So, murder is now a way to fix the things you don’t like?

 

August 18, 2026

Luigi Mangione, the suspected murderer of United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson in 2024, pled guilty in court last week to the killing. “I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan,” Mangione said in his plea. “I understood that my actions would place him in fear of death or bodily injury. I knew what I was doing was illegal.”

Mangione, reading his statement to the court. said that “after years of enduring severe pain from an injured back and navigating the insurance system, he learned that UnitedHealthcare would be holding its annual investor conference in New York City on Dec. 4, 2024,” as reported by the New York Times.

He then went to NYC in possession of a gun he made with a 3-D printer with a silencer affixed to it, and committed cold-blooded murder against someone who did not cause his pain, but worked in the health insurance industry which Mangione blamed for his discomfort.

Federal prosecutors said they will seek life in prison, the maximum sentence possible, when Mangione is sentenced in December.

So, just who is Luigi Mangione? According to the Times report, he “was born into a prosperous Maryland family that owned country clubs, nursing homes and a conservative talk radio station. He attended a private, all-boys high school in Baltimore.” That isn’t the sort of life that should build hatred.

Question: How can someone who had such a good life, with a successful and prosperous family, not have learned one of the most basic lessons of life: that murder is wrong?

As nauseating and irrational as Mangione’s action was, nearly as bad is the high level of support this murderous rich kid has received from others.

“The murder of Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare executive, in late 2024 unearthed a torrent of public outrage against the health insurance industry,” the Times reported. “And since then, Americans’ anger has solidified into deep mistrust of the companies.

“Much of the current dissatisfaction stems from rising economic concerns: More and more people cannot afford the increasing costs of insurance premiums and medical bills.”

This situation is now the justification for the murder of an insurance executive, causing unimaginable pain and suffering among his family, friends and co-workers, and not solving the problem.

The Times report continued, “Outside the courthouse, Abril Rios, one of the self-described “Mangionistas” who received a city-issued press badge, said she felt ‘relieved’ to hear Mangione’s testimony detailing the crime. ‘I see the move today as still fighting it,’ she said. ‘I don’t think this is a concession or an admission of guilt.’”

This madness was also covered by CNN, which reported that someone called “Katie” appeared at a Manhattan protest “wearing a black shirt with a large photo of the 26-year-old suspected shooter. ‘But Daddy I Love Him,’ the shirt read in pink.

“’I just thought it was fun and cute and something to show his face and show support,’ she said.

“Did she actually, as the shirt said, love Mangione?

“’I don’t know if you can love someone you’ve never met,’ she responded. ‘I love whoever made that action to stand for health care … They really took a stand. I’m actually surprised something like this hasn’t happened before.’

“’Whoever did commit that act, I really do see him as a hero and a martyr.’

Katie was one of a few dozen people who came to a protest outside federal court in New York City to express support for Mangione.” 

Strangely, support for cold-blooded murder has been seen at other protests, where signs with “Free Luigi” were seen, and protesters wore green, referencing Nintendo’s “Luigi” character.

After his arrest and being charged, this murderer received hundreds of supporting letters from not only the US, but also Brazil, Japan and Australia.

And some 27,000 sympathizers had contributed more than $950,000 to a legal defense fund. And the legal defense fund’s website listed 13 “Frequently Asked Questions,” with many of them suggesting contributing or sending him letters.

CNN also said it had contacted some of his supporters to learn how they felt, and why, and their responses focused on our health care system and the insurance companies. 

“There’s a lot of sympathy for Luigi,” an unidentified supporter said. “Seems to be like he was mad at the health care system, like we all are. I obviously don’t think anyone should be murdered, and I don’t think that’s a way to solve the problem, but I sympathize with the idea that we can actually make that happen and just to use this moment to make that happen.”

Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk met a similar fate on a college campus in 2025. His crime against humanity: calmly and politely providing members of his audience a different side to their argument. But that was too much for his executioner to handle.

