When he was in a hospital bed for the 282 days and innumerable surgeries that followed his attempted murder, and the successful mass murder of 12 of his colleagues and others on Jan. 7, 2015, the Charlie Hebdo writer Philippe Lançon felt ambivalent about the Je Suis Charlie movement. There was something too easy about it–facile is the French word, which applies just as well in American. He did not consider himself Charlie Hebdo. If anything, he wrote, “je suis Chloe,” “I am Chloe,” his surgeon, in whose hands his life and his face, which had been disfigured, depended.
He also felt he had no choice in the matter. His life was no longer his to own. He recognized “how the attack created a chain of abrupt suffering, shared or individual, in which each friend of the victim seems to have been suddenly branded, like livestock, with a red-hot iron: rape is collective. That’s why, starting on January 7, my life no longer belonged to me. I became responsible for all those who, in one way or another, loved me. My wounds were also theirs. My ordeal was joint property.”
The country has reacted to Charlie Kirk’s assassination the same way, turning his memory into joint property–for good and ill, as was very much the case in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Too many liberals in France and elsewhere said Charlie Hebdo’s unbound humor had asked for it, though for the most part the attack was seen for what it was: the attempted silencing of free–and hellishly fun–expression.
The comparison with the Kirk killing can only go so far, and in most regards, it fails. Condemning the Kirk assassination without qualifications is essential, as is condemning any assassination. But it is possible to condemn the assassination and still condemn the ideas he stood for, to decry the flags at half-mast for so-called values hardly distinguishable from those of Proud Boys or those of the predator-felon in the White House.
The more so over the threats, firings and deportations the Kirk-industrial complex is now promising against deviants from the purist line. The right is using the assassination the way George W. Bush used the 9/11 attacks–as pretext for war and vengeance, in this case against the American left and, yet again, against migrants and whoever else falls afoul of the hard right’s prevailing ideology of my way or the highway. The highway is no longer a metaphor.
A glean of the successful agenda Kirk pushed shows to what extent nationalist Christian extremism has been re-normalized, with Kirk playing an essential role in that latest of Great Awakenings.
He’s a sexual chauvinist who thinks civilization was made by men and depends on men, without whom all would collapse.[1] He thinks the collapse is happening now.[2] Initially a secularist who denounced evangelical sanctimony, he transfigured into a Christian nationalist who wanted nothing short of Sharia’s equivalent on Christian terms for the United States, church state walls be gone.
He’s a First Amendment hypocrite who created a “Professor Watchlist,” encouraging people to snitch on teachers who don’t toe his ideological line, doxing the resulting “featured professors” on the site like a modern “index” of deviants. You expected that in pre-1989 East Germany. You don’t expect it in 2025 America. This latter-day inquisitor is the man now revered as an apostle of free expression.
He’s an outright racist and Islamophobe. He compared New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to the 9/11 terrorists.[3] He claimed, falsely of course, that Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh was not only part of a Muslim takeover of the United States, but that the country was committing suicide through that sort of legal immigration.[4] He claimed that the only thing Netflix got wrong in “Adolescence,” the Emmy-winning series about the toxic masculinity that leads a 13-year-old boy to murder a girl who’d rejected him, was the boy’s race, saying he should have been an Arab radicalized by Islam.[5] He denied Palestinians their own identity, or the right to exist as Israelis do[6] (in fairness, that’s standard American orthodoxy). He dismissed the massacre of 18,000 children in Gaza as Hamas’s fault, rationalizing genocide in victim-blaming logic.
This is all vile stuff, not much different than lines in the Michel Hoeullebecq novel like “Islam could only be born in a stupid desert, among filthy Bedouins who had nothing else to do– forgive me–but fuck their camels,” or “each time I learned that a Palestinian terrorist, or a Palestinian child or a pregnant Palestinian woman, had been shot dead in the Gaza Strip, I felt a thrill of enthusiasm at the thought that there was one less Muslim.”[7]
Houellebecq is even more famous and revered in France than Kirk was in the United States. He’s had his share of death threats and would have probably sensed a few affinities with Kirk, had he known of him. However shocking his writings and opinions are (he’s mellowed in his alcoholic decrepitude), no one should want him harmed any more than harm should have been wished on Kirk.
Criticizing Houellebecq or Kirk for what they are is a different story.[8] Keeping that criticism bound to some form of decency they themselves rejected is absurd. Kirk famously believed that “you should be able to say outrageous things.” I heartily agree. The government doesn’t get to litmus-test the permissible. Oliver Wendell Holmes had put it elegantly in a 1929 dissent when he wrote that “if there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other, it is the principle of free thought—not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.”[9] Samuel Alito, the most sycophantic Trump backer on the Supreme Court, quoted the words approvingly early in Trump’s first term.
