The John Mason Talk-Walk, July 25, 2025

I speak about the Paramount-Skydance merger deal and the threat trump poses to a free press.

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Hello, hello, hello, how is everybody? This is John Mason. Tomorrow is Mother's Day. And it is a time we pay our respects to all the women in our lives, our mothers, and our wives, and our girlfriends, and our sisters, and every other favorite woman that we come across. Happy Mother's Day, ladies. And if we want the best for the women in our lives, we must protect the reproductive rights. There are all these things around that place is the most onerous restrictions on abortions. Like you can only have an abortion after so many weeks before you even know the woman even knows that uh there's a fetus inside of her. And you remembered uh Katie Brandt, a senator from Arkansas, who had this very bad case of ham acting after uh after Biden's uh State of the Union address. Is that the best Republicans can do? Well anyway, she has this bright idea of a database. She's proposing a spill that would establish a database for all women who are pregnant. Hello, hello, hello. John Mason, how is everybody? Hope you all. And we have to worry about our country as always. The deal the dirty deal went through. Trump's FCC has approved the merger between the company Skydance and Paramount Global, which which is the parent company of CBS after after paying Trump $16 million over some sort of nuisance lawsuit that could have been brushed off. But no. It was a bribe, like Stephen Colbert says. Colbert called the bribe a bribe, he got canned. His last show will be in May. And I am disgusted. And don't doubt that uh newscasters in CBS News under their new master Sky Dance will try to prettify uh the news to to the favor of Trump. And give a good uh far-right uh possibly neo-fascist uh slant to all his ravings. Uh to the to their news, what they call their news. I I should hesitate to call their news the news because they copped out on us. They're censoring themselves. The First Amendment could guarantees freedom of expression, freedom of the press. But what but but what kind of freedom of the press is this? When you feel you have to clam up to uh uh to appease Trump? Uh censoring yourself ahead of time. It's like uh caving into Trump before he starts attacking you. To make sure he doesn't attack you, but he'll attack you anyway. That's the way uh bullies are. You give give in to them once that'll want more and more and more. And there are some brave souls uh condemning us like like Colbert himself. He's he's going down fighting, uh tear tearing Trump every asshole after another. And there says the veteran, legendary, 60 minutes correspondent Leslie Stahl. She she beat she beat corporate hard with about the KV into Trump. She said, to have a news organization come under corporate pressure, have a news organization told by a corporation, do this, do that with your story, change this, change that, don't run that piece. It steps on the First Amendment. But who gives a rat's ass about the First Amendment? We're trying to make billions of make billions of of the deal. As a matter of fact, the deal was was made. Uh Paramount Global comes under Sky Dance for eight billion. So what's a little bill of rights violation, eh? Ugh disgusting. And there are people some people who can't who don't believe they can work in that system have resigned, like Bill Owens, who's the producer of 60 Minutes, and CBS News president Wendy McMahon. And but it's it's very schizophrenic about this. See the sh and the the show South Park, produced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, is comes under is broadcast by Comedy Central, which is also a subsidiary of Paramount Global. And Parker and Stone gave him a start of the 27th season with his real uh t real rough I I don't know how I should say let's say again uh they t they do a number on they do a hell of a number on Trump. They do a hell but by uh by uh showing him in bed with Satan uh bragging about his penis, which Satan wasn't impressed with, and they have this AI-generated video of Trump walking around the desert taking off his clothes, and uh his penis says, I'm Donald J. Trump and I approve this message. And lo and behold, Paramount is gonna con has the exclusive streaming rights uh to South Park and pay them one point pay Parker and Stone 1.5 billion. That's so s so weird. They lose they get rid of one uh one of their stars, Colbert, who is funny as hell. And and they and they and they pay over a billion to another product of theirs, which they're not getting rid of. Go figure. The point is, Americans, our freedom of expression, our freedom of the press, our freedom of assembly, they're all they're all under the gun. They're all in danger. And that's one of the hallmarks of fascism. It's not being it's not just a word being bandied about, it's a real thing. And I am fortunate and delighted to hear about um any a way of resisting all this um all this fascism. Like in LA, people neighborhoods fight chasing away uh ice agents. And the amazing thing is the two most famous street gangs in LA, the Bloods and the Crips, are forming a troops to fight a truce to help resist the ICE. And when you feel safer with a street gang than you do with a law enforcement agency, you got trouble. So let's keep up the fight. Just because someone else uh decides to smile and tell Mr. Mr. Donald that they're gonna do what they tell them to do doesn't mean we have to. These corporations are established institutions who is to have asserting their power to stand up to Trump, give in to Trump. I'm also talking about certain law firms and certain universities. Well, if our established institutions won't uh stand up for us, will stand up for us. We'll write letters to the editor. Do they still have them? We'll take to the streets, we'll peacefully protest, and stand up against any bully with or without a badge in around the corporate boardroom that takes us on. We got this, Americans. Okay, that's my rant, and now advertisements. All this work I do in my in this uh podcast and video and my blog and my poetry and my fiction, they're all work. I pay money to be on these uh platforms, and I need to be compensated for them. So, I ask you to please click on the my website, johnomason.com, and click either the PayPal button or the Buy Me a Coffee button, and see what you can give. I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks. And also, my novel Soldier of the Cross is available on Amazon.com. It is the story of David Lucas, who is a young man in the early 60s, is a drunk and a whore chaser and a school boy, gets in trouble in the army, comes out of the army as a fanatical born-again Christian wanting to be a manly man for Jesus. But how he goes about it leads him into trouble. Do please pick it up. Soldier of the Cross on Amazon.com And also Hemporific is a lovely little CBD product store located on Snyder Avenue near 15th Street in South Philadelphia. There you'll find some of the finest cannabis-infused products gummies and candies and flour and teas and drinks and hand sanitizer and lip balm and dog treats. Yeah, dog treats. Look them up, please. Hemporificlc.com. And also my beloved career and business coach, Michelle Snow. Michelle is excellent in helping you develop your professional career, a small business, let you know what you're doing right, where you need work, and help you network with other up-and-coming entrepreneurs and professionals. Do please pick her up, look her up. Grow with snow dot com. Okay. Again, Americans, we gotta fight on our hands against fascism and for our freedom. Now they're attacking the immigrants, but don't worry. Other groups are next, including mine, the Jews. So the line of sand is drawn now. No more. We'll take back what they took from us. And we'll be a free people. As we always are supposed to be. Thanks. Enjoy your weekend. Shabbat shalom. Bye.