US Erection 12 *AND* 16 *AND* 20 *AND* 22 *AND* 24 *AND* Beyond

[Chef Boi RD]

On Wednesday September 17th, 2025 American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada President Tino Gagliardi issued the following statement in response to ABC taking Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which employs musicians from Local 47 in Los Angeles, off the air:

“This is not complicated: Trump’s FCC identified speech it did not like and threatened ABC with extreme reprisals. This is state censorship. It’s now happening in the United States of America, not some far-off country. It’s happening right here and right now.

This act by the Trump Administration represents a direct attack on free speech and artistic expression. These are fundamental rights that we must protect in a free society. The American Federation of Musicians strongly condemns the decision to take Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air.

We stand in solidarity with all those who will be without work because of government overreach.”

[UWSaint]

On Wednesday September 17th, 2025 American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada President Tino Gagliardi issued the following statement in response to ABC taking Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which employs musicians from Local 47 in Los Angeles, off the air:

“This is not complicated: Trump’s FCC identified speech it did not like and threatened ABC with extreme reprisals. This is state censorship. It’s now happening in the United States of America, not some far-off country. It’s happening right here and right now.

This act by the Trump Administration represents a direct attack on free speech and artistic expression. These are fundamental rights that we must protect in a free society. The American Federation of Musicians strongly condemns the decision to take Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air.

We stand in solidarity with all those who will be without work because of government overreach.”

When government threatens an act to do a thing it cannot, it can achieve the power of regulation without regulating. This is a problem.

When businesses and government are so intertwined or government’s power over business so broad and discretionary that business must be on government’s good side, they will do government’s bidding — and the other way around, getting a carrot by playing the game. Some people call this crony capitalism, but it’s corporatism, a third way that’s not capitalism and not socialism, and held favor with progressives and fascists alike. I despise it, we have way too much of it.

But I disagree with the writer who says “it’s simple,” because it’s not. President’s should be able to say their peace from their pulpit, comment on events, speak as a moral authority, etc., and the line where that becomes some kind of coercive thing is very difficult to draw and define. E.g.,—I don’t think the government should be able to punish you for “hate speech,” but it seems to me that there’s nothing wrong with a President saying “We need to pipe down. Hateful speech is unacceptable.” You see how easy it is for these streams to cross if people think (and government acts) in a way that uses more than moral influence (and its own counter speech) to subordinate speech it doesn’t like.

[Cornuck]

UW, when you see episodes like this and this increasing number of US citizens being abused by ICE, cronyism on the rise, do you like the direction the country is going? Or are these just isolated instances that should be brushed off?

Right now I see the country as the proverbial frog in a pot of water, and it's warming up.

[Blob Mckenzie]

No room for free speech under the Pillsbury Dough Boy's regime. He's going to get shot at again. Hopefully it's not one of his plants firing the gun.

[UWSaint]

UW, when you see episodes like this and this increasing number of US citizens being abused by ICE, cronyism on the rise, do you like the direction the country is going? Or are these just isolated instances that should be brushed off?

Right now I see the country as the proverbial frog in a pot of water, and it's warming up.

The ICE stuff is very much fog of war to me—people painted as innocent who later are not once more information comes out; detentions portrayed as the gestapo when it’s simply how people get arrested, clear evidence of information warfare. But that’s not to say there aren’t issues with individual detentions (individual instances) or maybe things more systemic, I just don’t have a good read on it.

But this fog of war stuff, that’s in so many areas, and that’s something seems systemic and puts us more in that frog in the pot situation. We are in a post modern world at the moment. Trump was right to call out the mainstream media for fake news—mainstream media earned it by doing a shitty job. But the fact that you have to be skeptical of mainstream news doesn’t mean that alternative media or Trump is right. That media might lie or shade Trump doesn’t mean Trump can’t lie/shade us. But we are now in a Peter and the Wolf situation because our institutions (media, academia, and to a lesser degree tech and professiona) have forfeit a large part of their credibility, and people default to wanting to see their “side” be in the right and their intuitions confirmed, unable or unwilling to objectively weigh evidence. If the wolf comes, the towspeople aren’t likely to heed the call.

As for the cronyism stuff, I think that’s a big problem. It is definitely one that has the potential to silently take away political freedom and democratic responsiveness, and it’s been in progress for nearly a century. While violence is a tool of the extremes, this stuff is the uniparty, where goverments have as their chief objective the protection of themselves.

In some ways the out in the open bullying is easier for us to confront and respond to than the favors and carrots or the behind close doors subtle threats. It doesn’t make it better though. I don’t want the President trying to run private companies, and I don’t want the government using its power or influence to crush dissenters in any other way than offering their view as to why it’s wrong.

Do I like the way the country is going? As to matters of policy? Generally yes, with exceptions of course. As to matters of politics, mindset, quality of institutions, right wing and left wing post modernism, etc.? Generally no. Our culture’s relationship to the truth is too loose; the numbers of people who subscribe to ethics of intention over ethics of responsibility too many; our understanding of the things that made America imperfect but pretty damn good too shallow; our charitableness towards our loyal opponents, too rare.

