"'Up arrow, right arrow, and three down arrow symbols'... appears to be a reference to a sequence of controller moves that unleashes bombs in the popular video game Helldivers 2."

"Another phrase on the cartridges, 'Notices bulges OwO what’s this?' is used for trolling, with roots in online role-play communities. Some of the other messages on the unfired cartridges appear more politically straightforward, including one that says, 'Hey fascist! Catch!'... Another featured the words 'Bella ciao,' an apparent reference to an Italian song adopted by the antifascist resistance during World War II. It is still sung by the Italian left and in other countries.... and it also appears in a recent Netflix series."

From "Here’s What Some of the Bullet Casing Engravings in the Charlie Kirk Shooting Mean/Many of the messages adopt the flippant, sarcastic chatter often found on online message boards and in-game chats" (NYT).

What Netflix series? ChatGPT tells me it's the Spanish drama-thriller series "Money Heist," which involves robbers in red jumpsuits and Salvador Dalí masks breaking into Spain’s mint and printing money. The use of the song suggests a connection between that money heist and the historical fight against fascism. The song "Bella ciao" originated "as an anthem of Italian partisans fighting Mussolini and the Nazis."

One must infer that the murderer envisioned himself as an antifascist hero. Presumably, he was able to see what happened to Luigi Mangione.

"We have to be vicious just like they are. It's the only thing they understand."

Said President Trump, about the murder of Iryna Zarutska on the train in Charlotte. Trump presents the problem of violence as straightforward, easy to solve quickly if we simply have the will to go hardcore into law and order, with none of the liberal complexity.

Meanwhile, over at The Washington Post, there's "Trump blames Democrats for Charlotte stabbing. Records complicate the story. The case has sharpened partisan divisions about an intractable root of crime: how to treat the seriously mentally ill who pose risks of violence."

Is it really so complicated and intractable? WaPo urges readers to see "nuances" — basically the failure to deal with mental illness.

"The truth is that Iryna had no real choice. If she avoided the seat in front of the Black man, she might look like a racist."

"She had no reason to fear him, after all, because she was sympathetic to the plight of racism in America and even had the words 'Black Lives Matter' and 'I can’t breathe' scrawled on a chalkboard in her room."

Writes Sasha Stone, in "The Girl on the Train/She escaped war in Ukraine only to find herself in the middle of a different kind of war in the United States."

"There's so much criticism of media that hasn't picked up the story, yet it hasn't changed, perhaps because they're sticking to the original judgment that it's a local murder story..."

"... and not every murder gets to be national news. So the question is why some people (the right?) see elements that make it deserve national attention and others (the left?) think that it doesn't. A black man kills a white woman — that alone can't be enough. The woman is beautiful. The woman came from Ukraine. The violence was sudden and random (it could happen to you!)."

I write, prompting ChatGPT to respond to the NY Post column with the headline, "Horrid video of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska’s slaughter on Charlotte train is met with deafening silence from Dem leaders, media."

ChatGPT's answer can be read here, where you will also see that prompt was my second prompt.

My first prompt was: "I'm seeing this news story and wondering if it's possible that the story is a hoax, with AI generated video. The video is so 'on the nose' to stir up basic fears. Is it being ignored because it's not true?"

The answer was enough to overcome my suspicion: "Surveillance footage was released by Charlotte police showing the stabbing of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, aboard the Lynx Blue Line light rail in Charlotte on August 22, 2025. She was fatally stabbed by Decarlos Brown Jr., a 34-year-old homeless man with a criminal history. Brown was arrested at the scene and charged with first-degree murder."

ADDED: In case that link to ChatGPT isn't working, here's the text of how it answered the second prompt:

"I’m aware that the president of the United States likes to go on television and beg me to call and ask him for troops."

"I find this extraordinarily strange as Chicago does not want troops on our streets … I refuse to play a reality game show with Donald Trump."

Said JB Pritzker, quoted in "JB Pritzker: is the Illinois governor the Democrats’ best hope?/Clashes with Trump have boosted his profile, and while a third Illinois term looks assured, a tilt at the White House could see old scandals return to haunt him" (London Times).

We're told that Trump "continues to mock Pritzker’s bulk, posting an AI video showing him as a sumo wrestler grappling with Chris Christie, a large former Republican governor." In case you're having trouble picturing that:

pic.twitter.com/KBZz0iosQX

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2025

Isn't it amazing that the President of the United States is fooling around — and fat shaming — like that? Trump is fat too, of course. I think he fairly cheerfully admits it.

