Damaging to real American people, but an opportunity for cuts

Sheesh, where to begin? Start talking about the new mess or finish talking about the previous mess? I guess I had better finish off the old mess first. Way back on September 18 (so it can be seen as old news) when the Jimmy Kimmel mess was still hot Alex Samuels of Daily Kos reported that Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr hinted that Kimmel won’t be his last target. He said, “We’re not done yet.” Sinclair and Nexstar are the two large TV station owners that objected to Kimmel’s comments, prompting his show to be suspended. On September 23 Oliver Willis of Kos reported that they said when Kimmel’s show is brought back (which was that evening) their stations would not air the show. On Friday, September 26 Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos had some late night commentary, including on Kimmel’s return to air. Bill started with the start of Kimmel’s opening monologue:

I’m happy to be here tonight with you. I’m not sure who had a weirder 48 hours, me or the CEO of Tylenol.

And later in the monologue:

[Trump] did his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly. He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now.

Willis posted that opening monologue. I watched it. The whole segment is 30 minutes. The first 15 minutes was rather serious and a full support of strong American ideals, especially free speech. I think it’s worth watching. The rest of it was jokes and a skit on the “new rules” Kimmel would have to follow. In all a great return. On September 26, three days after Kimmel’s return Samuels reported that Sinclair and Nexstar had changed their position and would air Kimmel’s show. On to the other big news, the federal government shutdown. Leila Fadel of NPR spoke with Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut. She wanted to offer a bill to keep the government funded and open for another month so that Congress, and not the Office of Management and Budget head Russel Vought. But the House was gaveled into adjournment before she could. DeLauro reminded us the reason for the shutdown, for the budget impasse, is Democrats want to reverse the cuts to Medicaid that would throw fifteen million people off. They also want to reverse the cuts to Affordable Care Act subsidies, which would cause premiums to be too expensive for millions of people. At the moment Democrats do not trust Republicans. DeLauro said:

In the midst of these negotiations, Russ Vought, who is the mastermind of this, of this effort, and who wants a shutdown - and he said - his words are very clear - there should be less bipartisanship. The president of the United States said it's a waste of time to negotiate with Jeffries and Schumer. And Republicans rally around, jam this Republican continuing revolution down the Democrats' throat. Now, you tell me if that acts in good faith. And Mr. Vought introduced a bill that would continue to steal the money appropriated by Democrats and Republicans, House and Senate, as we're into these negotiations.

As for the nasty guy’s threat of turning mass furloughs into mass layoffs, DeLauro said there have already been mass layoffs. Scott Simon of NPR talked to Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin about his proposal to end shutdowns. He calls it the Eliminate Shutdowns Act. If a budget isn’t enacted this bill would establish 14-day rolling funding at last year’s levels for the parts of the government not yet funded.

And by the way, that's the well-honed process by the uniparty to put pressure on the process to just pass anything, which has then resulted in [the national debt] going from $14 trillion to $37 trillion. It's designed to increase spending. Everybody has to get together and compromise to spend more on everybody's programs. Again, we can't afford this. So again, let's end the dysfunction.

I like his idea, but puzzled. Why have a bill that funds the government in two week chunks that automatically renew every two weeks? Why not just say the government is funded at the previous level until the new budget is passed? News Corpse of the Kos community wrote Speaker Mike Johnson gave the game away. While talking to Maria Bartiromo of Fox News about turning the furloughs into job cuts, Johnson said:

Yes, the president and I talked about this at great length. While, a shutdown is very damaging for real American people who depend upon government services, it can provide an opportunity to downsize the scope and the scale of government, which is something that we’ve all always wanted to do.

This would allow the nasty guy do some things that would otherwise not be possible because Democrats would never vote for them. Johnson also said of Vought:

He gets to decide now what services are essential, what programs and policies should be continued, and which would not be a priority for taxpayers.

So Vought gets to decide – and not Congress? And that “priority for taxpayers” nonsense... This is all about the priorities of the nasty gay and Republicans, which are far different than the priorities of taxpayers. News Corpse wrote that the nasty guy says the shutdown will allow him to do things that are bad for Democrats. News Corpse corrects that thought. The cuts will be bad for the American people. The nasty guy and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called about 800 of America’s generals and admirals to one place in Quantico, Virginia. They ignored the cost of transporting them from around the world and the big security breach of having all the top brass in one place. Then Hegseth laid out his definition of a warrior ethos (from a guy who had never been a warrior) and the nasty guy insulted them. In today’s pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Robert Hubbell of his Today’s Edition Newsletter on Substack:

They sat in silence as Trump claimed that the military would use U.S. cities as “training grounds” for waging war against American civilians. They sat in silence as Trump said he would ask the military to fight “the enemy from within.” They sat in silence as Hegseth said the generals were free to ignore the law of war and international treaties that separate the US military from barbarians and war criminals. [...] In his final insult, Trump told the generals they looked like they came out of “central casting.” In doing so, he trivialized and demeaned their accomplishments and professionalism, telling them they were nothing more than props for infantile speeches by men who hold the military in contempt. And so, the generals sat in silence, depriving Trump of the thing he values most--obsequious adulation. The silence of the generals spoke volumes.

In the comments are several cartoons and memes about that military gathering. A cartoon by Sophie Labelle has a lot of text. Here’s part of it. It start with saying Vought is a key architect of Project 2025. Then:

What Vought aimed to do was create the conditions in which he could strip bare what he calls the “unelected fourth branch of government.” Back in February, he instructed agencies to prepare for mass layoffs in Sept. 30. This shutdown will give Trump the power to bypass Congressional oversight: Trump can just declare which areas are considered essential services, and ignore the 1974 law that prevents presidents from withholding federal dollars. The shutdown was the goal all along.

Laugh About It cartoons posted one by David Crampton. It shows two women in conical hats with a crystal ball between them. In the ball is an image of a guillotine. One woman says to the other:

Once upon a time, there was a similar concentration of gold and power in a palace. It didn’t work out too well for the leaders.

Last night my friend and debate partner asked what is really lost when the government is shut down. I could only list a few things from memory. So now I turn to a list I made back in 2017 when the nasty guy threatened or caused a shutdown. Here are the departments of the federal government listed in the order of their creation, though some were created under a different name. State

coordinates foreign affairs, foreign policy advisor

Treasury

regulates & stabilizes money, pays government bills IRS – collects taxes and investigates tax cheats

Defense

armed forces, national security

Interior

federal lands & national parks programs for natives

Justice

enforcement of law & administer justice ATF, DEA, anti trust, civil rights, criminal, environment, tax

Agriculture

support the farmer support the forests food safety, promote nutrition, SNAP, WIC

Commerce

promote economic growth & tech competitiveness Census NOAA – Weather Service Patents & trademarks

Labor

improve working conditions, assure worker rights

Health and Human Services

CDC, Food & Drug, Institute for Health, Medicare & Medicaid agency for toxic substances Indian Health Service Head Start & senior home delivered meals services to prevent child abuse and domestic violence

Housing and Urban Development

strong, sustainable, inclusive communities affordable and safe housing Office of Fair Housing Community block grants, Section 8 housing, Federal Housing Admin

Transportation

Aviation safety, highway safety, pipeline safety Fed highway, fed railroad

Energy

Safe handling of nuclear material system of national labs Promote energy production, research, conservation.

Education

Watches over the ed system money for grants and loans money for special ed programs

Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health,

Veterans Benefits: home loans, vocation rehab, education

Homeland Security

antiterrorism, cybersecurity Customs FEMA

Small Business Administration Social Security NASA Environment Protection Agency Ambassador to United Nations National Endowment for the Humanities Corporation for Public Broadcasting

No broken laws? Prosecute anyway.

Back in April I complained about emergency alerts being sent to my phone. I was alerted to: Thunderstorms that died out before reaching me. An explosion that happened ten miles away and the alert sent two hours later, which reached me at 6 am. I was not alerted to thunderstorms that hit and were quite strong, one setting off the city’s emergency sirens. I rated the service 0-4. I haven’t gotten any alerts since then. Jennifer Berry Hawes, in an article for ProPublica posted on Daily Kos discussed the federal Integrated Public Alert and Warning System that isn’t getting much use by local officials.

ProPublica identified at least 15 federally declared major disasters since 2016 in which officials in the most-harmed communities failed to send alerts over IPAWS — or sent them only after people were already in the throes of deadly flooding, wildfires or mudslides.