Kirk enjoyed the right to outrage, defile, denigrate, the same kind of right the Supreme Court granted the KKK, draft-card burners, flag-burners, cross-burners, Westboro Baptist Church’s “God hates fags” monsters at military funerals. But a late-night comedian is fired for making a lame observation about the shooter, the Florida Department of Education threatens to investigate school employees for their personal views posted on social media, the attorney general threatens prosecutions of Kirk-related “hate speech,” the State Department threatens deportations for same, and the president threatens to pull broadcasters’ licenses for coverage he doesn’t like.
All this in Kirk’s memory, in Kirk’s honor. What honor? We can applaud him for supposedly talking to the other side and engaging a younger generation. But his methods were as dubious as his message, which now echoes in the Reischstag-fire moment his more zealous champions are fueling. His “prove me wrong” mantra was not an open-minded exploration of ideas. It was a performative dare, a set-up using opponents as props to be shredded and an ideology to be sanctified in the service of the simple-minded dogmatism of his children’s crusade.
He had all of what Flannery O’Connor described as “that particular repulsive fanaticism peculiar to smart children, all brain and no emotion,” and none of what Judge Learned Hand described as the “spirit of liberty,” “the spirit which it is not too sure that it is right.” We can applaud Sheriff Staly’s unifying words at the Kirk vigil and his call that “God heals America, heals our wounds and grief, and the deep divide in our country.” Lord knows we need that healing.
But Charlie Kirk was not that healing voice, let alone a transcending voice of the America we claim to be.
Footnotes:
[1] I am using the present tense regarding Kirk: saints never die.
[2] From a talk at the Oxford Union Society in June 2025: “we see it across Europe and across the UK, of this hyper fixation on feminism and female empowerment, while also not acknowledging that strong men built the West and won the wars and built the building that we’re in right now. And without strong men, then you all of a sudden see civilization unfold upon itself, and we’re seeing that happen in real time.”
[3] Kirk wrote on X in June: “24 years ago a group of Muslims killed 2,753 people on 9/11. Now a Muslim Socialist is on pace to run New York City” (screenshot preserved here).
[4] From the Minnesota Star-Tribune of June 15, 2025: “Muslims are commanded to take over the government in the land they live. The attempted Islamic takeover of America is made possible thanks to mass migration,” he was quoted as saying. “Mass migration from the third world must be stopped. We are committing suicide.”
[5] From the Oxford Union Society talk: “If they would have talked about how it was like a Third World Arab young kid radicalized by Islam and then started [to] decide to go stab somebody, then they would have gotten more correct in that Netflix special.”
[6] “it’s called Judea and Samaria, it’s not called Palestine,” he said in a college talk, a rather standard Zionist line espoused by Menahem Begin and Isaak Shamir in their terrorist days of Mandate Palestine and by Ben Gurion and Golda Meir soon after, and by the Likud Party from Begin to Sharon to Netanyahu. Kirk espoused that faction’s identical rhetoric, denying Palestinian identity, history and land. He was much more measured about it in his Oxford appearance, condescendingly calling “well-meaning Arabs” in the West Bank (he did not call them Palestinians) “righteous,” and saying: “I come from the premise that I think a Jewish state should exist if you want a Palestinian state. Tell me where, tell me who, tell me how. And I will be open minded to hear that contention.” I like the first part of his statement, but as always with Kirk, it’s a set-up intended to show its impossibility. Contrary to the second part of the statement, the where, who and how have been answered ad nauseam since 1967, suggesting that the open mind he presumes to bring to the question was closed before he answered the Oxford student’s question. It’s a mirror of Kirk’s tactic of proclaiming himself an apostle of free speech while calling for the government silencing of academics and others who transgress the purist line. Based on that blatantly suppressing approach, he would have cheered the firing of NBC’s Matthew Dowd for comparing Kirk’s positions to hate speech, just as he would have the pending firing of Jimmy Kimmel, the late night host, for saying something as innocuous as this in an opening monologue: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” We don’t yet know the motive behind Tyler Robinson’s murder of Kirk, and as the Guardian reported, “It was not clear if Kimmel was suggesting Robinson was a literal supporter of Maga, or that his alleged political violence was part of a broader shift towards bloodshed and force in US politics, particularly among the far right.” We do know that the president who praised the firings and suspension–and whose deputy chief of staff called the Kimmel coup an example of “consequence culture”–compulsively lies and libels with immense consequences to others and nine to himself. This is not “consequence culture.” It is fascism.
