SHE’S BEEN READING MY BLOG FOREVER, BUT I DIDN’T EXPECT HER TO REVIEW ME:  Book Review: No Man’s Land.

OPEN THREAD: Never wear anything that panics the cat.

SALENA ZITO REPORTS:

Just spent 90 minutes sitting on the sidelines of a kids flag football practice. I don’t think cable news “experts” or many Democrats have any idea of how profoundly impacted suburban moms are over what happened to Charlie Kirk & how much they have noticed how poorly many have… https://t.co/rTl3NRpYUX

— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) September 16, 2025

More here.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:

McGruff The Crime Dog Goes Undercover In Furry Terrorist Cell https://t.co/tEJS7IXlAY pic.twitter.com/nRyxlt7rcN

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) September 15, 2025

IN DEFENSE OF KAREN ATTIAH. Sort Of:

On October 7, 2023, as terrorists raped and pillaged Israelis, Attiah reposted tweets justifying the unfolding massacre:

“What did y’all think decolonization meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays? Losers.”

“Liberation, self-determination, and peace for all oppressed + colonized people,” with a meme that read “That’s my politics.”

About white women, Attiah has said that they are “lucky” black women are “just calling them ‘Karens.’ And not calling for revenge.” She followed up: “Indeed, black revenge is one of America’s greatest fears.”

About the writer Maureen Dowd and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Attiah wrote that they formed an “axis of shevil” with Donald Trump.

After the Post declined to endorse Kamala Harris, Attiah wrote: “Today has been an absolute stab in the back. What an insult to those of us who have literally put our careers and lives on the line. . . ”

My point is that it’s not as if The Washington Post found out this past week that Attiah held views far outside the mainstream, or acted unprofessionally, including toward her own colleagues. It seems that they kept her around for these views.

Given all this, she could have reasonably expected that her Bluesky post about Kirk wouldn’t draw the ire of her bosses. And that expectation would have been entirely in keeping with her past conduct, and the culture her bosses allowed to persist.

She could have left earlier, with much more than a Substack as her reward:

karen attiah turning down the wapo buyout offer is this generation's blockbuster turning down netflix

— Nino (@baldingschemer) September 15, 2025

GEORGE CLOONEY, CLOSET CONSERVATIVE? The Anti-Communist Film Festival: Hail, Caesar!

 Since I announced the Anti-Communist Film Festival last month, the response has been fantastic. Conservatives understand that a film festival showcasing some of the great anti-communist movies can be a powerful – and fun – inoculation against a poisonous false god.

What’s also been surprising is how many anti-communist movies there are. I’ve heard from people not only in the United States but with ties to Cuba, China, and the old Soviet Union. I’ve also heard from directors and actors in Hollywood. We’re planning the festival for fall 2026 if we can raise the money for it and attract a sponsor or two.

We also want the festival to have not only serious films, but fun ones. We want it to be a party that entertains and brings people together. That’s why I think a great addition to the lineup would be Hail, Caesar! Hail, Caesar! produced and directed in 2016 by Joel and Ethan Cohen, delves into the deepest question of our time – the question of God and our place in the universe. It also makes communists look like absolute idiots.

It makes for a nice double-feature with 1999’s Three Kings, in which Clooney made the case for the Iraq War.

MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Charlie Kirk’s murder will break the left’s hateful cancel tactics.

DOG DAY AFTERNOON: ABC’s Gutman: Alleged Kirk Assassin’s Texts With Trans Lover Were ‘Intimate,’ ‘Touching.’

On Tuesday’s ABC News Special Report about Utah County officials formally announcing charges against the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s murder, chief national correspondent Matt Gutman expressed affinity for the suspect and admiration for his love story with a trans person, gushing the text messages released by authorities were “lovingly” stated, “very intimate,” and “very touching.”

DISGUSTING: ABC’s Matt Gutman says he’s not sure “if we have seen an alleged murder with such specific text messages” that were “very touching, in a way, that I think many of us didn’t expect — a very intimate portrait into this relationship between the suspect’s roommate and the… pic.twitter.com/ulPcxoOwM3

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 16, 2025

Gutman was reporting from the site of the press conference when he told World News Tonight anchor David Muir something “that stood out” was “those text messages” between the suspect and his roommate/lover.

“I don’t know if we have seen an alleged murder with such specific text messages about the alleged murder weapon, where it was hidden, how it was placed, what was on it, but also it was very touching in a way that I think many of us didn’t expect,” Gutman declared.

