Control the Media: Fascist Playbook Move

According to The Washington Post, which tracked Trump’s (lack of) truthfulness during his first term, he lied an average of 21 times a day for four years, totalling 30,573 false or misleading claims. Respected historian David Brinkley called him a “serial liar.”

  • Dan Rather and Team Steady, July 31, 2025

So.. CBS has made a deal with the Trump regime (I can no longer call it an administration) for 16 million dollars over a supposedly biased edit of an interview with then-presidential hopeful, Kamala Harris. If you have watched both edits or the full interview, you can join the rest of the reasonable world in scratching your head and saying …. “what?”.

To move on with life, CBS has capitulated to the tune of 16 million dollars, AND has cancelled the most popular late night show in television history, Late Night with Stephen Colbert. If you still have doubts, follow the money. CBS was poised for a massive merger of its parent company Paramount with Skydance Media to the tune of 8 BILLION dollars. The NEW owner of CBS is Larry Ellison’s son David – estimated worth of father and son is 300 BILLION dollars. Trump has gone on to say that he has been promised 20 MILLION dollars worth of airtime on the network – for free.

So. The ring was kissed.

And that’s just one part of the media control that the Trump regime is constructing. Note that this month (July 2025) as part of the unconstitutional ‘rescissions’ of previously earmarked funds – funding developed by and passed by Congress – the Trump regime has defunded public media (NPR, PBS), taking away the allocated 1.1 billion dollars to support ad-free, publicly available and unbiased media.

1.1 billion dollars. That money supported everything from Sesame Street to over 1,500 public media stations across the US. Lest you think that a steep amount that by all appearances looks like “waste fraud and abuse”, remember that ONE B-2 bomber costs us taxpayers over 2 billion dollars.

One of them.

TV – which I do not watch – is under the Trump regime’s thumb. Other media as well – just look at the book banning efforts by various Trump-cosy groups across our nation. Or look at Trump taking over the Kennedy Center for the Arts – and installing a conservative board there that will surely tighten a right-wing editorial fist over the productions that occur in that esteemed hall. Most recently, he is even pushing to have the center renamed after his current wife, Melania. And with the history of traditional center-of-the-road news publications NOT endorsing a political candidate in the last presidential race (notable the LA Times and Washington Post) for the first time in decades, again, follow the money.

Who owns the LA Times? Patrick Soon-Shiong. Est. net worth of 11 BILLION dollars.

Who owns the Washington Post? Jeff Bezos. Est. net worth of 177 BILLION dollars.

Who has been spending time at Mar-a-Lago? Read this list. You’ll see all of the names mentioned above.

What should a freedom-loving person do?

Support and read / watch / listen to independent news. Here is a list.

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Progress!

So much time, so few posts!

Refurbished 5-speed

Most recently, I did a dumb thing and dropped a washer into the transmission. I was intending on only replacing forward and rear seals and the gaskets (and throw-out bearing), but it turned into a detour of nearly epic scale.

Attempting a simple “let gravity retrieve the washer” technique led to a) no washer falling out and b) multiple unidentified steel bearings and pill-shaped bits. Sigh. Yeah, I went on a little journey.

In the end – I *think* it is together and I have wrapped it and shelved it for later.

1.8 rebuild

The other big news is that I’ve reassembled the motor. Cleaned and painted some parts, replaced others. The remaining work will be on resetting the valves with appropriate thickness shims, and ultimately testing the timing. This, too, is now shelved for later. And with the rebuilt driveshaft, and eventually a new starter motor and radiator, I should have the drive train largely ready to test.

Getting here was…. interesting. Two manuals, online forums and YouTube helped so much that I wonder how I ever did this kind of thing when I was 21 years old.

Enjoy:

5-speed
1.8 before final assembly
Lapping valves on the cylinder head
Multiple honing sessions, and new rings on the pistons
Sorry, children!
Honing
Old valves
Bottom end – before disassembly
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The sale continues

In an earlier post, I mentioned my view that, since the run up to the most recent presidential election, the US government and presidential seat is, it seems, truly for sale.

Here is the *most impressive* Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (Texas) outlining the ridiculousness of the supposed DOGE oversight committee.

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