Defund Big Bird

And those queers Bert & Ernie

There are so many things to talk about with this current orange reality.

We are literally in the worst possible timeline and it doesn’t seem to be improving.

I mean…

And the house had planned to be voting today on H.R. 867 an on its face unconstitutional law that attempts to do the following:

• Criminalizes Boycotts

  • Seeks up to 20 years in prison and $1 million in fines for those participating in boycotts against Israel — even sharing information online.

• Creates a “Blacklist”

  • Requires an annual roll call of nations and organizations critical of Israel

• Empowers Hate

  • Hands officials authority to punish students, activists, and nonprofits for free speech

So… that is clearly unconstitutional right…I mean the court FKA Supreme has repeatedly prohibited viewpoint discrimination. Here are some—

• Boos v. Barry (1988):

  This case struck down a District of Columbia statute that prohibited signs criticizing foreign governments within a certain distance of their embassies, highlighting that even seemingly neutral restrictions can be viewpoint discriminatory.

• Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia (1999):

  The Court held that viewpoint discrimination occurs when a government regulation targets specific beliefs or ideologies, as in this case where the university denied funding to a religious student group for their publications.

• Burson v. Freeman (1992):

  While upholding a ban on political campaigning near polling places, the Court emphasized that the ban would have been viewpoint discriminatory if it had targeted one side of a political debate.

• Matal v. Tam (2017):

  The Court struck down a law that prevented the registration of "disparaging terms" as trademarks, finding it to be viewpoint discrimination.

• Iancu v. Brunetti (2017):

  Similarly, the Court struck down a law that prohibited "scandalous or immoral" trademarks, again identifying viewpoint discrimination.

***authors note… I personally think it is not a political belief that the mass killings of a group of people is bad***

Prohibition of this stupid type of suppression of free speech seems pretty clear. But so did abortion access and desegregation...but as we see with Tangerine Tyrant and his unSupreme court everything is on the table.

This is why education is important and gets me to what I had initially planned on writing about today…the administration gutting PBS.

PBS is MORE THAN Big Bird

Why does this matter? Not just because we love Big Bird and some NPR reporting…but because it is a deliberate attempt to make people less informed.

PBS isn’t just about Ken Burns documentaries or Downton Abbey. Its most enduring legacy is Sesame Street, launched in 1969 with a clear mission: to close the education gap for low-income children.

Developed with support from the Carnegie Corporation (back when billionaires didn’t try to buy governments and space ships) and federal funds, Sesame Street was intentionally created to bring high-quality, curriculum-based learning to kids who lacked access to preschool.

Its success was monumental—by the mid-1970s, studies showed that children who watched regularly entered school with better literacy and numeracy skills, particularly Black and low-income children.

And there it is….

Remember, if you look close enough you will always find the racism and the classism.

PBS remains a rare free, non-commercial source of educational programming, local journalism, and emergency broadcasting. In rural areas where cable or high-speed internet isn’t guaranteed, PBS is often the only source of children’s programming or civic information.

Speaking of rural areas losing access to information….

Hey rural (red on the map) bros? This you?

Stupid Is as Stupid Does

All of this is dumb and again, we are in the dumbest of possible timelines. In a time when education is under threat, and access to knowledge is chipped away every hour— our ‘leader’ is focused on adding 100% tariffs to movies. Other than being 100% certain he and his supporters have no idea what tariffs are…I am also certain many will remain too stupid to learn because we are cutting programming that seeks to educate.

I guess soon no one will be able to tell me how to get to Sesame Street.