Today in History: August 6, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima

On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, during World War II. 140,000 people were killed by the first bomb. The atomic bombing of Nagasaki resulted in an estimated 40,000 to 70,000 deaths, according to the U.S. National Archives.

The United States is the only country to use atomic weapons in a war.

Dictators Do as They Wish!

–President Donald Trump on Friday removed the head of the agency that produces the monthly jobs figures after a report showed hiring slowed in July and was much weaker in May and June than previously reported.

When Trump does not like government reporting he fires the people involved even if the reports are accurate.

–The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced on Friday that it will wind down its operations due to the successful Republican effort to defund local PBS and NPR stations across the country.

-In March, the president issued an executive order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” that it said was meant to address “a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”

He singled out the Smithsonian Institution and said the administration would seek “to remove improper ideology from such properties.”

In an email to NPR, White House Spokesperson Davis Ingle wrote: “Unfortunately for far too long the Smithsonian museums have highlighted divisive, DEI exhibits which are out of touch with mainstream America.”

“We are fully supportive of updating displays to highlight American greatness. The Trump administration will continue working to ensure that the Smithsonian removes all improper ideology and once again unites and instills pride in all Americans regarding our great history,” he said.

Authoritarianism in Action

When the American Empire Collapses

The Sad End of the Los Angeles Times

Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire who purchased the Los Angeles Times for $500 million in 2018, said Monday he is taking the ailing newspaper public.

Speaking on “The Daily Show,” Soon-Shiong told host Jon Stewart the newspaper will take the company public over the course of the next year. The billionaire did not clarify when that would happen.

“We literally are going to take the LA Times public and allow it to be democratized and allow the public to have the ownership of this paper,” Soon-Shiong told Stewart. “We think over the next year we will. I’m working through (that) with an organization that’s putting that together right now.”

The move follows years of trouble at the Times. In early 2024, The Times cut 20% of its workforce, approximately 115 reporters, following the departure of the paper’s top editor, Kevin Merida.

In October, the Times came under fire after Soon-Shiong blocked the paper’s endorsement of then-Vice President Kamala Harris over Donald Trump for president, prompting the resignation of the paper’s editorial board editor, Mariel Garza.

Since then, the Times’ entire editorial board has resigned, with the last departure coming in February. According to NPR, around 20,000 subscribers canceled their digital subscriptions.

“Whether you’re right, left, Democrat or Republican, you’re an American,” he said on Monday.

Over the past year, the billionaire has criticized his own paper for what he described as veering “very left” and said he would balance the paper’s editorial board with voices that “trend right.”

The paper has had high-profile missteps in its transformations, such as a briefly-introduced AI-imbued tool that sympathized with the Ku Klux Klan.

Who would invest in a losing newspaper is a mystery to me.

“Monkey Trial”

ON THIS DAY: One hundred years ago, the so-called “Monkey Trial” ended in Dayton, Tennessee, with John T. Scopes found guilty of violating state law for teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.

The conviction was later overturned. https://abcnews.visitlink.me/xS5yvM

The movie “Inherit the Wind” does an outstanding job of telling what happened. The names of the characters were changed but the story is factually correct. Who knows who the lawyers were in the actual trial? I do!

Hitler-Trump Similarities

Is Freedom of the Press in Jeopardy?

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is an American late-night news talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. CBS announced the show will end when the host’s contract runs out in 10 months. Colbert’s political commentary was a continuing criticism of Donald Trump.

Coincidentally, or not, Paramount Global, which owns CBS, is seeking regulatory approval from the Trump administration to sell itself to the Hollywood studio Skydance Media. (I’d never heard of it either.) An official statement, claiming that the “Late Show” cancellation represents “a purely financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night … not related in any way to the show’s performance, content.

Trump’s war on the media has been non-stop on every network accept Fox.

Newspapers and television outlets are under attack like never before. Yes as far back as Richard Nixon presidents have attacked the media. ABC News settled a defamation suit brought by Trump on Dec. 14, agreeing to donate $15 million to his presidential library and issue a statement. Trump’s lawsuit against CBS, filed in Texas in October, accuses the broadcaster of deceptively editing a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump has sued CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. The president has prevented The Associated Press from entering the Oval Office press events.

To stay on the good side of Trump both Jeff Bezos owner of the Washington Post and Patrick Soon-Shiong owner of the Los Angeles Times both stopped the endorsement of Kamala Harris. NPR and PBS rely on government subsidies and are likely limiting their criticism of the Trump administration.

You could have asked the question ‘Is freedom of the press in jeopardy?’ Sadly dictators do not allow opposing opinions.