It's totally factual. This response is insane.
"The Maga Gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it."
I think Luigi Mangione, and the inability to post on Reddit in the wake of is more exculpatory as to who is in charge here. This is just more noise to distract from the Epstein files, and how many Republicans voted to keep them secret.Genuine question, what do you think is in the Epstein files that we don't know already?
Moonves called the campaign for president a ¡°circus¡± full of ¡°bomb throwing,¡± and he hopes it continues.Then again, fascism gains power because it's the easiest path for people with power. It's just that "people with power" becomes a smaller and smaller group over time...
¡°Most of the ads are not about issues. They¡¯re sort of like the debates,¡± he said.
¡°Man, who would have expected the ride we¡¯re all having right now? ¡ The money¡¯s rolling in and this is fun,¡± he said.
¡°I¡¯ve never seen anything like this, and this going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It¡¯s a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going,¡± said Moonves.
lorddogbotherer: “You guys, I¡¯m really scared”Me too, but, my dear MeFites, we must be brave. For ourselves and for the very idea of The Future.
¡°This is not complicated: Trump¡¯s FCC identified speech it did not like and threatened ABC with extreme reprisals. This is state censorship. It¡¯s now happening in the United States of America, not some far-off country. It¡¯s happening right here and right now.posted by mazola at 8:23 AM on September 18 [28 favorites]
This act by the Trump Administration represents a direct attack on free speech and artistic expression. These are fundamental rights that we must protect in a free society. The American Federation of Musicians strongly condemns the decision to take Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air.
We stand in solidarity with all those who will be without work because of government overreach.¡±
catch-22: they can do whatever you can't stop them from doing.the implication being that, fascism and and all other expressions of power (including us military) are the same game - oppression of the powerless by the powerful. and worse, indifference to the powerless by the powerful.
The first and most important thing is not to react or complain or bewail but to attack.posted by ob1quixote at 12:33 PM on September 18 [8 favorites]
⋮
Every time. Attack and attack and attack. Don¡¯t complain. Attack. People are bewildered by what they¡¯re seeing. They don¡¯t like it. Everything that raises the salience of this issue is a win. They want to see someone talk back.
Upcoming SNL board:—?@disneyprimevideo.bsky.social? September 17, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Oct 4: Bill Burr/ Chappell Roan
Oct 11: NBC Apology
Oct 18: Series Finale
I hear all these people telling me how there won¡¯t be a 2026 election, or that it won¡¯t be free and fair or a bunch of other things. My question to them or maybe to you is what are you going to do about it? History is long. No one is in the saddle forever. It is critical for an opposition to give the people a vision of forward trajectory in time, that this isn¡¯t the end of the story, that consequences can be delayed but not evaded. It¡¯s such a demonstrable point. Think even of the longest lasting fascist or authoritarian dictatorships. Franco? About 35 years. Pinochet? 16 years, ousted by a referendum. I don¡¯t imagine this will last for even a tiny fraction of that length of time. My point is simply to demonstrate the incontestable point: no one remains in the saddle forever. That¡¯s true even in the most extreme cases. A reckoning comes and everyone needs to be on notice.posted by mhum at 12:54 PM on September 18 [16 favorites]
Trump is already unpopular. He is getting more unpopular. His actions are unpopular. It is the elites, the big diversified corporations and monopolies who have tossed aside most rapidly Americans¡¯ instinctive disdain for kings and dictators. It¡¯s down at the most democratic level of our system where the resistance is strongest and growing ¡ª juries that refuse to indict or convict amid Trump¡¯s bogus crime crackdown, voters who are showing they¡¯ve had enough. He slashes at the civic orthodoxies and values we were all raised on. This remains his opposition¡¯s greatest advantage. It simply needs to be exploited. Adam Smith says there¡¯s a lot of ruin in a nation. There¡¯s a lot of ruin in a democracy. We¡¯re in a very bad situation. To me, all I care about is what to do in response. These are a few of the many things. If history is long, we are not long. We will all die. The question, as always, is how do we conduct ourselves in the days we have?
