What Would Nellis Say?

 

the demise of free speech

By Rick Stiller​​​​​​​

 

Our dependence and belief in the basic concept of truth based on verifiable facts is the foundation that allows our society and our democracy to thrive and survive. Without that common assurance in personal interactions and commerce, in the information that illuminates our understanding of the world around us, and in the authorities in which we entrust the welfare of the nation, there is nothing to bind us together as one people or protect us from each other.

 

The country has become desensitized by Donald Trump’s endless and relentless lies to the point where, when he actually tells the truth about his intentions, no one believes him. He has made no secret of his plan to use the Justice Department to harass and punish his enemies, and Pam Bondi and his other strategically placed appointees ignore the law and genuflect at every new command.

 

Scores of dedicated and experienced attorneys, who took an oath to uphold the law and the Constitution, are bailing out of the Justice Department rather than pursuing illegitimate and unfounded indictments of James Comey, Letitia James, Jack Smith, and many others who are merely guilty of calling out Trump’s hate, crimes, and blatant corruption.

 

MAGA Republicans are rewriting the history books that will be used in all levels of education to eliminate references to the darkest sins of our past by replacing them with lessons that ignore the truth about the cruelty and barbarity of our ancestors and the suffering of American minorities.

 

One PragarU (which is not a university but, rather, a right-wing educational propaganda machine) video being shown to elementary school children has a cartoon version of Christopher Columbus explaining that the slaves (who were kidnapped, brutalized, and sold into servitude) were better off than if they’d been killed. In another, the lesson presents the “benefits” that those servants enjoyed, such as learning trades in farming, animal husbandry, or blacksmithing, as better than the tribal life of their homeland in Africa. It conveniently ignores the rapes, beatings, and killings that white men administered to their “property”.

 

References to slavery, driving Native Americans off the tribal lands to walk the Trail of Tears, or the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II are being removed from museums. Any display or information that might be construed as acknowledging, let alone condoning, homosexuality is being eliminated and replaced with the glorification of the white “Christian” male as the anointed masters of everyone else.

Trump has used false claims of antisemitism to attack, defund, and blackmail major universities and their scientific research facilities into removing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from their academic systems, admissions, and instruction, “cease all preferences based on race, color, national origin, or proxies,” and hand over personal information on immigrant students who violate any conduct code to federal investigators for possible recission of their visas and deportation. 

The government is seizing the right to determine who teaches and who learns, what the curriculum can include and what will be excluded, and instituting limitations of free speech and political activity for educational institutions that thrive on open debate. An ignorant, brain-washed population is easier to control than citizens capable of critical thinking and comprehending historical perspectives. America’s place as the epicenter of academic excellence and scientific research is under threat as a result of Trump’s war on intelligence.

The nation has suffered through forty years of Fox “News” (their lawyers admit in court that it is not and never was a “news” network but rather an entertainment vehicle) spewing false and misleading extremist opinions that contradict verifiable facts and common sense. Rupert Murdoch paid $784 million to settle a lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems, admitting to a corporate decision to promote Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and freeing their talk show hosts to continue lying about anything and everything to promote Trump’s brand of “conservative” fanaticism.

 

Recently, Trump collected $16 million in a settlement of a lawsuit against Disney/Paramount, where he alleged deceptive editing of an interview with Kamala Harris on an episode of CBS’s 60 Minutes. He continued his assault on Disney when his FCC chairman, Brendon Carr blackmailed the company into suspending Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show because the comedian was “insensitive” in his monologue about the assassination of racist Charlie Kirk, leveraging FCC approval of Paramount’s pending merger with ultra-conservative Skydance Media, which was founded by David Ellison. 

 

His father, Larry Ellison, owner of Oracle and one of the world’s wealthiest men (estimated at $350 billion), posted $8 billion to finance the merger that his son is shepherding through FCC and Brendon Carr’s approval. Together, they will own 77.6% of the new company with plans to transform the media platform into one of the largest news organizations in the country, dedicated to Trump’s strain of tyranny…and they have CNN in their sights.

 

Jeff Bezos has muzzled the writers of the Opinion Section of the Washington Post, declaring “that only opinions that support ‘personal liberties’ and ‘free markets’ will be welcome in the editorial pages of the Post.” And, “Viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”

 

Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the Los Angeles Times, has fired more than 20% of his editorial staff and restricted the publication of editorials critical of the President.

 

Since the massive decline in print advertising revenues, only 15% of the 1400 daily newspapers printed in the United States are produced by independent owners. The other 85% were gobbled up by conglomerates. Many, like those controlled by Metric Media, are right-center biased and qualify as questionably reliable sources of information due to a lack of transparency and publication of false information.

