Our Freedom – v1.0
POST 1194
Preface
This is an initial check on the shaky boat that is our freedoms. More will follow.
Short Term Greed Disease
From Harry Litman in his post, Paramount Caves – And We All Lose:
When Donald Trump sued CBS and Paramount for $10 billion in October of 2024 for supposedly deceptive editing of Kamala Harris’s response to a question about Middle East policy, the case was roundly ridiculed. Multiple commentators noted that the First Amendment barred Trump’s claims, which they dismissed as an abusive “political stunt.” Reason Magazine dismissed it as a “laughable lawsuit.”
Thanks to Paramount, however, Trump now gets the last laugh — and at the expense of essential First Amendment values. In other words, all of us.
Paramount announced Tuesday that it was settling this joke of a lawsuit for $16 million — to go toward Trump’s future presidential library.*
The widespread perception is that Paramount, the parent company of CBS and 60 Minutes, which ran the clips of Harris, ponied up what is in effect ransom money to ensure that a proposed $8 billion merger with Skydance Media would go through. To put a finer point on it, Shari Redstone, who owns the controlling stake in Paramount Global, stands to reap over $2 billion — possibly much more — from the merger.
This is essentially the same story some major law firms, Disney, ABC and some universities played out. They caved to Trump, too. It’s the same $16 million extortion (ransom? bribe?) figure that gets people to surrender in advance, to give up without a fight. The cavers caved for short term gain or minimization of loss. In other words, for short sighted greed and cowardice.
Every instance of chickening out of the necessary fight involved bogus claims by Trump that could easily be dismissed in court. The failure of these corporations to put up their dukes paved a path of surrender of the rights of every one of us.
For Trump to have total control he doesn’t have to fight and defeat everyone. He just has to intimidate us by picking off a few, like, it seems, Shari Redstone. To be fair, I don’t know her or really anything about her. What I do know is that she could have stood tall and called BS on Trump, because his claims are BS. They are an attack on the Constitutional freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the laws of our nation, but she didn’t do that. Her play is to get her merger done and pocket a wad of cash, something that likely would be prevented were she to piss off Trump.
That’s how dictators and usurpers do it. They threaten individuals with harm and get them to fold without a fight as the rest of us are watching and being cowed. Read Jim Acosta’s dire warning here about where this takes you and me.
When this happens, as Litman writes, “We all lose.” Our freedom is gone.
And What About Our Health?
Likely, you’ve heard about the ongoing explosion of cases of measles, a disease we thought we had eliminated over 30 years ago, but it’s back, thanks to our anti-vaxxers. See what STAT has to say about that and what it means to you and your freedom at
BREAKING NEWS |
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By Helen Branswell |
Special Note To The “Adults In The Room” Curbing Trump’s Worst
Get this: You’re not.
You may think you’re standing guard against the worst, but in reality (you remember that stuff, right?) you’re enabling it. It’s time for you to have a piercingly serious talk with your reflection in the mirror. That only works if the compromises you’ve made against your soul aren’t already so terrible that they prevent you from seeing your reflection. Pray that they aren’t and that there is still something of value to salvage.
Read Rick Wilson’s post, Your Silence Isn’t Strategy. It’s Surrender. You won’t like it, “adult in the room.” In fact, if you squint one eye you just might see how you are contributing to all of us losing our freedom.
Parting Shot
What with our Republicans having passed the Big Barfy Betrayal Bill that de-funds or under-funds so much of what protects us, like FEMA, the National Weather Service, medical research, the FDA, the National Institutes of Health, all programs that promote reduction of the burning of fossil fuels, education and so much more, read Nancy Kohn and Art Friedson’s take on that and more in We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Science. Here’s a sampling.
Why on earth would the ruling party in the United States of America actively and aggressively oppose the pursuit of science in 2025? The answer is as sad as it is scary. Because science is the pursuit of truth, and the truth is often diametrically opposed to the MAGA agenda. Climate science is only one example of many.
If we lose science, we lose our freedom. – and perhaps much more.
The “Deconstructing Trump”** Corner
.
- Patriotism is when love of
- your own people comes first;
- nationalism, when hate for people
- other than your own comes first.
- Charles de Gaulle, 1969
- In every age it has been the tyrant,
- the oppressor, and the exploiter
- who has wrapped himself in the cloak
- of patriotism, or religion, or both
- to deceive and overawe the People.
- Eugene V. Debs, 1918
- _________________________________________
* Raise your hand if you believe each those $16 million extortion settlements will fund a presidential library and not instead go into Trump’s pocket. Oh, wow – no hands.
** Deconstructing Trump by Mardy Grothe explores The Trump phenomenon through the lens of quotation history.
Mid-Term Election
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Never in at least the last 100 years of presidential contests have so many lies been told in just two minutes. He’s really very good at lying. That’s the credit he’s due.
