No Joke

One of Donald Trump’s many failings, not only as a President, but as a human being, is his utter lack of a sense of humor. He can’t take a joke.

Jimmy Kimmel’s offhand comment about Charlie Kirk’s killer — that he was part of the MAGA crowd —may have been in poor taste, but it was clearly covered as free speech under the First Amendment to the Constitution.

And it was part of a humorous riff, which is what Kimmel is paid to do.

If only from his many years on his reality TV show, Trump should understand these things, but he doesn’t and he can’t.

Were he not occupying the highest elected office in the land his inadequacy wouldn’t really matter.

But he does, so the joke’s on us.

As David Remnick of the New Yorker has noted, “Historically, autocrats are a mirthless bunch. Augustus, Napoleon Bonaparte, Tsar Nicholas I, Francisco Franco, and countless others––they all cracked down on satirists.”

At least when it comes to hating humor, you can now add Trump’s name to that list of some of the worst tyrants in history.

HEADLINES:

• Judge rejects Trump’s New York Times lawsuit for being ‘decidedly improper and impermissible’ (CNN)

• ‘Dangerous as hell’: Cruz blasts FCC’s Jimmy Kimmel takedown (Politico)

• Armed man detained at site of planned memorial service for Charlie Kirk (WP)

• U.S. attorney resigns under pressure from Trump to charge N.Y. AG Letitia James (NPR)

• In Pressuring ABC Over Kimmel, Trump May Have Crossed a Constitutional Line (NYT)

• An Escalation in Every Way (Atlantic)

• Kimmel’s suspension is the latest display of Trump’s growing power over the US media landscape (AP)

• Jon Stewart's Post-Kimmel Primer on Free Speech in the Glorious Trump Era (The Daily Show)

• 'We are all Jimmy Kimmel': What late night hosts are saying about Kimmel's suspension. (NPR)

• How Donald Trump’s Culture-Wars Playbook Felled Jimmy Kimmel (New Yorker)

• The political mood feels like 9/11 again (Nate Silver)

• Soros Gives $10 Million to Newsom Redistricting Fight (NYT)

• Following Kirk's assassination, Republicans sour on the direction of the country, new AP-NORC poll finds (AP)

• House GOP passes stopgap funding bill ahead of shutdown deadline, setting up critical test for Senate (CNN)

• Trump and Xi make progress on TikTok deal, plan to meet in South Korea (Reuters)

• Estonia says 3 Russian fighter jets entered its airspace in ‘brazen’ incursion (AP)

• The ‘blob’ is back — except this time it stretches across the entire North Pacific (CNN)

• Scientists May Have Found Signs of a Hidden Universe on the Ocean Floor (Popular Mechanics)

• Meta Accused of Torrenting Porn to Advance Its Goal of AI ‘Superintelligence’ (Wired)

• OpenAI won’t say whose content trained its video tool. We found some clues. (WP)

• A robot programmed to act like a 7-year-old girl works to combat fear in hospitals (ABC)

• What AI’s Doomers and Utopians Have in Common (Atlantic)

• Casio is about to start selling a furry AI-powered pet robot in the US, as it bets on loneliness (Sherwood)

• Report Finds Majority Of Fumbles Recovered Within First 48 Hours (The Onion)

MUSIC:

Neil Young-Only Love Can Break Your Heart - live 1974 (YouTube)