I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 36th year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is Scottiestoybox@gmail.com
FOX HOST BILL HEMMER: “Did President Trump have anything to do with the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s show?”
BRENDAN CARR: “I think there are a lot of consequences that are flowing from President Trump deciding, ‘I won’t play by the rules of politicians in the past and let these legacy outfits dictate the narrative and terms of the debate.’ He is succeeding. Look at what is happening. NPR has been defunded, PBS has been defunded, Colbert is getting canceled. You’ve got anchors and news media personalities losing jobs downstream of President trump’s decision to stand up. He stood up for the American people. American people don’t trust the legacy gate keepers anymore.”
BILL HEMMER: “I asked a very direct question. I did not hear a yes or a no in your answer. I heard a maybe. Is The View now in the crosshairs of this administration?”
BRENDAN CARR: “Look, it’s entirely possible that there’s issues over there. I mean, again, stepping back, this broader dynamic, once President Trump has exposed these media gatekeepers and smashed this facade, there’s a lot of consequences. I think the consequences of that aren’t quite finished.”
FOX: Is The View now in the crosshairs of this administration?
FCC CHAIR BRENDAN CARR: It's entirely possible there are issues over there … the consequences aren't quite finished pic.twitter.com/sDZAbtf07I
BREAKING – Trump gives Ghislaine Maxwell “limited immunity” to talk to administration officials Are they letting Maxwell out of prison in exchange for lying that Trump was never part of Epstein’s sex trafficking?Why else would govt talk to Maxwell – who’s already convicted?
Three asylum-seekers leaving routine court hearings at San Francisco immigration court Thursday morning were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, including one man who a judge had just said might be mentally impaired.
Hmm… Imagine if everyone wore masks, sunglasses and flak vests. It would be so confusing. And of course no one identified as a police officer. #ResistanceFashion
"No he didn't. [Trump] said all Muslims would be banned. Not true, Piers. People can Google it right now. You're wrong and I'm right, as ever."You can watch my latest clash with @piersmorgan on Trump's Islamophobia & fascism, & mass deportations, here:www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C6O…
If you say “I’m fine with immigration as long as it’s legal” or “I came the right way” but you’re not sounding the alarm over this, you’re lying.A company says an employee was detained by federal agents during an immigration court hearing, despite being here legally with a valid work permit.
Pisses me off these moralist religious nuts want to save souls by exerting control on the marginalized. Like Jesus didn't hang out with criminals and sex workers to shame them. The people he usually shamed were the ones on their high horses trying to break these people.
How long will South Park, whose creators just signed a 50-episode deal with Paramount, last under Trump’s regime? Let’s hope the company's new "bias monitor" finds Trump jokes funny.
Item 1 of 2 The CBS broadcasting logo is seen outside the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan, New York, U.S., July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo
[1/2]The CBS broadcasting logo is seen outside the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan, New York, U.S., July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Summary
Companies
FCC chair says Trump administration reshaping media
Democrats say FCC actions violate First Amendment rights
FCC not dropping complaint against CBS over ’60 Minutes’ interview with Harris
WASHINGTON, July 25 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump and the Federal Communications Commission have vowed to force American broadcast media outlets to make significant changes.
CBS may be just the beginning.
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“President Trump is fundamentally reshaping the media landscape,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr told CNBC Friday. “The media industry across this country needs a course correction.”
On Thursday, the FCC voted 2-1 to approve the $8.4 billion merger between CBS parent Paramount Global (PARA.O), opens new tab and Skydance Media after Skydance agreed to ensure CBS news and entertainment programming is free of bias, hire an ombudsman for at least two years to review complaints and end diversity programs.
Trump has repeatedly attacked broadcast networks for what he perceives as unbiased news coverage and called on Carr to rescind their licenses.
“The new owners of CBS came in and said, ‘It’s time for a change. We’re going to reorient it towards getting rid of bias,” Carr said. “At the end of the day that’s what made the difference for us.”
Carr’s comments suggest the FCC will ramp up efforts to rid mainstream media of what he and President Trump consider a deep and enduring liberal bias, creating an opening for more conservative views among the biggest media companies.
The FCC regulates broadcast media outlets, which use the public airways and are required to act in the public interest. Carr has cited the public interest standard in seeking the changes at CBS.
Democratic FCC Commission Anna Gomez accused Paramount of “cowardly capitulation” to the Trump administration. She also said the FCC was imposing “never-before-seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment, in direct violation of the First Amendment and the law.”
Earlier this month, Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle a $20 billion lawsuit filed by Trump, claiming CBS News’ “60 Minutes” deceptively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. Paramount did not admit wrongdoing.
Some Democrats have called the payment a bribe and vowed to investigate. “Trump demands allegiance from everyone around him and it’s disgusting to see companies like Skydance and Paramount bowing to his endless and illegal demands,” Representative Frank Pallone said.
Soon after being designated chair by Trump in January, Carr reinstated a “60 Minutes” complaint, as well as complaints about how Walt Disney’s (DIS.N), opens new tab ABC News moderated the pre-election televised debate between then-President Joe Biden and Trump and Comcast’s (CMCSA.O), opens new tab NBC for allowing Harris to appear on “Saturday Night Live” shortly before the election.
Disney and Comcast did not immediately comment Friday.
Carr told Reuters Thursday the FCC is not closing its investigation into the “60 Minutes” interview.
Sayfollah Musallet, a Palestinian-American born in Florida, was visiting family in the West Bank town of Al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya when Israeli settlers brutalized him, beating him unconscious and blocking an ambulance from reaching him, according to the victim’s family. The young Palestinian-American was pronounced dead by the time he arrived at a hospital.
And although days have passed since Sayfollah was apparently killed by Israeli settlers, no one from the White House has contacted the family. No one from Congress. No one who represents Florida, where Musallet hails from.
Kamel Musallet, Sayfollah’s father, spoke with Zeteo’s political correspondent Prem Thakker about the lack of accountability from both US and Israeli officials over the ongoing settler violence in the West Bank. “An American has been killed by Israeli violence… Israeli settler terrorism,” Kamel told Prem.
Sayfollah is the seventh American killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the past 21 months. Most US politicians remain conspicuously silent about the widespread violence carried out by Israeli settlers.
This video was released earlier on Zeteo.com, if you want to get earlier access, make sure you subscribe: zeteo.com/subscribe
The denial of federal money to assist Maryland’s flood recovery continues a trend of spurning devastated residents in states with Democratic governors.
After the recent deadly flooding in Texas, Trump and his administration promised, and ultimately approved, FEMA aid for the Republican-controlled state. In the time since, FEMA’s response there has received criticism — including from the agency’s now-former head of urban search and rescue operations, who just resigned in disgust.
But the fact that Texas received a promise of FEMA aid at all was noteworthy. As I wrote at the time, it was a markedly different stance than the one Trump’s administration has taken with numerous states led by Democratic governors — such as North Carolina, Washington and California — who’ve had their requests for federal assistance denied.
Ja’han Jones is an MSNBC opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. He is a futurist and multimedia producer focused on culture and politics. His previous projects include “Black Hair Defined” and the “Black Obituary Project.”
While America’s distracted by the Steven Colbert Show drama and South Park revenge, Trump’s government just dropped over a billion dollars to build the largest detention center in U.S. history
Welcome to Fort Bliss—A $1.2 Billion Dystopian Human Suffering Factory—Funded By You.
You read that right.
Everything is bigger in Texas. $1.26 billion taxpayers money funneled to private pockets. 5,000 prisoners. No due process. Tent concentration camp in a desert.
America 2025 – Detention Will Make You Free
What’s Being Built—And Why It Should Terrify You
A $1.26 billion federal contract has been awarded to construct a 5,000-bed detention camp at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.
It will be operated under military supervision with private contractors and no guaranteed legal oversight.
This is part of a broader Trump-era policy goal: scaling ICE detention to 100,000 beds nationwide—up from around 40,000.
This facility is slated to fast-track deportations under EO 14159, which targets up to 1 million removals per year.
Subscribe
Fort Bliss? It’s Another Alligator Auschwitz,
Of Texas Desert Kind
Let’s be clear: this isn’t just a holding site—it’s inhumane state-sanctioned cruelty.
Fort Bliss sits in El Paso’s desert, where summer temps regularly hit 100–110°F. Inside tents, that can spike above 120°F. No air conditioning. No proper plumbing. Just canvas and suffering. And in winter? Temperatures dip below freezing at night, with no insulation to protect detainees.
Just like at Florida’s now-notorious “Alligator Alcatraz,” ambulances driving through the gate will be a daily feature. Already, reports from that prototype camp detail detainees suffering from medical neglect, contaminated food, and makeshift showers rigged with hoses. Some have called it “worse than jail”—and Fort Bliss will be five times bigger.
Here’s what we know—and why it’s enraging—that private contractors stand to profit from building this $1.2 billion tent detention camp at Fort Bliss:
Based in Virginia, without previous large-scale detention experience, mostly focused on smaller administrative and logistics contracts (often under $2 million).
Disaster Management specializes in erecting large-scale temporary housing (often used in refugee projects). It has received over $500 million in federal contracts since 2020.
Its workforce practices have drawn legal and ethical scrutiny: a 2022 Department of Labor review found wage and overtime violations, leading to nearly $16 million in recovered back pay and compliance enforcement.
Amentum(Another Subcontractor)
A large engineering and tech services firm tapped to support unspecified portions of the Fort Bliss project, likely involving logistics, structure builds, and base coordination.
Why This Should Outrage You
It’s Yet Another Trumpian Grift! Public Funds Are Fueling Private Profits Taxpayer money is funding manufacturers of suffering—people with no due process detained in harsh, tented desert conditions. It’s a state funded deliberate cruelty.
The Blueprint of Authoritarianism
Let’s break it down:
Scapegoat a vulnerable group.
Detain them en masse with no trial.
Use military infrastructure and private contractors to bypass accountability.
Build in remote areas—out of sight, out of mind.
Brand it with Orwellian irony.
“Fort Bliss”? That’s not just cruel. It’s fascist stagecraft.
This isn’t about security. It’s about dehumanization at scale, with taxpayer money funding open-air internment that recalls the ugliest chapters of history. Sound familiar?
PolitiSage
The International Criminal Court Must Indict Donald Trump NOW.
Read more
10 days ago · 2292 likes · 111 comments · Morgaan Sinclair, Ph.D.
What You Can Do
Expose it – Share this article. Make people say the name: Fort Bliss Concentration Camp.
Demand Oversight: Call reps. Demand medical transparency, independent inspections, and an immediate halt to construction.
Support Legal Aid: Many detainees will have no lawyer. Contribute to immigrant defense funds now.
Final Thought
Stop saying “it can’t happen here.” It already is.
We’re not just locking people up—we’re engineering human suffering. And we’re doing it with public funds, in military facilities, under desert sun, with names like Alligator Alcatraz, Fort Bliss to mock our conscience.
If we let this slide, history won’t ask if we knew. It will ask why we stayed silent.
Being Liberal Substack – From Revolution to Resistance is a reader-supported publication. Subscribe. Resist. Share. Fight.
Trump doesn’t rule out pardon for Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine MaxwellIt comes as Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Maxwell – who’s serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking – for a second time.
Ghislaine Maxwell, who sources told ABC News initiated the meetings with the Department of Justice, answered questions for about nine hours over two days after being granted a limited form of immunity, the sources said.
The immunity allowed Maxwell to freely answer Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s questions without fear that her responses could later be used against her, the sources said.
The so-called proffer immunity is commonly granted to individuals prosecutors are seeking to make cooperators in a criminal case. Maxwell has already been tried, convicted and sentenced for sex trafficking underage girls.
FILE – Audrey Strauss, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, during a news conference in New York on July 2, 2020.
John Minchillo/AP
DOJ did not immediately respond to request for comment. A lawyer for Maxwell did not immediately respond.
The second meeting between Maxwell and Blanche lasted for about three hours.
Maxwell’s attorney, David Markus, told ABC News afterward, “There have been no asks and no promises.”
Markus said Maxwell was asked about “maybe 100 different people” during her interview with the deputy attorney general. He said she answered every question.
“She didn’t hold anything back,” Markus said.
He declined to be specific about who Maxwell was asked about or whether she provided information about others who might have allegedly committed crimes against victims, as Blanche said he was seeking.
“We haven’t asked for anything. This is not a situation where we are asking for anything in return for testimony or anything like that,” Markus added on Friday. “Of course, everybody knows Ms. Maxwell would welcome any relief.”
Blanche didn’t speak to reporters upon his arrival at the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida. On social media, Blanche said he would reveal what he learned from Maxwell “at the appropriate time.”
FILE – Audrey Strauss, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, during a news conference in New York on July 2, 2020.
John Minchillo/AP
The first meeting between Maxwell and Blanche on Thursday lasted six hours.
Maxwell is currently appealing her 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking and other offenses in connection with Epstein, the deceased financier and convicted sex offender.
“We don’t want to get into the substance of the questions,” Markus had said about Thursday’s meeting. “There were a lot of questions and we went all day and she answered every one of them. She never said ‘I’m not going to answer,’ never declined.”
It is almost unheard of for a convicted sex trafficker to meet with such a high-ranking Justice Department official, especially one who used to be the president’s top criminal defense attorney.
ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked President Donald Trump on Friday if clemency is on the table for Maxwell.
“I can’t talk about that now because, you know, it’s a very sensitive interview going on,” Trump responded. He went on to call Blanche a “great attorney” and said “I don’t know exactly what’s happening. But I certainly can’t talk about pardons.”
Trump was also pressed by ABC News’ Bruce if he can trust what Maxwell is telling the DOJ during these interviews.
