On September 10, 2025, Right-wing propagandist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at a Turning Point USA public debate event on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem, Utah.
Immediately afterward, President Donald Trump and his Republican allies threatened retribution (“consequences”) for people who spoke callously about his killing.
Both in and out of Trump’s administration people were fired, suspended or reprimanded for exercising their Constitutional right to freedom of speech.
Charlie Kirk
Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Among those so far fired or punished: Teachers, an Office Depot employee, government workers, a TV pundit.
Over the weekend following Kirk’s death, Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted that American Airlines had grounded pilots who he said were celebrating Kirk’s assassination.
On September 15—five days after Kirk’s death—Vice President J.D. Vance hosted Kirk’s podcast: “So, when you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out and, hell, call their employer. We don’t believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility.”
At the Munich Security Conference in February, Vance had criticized the preceding Biden administration for encouraging “private companies to silence people” who spread misinformation about the COVID pandemic:
“Under Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree or disagree.”
J.D. Vance
At the Pentagon, military leaders declared a “zero tolerance” policy for any posts or comments from troops that joked about or celebrated the death of Kirk.
“It is unacceptable for military personnel and Department of War civilians to celebrate or mock the assassination of a fellow American,” wrote Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top spokesman.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller vowed to use law enforcement to go after Americans who mocked Kirk’s death, calling that domestic terrorism:
“We will not live in fear, but you will live in exile, because the power of law enforcement under President Trump’s leadership will be used to find you, will be used to take away your money, take away your power, and if you have broken the law to take away your freedom.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suspended an Army colonel for a post criticizing Kirk after his death and said the Pentagon was “very closely tracking responses celebrating or mocking Kirk’s death.”
Trump ordered the lowering of the American flag on all public buildings from September 10 to the 14th in honor of Kirk.
Yet he refused to do so following the June 14, 2025 murder of Minnesota State Representative and Speaker of the House of Representatives Melissa Hortman in her home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.
Also shot—and killed—was her husband, Mark.
Melissa Hortman
Office of Governor Tim Walz & Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, PDM-owner, via Wikimedia Commons
Earlier that morning, Democratic state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, had been shot in their home in nearby Champlin. Both were hospitalized and survived.
And how did Republican United States Senator Mike Lee react to the shootings?
Writing on X, the Utah Senator posted: “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way.”
On the contrary: Vance Luther Boelter, the alleged shooter, was virulently anti-abortion and anti-Democrat—and voted in the Republican Presidential primary.
And in a second post, Lee posted a picture of Boelter under the caption “Nightmare on Walz Street,” parodying the title of the slasher film, “Nightmare on Elm Street.” It was also a slam on Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz.
On Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) blamed news outlets for having guests on who called Trump a “fascist” or compared him to the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
Yet it is Republicans who have repeatedly called Democrats “fascists.”
For example: On August 14, 2023, a Georgia grand jury indicted Donald Trump and 18 allies for election interference in that state following the 2020 Presidential election. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani responded: “We’re going to beat these fascists into the ground.”
Trump has repeatedly called “radical left Democrats” “fascists.” On his website, Truth Social, he claimed that his “persecution” by the “Biden Crime Family” was “reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.”
On the September 10 edition of “Fox & Friends,” Fox News host Brian Kilmeade advocated the execution of mentally ill homeless people.
Kilmede was talking with co-hosts Lawrence Jones and Ainsley Earhardt about the August 22 stabbing murder of Iryna Zarufska on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina.
A homeless and mentally ill man, Decarlos Brown Jr., was arrested for the murder.
Kilmeade’s solution: “Involuntary lethal injection, or something. Just kill ‘em. I will say this, we’re not voting for the right people.”
The Fox Network made no move to oust Kilmeade for calling for the executions of more than an estimated 120,000 mentally ill homeless Americans.
In George Orwell’s classic political fable, Animal Farm, the dictatorial pig, Napoleon, decrees that a sign be posted:
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL.
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.
According to Republicans’ behavior: All violent deaths of politicians are terrible. But the violent deaths of Right-wing politicians are more terrible than others.
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A CHURCHILL FOR CALIFORNIA–AND AMERICA: PART ONE (OF FOUR)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on June 22, 2026 at 12:10 amOn November 30, 1954—the 80th birthday of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill—he gave an uncharacteristically modest assessment of his World War II legacy:
“It was the nation and the race dwelling all around the globe that had the lion’s heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.”
