Recap of this week in the revolution: South Park infuriates Trump. Columbia capitulates under threats of funding cuts and a man who profited off of undocumented workers' labor now profits off of building their prisons. Trump regime adds work requirements to Medicaid and then cuts funding for job-training programs for seniors. Join the revolution by signing up for the One Million Rising training on July 30.
The Good...
Image by Coasterlover1994 from Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
In case you aren't familiar with the back-story, I'll try to sum it up:
SkyDance wants to buy Paramount, but the deal has to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) because it includes access to public transmission frequencies currently licensed to the CBS broadcast network, which is owned by Paramount. Paramount's controlling shareholder is Shari Redstone, who is pressuring the Paramount to agree to be purchased by SkyDance so she can make a ton of money off of the deal, hoping to use the money to pay off her substantial debts. So Paramount (under Redstone's control) wants the deal to be approved. But Trump had an outstanding lawsuit against Paramount that could have held up or blocked the deal. Trump sued Paramount for $20 billion because he didn't like the way Kamala Harris was portrayed in one interview during the 2024 presidential campaign. Yes, you read that right...a $20 billion lawsuit because he didn't like how the network portrayed his political rival. Under pressure to complete the sale of the company to SkyDance, Paramount turned its back on any pretense of journalistic integrity and agreed to settle the case for $16 million, and Trump's crack team of legal experts agreed to the settlement. Nothing says a lawsuit is completely frivolous better than settling for less than 1/1,000th of the original demand. Trump is now claiming that Paramount also agreed to provide an additional $16-$20 million in free advertising for him as part of the settlement.
Once the lawsuit was settled, Paramount was able to breathe a sigh of relief, thinking the sale of their company to SkyDance was back on track. A few days later, Stephen Colbert, host of The Late Show, the most popular late-night show on television, called the settlement a "big fat bribe" on air, which infuriated the thin-skinned Trump. CBS quickly announced that The Late Show would be canceled next year: in other words, they are firing Stephen Colbert (CBS had already agreed to extend The Late Show until 2026, which is why they didn't shut it down immediately). While CBS claims that the decision was made for financial reasons, the timing of the announcement is proof enough that the decision was made to try to appease the dictator-in-chief, crybaby Trump.
With yet another crisis averted, the sale of Paramount to SkyDance moved forward and was officially approved by the FCC. And then...
Just days after Paramount publicly announced a deal to continue to be the exclusive streaming provider for the hit animated series South Park, the show aired the first episode of Season 27...and creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone held nothing back. The entire episode was aimed at making a mockery of how childish Trump's temper tantrums are, how easily he gets offended, and how his solution to everything is to sue someone. In the episode, to mock the recent Paramount settlement, Trump sued the town of South Park and demanded that, as part of their settlement, they produce a public service announcement to promote Trump to the world. You can watch the Not Safe For Work PSA here.
The mockery of Trump is intentionally petty and immature, which in itself is a commentary on Trump's own immaturity. The entire episode was meant to bait Trump using childish humor known to trigger the dictator's rage. Since its inception, South Park has been a counter-culture satire, making fun of whatever is popular in the culture. Over the years, the show has poked fun at all political ideologies as the popular culture has shifted back and forth.
South Park S27 E01 explained:
The Bad...
Image by InSapphoWeTrust from Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
The Trump regime has been threatening to cancel federal grants Columbia University relies on based on vague claims of "deliberate indifference" towards claims of harassment by Jewish students. Columbia University has agreed to not only pay the Trump regime millions of dollars, but also to allow the regime to dictate the University's policies regarding staffing and student admissions.
University President Claire Shipman said, "The narrative that paints this as a kind of binary situation, courage versus capitulation, is just wrong. It's too simplistic. This was a really, really complex problem, and I will argue over and over again that choosing to listen, choosing to try to solve the problem with everything that we had at stake is not capitulation."
The only problem is that surrendering to pressure from the administration is capitulation. It's literally the definition of capitulation: "The act of surrendering or giving up." Shipman is correct that it's too simplistic to say that surrendering implies a lack of courage, but it's not as much the fact that the university surrendered as the terms of the surrender. Columbia was being accused of allowing antisemitism on its campus, and what they ended up doing was agreeing to pay millions of dollars to the Trump regime, cancel their DEI programs, and let politicians in Washington control their curriculum, who they can hire, and which students they can admit. none of those things protect Jewish students from harassment. But they do pave the way for the future harassment and discrimination of other students and staff members.
Nathan Albers owns Disaster Management Group, which is one of the subcontractors hired to build the largest migrant detention camp in the United States on the Fort Bliss military base near El Paso, Texas.
In 2019, another company co-owned by Albers pleaded guilty to charges of hiring undocumented workers and hiding them from immigration authorities.
Former ICE official Scott Shuchart points out, "the idea that you could use illegal labor and then sell services to ICE, the irony is thick."
While Albers has not personally been found liable for the charges against his former company, he was co-owner of the company and had to sign off on the guilty plea. His current company, Disaster Management Group, found last year that it hand violated federal labor laws and had to pay $16 million in recovered wages.
The contract awarded to Disaster Management Group was initially given to another company, but was suddenly canceled without explanation and handed to Albers' company instead.
The Ugly...
The Trump regime's new budget includes requirements that Medicaid recipients between the ages of 50 and 64 will have to work at least 80 hours per month to qualify for care or risk losing their coverage
At the same time, the Trump regime cut congressionally-approved funding for the Senior Community Service Employment Program, the only job training program available for low-income seniors.
Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich pointed out that, "the cruelty is the point." It's not enough for this regime to take money away from the needy to give it to their rich buddies. They have to do so in the cruelest, and most inhumane way imaginable.
Traditionally, one of the few protections Medicaid and other social safety nets had from efforts to cut spending was the fact that doing anything to diminish these programs was viewed as political suicide. Republicans have been emboldened by their own power and whatever promises they've received from Trump that has them lining up to kiss his ass, but even so, they don't want to risk losing their jobs. So they intentionally set up these new cuts to benefits for our beloved seniors so that they would go in effect after the 2026 midterm elections.
What can you do this week?
Part Two of One Million Rising takes place on July 30, 2025. The first session was held on July 16. If you missed that session, you can still get caught up by watching the recording here:
