Author: A.T.

Al Franken on Charlie Chaplin in Rolling Stone: Trump Is Trying to Silence Political Satire

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Under President Trump, the First Amendment has become a dead letter. Instead, he’s spent the first eight months of his second term on a campaign of shock and awe designed to silence dissent and bring the independent media to heel. And it’s no surprise that he’s coming for the comedians now.

Charlie Chaplin was willing to mock Hitler. Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel were willing to mock an American president with his own authoritarian designs. What will the rest of us be willing to do in order to stand up to fascism? It’s not a particularly funny question. But satirists have shown us what it means to have real courage in the face of tyranny. We owe it to them to follow their example.

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This, of course, was written before Jimmy Kimmel was reinstated.  Don’t give up hope!  When enough of us shout loud enough — and vote! — we win.

Nekima Levy Armstrong in the Minnesota Star Tribune.  It’s all worth reading, but this last bit sums it up:

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To remember Charlie Kirk honestly requires us to hold two truths at once. The first is that violence against political opponents corrodes democracy, no matter who they are. The second is that his life’s work was not noble.

To honor his family’s grief does not mean lying about who he was. It means telling the truth without cruelty, resisting both the impulse to demonize and the pressure to sanitize. It means refusing to let his death become a blank check for historical revisionism.

As a lawyer and advocate, I know how much words matter — how they shape juries and legislation, and how they affect lives. Kirk’s words wounded. They widened the chasm of distrust among races, genders, orientation and generations. His absence will not heal that wound. Pretending the wound never existed will only deepen it.

The lesson of this moment is not about one man’s death but about the kind of democracy we want to live in. Do we want a country where political violence is normalized, or where words can be challenged with better words, stronger organizing, deeper  truth?

Kirk himself rejected empathy. We must not. Our task now is to build a culture where truth-telling and accountability coexist with compassion. We must say that he should not have been killed, and that neither should he be canonized. Both can be true, and both must be spoken aloud.

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Jim Stewartson on Elon Musk:  “The violence is coming to you”.

Two truths at once: Musk has done so much good.  And is a deeply malevolent force.

Scary.

Oh — and how about them Epstein files?

Hegseth puts us all at risk. Short and to the point: Why put all the American commanders in one room?

Nat B.: “Very glad Timothy Snyder wrote this piece.  Astoundingly stupid and risky to do what Hegseth is doing.  And does ANYONE think this gathering would be happening without Trump’s approval??”

Seth Meyers takes a closer look at our leader’s performance among the nations of the world.

And now that Sinclair is putting Jimmy Kimmel back on the air, maybe Seth will be safe, too.  A lot of Americans — including the tragically assassinated Charlie Kirk as well as the former Donald Trump (as you’ll see) — consider (or at least once considered) the First Amendment to be one of the key things that make America great.

AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 683

From the macro to the micro, but it’s still telling.

A friend was headed from Miami to JFK on a flight scheduled to leave at 9:03am and land at Kennedy three minutes past noon.  We had a 7pm dinner reservation.

He texted me at 12:27 to say he was off the plane and I texted, “Welcome to New York.”

No, he explained, he was off the plane in Miami.  There had been mechanical difficulties.

He reboarded at 4:04pm.

I changed the reservation to 8:30pm.

He got off the plane — at JFK this time — at 8:17pm

I changed the reservation to 9:15pm while he was in the air, but, understandably, he was in no mood for dinner.  I ate some expired beans, baked a sweet potato, and did my taxes.

But what sort of compensation was American giving everybody, I asked.

Under Secretary Pete Buttigieg, rules were soon to be implemented guaranteeing long-delayed passengers (other than for weather) substantial compensation.  Airlines might have had to raise ticket prices slightly to cover this occasional extra expense, in effect passing the cost on to NON-delayed passengers; but it would have made the flying public a bit happier — and given airlines yet more incentive to prioritize the kind of maintenance measures that minimize delays.

The Trump regime scrapped all that.

“American gave us each a $10 meal voucher,” my friend reported.

Which is more than they were obligated to do, so I guess it was very generous.

Welcome to the regime that kills the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau . . . kills aid to the starving and oppressed around the world . . . that cancels cancer research and has set HUGE health care cuts to take effect right AFTER the 2026 midterms so no one notices before they vote . . .

You know I could go on.

But watch Seth Meyers.  So fun.

And if you happened to be on that flight with my friend, I hope you enjoyed your Cinnabon.

Have a great weekend.

BOROWITZ

Nobel Peace Prize Committee Asks Trump to Clarify Remarks About Hating His Enemies

NPR FANS

Today (Friday) is Ari Shapiro’s last “All Things Considered.”  I loved reading this interview.

TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT

This profile is a good read.  Scott is too smart not to know that what he says in public is ridiculous.  It’s what he says in private that matters more.  Is he quietly an economic guardrail?  Would things be even worse if he resigned on principle?  What a nightmare.

CHURCH AND STATE

Rick T.:  “I haven’t heard anyone suggest this yet, but for the first time in history we have a pope who is eligible to be president. Pope Leo XIV!”

→ Who I guess would be addressed, “Your Holiness, Mr. President.”

PHONES

In response to my Noble Mobile post . . .

Bob F.: “One of my frugal, wealthy friends has this $15/month T-Mobile plan.  He has Comcast (xfinity) for home internet and says he can access xfinity wifi hotspots (and others) often enough while out and about that the 5GB T-Mobile plan is more than sufficient.  That will almost double your savings.”

Lots more to say, but I’m letting you off easy today.

Yesterday, I called Stephen Miller’s must-watch Charlie Kirk eulogy “four fascist minutes of the highest order” . . .

. . . and, for permission to do so, linked to when it’s okay to call someone a fascist.

As in Miller’s case it surely is.

Today, I offer Jim Stewartson’s compelling elaboration: “Der Sturm bricht los”: Stephen Miller’s Nazi Eulogy.

Keeping with that theme . . .

You’ve surely seen clips of the 1939 Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden.

Hitler had a lot of admirers in America back then.

He has a lot of admirers today.

Among them, Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, who famously dined with the President and claims nearly a million followers.

Wired offers us Nick Fuentes’ Plan to Conquer America.

It’s a disconcerting read.

For years, as you know, Trump kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside.

He once told his chief of staff that “Hitler did some good things.”

None of which is to say Trump is Hitler.  But it’s hard to deny he’s more comfortable with journalist-murdering autocrats and kleptocrats than with the leaders of democracies.

And has designs on Canada and Greenland.

(He wouldn’t want Mexico.)

The good news: a Majority of US Voters Support Third Trump Impeachment — even 20% of self-identified Republicans.  And that was in April.  By now it may be higher.

Plus, a certain number of Democrats and Independents who said they didn’t support impeachment likely felt he deserves it . . . but that it could be counter-productive: doomed to failure and distracting from things like the Epstein files and Border czar Tom Homan’s $50,000 cash bribe.

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“Release the Epstein files” has been a common mantra for quite a while. “Release the Homan tapes” is just getting started. . . .

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(We’ve long since forgotten about the tax returns Trump promised to release.)

He won’t be impeached any time soon.  But if we all lean in, we’ll take back the House, and conceivably the Senate, and have a shot at saving our democracy.

Have a great day.

And if so, which way?

STEPHEN MILLER says that by killing Charlie Kirk. we on the left (who apparently all collectively killed him) will reap the whirlwind.  We hate America and have never contributed anything to civilization.  It is the assembled MAGA crowd he is addressing who are pure and virtuous and glorious in their patriotism — they and their ancestors who built America and Western civilization.

I’m paraphrasing badly, so watch his “eulogy” — four fascist minutes of the highest order.

(See yesterday’s post for when it’s okay to call someone a fascist.  Mr. Miller proudly qualifies.)

Fortunately, only about 17% of Americans identify as MAGA.  (About half of Republicans do, but two-thirds of us are Democrats and Independents.)

So . . . while Miller thinks the floodgates will now open as the decent, civilized folks who stormed the Capitol out of love of country and the Constitution and lead us back to the promised land . . .

ROBERT REICH sees it differently.  He writes:

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Friends,

I can’t tell you exactly how I know but after sixty years in and around politics I’ve developed a sixth sense, and my sixth sense tells me the tide is now turning on Trump.

This past week did it.

After a week of authoritarian excess, the nation is turning on Trump:

On Monday, he sued the Times in a lawsuit that, as CNN put it, read “like a pro-Trump op-ed, with page after page of gushing praise for the president.”

On Tuesday, he accused reporter Jonathan Karl and his employer, ABC News, of engaging in hate speech against him, and warned that Pam Bondi, the attorney general, might go after them.

On Wednesday, after Brendan Carr, his lapdog chair of the FCC, pressured ABC to suspend Jimmy Kimmel, he claimed that Kimmel being “CANCELLED” was “Great News for America,” and urged NBC to fire Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers next.

