You don’t poke the bear.

Let’s say you’re called into the principal’s office. And this puffed-up authority figure starts coming down on you, reciting your so-called offenses… You hang your head and listen. You stay quiet. You certainly don’t bark back, because of the CONSEQUENCES!

The principal has the power and you don’t. You will ultimately be gone, but the school will remain. The institution is bigger than the individual. Therefore, you must heed its rules, however insane they might be.

But not Jimmy Kimmel.

The course of behavior was clear. Jimmy needed to do a bit of a mea culpa and then go completely off topic, steer clear of the controversy, but Kimmel LEANED IN!

My inbox is full of right wingers telling me Kimmel isn’t funny and he and late night will soon be gone. That’s completely missing the point, in a world where what is said today may not even be remembered tomorrow. The future has never appeared less locked down. The nation is in turmoil. You fight your battles today, because the war might be over by tomorrow.

So Jimmy comes on and says it was never about Charlie Kirk, says that no one should die for their beliefs. And then…

He lays into Trump and Carr. Hangs them with their own words, and then twists the knife.

Now wait just a second… This is America, you’re just a cog in the system, you think you can change the world?

YES! That’s the power of the individual, that’s what the Democrats have been lacking, someone to stand up for their beliefs and damn the consequences.

So what are the consequences?

Disney ain’t gonna fire Kimmel, not for quite a while, if ever…because the company is afraid that if they do none of the talent in Hollywood will want to work with them and they’ll be SOL.

And the flame of hope has been lit under those who are unhappy with Trump and his policies, who believe they have no options.

Turns out they do. And it comes down to something very simple, money. As the Kinks say:

“Money talks and we’re the living proof

There ain’t no limit to what money can do

Money talks, money talks”

But it’s about more than money. Kimmel has blazed a trail for others, who have been too fearful to reveal their beliefs. To quote Elton, he’s still standing. Yes, you can take a position and still stand too.

Too many on the left have been overwhelmed by right wing blowback. It’s not only corporations, but citizens. Everybody’s on the rear foot, everybody’s afraid. But if Jimmy Kimmel can not only survive, but push the envelope even further, so can they.

Will Nextstar and Sinclair come back?

Probably not before their merger issues are decided by the government. But after that?

The tide is turning. Trump says that ABC settled once before… But they were playing by Mafia rules, not legal rules, and Homey don’t play that no more.

This is classic government overreach. And it looked like no one was going to stand up to Trump and then he and his minions pushed it too far, with Kimmel.

Never mind that unlike Mafioso they say what they’re going to do, reveal their heinous policies, up front and personal, for all the world to see.

And it’s one thing to be anti-vaccine, but quite another to blame autism on acetaminophen, a word which Trump found almost impossible to pronounce.

Have you seen the video? Trump’s mispronunciation was all over TikTok and Instagram Reels. You couldn’t avoid it.

And is there anybody who doesn’t love Tylenol? The most benign of pain relievers? Take away my vaccine, but don’t take away my Tylenol!

Which Trump never would have taken a stand on if he didn’t feel a need to defend the unscientific policies of RFK, Jr.

Yes, yes, yes…there are Trumpers who seem to defend everything he does. But the dirty little secret here is for most it’s not about Trump, it’s about hating the libs, and it’s hard to come to the defense of someone who is self-immolating.

And then there’s the reach of Kimmel’s words.

There were endless videos on TikTok long before the show even aired on the west coast.

As of this writing, the official ABC YouTube post has over 14 million views.

Jimmy Kimmel is not dumb. He knows the reach of the actual broadcast is de minimis, but he told me YEARS AGO that it was all about creating clips for social media. And in that world, he is triumphing.

So for eight months Trump believed he was inviolate. But now he knows that he is not. Sure, Trump has doubled-down on his hatred of Kimmel and the rest of the late night hosts, but they’re still on. And following in Kimmel’s slipstream, comedians are no longer going to be fearful of the consequences of doing anti-Trump material, it’s not like YouTube is going to cancel them.

And the dirty little secret is a tiny number of people have had broad effects in media censorship, oftentimes just one or two letters or calls, far from millions. But Disney heard from the true silent majority, the ones who haven’t dedicated their lives to petty scuffles on FOX, but have been living their lives until…

They were pushed one step too far.

