The day before Charlie Kirk was murdered, what was in the news? If you said Epstein's birthday book – and specifically, the birthday card allegedly drawn by Donald Trump – then you're one of those odd ducks we might refer to as a Rememberer.

It is a curious coincidence that just as that news was getting traction, it was forgotten – by most people, it seems – because everyone was suddenly focused on what happened to Kirk and what it means. Understandably. It was a momentous – even  watershed – moment. Kirk was murdered while engaging in a peaceful debate/conversation on a college campus. His talking points are beside the point. His being murdered in that context is. It made it very clear that saying things not liked by others (and perhaps not liked by governments, both foreign and domestic) can get you killed.

But it can also change the course of discourse – as quickly as Kirk's life ended. Whether coincidentally is beside the point.

Kirk's sudden, violent end certainly helped Trump. About that there can be no doubt. Did he breath a sigh of relief when the course of discourse shifted away from that birthday book – and that very creepy birthday card? To believe he didn't is to believe an absurdity. It is of a piece (for those who remember) with believing George W.Bush and Donald Rumsfeld did not feel relief when the "enemies of freedom" very conveniently struck – at just the moment when it was very much in the news that the Defense Department had "lost" a very large sum of money . . .

People forgot all about the freedoms they used to have, too, after the "enemies of freedom" struck. It was a discourse ender.

There are many such. The attack on Pearl Harbor that the government almost certainly had advance warning of was another. It ended talk of not getting involved in the war in Europe – an interesting thing. The Tonkin Gulf "incident" – which never actually happened – is another of those interesting things.

Is the Epstein thing important? Trump seems to think so. And so did Charlie Kirk – until he spoke with Trump, who apparently convinced him to stop speaking about it. Here is what Kirk said not long before he was ended: "Honestly, I'm done talking about Epstein for the time being. I'm gonna trust my friends in the administration. I'm gonna trust my friends in the government."

This was apparently after a phone call with Trump.