On Thursday, he said broadcast networks have been mean to him and that Brendan Carr might have to start taking their licenses away. “When you have a network and you have evening shows, and all they do is hit Trump,” he said, “they’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that. They’re an arm of the Democrat Party.”

On Friday, he suggested that negative coverage about him is “really illegal.” Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office he said: “They’ll take a great story and they’ll make it bad. See, I think that’s really illegal,” adding “Personally, you can’t take, you can’t have a free airwave if you’re getting free airwaves from the United States government.”

On Saturday, he demanded that Bondi prosecute several of his political rivals even though grand juries and federal prosecutors couldn’t find any evidence of wrongdoing. He demanded that she do it “NOW!!!”

On Sunday, at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk, he said that he disagreed with Kirk’s supposed leniency toward his ideological foes, adding: “I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them.”

You could almost feel the great sleeping giant of America open an eye and frown, then blink both eyes and sit up and stretch, and then roar “what the hell is going on here?”

Immediately after Kimmel’s suspension, Disney viewers and customers began to cancel their subscriptions to Disney+ and Hulu and threaten a broader consumer boycott.

According to Strength in Numbers, the Disney boycott quickly became four times as large as any boycott over the last five years.

Disney’s stock dipped about 3.5 percent and continued to trade lower in subsequent days — a loss in market value amounting to some $4 billion.

Even Ted Cruz — Ted Cruz! — began issuing grave warnings about censorship.

By then the giant was roaring and stomping.

By Monday, Disney decided to put Kimmel back on the air.

Trump’s poll numbers were dipping even before last week’s explosion of authoritarianism. Now they’re in free fall.

I’m old enough to have witnessed the great sleeping giant of America awaken before.

Joe McCarthy’s communist witch hunt destroyed countless careers before the giant roared: “have you no sense of decency?”

McCarthy melted almost as quickly as the Wicked Witch of the West. His national popularity evaporated. Three years later, censored by his Senate colleagues, ostracized by his party, and ignored by the press, McCarthy drank himself to death, a broken man at the age of forty-eight.

The giant roared again a decade later, after television showed civil rights marchers getting clobbered by white supremacists. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act.

It roared again after tens of thousands of young Americans were killed in the jungles of Vietnam, finally bringing to an end one of the nation’s costliest, deadliest, and stupidest wars.

It roared again at Richard Nixon after Nixon was heard on tape plotting the coverup of Watergate — then being forced to exit the White House by helicopter on his way back to California.

It is starting to roar again now — at the sociopathic occupant of the Oval Office who won’t tolerate criticism, who in one wild week revealed his utter contempt for the freedom of Americans to criticize him, to write or speak negatively about him, even to joke about him.

Maybe I’m being too optimistic, but I’ve seen a lot. I know the signs. The sleeping giant always remains asleep until some venality becomes so noxious, some action so disrespectful of the common good, some brutality so noisy, that he has no choice but to awaken.

And when he does, the good sense of the American people causes him to put an end to whatever it was that awakened him.

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I think most Americans think Trump has gone too far.  That he has failed to deliver on his promises to deliver lower prices, great health care, and the Epstein files.  And to bring integrity and competence back to government by draining the swamp.

But it would be a terrible mistake to underestimate what he and Stephen Miller do plan to deliver.

So who’s right — Miller or Reich?

At the end of the day, that’s kind of up to us, no?

Join Indivisible.

Fund the opposition party (or “my” dinner — it all goes into the same pot.)

But first . . .

WHAT IS FASCISM; AND . . .

When can you call someone a fascist? (4 minutes)

Worth your time.

Because fascism is commonly accepted as evil, even those who full-throatedly fit the definition don’t want to be labeled that way.

It would be interesting to know how they define fascism.

Anyone?  Anyone?

WHAT TOP CEO’s THINK

Behind closed doors, they say Trump is bad for business
By Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Stephen Henriques writing in FORTUNE:

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The CEO’s dismay across foreign relations and economic issues is consistent with general opinion polling across the board. . . . Each set of data set sends a clear message: America sharply disapproves of President Trump’s leadership. . . .

After nine months in office, there is a clear desire to return to a respect for the balance of powers in government, to reinforce international allies, to fortify independent, objective expertise of economists and scientists, to encourage freedom of voice, to stop bullying countries, cities, and companies into resentful, uneconomical compromises. In short, CEOs are calling to make America, America again.

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If only they had the courage to band together and say so out loud.

Because . . .

COURAGE CAN BE CONTAGIOUS

Robert Reich explains and inspires.

ABC’s putting Jimmy Kimmel back on the air encourages.  If protest is loud enough, we can be heard.

And now . . .

I just switched from AT&T to Noble Mobile.  It’s T-Mobile underneath, but for $50 a month for voice and unlimited data . . . less what you get back in months when you use less than 20GB of data.  Take two minutes to let Andrew Yang explain.

He was inspired, he has said, by Mark Cuban’s Cost-Plus Drugs which has saved me thousands of dollars.

Now I’ll save $500 more.

Noble’s pitch in a nutshell:

> The same powerful 5G coverage the big guys use
> Unlimited everything, and cash back when you use less than 20GB
> Rewards and perks for being a Noble Member

I’ve long been an Andrew Yang fan.  Now more than ever.

BE NOT AFRAID . . .

Says this priest (2 minutes).

. . . TO WEAR A PAPERCLIP

Says E. Jean (mostly photos).

OR CROSS THE FENCE

We need more stories like this! (2½ minutes)

MASHA GESSEN

“I Look at This Country and I See a Stranger”

I met Masha in Moscow 33 years ago, when Russia was trying to establish a democracy.  It failed.  Now, with ours at grave risk of failing as well, we have the amazing opportunity to help see that it doesn’t.

Join Indivisible.

Start gathering friends and making signs for Saturday, October 18’s No Kings protest.

Support “my” 26th annual DNC LGBT Leadership Council dinner even if you’re not L, G, B, or T and even if you can’t come.  An adequately funded opposition party is absolutely necessary for democracy to prevail.

Wear a paperclip.

Watch or listen.

For one thing, wear a paperclip.

Sounds harmless enough; but after June, 1940, “an untold number of Norwegians were arrested for the simple act of wearing [one].”

Of course, that could never happen here.  We have the First Amendment!  We’re allowed to be anti-fascist!

Though not in Trump’s eyes:

Trump to designate antifa as ‘major terrorist organization’.

He hopes to shut it down.

(Antifa, as you know, is short for anti-fascist.  Could he be confusing it with the Hamas suicide bombers of the Intifada?)

Only in satire is Antifa shutting down (2 minutes).

And he’s not just attempting to shut down people who oppose fascism.  (Wasn’t opposing fascism pretty much the point of World War II, which most Americans wanted us to win?)

He’s also shutting down the war on cancer.

And consumer protections.

And attempts to better collect taxes owed by the rich.

And on and on.

One thing he’s not shutting down is the National Debt.  By extending tax cuts for ultra-high earners and corporations who don’t need them, he’s adding trillions.

Which is one reason Ray Dalio is high on gold.

If he’s right, our HYMC — though it’s nearly tripled — could be a gold mine.  (And silver.)  So I’m holding on.

Have a great Sunday.

“Kimmel should announce his run for prez.  Smart, alpha, name recognition, Democratic bona fides, personification of what is at risk.  Worst that happens is that he raises a bunch of PAC money he can later give our nominee.” — Jon S.

→ If you know him, pass it on.

WHAT EXACTLY IS FASCISM? 

David Frum takes a pretty good stab at explaining it in under 2 minutes.

Chris Hayes and his guests make it clear we’re well on our way to getting there.

Ro Khanna calls for a truce between the two Americas.

It mainly comes down to respect.

Meet Ken Martin (3 minutes).

Those who look to him to be “the leader” are mistaking the U.S. for China.  There, the Party chair — be he Mao or Xi — runs the show.  Here, at least until we have a nominee, there is no one leader.

The DNC does necessary things and Ken is doing them well.

To save democracy, it should be in every small-d democrat’s budget.  Please click here!  

BONUSES

Oklahoma versus Massachusetts (70 seconds).

Measles and polio down by the school yard (with apologies to Paul Simon).

Lots of it.

Unanimous that Charlie Kirk’s murder was terrible, should never have happened; political violence has no place in America.

That’s key.

And still there was a lot more to say, which I’ll get to in a minute.

But first . . .

‘Shaken’ historian issues dire warning: ‘Americans have 400 days to save their democracy’, which reads in small part:

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Hysterical hyperbole? I would love to think so. But during seven weeks in the US this summer, I was shaken every day by the speed and executive brutality of President Trump’s assault on what had seemed settled norms of US democracy and by the desperate weakness of resistance to that assault.