Hawes describes several of those incidents. Reasons why IPAWS isn’t used include insufficient training, insufficient money to connect to the IPAWS system, a variety of other alert systems – none of which get used effectively, fear that the alert would be broadcast too widely and cause traffic jams, fear of sending out alerts to something that might be of no consequence prompting residents to ignore future alerts, or the authorized user for a community is home in bed. So I guess my phone is a part of the IPAWS system (perhaps all phones are) and the Detroit authorities are struggling to figure out how to use it effectively. Back when I worked in IT for the auto industry several colleagues in the department were from India and on work visas. At the time I heard a lot about the H-1B visas used by many tech employers. These were visas held by the employer, which meant the worker was tied to that employer. That meant if the employer was displeased the worker would be sent to their country of origin. That also meant the employer could pay well below what they would have to pay an American worker. H-1B visas are still around and are back in the news. The nasty guy wants to limit the use of these visas as part of his efforts to limit immigration. So he added a $100K fee (followed by confusion on when the fee would apply). Tech companies are bitching and moaning, but most can afford to pay, or hire Americans. Or use code written by AI (a quarter of code already is). Kos of Kos reports the places that can’t afford the fees are rural hospitals. Many doctors there are immigrants on H-1B visas. Its also an area the federal government designates as short on primary care doctors and an area likely to be hit when the Big Brutal Bill’s Medicaid cuts happen. Many rural areas may lose their only doctor. Kos also discussed the nasty guy’s shift away from Russia and towards Ukraine. He tweeted that Ukraine could, with help from NATO, push Russia completely out. Kos works through all the details of this change in position. The question is: Why? Kos answered:

The irony is that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin once had Trump in the palm of his hand. Flattery and promises of a Nobel Peace Prize could have helped him starve Ukraine into submission. But Putin, too arrogant to debase himself and suck up to Trump the way other world leaders did, may have overplayed his hand. And that arrogance might ultimately help doom him. What a crazy twist.

In Thursday’s pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Paul Krugman comparing the nasty guy to Putin and Hungary’s Victor Orban and their grabs for autocratic rule.

Trump has a significant problem that neither Putin nor Orban faced. When Putin and Orban were consolidating their autocratics (sic), they were genuinely popular. They were perceived by the public as effective and competent leaders. Just nine months into his presidency, Trump, by contrast, is deeply unpopular. He is increasingly seen as chaotic and inept. As David Frum says, this means that he is in a race against time. Can he consolidate power before he loses his aura of inevitability? Will those who run major institutions – particularly corporate CEOs – understand that we are at a crucial juncture, and that by accommodating Trump they have more to lose than by standing up to him? To put it bluntly, is the Jimmy Kimmel affair the harbinger of a failed Trumpian putsch?

Oh, I wish! Yes, Kimmel is back on the air with a lot more people watching his returning monologue than watched the show before it was suspended. Thank you, nasty guy. In the news this week is the nasty guy demanding James Comey and Letitia James be prosecuted by the Department of Justice though there is no evidence of actual crimes. In the comments of the roundup are a pair of tweets. The first by Spencer Hakimian quoting an exchange with the White House Press Secretary:

Reporter: Why won't Trump accept the conclusions of his Justice Department to not bring charges against Letitia James? Leavitt: These people literally tried to ruin his life. He wants to see accountability.

Sarah Longwell responded:

This isn’t just weaponizing the DOJ. It’s inventing crimes. His already weaponized DOJ is saying there’s nothing they can do to prosecute because Letitia James didn’t break any laws. And Trump is saying prosecute anyway, I have a score to settle.

A meme posted by DefendOurConstitution shows a boy with a skeptical expression.

So me, wearing a bulletproof backpack to school with metal detectors, armed guards and routine mass-shooter drills is “the price of freedom”... But you, wearing a mask on Walmart for 10 minutes is “tyranny”?

In Friday’s roundup Greg Dworkin included a tweet by Abbie Richards talking about measles misinformation. She includes a link to more on Media Matters.

If you sow enough doubt and fear and confusion, you can sell more supplements to "bulletproof" your followers immune systems against measles.

Will Bunch tweeted an intro to an article he wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer about TV stations that are not locally owned.

Folks had no idea who owns their local TV stations - until large, faceless corporations, Sinclair and Nexstar, said they can't watch Jimmy Kimmel because of politics. This is why they've been warning us: media consolidation is a threat to democracy.

Greg Sargent at The New Republic:

Now that Disney and ABC have bucked President Trump’s authoritarian censorship regime and reinstated comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s show, MAGA personalities are in a seething fury. They’re claiming the move insults Charlie Kirk’s memory—Kimmel’s original sin concerned a poorly timed quote about Kirk’s murder—and that this shows Disney hates MAGA’s rank and file. As one influential MAGA figure put it to her followers: “DISNEY LOATHES YOU.”

