(15 MARCH 2023. BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH.)
AS OF WEDNESDAY MORNING, I HAVE RENEWED CONTACT WITH THE WEB COMPANY. I'LL TRY TO ADJUST TO NEW CONDITIONS IN NEXT FEW DAYS. THANKS FOR THE NOTES, YOU HARDY FEW WHO NOTICED I HAD BEEN DISAPPEARED. TO BE CONTINUED. MAYBE. IT IS, AFTER ALL, THE IDES OF MARCH. GV Rupert Murdoch's star agitator, Tucker Carlson, is sharing the secrets of his squirrelly heart, via internal e-mail. He says he hates Donald Trump, as opposed to the slavish adoration he shows on Fox Fables. How to explain this? Your explanation is welcome on Comments. (below) Meanwhile, Alex Murdaugh is locked up, permanently. Rupert Murdoch may be out a billion dollars or more for emitting falsities about the Dominion company and called it "journalism," when he actually admits they are lies. I was wondering about the two blokes with similar names a couple of weeks ago, wondering if they are related, so I looked it up. “Originally, the name was a nickname for a person associated with the sea,” says the website, House of Names. The name Murdoch derives from one of two Gaelic names which have become indistinguishable from each other. The first of these, Muireach, means belonging to the sea or a mariner. The second name is Murchadh, which means “sea warrior.” As for the other man in the news: The name “Murdaugh” is “an altered form of Murdoch,” according to “The Dictionary of American Family Names.” I do not mean to make light of the terrible events in South Carolina that sent Alex Murdaugh, a so-called scion of an old family off to prison in handcuffs, convicted of the murders of his wife and younger son. And there are other deaths in the backdrop, including a Murdaugh family housekeeper who died, perhaps from falling downstairs, or perhaps not. (At the very least, the scion stole her insurance money.) That is a tale of privilege and money and also the contemporary usage of drugs. I wouldn’t have minded seeing an occasional mention of the family that profited from OxyContin (and the doctors and pharmacists and flat-out criminals who doled them out like candy, hooking thousands of poor people as well as a lawyer and “scion” with too many toys in lowland South Carolina.) We are left with the image of a wife apparently on the verge of separation, and one son (“the little detective”) discovering more piles of OxyContin, both murdered, and the older son sitting in court, thinking, what? Also in the news is the similarly-named Murdoch, Rupert, who has been infecting public discourse going back to his origins in Australia. He brought his sniggering style of “journalism” to Great Britain and then to the United States. I still remember when a quirky liberal tabloid, the New York Post, morphed into a Murdoch property in the 1970s. Soon we were treated to the Page Six gossip of a lightweight real-estate poseur who would brag about the women he had slept with, allegedly. For many, that was the first time they ever heard the name “Trump.” So we have Rupert Murdoch to thank for that. Recently, in the manner of ganglords, Rupert Murdoch turned on Donald Trump when he began losing at the polls. A Post headline referred to “Trumpty-Dumpty” after recent congressional elections. However, Fox television continued to make money from blather by its commentators – most scandalously in the wake of Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump’s legion of thugs attacked the Capitol. The most famous names on Fox – I cannot even type their names, and of course I never, ever, watch them – stuck with their on-air position that Jan. 6 was a picnic for gentle tourists. In their spare time, however, these paragons of Fox journalism ridiculed some of the buffoon lawyers supporting Trump, and they acknowledged that Trump did lose the 2020 election. But tell that to their viewers out there? People like Tucker Carlson worried about the company profits. “They endorsed,” Mr. Murdoch said under oath in response to direct questions about the Fox hosts Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo, in a $1.6-billion defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems, the New York Times reported. “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight,” he added, while also disclosing that he was always dubious of Mr. Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud. Now he tells us. Rupert Murdoch has testified that he knew his stars really did not believe the lies they were spewing on-air. He sounds a bit dazed from recognizing reality. But his words are out there. Rupert Murdoch does not believe what makes him rich. So much for journalism. Alex Murdaugh has been sentenced to two life terms. He’s yesterday’s news, sad and horrible news. Rupert Murdoch created a media empire that disregards truth – a television network that helped send thousands of thugs climbing into the American capitol building. Rupert Murdoch undermined a nation, leading to a Gaetz-Greene-McCarthy infestation in Congress. (Can he be deported?) Now his empire is being sued. Apparently, over half the Fox stock is owned outside the Murdoch dynasty. If Murdoch’s acknowledgements ultimately hurt the product -- bad ratings = defections by sponsors – the Murdoch dynasty could be in trouble. Your comments about the strange psycho-drama with Carlson and Trump, and the bizarre hiccups of reality from Rupert. Under "Comments:" 3/4/2023 12:09:42 pm
"Now he tells us." Really? For years Fox's journalists at other media talked, even joked about, the extent of their Fox colleagues openly talking about the rubbish they were expected to dump on TV audiences. Why didn't the lying come our earlier when it might have done some good? Same story with George Santos. Written about on Long Island, talked about openly in Brooklyn and Queens. The rot is not confined to FOX.
GEORGE VECSEY
3/4/2023 07:47:44 pm
Ina, nice to hear from you. I agree with you, many of us in this district were caught unawares by this creep. The entire New York Democratic party ought to resign for not sussing this guy out. I never noticed a critical article on this Santos, but I now read that spectre of crime, expressed by the twerp gubernatorial candidate Zeldin, touched the deepest fears of suburban home-owners. Sounds like everybody fell down on the job. GV
Ed
3/4/2023 01:11:22 pm
Thinking of names, I believe the guy here’s name is really de Santos.
GV
3/4/2023 07:50:08 pm
Ed: George Anthony Devolder Santos...or, as they say in Portuguese, "schmuck." GV
Alan D Levine
3/4/2023 01:20:01 pm
George--The Times reports today that Fox News is not reporting Rupert's confession, nor is most of the rest of right-wing media. And many MAGA types who have seen the reports are angry at the reporters of same for their disloyalty to our former neighbor. Reminds me of the Communists who stayed loyal to the party line for so long.
GV
3/4/2023 07:53:10 pm
Alan, I'm not surprised that MAGA types would be angry at anybody reporting Murdoch's bewildered admission of falsehoods from the talking heads on Fox. Lot of people have been beaten down to nothing, GV
Marty Appel
3/4/2023 03:08:25 pm
I'm sure this has occurred to people while thinking about Jimmy Carter.....can you imagine the chutzpah and irony of one day having a president who must decide whether tr**p must lay in state in the Capital, after he used that very building for an insurrection?
Ed
3/4/2023 04:25:03 pm
Marty, perhaps in the Kremlin or Red Square.
GV
3/4/2023 07:55:21 pm
Marty, I think it is fair to say that many who would come to the Capitol for that event had been there before. Imagine having to check their arms outside to pay "respect" to the disrespectful.
Walter Schwartz
3/4/2023 05:50:40 pm
George, Alan, et al.,
Alan D Levine
3/4/2023 05:58:24 pm
Remember those wonderful shots of Danny Murtaugh and Earl Weaver (a name definitely associated with needling) in their respective dugouts during the 1970 World Series?
GV
3/4/2023 08:03:50 pm
Walter and Alan:(two Jamaica High pals): Murtaugh always had a smile around the eyes, even when he was being cautious with the horde of writers. I seem to recall a press-conference dialogue between Murtaugh and Ralph Houk (The Major) early in te 60s., I was at Newsday at the time, and I recall either Stan Isaacs or Steve Jacobson writing about the humorous exchange, with the headline, "Absolutely, Mister Pirate? Positively, Mister Yank"-- old vaudeville routine. Different people, but the two MGRs clearly enjoyed each other. How did we get from the two current troublemakers to baseball lifers? GV
Andy Tansey
3/4/2023 07:12:50 pm
This piece and its follow-ups have evoked completely inconsistent sentiments from me.
GV
3/4/2023 08:09:32 pm
I agree with you about the current wave of racism from the right, encouraged by Murdoch's legions. No excuse.
Andy Tansey
3/4/2023 09:18:14 pm
As I recall, at the time when Scurry scurried off the line in 1999, the Advice to Referees on the Laws of the Game allowed "trifling" infringements, and Scurry's scurry was within the allowable margin of a yard. Now, the rule is more austere and, I believe, enforceable by VAR. Is there a goalkeeper, perhaps one from an Eastern Penna. college, in the house?
