Solving a Problem Like Maria

This afternoon's high is supposed to be in the low 80s (F).  We have 71 (F) right now.  The sun is shining.  Though, as we should all expect by now, there is a threat of thunderstorms this afternoon.  In fact, for the next week our afternoons are going to be threatened by thunderstorms.  Highs are expected to be in the mid to upper 80s (F), though there does seem to be a cooling trend on the horizon.  This is a good thing.  Everyone I know is ready for Autumn.  Though what late Autumn and Winter are going to be like is anybody's guess since El Nino seems to be supersizing out in the Pacific.  If I'm remembering correctly, the last time we had a serious El Nino, out winter was extremely mild.  

Yesterday was quiet here.  I'm in the process of taking all of my Trainwell workouts and and modifying them, keeping certain exercises and routines and throwing others out, like squats.  Squats are out.  There are quite a few other quad and glute focused exercises in which you don't need to squat.  I did one of the preliminary routines yesterday and was rather pleased.  Other exercises will be added until I end up with a routine that runs around 50 minutes, or so.

I also broke the 3 pounds of angus ground beef I'd bought at Karn's in 8 oz servings, that's 6 servings at about 380 calories each.  Those servings should last for a while since I tend to eat more chicken and pork than I do beef.

And, of course, the breaking news was about Maria Bartiromo getting fired by Fox.

So, Fox Entertainment is no longer asking "how do we solve a problem like Maria."  I'm hearing that she has already hired a "high profile attorney."  This means that Fox is once again going to be going into court because of the Orange Anus.  They last time this happened they settled out of court with Dominion Voting, paying Dominion $787 million.  Can you hear me laughing?  Things are going to get real interesting if this makes it to the Discovery stage of the trial.

People are wondering if this means Fox Entertainment might be trying to cut the umbilical cord of propaganda between themselves and the White House.  Have they, so to speak, seen the writing on the wall?  Possibly... somewhat.  More likely I think they're trying to butter both sides of a slice of bread, cover their asses, so to speak, if the midterm elections go horribly wrong for the Republicans.  How would something like that effect their viewership?  The only time Fox will take the side of the loser is if they find that by doing so viewership is going to increase.  At this point, with Orangie's approval rating on the economy at 29% I'm suspecting they're not seeing a good return on an investment by claiming he is now one of the downtrodden.

Oh, and the government just released the jobs report for August.  Don't believe them.  ADP reported that only 38,000 jobs had been created.  Orangie's team, on the other hand, pulled the number 162,000 out of their ass.  

 

Fox Entertainment

 So, we're in the middle of mini heat wave.  Temps are going to be in the high 90s (F) both today and tomorrow.  Right now our outside temp is 74 (F) with a "real feel" of 85 (F).  I did a search to find out how "real feel" is calculated and it's a combination of heat, humidity, wind, and.... get this... solar intensity.  Solar intensity is measured in watts per square meter.  In reality, I don't doubt that someone stands outside for a few minutes and, upon coming back into air conditioned comfort and, ignoring the reading on the thermometer, says "wow!  that feels like 85 (F)."

I did work yesterday and it was slow.  Only myself and an aisle associate were scheduled.  I did talk to a few people, but mostly chatty conversations about old houses, and which floor leveler was best for a wood floor.  Usually I take something for dinner when I'm working that shift, yesterday I didn't thinking there would something left over from the weekend and there was:  yogurt.  

Since this is my first day off, my first load of laundry is in the washer.  Rather than use the dryer, it will be hung out to dry on the rack, however because we're supposed to have high humidity, it may take a long time to dry.  This means it might be the only load for the day

The picture of Max the cat which was posted yesterday was actually scheduled for today's post.  A bit on Max.  I got him when he was 8 weeks old and he lived to be 21 years old.  He's the only pet I've had who's buried here.  He was a good cat, and is the namesake for Maxwell Sullivan, one of the main protagonists in my books.

So today, instead of Max, you're going to get a picture of Harrisburg.  This was taken from a drone looking east.  My house is located to the left and behind the camera.  The island in the middle of the picture is City Island.  A long time ago, before they built the baseball stadium, they used to have concerts there.  I saw, among other groups, The Grateful Dead there... twice.

Isn't it fascinating how even without the Orange Anus's tariffs kicking in, prices are still going up.  Many people don't know that a lot of them are on hold because TACO.  Supposedly, according  to that horse's ass Howard Lutnick (notice I didn't say Nutlick) they're officially starting on August 1st.  This is interesting because Chinese sources are saying that an extension  has already been agreed to because TACO.  

And I read that Orangie wants Rupert Murdoch to be deposed within the next 2 weeks because Orangie is worried Murdoch, who's 94, might die.  Orangie better hope that Rupert lives as long as possible because when he dies control of Fox entertainment goes to all of his children.  Except for Lachlin Murdoch, all of Rupert's children hate Fox Entertainment. so with his death great changes may happen there.  Changes not to Orangie's liking.

Main Stream Media

 It's Sunday, the temp is 68 (F) and, again, it's predicted to climb into the mid to upper 80s (F).  The skies are supposed to be partly cloudy, though there is not going to be any hint of rain.  That might show up tomorrow, which is going to be a replay of today, except with more humidity.

I do get to work today.  I worked yesterday.  I have a pair of customers whom might be difficult.  Usually, when a customer sets up a measure they're allowed to order 3 free carpet samples.  Well, they ordered one sample when the paid for their measure and then showed up yesterday to order 2 more free samples. The system wouldn't let me order them.  I got an error saying their measure number had already been used. Not everyone who orders multiple samples makes a quick decision because not everyone is happy with their original choice.  I'm thinking the large, orange home improvement retailer I work for changed the ordering process.   The customers called last evening before I left and were quite upset they hadn't received an email letting them know their samples had been ordered.  He was rather adamant about how they needed these 2 more samples before they could make a decision. I explained the situation.  He was not happy.  So, this morning when I get to work, I'm going to set up a fake measure in order to get a measure number, and order them their other two samples, and then tomorrow, or Thursday, I'll cancel the measure.  