There's also this quote from Frank Luntz: "If you’re the California governor, you have to defend San Francisco. If you’re the Illinois governor, you have to defend Chicago. Democrats do not know how to talk about crime and they do not know how to lead about it, because, quite frankly, they’re seen as being in bed with the criminal and being too distant from the victim.... I actually think that Rahm Emanuel is a better representative because Chicago was better off when he was mayor.”

"The U.S. has entered a new era in which narcotraffickers are classified as terrorists — and Trump is claiming the right to kill them before they or their drugs reach this country."

From "'We've never seen this before': Trump's drug war looks like a real war" (Axios).

The attack marked the first time a suspected "go-fast" drug-running boat was destroyed by a military missile, according to officials and drug-war experts. "There's more where that came from," Trump said in announcing the strike. All other details of the shocking, caught-on-video missile attack are classified, officials said....

What happened Tuesday was "a murder anywhere in the world," Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, wrote on X. "We have been capturing civilians who transport drugs for decades without killing them. Those who transport drugs are not the big narcos, but the very poor, young people from the Caribbean and the Pacific."...

ADDED: "Trump Claims the Power to Summarily Kill Suspected Drug Smugglers/The move to treat criminals as if they were wartime combatants escalated an administration pattern of using military force for law enforcement tasks at home and abroad" (NYT). 

"I only keep [the long hair] because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans. I am tired of being trans, I wish I never brain-washed myself..."

"I can’t cut my hair now as it would be embarrassing defeat, and it might be a concerning change of character that could get me reported. It just always gets in my way. I will probably chop it on the day of the attack.... I don’t want to dress girly all the time but I guess sometimes I really like it. I know I am not a woman but I definitely don’t feel like a man."

Wrote Robin Westman, more or less rejecting trans identity, quoted in "Minneapolis school shooter Robin Westman confessed he was 'tired of being trans': 'I wish I never brain-washed myself'" (NY Post).

I don't understand why we are calling this person trans. If you're saying you "brain-washed" yourself, you've implicitly consigned the belief to the past. You might not reveal the loss of belief to others, but you've put it in writing — albeit in code — and we can read it. Why are people pretending to believe that he believed what he said he didn't believe? And he wrote it explicitly: "I know I am not a woman." 

I don't see why anyone wants this person to be a member of their group. What good would it do anyone to have Westman as one of their own?

"In one 20-minute video, Westman flips through the disturbing handwritten manifesto. Much of it is written in a homespun code that uses Cyrillic characters and English phonetic words."

"In the deranged writings, he gleefully fantasizes about 'being that scary horrible monster standing over those powerless kids'.... 'I am feeling good about Annunciation. It seems like a good combo of easy attack form and devastating tragedy and I want to do more research. I have concerns about finding a large enough group. I want to avoid any parents, but pre and post school drop off,' another page reads. 'Maybe I could attack an event at the on-site church.... I think attacking a large group of kids coming in from recess is my best plan … Then from there I can go inside and kill, going for as long as I can.' Near the end of the video, Westman flicks through a number of blank pages before reaching what appears to be a drawing showing the inside of a church, saying 'Haha, nice'... stops turning pages... takes out a knife and stabs into the center of the sketch... withdraws the blade, and quietly mumbles, 'kill myself.'"

From "Minneapolis school shooter ID’d as trans woman Robin Westman — as apparent manifesto included 'kill Trump'" (NY Post).

UPDATE: Writing this post, I avoided quoting the text that used a pronoun for Westman. The Post had used "she," but I see this morning, the "she"s are all changed to "he"s, without any notice that a correction/"correction" has been made. 

"We banned assault weapons, but our laws only go so far when an AR-15 can be obtained in a state with weak gun laws and brought into New York to commit mass murder."

Said New York Governor Kathy Hochul, quoted in "Even New York’s Strict Gun Laws Couldn’t Prevent the Midtown Shooting" (NYT).

"Terry Long, football gave me CTE and it caused me to drink a gallon of antifreeze.... Please study brain for CTE. I’m sorry. The league knowingly concealed the dangers to our brains to maximize profits. They failed us.”

Wrote Shane Tamura, quoted in "NYC mass shooter Shane Tamura found with note blaming NFL for giving him CTE — even though he never played pro football" (NY Post).

Terry Long, was a "former Pittsburgh Steelers player who was diagnosed with CTE after downing antifreeze to kill himself 20 years ago."

Tamura apparently intended "to shoot up the NFL HQ — but 'mistakenly went up the wrong elevator banks' and ended up on a higher floor."

Was Tamura influenced by Luigi Mangione?

By the way, "CNN’s Erin Burnett is being skewered for reporting that the gunman who opened fire in a Midtown skyscraper — killing an NYPD cop and three others — was 'possibly white' after viewing the initial security footage released immediately after Shane Tamura’s deadly rampage" (NY Post).

