When we left Youngstown and moved to Liberty Township I was in the fourth grade, we didn’t go far. Liberty is the most adjacent suburb to the city, practically still Youngstown. We landed on Northgate Drive, a row of duplexes where families were stacked side by side. My first Russian friends were my next-door neighbors — Jewish-Russian immigrants who had fled after Chernobyl.
They brought me into their world: basketball at the JCC, swimming, dinner tables piled with food I couldn’t pronounce, and a fluency in Russian curse words no fourth-grader should’ve had. What they shared, though, wasn’t just language or hospitality. It was a window into what they left behind—a country where truth came with consequences, and where silence was survival.
At home, my grandmother had her nightly routine: Stan Boney’s weather on Channel 33, followed by the national news, then Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. I didn’t pick the programming. I absorbed it. Through that steady stream of evening broadcasts, I learned to recognize patterns. I saw Gorbachev’s birthmark. I saw Putin’s cold, calculated entrance. I saw what state control looked like.
Now, in 2025, those patterns feel familiar.
Life Under Putin: Silence as Stability
“In Russia, you don’t just lose your job for telling the truth — you lose your freedom.”
- Independent media outlets in Russia are gutted, harassed, or absorbed by the state.
- Journalists who resist are labeled "foreign agents," a legal death sentence.
- Posting against the war in Ukraine on Facebook can land you in prison.
- Courts serve the Kremlin. Churches echo the party line. Speaking up is a risk.
That’s not theory. That’s daily life.
September 21, 2025: The American Echo
“Project 2025 isn’t theory. It’s a manual.”
Project 2025 is a playbook from the Heritage Foundation detailing how to purge federal agencies, install loyalists, and consolidate executive power.
Media voices going dark:
- Joy Reid, Karen Attiah, Jim Acosta — gone.
- Stephen Colbert? Wrapping up in 2026.
- Jimmy Kimmel? Suspended this week for comments about Charlie Kirk’s death.
Other examples?
- Terry Moran, suspended from ABC for critical tweets about Trump.
- Academics, doctors, airline workers, even baristas—fired after making public comments about Kirk’s killing.
- Comedians watching their bookings dry up. Contracts quietly not renewed.
This isn’t about decorum. It’s about erasure.
Bondi and the New Speech Police
“We will absolutely target you.” — Pam Bondi, September 2025
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said this week on The Katie Miller Podcast:
“We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.”
She later walked it back, saying she meant threats of violence. But the chill remains. "Hate speech" is not a legal term. It’s vague by design. Even conservative pundits are alarmed. When the DOJ starts hinting at criminal consequences for unpopular opinions, we are in dangerous territory.
Russia jails dissenters outright. In America, we drown them in bureaucracy, PR spin, and affiliate contracts. The method is different. The goal is familiar.
Side by Side
Russia: Dissenters labeled "foreign agents"
U.S.: Critics branded "deep state," "fake news," or "hate speech"Russia: Journalists jailed or disappeared
U.S.: Commentators fired, suspended, erased from platformsRussia: The state controls the story
U.S.: Billionaires, advertisers, and regulators decide what voices survive
Return to Youngstown: When Fiction Becomes Forecast
In 2024, I published Return to Youngstown — a speculative novel imagining Trump reelected and Project 2025 enacted. I built it around characters drawn from family and community. My sister, in fictional form, was one of them—someone who doesn’t see the warning signs.
It felt like cautionary fiction. But now it reads like prediction.
Read it here: Return to Youngstown on Google Play
Recently, my sister told me she didn’t even know what Project 2025 was — which made it pretty clear she either hadn’t read the book or didn’t realize the plan at the center of the story was real. That moment stuck with me. It reminded me of what my cousin said too — that I talk about politics too much. But when the people closest to you miss the warning, that’s exactly when you can’t afford to stay quiet.
Why This Matters
Authoritarianism doesn’t always march in with tanks. It whispers in policies, reshuffles media lineups, and threatens prosecution under vague language like "hate speech."
If we ignore this pattern, we’ll normalize it. If we normalize it, we lose the ability to push back. That’s why every firing, every suspension, every speech-policing press conference matters.
What You Can Do
- Name it. Say it out loud. Don’t soften it.
- Protect the channels. Free speech means nothing if distribution is cut.
- Support local and independent media. They’re the front line.
- Talk to your people. Break down Project 2025 in simple terms. Explain what’s at stake.
The Forecast
My grandmother taught me to watch the weather. My neighbors taught me to watch power.
And now I’m telling you — on this day, September 21, 2025 — the storm is forming.
Russia shows us the endgame. America still has a choice.
But only if we stop pretending this is normal.
Bonus: George Carlin on Censorship
▶️ George Carlin – You Have No Rights (Start at 0:45)
Carlin warned us: rights are just words on paper until someone in power decides they don’t like what you say. Watch. Reflect. Then act.
Carlin’s words hit different in 2025. He warned us long ago that “rights” are fragile privileges, revoked when power feels threatened. His voice, like Kimmel’s, Colbert’s, and Reid’s, is another reminder: silence is never neutral.
Final Word
I’ve canceled my Hulu and Disney+ subscriptions. When corporations start playing gatekeeper to truth — silencing voices like Kimmel’s while cozying up to power — we don’t have to fund our own censorship.
If this piece resonated with you, share it.
If it rattled something, sit with it.
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Let’s be louder than the silence they’re trying to sell us.
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