But author William Manchester was having nothing of it. In his monumental trilogy, The Last Lion, he wrote:
“It wasn’t that simple. The spirit, if indeed within them, lay dormant until he became prime minister and they, kindled by his soaring prose, came to see themselves as he saw them and emerged a people transformed, the admiration of free men everywhere.”
History is filled with examples of men—and women—who in moments of crisis rose to challenge a deadly enemy.
Among these have been:
Joan of Arc (c. 1412 – 30 May 1431) was an illiterate peasant girl who, in France’s darkest hour, became its greatest hero. After she arranged an interview with King Charles V11, he sent her with a relief army to lift the siege of Orléans.
Joan of Arc
She had never wielded a lance or sword, or even ridden a war horse. She had never studied military strategy nor even seen a battlefield. Yet nine days after arriving with an army at Orléans, she lifted the English siege of the city on May 8, 1429.
On May 4, her army attacked the outlying fortress of Saint Loup. She arrived just as the French soldiers were retreating after a failed attempt. Her sudden appearance roused the soldiers to cheer and launch another assault—which overwhelmed the fortress.
In June, Joan decisively defeated the English at the Battle of Patay. She then advanced on Reims, entering the city on July 16. The next day, Charles, the rightful heir to the French throne, was consecrated as the King of France in Reims Cathedral with Joan at his side.
These victories paved the way for the final French victory in the Hundred Years’ War at Castillon in 1453.
On May 23, 1430, while relieving the siege of Compiegne, she was captured by Burgundians troops and exchanged to the English. Tried for heresy, she was declared guilty and burned at the stake on May 30,1431.
Only 19 when she died, she had, through her inspired leadership, restored the kingdom of France.
William Barret Travis (August 1, 1809 – March 6, 1836) was a South Carolina lawyer whose courage and eloquence inspired 200 Texans at the Alamo to hold back an army of 2,000 Mexican soldiers.
William Barret Travis
Few of the defenders had known each other before finding themselves besieged. None of them had had professional military training. Some had served in local militias or as irregulars fighting Indians under the command of frontier officers such as Andrew Jackson. Since the vast majority of the garrison were volunteers, they could have deserted the fortress at any time.
Holding them in place was Travis. Gifted with an eloquence beyond his 26 years, he gave purpose to their stand. As historian T.R. Fehrenbach writes in his monumental book, Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans:
“From the Alamo, from his first message before the arrival of the Mexicans to his last, his words had the ring of prophecy. The Texas historian who stated publicly that few people would want to have a son serve under William Barret Travis had forgotten, in the comforts of long security, the reasons why men make war.”
When the final assault came before dawn on March 6, 1836, the roughly 200 defenders killed and wounded about 600 of their enemies—inflicting a casualty rate of 33% on the Mexican army.
Travis’ body was found near his cannon on the north wall. He had been shot through the forehead.
The garrison’s sacrifice inspired Sam Houston’s ragtag army to fall on the Mexican army at San Jacinto on April 21. Slaughtering about 800 soldiers, the Texans captured Mexican dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna—and forced him to surrender control of Texas in return for his life.
Volofmyr Zelensky (January 25, 1978 – ) is a former attorney, actor and comedian who, as the sixth president of Ukraine, now leads his country in a life-or-death struggle against the aggressive Russia of Vladimir Putin.
After earning a law degree from Kiev National Economic University, he pursued a career in comedy. He created his own production company, Kvartal 95, which produced films, cartoons, and TV shows. His comedy, Servant of the People, starred Zelensky as the president of Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelensky
In 2019, he announced his candidacy for president of Ukraine. He opposed the corruption that had been rife under the country’s luxury-loving president, Victor Yanukovych.
(In 2014, Ukrainians had rioted in Kiev and evicted Yanukovych. And that didn’t sit well with his “sponsor”—Russian President Vladimir Putin.)
A second feature of Zelensky’s presidential campaign: He promised to resolve the Russia-sponsored separatist movement in Donbas and end Ukraine’s protracted conflict there with Russia.
Zelensky won election by a landslide, with 72% of the vote.
In 2021, his administration came under mounting pressure from Russia. On February 24, 2022, Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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