[7] Michel Houellebecq, Plateforme (Gallimard, 2001), pages 279 and 386, my translation.
[8] It was Houellebecq, not Muhammad, who was on the cover of Charlie Hebdo the morning of the Charlie Hebdo massacre: the magazine has always been an equal-opportunity satirist, not unlike Houellebecq’s later works, though he’s maintained certain sacred cows, among them his beloved Catholicism, the Virgin Mary and, paradoxically (or perhaps not, in his view), the pre-sober Charlie Sheen-like right to fuck anything that moves any time he pleases at whatever cost, all of which his enormous popularity and riches afford him.
[9] The hateful thought, in this case, was pacifism, expressed by Rosika Schwimmer, a 49-year-old Hungarian woman who had applied to be naturalized as a citizen of the United States, but would not pledge to take up arms in its defense. She was denied.
Pierre Tristam is the editor of FlaglerLive. A version of this piece aired on WNZF.
I am Charlie Kirk! says
I am Charlie Kirk!
He was his own person. Comparing him to others is just muddying the waters to back a narrative.
Charlie brought thousands and now millions closer to God.
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
Thank you Pierre, thank you.
Steve says
Excellent commetary. Bravo
Atwp says
He was just a man, a caucasion but just a man. I’ve heard about people losing their jobs because the media and backward Republicans didn’t like what the people said. They didn’t have a right to speak their true feelings, soon all of us will answer to Trump and his nonthinking Republican staff, he is crazzzzzzzzzzzzzy.
jason barton says
The “Christian” right has been chomping at the bit for decades to find themselves a suitable martyr like Martin Luthor King, preferably one who was white and hated all these same people they do. As usual, you can’t create a martyr, he has to emerge through trials, struggles and oppression. MLK was beaten by police multiple times, arrested and thrown in jail multiple times, including once in this very state. In spite all this he continued to preach non-violence, fairness, and Christian love. Was he perfect? No, he was subject to all the frailties and temptations that we humans must contend with. So what trials, struggles, and oppressions did Charles Kirk go through … some kids on collage campuses yelled mean things at him. Man, they just don’t make martyrs like they used to. This does not mean I ever wanted to see someone shoot him, that was an abhorrent act of violence and I hope the person who did it gets whatever the judicial process gives them. Frankly, I always thought the best way to deal with hateful podcasters like Charles Kirk was to ignore him. Still, I guess they got their martyr. But you have to admit, “Prove me wrong” just doesn’t have the same ring as “I have a dream”.
JimboXYZ says
This is where it is, Kirk, dead or alive is no role model/hero to me, neither is his assassin. We all get a vote for what any of these people were for or against. I can watch from a safe distance what their agenda is, determine whether it’s congruent with my beliefs or not. These are 2 extremes I don’t identify with. Kirk for his career direction, the LGBTQI/Trans couple. I feel for the trans that got the text from the assassin to some extent. Imagine just trying to live a trans life for as difficult or not as that is in some relative anonymity ? And then having this event & affiliation texted to their smartphone ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFOCgrEpGxQ
Figuring out the human race, I give up, the mental retardation is real. I accept it as it is & that it’s not getting any better at 8+ billion & growing, regardless of which end of the spectrum the extremists are.
joe says
IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY DONE SO, YOU ARE REQUIRED TO WORSHIP CHARLIE KIRK IN THE WAY WE TELL YOU TO, LOWER YOUR FLAG TO HALF STAFF TO HONOR HIM, AND REPORT ANY OF YOUR CO WORKERS WHO DON’T DO THE SAME. YOU MUST REPORT ANY OF YOUR NEIGHBORS WHO YOU HEAR SAY ANYTHING THAT IS NOT REVERENTIAL AND WORSHIPFUL ENOUGH ABOUT CHARLIE! HE MUST BE HONORED BY EVERYONE, NO MATTER WHAT!
REPORT ANYONE WHO POSTS QUOTES FROM HIM ONLINE, TOO!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!
Deborah Coffey says
Bravo, Pierre! Everything you’ve written here needed to be said. TRUTH and LOVE…the most important things a human needs to value. Charlie didn’t value them here, but he may now know both in all their fullness and what it means to be truly Christian.
Notthatsherry says
Charlie Kirk was a Christian, he did not believe in violence, he believed in debate. To connect him with the Proud Boys is a ridiculous statement. He believed that we should talk to each other about our differences. He believed that our young people should be taught how to think not what to think. He help conservative young feel brave enough to voice their opinions.
