Democracy falling: CBS News subverted and radicalized

Among other major pro-democracy institutions and norms, MAGA's slow coup continues to focus on subverting and radicalizing the MSM. This time CBS has caved in to whatever secret threats Trump and MAGA elites have made. We can no longer count on most of the MSM to seriously oppose the fall of American democracy and rule of law to MAGA's kleptocratic dictatorship and rule of corrupt thugs. 

Various sources are reporting that CBS has or will appoint Bari Weiss’s as editor-in-chief of news. This MAGA-inspired move comes after Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of her online outlet, The Free Press, which MBFC rates as a medium credibility source. Weiss is a self-described Zionist zealot. She distorts reporting about the Israel-Gaza war by downplaying the deaths and suffering. Going forward, one can reasonably expect that most CBS reporting about both Israel and MAGA-related news will be propagandized to some non-trivial extent. The bad news will probably whitewashed into something other than what it actually is. 

CBS employees describe the newsroom atmosphere as “depressing”, “doomsday”, and “literally freaking out” at the prospect of an anti-woke, mendacious pro-Israel zealot-demagogue controlling what used to be one of America’s most respected broadcast news sources. CBS has fallen to MAGA.

For context, Jewish[1] billionaire David Ellison (worth tens of billions by future inheritance of the Oracle fortune), pushed for the takeover by the small Skydance with the much larger Paramount Global. Ellison promised to impose MAGA censorship on CBS reporting to get FCC approval of the merger. For the Skydance merger, where the small, Skydance took control of Paramount Global, Ellison promised political concessions to MAGA to get FCC merger approval. 

The merger deal included a $16 million legal settlement to Trump and various programming commitments, i.e., censorship of the news. Ellison orchestrated Skydance's acquisition of the entire Paramount Global corporation for $8.4 billion in 2025. He didn't merge CBS with Paramount, but he bought the company that already owned both. Ellison's concessions to MAGA to secure FCC approval included eliminating DEI. Ellison hired Weiss by buying The Free Press to do MAGA's censoring and whitewashing.

The moral rot in this corrupt MAGA deal is aggressive and deeply hostile to democracy and truth inconvenient to pro-Israel MAGA elites.

Q: In addition to the CBS deal being deeply hostile to truth inconvenient to pro-Israel MAGA elites, might the deal also be deeply hostile to truth inconvenient to MAGA and Trump, e.g., in view of the MAGA news censor (the "ombudsman") imposed on CBS news reporting by MAGA (the MAGA-controlled FCC) and accepted by Ellison? 

Footnote:

1. No, calling Ellison "Jewish" in this matter is not Anti-Semitism or bigotry. Those would be cheap shot lies. Ellison's religion is absolutely, positively central to properly understanding what is going on with (1) CBS and US-Israel relations and policy, and (2) the acquisition by Skydance of the demagogic The Free Press. Ellison is known to be the largest private funder of the Israeli Defense Forces and a personal friend of Netanyahu. Ellison's acquisition specifically targeted Weiss, a self-described "Zionist fanatic". Ellison did not pick a Christian nationalist fanatic. He picked a Zionist fanatic.

The Free Press, Weiss' media outlet, has systematically spread misinformation about Gaza casualties and Israeli actions. The Free Press's entire editorial approach centers on defending Israeli actions. The appointment is very likely intended to suppress pro-Palestinian coverage and promote Israeli propaganda by CBS. A bigoted demagogue is what is going to be calling the shots at CBS News from now on. 

Bari Weiss, Zionist fanatic

Documenting the fall: Google protects Trump; Trump threatens US citizens; MAGA lies about the shutdown

We're in the final end game now. Too much power and wealth has been taken from our democracy and pro-democracy institutions to stop the fall of our democracy. All I can do is keep bugging people with some influence, continue analysis and commentary, and document either the fall or an unexpected recovery from MAGAs' ongoing slow coup. It looks like the last major line of defense will be the 2026 mid-term elections. The Dems regaining cohesion and public support before then still looks unlikely, but that's a wild card. It's still too early to tell what the Dems might be able to manage to do.

