Michael Gerber, bon vivant
@michaelgerber.bsky.social
2.2K followers 910 following 2.6K posts
Boss @ American Bystander. Proud papa of Barry Trotter. Cerebrally Palsied. Survivor of bonus mystery illness. Lover of print comedy & cartoons, Worsley acupuncture, qigong, trains, chicken curry. Mayor of Santa Monica (unofficial).
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
michaelgerber.bsky.social
My fellow US satirists, now is the time to do your thing.

Self-censoring is “obeying in advance.”

Forget your career—draw blood

Tear down these crooks & fools

Whether you’re writing for Colbert or doing one night in some black box over a bowling alley, NOW is the time to

LET IT RIP!!!!
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
brendelbored.bsky.social
I like how the news will be like “while the President claiming Portland was ruled by a giant skeleton named Mr Nibbles is not strictly true, it does speak to the anxiety of many Americans”
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
cwebbonline.com
ICE getting tailed like it’s a heist movie. Chicago is turning the tables.
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
heartlandsignal.bsky.social
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson:

"Private establishments can partner with us to make it clear that private property is private property and ICE cannot enter establishments without a valid warrant ... If Congress will not check this administration, then Chicago will."
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
andycraig.bsky.social
You can't raid and arrest everyone in an entire apartment building, or even legitimately get a warrant to do that, any more than you could for a whole neighborhood. That would be a general warrant. This is the most specific core the-British-did-it-to-us thing the Fourth Amendment is written to ban.
thetriibe.com
NEW — An estimated 40 people were taken by federal agents in an overnight raid in South Shore, a predominantly-Black neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side.

A couple who live nearby said they were shocked to see the enormous militarized raid in their community.

thetriibe.com/2025/09/feds...
Feds detain dozens of immigrants in 'massive' South Shore apartment building raid in Chicago • The TRiiBE
An estimated 40 people were taken by federal agents in the course of the overnight raid in the predominately-Black neighborhood.
thetriibe.com
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
roxanegay.bsky.social
If any other president in all of history said the military should use American cities as a training ground he would be removed from office that same day. The hardest thing to tolerate in all this is how relatively silent elected democrats are. It’s ridiculous.
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
brainnotonyet.bsky.social
Trump speech today was the most dangerous speech ever given by an American president

those still claiming that “this was just a meeting that could’ve been an email” or any other form of downplaying what we are witnessing is downplaying the fascist threat we face.

Trump declared war against us
nytimes.com
Breaking News: President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the military should use U.S. cities as “training grounds” at an unusual meeting focused on culture wars. It was unclear why they needed to gather senior military leaders from overseas to tell them this face to face.
Live Updates: Trump Addresses Rare Military Gathering as Government Shutdown Looms
nyti.ms
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
mpbreen21.bsky.social
If we still had anything resembling a functioning Constitution, he would be impeached by lunchtime & convicted & removed from office by the close of business today.
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
americanbystander.bsky.social
Good time to repost this
michaelgerber.bsky.social
My fellow US satirists, now is the time to do your thing.

Self-censoring is “obeying in advance.”

Forget your career—draw blood

Tear down these crooks & fools

Whether you’re writing for Colbert or doing one night in some black box over a bowling alley, NOW is the time to

LET IT RIP!!!!
michaelgerber.bsky.social
What you, I, and everyone else alive know as “comedy” is actually pretty unique in history.

It’s based on mass education, intellectual freedom, social mobility, and a big middle class. And agreement that these ideas are good.

We may be seeing the end of this, and I’m afraid I can’t go willingly.
michaelgerber.bsky.social
99.999% of the time, satire matters as much as a fart in a hurricane.

Then some asshole tries to CENSOR it, and…
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
ghostpanther.bsky.social
When super moderate centrist shows like Kimmel and Colbert are being shut down you know we are chest deep in the fascist broth.

What is SNL going to do? The entire foundation of that show for 50 years has been mocking whoever’s President.
donmoyn.bsky.social
I don’t know when it’s going to pop for a lot of normies that they are living under an authoritarian regime, but the cancellation of popular TV shows that make fun of the administration might do it www.vulture.com/article/abc-...
ABC Pulls Jimmy Kimmel Live! From the Air ‘Indefinitely’
The decision follows conservative backlash to a comment the late-night host made about Charlie Kirk.
www.vulture.com
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
naomialderman.bsky.social
When I was teaching in Singapore, I brought a copy of Private Eye to class. (Very irreverent British satirical magazine.) The students wouldn’t physically *touch* it, asked if it was legal in the UK.

So yeah. Censorship of criticism of the regime is how you know.
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
yoshikoherrera.bsky.social
Respectfully disagree: 1) in fact it is unusual for a democracy w/ this level of GDP to turn authoritarian & so quickly; 2) the weakness of both institutions (congress & courts) and individuals (Schumer etc) is shocking. Would take less than 10 people in congress or 2 SC justices to stop all this.
donmoyn.bsky.social
What America is going through is not unusual in historical terms. Plenty of examples like it today elsewhere in the world.
What makes it unusual is the rapid collapse from a set of widely espoused norms and values that centered on liberty. It is the sacking of the shining city on hill that shocks.
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
nickharkaway.com
I assume this is obvious, but I’ll say it anyway:

The advantage of proscribing a non-existent organisation is that no one can prove they don’t belong to it.
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
thefunnypages.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Little Nemo by Winsor McCay (1905-1914)
#comicstrip #littlenemo #comicstrips #fantasy
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
governor.ca.gov
This is exactly why California is putting out our own, science-backed vaccine recommendations through the West Coast Health Alliance.

We're not going to let the Trump Administration's recklessness put our residents in harm's way.
atrupar.com
Monarez: "He did not have any data or science to point to. In fact, we got into an exchange where I suggested I would be open to changing childhood vaccine schedules if the evidence or science were supportive. He responded there was no science or evidence associated w/the childhood vaccine schedule"
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
mehdirhasan.bsky.social
Silly Jimmy Kimmel. He should have just called for all homeless people to be killed and he’d still have a job.
michaelgerber.bsky.social
Well, its what Charlie Kirk would’ve wanted, at least
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
therunser.bsky.social
I love reading good sermons. Here’s one —
juliusgoat.bsky.social
"To a supremacist society, most of us are acceptable losses. Charlie Kirk is not. To a supremacist society, guns are allowed to kill most of us, and the pundits can debate later how sad our deaths were.

But guns were not supposed to kill Charlie Kirk."

www.the-reframe.com/acceptable-l...
Acceptable Losses
Whose deaths get to be deemed unacceptable in supremacist America, and whose are deemed necessary? And who does the deeming?
www.the-reframe.com
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
Well, what do Germans know about creeping fascism anyway?
kakape.bsky.social
“ABC and CBS are making a serious miscalculation. Their servility to Trump will not earn them peace, only greater pressure.”

That’s the German professional association of journalists, @djv.de, calling on major US media to support their journalists instead of preemptively silencing them.
Nicht vor MAGA-Kult einknicken
Der Deutsche Journalisten-Verband ruft die Verantwortlichen der großen US-Medien dazu auf, ihren Journalistinnen und Journalisten den Rücken zu stärken, statt…
www.djv.de
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
letitmelo.bsky.social
I am a full time designer and I had to be told that was an "e"
ziibiing.com
extremely conservative christian cafe opens with a “this is home” mural

the “e” is also their logo, it is on everything
large “this is homo” mural wait the O is supposed to be an E? it does not look like an E
Reposted by Michael Gerber, bon vivant
brianstelter.bsky.social
KEY to the story about ABC suspending Kimmel's show: Nexstar and Sinclair, two big owners of ABC-affiliated stations, both need FCC approval for pending deals. With a lot of $$ on the line, both have reason to curry favor with the Trump admin. Both decided to yank Kimmel's show.