mtutiger

The FBI being led by someone who couldn't organize a three car funeral doesn't help either. Made this point a bunch last year to a certain someone cheering on his appointment.... focusing on the POTUS's fishing expeditions comes at a cost to the basic blocking/tackling that the FBI is responsible for.

Yeah, it was, and to be honest Kobe wasn't necessarily someone to celebrate either for the same reasons you describe. But it was more understandable in the sense that he's at least someone who had significant name recognition among the general public.... I don't think Kirk has the same name ID and tend to think the coverage is reflected by his name ID among those with large megaphones (ie. politics and media world) versus those in the broader public.

To the point about Matthew Dowd losing his gig, public commentary is almost compelled to whitewash or sanitize this aspect of Kirk's personality. Totally understand the idea of turning down the temperature and being the adults and all of that, but increasing irritated with this idea that we are supposed to tell lies about who he was, how he comported himself, etc.

He's a uniquely internet/social media phenomenon, I'm sure some folks connect on a para social level with him. But I do wonder what the actual % of Americans who have actually heard of him before today. Which makes all of the media takes and the moment of silence at the Yankees game even more bizarre... this wasn't Kobe Bryant going down in a helicopter, yet the coverage is almost matching it

We don't even know who did this yet given that Trump's handpicked FBI agent, who isn't qualified to run a Hardees let alone one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the US, has thus far been ****ing up the case. Nonetheless, the asymmetry in how the center left-to-left is expected to act in these moments and how the right gets to act in a moment of violence against the center left-to-left (see most recently the Hortman murders) is incredibly frustrating.

We're not a serious country...

Charlie Kirk said a 'Patriot' should bail his attacker out of jail Political violence is bad, this shouldn't have happened. All of this is true. But it would be intellectually dishonest to not acknowledge the role that Kirk and his colleagues have played in what our society has become as well.

So incredibly gross and evil

Wow, who knew that JD "I don't give a ****" Vance was lying lol

Tom Hanks? Really?

Wow, we have truly never been more respected /s

It is not the most important story of the day, but damn if it doesn't sum this moment up well... an unpopular autocratic leader who is incapable of handling dissent, and a media that goes out of their way to stifle expressions of his unpopularity. That's not the America I grew up in... What a snowflake this POTUS is

This is pathetic

I address your point a little bit in a subsequent post about civil-military relations.... the problem for me is that Trump 2.0 has breached that trust, at least for me. I would love nothing more than to believe that this was a Commander in Chief following soberly given advice, but I have too much self-respect to swallow anything that this administration says without question.

All I know is that "Ride of the Valkyries" isn't going to make the commute into town on the Kennedy any faster... Not trying to downplay the danger of what they are doing, but we need to be clear that a lot of this is about putting on a show for not only his base, but to demoralize his detractors as well.

Harp on this a lot, but what are we getting for all of this? Material conditions that are worse than they were previously, unless you are a billionaire or a techie. As someone in my high 30s, it absolutely sucks having to spend the prime years of life thinking about this guy and that this generation, collectively, will have to deal with the aftermath of the damage that he will leave in his wake. And it absolutely sucks to have to raise kids in a society where (at the very least) a large minority gets off on being ***holes all the time. It's all very dangerous, but it's all very pointless as well. What a waste.

The closest to 'Nam that Trump has ever been lol.

It never ceases to amaze me how paper-thin skinned Trump is....

Just when I thought their defenses couldn't get any dumber...

No offense Lee 🙂

Beautiful non-answer here.... hang it in the Louvre

lol

Look, I think that there's a belief out there that the Civil-Military relations are still what they were pre-Trump 2.0, which may explain some of the contradiction here.... but we have seen Trump at numerous times use the military in ways that have politicized their work. Whether it's his speech in NC earlier this year with marines in the background hooting and hollering like it was a campaign rally, or his use of the National Guard in CA, DC and (potentially) in IL, just a couple of examples of him helping to instigate the breakdown in trust between civil society and the military. So while I would love to believe nothing more than this is a Commander in Chief that is acting upon reasonable direction from the military, by virtue of his actions since resuming office, I just can't do it. The trust is gone.