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<\/p>\nQuick takes today.<\/p>\n
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Robert Reich, 22 Dec 2025<\/strong>: Farewell to “60 Minutes”<\/a>, subtitled “It just went the way of the Washington Post’s editorial page”<\/p>\n Once you begin surrendering to Trump, he always wants more. You can\u2019t appease a tyrant.<\/p>\n David Ellison\u2019s CBS \u2014 after gutting DEI policies there, appointing right-wing hack Kenneth R. Weinstein to a new \u201combudsman\u201d role, and making anti-\u201cwoke\u201d opinion journalist Bari Weiss editor-in-chief of CBS News (despite her lack of experience in either broadcasting or newsrooms) \u2014 yesterday removed a segment from \u201c60 Minutes\u201d featuring stories of Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration to what the program called a \u201cbrutal\u201d prison in El Salvador. Bari Weiss had demanded changes to the segment.<\/p>\n The Ellisons \u2014 fils et p\u00e8re \u2014 have been seeking Trump\u2019s support for their hostile bid to acquire Warner Bros Discovery, but Trump has been unhappy with recent episodes of \u201c60 Minutes,\u201d even under its new management. Hence, the segment\u2019s removal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That’s how these people work.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \\\\\\<\/p>\n And this.<\/p>\n The Atlantic, Adam Serwer, 23 Dec 2025<\/strong>: Cancel Culture\u2019s Boomerang Effect<\/a> subtitled “How we got to a place where free speech means whatever conservatives want to say”<\/p>\n On Sunday night Bari Weiss, the editor of The Free Press<\/em> and the new head of CBS News, abruptly stopped a forthcoming 60 Minutes<\/em> report on the torture endured by migrants<\/a> in the brutal El Salvadoran prison CECOT, where the Trump administration has sent more than 280 men.<\/p>\n Trump supporters<\/a> praised the decision from Weiss, who, notwithstanding her description of conditions at CECOT as \u201chorrific,\u201d had previously praised El Salvadoran leader Nayib Bukele<\/a> for making El Salvador safer. More broadly, the whole affair neatly encapsulates the bizarre anti-free-speech free-speech discourse of the past decade, the purpose of which has been to justify restricting any speech that conservatives disapprove of while framing liberal censoriousness as equivalent to state censorship.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Earlier examples with lots of links:<\/p>\n Weiss has long been a vocal supporter of a curiously narrow definition of free speech. That hypocrisy, shared by many, brought us to where we are today: Nasty tweets were a harbinger of <\/a>incipient totalitarianism<\/a>, but now the Trump administration is trying to imprison and deport people for pro-Palestinian advocacy, and it\u2019s fine. The \u201cPC Police\u201d were trying to \u201coutlaw make-believe<\/a>,\u201d but when Republican states ban books from schools and public libraries<\/a>, it\u2019s fine. These dumb lefties believe that words are violence<\/a>, but when the federal government says left-wing speech is violence worthy of firing<\/a> or prosecution<\/a>, it\u2019s fine. Protests on college campuses were a national crisis<\/a>, but now that the federal government wants to ensure that entire universities comply with right-wing ideology<\/a> when it comes to whom they hire, what they teach, and whom they admit, it\u2019s fine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \\\\\\<\/p>\n The Week, 23 Dec 2025<\/strong>: Trump unveils new \u2018Trump class\u2019 US warships<\/a><\/p>\n Everything must be named after himself. He has no shame. But here’s a pertinent bit of the summary here:<\/p>\n \u201cThis ship is never going to sail<\/a>,\u201d Mark Cancian, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Washington Post. He predicted it would \u201ctake four, five, six years\u201d to just develop the ship<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Just like someone predicted that ballroom will never be built. (Also, whatever happened to that Wall?)<\/p>\n \\<\/p>\n And this:<\/p>\n JMG<\/strong> (from Fortune): Trump: I\u2019m Designing Ships, I\u2019m Very Aesthetic Person<\/a>.<\/p>\n To which I say: Dunning-Kruger.<\/p>\n \\<\/p>\n Two more:<\/p>\n JMG,<\/strong> (from Raw Story): Trump: I\u2019m Bringing Down Drug Prices By 3000%<\/a><\/p>\n \\<\/p>\n Friendly Atheist, 23 Dec 2025<\/strong>: Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders turned a holiday email to state employees into a Christian sermon<\/a>, subtitled “Sanders’ proclamation violated the idea of church\/state separation by treating Christian doctrine as state policy”<\/p>\n My thought about such events: are Christians like her dim (because they don’t understand separation of church and state) or simply arrogant (thinking only their religion matters)?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Quick takes today. Robert Reich, 22 Dec 2025: Farewell to “60 Minutes”, subtitled “It just went the way of the Washington Post’s editorial page” Once you begin surrendering to Trump, he always wants more. You can\u2019t appease a tyrant. David … Continue reading ![](\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zLrUuYykBZqQtYDKMrrfnB-1024-80.jpg.webp\")
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