30 Comments
User's avatar
Glen Anderson's avatar

They're working quickly at their agendas, most certainly. When Miller appeared on Fox News and called the Democratic Party a "domestic extremist organization", that was the warning shit. Now, with their Golden Child gone, its only going to escalate.

Expand full comment
Walfred Raisanen's avatar

Steve Miller is a Nazi asshole

Expand full comment
Outdoorluvr's avatar

So is his wife, whose comments about the shooting were absolutely vile and encouraged more violence.

Expand full comment
B. Calbeau's avatar

Afraid of that. I considered the Republican Party a terrorist organization. Here we go…

Expand full comment
Lord Gary's avatar

And we don’t have to “consider” the Republican Party being terrorists - they literally said they were in big bright colorful letters on stage.

Expand full comment
Daniel Pareja's avatar

I weep for the breakdown in democratic discourse that the murders of Jo Cox, David Amess, Heather Heyer, Melissa Hortman and Charlie Kirk exemplify, that the attacks on Steve Scalise, Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump, and the calls for the execution of Mike Pence, represent, of which even the censures of Sarah Jama and Zooey Zephyr and the ejections of Justin Pearson and Justin Jones are a symptom.

I do not especially weep for a man who said, "I can't stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new-age term that does a lot of damage."

Expand full comment
Daniel Pareja's avatar

I would also add that Charlie Kirk had no place in the civil discourse of a tolerant society, for he broke the contract of tolerance with his remarks about, among others, transgender individuals: https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/tpusas-charlie-kirk-trans-people

That does not mean I condone his murder; it does mean that I look with skepticism upon a society which continued to allow him to participate in its mainstream discourse.

Expand full comment
christina's avatar

The assassination benefits whom?

Expand full comment
Robot Bender's avatar

"Qui bono?" The violent far right.

Expand full comment
B. Calbeau's avatar

Thank you, Mike. The correct “frame” for this moment.😢

Expand full comment
Robot Bender's avatar

The longer I live, the more I see that Gramsci was correct. It's been building at least since the 70s. I'm expecting to see posts of his picture labeled "Avenge Charlie!" all over social media tonight, if they haven't already appeared.

I'm hoping that this isn't our "Horst Wessel" moment.

Expand full comment
Randy S. Eisenberg's avatar

Pretty much, sadly, the first thing I realized. Unfortunately it also reminded me how minimized Hortman’s death was and now, they have their Reichstag fire. The dichotomy of what happens next is not difficult to imagine. I hope we’re both wrong.

Expand full comment
Larissa Schwartz's avatar

Really struggling with the word 'conservative' being used to describe people who are pro-gun, anti-choice, and deniers of climate change and and and

Expand full comment
RickRickRick's avatar

Well, don’t worry. The enemy-of-the-people media on our TV is running continuous coverage of the “reactions” to the Kirk assassination. Far more coverage than when Donald Trump assassinated 11 people on a boat in the Caribbean. Maybe we need some Big Cheese to claim Charlie Kirk was a drug dealer, and then it will be all OK.

Expand full comment
John Sloan's avatar

Exactly correct sentiments as usual, Mike, but can we at least wait to see if this murder might <not> have been politically motivated? If that's the case, I'm a bit loathe to label the incident an "assassination" unless we go ahead and label <all> murder as "assassination."

Expand full comment
Outdoorluvr's avatar

I choose to call it a religiously-motivated murder, since Kirk was all about denial of constitutional separation of church and state (christian nationalism). It doesn't warrant the label of "political assassination", in my book, since Kirk was indoctrinating young people into his religious cult.

Expand full comment
Dennywit Troubledoer's avatar

I hear you, and I feel you, on your dread.

But it really is a shoe that we’re waiting to drop.

I’ve not looked, and do not feel curious really, But are you presuming a political motive because the decedent was an anti-democracy activist? Or is there some evidence who did it and why?

My immediate assumption is that it’s an internal, internecene struggle among the rights bearing fruit. More power hunger and madness. Did Kirk have power or significance outside his own shallow pool.

Perhaps he ran afoul of Vance, or Cheung… or Peewee German sacrificed him.

even Don Ding Dong probably has a guy he calls and drops hint

Couldn’t it just be a spurned lover or a cuckold husband? isn’t that all in line for the decedent?

Expand full comment
Sam Jannarone's avatar

I knew this would start this summer. It is the beginning of the second American Civil War. The world at large has been on fire; the chickens have come home to roost

Expand full comment
Stacy DePue's avatar

🫶🥲I am heartbroken. I disagreed with everything he represented but the the reality is I felt he was earnest in his foolishness. And did not deserve to die. I’m really sad for our country 🇺🇸

Expand full comment
Dan Henry's avatar

Insipid explanations based on the false premise of the left/right dichotomy isn’t helpful and actual is fuel for the danger you claim to be concerned about.

This isn’t time for pedantic analysis it is time for silence and reflection.

Expand full comment
Daniel Pareja's avatar

https://www.axios.com/local/denver/2025/09/10/evergreen-high-school-shooting

Meanwhile, a shooting at a high school in Denver has left the shooter dead by suicide and three others wounded.

Expand full comment
SUE Speaks's avatar

I'd say to also look from a bigger frame. As my household eats lovely dinners and watches some news on TV before the evening's shows, something is horrifying about being so comfortable as we see wars and famines and all the depravity going on in the world. So, I want to put in a word for the zeitgeist, and that we are moving deck chairs unless we make a massive shift to become a cooperative world instead of a combative one. I dare say that is the challenge of our time, and it will determine whether humanity makes it or not.

Expand full comment
Karen's avatar

Thank you for your humanity Mike. Your response is exemplary.

Expand full comment