DL Open Thread: Thursday, September 11, 2025
“It’s worth it 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.”
Amateur Hour At The FBI. Does Kash have a Klown Kar?:
Hopes for the fast capture of the person who fatally shot the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Utah evaporated on Wednesday when Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, announced that the authorities had released a man he had described as a central subject of a multiagency manhunt.
“The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement,” Mr. Patel wrote on his X account, adding: “our investigation continues.”
Two hours earlier, Mr. Patel had stoked expectations of a fast end to the search by congratulating state, local and federal officials for taking into custody “the subject for the horrific shooting today.”
I’m sure that the real killer did nothing during those two hours to facilitate their escape. BTW, the agent who was the FBI Bureau Chief for the Salt Lake City office?:
An unprecedented campaign by FBI leaders to force senior bureau officials out of their jobs has disproportionately hit women and people of color, according to public records and an unofficial tally by current and former FBI officials.
In the most recent example, FBI leaders last week forced the resignation of a decorated female Pakistani American counterterrorism agent who was appointed in February to run the Salt Lake City field office, one current and two former FBI officials tell MSNBC.
At least 18 of 53 special agents in charge — who run FBI field offices around the country — have been pushed out under the Trump administration — and among them, half have been women, people of color or both, according to data provided by current and former FBI officials who declined to be named, citing fear of retaliation.
In addition to the SACs, as they are known, other top bureau officials have been removed or forced to retire, including top managers at headquarters and elsewhere around the country.
The purge in the FBI’s leadership ranks is without precedent in its modern history, current and former officials say. FBI executives, including special agents in charge and other senior managers, are career civil servants who typically are promoted or transferred based on internal bureau requirements — regardless of who sits in the White House.
At least they’ll leave Trump alone–which has been the sole criterion for personnel moves within the FBI since January. Hope there are enough remaining, you know, smart people to at least capture Kirk’s killer.
Just Another ‘God-Given Second Amendment Rights’ Incident:
EVERGREEN — A teenager is dead after shooting two of his fellow students at Evergreen High School in the Jefferson County foothills Wednesday, then turning his gun on himself, law enforcement officials said.
All three students were transported to CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, where one was pronounced dead Wednesday evening, hospital spokesperson Lindsay Foster said.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the student who died was the suspected shooter, but did not release the teen’s name. One of the wounded students remained in critical condition.
OK, you gotta admit that it is more than a little ironic that Kirk was going off on the likes of transgender mass murderers when he was gunned down. He embraced and encouraged toxicity. What’s tragic is that his killing will likely lead to more instances of political violence. And you just know who they’re coming for:
But it’s not just the guns. It’s the climate that President Donald Trump and his allies have built. Scholars call it “eliminationist rhetoric”: the idea that political opponents aren’t simply wrong, but evil, dangerous, and must be eradicated. It’s language that leaves no room for disagreement or coexistence, only destruction.
GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna gave us a perfect example with her post on X. In her first breath, she claimed she was sick of the rhetoric. In the next, she insisted that liberals and the media were to blame for Kirk’s murder—that by calling Republicans fascists, we “caused this.” She piled on grotesque charges that liberals were “doping up kids, cutting off their genitals, inciting racial violence,” and “protecting criminals.”
That’s what makes this moment so dangerous. We are going to disagree—fiercely—especially with a government that is actively dismantling itself, sending military forces to invade American cities, and shredding democratic foundations. But the answer cannot be to silence opposition with threats of more violence. That isn’t democracy. That’s literally fascism, plain and simple.
Luna is right about one thing: Kirk’s family and his children didn’t deserve this. No child who loses a parent to gun violence deserves it. No parent who loses a child to it deserves it. And that is why liberal policies—like universal background checks and bans on weapons of war—would save lives. Maybe they even would have saved Kirk’s.
But instead, the right is already escalating. Conservative activist Christopher Rufo is demanding political opponents be jailed under the pretext of “chaos” that conservatives themselves are fomenting—criminalizing dissent until nothing is left but obedience.
This isn’t calming anything down—it’s intensifying. With Trump incapable of even a shred of moral leadership, the ugliest impulses in our society are rewarded, and the flames fanned hotter. And history tells us where this road leads: When violence replaces politics, the body count climbs.
Hey, Trump, of course, has already said it:
“I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah,” Trump said. “Charlie inspired millions, and tonight all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror.”
Trump continued: “He’s a martyr for truth and freedom, and there’s never been anyone who was so respected by youth.”
After praising Kirk for his commitment to his Christian faith, Trump pivoted to blaming the shooting on the “radical left,” claiming that people who described Kirk as a Nazi are “directly responsible.”
“It’s long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree,” Trump said. “For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”
Uh, the truth is there for all to see, should they choose to do so. Take US Senator from Utah Mike Lee. Please:
The official X account of Mike Lee, a Republican US senator, drew backlash after quickly condemning Wednesday’s killing of influential conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah – less than three months from when the politician initially responded to the shootings of two Minnesota Democratic lawmakers by boosting misinformation about that case.
A post from Lee, who joined the Senate in 2011, denounced Kirk’s murder as “a cowardly act of violence” while hailing the Turning Point USA executive director as an “American patriot” and “inspiration to countless young people”. His post also solicited prayers for the 31-year-old Kirk’s widow, Erika, and their children.
“The terrorists will not win,” Lee said shortly after Kirk’s death while speaking at an outdoors gathering on the campus of Utah Valley University had been confirmed. “Charlie will.”
Perhaps discerning readers can parse out the subtle difference between that statement by Lee, and this one:
While some of the platform’s users replied positively to the post, many others immediately alluded to how Lee focused on advancing conspiracy theories in the aftermath of the 14 June shootings that killed Minnesota’s house speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, while wounding state senator John Hoffman – her fellow Democrat – as well as his wife, Yvette.
“This is what happens,” Lee wrote in an X post, “When Marxists don’t get their way.” Attached to the post was a picture of the suspect charged in the shooting, Vance Boelter, evidently wearing a latex face mask.
There was no evidence Boelter is a Marxist. Friends have told local media he was right-leaning. And while Minnesota voters don’t list party affiliation, Boelter was registered as a Republican in Oklahoma in 2004.
Separately, under another picture of Boelter, Lee wrote, “Nightmare on Waltz Street,” which appeared to be a reference to Tim Walz, Minnesota’s Democratic governor, who was Kamala Harris’s running mate in the 2024 presidential election won by Donald Trump.
There’s no reasoning with these people. The inevitable result is we’re gonna see more of this. I think the MAGAts have most of the guns, and they are backed by an oppressive government.
All I can say is–We are so fucked.
What do you want to talk about?
If they weren’t all sociopaths at least some conservatives would call for gun control.
Some new info on the manhunt:
“The authorities had new leads on Thursday in their search for the person who shot and killed the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk: a weapon they said was used in the shooting, imprints of a forearm and a shoe, and video tracking the shooter’s movements as he climbed onto a roof to carry out the attack.
Robert Bohls, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Salt Lake City office, said in a news conference that the gun that was recovered was a “high-powered bolt-action rifle,” and that it had been found in a wooded area in a neighborhood near the campus of Utah Valley University, where Mr. Kirk had been speaking to a large crowd on Wednesday afternoon.”
Lest you don’t think that Trump will use this as a pretext to go after anyone he wants:
“For years those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism we’re seeing in our country & it must stop right now. My admin will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity.”