"... Mr. Haskell paid $500 to several day laborers to haul away several heavy black plastic trash bags from his home.... When they looked inside one of them, they found human body parts, prompting them to return the bags..."

"... and money to Mr. Haskell, whom they photographed — along with the bags — and reported to the police, prosecutors said. That same afternoon, investigators said, Mr. Haskell was seen in security camera footage removing a trash bag from the trunk of his Tesla and disposing of it in a dumpster in a parking lot in nearby Encino, Calif. A person sifting through the dumpster the next day found a beheaded torso.... During an initial criminal proceeding in December 2023, Mr. Haskell appeared shirtless in court, wearing a smock intended to prevent inmates from using it to hang themselves. At the time, his lawyer told Fox News that the Sheriff’s Department had forced him to appear that way, creating speculation that Mr. Haskell might harm himself...."

From "Son of Ex-Hollywood Agent, Jailed in 3 Murders, Dies by Suicide, D.A. Says/Samuel Haskell, 37, was accused of dismembering his wife and his in-laws. He was the son of Sam Haskell III, an Emmy-winning film producer and veteran talent agent" (NYT).

The father, we're told, "had several A-list clients, including George Clooney, Ray Romano and Whoopi Goldberg," was a producer of "several films and shows about Dolly Parton," and headed "the Miss America Organization until... he resigned amid reports that he and other pageant leaders had made misogynistic and derogatory comments about the competition’s contestants." The link on "resigned" goes to the 2017 HuffPo article, "The Miss America Emails: How The Pageant’s CEO Really Talks About The Winners/Internal correspondence reveals name-calling, slut-shaming and fat-shaming in emails between the Miss America CEO, board members and a pageant writer."

"A gunman deliberately started a wildfire in a rugged mountain area of Idaho and then shot at the firefighters who responded, killing two and injuring another on Sunday afternoon, in what the local sheriff described as a 'total ambush.'"

"Law enforcement officers exchanged fire with the gunman while the wildfire burned. Officials later found the body of a male suspect on the mountain with a firearm nearby.... The authorities said they believed the suspect had acted alone, but they did not release any information about his identity or motives. 'This was a total ambush,' Sheriff Norris said. 'These firefighters did not have a chance.'... Graham Christensen, a past president of the Lake City Trail Alliance, said the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department regularly performed brush clearing and fire suppression there, and said he did not know of a naturally caused wildfire there in the past two decades. He said the attack was a shock because the area had always felt so safe. 'Everybody feels comfortable up there,' he said...."

From "2 Firefighters Killed in Idaho Sniper Ambush/Firefighters were responding to a blaze in the panhandle of Idaho when the shooting happened, a sheriff said. The body of a suspect was recovered on Sunday evening" (NYT).

"Mr. Boelter had served on a state economic board with one of the victims, State Senator John A. Hoffman, who survived the shooting, though it is unclear if they actually knew each other."

"Mr. Boelter was appointed to the panel, the Minnesota Governor’s Workforce Development Board, in 2016 by a Democratic former governor, Mark Dayton. The board has 41 members appointed by the governor, and its members try to improve business development in the state. He was later reappointed by Gov. Tim Walz, also a Democrat.... Governor Walz has said that the shooting 'appears to be a politically motivated assassination,' though the exact motive for the attack is not yet clear. Voters do not declare political affiliation when they register in Minnesota, and a state report connected to the work force board listed Mr. Boelter’s affiliation as 'none or other' in 2016. A similar report in 2020 listed him as having 'no party preference.' But David Carlson, a roommate and close friend of Mr. Boelter’s, said Mr. Boelter voted for Donald J. Trump last year and was particularly passionate about opposing abortion...."

From "What We Know About the Minnesota Shooting Suspect/Vance Boelter, who is suspected in the attacks on two Minnesota politicians and their spouses, was taken into custody on Sunday, ending a major manhunt" (NYT).

I believe Carlson said those things after the shootings had taken place.

"U.S. Senator Tina Smith, Democrat of Minnesota, said in an interview that the gunman had a notebook with a list of names that included hers and those of other lawmakers, all of whom were Democrats. The list included about 70 potential targets, a federal law enforcement official said, including doctors, community and business leaders, and locations for Planned Parenthood and other health care centers. Some of the targets were in neighboring states."

Is Tina Smith the only source of this information? What's the basis of her knowledge? And why is the NYT presenting the information like that?

Why did it take so long to find Vance Boelter if he was right near his house with his getaway car parked in front?

Why did the big manhunt take 43 hours?

ADDED: Here's my other question. Boelter (it seems) attacked 2 political figures and also their spouse. Isn't it unusual for an assassin (if that's what he was) to go after the spouse?