“Well, he’s a professional lawyer. He’s been through things like this before,” Trump said, referring to Blanche.
After Trump’s comments on Friday about clemency, ABC News asked Maxwell’s attorney whether that gave her an incentive to tell Blanche what he wanted to hear.
“No,” Markus answered. “She wants to tell the truth.”
Markus said Maxwell’s legal team has not approached Trump about a pardon, but suggested it could happen in the future.
“We haven’t spoken to the president or anyone about a pardon just yet. And listen, the president this morning said he had the power to do so we hope he exercises that power in the right and just way,” he said.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche look on as US President Donald Trump (not on frame) speaks during a news conference in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House on June 27, 2025, in Washington, DC.
Andrew Caballero-reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Annie Farmer, who testified against Maxwell at trial, questioned why Maxwell was granted a meeting with the deputy attorney general in the first place.
“It’s very disappointing that these things are happening behind closed doors without any input from the people that the government asked to come forward and speak against her in order to put her away,” Farmer said. “There were so many young girls and women that were harmed by her.”
Maxwell’s attorney said on Friday she’s been treated poorly for the last five years and is grateful to be able to meet with Blanche as she appeals her sex trafficking conviction and seeks to leave prison.
“If you looked up scapegoat in the dictionary, her picture would be next to the definition,” Markus said. “She’s keeping her spirits up as best she can.”
Blanche’s meetings with Maxwell comes as the Justice Department has tried to quiet calls from Senate Republicans to release more information about Epstein and his interaction with high-profile figures.
And it comes as questions swirl about Trump’s connections to Epstein and reports that his name appeared in the Epstein files.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump in May that his name was mentioned in the Epstein files multiple times, along with other high-profile people.
Trump has denied that account, and appearing in the files is not necessarily indicative of any wrongdoing.
“I want all the information out,” said Republican Sen. Josh Hawley.
“Just put everything out, make it as transparent as you can,” echoed Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
The Justice Department said earlier this month that it planned to release no additional information despite an earlier commitment to do so.
Brendan Carr listens during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee hearing to examine the Federal Communications Commission on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 24, 2020. Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via AP
Brendan Carr listens during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee hearing to examine the Federal Communications Commission on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 24, 2020. Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via AP
On Thursday, the head of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, approved the $8 billion merger between Skydance Media and Paramount, a deal that would allocate more than a billion dollars towards the latter company’s staggering debt.
But the agreement came with one major caveat: The media company must appoint a “bias monitor.”
According to reporting from The Wrap, an FCC “ombudsman” would work directly with New Paramount’s president, Jeff Shell, to review “any complaints of bias or other concerns” regarding CBS News, a subsidiary under Paramount.
Paramount also agreed to eliminate its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, including scrapping all DEI messaging from its internal training programs and removing DEI objectives in its compensation plans.
This move comes after the company announced the cancellation of The Colbert Report only a few days after the eponymous host critiqued the network’s recent settlement with the president. Earlier this month, Paramount agreed to cough up $16 million to Trump after the president sued the network for allegedly unfairly editing an interview with Kamala Harris, an accusation that many legal experts have called “baseless.”
As my colleague, Inae Oh, has reported, Colbert’s cancellation marks a dark new chapter for our culture as a whole. Oh writes:
Though his second term has already produced a string of stunning capitulations by some of the most powerful forces in the country, one could argue that Trump’s attacks had yet to take down our actual culture. I’m talking about the literal content we consume—the television, art, movies, literature, music—no matter how much Trump complained. That it remained protected and free-willed, a rare area of control for a public that otherwise feels powerless to take action. Clearly, that was magical thinking. If this can happen to Colbert and a storied franchise, this can happen to anyone.
And when it comes to using his presidential power as a cudgel against the media that critiques him, Trump clearly shows no signs of stopping. This week alone, the president threw a tantrum over two TV shows that joked about him. On Wednesday, the White House issued a statement threatening the ladies of The View after host Joy Behar joked that Trump was jealous of former president Barack Obama’s “swag.”
A White House spokesperson told Entertainment Weekly, “Joy Behar is an irrelevant loser suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
A White House spokesperson toldEntertainment Weekly, “Joy Behar is an irrelevant loser suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome” who “should self-reflect on her own jealousy of President Trump’s historic popularity before her show is the next to be pulled off air.”
Behar’s joke was tame compared to the animated show, South Park‘s treatment of Trump, who was depicted naked in bed with Satan. In response, the White House claimed that the show hasn’t been relevant in “20 years” and said “no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump’s hot streak.”
How long will South Park, whose creators just signed a 50-episode deal with Paramount, last under Trump’s regime? Let’s hope the ombudsman finds the Trump jokes funny.
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