"If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other." Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) 18th US President
Jan 2025 newspaper coverage comparison of the murder of Charlie Kirk by Tyler Robinson. On Sept 16, 2025 The Washington Times front page had two above the fold stories blaming Leftist and their extremists for the killing. Trump puts target on left-wing movements:Weighs terrorism label for antifa. By Seth McLaughlin and Susan Ferrechio THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The Trump administration vowed Monday to root out left-wing organizations that foment political violence, pivoting from the successful manhunt to a broader response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
President Trump said he is considering designating antifa and other far-left groups as domestic terrorist organizations.
“Antifa is terrible,” Mr. Trump said. “There are other groups. We have some pretty radical groups that got away with murder.”
Earlier, Vice President J.D. Vance and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said federal authorities will go on the offensive by, among other things, stripping the tax-exempt status of liberal groups such as the Ford Foundation and the George Soros-founded Open Society Foundation.
Mr. Vance singled out those groups because they help fund The Nation magazine, which, he said, published a “disgusting article justifying Charlie’s death.”
“Do you know they benefit from generous tax treatment? They are literally subsidized by you and me, the American taxpayer,” Mr. Vance said. “And how do they reward us? By setting fire to the house built by the American family over 250 years.”
Bhaskar Sunkara, president of The Nation, said Mr. Vance was lying about the magazine’s financing in an attempt to “rile up his online Right base.”
“We’re not funded, not one dime by Soros or Open Society Foundation,” Mr.
Sunkara said on X. “The Soros/Open Society mention is a dogwhistle — an appeal to conspiracy tropes rather than reality.”
The White House did not specify other groups it could be targeting. An administration official told The New York Times that federal officials would be looking for links between left-wing groups and the people who burned Teslas and assaulted immigration enforcement officers.
Mr. Miller described the effort in robust terms.
“We are going to channel all of the anger that we have over the organized campaign that led to this assassination, to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks,” he said, citing the doxing of public officials and organized street violence. “It is a vast domestic terror movement.
“With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks and make America safe against the American people,” he said. “It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie’s name.”
The investigation into the assassination of the conservative activist at Utah Valley University last week is continuing, but authorities have arrested Tyler Robinson, 22, and are preparing to formally charge him Tuesday.
Investigators are compiling significant evidence implicating Mr. Robinson in the shooting of Mr. Kirk, and they believe he was indoctrinated by left-wing ideology.
In Congress, 23 House Republican lawmakers proposed a select committee to investigate “the money, influence and power behind the radical left’s assault on America and the rule of law.”
The lawmakers, led by Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, are interested in investigating the Southern Poverty Law Center, which labeled Mr. Kirk’s Turning Point USA as a “hate group.”
The lawmakers also want to investigate the Wren Collective, which advocates for cashless bail and other liberal criminal justice causes.
Since Mr. Trump took office, authorities have arrested dozens of members of the far-left antifa for rioting and attacking Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents carrying out deportations. Other antifa members have been arrested for violently protesting Israel at college campuses, attacking people and setting property on fire.
Bullet casings left at the scene of Mr. Kirk’s shooting were carved with antifascist messages favored by antifa.
Another offshoot of antifa is made up of transgender activists who call for violence against those who oppose transgender people and policies supporting them. A group of transgender people on Facebook that has more than half a million followers has urged supporters to “recruit ex-military members, stockpile weapons and train to kill for a paramilitary insurrection against the U.S. government,” independent journalist Andy Ngo, who closely follows the antifa movement, posted on X earlier this year.
Trans Army group said its use of military terminology and imagery “is metaphorical, intended to foster unity, resilience and structured resistance against discrimination and oppression.”
Another transgender group is accused of several killings.
Two members of a “Zizian” transgender terrorist cult are now on trial for the brutal killing of an elderly man. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a transgender Zizian member accused of killing a Border Patrol agent in Vermont. Members of the Zizian cult are tied to at least two other killings.
The plan to pursue left-wing groups arose while Mr. Vance paid tribute to Mr. Kirk by hosting his podcast, “The Charlie Kirk Show.” Mr. Vance broadcast the show from an office in the White House.
Mr. Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, has vowed that the podcast will continue.
An evangelical Christian and co-founder of the youth organizing group Turning Point USA, Mr. Kirk was fatally shot during one of his “Prove Me Wrong” debate sessions in front of about 3,000 students on the university green.
His assassination is the latest in a series of political violence that has rattled the nation and triggered concerns that things could get bloodier.
Mr. Trump has singled out the “radical left.” He said liberals have normalized the fiery rhetoric that is “directly responsible for the terrorism that we are seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”
“My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else that brings order to our country,” Mr. Trump said last week.
On the podcast, Mr. Vance said polls show a higher percentage of liberals have an appetite for political violence than conservatives.
“The data is clear, people on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political silence. This is not a both-sides problem,” he said. “If both sides have a problem, one side has a much bigger and malignant problem, and that is the truth we must be told.”
Indeed, a survey this year by Rutgers University’s Network Contagion Research Institute found that about half of liberal-leaning U.S. residents could justify the assassinations of Mr. Trump and his top adviser at the time, Elon Musk.
The left-wing political violence, the researchers warned, “is becoming increasingly normalized” and at risk of “real-world escalation” unless political and cultural leaders condemn the proviolence chatter.
Kerry Picket and Jeff Mordock contributed to this report.
Plus plus one more by Associated Press on page 10 “You have to go forward” Mr. Trump said. Bellicose rhetoric and even death threats have surged in the days since Mr. Kirk was killed. “The left is the party of murder”. Elon Musk posted on X, “If they won’t leave us in peace, then our choice is to fight or die.” To that, Fox News host Jesse Watters said during a broadcast, “The are at war with us. Whether we want to accept it or not, they are at war with us. What are we going to do about it?”
On Friday, a right-wing activist posted on line a video outside Illinois Gov. J.B. Prizker’s home, calling on followers to “take Action”.
The Washington Times Editorial: “Begin the investigations” Justice Department must scrutinize the leftist lies that murdered Charlie Kirk
An antifa-inspired killer used a rifle round to deprive the world of an irreplaceable talent Wednesday. We can’t allow the assassination of Charlie Kirk to be swept under the rug like the attempt on President Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Police say Tyler Robinson, a 22-yearold college dropout, performed the foul deed. Despite an outwardly conservative upbringing in Utah, Mr. Robinson was radicalized to the point that he was willing to take the life of a man he didn’t personally know.
As is becoming a common theme in mass shootings, transgender ideology has made an appearance. Authorities say Mr. Robinson was romantically involved with his male roommate, who was undergoing cosmetic surgery to look like a woman. One of the bullets found with the murder weapon is engraved with a message referencing such a relationship. Others have catchphrases from antifa revolutionaries.
The monster behind this crime appears to have believed the boasts of online trolls on Reddit, his friends on the Discord gaming chat server, Marxist professors and corporate-owned media outlets. All proclaimed
that Mr. Kirk was a “Nazi” who advocated the elimination of transgender people.
By the warped logic of zealotry, Mr. Kirk deserved his fate. Each of the statements adduced as evidence of the Turning Point USA founder’s supposed bigotry was taken out of context. That mattered not to the coward who delivered a fatal blow from 150 yards away.
The only way to stop this insanity from continuing is for the Justice Department to go after the vast left-wing machine actively radicalizing America’s youths. Taxpayer dollars and donations from liberal billionaires are fueling a culture of hate, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller vows to provide justice.
“I don’t care how. It could be a RICO charge, a conspiracy charge, conspiracy against the United States, insurrection. But we are going to do what it takes to dismantle the organizations and the entities that are fomenting riots, that are doxing, that are trying to inspire terrorist attacks, that are committing acts of wanton violence. It has to stop,” he said on Fox News.
Even some milquetoast Republicans have come to recognize the dark ends of liberal nihilism and are joining the cause. The widespread lack of contrition on the part of leftists, and even open celebration of the murder, has steeled resolve among the moderates who realize they could be next.
Government employees,
including a Secret Service agent, are being caught toasting the slaying. That’s troubling. Figurative heads need to roll at the agency for its ongoing failures to protect the president, including Code Pink’s ambush of Mr. Trump inside a downtown D.C. restaurant last week.
This incident was harmless agitation by the fair-weather anti-war group, which has a mysterious habit of disappearing when Democrats are in power. Intentionally or not, the group’s success could be interpreted as a test run for more sinister collectives seeking to fulfill the wishes expressed by Democratic leaders about silencing political opponents they brand as existential threats to democracy.
Rep. Randy Fine, Florida Republican, proposes legislation to shed light on the flow of money behind the most pernicious ideas spread on social media. “I am filing a bill requiring protesters and ‘influencers’ to disclose when they are being paid and by who,” he posted on X last week. “These are political actors, no different than candidates who have to disclose where their support comes from.”
For Republicans, tearing apart the left’s violence promotion enterprise is self-preservation.
2 of 3 Letters to the Editor:
Call them the ‘Demo-crazed’
“Demo-crazed” should be the new name for the woke contingent that stole the heart and soul of what was once a family-values-oriented and patriotic political party. Now, it’s the enemy from within destroying our country and Constitution.
My unworthy supposed “representatives” now support illegal immigrants, criminals and antisemitism, and are dividing our nation with lies and Marxist propaganda. Just last week, their hatred led to the murder of an honest, truthseeking man who was an inspiring free speech advocate for young Americans.
Liberal media and some liberal politicians refer
to Charlie Kirk as a conservative activist who spread hatred. I’m a very old party “D” who would rather have Charlie Kirk speaking for me than so-called peaceful demonstrators protesting law enforcement. My Maryland representatives are more interested in keeping our enemies in our country.
More than 2,000 years ago, a man was killed for spreading the words of God. Some 57 years ago, a man was killed for peacefully wanting to correct injustices. Fanatics killed both men for expressing their opinions to people who refused to hear what they had to say.
Sadly, today we have
a political party celebrating and wanting the death of their opponents. On our country’s 250th anniversary, our first president’s farewell address should be read by our corrupt politicians.
JD Hill Laurel, Maryland
Media complicit in creating Kirk hatred
It’s the media. For years, the press has promoted the political left as the moral compass for society, framing its agenda as the only path to a better world. The left has dominated airwaves, newsrooms and social feeds since the days of disco. But instead of honest debate, its tactic has been to demonize anyone who dares disagree.
I recall an event at which a protester called Charlie Kirk a fascist. Kirk calmly asked, “How am I a fascist? Can you name one thing I believe that’s fascist?” The protester got flustered and was unable, obviously, to name anything. The exchange summed it up: rhetoric over reason, labels over logic.
Of course, political figures have always hurled insults. What’s new, and dangerous, is the media’s role. News outlets don’t present themselves as opinion pages but as arbiters of truth, packaging partisan spin as fact. If they had been up-front and simply stated, “This is our opinion,” the damage would have been less severe. Instead, their relentless framing shapes public perception, stokes division and excuses hostility.
The old cliche about “blood on their hands” applies here. By turning conservatism into a caricature of evil, the press has helped normalize rage against the right. The assassination of Charlie Kirk is only the latest, tragic example. An honest media wouldn’t cure all of society’s ills but might prevent some of its worst. SCOTT THOMPSON Bloomington, Indiana
Then opposite the editoral: Charlie Kirk: Converter: Death won’t stop his message By Cal Thomas
Charlie Kirk has been called many things, including an influencer, especially of young people. A better label might be “converter.”
The power to speak truth in a way that changes a political mindset is better than being an influencer. Mr. Kirk possessed that power, which led to his murder by a 22-year-old man who wanted to rob him of it.
Written on one of the shells recovered at the scene was “Hey fascist! Catch!”
Among the many videos of Mr. Kirk debating students who disagreed with his conservative philosophy and Christian faith was a young man who asked about some of what he called Mr. Kirk’s “fascist statements.” Mr. Kirk challenged him to name one. The student appeared flustered, looked around for help and couldn’t answer. It appeared he had simply repeated what he had read on the internet or heard from others.
The internet and its social media pages are a sewer. The left is always blaming conservatives for any acts of political violence, but just Googling Mr. Kirk’s name reveals comments, presumably from liberals, that are disgusting at best and vile in the extreme.
Here are just a few. An elected English councilor, Fiona Wild, posted on Facebook that Mr. Kirk had “brought this upon himself so good riddance to a not very nice man! America needs to get rid of the other tit now!”
(angry face emoji). Ms. Wild resigned her position after heavy criticism. Many other postings echo her statement.
The University of Mississippi and Middle State University in Tennessee fired employees for posting negative comments on social media about Mr. Kirk’s death. That’s a start, because some of our once-great universities have allowed professors to teach and promote hatred of various political philosophies and religions.
Anyone celebrating Mr. Kirk’s murder on social media or promoting any violence against anyone should be banned on all platforms for life.
This isn’t about free speech. It’s about incitement.
Social media have kept too many Americans from knowing one another. We are identified by labels that say nothing about our humanity and intrinsic value. We speak of some of our fellow citizens as being on the “other side.” China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are on the other side. Their dictators oppose what we stand for. Do we need enemies among us? If so, we will become out of one, many, the opposite of our unifying national motto. When I was more active on the college lecture circuit in the 1980s and 1990s, I participated in civil debates. Afterward, I would occasionally have dinner with my political opposite, one of whom was liberal Sen. George Mc Govern, South Dakota Democrat, a World War II veteran, as was my father. McGovern and I became friends because we got to know each other beyond politics. It was the same with Bob Beckel, who ran Walter Mondale’s 1984 campaign. (He used to say, “I managed Mondale to the greatest
Anyone celebrating Mr. Kirk’s murder on social media or promoting any violence against anyone should be banned on all platforms for life. This isn’t about free speech. It’s about incitement.Social media have kept too many Americans from knowing one another. We are identified by labels that say nothing about our humanity and intrinsic value. We speak of some of our fellow citizens as being on the “other side.” China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are on the other side. Their dictators oppose what we stand for. Do we need enemies among us? If so, we will become out of one, many, the opposite of our unifying national motto.
loss in political history; now I’m on TV as an expert. It’s a great country!”) Bob became my best friend, and we grew to love each other. We even changed each other’s minds on a few issues because we took time to listen to what the other had to say. This is supposed to be a special year leading up to the 250th anniversary of our nation’s birth. Instead, it is rapidly becoming something else. We had better reexamine the values and virtues that initially contributed to this unique nation, or, like other nations before us, America will implode and cease to exist.
That was part of Charlie Kirk’s message to the young. A young man who didn’t want them to hear it killed him, but his ideas will find other voices because many of those ideas are true, and truth has a power of its own.
Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book, “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (Humanix Books).
Then two more opinion pieces:
America is at a turning point: We must decide what we stand for By Rep. Brian Babin
https://washingtontimes-dc.newsmemory.com/?token=eddc461a086928cdef84a7ec5a38bd05_68cc047b_617091b&selDate=20250916
A cancer within a party: History will judge today’s Democrats harshly By Gerard Leval
https://washingtontimes-dc.newsmemory.com/?token=eddc461a086928cdef84a7ec5a38bd05_68cc047b_617091b&selDate=20250916
Is the US headed towards another civil war? (Barbara F. Walter | TED2023) https://go.ted.com/E5oF
TED Talk — Barbara F. Walter
Barbara F. Walter's new book How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them examines the rise of violent extremism around the globe and sounds the alarm on the increasing likelihood of a second civil war in the United States12. The book redefines civil war for a new age and provides a framework to confront the danger and stop it before it's too late. Originally published January 6, 2022
What the new movie CIVIL WAR Is Really About (237,116 views Apr 12, 2024)
Alex Garland’s Civil War has been a controversial movie since its announcement and even more so after its first trailer. Now that it’s actually here, what can we make of it? In this video, I explain what I see as Garland’s intended meaning and what I personally took away from it. Give it a listen then let me know your own thoughts and interpretation in the comments!
0:00 A True Anti-War Film 8:56 Humanizing the Press
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G_KY2kRbUQ
Civil War | Official Trailer HD | A24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDyQxtg0V2w
“What country ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? …The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
— Thomas Jefferson, Letter to William Stephens Smith [1787]
"Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step over the ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! -- All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a Thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." -- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) 16th US President. Source: January 27, 1838, address before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, IL
Either some Caesar or Napoleon will seize the reins of government with a strong hand, or your republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the twentieth century as the Roman Empire was in the fifth, with this difference, that the Huns and Vandals who ravaged the Roman Empire came from without, and that your Huns and Vandals will have been engendered within your own country by your own institutions. – Thomas Babington Macaulay, Letter to Henry Stephens Randall [1857]
What Prevention and Treatment of Substance Dependence Can Tell Us About Addressing Violent Extremism. Ryan Andrew Brown, Rajeev Ramchand, Todd C Helmus
Rand Health Q. 2022 Aug 31. Copyright and License information: PMCID: PMC9519093 PMID: 36238006
Short abstract: In this article, the authors examine similarities between violent extremism and substance dependence. They review evidence from psychology, neuroscience, sociology, and public health that suggests that there are similarities in violent extremism and substance dependence in terms of the underlying neural pathways, social and psychological causes, behavioral patterns, and opportunities for prevention and intervention.
Keywords: Substance Use Disorder Prevention, United States, Violent Extremism
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9519093/
Heather Cox Richardson October 8, 2021 (Friday)
By midnight last night, four of former president Donald Trump’s closest allies were required to turn over documents to the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. The four are former chief of staff Mark Meadows, social media manager Dan Scavino, adviser Steve Bannon, and former Defense Department official Kash Patel.
Today, committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and vice chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) released a statement saying that Meadows and Patel “are, so far, engaging” with the committee, but that “Bannon has indicated that he will try to hide behind vague references to privileges of the former President.”
Meanwhile, Bannon told his podcast audience that he will have 20,000 “shock troops” ready to take over the country. “We control this country,” he said. “We have to start acting like it.” Bannon is using Trump’s reliance on executive privilege to defy the congressional subpoenas. Legal observers say this is a stretch, since Bannon was not part of the executive branch after 2017.
The committee expects all the witnesses to cooperate. “[W]e will not allow any witness to defy a lawful subpoena or attempt to run out the clock, and we will swiftly consider advancing a criminal contempt of Congress referral,” they wrote.
It seems significant that Meadows and Patel are not, apparently, relying on the former president to protect them, while Bannon is. Scavino has been eluding the subpoena, but Rawstory reported tonight that he had finally been served.
Bannon and Patel are scheduled to testify before the committee on October 14, while Scavino and Meadows are scheduled for October 15. Their cooperation—or lack of it—will then become very clear.
Today, the pressure on the former president got higher when the White House declined to assert executive privilege over some of the documents requested by the January 6 committee. Former president Trump’s attorneys had requested that the Biden administration withhold documents about Trump’s actions on January 6. NBC News reported this afternoon that White House Counsel Dana Remus has sent a letter to the National Archives saying that “President Biden has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified as to any of the documents.”
“These are unique and extraordinary circumstances,” Remus added. “Congress is examining an assault on our Constitution and democratic institutions provoked and fanned by those sworn to protect them, and the conduct under investigation extends far beyond typical deliberations concerning the proper discharge of the President’s constitutional responsibilities. The constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield, from Congress or the public, information that reflects a clear and apparent effort to subvert the Constitution itself.”
According to MSNBC, those documents include Twitter messages, phone and visitor logs, videos and photos of Trump’s events, all documents and communications related to Vice President Mike Pence’s movements and security, the planning around the counting of the certified votes, and any other documents concerning either the rally at the Ellipse or the Capitol riot.
In other news, the Republican attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, asked a federal appeals court to reinstate S.B. 8, the so-called heartbeat bill banning abortion six weeks into a pregnancy, before most women know they’re pregnant. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit granted his request to suspend the order blocking the law. So S.B. 8 is back in force.
10-8-21: Has America’s Third “Civil War” Begun?
Robert E. Wright – October 8, 2021
By Robert E. Wright | America’s civil civil war seems to pit ‘sheeple’ against people, the brainwashed against those capable of independent thought, and ‘safety first’ authoritarians against civil libertarians, left, right, and center.
[The civil war between the states killed more Americans than all the wars we have fought in since then…combined. The current civil war against science based vaccines has resulted in more American deaths than that great war.
Is it a form of God’s justice that in counties where Donald Trump won at least 70% of the votes in the 2020 election have lost nearly 5 times as many American lives from Covid19 than counties where Trump won less than 32% of the vote? Is this what Trump meant by MAGA? Meanwhile, a new study estimates that the average bill for a patient hospitalized for Covid19 is $98,139. And for cases requiring a ventilator or a stay in an intensive care unit the average bill was $317,810. Nearly 98% of those hospitalized today are victims of the Delta variant> This variant has made those who were unvaccinated more likely to get hospitalized, need expensive emergency care, die under emergency care, and more likely to burden hospital emergency rooms forcing some hospitals into rationing emergency care only to those they decide are more likely to survive.
If I remember correctly it was conservatives who feared the rationing of medical care.
Instead of fearing it…they have now caused it. ]
The question of whether a third American “civil war” has begun occurred to me after reading a recent New York Times piece (deliberately unlinked as it fails fact checking) that claimed that the president can mandate a vaccine today because George Washington did so during America’s first “civil war,” more commonly called the American Revolution (1775-83).
That much is true, but the article misses a few key differences: it was a wartime measure that applied only to soldiers; it was for smallpox, which was orders of magnitude more deadly than Covid; it was variolation — introduction of small amounts of the live virus into the bloodstream — not experimental gene therapy. (I again call for a Covid variolation option on a voluntary basis.)
Did the New York Times admit too much by analogizing from a wartime scenario, or is it simply grasping at straws as usual? Maybe inadvertently some of both?
The Revolution and the Civil War (1861-65) were both “civil” in the sense of being internecine struggles but both were extremely uncivil in the sense that they were violent shooting wars that rent asunder families, towns, counties, and even entire states. Some people call the latter conflict the War Between the States or the War of Yankee Aggression, partly for political reasons but also following the logic of Guns N’ Roses: “What’s so civil about war anyway?”
Some claim that America is already in a civil, in the sense of non-shooting, “war” with China, which purportedly has deployed its “Three Warfares” strategy of legal, psychological, and public opinion distortion. That would not be surprising. The USA of course waged a long non-shooting conflict, typically referred to as the Cold War, against the Soviet Union. During the decades-long conflict, the two superpowers shot at each other only indirectly, in places like Korea and Afghanistan, while also trying to destabilize each other with espionage, propaganda, and such.
A non-shooting, internecine “war,” a civil civil war if you will, is also not unprecedented but it is also not just “politics as usual.” There used to be rules and proportionality. It increasingly appears now that one side wants to annihilate the other at any cost, and that the sides are not drawn along strict party lines.
America’s civil civil war seems to pit “sheeple” against people, the brainwashed against those capable of independent thought, and “safety first” authoritarians against civil libertarians, left, right, and center. To admit that such a conflict exists does not require a conspiracy theory, just recognition of marginal incentives. Nobody planned America’s first two civil wars either; they arose spontaneously from circumstances and incentives in ways so complex that historians still fight over the causal webs that ensnared people and governments in mortal combat.
Of course few Americans today want to “throw down” physically. We’ve got too much cool stuff and too many followers on social media to risk our lives. It would be a shame to get blood in our hot tubs, pools, or EVs. Moreover, although the sheeple might outnumber the people, the people have more guns, but they really don’t want to use them.
Cancel culture was the first weapon deployed. Shame people on social media in the hopes they will turn into sheeple and begin to follow the crowd, or at least injure their income. It often worked, but some people will not or cannot be canceled. If they lose their jobs they sue their former employers or slanderous media outlets, jump to more lucrative careers on Substack, and so forth. Millions of others simply avoid social media, or keep it strictly to sharing videos of crazy cats or laughing babies.
Vaccines are a new weapon in the civil civil war because they can be used to reach anyone and everyone. Mandates are not a perfect weapon because some rational free thinkers have gotten the stab after due consideration of their individual situations, while some sheeple consider doctors their alphas and follow individualized medical advice not to get the Fauci Fouchie. (No weapon kills all of the enemy or prevents all collateral damage, so those instances do not militate against vaccine weaponization.)
That Covid vaccine mandates are about sorting sheeple from people and not about public health is made clear by several facts.
First, if public health were paramount, the mandate would be to test regularly for effective immunity, not shot compliance. Some people do not need a vaccine because they have already survived Covid and have natural immunity far superior to that provided by even the most effective vaccine. In addition, vaccines are not equally effective for everyone. Health officials therefore should be testing front line healthcare workers for immune response levels, not mere vaccine compliance.
Second, the mandates apply to remote workers and others who present no danger to the public. If a Covid-19 Survivors NGO has 100 or more employees, they all have to get vaccinated even if surviving the disease is a prerequisite for employment and even though scientists have warned that taking the vaccine probably does not help, and may even hurt, those with natural immunity.
Third, encouraging the termination of noncompliant employees is unduly punitive. The chances of an unvaccinated employee, especially outside of healthcare, “killing” anyone is vanishingly small and virtually impossible to trace, at least if what public health officials claim about the vaccines is true, i.e., relatively few vaccinated people get Covid, few of those need hospitalization, and almost no vaccinated people die from, or even with, Covid. How is a miniscule risk of barely harming others worth somebody’s livelihood?
All the more amazing are reports that people terminated for noncompliance may not be eligible for unemployment insurance because they are being fired “for cause.” That will lead to some fun lawsuits, because “for cause” traditionally means for doing something wrong, like stealing, or not doing something right, like showing up for work on time. Sufficient “cause” was a concept that employers and employees worked out together, not a dictate from the executive branch of the federal government.
It’s a blatantly unlawful dictate at that! Corporations must start to contest unconstitutional federal policies. Imagine if Biden, in one of his delirious tantrums, said that corporations need to execute non-compliant employees. Would they do so? Presumably not! But by the self-styled progressives’ own claims, firing (or not hiring) people is tantamount to slowly strangling them to death. I mean they call it termination, right? (Seriously, Newsweek in 2010, citing “research,” claimed that “layoffs literally kill people.”)
Corporations should team up, hire the fanciest of fancy lawyers, and defeat mandates (and vaccine passports), or be counted as an enemy of the people. They can fund the legal expenses out of their oversized charitable donations budgets because saving the Constitution is the most important cause of them all.
Has a civil civil war begun in America? I can’t reject that hypothesis so long as irrational wars on the vaccine non-compliant, innovation, and small business, continue. If the authoritarians win those battles, free thinking people who believe in human rights may have to capitulate, or worse.
·
The WASHINGTON POST same day!
One front page top of fold news-story: “Kirk suspect appeared to confess; Posted ‘it was me’ on discord chat.
Second story on A4 Vance blames, vows to dismantle liberal institutions as he mourns Kirk.
Plus three move articles covering Trump supporters views of left wing responsibility.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/search/?query=Vance+blames%2C+vows
JD Vance vows retribution on liberal institutions after Charlie Kirk killing
Vice President JD Vance hosted Charlie Kirk’s podcast as he mourns his friend and potentially cements his position as the heir to the political movement built by Kirk, a powerful GOP force.
Vice President JD Vance hosted Charlie Kirk’s podcast as he mourns his friend and potentially cements his position as the heir to the political movement built by Kirk, a powerful GOP force. September 15, 2025
JD Vance says national unity is impossible with those celebrating Charlie Kirk's killing
Vice President JD Vance says the national unity he’s “desperate” for after the assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk cannot be had with people who condone political violence September 15, 2025
Vice President JD Vance says the national unity he’s “desperate” for after the assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk cannot be had with people who condone political violence
Trump administration joins Republicans' campaign to police speech in reaction to Kirk's killing
Vice President JD Vance is jumping onto the conservative movement demanding consequences for those who have cheered Charlie Kirk’s killing, calling on the public to turn in anyone who says distasteful things about the assassination of his friend and political ally September 15, 2025
Vice President JD Vance is jumping onto the conservative movement demanding consequences for those who have cheered Charlie Kirk’s killing, calling on the public to turn in anyone who says distasteful things about the assassination of his friend and political ally
Trump vows to punish critics after slaying of Charlie Kirk
President Donald Trump and his staff blame “radical left political violence” for the killing of their friend and Republican activist.
September 11, 2025
