I write southern historical fiction, local history, and I've written a devotional book. The two novels I'm writing are set in Virginia and the Carolinas in the 1760s. My weekly blog started out to follow my journey as a writer and a reader, but in 2025 it has been greatly expanded to include current events and politics in the United States as I see our democracy under attack from within. The political science major in me cannot sit idly by and remain silent.
Yesterday, on the 238th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution, Brandon Carr, the Chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) went on a podcast and showed his true MAGA colors. He did Trump’s bidding. Using the language of a mob boss, he threatened ABC if the network did not fire late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.
Meme created by Janet Morrison
Trump once again publicly announced his disdain for the ABC network before he left from Great Britain on Tuesday.
Instead of finally showing a backbone and not caving in to pressure from the Trump Regime, ABC kowtowed to Donald Trump and his minions once again. Trump’s minion du jour yesterday was Brandon Carr.
These people have no shame. Carr was wearing a U.S. Flag on his lapel as he did Trump’s work on that podcast. I’m surprised he wasn’t wearing a big cross necklace like so many of Trump’s people do as they spout hate.
Once you give in to a bully, that bully owns you. Most people learn that on the playground when they’re five years old. The executives of the large corporations, universities, museums, law firms, etc. in the United States did not learn that lesson as children or young adults. They are learning it in 2025, and it is a hideous thing to watch because it means the destruction of the Constitution of the United States.
Yesterday, on the 238th anniversary of the September 17, 1787, signing of the Constitution of the United States of America, the United States reverted to our colonial rule under King George when criticizing the king was against the law.
Here we are. Half the voters voted for this last November. When you vote for a person who has no understanding of right and wrong, no understanding of the Constitution of the United States, and only understands the power of money, this is what you get.
Half of you voted for it and the rest of us are getting slammed with it. Speaking to those of you who are happy about government censorship of free expression, I feel sorry for you because you have no appreciation for the incredible freedoms and opportunities you were handed at birth just by being born in the United States.
When a wannabe dictator tells you he is “going to be a dictator on Day One,” you should believe him.
In the coming days, we will either see Republicans in Congress grow a backbone and speak up for free speech and reel in the FCC, or we will see them continue to be complicit in the dismantling of the Bill of Rights.
Since the official responses from the White House and Trump and his family have been to celebrate, I am not hopeful. There is an old saying in America: “Monkey see, monkey do.”
I’ll keep sounding the alarm as long as I’m allowed to. This is not the country I knew from 1953 through 2024.
In the old days, if a king didn’t like the court jester’s jokes, he could have him executed. In some countries, that might still be the case.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
But in America, we have First Amendment rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution… or so we thought until last Thursday.
That was when CBS announced the May 2026 end of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Colbert will not be replaced. The show will cease to exist.
CBS says it was purely a financial decision, but it seemed more than coincidental for it to happen to a show whose host keeps us laughing five nights-a-week as he masterfully puts a humorous spin on that day’s latest pronouncements and blunders made by Donald Trump.
There is nothing coincidental about it, and we all know it – no matter how many of Trump’s minions get on TV and try to convince us that it was.
Here’s the background, as reported by The Washington Post on July 18:
“On July 1, the announcement came that the network’s parent company, Paramount Global — which needs Donald Trump’s administration to approve the pending sale of the company to Skydance Media — was settling (rather than fighting) the president’s lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview of then-candidate Kamala Harris. They will be paying the president $16 million. Before the settlement, CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon and “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens both left (or were made to) after registering their disapproval. Those who remain are clearly shaken. “Can you hold power to account after paying it millions?” John Dickerson, the anchor for “CBS Evening News,” said while reporting on the deal the day the settlement was announced. “Can an audience trust you when it thinks you’ve traded away that trust?”
Photo by DESIGNECOLOGIST on Unsplash
Trump’s cult members go on CNN and try to convince us that Stephen Colbert “isn’t even funny.” The Republicans have lost any sense of humor they ever had. Colbert is hilarious, and he’s been known to poke fun at politicians of all stripes.
Stephen Colbert, from everything I’ve heard, read, and seen is a descent guy. He does not hide his Roman Catholic faith, nor does he use it to shame or beat someone over the head with it. It is just part of his being and he is not ashamed to mention it on occasion when doing so seems appropriate.
He is never mean-spirited in his jokes. He is a consummate professional who goes out in front of a live audience five nights-a-week to offer them a release from the stresses of every day life.
Mr. Colbert’s father and two of his brothers died in a plane crash in 1974 when Colbert was just 10 years old, so he knows loss and grief on a very personal level. It gives him a heartfelt empathy for others. He demonstrates that empathy by sometimes including in the show ways to encourage others to show their empathy and open their wallets to help people in times of a natural disaster.