Jake from state farm says
Ho hum, Pierre…
This tired routine from the left never changes. For years now, liberals have played the same destructive game—slapping labels on anyone who dares to disagree with them. Conservatives are “racists,” “fascists,” “Nazis,” and of course, every Democrat’s favorite slogan—“Trump is Hitler.” It’s lazy, dishonest, and toxic to our political climate. And yet, here you are, recycling that same hatred and passing it off as if it’s fresh commentary.
I’ll give you this: you’re free to write whatever editorials you want and people including Kimmel can say what they want. I respect that right, because unlike the left, conservatives actually believe in free speech (we do have dopes like Pam B that are clueless in in over here head). But let’s be honest—speech has consequences. Jimmy’s boss can fire him, Staples can fire emplyees, and schools can fire teachers for what they say. And the consequence of the left’s constant lying, censoring, and fear-mongering is that your own party is collapsing under the weight of its hypocrisy. Every insult, every double standard, every attempt to silence opposition—it’s all coming back on you. The left’s words are now its undoing.
I’ve heard the speeches myself. When VP Harris has openly floated the idea of “controlling conservative speech,” as if silencing millions of Americans is something to brag about. I remember the cheers from the left when Trump was banned from Twitter, when Tucker Carlson was forced off the air, and when other conservative voices were systematically erased from platforms. Don’t pretend that was about “protecting democracy.” That was about one thing and one thing only, control. That isn’t freedom—it’s censorship dressed up as virtue.
So here’s the reality, Pierre, the Democratic Party doesn’t need more excuses, more name-calling, or more media spin. It needs to be fixed. And fixing it starts with admitting the obvious—that your party has completely lost its way. You’ve allowed it to be hijacked by identity politics, radical activists, cancel culture warriors, and leaders more obsessed with clinging to power than serving the people. Until you confront that truth, you will keep losing credibility, elections, and the trust of ordinary Americans. I replied to your editorials years ago with the following but the left has just sunken lower. We need to strong parties to keep each other honest but yours is gone.
Conservatives didn’t destroy the Democratic Party—it destroyed itself. The arrogance, the censorship, the contempt for faith, freedom, and the average citizen—that’s what’s driving people away in droves. And unless you change course, Pierre, the “party of the people” will be nothing more than a hollow slogan, remembered only as a warning of what happens when politics becomes about control instead of liberty.
I can hardly wait for your witty response and predictable denial. The sad truth is, I could probably write your reply for you, because I already know what it will lack—any acceptance of fault, any recognition that your party is in deep trouble. That kind of self-reflection just isn’t in the playbook.
But since you were able to call the electoral votes “to the T” in the last presidential election I think you can see the truth even if you won’t admit it. Maybe you can give us your crystal-ball prediction for the midterms. If the left continues barreling down the same path of division, censorship, and failed leadership, what exactly do you think is going to happen?
Sherry says
@ i am charlie kirk. . . Just what kind of God preaches the fear and hatred charlie kirk did? Certainly NOT mine! If you worship such a deity, your life must truly be a living hell. For that you have my sympathy. Rest In Peace charlie kirk.
We should all speak out against “ALL” murders! Violence and killing is should never be acceptable to any human being! We should all mourn the people killed in the US, Gaza, Ukraine. . . worldwide. . . each and everyday.
Sherry says
The latest polling looks bad for trump:
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republicans’ outlook on the direction of the country has soured dramatically, according to a new AP-NORC poll that was conducted shortly after last week’s assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The share of Republicans who see the country headed in the right direction has fallen sharply in recent months, according to the September survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Today, only about half in the GOP see the nation on the right course, down from 70% in June. The shift is even more glaring among Republican women and the party’s under-45 crowd.
Overall, about one-quarter of Americans say things in the country are headed in the right direction, down from about 4 in 10 in June. Democrats and independents didn’t shift meaningfully.
Joe D says
Well …free speech might not be quite “dead” yet….but it’s certainly on LIFE SUPPORT this morning….ABC has a big subsidiary merger coming up which the Trump FCC has to
approve….so ABC is censoring THEMSELVES before Trump’s RETRIBUTION can take hold like with CBS! If you hear what Kimmel actually SAID, it’s not that far off reality…the Conservatives in the Media IMMEDIATELY made the suspect a “left wing terrorist” and blamed the Democrats…turns out the suspect is a conservative INDEPENDENT who has never actually voted…OPPS! What Kimmel said is actually the unfortunate TRUTH! But even if it isn’t the FULL TRUTH (remember the CONCEPT of what the “truth” is?), Kimmel has every right to throw out the question….except not in TRUMPLAND….absolutely FRIGHTENING!