“He sought out militant Islamists in order to share the gospel and tell them that violence wasn’t the answer.”

From “Who Is Vance Boelter? The Minnesota Lawmaker Shooting Suspect/The 57-year-old worked in security and as a pastor. A list found in his car included prominent abortion-rights supporters in Minnesota, according to an official” (WSJ).

"When we did a search of the [fake police car], there was a manifesto that identified many lawmakers and other officials."

Said Police Chief Mark Bruley, of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, quoted in From "'No Kings' protests in Minnesota canceled as authorities search for suspect who shot 2 lawmakers/Police in Minnesota are cautioning residents to avoid 'No Kings' protests after two state lawmakers and their spouses were shot early Saturday" (WaPo)(free-access link).

Melissa Hortman, a former Minnesota House Speaker, and her spouse were shot and killed early Saturday in their Brooklyn Park home. A second state lawmaker, Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, were shot multiple times in Champlin. Officials say both Hortman and Hoffman were mentioned in the suspect’s writings.....

State Patrol Col. Christina Bogojevic asked people “out of an abundance of caution” not to attend any of the “No Kings” protests that were scheduled for across the state on Saturday. Bogojevic said authorities didn’t have any direct evidence that the protests would be targeted, but said the suspect had some “No Kings” flyers in their car. Organizers announced that all of the protests across the state were canceled....

UPDATE: "A former appointee of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is being sought in connection with the assassination of a state lawmaker and the shooting of another, police sources said. Vance Luther Boelter...." (NY Post0).

"I went to Columbia for grad school. I saw the same thing in his eyes as I saw in the eyes of all the protestors at Columbia."

WOW. INCREDIBLE RESPONSE👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

CNN Reporter: “You said you looked the shooter in the eyes can you tell us what you saw in him? “

Eye Witness: “I went to Columbia for grad school. I saw the same thing in his eyes as I saw in the eyes of all the protestors at Columbia.”

CNN… https://t.co/yxURFVj4Hr

— Jeremy Kamali (@JeremyKamali) May 23, 2025

"But they did not create this horrific shooting"/"They gave it permission. They have called for intifada revolution, which is the same thing he (the shooter) yelled last night.”

"The event in Washington DC where two Israeli embassy workers were shot dead was aimed at alleviating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, in 'brutal and tragic irony'....

"... according to an Israel-based aid group. 'All participants came together to find practical solutions to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,' IsraAid, an Israel-based international emergency response group said in a statement. The event was a reception for young Jewish diplomats and foreign policy professionals, and was hosted by the American Jewish Committee at the Capital Jewish Museum. The event 'focused on delivering aid to Gaza through Israeli-Palestinian and regional co-operation. It was driven by humanitarian values and a belief that collaboration is the only path forward for all people in the region,' IsraAid said."

The London Times reports.

Was the murderer misinformed? It seems more likely that he — along with many others —  opposes "practical solutions," "regional co-operation," "humanitarian values," and "collaboration" as "the only path forward." 

Look at the hopeful faces of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who are now dead. Perhaps they were smiling so beautifully because they believed in humanitarian values.

The arrested man, Elias Rodriguez, "had been waving a red keffiyeh, which is often associated with the Marxist–Leninist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)."  He asked for the police to be called, and, as you can hear, in video at the link, he shouts "Free Palestine! Free Palestine!" after he is handcuffed. 

"President Donald Trump pressed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to protect White Afrikaner farmers from violent attacks in an extraordinary Oval Office conversation..."

"... in which Trump made no mention of the African nation’s long-standing epidemic of violence against both White and Black people, nor its violent and discriminatory history of White rule. Trump amplified false claims that White Afrikaners have been victims of a genocide, even showing video of crosses and earthen mounds that he said represented more than 1,000 grave sites of murdered farmers. The mounds were in fact part of a protest against the violence, not actual graves. Ramaphosa stared straight ahead, wiping his face and occasionally moving in his seat and looking over at Trump, who wouldn’t make eye contact as a clip played of crowds repeatedly shouting, 'Kill the Boers,' a reference to White farmers descended from colonists who built and led the nation’s racist apartheid regime...."

WaPo reports.

"We will never forget the names of precious American souls like Jocelyn Nungaray, Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, and many others who were savagely killed by illegal alien crime."

"Last June, 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was brutally assaulted and murdered by two illegal aliens in her home state of Texas. To memorialize her young life and love of nature and animals, I proudly renamed the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge in Texas to the Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge. May this be Jocelyn’s little piece of Heaven on Earth."

From "National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, 2025," a proclamation by President Trump (at whitehouse.gov).