NATIONAL PRETZEL DAY UPDATES
Warm or Crispy, Perfect With Beer, A Repository for Mustard - YAY PRETZELS!
-Political media-ites continue to be abuzz at the abrupt end of Tucker Carlson's Fox News show. And while rumors continue to fly about exactly why it happened (with the most recent speculation being fear over the workplace abuse lawsuit brought by Carlson's former producer, Abby Grossberg, rather than the Dominion and Smartmatic defamation lawsuits) or what Tuckums may do with himself (he remains silent, perhaps because of a Rolling Stone report that claims Rupert Murdoch has enormous amounts of kompromat against Carlson, though there are rumblings of a Presidential run) (don't laugh, that's been floated before), Rachel Maddow helpfully pointed out that Carlson is but the latest in a long chain of charismatic right-wing media demagogues who ride high, crash suddenly, disappear, and get replaced by someone both more extreme and less popular than the predecessor (remember Rush Limbaugh? Glenn Beck? Bill O'Reilly? I rest my case). Note that as a parade of guest hosts (think QAnon DAILY SHOW) wander through that 7 pm slot and that whomever gets it will need to rebuild whatever audience of hate that Fox will quite likely pursue.
-Speaking of Ms. Grossberg, she revealed on MSNBC that she has over 90 recordings of various antics and shenanigans that occurred during her tenure as a Tucker producer, and she has turned those recordings over to Special Counsel Jack Smith. Why? Well, turns out at least one of those tapes - also played on MSNBC yesterday - revealed a conversation between Grossberg and UltraMAGA GOP "favorite" Ted Cruz (R-Cancun, TX) in which Cruz openly discusses creating a "special commission" to "examine" 2020 voting results and "rule" on whether electors were "fairly" won by Joe Biden - or, as Ari Melber described it, "an administrative coup." Given even Cruz in other conversations knew who won the 2020 election (Joe Biden), Sweaty Teddy may be packing more than sunscreen for his next trip. (One can dream ...)
-Speaking of Biden, his 2024 Presidential campaign announcement went pretty, pretty well, with a raucous speech in front of trade unionists, multiple endorsements from progressives including Ro Khanna, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and a campaign video with an unusual-for-Democrats-of-this-era theme repeated half a dozen times: "Freedom." Commentators have noted that freedom as a modern campaign theme was snared by Republicans as early as Ronald Reagan's 1964 RNC speech nominating Barry Goldwater, and for literal decades the GOP claimed itself as the party of freedom. But if the video is any indication, Biden's positioning of he and Democrats being pro-body freedom (protecting abortion rights and the rights of everyone regardless of gender), pro-organizing (workers rights), pro-protest (freedom of speech) and pro-rights for all ("woke"-ness in the positive sense) - and, more critically, Republicans being AGAINST all of the above - it is the first time Democrats are attempting to seize that theme for themselves.
-The GOP, for its part, may be playing right into the Democrats' hands for a change. A quickly-produced video the RNC created to respond to Biden's announcement made it blatant: Democrats will literally create war, poverty, and misery while Biden and Kamala Harris will literally party away ... only there was an authenticity issue with the video in that images in the video were clearly made up. And that turned out to be true, as Axios reported the GOP ad made history as the first political ad created wholly via artificial intelligence. (Insert jokes here.) This was something trumpeted by RNC Chair Ronna ROMNEY (McDaniel), and it is likely a signal that there will be many, many more such ads in the coming cycle. Gear up!
-Speaking of Republicans, as the GOP's TN legislative leadership continues to reel from its attempt to expel three Democrats for daring to demand for gun controls in the wake of a mass shooting in that state, the MT GOP House supermajority is preparing to repeat the power-flexing against a different group. Republicans there are preparing to expel Zooey Zephyr, a Democratic transgender representative who has been silenced for a week after telling that body they will have "blood on their hands" for passing draconian anti-trans legislation as part of the national GOP effort to make transgender persecution a central pillar of their 2024 platform. The treatment of Zephyr has sparked mass protests in the MT state capital, and true to their character, the MT GOP will vote to expel Zephyr behind closed doors with no coverage as they finally allow Zephyr to speak.
-Given the massive resistance to such GOP votes, particularly among 18-24 year olds, do not worry - the GOP has a plan for them: passing regulations that will ban voting places from being placed at or near college campuses. That idea came from Cleta Mitchell, a former Democrat turned GOP voting suppression zealot who, perhaps not coincidentally, was on the infamous phone call placed by Ex-President Trump attempting to pressure GA voting officials to "find" 11,780 votes to flip that state from Biden (the winner) to Trump. Mitchell's idea could be acted on, however, as GOP-controlled legislatures have continued to work to limit voting rights using non-existent voter fraud as its impetus. Be ready and have your marching shoes at the ready ...
-On this date in 1933, Hermann Goring formed the Gestapo. On this date in 1941, the first organ played in a baseball stadium - at Wrigley Field! On this date in 1954, SEVEN SAMURAI premiered in Japan. On this date in 1977, the iconic disco Studio 54 opened in New York City. On this date in 1986, the worst known nuclear power plant meltdown in history took place at the Chernobyl power plant, now in Ukraine. And on this date in 2018, Bill Cosby was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman, though the conviction was overturned in 2021.
-Happy Birthday to Marcus Aurelius, John James Audubon, Frederick Law Olmsted, Ma Rainey, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Charles F. Richter, Hack Wilson, I.M. Pei, Carol Burnett, Duane Eddy, Giorgio Moroder, Bobby Rydell, Claudine Auger, Gary Wright, Giancarlo Esposito, Roger Taylor, Chris Mars, Bill Wennington, Jet Li, Kevin James, Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, Kosuke Fukudome, Joe Crede, Channing Tatum, Jessica Lynch, and Aaron Judge.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Gypsy Rose Lee, Irene Ryan, Count Basie, Broderick Crawford, Lucille Ball, Carmine Coppola, Mason Adams, Jack Valenti, Phoebe Snow, George Jones, Jayne Meadows, Jonathan Demme, and Charles Neville.
-Feed the Worms: John Wilkes Booth met his maker on this date.
-Melania Trump was born on this date. You decide if she has a Happy Birthday or if she should Feed the Worms (or whether being married to Trump is enough).