But, wait, there was more: “A very intimate portrait into this relationship between the suspect’s roommate and the suspect himself, with him repeatedly calling his roommate, who is transitioning, calling him ‘my love’ and ‘I want to protect you, my love.’”

Related:

Matt Gutman….where have I heard that name before…

I know I've heard it somewh–*

OH THAT'S RIGHT.

**THAT'S** WHERE I HEARD THAT NAME BEFORE.

The TRAYVON MARTIN case.

Gutman literally helped endanger and silence an eyewitness that told a different story from the…

— Brian Cates – Political Columnist & Pundit (@drawandstrike) September 16, 2025

SNOWFALLS WILL SOON BE JUST A THING OF THE PAST: Fearmongering predictions about climate change keep falling apart.

GOOD: Mercedes-AMG Wants Its Future Cars to Pass the ‘Batman Test.’

BATTLESWARM: Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage Is Latest ‘Everyone Will Be Hitler For 15 Minutes’ Winner.

WELL, WHEN YOU PUT IT LIKE THAT…:

Three major assassination cases in US courts today.

Luigi Mangione, Ryan Routh and Tyler Robinson.

What do they have in common?

— David Webb (@davidwebbshow) September 16, 2025

FASTER, PLEASE: FBI, Treasury Digging Into Funding of Political Violence Following Charlie Kirk’s Assassination.

READER FAVORITE: Toniiq Ultra High Purity Quercetin Capsules. #CommissionEarned

I WILL HAVE TO CHECK THIS OUT: Smith & Wesson Returns to Training With the Opening of the Smith & Wesson Academy in East Tennessee. “One thing made obvious during the ceremonies was that Maryville, Tennessee definitely isn’t Springfield, Massachusetts. Having taken part in numerous media and training events in Smith’s former Shooting Sports Center in Springfield until its closure in 2017, the depth and breadth of the new facilities is testimony to the expansiveness of the Tennessee campus.”

FLORIDA, MAN: Pensacola’s FAFO Charlie Kirk Memorial Moment. “Let’s just say they snatched the miscreant up before he could do any serious damage, and maced the crap out of him for good measure.”

EVERYBODY KNOWS:

This piece from Josh Trevino is excellent, and among other things, absolutely guts the "both sides" claim. pic.twitter.com/MwSBPwOh3A

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) September 16, 2025

BREAKING: Charlie Kirk’s Accused Shooter Is Charged.

LIMITED TIME DEAL: BAMBOO COOL Men’s Ultra ComfortSoft Underwear. #CommissionEarned

ONLY THE TRUTH IS FUNNY:

Dude says multiple people tried to kill Biden..hahahahaha

Since when did we start counting stairs as people? https://t.co/OVmHTgc8hG

— Tony Moon (@RoofKorean7) September 16, 2025

And that’s funny.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Armed Queers group trains radical Marxists to shoot just miles from where Charlie Kirk was murdered.

Armed Queers SLC says its mission is to train gay, queer and transgender people to arm themselves and to fight against capitalism. Although their purported Facebook page does not directly appear to encourage the use of firearms in their claimed mission, many of the images used depict firearms. As recently as this spring, its members traveled to Cuba for a meeting to celebrate the May Day holiday and participate in a march and events alongside revolutionaries from around the world.

The group posted photos on its public Instagram account—which was deleted on Friday—of its young students attending, and its leaders openly discussed how the communist regime agenda and this American group’s agenda were aligned in a YouTube video after the visit to Havana. The video has been scrubbed and is not available in any web archive, but Just the News took a careful transcription of the discussion prior to its deletion.

Two leaders of Armed Queers — Ermyia Fanaeian and a man who called himself “Connor” — discussed their trip to Cuba in a since-deleted May video titled, “Cuba Report Back: Our Time as 2025 May Day Brigadistas.” A search by Just the News could not positively identify him.

Video:

🧵🚨 MAJOR BREAKING 2: The 2025 May Day trip of SLC Armed Queers to Cuba: "Well, if we're terrorists, we're proud to be terrorists"

I've obtained a now-deleted video.

In it, Ermiya Fanaeian and an unidentified man named Connor talk openly about:

👉 Palestinian students at… pic.twitter.com/CBkStDYjEO

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) September 16, 2025

Details:

Ermiya Fanaeian and an unidentified man named Connor talk openly about:

👉 Palestinian students at Cuba’s ELAM “studying revolution” alongside medicine
👉 Brigadistas from around the world being brought for “revolutionary orientation”
👉 How every aspect of Cuban society is dedicated to training “organizers” and are open about the terrorist label to the point they lament US institutions do not allow them to “to speak in such a way”

The trip was run through the National Network on Cuba (NNOC), linked to the Cuban state, with has U.S. NGOs as members, many of whom are linked to Neville Singham NGOs.