 

The same is true for television corporations like Sinclair, which owns 178 local stations, and Nexstar, with more than 200, which gives them control of almost 30 percent of ABC’s network, as well as large slices of Fox, CBS, and NBC affiliates. Sinclair was criticized for forcing local news anchors to read identical mandated statements in support of Trump every night on the evening news during his first term. The two companies control numerous ABC affiliates and exert considerable influence over the right-leaning political bias of their partner networks.

 

These revelations include thousands of MAGA websites like Elon Musk’s “X” streaming false or misleading information to millions of subscribers. Larry Ellison, Rupert Murdoch, and tech billionaire Michael Dell teamed up to acquire control of the American version of TikTok, with Oracle overseeing “security” and the algorithm that determines what qualifies for broadcast. One might expect the lively, free-flowing flavor of the website will be rapidly transformed in the service of ultra-right-wing promotion and propaganda.

 

The Heritage Foundation laid out their goals for taking control of the government, the judiciary, and American media in Project 2025, and the means to that end is an endless, relentless deluge of lies, false and misleading reporting, and a complete disregard for facts and truth.

 

Censorship is but one of the primary tools that wannabe dictators have used throughout the modern era to erase history and replace it with carefully controlled propaganda to convince the population of the righteousness of their cause and the legitimacy of their power.

 

While Brendon Carr is foaming at the mouth with threats to remove broadcast licenses from any network that confronts Trump’s campaign to silence his critics, America’s bigoted aristocracy is determined to buy up every platform in every form of media to control the flow of information by installing their own radically hateful version of “truth.”

 

During Trump’s speech at the memorial for Charlie Kirk, he vowed vengeance and retribution for Kirk’s assassination with the comment, “I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them.” We would be foolish to doubt his intent to use every lever of power, including a corrupt Supreme Court, a compromised Congress, and every sympathetic media outlet to fulfill his threat.

 

The objective of this multi-headed hydra attack on our history and our culture is silencing dissent and replacing it with messaging that makes hate, bigotry, white supremacy, “Christian” nationalism, and employing extreme and excessive cruelty to punish their enemies and accost immigrants seem acceptable and patriotic. It is not, and it never will be.

 

Project 2025 was the roadmap for dismantling our government. The Heritage Foundation promises to reinterpret the Constitution and the Bill of Rights next.

 

The Republicans intend to shut down the government on Tuesday because they can’t muster enough votes to pass their temporary funding bill to reinforce Trump’s draconian Big Ugly Bill that will decimate healthcare for millions of Americans. They also intend to fire as many as 300,000 federal workers while the country is distracted by the closure, which will affect every American in one way or another.

 

Perhaps this is the moment when hundreds of real American patriots (and no, there is nothing patriotic about MAGA bigotry and hate) will finally be brave enough to show up to stop Tom Homan’s ICE Nazis from harassing, abusing, assaulting, and arresting our neighbors because they happen to have brown skin or speak Spanish.

 

Perhaps this is the final straw that motivates real Americans to take to the streets to shut this country down until Trump and every member of his cult are removed from office, indicted for treason, and tried for their crimes. 

 

We’ve watched Trump’s nightmare advance from outrageous threats on the campaign trail to become federal policy that is destroying everything America stands for, as another step in the MAGA march toward dictatorship. Unless We The People are willing to join together to end this madness, it will progress from threats, to arrests of peaceful protestors, to armed troops in the streets of every city firing on our own citizens, and disappearing anyone who resists.

 

This is the moment for real patriots to Stand Up! Speak Out! And Make A Difference!

 

Thanks for your support! I look forward to your thoughts, appreciate your dedication to freedom, and hope you will share these thoughts with everyone you know!

 

For more visit: www.rickstiller.com, and for a moment of calm, enjoy my new portfolio of floral portraits from this season in Kelian’s Garden at www.rickstillerart.com

 

 

PS – If you know any immigrants who have been, are, or might be subject to arrest for attending required court hearings, a group of volunteers, based out of the USC Dornsife program, have established a free hotline to help those with in-person immigration hearings to file motions to move their appointments online. 

 

The hotline is available for use by anyone, anywhere, and may be reached at 888-462-5211. Services are available in both English and Spanish. For the full article, please visit: https://www.uscannenbergmedia.com/2025/06/18/usc-agents-of-change-establishes-hotline-to-help-move-immigration-hearings-online/

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