We are getting closer to the script from 1984 and “Big Brother” each and every day! Straight out of Hitler’s playbook!
Johnny says
Charlie brought common sense to a world full of chaos. He didn’t always say what people wanted to hear, but he delivered it with a truth that made certain people uncomfortable, and for that I’m eternally grateful.
joe says
And it gets even more Orwellian:
“New bill filed in Oklahoma that says every public university in the state must have a “Charlie Kirk Memorial Plaza” with a statue of Kirk and his family.”
JimboXYZ says
Atwp says, enough have felt that way about the Biden, even Obama, RFK Jr. the internet search engines are full of the news stories where someone’s life hasn’t quite turned out the way they would’ve preferred. I guess it comes with the territory of being the elected one ?
https://apnews.com/article/utah-biden-fbi-assassination-threat-ba3cc1d3b2f6cca8bd429febdcf04219
https://lawandcrime.com/crime/im-cutting-your-f-head-off-man-threatened-biden-with-violence-warned-president-not-to-return-to-his-childhood-hometown-feds-say/
https://time.com/7000018/florida-man-jason-alday-biden-death-threats-arrest-sex-offender/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_incidents_involving_Barack_Obama
Pogo says
@Thanks for the backlash
… please, may we have some more. Tell us again how Joe was just as bad — and worse.
All pigs are equal — some more than others…
Any place for this on this site?
https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu-sn&channel=fs&q=bill+maher#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:8f9566c9,vid:F8LejmOztU8,st:0
Carl Hungus says
That’s enough brain cancer for me this morning. That was difficult to read. Oof.
Ed P says
Is it possible to condemn….
Of course, but maybe after the funeral?
Is Funeral etiquette and speaking ill of the dead also gone?
Mortified might not be strong enough.
We all need to learn, our comments don’t always age well and timing is important.
Laurel says
CBS cancelled Steven Colbert for joking about Trump. Trump said “Jimmy Kimmel is next.” Jimmy Kimmel was indefinitely suspended for commenting about Kirk. Trump is calling for the dismissal of Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers on NBC. “Just do it” ranted Trump on *Truth* Social. Trump defunded PBS. The hard core right wants only a state approved, one way street. They think, that somehow, this is “Christian.” I think they missed something there.
ABC and CBS capitulated to Trump’s demands as they both have mergers coming up, and they are willing to kill free speech in order to get what they want, sending all of us (US) down the river.
Yep, money rules over the Constitution, over our freedoms, over our sanctity, over wildlife and over our very planet. So, what I don’t understand is, what’s left to enjoy when all aforementioned is destroyed?
Charlie Kirk was not teaching people to think, he was teaching people to think his way in negative terms. I have played Devil’s Advocate, off and on, all my life, yet I never meant to box people in, or categorize them the way Kirk did. This view that he was teaching people to think is just another excuse to cover bigotry. I do not see his “Christian” side when he verbally condems those who are other than white, Christian (supposed), males.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Thanks Jake, from state farm, hit the nail on the head. Can U imagine President AOC, a bartender? Between democrats embrassing socialism / communism & have no plan is amazing. TRUMP Derangement Syndrome is alive & kicken in the Jackass Party!
RentCareless says
It is telling that Kirk supported a felon, rapist, alleged child sex predator, misogynist, racist, corrupt, greedy narcissist for president but not people whose only crime was coming here illegally.
Pogo says
@ v2.0 (or, don’t hurriedly comment at 3:25 am — for whatever reason you weren’t asleep)
As stated
https://www.google.com/search?q=bill+maher
Laurel says
CBS has sold Paramount Plus to Skydance, a Trump friendly company, for $8 billion. Skydance promises to change the way 60 Minutes provides news, though 60 Minutes has been the favorite news program of all time, on TV. Trump sued 60 Minutes for editing his interview (though they played the edited part on a later show) in a way that is far less egregious than Fox Entertainment has done with his interviews there. Also, the editing part is common practice, and has been since the beginning of broadcasts. So, two things are obvious here: Money and revenge. The baby cannot take criticism. Don’t forget power, at your expense.
I will ditch the CBS app, and Paramount Plus subscription. I don’t need their propaganda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zdtFFOpW7s
I will decide on ABC network next. I prefer free speech over government controlled speech.
Trump is not your retribution, you are his.
