Going Up Early Because Rosh HaShanah Begins Monday Night.

Local apples & honey,     matzah ball soup,                   squash,               8 Lbs of brisket       table set by grandkids
                                  

The very last thing I wanna be doing right now is writing this week's episode. As you can see from the illustration above, I have more pressing things to do at the moment. But this was one helluva a week and there are things to be said. 

Back in January 2014, I wrote an episode about the fight for net neutrality. Several readers sent it back to me asking if I really did see the canary in the coal mine. Kinda....but I really believed the FCC and Congress would do the right thing. This issue is more clearly defined in an article appearing in the January 8th, 2025 issue of Scientific American:

The sun has set—again—on U.S. net neutrality, the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally. Last week a federal appeals court panel ruled that the Federal Communications Commission cannot classify Internet service providers, or ISPs, in a way that would prevent them from favoring certain content over others. Without net neutrality, providers would be able to slow down, or throttle, traffic to competitors’ websites. Or ISPs could demand payment for speedy connections to specific Internet destinations……

The FCC now says net neutrality’s fate ultimately lies with Congress. “Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open, and fair,” FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a news release. “With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality, and put open internet principles in federal law.”

Why bring this up now? Well, the internet ain't what it used to be, and because our crack congress never declared it a public utility, it's already up for sale. As the authoritarian government takes over, cancelling free speech, threatening broadcasters with license revocation if they don't like the criticism, instructing the attorney general to go after his foes are all canaries in this very bleak coal mine. 

Stick with me on this. I promise, it's sane.

On his way back from the UK on Air Force One, President Felon told reporters:

I have read someplace that the networks were 97 percent against me, I get 97 percent negative, and yet I won and easily. I would think maybe their license should be taken away.

He wasn't done. As reported in the New York Times:

Mr. Trump on Thursday indicated that Mr. Carr should go even further and scrutinize the broadcast licenses of local television stations that run programming from the major networks, suggesting that both their news coverage and late-night comedy shows were unfairly tilted against him. “They give me only bad publicity,” he said. 

“It will be up to Brendan Carr,” the president said, calling him “a patriot” and “a tough guy.”

President Felon is not the first powerful American politician to challenge the very existence of the Bill of Rights? How many of you, dear readers, remember Senator Joseph McCarthy? Or have even heard of him? Indulge me for a moment.

In 1940, Congress passed The Smith Act which forbade any attempts to “advocate, abet, advise, or teach” the violent destruction of the U.S. government. The Smith Act, an outgrowth of the red scare in Europe, is often credited as the underlayment beneath Senator McCarthy. Although ultimately repealed, it serves as a model of how to undermine free speech. His witch hunts were notorious. People were expected to turn each other in. What it did to the arts community in this country was unspeakable. 

And we are watching history repeat itself. 

Robert Redford, a man I knew, even if just a little bit, passed away this past week. I was a college kid on the set of THE WAY WE WERE and Bob was the kindest man you could imagine. I read the whole script when I was on set in Ballston Spa, and I was anxious to see how it would all be filmed. One of the most important scenes was in LA, at Union Station, when Hubbell (Redford) confronts his wife, Katie, (Streisand) about  her activism protesting McCarthy's HUAC in support of the HOLLYWOOD TEN. The following is taken from the script:

KATIE

I'm not telling off the world. I'm just standing up for something I believe in. You're not angry when Bissinger ridicules those men? Calling them martyrs because they have guts to fight for their Bill of Rights, his Bill of Rights and yours!

HUBBELL

We don't have any Bill of Rights. We'll never have free speech.

KATIE

We never will if people won't take a stand. We never will have because people are scared.

HUBBELL

This isn't college. This is grown-up politics, Katie. And it's stupid and dangerous.

KATIE

You're telling me to shut up because it's dangerous?

HUBBELL

I'm telling you it's a waste. And that those men are only gonna get hurt. And that nothing is gonna change. And after jail, after years of bad blood, when it's practical for a fascist producer to hire a communist writer because his movie's in trouble, he'll do it. They'll make movies, have dinner, they'll play tennis, make passes at each other's wives. What did anybody go to jail for? For what? A political spat?

KATIE

You're telling me to close my eyes and watch people being destroyed so you can work in a town that doesn't have spine enough to stand up for anything but a buck. I'm telling you that people are more important than a goddamn witch hunt. You and me. Not causes. Not principles.

KATIE

Hubbell, people are their principles.

Anything sound familiar? Yes, it's a movie and some of the most powerful scenes dealing with the blacklist ended up on the cutting room floor. Still, it was a cautionary tale. 

If you want to learn more, visit the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee University. I wouldn't put it off...it's bound to be noticed and shut down. 

The cancelling of Colbert, the removal of Jimmy Kimmel from ABC, the blatant takeover of the Kennedy Center, the executive order "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," the targeting of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Museum of American History are all attempts to remove and revise history to meet Feckless President's delusion of grandeur. Similar directives aimed at the National Park Service to remove information about slavery and Indigenous Americans is a deliberate attempt to erase them. 

This is not a new tactic; it's one the Nazis used. The Greeks used it. The Ottomans used it. The Borg used it....you know the phrase: Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated.

And from the truth is ever so much stranger than fiction department:

On Saturday night, President Felon posted what appeared to be a DM to Attorney General Pam "What Constitution?" Bondi:

This tweet, clearly meant for Bondi's eyes only, was quickly deleted, but not before the immediate world saw it. An hour later, the Orangeman replaced it with a post praising Ms. Bondi. 

"Pam Bondi is doing a GREAT job as Attorney General of the United States

Sure she is. I guess she was absent from law school when they taught Bill of Rights and the US Constitution. Or, a more likely scenario, she got her law degree in a box of Cracker Jack. 

 

And not to be left to his own devices, President Felon was asked how he was holding up after the death of Charlie Kirk. His response was....was....was........stunning in it's hubris:

I think very good. And by the way right there you see all the trucks, they just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House which is something they’ve been trying to get as you know for about for 150 years and it’s gonna be a beauty.

Excuse me? Did I just have a cosmic event? He was being asked about the guy he's busy canonizing and he responds with that? Can you spell N-A-R-C-I-S-S-I-S-T, boys and girls?

Meanwhile, back at the UN:

Funny thing about a Palestinian State. Everytime the Palestinians have been offered a state of their own, they've turned it down because it did not include the annihilation of Israel and the removal of all Jews from the region. 

This week, in incredibly ridiculous news, the UK, Canada, and Australia just recognized Palestine as a state. I don't know how that works since they refuse to have a state. Or are we just seeing the setting sun of the British Empire endorsing terrorism? Seems to me, that's gonna come back and bite them all in their collective arse. 

Interesting that this all comes on the heels of President Felon's visit to the UK. Is this part of a deal he cut with the king? I would love to know how the conversations went. Did he threaten the king, or did Chuck just go belly up at the sight of the Great Tangerine? I wonder if he told the Princess of Wales he'd date her because he's almost a king. Gag me.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

L'Shana Tova!

May you be inscribed in the Book of Life

for a happy, healthy, and sweet New Year. 

Happy 5786!

If you've ever wondered where that number came from...follow the link.

Thank you, Elon Gilad!