Andy Tansey
3/4/2023 09:21:10 pm
Oops. Forgot Part 2. 3/8/2023 10:28:04 pm
I agree with “let the ref catch it” approach. I first learned this as an eighth grader on the JH basketball team. Our coach said that we should start to inbound any ball that was close and let the ref call it.
bruce
3/4/2023 11:46:27 pm
george,
John McDermott
3/5/2023 01:02:11 am
The half of Republican voters who lack a college education is still more or less solidly behind Trump. The other half, the supposedly better educated ones, the ones who held their noses and voted for Trump anyway, are divided. So to me, it looks like Trump can still come out on top as the putative nominee, no matter how bad he is. Murdoch, at some point, will presumably try to put his Fox machine to work on behalf of someone else. Or maybe not? He could very well jump back on the MAGA train. It will be messy, in any case. So, Trump v Biden, The Rematch? Trump is diminished in the eyes of the public for so many reasons, and tangled in judicial proceedings, but still commands a large, vocal and uncritical audience. Biden with what amounts to a pretty solid record of accomplishments as President in a very difficult period, is carrying the weight of his age(And why IS his age an issue if he is doing a good job? He's a hell of a lot sharper than Reagan was in the latter years of his Presidency) and the anchor of a running mate who is not, and may never be, totally convincing as a potential President but who can't be dropped. I have followed Kamala Harris' accelerated rise up the escalator of San Francisco and California state Democratic politics for years. She, like the questionable Gavin Newsom, were anointed by the party machine(does the name Willie Brown ring any bells for you?) and have been promoted up the ladder as rapidly as possible. Newsom is said to have had his eye on the White House, fashioning herself as the 'new JFK", since his time as a City supervisor when he was married to the current girlfriend of Trump Junior, the crass Fox News shill Kimberly Guilfoyle. The idea of such a lightweight, with more than a few skeletons in his closet, as President is hard to swallow. I have a higher opinion of VP Harris, but am not convinced she's up to the top job either if she should suddenly be thrust into it because Biden is incapacitated. Lots of other people probably harbor the same doubts. In other words, Biden-Harris might not be the strongest ticket to face down Trumpty-Dumpty 2. If that's how it plays out it is going to be really ugly. And I'm not sure how it might end.
Randolph
3/5/2023 09:52:16 am
John,
GEORGE VECSEY
3/5/2023 10:41:45 am
John, as a long-time resident of The City, you have a sense of Willie Brown and disciples I agree that Harris was very good in the Supreme hearings for the beer-guy candidate...so was poor old Franken....but I never thought Harris had the gravitas (just the back story) for VP....but she apparently was Rep. Ckyburn's choice...understandably.
bruce
3/5/2023 11:03:32 am
george,
John McDermott
3/5/2023 12:14:51 pm
Thank you, George. I have always admired Barbara Lee, who has done a good job in Congress for a long time. But Schiff might be the anointed candidate. I do wonder if Dianne will make it to the end of her term. As for Kamala, she first came to prominence in gossip columns as "the young Alameda County assistant D.A. who is dating Willie Brown". While she was undoubtedly a capable prosecutor it was Willie who put her on the fast track to local and, later, state, office. I suspect there might be some tension between Kamala and Gavin Newsom, who no doubt would have loved to have become a Senator. Kamala checked off boxes that Biden needed to have checked, but I don't see her as "Presidential". I've always believed that if Biden had been the nominee instead of Hilary he would have easily beaten Trump in 2016. But it was "her turn", promised to her if she would step aside and back Obama 8 years earlier, and nobody was going to deprive her of that. Uncertainty about Kamala could be the reason Biden fails to win re-election. It's a tough one.On the other hand, she'd make a better President than Danny Quayle(remember HIM?) or Spiro Agnew.
bruce
3/5/2023 10:02:28 am
john,
bruce
3/5/2023 12:29:58 pm
john, 3/6/2023 05:31:35 pm
President Biden is doing remarkably well for someone who is supposed to be suffering from old age. People seem to have two ages, mental and the other one physical.
Alan D Levine
3/6/2023 05:54:13 pm
Amy Klobuchar consistently ranks at or near the top of the list of members of both houses with the highest staff turnover. To me that means she is a lousy boss and would run a chaotic White House. 3/7/2023 12:13:04 pm
Alan L-While it is possible that Amy is a difficult boss, there can be other reasons for staff turnover.
Ed
3/7/2023 07:45:38 pm
Hi, I suggested folks think about Mich zgov. Gretchen Whitmer, somehow put on last post. Have to be talented to do that. Gov is unknown nationally but has excellent Gov accomplishments and keeps getting re-elected. See there if interested. Ciao. Comments are closed.
|
