3 July—Donald Trump’s weaponized Department of Justice has just hired a former FBI agent who (allegedly) shouted “kill ’em!” at law enforcement officers during the 6 January Capitol riot/insurrection. Jared Wise was being prosecuted for two felonies and four misdemeanors (to which he had pleaded not guilty, of course) when Trump slithered into his second term in January, so the case against him was dismissed before a verdict, along with cases against all the other 6 January criminals.

Wise has been named an advisor to Ed Martin, another typically unqualified/disqualified scummy Trump flunky who is his United States Pardon Attorney and is now heading the “weaponization working group.” No surprise that Trump has such a flunky-filled agency working to enhance the weaponization of his corrupt administration.

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Since Sean Combs was tried and partially convicted in federal rather than state court, count on Donald Trump pardoning him—perhaps even today.

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Connecticut Public Television has just dumped one of its channels. Connecticut Public Broadcasting—or simply Connecticut Public, as it prefers to be known these days—won’t say just why its Spirit channel went off the air as of 30 June, but it doubtless has something to do with money. Like everything else.

CPTV has said that its programming decisions can depend on its financial situation, including but not limited to threatened reductions in federal funding by vengeful Donald Trump’s weaponized felonious federal flunkies. Can depend? How about does depend? Thus programming that attracts not only membership income but sponsor revenue is prioritized over good stuff.

Yes, as if public TV viewers don’t notice, commercial-free nonprofit public television actually has annoying commercials that nobody pays serious attention to, just like for-profit television. In addition to the incessant ultra-annoying pledge drives, of course, with programming it’s hard to believe anybody actually watches.

While Connecticut Public is cutting back and otherwise fiddling with programming and who knows what else for alleged lack of funding, its CEO begs for money. Naturally. And understandably.

Apropos nothing, then—and without comment—according to ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer, Connecticut Public Broadcasting CEO Mark Contreras was paid almost $700,000 in 2023. And CFO Meg Sakellarides was paid just over $300,000.

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In all events, Tuesday night, CPTV rererererererebroadcast The Statue of Liberty, the 1985 documentary by Ken Burns about—you guessed it—the Statue of Liberty. Faithful viewers will know that CPTV rererererererebroadcasts just about everything. Just like commercial channels. The only problem with the 40-year-old film is that Burns didn’t uncover all bases, as it were. So here’s a picture of Liberty Enlightening the World that Ken Burns appears to have missed: