QOTD -- A Polite Version Of An Extremist

 

"... The mainstream press thinks Kirk was a kind, empathetic believer in free debate because for years mainstream journalists have avoided learning what right-wingers say to one another when they think we're not listening. Mainstream journalists have never made it a habit to watch Fox News, listen to talk radio, read right-wing websites, examine right-wing books, or turn on right-wing podcasts. When Rush Limbaugh was alive, they never read the full broadcast transcripts he posted on his site. Apart from a few commentators, they've never made a habit of going to Media Matters or Right Wing Watch to learn what conservatives are saying. They don't pay attention to the email forwards, the online memes, the bumper stickers. Instead, they go to diners and conduct focus groups, where right-wingers give them the polite version of their thoughts on politics and culture.

"And now right-wing spin doctors are giving the mainstream journalists a polite version of who Charlie Kirk was -- and the journalists have no prior knowledge to compare it with, and apparently no idea where to find contradictory information..." -- Steve M. at "No More Mister Nice Blog," on the "nearly unchallenged deification of Charlie Kirk."  As Steve illustrates in the post, decades of working the refs by the right- wingers led us to this place rather than to an honest analysis of Kirk as a white nationalist extremist. Now, thanks to the unchallenged hagiography emerging around Kirk, there's been a move on to create a "National Day of Remembrance" honoring him.  We live in stupid, awful times. 

Quotes Of The Day

 

"I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational."  -- Charlie Kirk, April 5, 2023, on the campus of Awaken Church, Salt Lake City, UT.

____________________

"In the end, of course, nothing is going to change. There are a couple of presidential assassinations that produced some meaningful response thereafter (e.g., James Garfield's assassination led to the passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Act), but that's about it. Other assassinations, school shootings, mass shootings, etc. sometimes generated a strong emotional response in the immediate aftermath, but even if they did... the 'reform impulse' faded. There will be no new gun laws in response to Kirk's murder. Nobody will tamp down the rhetoric (in fact, there's every chance the rhetoric will get worse).

"The really scary thing, however, is this: Republicans are really, really, angry and really, really upset about Kirk's passing. And, as we wrote just yesterday, the Trump administration is actively searching for a predicate act to justify making war against Democratic-run cities and states. And please remember again, that term 'war' is not our term (we actually used 'invasion'). No, it is Trump himself who used that word, in the context of his future plans for Chicago. And on top of all of this, the White House would also love a distraction from Jeffrey Epstein.  [snip]

"What it amounts to is this. If and when the assassin is found, let us hope that he is a straight, white, Christian man. It's odd, and somewhat perverse, that such a thing should matter so very much, but it does. If the assassin turns out to be gay, or trans, or Black, or a Democratic socialist, or just a Democrat, or an immigrant, or Mexican, then god help us all." -- Andrew Tanenbaum and Christopher Bates, Electoral-vote.com.

Really, nothing good will come out of this terrible act of violence.

BONUS: Charlie Kirk in his own words.

The "Turning Point" Grift Of Charlie Kirk

MAGA faithful are being routinely fleeced by hundreds if not thousands of groups purporting to aid the MAGA movement in it's political goals. Their cult leader the Malignant Loser is first among the fleecers. One hugely profitable money vacuum is Turning Point run by right-wing provocateur and hustler Charlie Kirk. The group focuses its attention largely on a younger demographic, to get out their voted and hooking them with a toxic mix of xenophobia, bigotry and misogyny that the movement was built on. To no one's surprise, Kirk himself is doing quite well financially while producing slim to no results, as the Associated Press reports:

"The Make America Great Again political movement has been lucrative for Kirk, the 29-year-old CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization, Turning Point.

The nonprofit rocketed to prominence by latching on to Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and has raised roughly a quarter-billion dollars since, much of it spent cultivating conservative influencers and hosting glitzy events. The organization also enriched Kirk and his allies, according to an Associated Press review of public records, which found top Turning Point officials collected pricey salaries, enjoyed lavish perks and steered at least $15.2 million to companies that they, their friends and associates are affiliated with.

But for all that money, the group has struggled to help Republicans win general elections. That’s particularly true in Turning Point’s adopted home of Arizona, where their slate of deeply conservative candidates in the longtime Republican stronghold lost statewide races last year, among them Kari Lake’s unsuccessful bid for governor."

Active primarily in purple state Arizona, the organization is trying to branch out into two key battleground states in 2024: Georgia and Wisconsin. There's serious question among big MAGA donors what the return on their investment will be, given the organization's track record:

"While Turning Point isn’t the first organization to draw scrutiny over spending, it has become a unique source of frustration for some Republicans. They point to its support for far-right candidates who struggled in marquee races, as well as the hefty sum they now seek to do work that is already being done by veteran operatives. That sets up a potential clash between competing wings of the conservative movement that could complicate the GOP’s effort to hold a House majority while reclaiming the Senate and White House next year."  (our emphasis)

The results of Kirk's grift might not be good, but he's doing well financially:

"Compensation also soared, with Kirk’s climbing from $27,000 in 2016 to more than $407,000 by 2021, tax records show. Millions of dollars more were paid out to a cluster of companies linked to a handful of group leaders and their allies, according to tax documents and business filings.

Kirk bought three high-end properties, all worth over a million dollars, which include his new Spanish-style mansion near Phoenix, as well as a nearby apartment and a beachside condo on Florida’s gulf coast."

Looking on the bright side, the money that Kirk and his friends pocket and spend on luxury homes is money not spent on the MAGA candidates they're supposedly working for. But it's all in a good day's grift.

(photo: The master grifter and his pupil/ Shutterstock)