The Morning Sixpack - September 19, 2025 Full Fascist Edition

Trump’s America: Kimmel silenced, Stewart mocks, Letterman warns, Carr threatens, and probes target dissent—free speech on life support. Or, is it dead?

Editor: We’ve officially crossed the line: America isn’t just flirting with fascism—it’s in bed with it, smoking a cigarette. Our First Amendment rights aren’t being “eroded”; they’re being eliminated in real time. Late-night hosts are yanked off the air by government pressure, comedians are forced to parody state TV just to make the point, and regulators are openly threatening networks like mob bosses collecting protection money.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking: “Bill, you’re obsessing. You’re hammering the same nail and not covering other REAL news stories.” Fair enough. But here’s the thing—the freedom to speak your mind is what made this country flourish. The free flow of ideas is tantamount to our success, our progress, and our march toward “a more perfect union.”

WITHOUT THAT, THE REST OF THE NEWS DOESN’T MATTER BECAUSE YOU WON’T BE ALLOWED TO HEAR IT!

Is that clear enough for you?

So today’s issue is laser-focused on this: the silencing of dissent, the criminalization of criticism, and the terrifying normalization of state-managed media.

Call it what you want—authoritarianism, censorship, or plain old bullying—but history has another word for it: FASCISM.

And we are watching it unfold right here, right now.

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Trump’s New War: Trans People Labeled as “Violent Extremists”

The Trump administration is moving to brand transgender Americans as “violent extremists” under a new FBI threat category, sources confirm. This escalation follows the murder of Charlie Kirk, which the White House and its allies are heavily exploiting to push their anti-trans agenda.

FBI director Kash Patel told Congress the Bureau was “looking at the entire spider web for any of these attacks,” while Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed trans people are “putting this crazy ideology in our schools.” The administration is framing transgender identity as part of a shadowy “cult of gender ideology” fueling violence.

Trump himself has leaned hard into the rhetoric, blasting “transgender insanity” just days before Kirk’s killing. One senior intelligence official admitted, “They are cynically targeting trans people because the shooter’s lover was trans.” The murder has given the administration political cover to formally fold trans identity into its newly minted “Nihilistic Violent Extremists” (NVEs) category.

The policy shift comes with teeth: bans on gender-affirming care for minors, restrictions on passports, reinstated military exclusions, and talk of stripping transgender people of firearm rights under the guise of “mental illness.”

The indictment against Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, mentions “transgender” three separate times—proof the government wants identity itself on trial.

Meanwhile, Trump allies are testing out their new culture-war branding. Sebastian Gorka, who had barely acknowledged trans issues before, fired off three posts on “trans shooters” after the Kirk murder. Donald Trump Jr. coined the catchphrase of the week, asking online: “What is the greatest domestic terror threat facing America: ANTIFA or TRANTIFA?”

That’s where this is heading—manufacturing a phantom enemy to keep the base scared and loyal.

Source: Ken Klippenstein

Editor: So here we are. Trump’s people are taking a personal tragedy and twisting it into a pretext for a witch hunt. “Trantifa”? Please. This is the kind of made-up boogeyman that would embarrass even Joe McCarthy. But it sells, and in Trumpworld, fear is the business model.

The scary part? They’ve done this before—and they’ll keep doing it until the rest of us stop letting them write the script.

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Disney Silences Jimmy Kimmel After Kirk Remarks Trigger FCC Threats

Disney yanked Jimmy Kimmel off the air after affiliates threatened to preempt his show over his comments about Charlie Kirk’s killing. The move wasn’t about ratings—it was about political pressure, advertisers panicking, and the FCC waving its regulatory stick.

Kimmel had slammed President Trump and Republicans for their reaction to Kirk’s murder, quipping that Trump’s grieving looked like “how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish.” That earned him a rebuke from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who hinted ABC’s broadcast licenses could be at risk. Networks like Sinclair and Nexstar quickly leaned on Disney, warning they would “indefinitely preempt” Kimmel’s show.

Editor: By the way, just so you know: Broadcast networks like ABC, NBC, and CBS do not have licenses. Their affiliate stations (think local channels) hold the licenses. THEY pressured their parent network (in this case ABC, the biggest loser in network TV) to get on their knees, who then went to Disney (ABC’s parent company) who then gave the full on blowjob to Trump.

Metaphorically speaking. Maybe.

Behind the scenes, Disney executives huddled with Kimmel. He had planned to respond on-air to Carr’s threats, but execs feared his remarks would “make the situation worse.” Dana Walden, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, and Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, pulled the plug, citing staff safety after doxxing and threats. Advertisers scrambled, affiliates cheered, and Trump crowed that Kimmel was benched for “bad ratings” and “lack of talent.”

