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FREE SPEECH IS NOT FREE ANALYSIS

When Trump's FCC chairman stated to ABC “we can do this the easy way or the hard way” in response to the President's tirade against late night showman Jimmy Kimmel's criticism of presidential actions, any high schooler reading the First Amendment would know that threat of censorship is a gross violation of the Constitution. But apparently highly paid media executives, high ranking government officials, the US. Attorney General and the president do not. Trump was emboldened because he “got” Stephen Colbert fired (though the show is still on the air) after threatening to veto a CBS merger. Even Republican Senator Ted Cruz unsettled by the FCC action. “If the government gets in the business of saying, 'We don't like what you, the media, have said; we're going to ban you from the airwaves if you don't say what we like,' that will end up bad for conservatives.” Yes, revenge now is the main discourse in American politics with lawfare as the weapon of choice.

The delusional president believes he is immune from ANYTHING he does as president, but the Supreme Court only said immunity applies to official presidential acts. However, a president who swears an oath to uphold the laws and Constitution, withholds Congressional appropriations, fires federal union workers, arrests US citizens without probable cause because they look like immigrants, and allegedly grifting foreign governments can be removed from office and prosecuted because violating presidential oath is not an "official" action. It is an illegal one.

But it does not matter since everyone is afraid of him. It is baffling why people, including Republicans, are more afraid of a LAME DUCK president than their own shadows. He continues to fire people who will not do exactly what he says to do, even if they are outside of his executive office. He continues to publicly berate, indict and muck up the courts in a crusade against his “enemies.” But Trump is just a blow-hard schoolyard bully. When someone, like large law firms who had their security clearances revoked sued him and won, Trump backs down. When he says he will have a peace deal because he is the greatest diplomat ever, Putin hands him his lunch after a summit that concluded with no ceasefire, no peace proposals and Russia increasing its attacks in Ukraine. Trump demanded a Nobel Peace Prize for that one.

The next and maybe last stand against Trump's lawfare is his ridiculous $15 billion lawsuit against the New York Times claiming the newspaper and its reporters interfered in the 2024 election. The complaint nominally lists claims about Trump, made during the 2024 campaign in Times articles and the book Lucky Loser, that have caused him “reputational and economic harm.” For example, that he inherited and squandered his father's fortune, and that he only rehabilitated his image as a successful businessman by hosting the reality show The Apprentice. The complaint does not actually state specific defamatory allegations or facts in the Times reporting on him. It is just a social media tirade dressed up as complaint. The Times reacted stating that the complaint has no merit and it is an attempt to stifle the First Amendment reporting on news. Experts believe Trump cannot win on the merits because he could never prove actual malice, in the legal sense. And on the election interference claims, there is no damage because he won the election! But Trump made similar rants against CBS and ABC to extract $31 million in settlements . . . not for any actual merit in his claims but business reasons blocking corporate mergers and acquisition approvals. One legal expert called those settlements effectively bribes to get government action from Trump.

But government actions to stifle free speech is not new. Reason Magazine reported that senior officials in the Biden administration, including some White House officials, “conducted repeated and sustained outreach” and “pressed” Google and YouTube parent-company Alphabet “regarding certain user-generated content related to the COVID-19 pandemic that did not violate (Alphabet's) policies,” the company revealed to Congress. While Alphabet continued to develop and enforce its policies independently, Biden Administration officials continued to press (Alphabet) to remove nonviolative user-generated content, an Alphabet attorney in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan. Administration officials including Biden attempted to create a political atmosphere that sought to influence the actions of private tech platforms regarding their moderation of information.

In 1962 Ayn Rand wrote: Censorship, in its old-fashioned meaning, is a government edict that forbids the discussion of some specific subjects or ideas - - such, for instance, as sex, religion or criticism of government officials - - an edict enforced by the government's scrutiny of all forms of communication prior to their public release. But for stifling the freedom of men's minds the modern method is much more potent; it rests on the power of nonobjective law; it neither forbids nor permits anything; it never defines or specifies; it merely delivers men's lives, fortunes, careers, ambitions into the arbitrary power of a bureaucrat who can reward or punish at whim. It spares the bureaucrat the troublesome necessity of committing himself to rigid rules- - and it places upon the victims the burden of discovering how to please him, with a fluid unknowable as their only guide.

Why is free speech important? It is the cornerstone of American ideals. Once it is lost, all of your liberties and freedoms are doomed to be lost, too. When a government official, bureaucrat or public employee is doing something wrong, unethical or illegal, they need to be called out on it and face the consequences of their actions. The press and the public are the counterbalance to public corruption. If the press and the public is silenced (by force, intimidation to arrest), public corruption will run rampant and citizens will turn into political slaughterhouse fodder. Many critics, comedians and editorial cartoonists are daily commenting on the grifter culture that has seized the federal government, the horror of armed federal agents sweeping people off the streets because of the way they look, and the lack of accountability by public institutions to enforce individual rights. The United States is rapidly turning into a Banana Republic run by warring gangs.

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FAKE RULES WITHERING WIDE WEB

The news continue to pile up on how bad the internet has become in recent years.

More than 51 percent of social media posts and comments are generated by bots. There are more fake profiles and accounts that are being used to replace human interaction, human social relationships and old romance scams with AI chat sirens.

More than 24 percent of all Internet traffic is generated by pirate web sites streaming TV, movies and sports programs. The cord cutters have realized that instead of one cable bill one family now needs six or seven streaming accounts costing more money than ever.

Music streaming platforms are being overrun by AI generated music and fake bands.

More people are relying on ChatGPT to write scientific and legal articles despite the clear conclusion that the program cannot comprehend scientific or legal principles and analysis. Psychologists are appalled that people are being offered mental health AI therapists, despite missing the legality and medical training to do so. Science journalists found the program was even bad at summarizing existing articles.

The research centers for health care are now conspiracy theory nut houses under RFK Jr. Junk science now takes the place of actual research on vaccines, autism and food ingredients.

The core problem has been that people believe opinion is more valuable than facts or truth, especially when it comes to their own opinions. Targeted advertising has beget targeting news and content into social media feeds. People do not want to self-face check what is presented to them; their filter is only whether it aligns to their viewpoints.

In one respect, The Algorithm is the new God in relation to the world wide web. An unknown entity controls everyone's daily lives in the background, feeding links, information, content and products in such a way as to influence, control and manipulate human behavior. Each of us is just a drop in the ocean, being carried along by curated info feeds until one floats ashore to a fixed point in reality.

Once people began accepting whatever they came across was “good” then there was no evaluation as to whether it is right or wrong. It is because it is; a technology zombie incarnation. This causes the web of information not to be the greatest knowledge base every created but to socially condition the dumbing down of humanity under the guise of ease of utility.

Google has been the greatest beneficiary of the open web. It created and dominated web search to capture traffic, advertising, SEO money and the reputation of being trustworthy. But with AI search, many people are starting to realize the errors more so than in traditional links. An expert in a field google searches a question, the first thing on the screen is the AI content that is objectively wrong, what are the non-experts relying upon for answers? If you use the AI wrong answer in real life and get called out on it, what happens next? Do you get fired from your job? Do you get unsettled when searching the web? Do you begin to distrust computer output? Do you get lost because you do not know how to do it yourself?

In its anti-trust litigation, Google has maintained that the web is “thriving,” AI is not tanking traffic, and its search engine is sending people to a wider variety of websites than ever. But in a court filing in September, 2025, Google admitted that “the open web is already in rapid decline,” as spotted earlier by Jason Kint and reported on by Search Engine Roundtable. Google submitted the filing ahead of another trial that will determine how it will address its monopoly in the advertising technology business. The US Department of Justice recommends that Google break up its advertising business, but the company argues in the filing that this is not ideal because it would “only accelerate” the decline of the open web, “harming publishers who currently rely on open-web display advertising revenue.” The statement sharply contrasts Google's recent narrative about the health of search on the web. Google has a clear incentive to make itself appear weaker or less monopolistic in the courtroom, but its admission reflects a reality many publishers are going through. Several digital publishers and independent website owners have reported experiencing a decline in traffic following changes to Google Search's algorithm and the rise of AI chatbots.

WE are entering the Machine Age. Machines are about to do all the thinking, scheduling, buying, selling and communicating for most (lazy) people. Despite its legal issues, AI continues to steamroll through society and culture because there are billions in dollars in venture capital driving everyone to adopt it or “be left behind” (which they said during the dot com bubble before it burst.) Firms tied to AI are making a fortune in “AI sales” or more likely skyrocketing stock prices. The Machine Age is built on a false premise: that machine technology is better than human experience, learning, training, analytical thinking and retained knowledge. Put it this way: can AI come to your house and build you a garden shed? But in some people's minds, in a virtual world, that makes perfect sense.

iToons

cyberbarf

PANEL PEP TALK ENCOURAGEMENT

This two panel cartoon did well on IG so it is republished here. There is not enough social interaction between real people on social media. Just like what horoscopes do, some days people just need some form of encouragement.

cyberbarf

QUICK BYTES CYBERCULTURE

SPYING ON YOURSELF. Many car dealers are installing special GPS navigation systems into their car inventory. A few claim it is for inventory control but in reality it is a car tracking system. It is a dealer installed add on that the customer actually pays for without knowing its true function. In some models, a driver can get to a touch screen to receive the GPs data outputs. But the main reason for it is that customer data is being uploaded and sold as tracking information. Many states say it is illegal for car dealers to install these devices without express consent of the customer. But it is weird and creepy that anyone would want to have spyware in their cars.

NOT SO FAST. A federal judge called a $1.5 billion Anthropic AI copyright settlement a chaotic mess. He rejected the class action proposal. The class action by authors who claimed Anthropic illegally copied their works to train AI want fair compensation for the infringement of their works. The settlement is of concern because it would actually reward the company for stealing since it is now valued at $183 billion. AI scrappers have been stating that they have done nothing wrong, it is fair use, nothing to see here defenses, to trying to reverse license the data to now waving money to settle claims.

JOURNALISM STILL LIVES. Investigative journalism is hard to find. But Pablo Torre's YouTube channel has broke two major sports scandal stories this year. The latest is the $28 million no work consulting deal for NBA player Kawhi Leonard funded by his team owner, Steve Balmer, to allegedly get around the NBA salary cap. Torre's other big story about the conflicts of interest in the NFL Players Association's top executives led to resignations. The NBA scandal has yet to play out but the commissioner had been on the record that violating the salary cap was a serious offense.

cyberbarf

FOUND BUT NOT LOST ON THE INTERNET

Consumers have been bombarded by product collaborations for a long time. Some have been good, many have been bad. Now, we have a new puzzling contender: KFC jellybeans. The three flavors are fried chicken, sweet corn and gravy. Remember the harry Potter sick vomit beans? We don't know if savory goes will in sugar pill form. The product will come out in 2026.

Source: mental floss

Wild life is finding its home territory encroaching more on American cities and suburbs. In Colorado, a mountain lion got into a pet store. It roamed the aisles for an entire night until it found the cap nip. It would up curled up in a ball, only to startle workers who opened the doors the next day. Wild life experts now know cougars like the nip.

Source: facebook/Story Time

It may not be scientific, but the scientific method was to take a picture of a person after each glass of wine to determine any change in their behavior, expression or mood. Clearly, wine has some effect on people. Could it be the alcohol?

Source: neatorama

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THE WHETHER REPORT

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STATUS

Question: Whether the United States press is digging its own grave by capitulating to Trump's demands?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

Question: Whether encoding txt prompts and malware into copyrighted content will slow down AI scraping web data to make AI output worse slop?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

Question: Whether the last stand to avoid a Constitutional meltdown lies in a politicized U.S. Supreme Court?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

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THE WAIT IS ALMOST OVER.

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