The Thompson and Kirk murders, and the ludicrously large amount of support for this sort of irrational violence should worry each of us. What has happened in our once logical and balanced culture to allow so many to believe the way to solve their problems is to murder people who do not agree with them?

We must protect America’s devotion to freedom of ideas

August 11, 2026

One of the big negatives in the country today is that many members of some important professions have put their integrity in a drawer in their basement or attic, and replaced it with political motivation. This is especially harmful when those professionals are lawyers and judges, education administrators and teachers, and people working in news media and social media.

Where news is concerned, the heaviest distribution of these folks is on the left side of the political aisle. Liberal/socialist-leaning media are busy controlling what they air, print and post, happily and energetically pouring forth their preferred perspectives, and just as happily and energetically blocking opposing material.

Trying to find a balanced news outlet is not as easy as it used to be. And that can, and does, have an effect on how people think about things. When you only get one set of ideas of the many actually available, you are not able to make independent judgements, you are being controlled.

One small effort to impose some limit on how much control any entity or group of entities could gain over the populace occurred two decades ago.

Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2004, placing a 39 percent cap on how much broadcast television ownership a company may have. That’s a pretty large number, allowing one owner to have more than one-third of all of the broadcast television stations. A tiny limit, but it is a limit.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently voted to eliminate that cap, undoubtedly thrilling the broadcast industry, as it swung open the door to more consolidation of TV station ownership. 

Large television station companies have been urging this change since day one, and new FCC Chairman, Brendan Carr, has argued for the change, saying traditional broadcasting entities are unfairly regulated, while tech companies and streaming companies are not.

The TV people also say that restricting these purchases puts TV stations at risk of closure, due to the evolving technology of communications, which favors new media over traditional media.

Critics, however, counter that point, saying that television remains a unique market. With the decline in newspapers that has occurred, local TV stations are depended upon more and more for local news. Therefore, they should continue to be independent, and not become controlled by a few large companies.

The 2-to-1 FCC vote featured the Republican Carr, and Commissioner Olivia Trusty voting for the change, and Democrat Commissioner Anna Gomez opposing it.

The FCC position is that decisions by a company to purchase additional broadcast stations will be judged on a case-by-case basis, rather than through a blanket ceiling on total ownership. This is a much less likely way to restrict too much ownership.

Opponents of the FCC decision immediately responded, asking if an independent federal agency has the authority to eliminate a limit imposed by a federal law. They maintain that Congress must decide any changes to a federal law. This issue will undoubtedly go before a federal court.

But the government and the people must keep their eyes on situations where some individual or company, or group of individuals or companies quietly gain a high degree of control over an important aspect of our lives.

Here is another similar example: Three investment companies — BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street Global Advisors — control about 74 percent of the ETF (exchange traded funds) equity market, and that equates to being the largest shareholder in roughly 88 percent of S&P 500 companies.

Those three firms have enough voting power to influence how those companies operate. Is it a good situation when three firms have this much control over that many companies in America?

The term “diversity” has become a frequently used term recently. However, the United States has always had a fairly diverse atmosphere. Many options exist in nearly any subject you can name. Food, entertainment, jobs, clothing, vehicles, political ideas, areas of study, etc. 

You won’t find that diversity in authoritarian nations, which are often communist or socialist. In those nations, you get what the government says you can have, and nothing more.

We should fight movements that limit our choices, whether that involves three companies that might one day pretty much decide what products we can buy, due to their high level of control over those large and important companies. Or having only a few media organizations that decide which of the many important ideas we will be able to access, and how much news we will accurately hear about.

In addition to the insane changes to the government they think are smart, the heavily anti-American agenda of the left — particularly the even-more-radical Democratic Socialists of America, which wants no police, no prisons, no U.S. Senate, no Supreme Court, no Electoral College, no ICE, to give amnesty to all illegals, to take over important industries, and more — lean heavily towards a government with little diversity, and an environment where nearly everything allowed in the land will be what is approved by, and imposed by government.

