This article was submitted to the Waco “Tribune-Herald”
newspaper on 18 September 2025, by me as
a member of their board of contributors.
As of today (23 September 2025),
they have not used it.
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As-submitted article:
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Dear readers, the
Waco “Trib” published an opinion piece of mine this last 19 August 2025, which warned of the ongoing imposition of a
Trump dictatorship upon us. I have since
noted other pieces published on the “Trib’s” opinion page warning, or at least hinting, of the same thing! One piece of that is muzzling the news
media, a hallmark of all
dictatorships. This is happening right
in front of you, if you but open your
eyes and see it!
This is the text of the latest message (of many) that I have
sent to Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz,
and Representative Pete Sessions:
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“First it was Stephen Colbert who was cancelled for speaking
against Trump. That was Paramount, owner of CBS,
needing administration approval for acquiring Bytedance. So they cancelled him and got the
approval. Trump even said Jimmy Kimmel
was next, and now the minion-led FCC has
threatened Disney and ABC with punishment for “spreading misinformation”, to get Kimmel cancelled, and they did.
Trump has said that Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers at NBC are next. This is abuse of government to muzzle the media, a hallmark of all dictatorships. And I have messaged you multiple times about
stopping the imposition of a Trump dictatorship.
The Kimmel case is also extremely and egregiously
hypocritical: if “spreading
misinformation” can be punished by the FCC,
then why has the most notorious example,
TV’s Fox News, never been punished? Answer:
the misinformation they have spread for decades is pro-Trump. Simple as that!
I am messaging you about this, but I will also be writing to the newspaper’s
op ed page.”
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The current claims from administration figures about the
Charlie Kirk killing are like most of the other claims made during this
term, the previous term, and as the opposition all during Biden’s term
in between: they do not stand up to
fact-checking! If you want to find what
Charlie Kirk really stood for, go on the
internet; Wikipedia has an article about
him. There are others. His assassination was a criminal act not to
be tolerated, but he was definitely not
the national hero that Trump claimed.
There is no large left-wing extremist population to go after, contrary to administration claims. There were, more than half a century ago, but not in recent decades! However,
there is a large and growing right-wing extremist population today, and it dominates the statistics of who the
recent mass shooters have been. Mentally
disturbed people are the second-largest portion of those shooters, with left-wing extremists a very tiny
portion.
That leads me to try to correct a common misperception. The conventional notion of “left wing” vs “right
wing” in political thought is based upon the false concept that political
outlook corresponds to a straight line,
from endpoints at far-left extremism and at far-right extremism. It does not!
It never did!
The better model is a circle, which ranges from societies that live in freedom on the near side, to oppressive military-supported dictatorships, on the far side. There are indeed 2 paths from here to the far side of that circle, one “left wing”, the other “right wing”. But once these groups go all the way to that far side, there's not a dime's worth of difference between them! It does not matter what they say, or which way they got there. The evil is the same!
I see no operational difference between Stalin's Communist Russia
and Hitler's Nazi Germany. Both were
military-supported dictatorships, with a
secret police (or polices) to "disappear" opponents, concentration camps in which to hold
opponents before finally "disappearing" them, total control of all published information (a
point being made here in this article),
government agencies weaponized to persecute opponents (also a point
here), certain minorities demonized as
"the enemy", all the corporate
or business heads "bending the knee" to the dictator's every whim
(another point here), stolen or no elections
amounting to a sham democracy at best,
and absolutely no accountability for the "fearless leader" in
charge.
There are countless other examples besides Stalinist Russia
and Hitler's Germany. Putin's Russia
today is only one of the latest. Xi's
China is another. Kim's North Korea is
another. The ruling "mullahs"
in Iran are yet another. There are many
more.
However, in view
of what has been going on recently, all
of those hallmarks of dictatorships ought to sound dangerously familiar to
anybody in the US today!
Extremism is the real evil;
left, right, political,
religious, makes no
difference! And totally unregulated
social media are completely rife with both extremism and extreme misinformation! Believe nothing from social media, even if they tell you what you want to
hear! They lie to you for profit! That is all they do.
The real truth tellers,
like CBS News, NBC News, ABC News,
and PBS/NPR, are now more than
halfway muzzled already. Why? Their corporate owners make more money if
Trump approves of what they say.
And we already have several concentration camps around the
country! They currently hold the
demonized immigrants that the real statistics say do not threaten, but actually benefit, us.
They get deported (“disappeared”) mostly without due process, if you but look! Those who oppose Trump will be next!
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End of as-submitted article
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A brief update for the posting here:
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Disney/ABC has since decided to restore Jimmy Kimmel’s show, perhaps responding to public pressure to do
so. Regardless, owners of many ABC-affiliate stations Texstar
and Sinclair do not intend to broadcast him,
no matter what Disney/ABC decided.
They both have merger deals awaiting approval from the Trump
administration. Surprise, Surprise!
This is exactly what muzzling the media looks like!
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