Mark Clear

SCOOP/UPDATE — The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) instructed *all* federal agencies to send out the shutdown email with NO modifications permitted, a federal source confirmed. Leadership received these orders via email at 1:30pm ET and then reinforced on a 3pm intra-agency call.

SCOOP / UPDATE — Disney saw more than 1.7 million total paid streaming cancelations during the period 9/17-9/23, a Disney source confirms to me. The total includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN.

SCOOP — Part of the reason Disney/ABC may have rushed to sort things out with Kimmel is because tomorrow they have a planned price increase for Disney+ streaming, a Disney source tells me. With subscriptions hemorrhaging since last week, they couldn’t risk losing more users with this announcement.

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The union representing the musicians from Jimmy Kimmel’s band releases a statement calling the FCC’s pressure on Disney “state censorship.”

Who’s after Kimmel? Corporate-owned media is bending the knee to our dim-witted dictator

On social media Wednesday night, after Kimmel’s suspension was announced, The Onion’s Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social wrote: “[it’s] Becoming increasingly clear we’re gonna have to build a parallel infrastructure for all the media we really love.”

Just canceled my Disney+ subscription.

A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn’t like what they say.

This is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand.

All elected officials need to speak up and push back on this undemocratic act.

Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.

Massachusetts is one of the best places I have lived. And this is great.

You've got to remember that even though RFK Jr looks like an idiot and sounds like an idiot, he is, in fact, an idiot.

Great story by @maggiedough.bsky.social of (Springfield) Illinois Times on the resurgence of alternative newspapers, filling the void left by the departure of so many daily papers. Thanks for highlighting @isthmusmadison.bsky.social!

New— Nazis with giant swastika flags marched in downtown Indianapolis on Saturday with two police escorts. They shouted “white power” and said to the woman who took this video (reshared here with her permission) “fuck you, n***** bitch.”

Police did not intervene. I cannot find local news coverage.

The closest George Webb to Madison is on Wisconsin Avenue in Oconomowoc. Posting this info for no reason whatsoever. #Brewers #12inarow

Kaul’s Trump fights will be campaign issue The Wisconsin Department of Justice, under Attorney General Josh Kaul, has signed on to 29 national lawsuits challenging actions by the Trump administration.

Is Kaul’s blizzard of anti-Trump legal actions likely to hurt or help him, if he runs for governor or re-election next year?

Steven Walters weighs in:

isthmus.com/news/news/ka...

😢

Yet you managed to fit five punctuation errors in this excuse.

Photo of Tom Lehrer

My last living musical hero is still my hero but unfortunately no longer living. RIP to the great, great Mr. Tom Lehrer.

Holy mackerel!

AMADEUS (1984) THE TERMINATOR (1984). Actual double feature when my dad owned a movie theater (which I did not inherit). I wish I had a photo of the marquee.

Wisconsin State Journal ‘re-reports’ Brayton Lot story after original removed for ‘unauthorized use of AI’ Much of the Sunday State Journal’s front page story about downtown development was fiction created by an 'unauthorized use of AI.'

Turns out, a story in the Wisconsin State Journal with some odd details was written with "unauthorized use of AI." The reporter has apparently been fired and the story "re-reported."
Story by me:
isthmus.com/news/news/wi...

I'd just like to point out how weird it is that places with hundreds or even thousands of reporters — the NYT, WaPo, CBS, NBC, AP, etc. — are all getting pummeled on every major story by the dozen computerboys at Wired. To fumble the bag this consistently is, at some point, cowardice and a choice.

He will lose interest in this in about two weeks.

The Conscience of Lisa Murkowski Today's newsletter is farrago of cruelty, cowardice, betrayal, and hypocrisy.

The Conscience of Lisa Murkowski
open.substack.com/pub/charlies...

Each time a remotely progressive candidate wins office in the US, the rich declare they're going to leave town. What do they actually do? Nothing. A 2016 study found only 0.04% of millionaires move in a given year due to tax increases. Rich people talk to feel important. Please properly tax them.

Clever All-Star Game marketing by the Cubs on the video board that Pete Crow-Armstrong hit his 452-foot home run off of last night:

A top staffer to Sen. Tina Smith emailed Sen. Mike Lee’s top staffers on Monday about “how much additional pain you’ve caused on an unspeakably horrific weekend”

Via Sam Stein on twitter

View of the No Kings protest from the 4th floor of the Boise Capitol Building

Do you know how badly you have to screw up as a Republican to get this kind of turnout in IDAHO?

#NOKINGS

Tens of thousands of demonstrators begin a march for the "No Kings" protest from Daley Plaza Saturday, June 14, 2025, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

Chicago No Kings protest parking garage view

coverage: www.chicagotribune.com/2025/06/14/c...