon, and gives the story of fall of the elohim (Hebrew for “gods”) in detail. It also explains how these celestial beings rebelled and left their proper station and role in heaven.

The Apostle Peter sums up the actions of the evil elohim after Jesus’ victory over death in 1 Peter 5:8. “The devil prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” By contrast, YHWH wishes only good for us (Matthew 7:11, Luke 11:13). And this is where the rubber meets the road.

Those who are loyal to God are serving their Creator. Without service to a higher power, there is no psychological stability. Jordan Peterson’s Rule 7 points out that engaging in meaningful service aligns individuals with a higher moral order. Without such service, people become unmoored from reality.

This psychological drift turns into psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, and gender dysphoria. Multiple studies (see full-text study here, note references) have shown that Democrats self-report higher levels of depression and, by implication, antidepressant use. “…[I]deology remains a strong predictor of mental health self-reports.” This conclusion comes after the authors diminish the difference between left and right by 40% to give the ;eft the benefit of every doubt.

Those who refuse to serve YHWH find themselves actively serving the fallen elohim, even if they don’t even know they exist. They release themselves to wild orgies of emotion at raves, parties, and “radical self-expression” events like Burning Man. But without a moral law in view, these approaches only lead to self-destruction. For example, the LGB-alphabet soup cadre is well known for high suicide rates, which only increase as “gender affirming care” is administered.

Unfortunately, self-destructive behavior only makes the psychiatric difficulties worse. Complete hopelessness accompanied by the sight of happy “normies” leads to desperation. At times, this extreme sense of failure plays out in a suicide-by-cop type of event, such as an “I’m going to hurt as many normies as I can” mass shooting. Or it’s when an evil person murders the one he and his ilk see as the source of their pain (e.g., murdering Charlie Kirk). Add to this the well-publicized hostile transformation of depression by SSRI antidepressants, and we have a perfect storm of evil. Fallen elohim have to be celebrating like Leftist commentators. Oh, wait. The commentators are celebrating like the fallen elohim that they serve.

“Evil,” in the simplest public sense, is service to fallen elohim. They operate to destroy, while YHWH creates and enhances. Every left-wing politician, commentator, and useful idiot is in open rebellion against YHWH, and thus in league with the fallen elohim. They ridicule the two divinely created genders. Christian values are belittled as repressive. Simply failing to bow to the evil ones is an “aggression.” Free speech that disagrees is “violence.”

Many are coming to realize that the Left has fully sold out to evil. The sequence is simple. Some of God’s celestial created beings rebelled. They were given a chance to straighten up and fly right, but instead subverted the humans they were tasked with protecting. YHWH declared their death sentence if they did not repent, but they doubled down. Huge numbers of gullible people have followed their lead, not recognizing that that choice is the source of their troubles.

Peace and fulfillment are good and come from serving YHWH, not the fallen gods. The war has now broken out into the open. The only real question is in the details, but the outcome is certain. As my wife’s license plate frame says, “I know the future. God wins.” Our allegiance will determine our ultimate fate.

I am well aware that many will find a “religious” post on this “political” site to be somewhat off the beaten path, but this is the nature of the war we find ourselves in. For more details, read Supernatural by Michael S. Heiser, PhD.

Ted Noel is a retired physician who posts on social media as Doctor Ted. His occasional Doctor Ted’s Prescription podcast is available on multiple podcast channels.

By Clarice Feldman

Like cats chasing red laser beams the media quickly switched from Charlie Kirk’s assassination to magnifying the preposterous claims that removing Jimmy Kimmel from the air was the worst violation of the Constitution ever.

On the internet the big story seems to be the indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel by ABC. I confess to being somewhat at a disadvantage. The last time I looked at network television my set had four dials: on/off, vertical, and horizontal, volume, and channel. In this I’m not alone. Kimmel’s show had fewer viewers than a number of online podcasters, sponsors were fleeing, and local stations represented by affiliates Nexstar and Sinclair wanted out. The great Iowahawk nailed the flight from network television:

“Anyway, I see people debating who should replace Kimmel in the coveted late night talk chair, and it’s like debating who should move into the empty Spencer Gifts at the abandoned Twin Pines Mall.”

A Little History of Democrats and Free Speech

Before discussing the specifics of Kimmel’s suspension, let’s review a little recent history about the Democrats and free speech. Do you remember when Roseanne Barr had her show cancelled by ABC on the false charge that a tweet she made linking Valerie Jarrett to Iran was “racist”? Did you know who was behind axing what was one of the most popular shows on ABC?

“In an interview with the Sunday Times Magazine in 2019, Barr revealed that Michelle Obama personally pressured ABC executives to axe her.

Former ABC president Channing Dungey, who carried out her firing, worked directly with the Obamas at Netflix.”

Roseanne was but one example of the Democrat cancel culture ruining the careers of anyone who disagreed with them.