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The Daily Beast reports that Google is protecting Trump by blocking AI-generated search summaries about President Trump's cognitive health while providing similar summaries for questions about Joe Biden. When users search "does Trump show signs of dementia" or similar queries about Alzheimer's, Google displays standard web results without its AI Overview feature, showing the message "An AI Overview is not available for this search". 

Trump has repeatedly threatened to prosecute Google for alleged search bias, calling it "ILLEGAL ACTIVITY" and promising to "request their prosecution, at the maximum levels". He has accused Google of operating an "illegal system" that shows only negative stories about him while promoting positive coverage of opponents.

Google says it's because of something technical. Common sense says its because Google is afraid of pissing Trump off. This is another example of businesses capitulating to threats by Trump and MAGA. Another potential source of substantial pro-democracy influence is gone. We'll maybe get some feeble fig leaves and hang-wringing, but that's about all we can expect from Google from here on out.

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TNR reports that Trump has dropped all pretense at governing democratically or fairly. He now openly threatens to withhold federal funding from states and voting districts that voted for congressional Democrats. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about Trump’s promise to work with Office of Management and Budget Director and key Project 2025 author, Russ Vought to ax so-called “Democrat Agencies” in the government. “Is that real?” a Fox News host asked Leavitt. “Or is that a negotiating tactic?” Leavitt responded “Oh it’s very real. And the Democrats should know that they put the White House and the president in this position. And if they don’t want further harm on their constituents back home, then they need to reopen the government. It’s very simple: Pass the clean continuing resolution, and all of this goes away.”

Notice the direct threat to constituents back home. That threat to average Americans cannot be spun into anything benign. He has frozen $18 billion in infrastructure projects in New Jersey and New York, and he plans to cut $8 billion in energy funding from 16 blue states. Trump is completely serious about his extortion and harm threats. 

Of course, when Leavitt says all of this will go away, she is lying. Trump and MAGA are  hell-bent on finishing off the last vestiges of opposition. It does not matter if the government is shut down or not. It also does not matter if congressional Democrats cave in to Trump/MAGA extortion threats. Trump's raging hate and vengeance know no bounds. The USSC has immunized Trump for crimes and he protects his thugs with pardons. There is nothing left to stop Trump or MAGA elites. 

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The main MAGA talking point to shift blame to the Dems for the shutdown is that the Dems are demanding to provide Obamacare benefits to illegal immigrants. Under current law, it is usually illegal for illegal immigrants to get Obamacare benefits. Politifact says the MAGA claim is false. 

Most of MAGA's lies are shameless. They are usually easily fact checked and proven false. But that does not faze MAGA elites or most of the R&F (rank and file), including ones who just happen to become aware of a lie. They rationalize it away. However, most of them do not become aware of the lies. They just don't listen to information sources that tell truth that is inconvenient for Trump or MAGA.

The ignorance and false beliefs of most of Trump's and MAGA's R&F support is another major threat to what's left of our democracy and rule of law. Unless most the R&F wakes up and rejects their leaders before the 2026 elections, we're probably hosed. Their support is necessary for MAGA's slow coup to succeed.

Blame for the shutdown: Where responsibility really lies

MAGA lies and the Hatch Act 

MAGA demagoguery is in full-blown liar and slander mode about who is responsible for the government shutdown. As expected, MAGA demagoguery tells us it is 100% the Democrats fault. From what I can tell, the MAGA demagogues ' accusations and slanders are being done illegally. It looks to me like Trump's and MAGA's messaging clearly violates the Hatch Act. 

The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity while on duty, in federal facilities, or using government resources. The law defines "political activity" as any activity directed toward the success or failure of a political party, candidate for partisan political office, or partisan political group. The Act's purposes are to ensure federal programs are administered nonpartisanly, protect employees from political coercion, and ensure merit-based advancement. Given that it is inconvenient, Trump has recently moved to gut enforcement of the law.