Laurel says
Dictatorship in the Philippines. This is worth your time; the Daily Show guest Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa:
jason barton says
Mr. Kirk was never an advocate for free speech, he was an advocate for the kind of speech his benefactors paid him to say, and many of the things he said early in his podcasting career changed as the money flowed in. Just because you say abhorrent things in a calm and well-spoken voice doesn’t make them any less abhorrent.
Mr. Kirk wasn’t a debater, he was a performer, and time didn’t make his act any more true, or less hateful, it only made his delivery more slick and polished.
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
Charlie Kirk was incredibly clear on what his positions were and how he felt about women, black people, and anyone else that wasn’t a white christian nationalist. He was quick to jump on a grift if he could make a buck off of it and knew that the way to a big bank account was to align his positions with the people at the top. He was charismatic and reached young white incels almost as effectively as jordan peterson or nick fuentes did. What’s interesting to me is that the vast majority of the dingbats chanting “we are charlie” see a charismatic white man gunned down for speaking “the truth” and not what he truly was. I say interesting but not surprising since these same people were wearing adult diapers or ear bandages in solidarity with trump not even a year ago.
As Reverend Howard John-Wesley so correctly pointed out, how you die does not redeem how you lived. The true victims in his are his kids.
Laurel says
Dennis C Rathsom said “Thanks Jake, from state farm, hit the nail on the head. Can U imagine President AOC, a bartender? Between democrats embrassing socialism / communism & have no plan is amazing. TRUMP Derangement Syndrome is alive & kicken in the Jackass Party!”
Dennis: I bar tended my way through college. During that time, I paid for my own schooling, health insurance, car insurance, rent, food, gas, car repair, you name it. I got a dime from no one. I had to go to classes whenever they were available, that didn’t clash with my job schedule. Sometimes at night, sometimes during the day. Once, I had to deal with two jobs and school, at the same time. Yet, I managed to graduate with a 4.0 average, and still have the transcripts to prove it (sort of a trophy). You know how I did it? I took my test questions to work with me, and had the customers at the bar ask me the test questions while I mixed drinks for a very busy restaurant! That, and determination.
So, maybe you should think about what you are going to write before you do so, and not criticize someone for their employment. You should think about how you would sound, with a tone that is seemingly superior to the responsible worker, and maybe, you should knock off the “jackass party” stuff while you’re at it. You are impressing no one with that comment. Oh, and you have the advantage of spell check, that I didn’t have in school, and you may want to consider using it.
I’m not a Democrat, but I can tell you that you have a ways to go to catch up with the cleverness of AOC.
Can U imagine a felon & rapist President?
BillC says
@ Barton “Prove me wrong” just doesn’t have the same ring as “I have a dream”. Brilliant!
To add to that sentiment, “prove me wrong” is an invitation to argument and division. “I have a dream” is an invitation for unity and inclusion.
I am Charlie Kirk! says
Just for the record Trump was never convicted of rape. Another lie from the left. I hear more hate from the left than I have ever heard from the right. Democrats continue to try and force people to accept Trans surgery and hormones to children in the name of inclusion and acceptance. It’s ironic how little the left actually accepts very little of those that do not believe in their beliefs. In fact, that is why they call people on the right bigot’s, racists and homophobic, because the right believes in Strong borders and not giving surgeries to children and hormones among other things.
justbob says
I must say as usual Pierre’s word smithing was extraordinary. And I’m also very impressed with the majority of the comments. It alleviated the worry that I was alone as an adament “Not Charlie” in Palm Coast.
JW says
This an emotional time for America. We just demonstrated again that we have become an extremely divided country and no longer the greatest nation on the planet. The sad part is that we can not even meet our (the president’s) promise to solve the problems in Ukraine and Israel. The world is watching: a superpower destroying itself.
Robjr says
The Kirk followers, the right wing so called Christians and their Christian nationalists brethren should pay heed to Galatians 6:7. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
MM says
Carlie Kirk was every man on the radical right. He spoke their beliefs and wasn’t afraid to be a racist, homophobic, bigoted, neo Nazi right in front of your eyes. Proud of it actually, that is why he was so scary to listen to. The propaganda he spread amongst the youths of today did irreparable damage . He was pure evil and this is what Trump is too, pure evil. His followers should hide in shame.
The Truth says
If Trump support Kirk so much he should do what he wanted and that is to release all of the Epstein files in his honor.
Laurel says
Ditched Peacock last year, as they just kept creeping up the monthly fee without warning or explanation. Even though it was cheap, it was the principle of the thing. Now, I will decide whether I want to get it back. It was kind of so – so.