This is a pattern of cancel culture. Conservatives have been targeted and canceled by the same leftist mob:

• Gina Carano — fired from The Mandalorian for “wrongthink.”
• Megyn Kelly — fired by NBC for Halloween costume commentary.
• Dave Chappelle — targeted by Netflix employees for “transphobia.”
• Joe Rogan — smeared and nearly canceled over COVID discussions.
• Tucker Carlson — taken off Fox News after advertiser pressure campaigns.
• Parler — wiped off the internet by Apple, Google, and Amazon.
• J.K. Rowling — blacklisted for defending women’s rights.
• Mike Lindell — banned from Twitter and retailers for supporting Trump.
• The Gateway Pundit was banned on Google AdSense, Amazon Ads, and PayPal for reporting on election fraud and COVID.
• And the list goes on.

Former congressional candidate Jack Lombardi also slammed Obama, reminding him that it was under his own presidency that the government waged direct war on the free press:

• October 2009: The White House tried to exclude Fox News from a pooled interview — other networks refused to participate until Fox was included.
• May 2013: DOJ secretly seized two months of AP reporters’ phone records, an intrusion AP called “massive and unprecedented.”
• May 2013: DOJ labeled Fox’s James Rosen a “co-conspirator” in a leak probe to obtain his emails and phone records.
• Feb–Mar 2014: The FCC floated a “Critical Information Needs” newsroom study, later scrapped after a First Amendment backlash.

Even President Donald Trump’s voice was muzzled by Democratic action when Twitter threw him off the site.

Obama administration censorship was followed by the Biden version

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has now admitted publicly that moderators at Facebook and Instagram faced vast pressure from the federal government to take down contrarian COVID-19 content, election-related content — including jokes and satire — as well as the New York Post‘s Hunter Biden laptop story. This led the platforms to make moderation decisions that Zuckerberg now regrets. “I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,” wrote Zuckerberg in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, which is investigating the suppression of speech on social media. “We’re ready to pushback if something like this happens again.”

Every Twitter and Facebook poster who was silenced as a result of government action had his constitutionally protected right to free speech infringed. The Constitution prevents government restriction and pretending the Twitter and Facebook actions were private conduct has long been proven false.

The Biden Administration blatantly violated the First Amendment:

“The Democrats and progressives used the FBI to coerce social media companies to block online content that that the Biden Admin didn’t want getting a foothold. The online companies refused to allow links to the NY Post articles on Hunter’s laptop. The federal government has ZERO authority to impose any kind of regulation on the internet. The FCC has legal authority to regulate the airwaves. Whether FCC Chairman car stepped over the line or not is an interesting academic debate involving the limits of FCC authority over ABC and the stations. The is NO DEBATE that what the Biden Admin and the progressives did was a blatant violation of the First Amendment.”

For five years, some of us have been sounding the alarm about the government-directed attack on free speech that censored how topics and communities in every possible venue. It was totalitarian. We litigated, we exposed, we FOIA’d, we did what we could. The censorship has been far-reaching, top down, pervasive, well funded, and directed toward one end: political conformity. No one in the mainstream media cared and you know why? Because they were the censors and thrilled to play that role. Not even the Supreme Court could be bothered. It’s still going on now: YouTube and LinkedIn reliably remove posts about vaccine injury. Now some lying loser late-night bubble dweller gets his show canceled and I’ve heard more about are speech than at any point in years. These same people had nothing to but cheers when Alex Jones, every Covid skeptic, and even the sitting US president was silenced. Now these same people are suddenly channeling John Stuart Mill. The hypocrisy is astounding. This is next-level Orwell stuff.–Jeffrey Tucker

Kimmel’s Indefinite Suspension by ABC

As much of the nation was shocked and in mourning over the assassination of Charlie Kirk — murdering someone for what he says is, after all, the clearest example there could be of censorship — Jimmy Kimmel flounced about asserting that the assassin was a Trump supporter, something he pulled out of his backside and a bald faced lie his huge staff nevertheless seemed to think was appropriate. Saner heads considered this charge reprehensible and ABC affiliate Sinclair sought an apology for this blatant lie. Kimmel refused to apologize and said he’d double down. Not surprisingly, ABC, which pays this jerk $16 million a year for making demonstrably false, partisan, and incendiary charges, indefinitely suspended him. Reportedly, ABC’s senior executives thought his plan to address the controversy would “make the situation worse”

Like cats chasing red laser beams the media quickly switched from Kirk’s assassination to magnifying the preposterous claims that removing Kimmel from the air was the worst violation of the Constitution ever.

Democrats like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer, already on record for praising for years the cancellation of those with whom they disagreed, promoted this nonsense.

Obama did his usual shitty shtick where he starts a sentence claiming high virtue and ends it by calling for more death, mayhem, and self righteous Democrat violence. Obama has perfected in every sentence what all Dems now do in their hearts, which is assert some Grand Abstract then tell each other to beat little old ladies to death with the Grand Abstract. 

“We believe this truth to be self-evident, that all are created equal and that… you need to go out now and kill a random Republican for disagreeing with you on anything… those are the noble values that truly make our nation!”

