35 days remain until the noon hour on January 20th when Donald Trump will raise his hand

and swear the 35-word oath that will restore him to power.

In an instant, military aides will slide away from President Joe Biden and towards

Donald Trump's side with the launch codes inside the suitcases that carry them

known as the nuclear football. He will again be the commander-in-chief of the most powerful

military in the world. He will be the American head of state, the head of government.

And unlike all of his predecessors, he is coming back to

power with a grant of immunity that makes him above the law. This is the warning. Donald Trump,

in that first instant of power, holds more of it than all of his predecessors.

He is well and truly an American Caesar.

And for that reason, a chill is descending over America's newsrooms.

A deep freeze is starting to set in.

Let's survey the landscape.

On the print side, there is Jeff Bezos,

the capitulent owner of the Washington Post, doing everything he can to not fall further and

further behind his rival Elon Musk in the race to explore space as a billionaire. The price he's willing to pay is the information you get.

It will be sanitized and made nice.

Trump likes the news nice.

There is Patrick Schong, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times,

who is now interfering in the editorial process and the news gathering process on a daily

basis. The LA Times isn't what it used to be. What it's become is the vanity project of its

billionaire owner who decides, through omission and commission, what it is you get to see.

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