Dumped Hulu and Disney Plus yesterday, and Paramount Plus is on the table for dumping as well. I will not sit still for government approved speech. Ted Cruz said that Kimmel was wrong, but has the freedom to say what he said, which was no big deal, and the censorship is dangerous. What Kimmel said was not wrong, Trump, et al, is using Kirk’s death to their perceived advantage. I have nothing to do with Fox Entertainment, and will not purchase a package that promotes their false tirades. They have obviously, repeatedly lied, and I don’t give a damn about their narrow minded, consistently biased comments.
We watched Real Time last night (we always watch it on Saturday instead of Friday) and Bill Maher caught that The View gals were mum on the subject. I did too! I was giving them one more day, to see if they brought the subject of Kimmel up. They did not. They were told to shut up on the subject, and they did. As much as I like Whoopie, I got tired of her turning to the audience and pontificating about how we are all in this together. Some of you may be surprised, but my favorite commenter on the show was Alyssa Farrah Griffin, the Republican. She knew and worked around Trump, and she had direct experience in the government. Well, sorry, Alyssa, but y’all caved. No more “The View for me.”
I will stick with YouTube. Yes, I know it’s owned by Google, but it’s almost impossible to get away from the oligarchs and I can choose who I want to follow, and they still can say whatever they want. So far, it’s not one sided. I will stay with Netflix, and I will continue to support PBS. Looks like Roku’s new add free channel, for $3 a month, will be added to my keeper list. I will also stay with HBO and Starz, two stand alone companies that are on the stock market. Hmmmm….
Bye bye ABC and CBS apps. Bye bye government approved speech. Yes, we have always had media censorship. TV used to make fun of the little guy, with the horn rimmed glasses, who sat around during the filming of shows, and jumped up and condemned certain words. George Carlin gave us that list of “the seven dirty words you cannot say on television.” I do think that shows have gone too far with violence, and too far with sex as if we all want to know, they have for a long time. But this is wholly different. This is kissing Trump’s fragile, snowflake ass. I won’t do it.
By the way, Fubo, ESPN and the NFL, are willing to send us down the river for money too. Think about it. Money determines our fate. Okay, I just voted.
Pierre Tristam says
@Charlie Kirk,
Trump in a counterclaim that echoes yours said Jean Carroll “made these statements knowing each of them were false or with reckless disregard for their truth or falsity”. Judge Kaplan set him straight, as I need not do here better than Kaplan did, when he dismissed the counterclaim, writing unequivocally: “The only issue on which the jury did not find in Ms Carroll’s favour was whether she proved that Mr Trump ‘raped’ her within the narrow, technical meaning of that term in the New York penal law.”
So, Charlie, perhaps you should check the record before writing for it.
Sherry says
While I most certainly condemn the negativity of fear, hate and anger charlie kirk stood for and dangerously peddled, I passionately SUPPORT the constitution and the ‘Freedom of Speech” that allowed him to publically speak his vile words.
We are now experiencing the trump weaponization of the government to strip away the very freedoms that were guaranteed by our constitution at every turn! And, the democrats are shaking in their boots doing absolutely everything they can to thread the needle and hold onto their personal political power/ MONEY without “rocking the boat”.
We should “ALL” be ashamed of our leaders on both sides of the aisle. Where is the “moral” leadership and courage that our founders had when they crafted our constitution? Fascism is being rolled out before our very eyes and very few are stepping up to make ANY effort to stop it!
Thank you Pierre. . . you are quickly becoming quite the rare breed!
We are Charlie says
Pierre desperately attempting to stay relevant in a world swaying away from all these dangerous and ignorant leftist ideas. More drivel and smearing the name of a great man, still taking things out of context or missing – intentionally or out of sheer ignorance – the intended point of his statements. They must push for illegal aliens and a path to citizenship because they are hemorrhaging American citizen voters. You can cite fake polls, or you can look at the actual data with what’s happening on the ground.
Nationwide D to R defections now outnumbering R to D by 3 to 1. New registrations are leaning heavily R. People are waking up to the lies, hate, and delusions of the left which have been on full display as of late. Florida may be red, but that delta has steadily grown since Trump has been in office. Florida Republicans now outnumber Democrats by 1,370,618. In Nov 2022 it was only 356, 212. So, I understand the desperate desire to paint anything on the right as evil, it’s the only trick you have. Can’t beat them with logical ideas? Try to paint them as Hitler and a threat to our existence then. But people are seeing straight through it, it shows in the changes in voter demographics, and we know who the real threat is.