So who is going to stop Trump?

Certainly not his cronies, certainly not Congress, they’re all in.

Trump would rather shut down the government than listen to Democrats. Then again, he’s suddenly done a 180 on Ukraine and Zelensky. Wasn’t Putin Donald’s honest friend?

I guess not.

So, Trump can pivot, the key is for those with a voice and the public not to be assuaged by these small changes, not to be satisfied. When you’ve got someone on the run, you keep them running.

I can debate with Republicans all day long about the welfare state, taxes, but when it comes to basic American rights…

There’s only one rule of law.

If you don’t start exercising your freedoms today, they will be gone tomorrow. You must make a stand before it’s too late.

Just like Jimmy Kimmel.

You’re not going to see me at shul.

Then again, I haven’t been a member of a temple since the eighties, when I was married.

But what I’m referencing here…

All those parents who are afraid their kids are going to get shot in school…today I feel their pain. The LAPD is sending more officers to guard synagogues, but if they want to get you, you’re gone.

Not that I didn’t go to services. I did so online, have been doing so since the late nineties. I used to say it was truly a religious experience, just you alone, in front of the screen, but that was back when the service was a special one that lasted less than thirty minutes, as opposed to the livestreams of today, which are nearly interminable.

So I logged on to the Steven Wise Temple stream at six o’clock and the singing had already begun. We didn’t have a choir like this back in our era. And we certainly didn’t sing Beatles songs. The woman rabbi did a whole sermon on “Let It Be,” parsing what Paul McCartney meant by saying “mother Mary” and…

I finally had to turn it off. Reminded me of Rabbi Davidson back at B’nai Israel in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where I grew up. It was sometime in the early sixties, he went on about a tape he’d been sent of sounds from Vietnam for nearly half an hour and to say it was boring…

Now, more than ever, I want first class entertainment. If you’re going to stand up there and tell a story, maybe practice at the Moth beforehand.

But I went as a kid. It was an obligation. I never paid attention, just going was enough. Which is why the online services were such a revelation, I actually paid attention, but now I only go out of guilt.

And the guilt has just about died out.

As for believing… Listen to the George Carlin routine and it’s hard to. Let me see, there’s a guy in the sky, and he’s watching all of us to see whether we’ve been naughty or nice. Yeah, right.

Then again, being Jewish is being part of a community, and I’ve had great experiences as a result.

Jewish summer camp… Where the focus is on your first love relationships as opposed to how good a baseball player you are. There’s less of a hierarchy and more of a togetherness. And you always waited for the counselors to march through the dining hall yelling “The Big O Is Coming!” “The Big O Is Coming!”

That’s the Olympics. The highlight of the year.

And ultimately Israelis were murdered at the Olympics, but now they don’t even want them at Eurovision. Short memories.

Like the Holocaust. Forget those saying it never existed. If you’re a child of the fifties and sixties you were fully aware of it, you knew survivors, never mind people whose relatives had been cooked.

But today we’ve got Jewish nincompoops like Hannah Einbinder taking the side of the Palestinians…

Talk about a dicey subject. If I don’t take the anointed side, my inbox goes wild. Gaza is just like Trump. You’re on one side or the other, there’s no grey area, THEY’RE KILLING CIVILIANS!

But it’s kind of like Charlie Kirk. No one in their right mind wanted Charlie Kirk to die, nor any Palestinians, but when you look under the surface…

I can feel the chilling effect in my bones as I write this. Unless I say Charlie Kirk was a great American deserving of the Medal of Freedom I’m a pariah. One can’t even discuss his positions and the division he sowed. Once again, he was entitled to his speech. But is this Mother Teresa? Is this the right person to lionize?

The Palestinians want Israel gone, which is what “From the river to the sea means.” They’ve been offered their own state numerous times and refused…they want it all, and unless Israel is gone, they’re sitting out. As for the rest of the Arab countries…they don’t want the Palestinians.

So, Hamas attacks Israel and…

Well, now everything is in play. Netanyahu, the West Bank… And the truth is, if it weren’t Jews, the rest of the world would not be so concerned, they never are.