The decision drew fire from Hollywood veterans and unions alike. Damon Lindelof said he wouldn’t want to work for a company that silences its own talent. David Letterman flatly declared: “We all see where this is going, correct? It’s managed media. And it’s no good.” More on this later.

Even Obama weighed in, accusing Trump’s team of weaponizing cancel culture under a different name.

And here’s the kicker: This wasn’t just about Kimmel. It’s about leverage. With Nexstar chasing FCC approval for a massive merger and Disney fresh off a Trump lawsuit settlement, media companies are bending under political and financial cudgels. As one lawyer put it: “Whenever the cudgel has been pretty significant, sooner or later the network caved.” Consider this the opening act of a much darker show.

Source: Wall Street Journal (gift article)

Editor: Let’s call this what it is—state-sanctioned censorship, dressed up as “business decisions.” Trump threatens, Carr nods, affiliates fold, and Disney rolls over. The message to every media company is clear: Toe the line or risk the hammer. The irony? Kimmel got yanked for mocking Trump’s goldfish grief. Turns out, the joke was closer to the truth than anyone at Disney dared admit.

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Trump’s FCC Enforcer Turns Kimmel Takedown into a Victory Lap

Brendan Carr isn’t just chairing the FCC—he’s auditioning as Trump’s media enforcer, and Jimmy Kimmel was his first scalp. The man Trump once called a “warrior for free speech” is now the face of a government campaign to muzzle critics under the guise of “public interest.”

Carr bragged on a right-wing podcast that Disney and ABC could “do this the hard way or the easy way” after Kimmel’s jabs at Trump and Republicans over Charlie Kirk’s killing. Within 48 hours, affiliates threatened to drop the show and ABC folded, yanking Kimmel off the air “indefinitely.” It doesn’t matter that pulling broadcast licenses is virtually unprecedented and almost certainly illegal—the threat worked.

This is Carr’s playbook now: use FCC power as a cudgel against media companies that don’t toe the Trump line. He’s targeted NPR, PBS, YouTube, and even corporate mergers tied to DEI programs, all while pushing Trump’s Project 2025 agenda. As one former FCC chair put it, Carr’s direct meddling in programming is “without precedent” and “not legal.”

What makes this rich is Carr’s past. In 2019, he railed against censorship, tweeting that the FCC “does not have a roving mandate to police speech.” In 2022, he called political satire “one of the oldest and most important forms of free speech.” Now he’s threatening networks for airing it. Flip-flopping doesn’t quite capture it—this is a 180 done at warp speed.

Carr himself admits this is just the beginning: “I don’t think this is the last shoe to drop,” he told Fox News.

Translation? Any host, network, or journalist who strays too far from the approved narrative should brace for the “easy way or the hard way” (that’s mob talk right there) treatment. Free press in America isn’t dying quietly—it’s being strangled in broad daylight.

Source: Washington Post (gift article)

Editor: Brendan Carr used to whine about government jawboning tech companies to silence conservatives. Now he’s jawboning entire networks into silencing anyone who makes Trump look bad. By the way, Trump doesn’t NEED anybody’s help to look bad; he does fine looking bad all on his own.

The hypocrisy isn’t even hidden—it’s weaponized. If irony were fatal, Carr would have keeled over somewhere between calling satire “sacred” and threatening to pull ABC’s (affiliate) licensing for airing it.

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Jon Stewart Turns The Daily Show into Trump State TV to Torch Kimmel Crackdown

Jon Stewart hijacked his own show to stage a 23-minute parody of what Trump’s dream media empire would look like—and it was terrifyingly on point.

In a surprise Thursday night appearance, Stewart transformed The Daily Show into a MAGA-branded propaganda machine, complete with gold flourishes and groveling monologues for “our great father.”

The bit was Stewart’s response to Disney yanking Jimmy Kimmel after FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened ABC’s licenses. Stewart mocked the move with an over-the-top impression of Trump’s fantasy state TV, telling the audience, “We have another fun, hilarious, administration-compliant show.” Every time the crowd laughed, Stewart shushed them: “You’re gonna blow this for us!”

Stewart praised Trump’s “legendary warmth and radiance” in England, even joking his charisma filled the air like “a pheromone-packed London fog.” He renamed countries to match Trump’s mangled pronunciations and roasted a reporter who dared question Trump’s commitment to free speech: “What outfit are you with, sir? The Antifa Herald Tribune?!”

