Apocalyptic and Deranged

Morning Dispatch

Wait, what?

On Sunday, a week and a half after Charlie Kirk was fatally shot at a college campus in Utah, deluded MAGA loyalists--who are convinced that Charlie Kirk was the second coming of Christ--gathered in Arizona for a memorial service of sorts in his honor. Kirk’s murder, exploited by the likes of Donald and Stephen Miller, has been a uniting event for the right and created an incendiary environment in which political retribution and violent rhetoric have reached a fever pitch. All of this is the direct result of the provocations of the powers that be. The already deeply-seeded inclinations on the right towards violence and division were amplified during this event, which was as much a political rally and vengeance tour as memorial. People from Donald on down made horrific claims about the left’s complicity in Kirk’s murder. Donald took the opportunity to reject unity and embrace hate and vengeance.

In that private moment on his dying day. We find everything we need to know about who Charlie Kirk truly was. He was a missionary with a noble spirit and a great, great purpose. He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That's where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don't want the best for them. I'm sorry. I am sorry Erica, but now Erica can talk to me and the whole group and maybe they can convince me that that's not right, but I can't stand my opponent.

Well, that's unsurprising. And quite a way to honor a man Donald pretended to care about. Donald, of course, had to let us, and his increasingly activated followers, know exactly who he believes his perceived political enemies to be, those he pretends to hold responsible for this whole ordeal—the radical left lunatics:

Charlie's murder was not just an attack on one man or one movement. It was an attack on our entire nation. That was a horrible attack on the United States of America. It was an assault on our most sacred liberties, and God-given rights, the gun was pointed at him, but the bullet was aimed at all of us. That bullet was aimed at every one of us.

And then he promised to bring the entire weight of the Department of Justice to bear on those Donald has long wanted to take down:

The Department of Justice is also investigating networks of radical left maniacs who fund organized fuel and perpetrate political violence, and we think we know who many of them are.

Before I respond to that, I want to fact check Donald first. In the wake of Kirk’s shooting, NBC news reported that there is absolutely zero evidence linking Kirk’s assailant to left wing ideology or left-wing groups, radical or otherwise. Zero. But Donald Trump is not one to let facts get in the way of a good story. He has his narrative and he's sticking to it regardless of how dangerous it is, and regardless of how it will increase the temperature. In fact, that’s what he wants.

Donald, of course, was not the only member of his regime engaging in hateful and violent rhetoric. White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller, was positively apocalyptic. I expect nothing from Miller. He is a vile Nazi and white nationalist, but the speech he gave was something Joseph Goebbels would have been proud of.

The light will defeat the dark. We will prevail over the forces of wickedness and evil. They cannot imagine what they have awakened. They cannot conceive of the army that they have arisen in all of us because we stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble, and to those trying to incite violence against us, those trying to foment hatred against us. What do you have? You have nothing. You are nothing. You are wickedness. You are jealousy. You are envy. You are hatred. You are nothing. You can build nothing. You can produce nothing. You can create nothing. We are the ones who build. We are the ones who create. We are the ones who lift up humanity.

Indeed, these words are eerily reminiscent of Goebbels’ 1932 speech, “The Storm Is Coming.” So not only is Stephen Miller a vile Nazi, he’s also a plagiarist, but that's literally the least bad thing you can say about him.

It's a matter of small importance that Donald Trump has created nothing in his miserable life. This Republican fascist party is similarly incapable of building anything good. All they have done in the first eight months of the Trump regime is destroy American values, American standing, American institutions, Americans’ rights. Miller’s speech and its tenor is right out of the Nazi playbook. He's dehumanizing people on the left to advance an anti-American agenda. It is horrific that Charlie Kirk was murdered, and I had nothing to do with it. I’m certain none of you did either.

As far as I'm aware, it was the work of one man whose motives we don't yet even know.

Republican leadership is using Charlie Kirk's death to further their fascist agenda. They're using the death of a man they claim to care about to make America an increasingly dangerous place--at least if you don't agree with them. They’re using Kirk's murder to chill free speech and to put all of us who are on the other side on notice. Consider us warned.