From Bloomberg:

Epstein was drawn to what he saw as the finest things in life. The substantial wealth he acquired after leaving Bear Stearns in 1981 to advise the ultrarich afforded him a Boeing 727, one of Manhattan’s largest townhouses and his own Caribbean island. And when his own hour of terror dawned in 2005, following a tip to police in Palm Beach County from the family of a teenage girl, he didn’t rely on just one champion or defender, his inbox shows, but a collection of elite professionals. Though lawyers, academics and media advisers helped him in different ways and to different extents, his network included past and future White House officials, a top Hollywood publicist, a former child-exploitation prosecutor and renowned researchers, including one on his way to winning a Nobel Prize. That support for Epstein—who harmed more than 1,000 people, according to the US Justice Department—came when he needed it most. The professionals who surrounded Epstein defended and deflected, coached and countermessaged, burnished and polished. Together, they helped extend Epstein’s influence and freedom, even lending an air of invincibility. His reckoning was postponed until 2019, when federal prosecutors charged him with trafficking minors. Weeks later, he was found dead in jail in New York City awaiting trial.

From NBC News:

Whether she intended it or not, the 39-year-old [MI state senator Mallory] McMorrow started a trend of Democratic outsiders end-running party leaders to launch their campaigns, sometimes in explicit opposition to them. The movement is fueled by a crisis of confidence among Democratic voters in their own party, which is giving encouragement to the types of nontraditional candidates who have been walloped by leadership-aligned rivals in the past. Altogether, ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, the moves have created a number of crowded and competitive-looking Democratic Senate primaries — contests that have often seen party leaders leap in to anoint favorites in recent years. Democratic angst following the loss to President Donald Trump last year has contributed to the trend in at least five races that could determine the majority, from core battlegrounds like Michigan and Maine to long-shot targets like Iowa and Texas.

A pair of tweets, first from Ken Klippenstein:

Chuck Schumer says "even though Democrats' numbers are low," that's fine because they're still higher than that of Republicans. "In a couple of the races where we have the two candidates, we win!"

Lis Smith responded:

With all due respect, this is simply not it. GOP numbers declining doesn't mean Dems will necessarily benefit- polls show that loud & clear. Democrats MUST improve their standing w/the American people & can only do that by putting forth a compelling vision of their own.

I’ve been hearing about the nasty guy threatening to fire, not furlough, federal employees if there is no budget deal and the government has to shut down. I’ve also been hearing about the response from Democrats. This is what Politico wrote about that:

Among the Democrats still standing firm against a Republican-led seven-week funding punt include those representing many of thousands public employees who would be most at risk if President Donald Trump and OMB director Russ Vought follow through on their threats. “Whether there’s a shutdown or not, they just keep firing government employees,” said Rep. Glenn Ivey, who represents part of Washington’s Maryland suburbs. “I don’t know that capitulating on this front slows that down. In fact, it might actually encourage them to think that they can stay on the track that they’re currently on.” Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland called the threats “mafia-style blackmail” in a statement, adding that the potential layoffs are “likely illegal.” Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said, “For Trump, people’s lives and livelihoods are just bargaining chips.”

In the comments is a tweet from David Frum with a link to his article in The Atlantic. Alas, the full article is restricted to subscribers.

Trump hates Comey because Comey's FBI investigated Trump's Russia connections. But Trump *indicted* Comey not just for payback. Trump is testing whether he can misuse prosecutions to pervert the 2026 elections.

Oliver Willis of Kos discussed why conservatives hate free speech as part of his series on explaining the right. And I think he got it right. After citing several instances of attempts at limiting speech Willis wrote:

Conservatism has a serious problem when it comes to competing in an open war of ideas. Many conservative priorities, like racism and economic policies bent around the desires of the ultra-wealthy, are not popular with the public at large. To allow an open exchange of ideas is to allow for the chance that liberalism and the Democratic Party might succeed. Instead, conservatives have sought to rig the system. In an electoral sense, that has led to policies like gerrymandering congressional districts, redrawing borders to ensure Republicans win seats even in areas where Democrats would have a plurality or majority in a fair system. The same practice is being borne out by the right’s crusade against the First Amendment. If ideas they don’t like are banned from public discourse, the right “wins” arguments by default. Not only does attacking speech change the rules to favor the right, but it undermines the foundation of the United States. The Revolutionary War and the subsequent drafting of the Constitution and the ratification of the Bill of Rights were meant to protect America. Battles like World War II were fought to defend the continued existence of those rights against the threat of fascism. Hundreds of thousands of people died defending those rights.

A spine is a terrible thing to waste

Lisa Needham of Daily Kos wrote about the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show on ABC.