I don¡¯t want to participate in the, ¡°How bad is this?¡± discourse. It¡¯s bad. We know that. An apolitical person told me yesterday this whole development was ¡°frightening, scary.¡± I agreed. So why don¡¯t you seem more upset about it, this person asked. Because I already knew we were here.:\
All I have time for is what one does in response. So a few thoughts on that front.
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He'll presumably be holding a moment of silence for Charlie Kirk.If so, I certainly hope there'll be a press announcement or something so we can tell it from his other silence.
The request seeks emails, calendar entries, and text messages from Carr and senior staff reflecting meetings and communications with individuals outside the agency, and covers records after January 20, 2025. The request seeks to provide transparency into which outside actors may be attempting to influence agency leadership as it considers new approaches that could chill free expression and reshape the role of the FCC in controlling broadcast content.Their FOIA request is linked from that press release.
And meanwhile Democratic Congressional leadership are continuing to display their utter spinelessness and uselessness by announcing that they'll vote for a GOP resolution honoring Charlie Kirk. Jeffries et al are fucking useless and if the Democrats aren't actually controlled opposition then they may as well be.Not to defend the Democrats, who have absolutely not been Meeting the Moment, but am I missing something here? Every Democrat in the House voted no. Or by "vote for" did you mean "vote on?"
Forget, for a moment, about the most high-profile assassinations of reporters and dissidents in Russia. Those would come later. The government¡¯s campaign of procedural harassment and lawfare made it impossible for journalists and media executives to do their jobs right out of the gate.posted by mazola at 7:19 PM on September 18 [14 favorites]
Freedom is often lost under mountains of paperwork and crippling fines rather than in a cinematic showdown with a dictator.
Many of the Russian government¡¯s targets were never actually arrested or charged with any specific offense. Many more were never targeted at all! A few high-profile people got shaken down and everyone else got the message.
you couldn't be arsed to click the link I provided for more contextI did, actually. That's how I got to the bill number. I missed the detail of the timeline of events. "Am I missing something here?" was an actual question and you didn't need to be a jerk to me. Sorry for not reading closely enough.
As Churchill said, Americans can be trusted to do the right thing after they¡¯ve exhausted all other options.I used to find that mildly (but justifiably) cynical.
The demand seeks to probe potential wrongdoing, mismanagement and fiduciary breaches by the Disney board and its leadership, according to the letter.posted by adrienneleigh at 9:23 PM on September 25 [6 favorites]
¡°There is a credible basis to suspect that the board and executives may have breached their fiduciary duties of loyalty, care, and good faith by placing improper political or affiliate considerations above¡± Disney and its shareholders¡¯ best interests, the letter said.
In a letter to the company, lawyers for the American Federation of Teachers, U.S. labor federation AFL-CIO, and Reporters Without Borders requested Disney to turn over records related to Kimmel¡®s suspension.posted by pwnguin at 1:26 AM on September 26 [3 favorites]
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¡°Democrats to introduce a No Political Enemies (NOPE) Act, to protect government critics
In the wake of Jimmy Kimmel¡¯s sudden disappearance from the airwaves, Democrats in the House and Senate plan to introduce legislation ¡°to protect individuals and organizations, including non-profits, faith groups, media outlets, and educational institutions, from politically motivated targeting and prosecution by the federal government.¡±
Senators Chris Murphy, Chuck Schumer, Chris Van Hollen and Tina Smith will be joined by representatives Jason Crow, Greg Casar and Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.-06) at a press conference on Thursday to discuss their proposed No Political Enemies (Nope) Act.
According to the lawmakers, they will also talk about threats from Donald Trump, and his vice-president, JD Vance, his attorney general, Pam Bondi, and his deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, ¡°to use the tragic shooting of Charlie Kirk as justification to weaponize the federal government to go after left-leaning individuals and organizations that don¡¯t align with Trump¡¯s political agenda.¡±
posted by pjsky at 6:34 PM on September 17 [42 favorites]