An anti-Trump meme poster is out of jail, but Tennessee authorities have sent a chilling message

The most detailed account of what happened to Bushart was reported by Liliana Segura at The Intercept. As she notes, Bushart had posted multiple memes expressing his dislike of Kirk immediately following Kirk’s murder in front of a crowd of university students in Utah. Some of them were edgier than the one that got him in trouble — an activity that has cost multiple people their jobs, according to NPR. Segura writes:

Bushart spotted a thread about an upcoming candlelight vigil honoring Kirk in the county seat of Linden, a small town some 45 minutes away. He fired off a rapid series of trollish memes. One showed a scene from “The Sopranos.” “Tony, Charlie Kirk died,” Carmela Soprano says. “Who gives a shit,” Tony replies. Another quoted Kash Patel’s press conference after Kirk’s murder, where he said, “I’ll see you at Valhalla,” depicting the FBI director in a Viking costume and holding a rubber chicken. The most vulgar meme appeared to capture the moment Kirk was shot, accompanied by the words, “Release the Epstein Files.”

But it was a more innocuous post that would soon send Bushart’s life spiraling out of control.

The leader of the prosecutorial pack was the Perry County sheriff, Nick Weems, who activated a police response that resulted in Bushart’s being arrested at home. Bushart’s reaction: “I’ve been in Facebook jail but now I’m really in it. I may have been an asshole but …”

Following his release, Bushart told CNN media reporter Brian Stelter: “I’m glad to be out.” Stelter added of Bushart and his wife, “The couple wanted to refrain from commenting further until they consult with their lawyer — and some First Amendment scholars have already said that Bushart may have a strong case against the local authorities.”

So yes, Larry Bushart is free. But Sheriff Weems and his band of thugs succeeded in locking him up for a month and putting him in fear of much more dire consequences. Bushart doesn’t seem like the sort of guy who’s easily intimidated. But he could hardly be blamed if, now that he’s home and presumably back on Facebook, he thinks two or three times before hitting “publish.”

And that’s not all

► The Times’ Francesa Regalado reports that a 27-year-old graduate student from Illinois, Derek Lopez, has been arrested by the FBI and charged with threatening Trump’s life. If you read the story, you’ll see that Lopez’s social media activities were way out of line and could definitely be interpreted as a threat. For instance, Regalado writes:

According to the affidavit, Mr. Lopez posted in the comments of a Secret Service post on Instagram that with the account inactive during the government shutdown, “this is the perfect time to kill the president! The Secret Service is down!” And he wrote in a post on X on Oct. 27 that “I’m gonna kill Donald Trump,” according to the affidavit.

Lopez could face as much as five years in prison. If officials determine that Lopez was not making an actual threat and was merely engaging in “performance art,” as he claims, I hope the charges are reduced — but I don’t think they should be dropped altogether.

► Also in Illinois, Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh has been indicted along with five other protesters — two of them also political candidates — on charges of blocking an ICE vehicle outside a federal immigration facility.

According to NBC News reporters Ryan J. Reilly and Natasha Korecki, quoting from the indictment, Abughazaleh “physically hindered and impeded” an agent who was “forced to drive at an extremely slow rate of speed to avoid injuring any of the conspirators.” The protesters face two charges: conspiracy and that they “forcibly impeded, intimidated, and interfered” with a federal agent.

I’d call it something else: patriotism.