NATIONAL PUBLIC SCIENCE DAY UPDATES
Here's To You, Miss Sakomoto!
-“Ludicrous!” “Off the rails!” “Really crazy stuff!” “Nuts!” “F*cking lunatic!” “This s*it is going to give me an aneurysm!” These and other phrases were traded between every major Fox News host (Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Maria Bartiromo, Dana Perino) and Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch via email and text messages in the days after the November 2020 election and the January 6, 2021 insurrection, at least according to a discovery filing made by attorneys representing Dominion Voting Systems in their $1.6 billion defamation suit against Fox Corp. and various personalities in their employ. The digital messages seem to damn all those involved in showing that, contrary to their public broadcasts during those days (and, at least in Carlson’s case, through last night), all involved knew that claims of Dominion vote counting errors were bogus, and that Ex-President Trump did, in fact, lose the 2020 Presidential election to Joe Biden (which, of course, is true).
-Meanwhile, Ex-President Trump took the partial report released by a Fulton County court investigating Trump’s role in the attempt to “find 11,780 votes” to overturn GA’s 2020 election results to claim that, because his name was not mentioned in the report, that the report represented “total exoneration!” The report, of course, did nothing of the sort. Besides not mentioning ANY names at the request of Fulton County D.A. Fani Wills (because of still-imminent indictments to come down from a different Grand Jury), the section of the report that was released clearly stated, again, that there was no fraud in the 2020 vote count, and that Trump did lose to Biden in GA. You read what you want, I guess …
-In more January 6 court news, attorneys representing members of the Proud Boys currently on trial for conspiracy and sedition are discussing whether to call Trump to the stand in their defense. Many such leaders and participants in the events of that day have claimed and testified they felt Trump personally called them to come to DC to try to, in the words of a Proud Boys motto Trump himself used in a debate against Biden, to “stand back and stand by,” taking that as a literal call to arms. (This may come as news to GOP House Leader Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Z-Q-R, GA) who in an appearance on Donald Trump Jr.’s podcast (don’t laugh – he’s getting paid six figures for it) still tried to claim it was “Antifa” that was rioting (this is impossible as “Antifa” is a label, not an organization)).
-CNN morning host Don Lemon has come under fire after what was labelled an “offensive” remark aimed at 2024 GOP Presidential candidate Nikki Haley. Lemon responded to Haley’s proposal to demand candidates over 75 get a “mental competency test” before assuming the Presidency to sneer that Haley herself “is past her prime.” The Daily Beast reports that female employees at CNN have heard similar sexist remarks off camera from Lemon, and are angered enough that they are wondering when he may be the one removed, age or not. Stay tuned.
-Speaking of broadcasting, sports leagues – in particular Major League Baseball – are eying what many believe is an inevitable declaration of bankruptcy from Sinclair Broadcasting Corporation and the 18 regional sports networks it produces and/or distributes under the sponsorship of Bally Sports. Should/when that happens, it may place multiple regional network broadcasts into chaos, particularly on the baseball side where many teams (including Cleveland, Detroit and Tampa) no longer show games locally and may not have the infrastructure to show games. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is trying to assure fans that MLB will have a plan in place to make sure games are shown in those local markets (as Apple, ESPN and Fox all have national and other regional networks available, not to mention larger teams with their own networks like the Cubs, Dodgers, and Yankees), though what that plan is has not been revealed yet as pitchers and catchers continue to report to Spring Training sites in AZ and FL.
-And speaking of bankruptcy, the national store chain most rumored for the last several years to be on the utter brink of bankruptcy appears to have staved it off one more time. Thanks to a last-minute $1 billion stock equity deal, Bed Bath & Beyond and their (still dwindling but not yet closed) stores will continue to allow all of you with those 20% off coupons to use them for that toaster that conked out or to restock your Scrub Daddys (which are Joe-endorsed!). How long? Who knows – we thought they’d be closed already, right!?
-Anyhoo …
-On this date in 1904, MADAME BUTTERFLY premiered. On this date in 1913, America was introduced to impressionism and its cousins when the influential Armory Show opened in New York City. On this date in 1947, Voice of America radio began broadcasting in the Soviet Union and other countries behind the “Iron Curtain.” On this date in 1972, the Model T was overtaken as the world’s best-selling car by the Volkswagen Beetle. And on this date in 2014, Jimmy Fallon assumed the Tonight Show host chair for the first time.
-Happy Birthday to Aaron Montgomery Ward, Wally Pipp, Red Barber, Hal Holbrook, Chaim Potok, Ruth Rendell, Buddy Ryan, Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna Everage), Jim Brown, Mary Ann Mobley, Huey P. Newton, Rick Majerus, Rene Russo, Richard Karn, Loreena McKennitt, Rowdy Gaines, Lou Diamond Phillips, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Jordan, Buster Olney, Bryan Cox, Billie Joe Armstrong, Taylor Hawkins, Jerry O’Connell, Paris Hilton, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ed Sheeran, and Jeremy Allen White.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to typewriter inventor Christopher Latham Sholes, Geronimo, Lincoln Memorial architect Henry Bacon, Lee Strasberg, Thelonious Monk, Lefty Gomez, Randy Shilts, Dan O’Herlihy, Bill Cowsill, and Bob Casale.
-Feed the Worms: ear-bleedingly loud movie directing hack Michael Bey entered Earth on this date. Pioneering disinformation radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh passed away on this date.