That’s why all [small “d”] democrats, irrespective of party or ideology, must hope the Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives in midterm elections on 3 November 2026. Not because of the Democrats’ policies, which are a muddle, or their current leadership, which is a mess, but simply because US democracy needs Congress, the principal check on presidential power envisaged in the US constitution, to start doing its job again. That will not happen so long as the Republicans, dominated and intimidated by Trump, control both houses.

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In response to which Stephen P. writes:

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I’m a pessimist, so feel free to ignore my rants, but anyone taking an overall view “from 30 thousand feet” over all the turmoil, here and abroad, would come to the same conclusion, unless they are just being wishfully ignorant. Trump and his followers and supporters have adopted the same philosophy of governance as Putin, Xi, Bibi, Erdogan, Kim….ignore the guardrails of democracy and international laws and just push, push, push to gain and hold control, and get everything they want. No amount of institutional tsk-tsk-tsking will shame them, no courts of law have the balls to lock them up, so they gain, gain gain and we lose lose lose…day by day. The world loses a little bit more. Modern civilization, as we thought we’d formed it over the last two centuries, slips away as those who believe that might makes right gain power.  400 days? Hmmm. Seems “they” are working on a shorter time schedule.

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​Join Indivisible!

Fund the opposition party!

And now . . .

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Alba G.: Charlie Kirk may have been more mellow in private, but he had a public brand that was unambiguously the opposite of what your friend David Blumberg alleges. This is not unique: see Tucker Carlson, Rupert Murdoch, Laura Ingraham, et al.  To gloss him over because he is dead is a disservice to truth. I am happy that there are many voices pointing out what a horrible tragedy his death is.  But at the same time, I am extremely disappointed with the Ezra Kleins and Gavin Newsoms saying that he was such a great man. Come on, now.

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Parker Molloy:  We Can Condemn Murder Without Rewriting History

Let me be absolutely clear: Charlie Kirk should be alive. His murder was horrific and wrong. Political violence poisons democracy. His kids deserve to have their father. All of that is true. And if there’s one thing you take away from this post, I hope it’s that.

Also true: Charlie Kirk dedicated his adult life to making people like me disappear from public life. He called for us to be purged from society. He said we should be handled “the way we used to take care of things in the 1950s and 60s” — meaning lobotomies, shock therapy, and institutionalization. He built an empire on hatred and left behind a legacy of cruelty.

Both things can be true. We can condemn his murder without pretending he was something he wasn’t. We can mourn the violence without erasing what he advocated for. We can say political assassination is wrong without declaring that everyone who refuses to perform grief is a terrorist sympathizer who deserves to lose their job.

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Erich A.:  After I saw your reader’s positive comments, a friend sent me this.   Hard to reconcile the two.

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→ Hard indeed!  Watch.  Two minutes.

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Ta-Nehisi Coates in Vanity Fair: 

By ignoring the rhetoric and actions of the Turning Point USA founder, pundits and politicians are sanitizing his legacy.

What are we to make of a man who called for the execution of the American president, and then was executed himself?

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Worth reading in full!

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Jim T:  Worst ever from you. Kirk’s comments regarding black women alone prove him a racist. His comment that several deaths a year is a fair price to pay for gun ownership. Etc. How could you? Terrible, terrible, terrible.

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→ Thanks, Jim.  I do think David’s generous assessment of his late friend was myopic.  I didn’t post it because I agree Charlie Kirk was a good guy.  I posted it because I thought David’s tone — gracious and civil — was something all too often lacking.

Here’s the way I look at it:

People should be allowed to believe that 40,000 vehicular deaths each year are the horrible but (at least for now) largely necessary price we pay for being able to drive.

And I agree with them.

Similarly, they should be allowed to believe — and say — that nearly as many deaths each year from our insanely loose gun laws are a necessary price to pay for the freedom to own guns.

I vehemently disagree . . . just as I disagree with people who believe I am an abomination before God . . . but I don’t think the people who believe — and say — those things are horrible people.  (Or that they’re “scum” or “vermin,” to borrow the president’s rhetoric.)

I think they’ve been led astray.

It’s the people doing the leading, if they know better, as surely some must . . . or if they’re doing it in lucrative service to the gun lobby (say) . . . who are horrible people.

If all those with whom we disagree were as open to civil discussion as my friend David, I think we could have a lot more than 400 days of democracy ahead of us.