I drew the above just now for you, hoping to express what Trump is doing. This is the link to a news story is incredibly important, I believe because it shows how aggressive, and to what extent, Trump will go to control the elections. Here is my synopsis. Right before air of The Late Show on Monday night, Stephen Colbert was advised by the FCC that if they ran the interview with Rep James Talarico, Democratic candidate for a U.S. Senate race, The Late Show would be subjected to a new F.C.C. guidance that targeted political interviews on late-night shows. The show’s network, CBS, then barred him from airing the interview because of the new “guidance” from the Trump administration about equal airtime for political candidates. Early voting began on Tuesday in the Texas primary election, where Talarico is competing against Jasmine Crockett to be the state’s Democratic nominee to run against Senator John Cornyn, a Republican. Trump is afraid of losing Texas. The interview did not air on CBS. Nonetheless, on Monday’s show, Colbert blasted Brendan Carr, the chairman of the F.C.C. And, to CBS, Colbert said that “because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.” “Let’s just call this what it is,” Colbert said. “Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV because all Trump does is watch TV.” Colbert put the interview on his Youtube, below. Youtube is not really “alternative” media anymore, but it’s now clear how important it is to move away from corporate-run venues. This comes as we just witnessed the downsizing of staff in the Washington Post by owner and Trump sympathizer Jeff Bezos. The paper apparently seeks to mostly focus on Washington politics (Bezos got rid of the international division), seeking to compete with Politico and Axios. Sounds very much like it plans to further solidify itself as an arm of the Trump administration. And yes, I am very sad about the missing mother of NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, Nancy, but why is CNN spending over 40% of an hour’s primetime show on the case? Does anyone else feel this is exessive? Are they avoiding politics? Here is an interesting read on the complex patriarchal system of sex trafficking, rape and abuse that Epstein created. It’s a nauseating web of wealth, priviledge and lack of morality. A new report suggests that the Epstein Files may qualify as crimes against humanity, this via Parnas Report and Reuters. United Nations experts say the records may meet the legal threshold for crimes against humanity, signaling it is indeed a global network and shows the existence of a "global criminal enterprise," according to a panel of independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. The Pope rejected Trump’s invitation to join his so-called Board of Peace. A spokesperson for the Vatican said, “One concern is that at the international level it should above all be the U.N. that manages these crisis situations. This is one of the points on which we have insisted.” YES. Next Tuesday is the State of the Union Address and some Democrats are planning to boycott attendance and join a rally. During the last one, Democrats were criticized for their tepid response to Trump’s words. Lawmakers who are skipping the speech for the rally so far include Senators Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Tina Smith of Minnesota, as well as House Democrats including Representatives Becca Balint of Vermont, Greg Casar of Texas, Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Delia Ramirez of Illinois. Another group of lawmakers is expected to walk out of the address while Trump is speaking and go to the event, which is being coordinated by the left-wing advocacy group MoveOn and MeidasTouch, a progressive media company. I want to note the sad passing of the Reverend Jessie Jackson, a signifcant leader and activist. He contributed so much to our political conversation during my lifetime. I will write about him tomorrow. Thanks for being here! Have a good Wednesday if you can! |