The assassination of Charlie Kirk, slain by a politically motivated shooter, will shift our politics markedly in the coming months and years. Director and Senior Analyst for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy Kyle Shideler joins the hosts this week to share memories of the man and unmask the far-left networks that are responsible for recent political violence. Particularly under the Obama and Biden administrations, vague threat-level categories were created to asymmetrically bring the hammer down on extremist groups, allowing far-left extremism to slip by and foment. Yet the knee-jerk reaction to use "hate speech" laws and censorship is a notion best warded off; instead, correct designation of terror groups and fund tracing is urgently needed to diffuse modern terror threats at home and abroad. Plus: related reading and other media recommendations!

Recommended reading:

How to Dismantle Far-Left Extremist Networks

Honor the Memory of Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk, Martyr

Citizen Kirk

The editors open with an analysis of the killing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska by a repeat violent offender, and discuss what it reveals about crime, media spin, and a legacy media more fixated on “Republicans pouncing” than the literally pouncing criminal himself. Follow-up discussion ranges from Europe’s disappearing crime stats to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s downward revision of nearly a million jobs during the Biden presidency, probing whether institutions still merit public trust and what a reality-based politics on immigration, safety, and the economy might look like. The editors also touch on an immigration sweep at a Georgia battery plant and the gap between GDP and lived experience before closing with fresh culture picks.

Culture recommendations:

* The Name of the Rose

* Last Summer Boys

* Alien: Earth

* How to Be a Better Drinker: Cocktail Recipes and Boozy Etiquette

At a Catholic school in Minneapolis, two children were killed, and many others injured, in a recent shooting at the hands of a transgender individual. The city's mayor Jacob Frey and California governor Newsom took the somber moment to sneer at prayer. This week, the hosts discuss the impact of leftist indoctrination on mental health crises; the misuse of AI hollowing young minds in the academy and worsening grade inflation; and Trump’s move of US Space Command to Alabama. Plus: media recommendations and experience reports from the NatCon Conference!