Meanwhile, I’m just ramping up donations to TPUSA as I am blessed enough to have plenty of disposable income – and getting as many people involved as I can. Soon rags like FlaglerLive will be relegated to the dustbin of history. Have a great day while we watch a meaningful memorial with a stadium full to the brim with amazing Christian patriots, for the great Charlie Kirk.
BillC says
@ I am Charlie Kirk Yes you are, another disseminator of misinformation just like him. FYI The reason Trump was not convicted of rape is because in NY, rape is technically defined as the insertion of the penis. What Trump did was forcibly and against Carroll’s will insert his finger into her. So, according to you, Trump did nothing wrong, he is innocent.
Brian says
Hey Sherry, Deborah, and Pierre – please let us know of anybody on the left, if assassinated, or died for any reason, whose funeral would fill a 70,000 seat stadium with another 100,000 outside. Thanks, I’ll wait.
Skibum says
Laurel, I too was anticipating an immediate response to Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension by The View gals, and when I heard nothing last week, I was surprised. Well, this morning’s show opened up by Whoopie putting the rumors to rest. The first thing she said was about the Jimmy Kimmel controversy, and she explained why they waited until this morning to discuss it. Whoopie said they wanted to give Kimmel the opportunity to respond first before they gave their opinions, and would have done so on Friday’s show except that one was taped, not live.
This was followed by a lively discussion about drumph’s efforts to sick the FCC on broadcast media, and clips of two GOP senators who are warning the idiot in the WH and other 1st Amendment violators how abhorrent and unconstitutional this crackdown is were shown to viewers.
Let’s be clear… this latest move by drumph should not be a surprise to anyone. He has NEVER been one to like free speech that goes against him or the views and decisions he makes. It was not all that long ago when America watched Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players publicly take a knee on football field sidelines in protest, which was their free speech method of protest. It would have been one thing if NFL owners alone gave the players sanctions or directed what player activities were appropriate while employed as players. But for the government, particularly a president of the U.S. to chime in and say that NFL team owners should fire any player who dares to take a knee in protest is absolutely wrong. It was rightly condemned by many American free speech advocates then.
So anyone should have been able to see what is happening now as inevitable, because bullies like drumph only get worse, they never back down unless they are forcibly smacked down and made to back off. We will see how long it takes our federal courts to smack drumph’s latest blatantly unconstitutional actions down.
I can only hope that more and more of drumph’s own GOP elected officials join in with the ones who have already spoken up in opposition to him. It has been a LONG time coming, but I guess it is better late than never.
Sherry says
Thank you Bill C for posting “credible facts” about trump’s horrific sexual assault of E. Jean Carroll.
Unfortunately, core Maga Cult members could care less about “FACTS”. They have been radicalized and indoctrinated into an “alternate reality” where trump is worshipped and everyone who says anything at all that makes trump look bad is hated vilified. TDS is their excuse for absolutely “everything” that is contrary to the fear and hate filled teachings of their lord and master trump!
Skibum says
Brian, just a quick check on Wikipedia showed that Martin Luther King’s funeral procession in Atlanta, GA “down the three-and-a-half miles from Ebenezer Baptist Church to Morehouse College was observed by over 100,000 people”.
What’s your point??? Maybe you believe that they hand out tickets and depending on how many mourners there are, some type of score is tallied up and the more points, the higher the deceased rates on a “good person” scale?
Are you so callous to think that all of the many thousands of school children who have also been murdered by a wacko person with a gun and only had close family and friends in attendance at their funerals were not so loved as your pseudo-Christian nationalist Charlie Kirk?
Your comment smacks of a very narrow-minded, brainwashed person that should be pitied for making such a shallow remark.
Laurel says
What the Kirk people have missed, besides Kirk’s bullshit, is that a reporter asked Trump how he felt about Kirk’s murder. Trump’s answer was so slight, that it was barely heard, and he quickly turned towards the White House, perked up and started rambling about his new ballroom! One could see he had enough about Charlie, and wanted the attention back on his self.
I am Charlie Kirk! says
@ Pierre
Yes, a civil jury did find Trump liable for sexual abuse, not RAPE — and that distinction matters. He wasn’t convicted of any crime. And the case was brought decades after the alleged event, under a newly passed law that reopened the window for lawsuits. You can question the timing, the location, and the politics — that doesn’t mean the verdict is invalid, but it’s not above scrutiny either. Let’s keep it honest and grounded in the actual facts. So for someone to call Trump a rapist is incorrect. I would argue that the timing was politically motivated. Even the award amount of 83 million dollars is absurd.