Victor Davis Hanson details the shifting left narratives about Kirk’s assassination which is worth reading in its entirety for I can only summarize here:

From One Leftist False Kirk Narrative To the Next

Somewhere in the leftwing command bunker, false narratives about Kirk’s murder, replete with talking points, are issued and disseminated through the network news, social media, Hollywood, and academia — at least until their party-line absurdity demands a new concoction.

Here are the daily, changing leftist narratives over the past few days: 

#1 “No Motive” [snip]

#2 “The Gun Did It”. [snip] 

#3 “The Assassin Was MAGA” [snip] Narrative three then was floated that MAGA right wingers did it, or white supremacist gangs, or a veritable civil war on the right were responsible.

Jimmy Kimmel finally lost his job over spreading that preposterous lie. Robinson’s engraved messaged bullets, his texts, his friends, his family, the nature of his boy-girlfriend relationship, and his chat group all proved beyond a doubt he hated Kirk for his influence and politics, and thus committed a leftwing political shooting of a conservative in the fashion of a Luigi Mangione or James Hodkinson. 

#4 “Both Sides” [snip] Unfortunately, many on the Left could not keep still and smother their glee. So an unhinged array of students, bureaucrats, teachers, professors, the media, and actors — the usual suspects — started posting their accustomed delight over the killing of Kirk. Thus, narrative four evaporated, given the nutty Left’s glee over Kirk’s death was near synonymous with one of their own killing him.

#5 “Trump Did it” As narratives imploded thick and fast, the Left next claimed that Trump’s ‘hate speech’ and divisiveness caused Robinson to kill. In other words, this new ‘Trump did it’ narrative dispensed with the prior leftist failed ones, by claiming there was now a new motive indeed, and it was the solitary Trump.

But that attempt sputtered almost immediately, given the reactive Trump was first targeted by four lawfare partisan prosecutors, 2 failed assassination attempts, ballot removal, and smeared as a fascist by high-ranking generals, Kamala Harris, and most of the Democratic Party. So he might have had some reason to talk back, given the Left sought to rerail his 2016 candidacy, sabotage his first term, and destroy him (literally) after 2020.

As part of the narrative, Trump supporters were derided as “chumps”, “dregs”, “semi-fascists”, and “garbage” by Joe Biden, who boasted twice he wanted to beat up Trump behind the gym, put a bullseye on him (“time to put Trump in a bullseye”), and jail him (“we gotta lock him up!”). Did Joe then incite the violence?

Barack Obama emerged from one of his many mansions to squeak up the ‘Trump did it’ narrative. But the community organizer who said, “get in their faces”, “bring a gun to a knife fight”, and sicced his intelligence agencies on Trump to destroy his campaign, transition, and early presidency faded fast.

So, sermon finished, Pastor Obama quietly private jetted back to either his Martha’s Vineyard acreage or his Hawaiian beach estate. At that point, it seemed there could be no more crazy narratives. But in fact there were more. 

He Kinda, Sorta Deserved It” An exasperated Left, after seeing all of their narratives implode, finally shrugged and defiantly has sent out the last version that best reflected its own.

The new narrative? Why should the Left be apologetic or deferential at all? It will damn Kirk and see what conservatives are going to do about it.

So after the de rigueur acknowledgment about the abhorrence of murdering anyone — the Left now cuts to the quick and pontificate, euphemistically, about Kirk bringing it on himself.

The new narrative has the Left openly admitting they despised Kirk’s (mostly undefined) views. And while they did not approve of his murder, per se, they sorta, sorta understood that his type of “divisive” rhetoric was, well, bound at some point to inflame and excite those who were ‘morally’ bothered by his ‘hate’.

In the aftermath of his gruesome assassination, the new narrative says it maybe kinda, sorta of wrong for the Left to imply Kirk earned his death. But nevertheless, it was sorta, kinda true — and by implication the leftwing world is better off for his passing.

That final sick narrative, distilled from all the other failed ones, will more or less now be institutionalized as the authentic Left party-line as the months wear on.

By week’s end a resolution was forwarded in the House which called upon Americans “to reject political violence, recommit to respectful debate, uphold American values and respect one another as fellow Americans.”

58 Democrats voted “NO “and 38 Democrats voted “Present.”

A bipartisan group in the Senate and House has signaled an intention to forward a bill tagged No Political Enemies Act (NOPE) which would permit parties deprived of free speech for political reasons to sue and receive legal fees. (The provision permitting recovery of legal fees is critical, allowing anyone even of modest means to pursue such cases.)

Defying all prediction, somehow, Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension (he isn’t even fired!) has now prompted Democrats into proposing a real solution for one of conservatives’ biggest complaints: the egregious excesses of Twitter files censorship. Since we haven’t yet seen it, who knows whether the NOPE bill’s text will actually have teeth. But things are obviously moving in the right direction.

 The turnaround was so astonishing that you could even call it miraculous. Democrats have not exactly championed free speech. After all, they are the party of microaggression, deplatforming, virtue-signaling, social media censorship, hate speech, and cancel culture. We could recite a long list of Democrat cancellation victims. 

A promising development, but we haven’t seen NOPE yet and since it comes at the same time 96 House Democrats refused to vote to support free speech, we may never see it.