When Trump dismissed Kimmel’s removal as “bad ratings” and “no talent,” Stewart fired back: “You may call it free speech in jolly old England, but in America, we have a little something called the First Amendment.” He reminded viewers of MAGA hypocrisy, rolling clips of right-wing figures laughing at the hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband.

Stewart closed the segment with biting sarcasm: “Some naysayers may argue this administration’s speech concerns are merely a smokescreen… Not me, though. I think it’s great.” Then his co-hosts chanted a terrified “pro-free speech” pledge before breaking into a parody hymn to Trump: “We don’t even notice your cankles or your bruises… You have a massive penis, much bigger than normal.”

Source: The Daily Beast

Editor: Stewart just painted a picture of Trump’s America that was equal parts comedy and horror movie—and it landed because it wasn’t that far off. The FCC silences a critic, the networks cave, and the comedians become the last line of defense. If this feels like satire bleeding into reality, that’s the point—and that’s what should scare the hell out of us.

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David Letterman Blasts Kimmel Suspension: “We All See Where This Is Going”

David Letterman tore into Disney and the FCC, warning that Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension marks the slide into state-managed media.

Speaking at The Atlantic Festival, the late-night legend compared today’s censorship pressures to his own decades of mocking presidents—without once being threatened by government regulators.

Letterman reminded the audience that he’d taken jabs at Carter, Reagan, Clinton, both Bushes, and Obama. “Not once were we squeezed by anyone from any governmental agency, let alone the dreaded FCC,” he said. “The institution of the president of the United States ought to be bigger than a guy doing a talk show.” His words landed just one day after Disney and ABC pulled Kimmel’s show under pressure from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.

Carr had threatened ABC affiliates with the “easy way or the hard way” over Kimmel’s commentary on the Charlie Kirk shooting, language Letterman mocked as sounding like “Mafia talk.” Sinclair and Nexstar quickly dropped Kimmel, forcing Disney to suspend him indefinitely. Letterman deadpanned: “Who is hiring these goons? Mario Puzo?”

Kimmel, for his part, texted Letterman that he was “sitting up in bed, taking nourishment. He’s going to be fine.” But the bigger concern looms over the comedy world, as Trump openly cheered Kimmel’s suspension on Truth Social and called for NBC to boot Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. Letterman also suggested Stephen Colbert’s looming cancellation wasn’t just financial—it reeked of politics.

The 78-year-old host didn’t sugarcoat his view: “This is misery. In a dictatorship, sooner or later, everyone is going to be touched.” Letterman, who once gave Trump endless airtime as a guest on Late Night, now sees him as a direct threat to free speech—and to the late-night comedy tradition he helped build.

Source: The Atlantic

Editor: Letterman’s not just reminiscing—he’s sounding the alarm. If late-night comedians are being muzzled by FCC threats and corporate cowardice, imagine how smaller voices will fare. When you have to ask whether your punchline needs federal approval, the joke’s already on all of us.

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Trump’s New Playbook: Tax Cops, Criminal Probes, and a Chilling Effect on Speech

Trump is gearing up to sic tax auditors and prosecutors on left-leaning groups while his FCC hammer pressures networks into silence.

The campaign moved from theory to practice this week: ABC benched Jimmy Kimmel after FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened broadcast licenses, and Trump mused about yanking licenses from outlets “against” him. That’s not media criticism—it’s leverage.

Semafor reports the White House now wants tax and criminal investigations of groups it blames for “political violence,” expanding the speech fight beyond TV into civil society. When the state picks its enemies and then picks its charges, that’s not law and order—that’s message control.

Even some on the right are warning about blowback. As The Free Press put it: “For the MAGA crowd who might like what they’re seeing… Remember that Democrats will wield this power again. And when they do, they will play by the new rules” set by Trump. That’s the definition of a precedent—once created, everyone uses it.

Bottom line: this isn’t about one late-night monologue. It’s about normalizing state power as a partisan weapon—tax audits here, criminal probes there, license threats on tap—until the public forgets the First Amendment isn’t supposed to be optional.

Source: Semafor

Editor: Let’s not kid ourselves—this is a loyalty test wrapped in “law and order.” If your jokes and your politics flatter the king, you’re safe. If not, prepare for a visit from the accountants and the censors. Weaponized bureaucracy isn’t governance; it’s punishment dressed in paperwork.

Funny how “free speech” dies—first the punchlines get audited, then the critics get indicted, and somehow the truth ends up behind a paywall and an NDA.

Please read this today. It’s important.