Editor’s Note: It is Day 286 of the Great Con II. There were some wins this week in the courts, and Prop 50 in California appears in good shape to pass. Meanwhile, the House remains in recess as the first cuts from the big beautiful bill are hitting. Always question leadership that promises gains from extracting purposeful pain. This is a waterboarding of American virtues. Stay vigilant.

Americans love to talk.

And be heard. And share opinions. Sometimes even facts and useful news make the rounds.

If there is one thing we are proud of, no matter how foolish or brilliant, it’s our freedom of speech. This one liberty alone has helped to protect our progress as a nation.

It’s not always without flaws.

If you grew up in a Christian home, you heard about the tongue being the devil’s workshop. If you're old like me, you might even remember having a bar of soap put in your mouth.

Our free speech has always had very few constraints. It is predominately left up to the culture and educational pursuits to condition a person’s ability to know what to say, when to say it, and to discern the hogwash from the kernels of brilliance. This is in line with the quote, sometimes attributed to Mark Twain, other times to Abraham Lincoln, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.”

These days, things have changed a bit. Speaking truth isn’t just a public service necessity; shamefully, it has become a bit of an occupational hazard.

When CBS announced in July 2025 that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert would not be renewed, the official line was pure economics. CBS claimed that Colbert’s program, the highest-rated in its time slot, was losing money. What rankled watchers the most was the timing.

Just days before his show’s cancellation, Colbert had devoted a segment to criticizing Paramount (CBS’s parent company) for settling a $16 million lawsuit with Donald Trump, something Colbert called a “big fat bribe.” This happened while Paramount was deep into seeking federal approval for a high-value merger with Skydance Media.

With the approval of the merger, this appears a case where Colbert’s humorous truth-telling was punished. Since then, scores of CBS journalists have also been forced or chosen to resign.

Efforts to limit public speech have not ended.

Public radio and television have been defunded while favored networks have been given access to the president, a purposeful diminishing of truth seeking in favor of controlled, favorable coverage. Even in the Pentagon, there’s been an effort to have journalists sign a measure akin to a nondisclosure, leaving it to a pretend audience of journalists to cover military matters.

It’s all using the disguise of free speech to infringe on actual real free speech.

This shrinking of the public square is a great detriment to the future freedoms of Americans. Whether it is accomplished by a judge or a late night joker, someone must always be able to seek and tell the truth. Comedy at its best is deeply honest; a proven method to touch on difficult subjects or bring overblown egos to account. It can be risky and be honest, both hallmarks of a functioning democracy.

I recall a time I saw Salman Rushdie speak in person. This was twenty years ago when he had a fatwa on his head, which was the religious zealots of Iran’s way of calling for the killing of anyone who took Allah’s name in vain. Rushdie spoke of understanding the fear and the threat but the stronger need for truth to be in the light. Whether it is an opinion, facts, or words that make some squirm, bring things into the open. Let people speak to see who they are.

Neither can we be content to let others speak and bear risks alone, or our freedoms to laugh, read, travel, learn, and love will all continue to be sanctioned and diminished.

That’s the real point of free speech. It’s a shared responsibility. It is a protector of the rest of your rights. There are cultures everywhere that keep their speech in their head, never to see the light of day for fear of losing position (or losing that head).

Where there’s no real journalism, no one to tell the Dear Leader that their corrupt, no one to crack a joke at their expense, there is no freedom. Free speech and uncomfortable comedy is the canary in the democratic coalmine, lest we go silent in the dark.

In America, we cannot lose free speech, whether via jokes or journalism, written or shouted, by Democrats or Republicans. It’s predominantly up to us to know the wheat from the chaff. If the person in power doesn’t like it, that's too bad.

When the laughter dies, so does democracy.

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This is an interesting read for several reasons. As a product of Pell Grants, I know the benefit of such a program. Some families have parents that work all their lives but simply don’t have the means to get kids through college. All too often, we allow the lending industry to loan exorbitant amounts at excessive interest for someone to get an education. I find this reprehensible in the richest nation on Earth as there is no better investment than to support your citizens being as educated as possible. Could Mr. Rosales, Jr., have accomplished this on his own without public help?

Maybe. Maybe not.

But why should it be such a debate to invest in each other? While I see a bit of bad planning here with two kids that don’t have a father prepared for that kind of emotional and financial upkeep, that still would be no reason not to have programs that assist Americans in bettering themselves and their potential as citizens.

There’s another angle to this beyond the chief topic.

Cities are drowning in parking lots. Why not convert some of those parking lots into tiny home communities and invest more in alternative transportation? Just like gun ownership, the amount of public subsidy for personal preferences, in this case using our cars for everything, is gigantic. As we continue to modernize, we need to consider all the land and space devoted to personal autos.

There’s a lot to be gained.

I’ve written about Starbucks a few times, most of it being positive given their record of offering health insurance, the sustainability principles they brought to the coffee industry, and standing up for DEI principles.

I hope they make the right call on this one.

We cannot deny the reality of growth in service industry jobs with no commensurate growth in compensation to live on. Neither will we survive as a nation if more and more jobs use AI and robotics to move toward making its human clientele temporary and disposable.

Any of you who frequent Starbucks as I do, knows that it is not the cheapest cup of coffee, but it is consistent and of high quality. The downside of the current relationship between Wall Street and Main Street is that Starbucks will get hammered if they do the right thing. That’s what is wrong with the corporate model.

We have long outgrown the model of making a profit and leaving people behind. Starbuck’s CEO and corporate shareholders receive good compensation. So should their staff, and I believe most Starbucks consumers will support it.

At this time, when we have so many people happy or complacent to be on the wrong side of history, it would be great to see a company do the right thing, no matter what the current climate suggests.

And Now….

Keep up your reading habit. It makes an enormous difference in your ability to discern what you hear. As you were taught when a youth, question everything.

Continue to practice your gratefulness.

Always strive to be a good human.