How do I know? I’M A JEW!

Is a white person in touch with the racial hatred a Black person experiences? Then how come non-Jews can tell me all about antisemitism? Sure, you can divide Zionism from antisemitism… But I’ve got a question, when antisemitism gets really bad, where are Jews going to go? Israel, it’s the only safe place. But Jews don’t know their place, they don’t know how to just shut up and be thankful they’ve got what they do. We as Jews have been hearing this our entire lives. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told I’m too loud, too inappropriate, don’t fit in. It’s about more than personality, it’s raw antisemitism. You want to know what it’s like growing up in a Jewish family? Watch the beginning of Woody Allen’s “Radio Days,” where the family is sitting around the table talking over each other, that’s what it’s like.

Not that you have to behave that way, but you are certainly judging me for doing so.

I just want to be left free to be me.

But that’s hard in today’s word.

Let me just dig the hole deeper… Hamas has won. I point you to an editorial in today’s “Wall Street Journal”:

“A Palestinian State for Hamas”

Free link: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/palestinian-statehood-u-k-france-australia-hamas-israel-6df739a9?st=bCNLLv&reflink=article_email_share

This was the plan all along. And Israel played into it. Global sentiment is now on the side of Hamas and the Palestinians. Israel’s image will never recover in my lifetime.

Kudos.

However, the pro-Palestinian mobs don’t realize they’ve been played.

All those musicians in the U.K… I didn’t see them holding concerts for Israel after October 7th.

Then again, Israel is a wealthy country of Jews, it should know its place.

And if it wasn’t Israel, I’d say the war would soon be forgotten, but antisemitism never dies, just like rust never sleeps.

So that’s what it’s like being a Jew in the world today. You’ve got to keep quiet, put your head down and feel privileged that you’re just allowed to earn a living and exist.

The music industry, over-indexing in Jews? Do you see them taking a stand re Gaza? No, they just want to be out of the fray.

However, Paramount took a stand:

“Paramount criticizes pledge by entertainers to boycott Israeli film institutions”: http://bit.ly/46w1I3q

We don’t see a concomitant statement from record labels, re the pro-Palestinian concert at Wembley nor acts pulling their music from Spotify in Israel.

Then again, the Ellisons own the company, and Larry Ellison is Jewish.

As for the crackdown on colleges under the rubric of antisemitism… Most Jews don’t think that’s really what it’s about. Then again, how ignorant could college presidents be that they allowed Jews to be targeted and afraid when they wouldn’t let this happen to another minority group.

So Jews today are afraid, on guard.

And we want to tell the masses that most of us are not religious zealots in black hats. That we’re more culturally Jewish.

And we want to tell the younger Jewish generations that support Palestine that at the end of the day, no matter what they say, they’re Jewish too, and not immune to antisemitism. Protest all you want, it’s in your blood.

Now in truth Rosh Hashanah is nowhere near as heavy a holiday as Yom Kippur, when you’re either written into the book of life for the following year, or you’re not.

And it got to the point when I was in high school that we’d go to Vermont on Rosh Hashanah, and go to the temple up there, if we went at all. You see you don’t have to go to temple to be considered a Jew, you’re always a Jew, it’s not something you can wash off, you’re reminded of this constantly by non-Jews.

Which is one of the reasons why Jews hang together, because of a commonality. That’s got little to do with scripture and a whole hell of a lot to do with persecution. We can handle it, we’ve been taught to handle it. As for right wing support of Israel…if it also wasn’t the home of Christianity, would this be the case?

And the dirty little secret is Judaism is dying out anyway, because of intermarriage. If you just wait long enough, we’ll be gone.

But that’s not soon enough.

So…

I was planning something more upbeat and sunny, about Jewish traditions and the New Year. But if you’re a Jew today, Gaza is not far from your mind.

Once again, I’d say there are no victors, but in truth Hamas has already won. Never mind the masterminds still being alive in Qatar. They got the entire world on their side. They’re celebrating. Why give the hostages back when their strategy is working so well?

As for Israel… Just like Jews in general, they should shut up and put up.