SLC Armed Queers is currently under federal investigation for advanced knowledge of the Charlie Kirk assassination.

And remember: Fanaeian was honored by Utah Global Diplomacy, a State Dept–connected NGO.

The Left doesn’t have a violence problem. It has violence as one of its favorite tools.

QUESTION ASKED: Does Pam Bondi know what free speech is?

Katie Miller, hosting Bondi on the Katie Miller Pod, said that Kirk’s murder last week was what happened when college campuses don’t take action against or expel students who harass conservative speakers. Using anti-Semitism as an example of left-wing campus “hate speech,” Bondi claimed in reply: “There’s free speech, and then there’s hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society.”

Does the Attorney General know that “hate speech” is protected under the Constitution? She continued: “We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech, and that’s across the aisle.”

If this all gives you flashbacks to the days of social-justice warrior campus protests (“keep your hate speech off this campus!”) you’re not alone. Bondi didn’t elaborate on exactly what she meant by “targeting anyone with hate speech.” Did she mean people gloating over Kirk’s death, saying he deserved to die for his beliefs? That’s certainly hateful and disgusting, but is it illegal? Not in America.

Bondi’s fudge, whether it was purely idiotic or a more sinister attempt to roll back speech rights, expresses an outlook totally at odds with Kirk’s: he didn’t believe in hate speech. The idea that words can be dangerous is antithetical to his belief in dialogue and open debate.

As Christopher Rufo notes:

This is extremely concerning. The distinction is not between "free speech" and "hate speech," but between "free speech" and "organizing illicit activities, engaging in political violence, depriving others of their civil rights, and committing tax or nonprofit fraud." https://t.co/inFNF3prAa

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) September 16, 2025

Still though, consider what the near-universal condemnation of Bondi implies:

So, just to check, given the encouragingly universal reaction to Bondi I’m seeing this morning: We’re all agreed, going forward, that there’s no such thing as hate speech, and that Jack Phillips can choose which cakes to bake, right? This is settled now?

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) September 16, 2025

CHANGE: Culture is overtaking genetics in shaping human evolution, researchers argue.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: How the Left Programmed Young People to Hate.

Thus, the question of 1975 — “Who’s sick?” — has found its answer. It is no longer only the young who jeer at murder, though they remain responsible for their choices. Yet their conduct reflects more than personal failing. It is the outcome of a society that abandoned its traditions, hollowed out its own authority and left its youth open to manipulation by those who profit from discord. Individuals may bear the guilt, but the culture that fashioned them must also stand condemned.

The signs of decay are no longer hidden. It is the parable of the Emperor’s New Clothes: the pretence sustained only so long as no one dares to speak what all can see. What we are living through is an epidemic of noticing — a slow, reluctant recognition that the social fabric is threadbare and that the fractures are premeditated, not incidental.

David Horowitz, who as editor of the radical 1960s periodical Ramparts once marched in the ranks of the radical Left before renouncing it, understood these dynamics better than most. He argued that the upheavals of the era were not motivated by the “longing for justice”. It was “not a quest for peace but a call to arms. It is war that feeds the true radical passions, which are not altruism or love, but nihilism and hate.” The reality of their political programme, he lamented, “entails only permanent war, that observes no truth and respects no law, and whose aim is to destroy the only world we know”.

Related: Nihilism and the Crisis of the West.

At the deepest level, Charlie Kirk was executed because he attempted to live out his animating principle, “Prove Me Wrong.” The anti-civilization Left could tolerate his conservative values and policy prescriptions, but they could not tolerate his method of public discussion. Charlie was winning over tens of thousands of young people to his cause because of his benevolent, reasoned approach to public debate. The Left was losing to Charlie’s benevolence and his reason, and they knew it. This is what they hated most.

I have no doubt that the public assassination of Charlie Kirk is a defining moment in American history in the way that, say, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. was. It will be engraved on the public psyche for decades to come.

Where to from here, America?

.@benshapiro: "Make that choice: choose between the demons who are celebrating Charlie's death, and the rest of us who would like to have a functional country where we can talk to one another." pic.twitter.com/7mQISwptEU

— Human Events (@HumanEvents) September 16, 2025