Man, you gotta hand it to ABC. The speed with which it will knuckle under to President Donald Trump is really impressive. It took only a few hours for the powers that be to indefinitely sideline award-winning late-night host Jimmy Kimmel after the Trump administration expressed displeasure with Kimmel’s recent monologue. ... Of course, ABC has always been good about capitulating to Trump quickly. After he won the 2024 election, ABC executives didn’t even bother to wait until he took office before handing him $16 million in the hopes his administration would leave them alone. Suckers. That $16 million, ostensibly paid to settle a meritless defamation lawsuit Trump filed, didn’t buy them anything. You can’t negotiate with terrorists. All ABC did was show how willing it was to accede to Trump’s demands.

In a monologue Kimmel said that MAGA was using Kirk’s death to score political points. Which is true. Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr went all mob boss and threatened ABC. Nexstar Media, which owns a lot of TV stations, said it would not air Kimmel’s show. ABC pulled Kimmel’s show. Needham noted that Nexstar just signed a $6.2 billion deal with a rival that needs approval from the nasty guy administration. This was the same situation for CBS and its parent Paramount wanting to merge with Skydance that prompted the firing of Stephen Colbert. Sinclair, the owner of the most ABC affiliate stations, also expressed disapproval of Kimmel. On hearing the news that ABC succumbed, the nasty guy tweeted that “Jimmy and Seth” are next in his crosshairs. That’s Fallon and Meyers.

Trump will just keep coming after any media company that ever speaks ill of him or his fellow travelers, and no amount of money is going to fix that. Unless ABC wants to turn into Fox or Newsmax, this is their future.

On Friday NPR host Leila Fadel spoke to NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith about the situation. They started with a recording of Carr.

I don't think this is the last shoe to drop. This is a massive shift that's taking place in the media ecosystem, and I think the consequences are going to continue to flow.

The FCC threatening to pull broadcast licenses over what a performer said does not appear to be legal, but when has that stopped the nasty guy? The FCC does have the power to investigate and fine stations and pull licenses when necessary. It also approves mergers, giving Carr significant leverage. Yes, Carr is doing this on behalf of the nasty guy, who has been campaigning against Kimmel and network TV in general for months. And yes, First Amendment advocates are raising alarms. Ilya Somin is a constitutional law expert at the libertarian Cato Institute said, as reported by Keith, “Government power is obviously being weaponized against speech.” And this case is not complicated. That NPR story was followed by host Steve Inskeep talking to Robert Corn-Revere, formerly a lawyer at the FCC and is now at FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech organization. Corn-Revere said for the entire existence of the FCC it has been governed by the First Amendment and the Communications Act, both prohibit a federal agency from exercising censorship. The FCC doesn’t license networks, only stations. But both Carr and the nasty guy believe they can pressure networks into making network decisions, and they are doing just that. The FCC was designed to be independent of the presidency to be bipartisan and independent of politics. The nasty guy claims there is no independence, which is a fundamental shift. Corn-Revere is very much bothered by the corporations backing down in the face of pressure – “A spine is a terrible thing to waste.” Bill in Portland, Maine usually starts his Friday Cheers and Jeers posts for Kos with late night commentary. Yesterday, he devoted it to quotes of Kimmel with one a year going back to 2018, except for 2023 when the writers union was on strike. Here are a couple of them:

"Many people are still resisting the covid vaccine in favor of the paste they use to de-worm horses, so much so that horse owners are having trouble finding it. One feed store in Las Vegas had to post this sign: 'Ivermectin will only be sold to horse owners—must show pic of you and your horse.' Can you imagine? You won't go to Walgreen's to get a free vaccine, but you'll spend four hours photoshopping your body onto a Clydesdale.” —2021 "The Brooklyn Public library has a great program called Books Unbanned that provides online access to banned books to anyone between the ages of 13 and 21, including young people in other states where they're banning kids from reading these great books because their parents are stupid—they're banning anything that isn’t a Cheesecake Factory menu in some of these states. But this is why I love Brooklyn: even the librarians here are giving the middle finger to these people." —2022 (while airing his show from his hometown)

Yesterday Gaslit Nation posted an episode titled KPop Demon Hunters Antifa. I didn’t listen to the 27 minutes of audio, but I read through the show description. It begins:

A Gaslit Nation listener once asked me: What’s the canary in the coal mine for American democracy? My answer: when they come for the comedians. Because when authoritarians kill the jokes, they kill the dissent. Look at Russia. In Putin’s early years, Kukly, a wildly popular political satire by smack-talking puppets, mocked him mercilessly. One of his first moves? Force media consolidation. Suddenly, the show vanished. Fast forward 25 years to today, you can’t hold an anti-war sign in Moscow without being arrested.

