Don't believe (any/every) thing you read....anymore

 

July 28, 2025 (189/1461)

The press are back in the crosshairs. While TOM has done a fair number on PBS and NPR, he has to completely tame mainstream media. Thought the disgusting payoffs made in the guise of “penalties” by some of the larger media corps is bringing them under his realm, apparently, it’s not fast enough for him. The only way to be a real dictator, a true autocrat, is to completely control the narrative. The media. The press. It Can’t Happen Here. “President Donald Trump took to Truth Social Saturday evening to rage against the media — and his post made barely a ripple. The kind of attacks that once sparked institutional panic now read like just another screed in the downward scroll of digital exhaustion.

But it’s a huge mistake to ignore the president’s threats against media entities — particularly now that he’s gotten two of America’s biggest to cough up tens of millions of dollars. And now, he’s making his biggest threat of all. And it should not — and cannot — be written off as empty bluster.”

He wrote on (un) Truth Social: “Wow, “Concast’s” NBC is down in viewership almost 28% this year. Their programming is terrible, their management even worse. They are an arm of the Democrat Party, and should be held accountable for that. Likewise, Fake News ABC!!! MAGA” He then followed up: “Networks aren’t allowed to be political pawns for the Democrat Party. It has become so outrageous that, in my opinion, their licenses could, and should, be revoked! MAGA.” “The FCC, by law, does not have the authority to revoke a network’s license over content. But authority, like norms, can be bent. Brendan Carr is clearly eager to do the bending.”

When your grandmother told you to not believe everything you hear, she didn’t know she was prescient of the Age of TOM. Because soon the media you read and hear will be questionable at every word.

On the world stage, however, the media is clear. The Scots clearly are no big fans. I guess we can always rely on the outside world to tell us what might be going on inside our own walls. Welcome to the new North Korea, folks.

Small win for women’s health care and safety. “A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore funding to Planned Parenthood and its affiliates, saying patients could face harm without access to services. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued the ruling Monday, July 28, expanding on a previous order from the week of July 20. That earlier injunction applied only to 10 Planned Parenthood clinics in Massachusetts, requiring Medicaid funding to be reinstated. “In particular, restricting Members’ ability to provide healthcare services threatens an increase in unintended pregnancies and attendant complications because of reduced access to effective contraceptives, and an increase in undiagnosed and untreated STIs,” she wrote.” The fight will continue on. It is heartening to see judges not cowed or afraid of TOM when so many other entities across the country are.