Meh, what difference does it make that Trump and MAGA elites break laws any more? For them and their supporters, the rule of law is crap now. A MAGA USSC protects them. Especially for Trump it's all OK because the unitary executive (dictator) did it and because the USSC made him immune from criminal prosecution for his crimes.

The blame game:  The rule of law aside, the NYT reports (not paywalled) that some federal agencies are using their official websites and social media for political attacks after the government shutdown. That's the Hatch Act violation. MAGA federal agencies officially lie when say that Democrats were to blame for the shutdown. That puts legal nonpartisan government bureaucracy into an illegal fight.

Staying disciplined with MAGA talking points as MAGA elites usually do, major federal agencies, including Treasury, Health, State and Agriculture, placed illegal banner messages on their websites and on social media accounts claiming the shutdown was caused by Democrats or the “radical left”. Trump thugs ordered employees at the Labor Department to include a MAGA message in their out-of-office email replies that blames Democratic senators for the shutdown. 

Most employees at the Small Business Administration were working during the shutdown, but some of the ~25% who were furloughed had this out-of-office email response: “I am out of office for the foreseeable future because Senate Democrats voted to block a clean federal funding bill (H.R. 5371), leading to a government shutdown that is preventing the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) from serving America’s 36 million small businesses”.

MAGA's partisan lies are aggressive and intrusive. They extend to internal communications. For example, the Department of Education automatically often changed employees' out-of-office email messages to blame "Democrat Senators" for blocking funding legislation. Employees were often unaware of the change. Some employees who changed the lie back to nonpartisan language found them changed back. That is aggressive authoritarian MAGA demagoguery.

We can expect that there will be no significant repercussions for any of the people involved this illegal, misanthropic MAGA sleaze & slander operation.

Analyzing who is mostly responsible for this shutdown

From an evidence, reason and morality point of view, there are multiple reasons to argue and rationally believe that Trump and MAGA elites are at least ~90% responsible for the shutdown.

1. First, MAGA controls congress, the White House and the USSC. That means the GOP has primary responsibility for governing in what MAGA claims to be defending, namely democracy, the rule of law ad civil liberties. MAGA messaging and rank and file voter belief are overwhelmingly pro-democracy, pro-rule of law and pro-civil liberties. A democracy requires reasonable compromise. By refusing to compromise with what Democrats want, primarily protection for Obamacare, MAGA politicians have refused to compromise. Refusal to reasonably compromise is the hallmark of authoritarianism, in this case a Trump dictatorship hiding behind the cynical euphemism the USSC calls the "unitary executive".

2. Second, the rise of Trump and MAGA to power relied heavily on demagoguery in the form of constant, blatant divisive lies, slanders, unwarranted, irrational emotional manipulation,** and knowingly flawed, often crackpot, reasoning. Deceived people who mistakenly put bad people in power do not absolve the bad people in power from moral responsibility to act in the deceived people's best interests. Morality dictates that nearly all of the responsibility lies with those in power.

** For example, unwarranted, unjustified fear and anger mongering, and fomenting of unwarranted, unjustified bigotry, distrust, hate, and false beliefs that MAGA lies are truths.  

3. For most Americans who are actually aware of what is really happening, majority public opinion generally opposes most of what MAGA is doing, i.e., breaking laws, being corrupt, lying all of the time, slandering (calling the Dems tyrants, radicals, socialists, etc.), taking civil liberties away (abortion, voting rights), spewing crackpot conspiracy theories, etc. For nearly all people who believe the MAGA narratives, little to none of that is true in their minds. But they are conned, deceived and not aware of what is really happening. [1]

It is arguably rational, far and balanced to base opinions in a democracy on facts, truths and sound reasoning, while downplaying the opinions of people who are deceived, lying or generally acting in bad faith. In an authoritarian state such as a dictatorship, facts, truths and sound reasoning are mostly irrelevant. The leader(s) does whatever circumstances and their power allows them to get away with. But America isn't yet an authoritarian state. Despite their authoritarianism and corruption, Trump and MAGA still have a profound moral duty to behave like they are in a democracy. Continuing to act otherwise can be seen as treasonous betrayal. That line of reasoning puts blame on Trump and MAGA elites.

Source

An awful lot of people are unsure

Unsure mostly means uninformed

Footnote:

1. It is very important to understand the relevance, power and moral relevance of deceived minds in a democracy. When the authoritarian agenda of Trump, MAGA elites are presented honestly and transparently to Americans, including the goals in Project 2025, they overwhelmingly reject it. Hence the absolute necessity of demagoguery, deceit, lies, slanders and all the rest of MAGA's morally rotted but highly sophisticated and disciplined messaging. MAGA messaging is deep moral rot, but it is highly effective rot.

And MAGA's moral rot messaging is knowing and intentional. Before the 2024 elections Trump actively distanced himself from Project 2025 despite its development by over 140 former Trump administration officials. His assertions that he knows nothing about Project 2025 is strategic denial, not ignorance.

MAGA's road to a unitary executive: Hypocrisy hiding dictatorship

The USSC and MAGA legal experts have adopted the concept of a unitary executive (UE). Constitutional power for the UE comes from a single sentence in the constitution called the vesting clause: The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States. Republican USSC judges and MAGA dogma, e.g., Project 2025, take that to mean there is no limit on the power a president has over the executive branch.

MAGA's staggering but deadly hypocrisy about the US Constitution is pretty simple. when interpreting the constitution, MAGA legal dogma very broadly interprets language that gives the president and the USSC power, but it very narrowly interprets language that gives power to the people or congress. 

Slate and others report that in an unsigned, two-sentence USSC shadow docket decision in Department of State v. AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, our Republican MAGA court transferred vast power from congress to our MAGA president. In essence, Trump now has line-item veto power over congressional spending laws via pocket recission.** This decision guts congress' core power. In its only two sentences, the USSC said (1) the plaintiffs probably lacked standing to bring the lawsuit in the 1st place, and (2) "the asserted harms to the Executive's conduct of foreign affairs appear to outweigh the potential harm faced by respondents".

** MAGA's pocket recission in three steps: (1) Trump withhold funds congress mandated, (2) within 45 days before fiscal year end he submits a rescission request to Congress, (3) congress lets the spending expire because, in its usual incompetence or active acquiescence to Trump, it fails or refuses to reject Trump's recission by the deadline, which was Sept. 30.

It is now up to congressional Republicans to go to court and get this USSC decision overturned, which they may or may not choose to do, assuming they even can. Congress may not have either the power or the political courage to go to federal courts to get this reversed.** They probably won't do that because it would make Trump angry and vengeful. Almost all experts see what Trump has done here as illegal. However, since the USSC quietly sanctioned the illegality by shadow docket, the final outcome is unclear. This is very likely a delay tactic to push a final court decision until after the 2026 mid-term elections. 

** To get its power back, congress has to prove that Trump's recission "completely nullified" its vote to pass the law. Trump only whacked a part of the law, not all of it. Therefore, congress just might be SOL on keeping it own core spending power intact. Trump has vast veto power, but not quite absolute. All he has to do is keep some aspects of a law intact so the USSC can allow Trump to have line-item veto power, while hiding behind an argument of incomplete nullification. This is a brilliant, subtle MAGA legal strategy to establish an American dictatorship with Trump as dictator/kleptocrat-in-chief. 

Regardless of how this ultimately plays out, the main point is clear: The USSC, MAGA elites and Trump are all fully behind the idea of giving unfettered UE power to Trump. That makes him a de facto dictator-kleptocrat and the USSC and MAGA elites dictator-kleptocrat supporters.

Note: There are more legal subtleties in this awful story, but that would make this post more complicated and probably TL/DR. But, for the wonks who want to wade through more or all the Qs&As with Pxy this post is based on 👍, here's a link to most of the whole fascinating, terrifying shebang (and this for my SOL comment above). For verbatim fact and nuance checking, I had Pxy comment on most of what I wrote. What I write here is accurate and not vast hyperbole, manipulation or lies.

Qs: Is this post TL/DR and/or TC/DR? Is this not as important as this post says it is?

TC = too complicated because the legal stuff is too complicated or otherwise