When Kukly was on more than half the nation’s TV sets were tuned in to it. Nexstar and Sinclair are “Republican-aligned networks with monopoly-level reach.” They may have pressured Disney, owner of ABC, but Disney did it to itself. They gave the “convicted felon a $15 million ‘charitable contribution’ to his ‘presidential library’ to settle a defamation suit.” It surrendered and that paved the way for mainstream media to capitulate. America’s greatest export is culture, humor, and art. An example is KPop Demon Hunters, the most watched show on Netflix. Since fascist hate truth and humor the best way to fight back is for every one of us to point out the truth and have fun doing it. NPR noted Kimmel’s monologue mentioned that he talked about Kirk’s death. NPR didn’t mention what Gaslit Nation did, that Kimmel also talked about the Epstein cover-up. The response to Kirk’s murder is part of that cover-up. In Friday’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin started with a quote from Dan Pfeiffer of The Message Box. The key sentence from the quote:

Well, the MAGA Right is on the verge of controlling the vast majority of the American media ecosystem.

Brian Stelter tweeted:

KEY to the story about ABC suspending Kimmel's show: Nexstar and Sinclair, two big owners of ABC-affiliated stations, both need FCC approval for pending deals. With a lot of $$ on the line, both have reason to curry favor with the Trump admin. Both decided to yank Kimmel's show.

In the comments costal resistance posted words from cartoonist Ann Telnaes, who left a comfy newspaper job over a disagreement of the suitability of a cartoon. The words are beside a jester in a noose.

With ridicule, irony, and exaggeration editorial cartoonists provoke, challenge, irritate, and frankly, make powerful people angry. That’s why autocrats especially, do not like editorial cartoons which target them. They don’t like their corrupt actions being exposed and they don’t like being laughed at.

A meme posted by exlrrp and written by Qasim Rashid:

ABC fires Kimmel for mocking Trump CBS fires Colbert for mocking Trump ABC fires Moran for slamming Miller MSNBC fires Dowd for calling out hate speech. Fox protects Brian Kilmeade as he calls for Nazi state murder of homeless. Corporate Media has Failed Us. And as the receipts show, this Trump regime knows exactly what its doing as it enacts fascism.

Jon Cooper posted a cartoon by Dave Whamond showing a Museum of History. Near the rubble of the Pillars of Democracy is a display case showing a “Talk Show Host, Circa 2025.” A father and son discuss the display:

Father: Unfortunately, they all died off around 2025, son! They used to tell jokes every night. Son: What’s a joke? Father: A joke is something said to provoke laughter – they died out around then too.

Home of the Brave tweeted a moment of Colbert’s monologue discussing Kimmel:

Nexstar has a major merger coming up before the Trump administration. A company apparently capitulating to the whims of the president in order to ensure their merger goes through? Has that ever happened before? I'm being told not to answer that question.

Steve Brodner tweeted:

The Real Reason Kimmel Had to Go. This suspension of Jimmy Kimmel came after local station oligarchs Nexstar and Sinclair pressured FCC cchair, Trumpoodle Brendan Carr. Trumpist Nexstar is seeking FCC approval of a $6.2 billion acquisition of rival broadcaster Tegna. It would then control 80% of TV households across 44 states.

I note that other reporting says the pressure was the other way around, Carr pressuring Nexstar and Sinclair. As for that 80% number, how does the network control TV households? Can they get only one station? Does the network control all the stations of all the networks in these areas? Perhaps the attached link, which I didn’t follow, might clear that up. Andy Paterson posted a cartoon showing a man opening the front door to be faced with a large number of guardsmen. He says, “Honey, did you post something negative about the regime?” And a cartoon for fun. This one by Ellis Rosen. It shows passengers in an airplane. They hear, “This is your captain speaking. We may hit some turbulence as I write ‘Marry Me Samantha’ in the sky for a few extra bucks.” In Saturday’s roundup Dworkin quoted the Dallas Morning News discussing Sen. Ted Cruz.

The Texas Republican also emphasized how much he hates what Kimmel said about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk — and how much he likes and works closely with Carr. Having high-ranking federal officials threaten a network in such a way, however, is “dangerous as hell” because it presents a slippery slope that could end with conservatives facing government censorship down the road, Cruz said. “If the government gets in the business of saying, ‘We don’t like what you the media have said, we’re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don’t say what we like,’ that will end up bad for conservatives,” Cruz said on his Friday podcast.