Innocent people are being killed. And that’s terrible. And at this late date, one can certainly see the cost in status alone should have had the Israelis stepping down, stopping the war years ago. But if you think this would have placated the Palestinians, you just aren’t familiar with the history of the region.

So there we have it. Israel is committing genocide. And by the way, Jews run the entertainment industry, the same Jews who’ve been silent for fear of blowback. All the tropes have deepened and grown, while they’re blowing up synagogues and Josh Shapiro’s residence.

Just giving you a bit of perspective from the inside. From the baby boomer generation, the bridge from then to now.

Never again?

It’s already happening.

This is the left’s Bud Light moment.

Or to put it another way, now we’ve got a game.

You may have seen that Disney kowtowed to DeSantis in Florida. Assuming you care. And most people do not, because they don’t live in Florida, never mind Disney’s enclave.

But Disney’s entertainment tentacles? They seem to reach EVERYBODY! On both sides of the screen, from the producers/actors/talent to the viewers. And can the Mouse House afford to alienate this many of its customers, when it’s in a battle for streaming eyeballs with Netflix?

Image is everything. And therefore Bob Iger was caught between a rock and a hard place. Does he satiate the government or the company’s customers. Cave to the administration or go its own way. And let’s be clear, it’s not about right or wrong, but DOLLARS!

You can destroy a venerated enterprise in a minute. Which is what happened at Warner Music. Bob Morgado, who was power drunk and knew nothing about artists, let Interscope go in the wake of complaints about Ice-T and “Cop Killer” and begat a power shift we’re still feeling to this day. MCA, an also-ran record company, became a juggernaut with the addition of Interscope, and after Doug Morris got fired at Warner, he ended up at what came to be called Universal too, building it into a monolith! I won’t say that the record division was sold for peanuts, but the $2.6 billion Warner received for the assets was far below true market value. This is not tech, where what you have today might be worthless tomorrow, but a bastion of intellectual property, rights that go on for decades after the death of the creators!

But the soft power element was worse. Mo and Lenny were gone, who wanted to sign with Warner after that?

And there began the long, slow decline of Warner Music, from the tippity-top to an also-ran in the recording world.

What is the future of broadcast television? What is the future of late night television? One thing is for sure, it’s declining. To put these assets before the streaming division, to alienate talent and voters to satiate affiliates, would be short-term thinking. Iger HAD to bring Kimmel back.

But it was the anti-Disney blowback that sealed the deal. The cancellations may have been de minimis, but they were not insignificant. I wrote about a movie streaming on Hulu, and readers responded they wouldn’t watch it. A Lilith Fair film premiere for Hulu was held in Hollywood last night and the red carpet was canceled, for fear of protests and talent not showing up. Distribution may be king, but if you’ve got nothing to distribute, you’re nowhere.

Meanwhile, Kimmel refused to compromise. That was Disney’s first request. Deliver a mea culpa and move on. But Kimmel stood his ground. Put his livelihood at risk. Who else is willing to do this, for what’s right? Sure, Jimmy’s got a ton of bread, but Jack Paar gave up the “Tonight Show” and his career never recovered. Never underestimate the power of being on television screens five nights a week.

Even Michael Eisner came down on Disney.

But the true crack in the armor was Ted Cruz, hated not only by the left, but many Texans, a man who was notoriously on vacation during a natural disaster, came down on the FCC re Kimmel.

As for the Democratic elected officials… They went on record, but they didn’t lead. They didn’t say to cancel Disney subscriptions, after all, Disney is a donor. And this is why the Democrats lose. They put their finger to the wind, they do the research before they say anything, before they take any action, whereas Trump shoots from the hip and is loved by his acolytes for this.

No, this pro-Kimmel groundswell came from the literal ground, the people, with no lead. They organized online, sent e-mails urging cancellations. Proving the power of the people, something we learned in the sixties and John Lennon even sang about, something that the Democratic party, which refused to tell Biden to go and then foisted Kamala on the public without a primary, still doesn’t know.

This is what the denigrated internet has wrought.

Yes, have you been following all the anti-social media screeds in the wake of Charlie Kirk? It’s the devil, control it, shut it down… But without the internet, how could the public rally around Kimmel and pull their money from Disney? And this effort and its results were not followed in the mainstream press, but online, that’s where you got the story.

