If they can disappear Colbert & Kimmel from the TV in your home, they can disappear you from your home, because it’s easier and more profitable to have a centralized right-wing Government-controlled media syndicate in the US. Call it Groupthink Media. Political violence is a distraction like rebranding a Department of Defense as a War Department.
State visits are always grand occasions, but Donald Trump’s second was unprecedented in terms of scale and spectacle. The president was treated to the most impressive ceremonial welcome ever laid on for any head of state.
After enjoying a carriage ride through the grounds of Windsor Castle with the king, queen and prince and princess of Wales, the president was greeted by the largest guard of honour ever, comprising 1,300 troops and 120 horses. A lunch, private tour of St George’s Chapel and a Red Arrows flypast followed, before the day culminated in a lavish white-tie state banquet.
All this pomp and pageantry has a purpose and a keen eye can spot meaning in most parts of the itinerary.
For example, there were obvious nods to the government’s priorities for this visit throughout the first day, even before the government meetings began. Prime minister Keir Starmer has wanted to focus on tech and defence, so we saw key business leaders, including the head of Apple and CEO of OpenAI, on the guest list for the state banquet.
There was also a clear focus on defence throughout the first day’s proceedings. As well as inspecting the customary guard of honour, the President took part in the “beating the retreat” ceremony – the first time that this historic military parade has been performed at an incoming state visit.
NPR: “NPR.”
TRUMP: “You’re still here? Won’t be for long… does Antifa have anything to do with your network?”
In 2018, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban encouraged owners of hundreds of Hungarian media properties to ‘donate’ them to a Government allied foundation. The Central European Press and Media Foundation (CEMPF) began absorbing cable news channels, internet platforms, newspapers, radio stations, and magazines. The result was a centralized right-wing Government-controlled media syndicate.
An intra-MAGA civil war has broken out over Israel, Charlie Kirk’s legacy, and neocon vs realist foreign policy.
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So Kimmel gets fired for supposedly misidentifying the shooter as MAGA (though that’s not quite what he said.)
When do all the Fox hosts who misidentified the shooter as transgender get fired then?
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan.bsky.social) Sep 20, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Make of it what you will, but Tyler Robinson’s Steam username was “Donald Trump”.
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5/ So when Carr threatened to revoke the licenses of local stations that continued to air Kimmel – at the same time he was whispering to Nexstar that he might bend the rules to approve their billion dollar merger – Nexstar knew what to do: BEND THE KNEE.
— Chris Murphy (@chrismurphyct.bsky.social) Sep 19, 2025 at 12:48 PM
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What’s more astonishing: 1) that the president clearly believes, and repeatedly suggests, that asylum seekers are people from mental asylums, or 2) that no journalist has ever challenged him on this and no mainstream media outlets have done any deep dives on this story?
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan.bsky.social) Sep 20, 2025 at 3:11 PM