By PAUL E. SCHINDLER JR. I am from Portland, Oregon, Beaumont ’66, Benson High ’70, MIT ’74. Some things are impossible to know, but it is impossible to know these things.
Sarah Stewart Holland, cohost of the Pantsuit Politics Podcast:
Tyranny, defined as cruel and oppressive government.
Reading Paine’s 250-year-old argument for revolution, I found the word I had been looking for – tyranny.
What we are experiencing is tyranny, defined as cruel and oppressive government. Cruel is a word used to describe Donald Trump for over a decade now, and his second administration’s particularly violent and hateful approach to immigration enforcement can be described in no other way. And yet, the word had not occurred to me until this week.
On Thursday [Jan. 16], U.S. District Judge William Young (a Reagan appointee) again denounced the administration’s conduct in unusually stark terms. “Talking straight here,” he said. “The big problem in this case is that the Cabinet secretaries and ostensibly, the president of the United States, are not honoring the First Amendment.”
My First Amendment Doomsday Clock has moved to 40 seconds to Midnight. I just realized Renee Nicole Good’s death by street execution a few days ago was an incredible First Amendment violation.
I don’t know what it will take to get the clock to midnight, but there’s nothing I wouldn’t put past these bozos. Makes no difference; moving the clock to midnight will be thoughtcrime1, punishable by summary execution carried out by anyone who thinks it is thoughtcrime.
No One Will Ever Print The Truth
First Amendment Dies of Head Shot
December 15, 1791-Jan. 14, 2026
The First Amendment died on Jan. 14, 2026, after a double head shot applied by masked thugs in black (and their lickspittles in the FBI) who first killed a woman for petitioning the Government for a redress of grievances, then ransacked a reporter’s home on the basis of a flimsy warrant. Effectively, the Blackshirts killed the beleaguered amendment. The First was 235 years old.
It was not surrounded by its loved ones at death, because apparently most Americans didn’t care enough to do anything during its predictable decline.
For more than two centuries, the First Amendment proudly carried out its mission statement, which prohibited Congress from, among other things, “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Since the 1868 passage of the soon-to-be-repealed 14th Amendment, it was erroneously assumed that the prohibition applied to the Executive Branch as well. Under the theory of the Unified Executive (endorsed by the Supreme Court), anything goes.
King Donald I personally attacked free speech rights because, like all dictators, the things he hates most are criticism and ridicule. He issued the orders for the rubout, Mafia style. “Whatever you do, don’t whack the First Amendment, capiche? I mean, there’s nothing wrong with cement overshoes, as long as they fit, right? Thank you for your attention in this matter.”
Talk about the law of unintended consequences! You make H1B visas too expensive to be practical, because you want to force companies to hire more Americans. Instead, the companies move overseas, depriving Americans of jobs.
There is someone in American life who does not know the meaning of the words honesty, loyalty, empathy and decency. He clearly does not know the meaning of many other words.
He could never be a Boy Scout: they have to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. (That was done from memory from 1966).You give him the score you think he deserves). Because of this he has told the Department of DEFENSE to stop cooperating with the scouts. He claims it is because they are co-ed. Clearly he is lashing out at his low score on the scout oath.
FIRST THIS BULLETIN: The “president” has begun using our tax dollars to create several political pages on Whitehouse.gov. First Amendment Doomsday Clock ticking inexorably towards Midnight as the Supremes and the spineless congress continue to hold their seats, which keeps their hands busy.
We return you now to our regularly scheduled program, already in progress.
I did quit Fox News by cutting the cable. For us, now, nothing but Internet. Local TV news costs too much and is worse than the newspaper. CBS from Paramount+, but dropped it because of Colbert. ABC from Hulu; dropped it after Kimmel, came back when he was reinstated. NBC from Peacock. The day they fire Seth Myers is the day I cut off my sub. I refuse to put $3 into Fox News’ pocket every month, whether I watch or not. Carriage fees, as they are known, are the major source of income for that toxic outlet.
If Fox can raise the fee to $3 per subscriber, it would be earning more than $1.8 billion. Hell no, not from me.
Doomsday Clock After last week’s orders from HRH Donald I, I have moved the clock from 10 minutes to midnight to 5. If either of them come to pass, we are looking at 1 minute or under.
If either of these stories come to pass, we go to 45 seconds.
* Donald Trump called for Democrat members of Congress to be imprisoned and executed. It comes after a group of members of Congress who have served in the military made a video reminding servicemen and women that they can refuse orders if they are unlawful.
* Trump is in active conversations with Paramount and Larry Ellison about a potential takeover of CNN that would include firing specific journalists he dislikes. This is an effort to reshape and control major media outlets in real time.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but has the right mastered AI Engine Optimization (the new Search Engine Optimization) in order to bury actual news? Does anyone know some legitimate news organization that might be interested in these screen shots?
Stealth Edit: I saw several commentators recommend this as a motto for our perilous times: no matter how bad things seem, persevere. Don’t give up; keep fighting. That’s what I meant.
The phrase seemed good enough by itself, subtle, with only “a suggestion for loyal Americans” as the text. But then I got a comment from Robert Malchman asking if there was a link missing. There wasn’t, but his comment caused me to look up who said it and what happened.
But first, an expert opinion, my friend and classmate, Naval historian William H. Roberts:
“Don’t give up the ship is good once you’ve taken damage. Train harder and win is better.”
A paraphrase of the Wikipedia entry: James Lawrence was commander of the USS Chesapeake during the 1812 Battle of Boston Harbor. Fatally wounded, his last words were “Don’t give up the ship!” He said this during the capture of his vessel by the British. His crew didn’t, in some sense, “Give Up The Ship,” which is to say they fought but they did lose the battle.
