LILEKS (James) :: The Bleat.

What a wretched day.

1. A man known for his strict definitions on gender shoots up a mosque full of children. Two Arabs from Gaza, at an event in DC, are murdered by an evangelical Christian supporter of Israel. A repeat felon Kluxer stabs to death a Senegalese refugee woman on a bus. A popular podcaster who shows up at state fairs and gun shows and has respectful, even cheerful back-and-forths with anyone who disagrees is shot while giving a speech.

What do you think we would be having a conversation about?

2. I am probably not at liberty to discuss the circumstances by which I have a connection to - had a connection to Charlie Kirk; it’s entirely outside of politics. But I know he had two little kids, and I was thinking of them when I was processing the news he’d been shot. I ‘d seen the news on my feed at the gym, let out an audible oath, finished my set and dressed. Had to pick up supper at Target, which was right across the street. Went there. Parked. Checked the feed again: critical. Turned to the only radio station that would be talking about it: critical. Went inside.

As I was finishing up I saw three people, young, looking at their phones, laughing with delight.

“Whoever did it might be my new boyfriend,” said the larger one, and somehow, you just know, don’t you? Twenty-somethings, sloppy, pierced, unhealthy. Pardon me for profiling. Then I heard the name and more giggles

Let’s just say words were exchanged.

Details unimportant. No doubt they recalibrated their moral centers with speed and convinced themselves they were the better people because they were concerned about other hypothetical children who were Harmed by The Opinions.

Wondered whether to recount the story here, because: I’ve never done anything like that before. Thing is, we all have to do that now. We have to shame and denounce and decry everyone who exults in political violence. Kick them off every platform. Say your piece and leave the dinner table. Tell the person in Target with a “Free Luigi” T-shirt that they don’t deserve to live in a civil society. I’m not saying cut off friends and family over political differences; that’s petty and life’s too short. But anyone praises Luigi? Says “yes but” about Kirk? That’s a different level. You’re not fit for the public square. Go home and write your miserable little thoughts on postcards and nail them to phone poles.

3. I have the feeling a lot of people are going to be googling “Palmer Raids” in the next few days.

4. When did this begin? You can go back to the anarchists, of course, but it started the day someone put on this T-shirt and expected to be admired:

It’s all downstream from that.

5. I’ve seen about 15 celebratory TikTok’s. For all I know that’s 1% of the total reaction on that cursed platform. Could be more. Aout half were gleeful and performative. It is the worst thing about social media: strangers in portrait mode, overacting making lots of emphatic gestures. I have reached the point where I am annoyed with everyone’s fingers They all seem to be playing a part. Acting. The exaggeration, the wide eyes, the staccato emphasis, the bizarre and common persona of demonic grade-school teacher, smiling and mocking, - it’s so damned universal. Then there are the Irony Bros with the smirk, also so sure and settled in their virtue. I don’t know. All sides have them, I guess. But the ravers are a new addition to the culture. And every one seems to inspire two more.

6. Conspiracy theory seem on reddit: it was a hit done by the administration to deflect from the Epstein story. Yeah sure. But. Something conspiratorial that occurred to me on the dog walk: if the footage of someone on the roof captured the shooter, and the shot was a long as it looked, is it completely and utterly ridiculous to think Russia or China set it up to sow civil unrest? But then you think, well, they wouldn’t have used their own guys, and if they hired someone, he’d turn in a heartbeat. Unwise. Bad tradecraft.

Unless he was extracted and eliminated, and those guys got smoked. No, you've watched too many movies.

But still.

7. What a wretched day.

Their website says: “Our community was named when William Mann, John Bentz, and William Kneeland decided to flip a $20 gold piece for the honor of naming their settlement. Mr. Mann, being the lucky one, named it Sterling, after his hometown in Illinois.”

Four hundred and eighty souls. Let’s take a stroll.

The renovation of the building on the right makes it look as if half the thing is useless. Perhaps it is. Perhaps they filled in the second floor with insulation foam and sealed it off.

When signage resembles early AI illustration programs attempting to make words:

Homely, but oddly endearing.

It’s like a child’s version of a building facade. Or it was painted so many times the lines have become indistinct.

I can’t figure out that lunette on the right.

You know how you have some minor facial blemish, and your spouse says oh don’t worry no one’s going to notice, but you know it’s the first thing everyone will see?

Those ground floors make the second floor look too short for actual humans.

More facade ruination:

How many newspapers does the town have?

I’m sure most are empty - TV sets with dead tubes. Maybe a local shopper.

The poor thing. It’s like an old man died and they stuck his preserved body in a lawn chair on main street.

That’s odd.

IND? Ind.

Ind Weber, who has been in failing health for the past several years, passed away at his home in Sterling, September 18, 1935 at 4:20 a.m. He had been bedfast for the past five weeks suffering from the last stages of diabetes.

Mr. Weber was born on Dec. 24, 1859 in Nemaha County and came to Johnson County in 1862. The family settled west of Sterling where he spent the greater part of his life. He received his early education in the West Sterling school and engaged in farming for his life work.

This could be yours!