The United States of America now seems to have officially become a banana republic. That's really the only conclusion one can draw, after the events of the past week (and the past eight months, for good measure).

The president is now openly using the Department of Justice as his own private law firm and police force. They will go after anyone Trump doesn't like, for whatever reason. Donald Trump gave a speech at the United Nations reminiscent of the days of Fidel Castro, where he spent most of the time patting himself on the back. He also told all the other nations on the planet that they were going to Hell. It was so bad one foreign diplomat texted a Washington Post reporter: "This man is stark, raving mad. Do Americans not see how embarrassing this is?"

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Donald Trump, true to form, just rolled out a surprise new federal policy -- which then caused immediate chaos for those affected by it. There was no warning and it took effect almost before the ink was dry, which created the immediacy. The White House then had to go through several iterations of what exactly it all was going to mean before that immediate chaos subsided somewhat. But the long-term effects of Trump's new H-1B visa policy could end up being rather significant. This could wind up being good news, but it could also wind up being no more than chaotic and counterproductive to Trump's own goals.

At the end of last week, Trump suddenly announced that H-1B visa holders (or their employers) were now going to be charged a $100,000 annual fee for the visa. The new rule was set to go into effect over the weekend. The language used was incredibly vague, which was what required the White House to adjust their policy on the fly (after chaos ensued).

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Last night, Jimmy Kimmel returned to the airwaves. Well, most of them, at any rate. Two corporate conglomerates of ABC affiliates refused to air the show, but with modern technology available, everyone can now watch his opening monologue even if you live in a television market where his show was pre-empted.

The official YouTube video of the opening of Jimmy Kimmel Live! has (as of this writing) 15.7 million views. If you haven't seen it yet, it is well worth watching. In fact, today we are pre-empting our own political column to present a full transcript of what Jimmy had to say last night in his opening monologue, because it is an important statement on free speech that stands on its own, and one that everyone who cares about free speech should either read or watch.

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We are now one week away from a government shutdown. At this point, the safe bet would be that one is going to happen. And as always in such situations, the blame game has already begun in earnest. While the center ring of the circus that passes for politics these days was today undoubtedly Donald Trump making a complete fool of himself on the world stage during his address to the United Nations' General Assembly, the shutdown sideshow seems to deserve more attention than parsing Trump's idiocy (which, if I had gone that route, would have prominently featured the phrase "tilting at windmills," just for the record).

There was a White House meeting scheduled today between Trump and the Democratic leaders in Congress (House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer). So far in all of the run-up to where we find ourselves now, the Republicans have been refusing to even talk to the Democratic leadership. This includes Trump as well as the GOP congressional leadership. So today's meeting would have been a rather monumental occasion.

But Trump chickened out. He did so (naturally) in a social media post where he insulted the Democrats, called them names, and tried to bully them into just rolling over and supporting his position. Which is all pretty much par for the course, for Trump.

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Disney, in the end, did the right thing. That's the big news today. And it is a clear victory for free speech.

Last week, Disney abruptly yanked Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show off the airwaves, after being pressured to do so (for purely political reasons) by the head of the Federal Communications Commission. Today, Disney apparently saw the error of their ways and announced that Kimmel will return tomorrow night.

This is good news for anyone who cares about the First Amendment and free speech. Because government officials should never be able to stifle free speech just because they don't like the politics of the speaker -- which is exactly what happened last week. That is just not supposed to happen in America, period.

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[Program Note: Once again, we are pre-empting the entire format of this column due to the seriousness of the situation America now finds itself in. Most weeks, we strive to rise above the firehose of distractions from Donald Trump and his administration, to focus instead on things which truly matter -- which, this week, include Trump once again rolling over for Vladimir Putin while he invades another NATO country's airspace, as well as Trump blowing up boats in international waters just because he feels like it. But this week the distraction truly was what really mattered. Because this week we had a direct assault on the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press in a way not seen since Joe McCarthy trod the halls of the U.S. Capitol. So we had to write an extended rant instead of our usual column, just to warn everyone in advance.]

Our subtitle this week is meant to honor the passing of Rick Davies, one of the founding members of the musical group Supertramp, who passed away less than two weeks ago. In one of their biggest hits ("The Logical Song"), one lyric seems to sum up where we now stand as a nation:

I said, now, watch what you say, they'll be calling you a radical,
A liberal, oh, fanatical, criminal

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I should say, by way of a preface, that it is a very dark day in America, as those in power actively shred the Bill of Rights right before the nation's eyes. But I decided to wait until tomorrow to talk about all of that, to give myself another day to let it all sink in. So today I am choosing instead to write something positive, because I think we could all use some good news right about now.

The state of New Mexico just announced that, beginning in November, it will become the first state in the nation to offer universal free child care to all parents. Here's the basic story:

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Will they do it? Will congressional Democrats actually force a shutdown of the federal government at the end of this month? While plenty of other political stories are currently swirling around, this is the big question that wonks who still pay attention to Congress are asking right now. So far, it seems like Democrats actually are preparing for a shutdown strategy, mostly because they got so much pushback from their own rank-and-file voters when they refused to do so earlier this year. So let's take a look at what's in play, heading into the next few weeks.

Where things stand

Where things currently stand in Congress is that the Republicans are offering up a continuing resolution that would essentially put the government on autopilot for a few more weeks. It would kick the shutdown deadline from the first of October to late in November (right before Thanksgiving). Donald Trump has apparently blessed this plan, and most Republicans seem to be on board.

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Republicans, led by Donald Trump, now apparently want to rewrite the First Amendment's guarantee of the freedom of speech. Their interpretation of it seems to be that conservatives should be allowed to say whatever they want -- no matter how vile or vicious or hateful -- about whomever they want, while liberals should be locked up if they ever say anything negative about conservatives. That's how they want to define "free speech" these days: free speech for me, but not for thee.

This comes, of course, from the top down. Donald Trump was asked about the idea of the Department of Justice "going after" liberals for their "hate speech," and he told the reporter: "We'll probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly. It's hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart." Got that? This is a White House reporter from ABC, and Trump is flat-out warning him that the government might "go after" him because he is not sufficiently loving towards the Dear Leader.

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Remember when people on the right side of the political spectrum were so incensed about the left's "cancel culture"? It wasn't that long ago. Conservatives railed at how people were being held accountable for things they said by being "cancelled" in one way or another. They called the lefties "snowflakes" who couldn't take what they saw as merely robust and unbridled free speech. Any rightwing free speech should be consequence-free in the real world, they argued at the time.

Well, times have changed. Now it is the right who has fully embraced cancel culture and (because they are in power now) are apparently about to put it on steroids. After the brutal assassination of a conservative activist last week, the right has been cancelling people with a vengeance. Anyone who posted any comment even slightly opposed to Charlie Kirk and what he stood for (some of which was pretty odious and downright racist) is being ferreted out and exposed publicly. People have already lost jobs over such posts. So much for "free speech," eh?

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