Blowback so Fierce it Feels like the Winds of Hell

It feels like we are at a tipping point. MAGA has turned the Kirk murder into a way to oppress, silence, and punish its detractors. 

From top to bottom, people who are not grieving or speaking in an "acceptable" way are being punished. 

(allegedly) Drunken Pete has directed the Pentagon to hunt down negative comments from Service Members about Charlie Kirk. Those who have mocked Kirk or condoned the violence against him will be fired.  

This is where we are. The official United States position to our service members is: Express grief, goddammit, or be fired. 

Bye-bye First Amendment. 

Service members across the generations have been proudly defending our freedoms. How many times have you heard a service member quote Evelyn Beatrice Hall by saying, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." 

They don't just say it. They live it. They die it. Millions from the Greatest Generation fought fascism and hundreds of thousands died so that fascism would not take over the world and mandate "acceptable" speech.

In the Upside Down in which we live, we are now on page 55 of Animal Farm.

“No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?”

All this is on top of firms, universities, hospitals, and schools across the country firing employees who have been outed for posts made about Kirk. The doxxing is pure shite, but in the end private companies can fire at will. Disgusting, but they have a right to employ who they want. 

The United States Government, though? No, sirree. I hope that the ACLU starts some First Amendment lawsuits on behalf of censored and punished service members. 

Jack Ohman

The censorship goes much deeper than mandating grief and praise of a dead man. They've been at it with full force since before January 20. And it's accelerating.

The regime has brought lawsuits against many media companies, including: 

• CBS (Paramount), who paid $16 million without a fight when he whined about their editing of a Kamala Harris interview. 
• ABC (Disney), who "donated" $15 million to his presidential library after George Stephanopoulos called his sexual assault of E. Jean Carroll a "rape," even though the judge used that word in his ruling. 
• The Des Moines Register, who paid $15 million to settle a case over their polling which had predicted a Kamala win.
• PBS and NPR had their federal funding yanked via executive order.
• The Wall Street Journal has been sued for $10 billion (with a "b") for printing a story about the Groper-in-Chief's ties to Jeffery Epstein in which they brought the birthday letter to light.
• The most recent one: a lawsuit for $15 billion (yes, again, that's a "b") against the New York Times for some articles and books published before the 2024 election. This is how the Whiner Baby described the lawsuit on his not-Twitter: "The ‘Times’ has engaged in a decades long method of lying about your Favorite President (ME!), my family, business, the America First Movement, MAGA and our Nation as a whole. I am PROUD to hold this once-respected ‘rag’ responsible."

News organizations have been capitulating fully and without much hesitation, as you see from the numerous settlements. The capitulation started before the election with the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times declining to endorse a presidential candidate. The Washington Post continued its bow-down when its editors censored editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes, causing her to resign.

It was a cartoon that will live in infamy, and here it is again:

And here is LSR's post about all the support she got from fellow cartoonists

CBS (Paramount) genuflected when it did not renew the contract for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert past this season, despite its being #1 late night show and an Emmy nominee (the show won its first Emmy this week). Colbert has been a savage critic of the Orange Menace.

And last night, the coup de grâce. ABC puckered up and started smooching that big ol' orange ass and cancelled ...errr, "preempted indefinitely..." Jimmy Kimmel Live!, effective immediately, ostensively for things he said about MAGA's reaction to the killing of Charlie Kirk. 

Not surprisingly, Nextstar Media, the affiliate group who made the initial decision to "preempt," is working on a merger that needs federal approval from the FCC, similar to CBS and Colbert's situation.

This one is worse though. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatened pulling ABC's broadcast license completely after Kimmel's comments.

Absolutely hellish.

May I remind you, FCC = FEDERAL Communications Commission. It bears reminding Carr and the Commission that under our Constitution, the Government may not abridge the freedom of speech.

Jimmy Kimmel, like Colbert, has been scathing in his criticism of 🚼 and the MAGA movement (bowel-type).

Here is the monologue that pushed the FCC and ABC over the edge. Kimmel's "hateful" bit: "We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it."

Kimmel is not alone in his opinion. I started this post before the firing; my opening paragraph has similar sentiments. 

Here is Kimmel's full monologue from that night. Watch and share.

Interestingly, I knew something was up with ABC the other night (the same night as that Kimmel episode aired) as I watched World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. (Formerly) respected reporter Pierre Thomas interviewed Pam Bondi about the Kirk case. I was shocked at her segment. My jaw dropped. 

I start the newscast there:

No push back from Thomas. Her totalitarian words echo. My only thought was, "Shit. ABC has fallen, too."

And sure enough, two days after the "objectionable" monologue, ABC axes Jimmy Kimmel. 

This isn't right. It isn't right because we need satirists and comedians. They hold a mirror up to us. That's important. When the mirror is bright and blinding and painful, it's even more important.

This isn't right because we need satirists and comedians to make us laugh. If we can laugh through the dark times, there is yet still some light.

Most of all, it isn't right because the First Amendment of the United States Constitution says that it isn't right. 

Ann Telnaes

I have to tell you that this is the most frightened I've ever been of our nation's fall. All the talk about "Freedom of Speech" from the Right is really just freedom for them to spout lies, fear, and hate while forcefully quashing anyone who speaks against them. 

Nick Anderson

Attorney General Pam Bondi said recently on a podcast, "There is free speech, and there is hate speech," and that the federal government "will absolutely target you, go after, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech."

Babe, Eff off. Hate speech is protected speech. We need it to be, and the Supreme Court has affirmed it numerous times. 

Charlie Kirk himself acknowledged it. He not-tweeted last year, "Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech. And all of it is protected by the First Amendment." He certainly lived that sentiment; he spouted ugly speech, gross speech, and evil speech. 

The ACLU has famously brought suits on behalf of odious groups like the KKK to defend their right to free speech, hateful speech as it is (here's a recent one). They've won, over and over.

And that is good, because a win for free speech is a win for each and every one of us. 

Hate speech is protected speech, and the government may not dictate what speech is acceptable or not. That's not to say that hateful speech doesn't have consequences, such as: 

• condemnation - many other journalists and lawmakers are condemning these acts, and taking action. You can also email those who made the decisions about Kimmel. Brendan.Carr@fcc.gov, communications@nexstar.tv, robert.a.iger@disney.com or robert@disney.com, or write a letter: Disney-ABC Home Entertainment and Television Distribution, 500 S. Buena Vista St., Burbank, CA 91521-3515
  and contact your Members of Congress via resist.bot
• boycotts – how about canceling your Disney+ account, for starters  
• opposing speech – LSR will not be daunted. America's menace will be called out

• ...and protests.

We must protest. 

There's a nationwide peaceful protest on Saturday October 18. Find yours here. 

We will gather again to exercise our First Amendment rights. Again dubbed "No Kings," it's a chance to show them that We the People don't approve. We the People care. We the People won't stand for it. And We the People are in charge.

Hold fast, resisters! We can do this!

#RESIST