Our constitutional republic is under attack by enemies from both inside and outside the country. We must defeat them decisively and quickly. 

Is our 250-year-old constitutional republic going to survive?

August 4, 2026

Remember when Democrats and Republicans were much closer in their ideas about how to move the country forward than they are today? If so, you are probably a seasoned citizen. If not that seasoned, and you happen to remember this, you are not from Gen Z, but you may be an early Gen X.

That more productive atmosphere is not what we have today.

Many on the left — mostly the younger ones, but also some of the older ones — do not understand the nation’s system that they so eagerly aim to sabotage, turning the country into one more famously inept socialist/communist mess.

Those in the Gen Z crowd were born from 1997 to 2012. By then, we already had high-speed internet, social media, smartphones, and a society that had existed and prospered for more than 200 years. And, while the older generations — like the Silent Generation, the Boomers, etc. — had many things that even older ones didn’t have, they were able to see how things came to be, appreciate their arrival, and enjoy these steps of progress.

Watching media evolve from just radio to the black and white television, and then to color television. Impressed with the development of stereo sound. Cars with automatic transmission, and then air conditioning. Jet aircraft. The space programs. The list goes on and on.

They also learned a lot from their parents about how to behave, and in school they learned real history, and civics, teaching them how the country was developed and supposed to work.

That experience helped them appreciate the great country into which they were so fortunate to have been born.

That element is missing from the environment of these younger folks. They entered a world that was so much better than it was when the older folks were born. Having such a full and special atmosphere from birth, taking it for granted, rather than watching how those great things developed and improved along the way may be why they do not adequately appreciate their wonderful country.

Whatever the reasons for these leftists to fail to understand present-day America and properly appreciate it, they also have no idea how foolish it is to think that socialism/communism will be better, or even tolerable, once it gets fully established.

Businessman David Rubenstein offered this perspective on America: “I would say that the United States is one of roughly 220 countries in the world. And of all these countries, we’re the one where the most people want to immigrate to. We’re the one who’s built the biggest economy in the world, the greatest technology base in the world,” and “we have the greatest entrepreneurial instincts of any country in the world. And that combination of things enables this country to achieve what we’ve achieved.”

Continuing with his praise for our country, he said, “To go through your life, you have used a lot of American technology. You probably can’t get through your day without using a Google, Facebook, or Meta product, or Netflix or one of our American-made automobiles. What European company do you need to use their products to get through the day? Virtually none. And except for TikTok, Americans can get through the day without using anything invented really outside the United States. The world is very dependent on the products we’ve created.”

A major problem today is that so many of the young were denied the fundamental education of what America is, and how it was formed. Our strong, sensible values have deteriorated dramatically over recent decades, because they ceased being taught and encouraged.

How can we strengthen those values? On that topic, another prominent American, radio talk show host, attorney, and author, Hugh Hewitt, suggests that we start teaching civics again to middle school students. He thinks using a book by Wilford McClay, titled “Land of Hope” will help. Hewitt believes it “is the best single book on American history,” and thinks it should be the core curriculum.

Describing McClay’s book: “It’s warts and all, as he says. He’s objective. He’s not neutral, but he’s objective about what we’ve gotten wrong and what we’ve gotten right in the country. Let’s pour ourselves into civics as opposed to ideology. I’d like to get back to some basics about how much we have in common, not what we have to fight over.”

Our constitutional republic has survived and thrived for 250 years. The country is not perfect. No country is. But this one has set records that none other has in those 250 years. And yet, thousands, perhaps millions, of our fellow Americans are dead-set on imposing socialism/communism on us, unable to recognize our great worth, or understand the disasters that their preferred system has brought to Cuba, Venezuela and other countries.

A noteworthy incident occurred during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. Outside Independence Hall, Elizabeth Willing Powel asked Benjamin Franklin a question about the Convention’s conclusion: "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a Republic or a Monarchy?" Franklin replied, "A Republic, if you can keep it."

Our republic has survived a civil war, two world wars, and many other challenges. Will it be able to survive this one?