For once Cruz is right. Tweets from Ken Dilanian:

Two people familiar with the matter tell @MSNBC that the Trump administration is preparing to fire the US attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia today over his refusal to bring charges against the New York Attorney General. Career prosecutors do not believe the charges are warranted. The Trump-appointed prosecutor who refused to charge one of Trump’s enemies has now been forced out of office, and the United States is confronting something we have never seen before: A president essentially ordering his DoJ to charge someone with a crime, regardless of whether the people whose job it is to evaluate the case think there is insufficient evidence.

That is or is very close to saying charge them with a crime, make one up if you have to. In the comments is a tweet from Carr showing a man with a wolfish grin. The face is vaguely familiar and looks like someone from a horror or thriller movie (which I don’t watch). Kevin McHale responded: “This was all in Project 2025 btw.” JPHill added: “Had to double check this was real. It is. This is Trump’s FCC chair.” Will Stancil concluded: “Dictatorship has arrived. They think they’re far enough along they can start bragging about it.” Bill Bramhall posted a cartoon of a couple in bed watching TV. The man says, “Who cares if the government cancels TV shows? We still can read an approved book.”

Fear Won. That’s what hurts.

Oliver Willis of Daily Kos listed the seven worst things the nasty guy said he plans to do on his first day. 1. Mass deportations creating economic and social chaos. 2. Target transgender children and their mental health. 3. Reinstate his Muslim travel ban. 4. End birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, erasing a basic American value. 5. Cut funding to schools that teach real history, such as slavery and Jim Crow. 6. Oppose vaccine mandates, enabling childhood illness. Quite the contrast to saying how precious the unborn are. 7. Repeal emission mandates, increasing pollution and speeding climate change, even though Biden’s goal of making half of US auto sale be electric vehicles enriches the nasty guy’s buddy Elon Musk. Walter Einenkel of Kos posted Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue from Wednesday night. He talked about his disappointment in the election results. He does get a bit emotional as he lists all the people who will be hurt by the election results. That includes all those who voted for the nasty guy, though they don’t know it yet. The segment is 16 minutes. Einenkel also posted the opening monologue of Stephen Colbert on Wednesday’s The Late Show. He eloquently begins with a swear word. The video is nine minutes. He’s asked by people saying isn’t having the nasty guy in office a source of a lot of material for comedians? He replies that’s similar to someone with diarrhea giving the custodian a lot of material to work with. One would rather not. Also...

The first time Donald Trump was elected, he started as a joke and ended as a tragedy. This time, he starts as a tragedy. Who knows what he'll end as. A limerick?

Emily Singer of Kos reported several Democratic governors are trying to protect their states from what the nasty guy might do. Gavin Newsom of California wants his legislature to return for a special session to pass more funding for the California Department of Justice. He’s pretty sure they’ll need the money for lawsuits against the nasty guy’s actions. Important areas are protecting reproductive freedom and protecting LGBTQ people. Other governors getting ready include Massachusetts, Washington, New York, and Illinois. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin had a few interesting quotes. John Burn-Murdock of Financial Times shows a chart with the percent rise or fall in vote share for governing parties in national elections in developed countries. The chart goes back to the late 1940s. The caption says, “Every governing party facing election in a developed country this year lost vote share, the first time this has ever happened.” Perhaps we should be pleased Harris and Democrats lost the least, though we didn’t have any margin to spare. Burn-Murdock added:

The economic and geopolitical conditions of the past year or two have created arguably the most hostile environment in history for incumbent parties and politicians across the developed world.

Sharon Quinsaat in Hawaii told of her experience encountering a native she calls Lily who regards the nasty guy as a demi-god.

She showed me on her phone the stuff she reads and listens to everyday. I have never heard of them before, but we listened to them together. The conspiracy theories in these sites are WILD, to say the least. But she is convinced they are true. I have my research assistants look at these sites and influencer/analyst because they are so new to me. Lily and I are living in two different worlds.

John Sides tweeted:

Like clockwork, commentators interpret elections as ideological mandates. Trump wins, so voters hate progressives and want conservatism. Here's why that's wrong. 1) It doesn't help explain why parties *of all ideologies* lost vote share post-COVID. 2) It exaggerates how much voters vote based on policy. So much polisci shows how difficult that is, and how in fact it's often the reverse: voters choose polices based on whatever their preferred candidate is advocating. 3) The big LOL comes when the new party takes power and goes in the direction that voters allegedly "wanted." And then voters...go in the opposite direction! This is the thermostatic model of public opinion.

