My opinion on Kirk...not that it matters.

[pat_k]

61. Me too.

He was a vile, dangerous, racist, Christian Nationalist, damaging, and cruel demagogue .

While I grieve the manner of his death as a tragic reflection of the intolerable level of gun violence in our nation – which is 11 TIMES the number of gun deaths per capita in other high-income nations, driven primarily by a firearm homicide rate that is 25 TIMES that of comparable nations* – I do not grieve the loss of a man who called for some "amazing patriot" to bail out Paul Pelosi’s attacker. I do not grieve the loss of a man who was hellbent on making sure this nation did NOTHING to reduce the number of gun deaths.

And I fear that this may indeed prove to be MAGA's Horst Wessel. Whether it was, or was not, a "false flag" operation to create a martyr, I have a terrible sinking feeling that his death will unleash further oppression of, and violence against, those who care about REAL American values -- -- values like human-rights, rule of law, religious freedom, and self-governance, and the thinking underlying those values, among them rationality, compassion as a moral imperative, and scientific inquiry.

*2015 numbers