In other words, the internet and social media are the left’s 2nd Amendment, their gun control. Republicans say they need guns to fight a wayward government…maybe in the eighteenth century, but good luck today. But words? The power of the internet? That’s modern technology, that’s power, and it was exercised here in support of Jimmy Kimmel.

So finally, someone has stood up and pushed back at Trump’s creeping autocracy. And if you’re on the right and deny this… I mean Trump goes on record he wants the rest of the late night hosts gone. One thing about Trump is he does exactly what he says he will, why don’t’ people believe him?

And Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is so despised that they’re rebranding it:

“Trump’s Tax Cut Is Underwater. Can a ‘Refund Boom’ Save It? – Republicans are hoping a new name, along with larger refunds for many Americans next year, can buoy an economic agenda that polls show is unpopular.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/us/politics/trump-tax-cuts.html

So the farmers are freaking and the fallout from the rest of Trump’s policies is starting to take hold and we we still haven’t felt the full effect. Did you see that “Wall Street Journal” article about people resorting to Hamburger Helper to save money? And how cardboard sales are off, because shipping is down?

I don’t want to overstate the impact of Kimmel’s reinstatement. Let’s be clear, it’s not about the show itself, but Kimmel’s suspension. Yet for the first time in seemingly eons, the left had a rallying cry that was heard by the powers that be, illustrating the power of the pocketbook.

The right should be happy Kimmel is coming back too. Because issues of speech cut both ways, and if you push too hard…

That’s the issue here, will there be further reaction to Trump’s actions? Is this just the first, or the only one?

We will see.

NIGHT CALL

I found out about this via the “New York Times” Watching newsletter. I highly recommend you sign up for it. Not everything mentioned is great, but you can triangulate, do research, before you dive in.

Once again, I find streaming algorithms and media hype unreliable.

To give you an example, advance word was that “Black Rabbit” was a tour-de-force. It is not. Jude Law is almost unrecognizable, he disappears into the role, it’s a phenomenal job of acting. Jason Bateman is always good, and likable, but the story is predictable and ultimately reviews were not good, but knowing that it was launching on Thursday, instead of pulling up a new series on Wednesday, we watched this movie.

It’s on Hulu. And I highly recommend it.

I thought it was American… If something appears appealing, I stop reading the review, but it turns out it’s set in Belgium. Having said that, if the film was American you’d know about it. It’s gritty and fast-paced like an American production, but with the intensity and three-dimensional characters and emotions you get in a foreign film.

And yes, at times there is violence, and those who can’t handle it might be tempted to turn the movie off, but don’t…this is not a blood and guts/gory film, although it does have those elements. It’s kind of like “Run Lola Run,” but not really. As in the protagonist is on a timed adventure.

But you won’t know that for a while.

So yes, this is a crime film. It’s more than surface, but not incredibly deep. But it’s fiery and it flows and it keeps you involved. You won’t know what is going on at first, but then it’ll all come clear, and then maybe it won’t.

I must admit the ending did not have the impact of the rest of the film, but if you’re looking for a ride, something that will take you away from regular life, check this out.

THE MIKE CAMPBELL BOOK-2

The first half is about making it, the second half is what transpires after making it. And two sequences stood out in the latter half…

Bob Dylan… He’s seen as an obfuscating brooding icon in the world, but if you know him…

The guy knows hundreds of songs, can play them on a whim, and is not concerned about feedback and in all is unpredictable. Maybe the most insightful words on the Bobster ever.

And, Jeff Lynne.

Who was second banana in the Move, but then drove the ELO bus himself, and that band was kind of faceless, but then he was in the Traveling Wilburys and had production credits…

He’s fleshed out here. Well, his techniques are.

Tom and the Heartbreakers are used to working with the likes of Jimmy Iovine. Belabored productions based on getting it exactly right. Whereas Lynne works fast. If it’s right, there’s no need to redo it.

He leaves Petty’s vocals dry, which is one of the reasons “Full Moon Fever” stands out. The songs are written quickly. The emphasis was on the process, as opposed to constantly worrying about whether the work would be commercially successful.

And it was.

If you’re at all knowledgeable about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “Heartbreaker” is a must-read.