If you don’t like Stephen Colbert’s jokes, you don’t have to watch his show. As we used to say, “It’s a free country.”
Trump’s track record on humor
Trump proved on live TV in 2016 that he cannot take a joke. When then U.S. President Barack Obama made a light-hearted joke about Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner, Trump never cracked a smile. If Trump had had even a tiny understanding of the White House Correspondents Dinner, he would have known that (1) it was a huge fundraiser for journalism and related internships and (2) it was an annual dinner dominated by good-hearted political jokes.
There was nothing mean-spirited by Obama’s remarks. He mainly poked fun at himself. That’s what people who have good mental health do. But Trump took it as a serious affront, and he will go to his grave still angry about Obana’s words.
U.S. President Barack Obama. Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash
A transcript of President Obama’s remarks, along with parenthetical inclusions of when the audience laughed) can be found at https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/05/01/remarks-president-white-house-correspondents-dinner. The live television broadcast of the Obama’s remarks that night can also we found on YouTube. You can judge for yourself if President Obama’s remarks were mean-spirited. Here is the joke read by President Obama that made Trump so angry:
“Sitting at the same table, I see Mike Bloomberg. (Applause.) Mike, a combative, controversial New York billionaire is leading the GOP primary and it is not you. (Laughter.) That has to sting a little bit. (Laughter.) Although it’s not an entirely fair comparison between you and the Donald. After all, Mike was a big-city mayor. He knows policy in depth. And he’s actually worth the amount of money that he says he is. (Laughter and applause.)”
Trump sat stone-faced while the audience laughed at the joke. Trump couldn’t find the humor in it, I guess because he knew it was true.
Political humor is as old as mankind. It is unbelievable that someone as old as Donald Trump would not have known that. He clearly didn’t know it in 2016, and he hasn’t learned it yet in 2025.
Back to CBS and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” … Trump went on social media within hours of Thursday’s announcement by CBS. He berated Stephen Colbert and belittled his comedic talents. He celebrated Colbert’s “firing,” and announced that Jimmy Kimmel of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on ABC will be next.
The bigger picture
This is much bigger than the cancellation of a television show. This is much bigger than the attempt to silence one comedian.
This, my friends, is an attack on our First Amendment right to free speech.
Photo by Brian Wangenheim on Unsplash
It puts that ounce of fear in every decision a commercial television network makes, so they will constantly second guess themselves. It makes television producers think twice before they have a certain guest on a show.
It puts that little bit of intimidation in the mind of a comedian who has built a 40-year career poking fun at every United States President because that’s what we do in America. We make fun of our elected leaders.
One-by-one, Trump plans to rid television in America of comedians who dare to make jokes about him. He as much as said so on his social media platform.
It has come to that.
Here in the United States, we now have a President who thinks he has the authority to run roughshod over anyone and everyone.
He even attacked his own supporters last week when some of them dared to ask for the release of the Epstein files. He immediately called them “stupid.” These are the people who have voted for him three times and would happily vote for him again, but he has turned on them and called them names.
You cross Donald Trump, and you pay the price.
He believes he has the right to dictate every facet of our lives – the polluted air we breathe, the medical care we get or don’t get, and now – the television shows we can’t watch.
He has defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting because it received federal funds. Now, he has strong-armed CBS into ending a late-night talk show that has been on the air for decades because the host tells political jokes. CBS claims the decision was strictly financial, but we all know the real reason.
On Monday night, Colbert made a joke about CBS paying Donald Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit. Three days later, Colbert’s show gets cancelled. You do the math.
Shame on Trump, but the lion’s share of the shame sits on the shoulders of CBS. First, you let him bully you about “60 Minutes” and now you’ve let him dictate your late-night programming.
Where do you think this will end, CBS? You have given in to a bully!
It is sad when an adult not only cannot laugh at himself but only finds humor in the suffering or misfortune of others. It is tragic when that adult is President of the United States.
Many days, 11:30-11:40 p.m. is the only time during the entire day that I find something to laugh about. I might not know or have an interest in his celebrity guests, but I’m tuning in for the show’s opening monologue.
I will continue to watch “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” every weekday night until May 2026. I’m not sure how I will cope with the Trump regime after that.
Until my next blog post
Keep laughing at politicians.
Keep reading whatever you want to read.
Keep watching whatever you want to watch on TV.
The day may come when you cannot do those things, so don’t take them for granted.
Remember the people of Ukraine. They were living their lives in a democracy one day and the next day Russia started dropping bombs on them.
Remember the people of western North Carolina where people are still recovering from a hurricane and massive flooding that hit ten months ago this week.
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