This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

If I had all day to make a list of the ten worst corporations in America. It would only take me seconds to put ABC/Disney on the list. Aggregator of content trying to put as much behind a paywall as possible. Turning Walt’s dream into a Frankenstein monster. When Ted Turner bought the MGM film libraries for a song, people thought he was crazy. Turner Classic Movies and Cartoon Network later. Turner was still crazy, but he was right. Content is king.

And if you can’t make it, fake it! Buy up popular content and put it behind a paywall. Why spend money and effort trying to develop new programming? When you can just buy up the rights to popular reruns. And with the properties safely behind a paywall, classics die. “Casablanca” and “Treasure of the Sierra Madre or the Wizard of Oz” became classics in reruns. It’s doubtful at 2:00 AM when I can’t sleep some night, that I’m going to spend $2.99 for a seventy-five- year-old a movie that I’ve never heard of before.

So mainly, that’s all I have to say about that. I just wanted to introduce the participants. This is about fascism and corporate ugliness. I wanted to be clear that there are no good guys here. We’ve seen and heard hundreds of stories, with new ones appearing daily. Of corporate greed and how playing along with the administration could be good for your career. But what about those who don’t play along? What about those who buck the fascist administration?

This is Jimmy Kimmel; he’s your average late-night talk show host. He tells political jokes to people about to go to sleep. They laugh, they sleep, and they move on. The system has worked fine since the age of the dinosaurs, like Jack Parr or Steve Allen. But some over on Pennsylvania Ave took offense and want Jimmy Kimmel fired. Remember now, this isn’t government. This is the opposite of government. This is the idea of using government to make someone do something which has nothing to do with government.

ABC/Disney has eight broadcast affiliates, and the FCC has called for an early review of the Disney broadcast licenses not due for renewal until 2031. The FCC is supposed to be an independent agency. But there are no independent agencies in Trump town. Their greasy, grubby fingers get into every pie. You’ll do as we ask and fire Jimmy Kimmel or we’ll make it rough on you! That’s a nice TV network you have there; it sure would be a real shame if something bad happened to it.

It’s about Jimmy Kimmel, but it has nothing to do with him at all. Kimmel didn’t write the monologues in question, which so drew the ire of the king; the writers did. The producers had suggested what type of jokes they wanted them to write. Topical humor always works best since the days of Abe Lincoln and Queen Victoria. The king wants the show closed down just because it has Jimmy’s name on it. The Republican Party, that paragon of capitalism and free trade, is trying to strangle capitalism, free speech and free trade with government curtain cords. A 100% complete reversal of political position! From the government shouldn’t pick winners and losers to the government has the ultimate authority to pick winners and losers.

A funny story, a brief interlude. Back when Chrysler fell on its ass in 1980. Jimmy Carter gave Chrysler a $1.5 billion in a direct loan. Republicans had wanted the government to take shares in Chrysler, effectively putting it under government control. Chrysler pays the money back early. When GM fell on its ass in 2008 The greatest Republican President of our era, Barack Obama, chose to take shares in GM. GM dumped its pension liabilities onto whom? Why, the taxpayer, of course. And who paid to clean up GM’s toxic superfund sites? Why the taxpayer, of course. Using government like a speed tool or a thumb on the scale. With the government’s thumb on the scale the entity must prosper, see? It wouldn’t look good politically if the company failed after a partisan political intervention. The government has a vested interest in seeing them prosper.

So the Trump administration’s actions aren’t unprecedented, only more thuggish and authoritarian. The king called. He doesn’t like your program. Take it off! Immediately! So, yes, it’s about Jimmy Kimmel but no, it’s not about Jimmy Kimmel at all. It’s more about the destruction of broadcast media.

ABC/ Disney could dump the eight affiliates and never notice they’re gone. Eight stations isn’t a huge number. But who would buy them knowing the backstory? If you buy these stations you will be under the proviso of no criticism of the administration. What do you suppose the chances are that in no time at all, the administration would complain about the anchorman’s tie? A slippery slope with a massive dope. The very Idea, the CEO of ABC/Disney taking orders from the White House.

Disney is fighting the government and trying to preserve itself. It’s like King Kong versus Godzilla. The thug president using government thug power to obtain a practical political benefit from a nasty bloodsucking corporation aka, Extortion! Aka, high-crimes and misdemeanors. Aka, authoritarian fascist government. You do what the boss says, or else! We’ll shut you down like the Trump-Kennedy Center. Remember how the Center was going to sue every single act that canceled their performance in the wake of the Trump takeover? Then, suddenly, the center closed its doors unexpectantly for two years for extensive “renovations.” Very NSDAP! If they don’t like something, they shut it down!

Amazon presents: The twenty million dollar “The Malaria Trump story.” Up from Dirt and Back Again. Now that’s real entertainment, understand? Or do I have to take you out back and beat you with the education stick? Debasement is not just the downstairs on Fantasy Island. Amazon has a new oral sex proposal! A brand-new version of “The Apprentice!” for your viewing pleasure. Starring America’s favorite substance abuser, Donald Trump Jr! Oh, sign me up man, sign me up and take my money! That sounds like some real fun time entertainment.  A grown man who has never held a job a single day in his life, hosting a program about getting a job. I like “Name that toot!” for a show title.

The FCC only has authority over broadcast TV. As it uses that power thuggishly, it further devalues broadcast TV. Administration-friendly content drives people away. See: SEE BS News. That’s a joke son, as you see,  nobody does see SEE BS News. They’re going to make broadcast television like the AM radio, driving people and money away. But as broadcast networks die, so also dies their market for purchased talent. So, in answer to your question, yes, Virginia, capitalism and authoritarian fascism really don’t coexist very well. Authoritarian fascism will strangle the capitalist goose as soon as the  weather permits.

There’s no room for criticism in a Fascist Republic.

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.  ― Harry S. Truman