[Tciso]

I agree with much of what you said.

It is too bad that the media, and the politicians are both loose with the truth. The other issue with reporting is how the meanings of words have changed, or have become totally void of meaning. Words like "woman" or "fascist" seem to be undefineable by the media and those they report on.

One thing you touched upon was corruption/cronyism. We have seen a massive increase in governemnt size the past 10 years. More taxes. More debt, More bureaucracy. And more programs to fix the problems caused by debt, taxes and bureaucracy. Which all leads to more corruption and mis-spent tax dollars. The massive increase in government size (in all western nations) is a massive issue for me. It is to the point that if you are an entrepreneur, your best bet to get rich is to jump ahead of a government program, and get a bloated government contract with no oversite or accountability. Aka, corruption.

[Per]

It’s getting harder and harder to tell the USA and North Korea apart.

It is now strictly forbidden to dare joke about Dear Leader. Freedom of speech has been replaced by cancel culture.
Colbert, Kimmel and a USD 15 billion lawsuit against the New York Times for daring to speak truth to power.

I really should unsubscribe Disney, but I have to finish the fifth season of Only Murders in the Building first.

[Chef Boi RD]

Weren’t we supposed to be “draining the swamp”? lol. All I’m seeing is the swamp growing and to an area that is very concerning.

[Per]

As for ICE, here’s a BBC interview with one of the Korean engineers who was handcuffed, chained, shackled and detained for helping build a battery factory in Georgia which would provide thousands of jobs for American workers:

https://youtu.be/fcwJtWU4fn4?si=ZbsqvGZ9kew0NvH_

If anyone thinks this is how you should treat foreign consultants with valid visas who are helping create new jobs, you need to have your head examined. This is what you expect to see in tinpot dictatorships that lack rule of law and respect for human rights. Not in a developed country that claims to be a democracy.

From what I understand many Korean companies are now considering pulling out of the US completely.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn5q7d72q5vo
https://youtu.be/PuXNJMv6zaQ?si=YnT889uhWZxd9FmC

[Chef Boi RD]

Hmmm, remember when MAGA, Donny and his culture warriors were bitching about the lefty “cancel culture”?

In a post on Truth Social Wednesday evening, Trump wrote: “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulationsn

[Per]

I also wonder why this has been completely overlooked by the media.
300 million drug deaths in the USA in 2024?!

https://youtube.com/shorts/5JK4x_bse6M? ... 6mFdO4KzMS

Heck, there were only some 340 million living there! That means almost 90% of the population died!
I guess the US population is now roughly on par with Canada.

[Megaterio Llamas]

[Meds]

I also wonder why this has been completely overlooked by the media.
300 million drug deaths in the USA in 2024?!

https://youtube.com/shorts/5JK4x_bse6M? ... 6mFdO4KzMS

Heck, there were only some 340 million living there! That means almost 90% of the population died!
I guess the US population is now roughly on par with Canada.

In the clip he didn’t say “over 300 million in the US”.

I’m inclined to think that this was a combination of his penchant for dramatic grandiose statements and a mental fumble where over 3 million became over 300 million.

[Meds]

No room for free speech under the Pillsbury Dough Boy's regime. He's going to get shot at again. Hopefully it's not one of his plants firing the gun.

Was this because of Trump's intervention? Is Tino Gagliardi telling the entire story, or is he making a statement that is not totally comprehensive? I don't actually know.

I do think that comments that are making fun of, or lending to the crowd that is cheering over Charlie Kirk's murder, should be handled the way ABC handled it. I don't believe that government should infringe upon free speech, however I do think that an employer with even a hint of reasonable ethics and morals would act int he same way. A man was just murdered in cold blood in front of his wife and children.....and we are going to make fun of that, or use it as a comedic prop? That's disgusting.

As much as I was not a fan of Biden, some of the shit that comedians put out there about him went, imho, too far. We are watching celebrities with large platform and insane reach foster a culture of disrespect. They keep wedge issues alive by making them funny. 15-20 years ago this was already a thing, but not nearly to the same extent as it is now. You want to enjoy rank and privilege? Well that comes with some responsibility.

If the government cancelled this, that's not ok. But they didn't.

[Chef Boi RD]

On the topic of making fun of death while fresh and not just one death, thousands upon thousands death - I am reminded of Trump Gaza’ AI depicting the Gaza Strip as a Dubai-style paradise

The video – posted by Trump on his Truth Social depicts a family emerging from the wreckage of war-torn Gaza into a beachside resort town lined with skyscrapers. Trump is seen sipping cocktails with a topless Benjamin Netanyahu on sun loungers, while Elon Musk tears flatbread into dips.

The video first emerged in February, shortly after Trump unveiled his property development plan for Gaza, under which he said he wants to “clean out” the population of about 2 million people to create the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

Trump then posted the clip on his Truth Social platform on 26 February.

Oh, Trumpy, such a kidder, eh. Harmless fun, while Palestinian children are being blown to Smithereens.

BTW, Kimmel was poking fun at MAGA, about the shooter being a MAGA man. He wasn’t making fun of Kirk’s death.