There are cartoons and memes in the comments. A couple of memes were posted by exlrrp. The first is from Mike Wise:

It’s not just that Trump won. It’s that Joe Rogan, Dana White and Brett Favre won. Jailed insurrectionists won. The Alitos and the Thomases won. Vladimir Putin won. Racism won. Misogyny won. Sexism won. Global warming won. Xenophobia won. Most of all: Fear Won. That’s what hurts.

And exlrrp quoted a meme by Mehdi Hasan that fits in with reports that when the nasty guy was declared the winner all talk of election fraud stopped.

So to be clear, Dems rigged the election against Trump in 2020 but then just ... forgot to do so again this time around?

Matt posted a cartoon of a man sitting on the steps of his house with a bat in his lap and crying. His wife tells the neighbor, “He’d set his heart on storming the Capitol.” Banx has a cartoon of a wife saying to her husband, “I though we were going to contest the result?” Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, tweeted a cartoon by Whamond showing a monther and daughter in handmaid robes and bonnets. The daughter speaks first:

But why didn’t you vote against them Mom? Why didn’t you try to stop them from taking it all away? Well, back then, prices were quite high, honey...

PittsburghLiberal of the Kos community lists twenty reasons why fascism may not take hold in the US. I note the “may.” This post begins with two truths. First, we are not to “blame” for the outcome. Republicans have been heading in this direction for quite a while. Many of us have worked hard to stop the slide and have had success in many areas. Second, there are many Americans who are not hyper-radicalized and don’t understand the dangers of fascism. We must face this moment by considering there may be tyranny and mass executions. Even so, there compelling reasons why fascism may not succeed here. I won’t list all twenty. We’re much more racially and ethnically diverse so isolating and persecuting minorities will be harder. Many states will lead resistance. Overall resistance is well-organized and well-financed. We have a well established democratic tradition that didn’t have time to develop in Germany or Russia. Germany was defeated by democracies, which helped discredit democracy. Major democracies are our allies. Modern technology makes capturing and sharing abuses of power easier. We know the nasty guy and we know the authoritarian playbook. We can prepare. Jailing or murdering celebrities who oppose him would be politically untenable. The nasty guy is in cognitive decline and his only ambition is himself. He’s not an ideologue. If he can’t go on he has no successor with the same draw and party support. Republicans are prone to infighting. They’re evil, but not smart. A lot of effort will go into denying reality, which will constrain them. There is no credible external threat to be used as a foil. The military leadership is apolitical and the many of the soldiers are people of color. Andrea Chalupa of Gaslit Nation has been hosting a salon over Zoom as a way of forming community and helping people work through their feelings. She sent an email Thursday evening with a link to the recording of Thursday’s salon. I don’t know if it is for members only. It begins with the image from the Sound of Music, the moment when Baron Von Trapp pulls down the Nazi flag and rips it in half. Then Chalupa offers a to-do list. And that list makes the situation of life under fascism a lot more real. Again, I won’t list everything in her list. Offer your talents to the resistance. We’ll need lawyers, security (including cybersecurity), health and mental health healers, archivist, and many more. Your talents might be needed. Commit to staying human. Don’t rip apart fellow resisters. Commit to the community and collective safety. Check in on the vulnerable. Take time for art. When scared turn to love. Ignore harassment. Get away and help others get away. If you can’t, film them. Assume your phone is a listening device and that AI is scanning everything online. Do sensitive things without technology. Commit to nonviolence. They want us to be violent so they have a reason to outviolence us. If we pledge to nonviolence we can tell those calling for violence are a regime plant. Create a bag in case you have to flee – passports, cash, ID, water, masks, solar charger for phone, protein bars. Keep a journal describing life now so over time you can tell how you and society have changed. Buy paper books of American history, including of the nasty guy years, because they will attempt to rewrite history. Local elections still matter. Vote and consider running. Be careful of what you drink and eat, especially meat, as consumer protections are rolled back. Give children and grandchildren a fascist free bubble for as long as possible. Remind teens of their power. All we can do is slow them down. If you work in government stay there to help slow down their work. I’ve been writing this resistance blog for almost 17 years. I’ve done it anonymously because this threat has been visible since I started. But I have no doubt that a determined official can figure out who I am. I probably should go find that post from a decade ago that includes a photo taken at a protest that includes me. Then again, with the internet archive I may already be too late.