Jimmy Kimmel

Karen Levine Egee

What ICE is doing to immigrants, what RFK Jr. is doing to our health (especially our most vulnerable), what Kash Patel is doing to our justice system, all of these — and more — are causing unprecedented harm to Americans and to our nation’s democracy.

And now Jimmy Kimmel getting indefinitely suspended, with Disney/ABC caving so quickly to government pressure, is a new kind of gut punch and wake-up call, making it clear how very far along we are into authoritarianism. For an excellent explainer of just what happened and where the law stands on this, see the Reuters article linked here.

It is now clear we are at risk of losing free speech and honest, unbiased media. So many news shows, especially MSNBC, and newspapers speak the truth about Trump and his “administration” and help us know and understand what is going on. Without unbiased, uncensored media, we are in deep trouble. This is so clearly un-American, unlike what is supposed to happen in a democracy, unlike anything we have known. We are not on the way. We have arrived.

Marc Elias writes this on Bluesky:

“To say that the media is bending a knee falsely assumes there are still hardened bones and a joint in place in their operations. Their mission now is to report the news fearfully and to seek Trump’s favor.” Read more here.

Now is a good time to read and support independent media, including the many experts, writers, reporters, lawyers, and others writing on Substack (e.g., Heather Cox Richardson Robert Reich, Robert Hubble, Joyce Vance ), podcasts (e.g., Crooked Media), and other social media.

As if we needed a call to action.

At a recent public event in Gorham that Rachel (founder of Activate Maine) and I attended, Ezra Levin, co-founder (along with his wife Leah Greenberg) of Indivisible — a national progressive movement and organization — spoke out about the importance of activating as many of our fellow citizens as possible for when the time comes, likely the next election, when we’ll need to stand up as one voice and resist. Firmly.

The time is coming.

So let’s remember, we’re all in this together.