I also got into an argument with a fellow associate that started with his telling me something he'd heard on Fox (notice, I've dropped the News).  My dander went up and I said things... but it's Fox, the joke of Main Stream Media.  The fact that people who are supposed to have brains still watch tabloid entertainment and think that it's news.  Remember this?

And for those who haven't noticed, there seems to be a big problem with Main Stream Media, and it's not that they're putting out fake news, as much as that they're not covering the news the way they used to; these days they're focused on how often their website gets hits.  Instead of reporting the news, they seem to be creating drama especially around Biden.  Though let's be honest, part of my complaint is that the reports of Biden's mental status seem to be constant, and I truly wish that subject wasn't their bread and butter.  However, when the Lincoln Project says that the administration has been deceitful about Uncle Joe's capabilities, you need to wonder.  I do really hope he's not being a stubborn old man.  If that's the case, then the MSM has been doing their job, we just don't like it.

The Same as it ever was

 We're in for another steamy day here in Central PA, though by steamy I actually mean warm. Upper 80s (F) is what they're forecasting.  Tomorrow, too, though tomorrow's high might be a record breaker.  They had predicted showers yesterday, but that never happened.  We had a lot of wind around 7ish last evening, but that's about it.

I cut a few branches out of my one river birch tree yesterday and was going to weed wack the outside of my fence, except the wacker battery wasn't charged.  Now it's charged, yesterday it was sitting on a shelf on my back porch.  Because I'm working today and tomorrow afternoon, the wacking will have to wait until Friday.  Rain is predicted to arrive in the area, but not until this weekend.

Are the extra hours at work effecting me?  Ehhh, not really.  I was, as my grandma would say, "nappy," yesterday, but I still managed to get in a 10 mile bike ride.  Oh, and I put the small window A/C unit in the exercise room.  That will keep the room from smelling like a locker room later on this summer.

I'm going to be making a Greek cheese pie with phyllo later on this morning, except I'm thinking of adding a layer of slice tomatoes.  I guess that would mean it isn't completely Greek.

The Body in Motion is now available for purchase!

An amusing thing about myself and how I prioritize my time, is that when I'm not working, I spend less time on my phone, and the lest time I spend with my phone, the frequency I'm looking at social media drops.  So, what happened yesterday?  Well, there was a special election in New York (?) in which one Democrat replaced another.  The Democrats said they would keep Mike Johnson from being fired by the far right, no doubt because he's realized Democracy depends upon compromise.  Trump was in court again.  There are a lot of bad pictures of him heading into the courthouse.  As usual, he spouts his standard whine whenever he gets a chance.  

Oh, here's biggy.  Hunter Biden's going to sue Fox.  Will that tabloid media group ever learn?  Absolutely not.  It's the same as it ever was.

Supposedly

 Well, a new work week has arrived.  Accuweather is still predicting rain for today and tomorrow, however a look at the forecast shows us just having showers on and off throughout the next 48 hours.  What that means is that we're not going to see the sun until sometime on Wednesday afternoon.   It also means I'm going to have to mow my lawn before the end of the week.  Temps may be a bit cooler right now, but the azaleas and the dahlias are still bloomin' their pants off.  

As I expected, yesterday was a very slow day at the store.  I sat around.  I talked to associates.  Surprisingly, I did get a lead for a blind installation, as well as a measure for flooring, though the flooring measure was for vinyl planks not carpet.  They really want their carpet measures.  We probably make more on a them.

The new dishwasher arrives tomorrow, the electrician on Wednesday, and Lyndsey should have all of the new drywall up and the cabinets hung the following week.  Some of the plumbing I'm going to do my self, but the dishwasher hook-up is going to be done by a plumber.  After all of that is done, I'm going to put down the new vinyl plank flooring.  I'm waiting for the new countertop until sometime in December.

I did renew Peacock, they offered me a deal.  $1.99 a month for 6 months.  After that, I will probably keep it for a month or two and then cancel the subscription.  Hopefully another deal will come around just before the Tour de France.

So, is the government going to shut down?  There's a good possibility it might happen.  If it does, guess who looks bad to Independent voters?  Not the Democrats.  Nope.  Democrats are just sitting on their hands waiting for it to happen.  They don't even have to point their fingers.  Thank you Main Stream media.  It will be interesting to see how Fox handles it if it happens.  

Oh, and Rupert Murdoch is stepping down.  Supposedly there's so much bad blood in that family.  Conservatives are actually saying that Lachlan Murdoch is actually Woke, whatever the hell that is.  Another supposedly is that Rupert wishes Trump would die.  Now.  I suspect because backing him has cost Fox sooooo much money.  While I can't be certain, I say that, just supposedly, that might be the main reason Rupert is stepping down.  His decision to back the Spawn of Satan, Donald Trump, has cost the network dearly, and the expenses have not stopped.  There are other lawsuits approaching faster than the $$$ are flying out of the Fox bank account. 

Change

 So, is everybody ready for Hump Day?  There are readers out there who still feel that there is some importance in noting that they are halfway through the work week.  Thanks to Covid, those who work at home no longer see much purpose in having Hump Day, and those in retail have always though it rather absurd.  Things change and adapting to those changes is essential for good mental health.  

While I didn't work yesterday, I did pay a visit to the store, and not to make a purchase.  They're having a Silent Auction which starts tomorrow.  For me, Silent Auctions are a way to eliminate those household possession no one wants to be gifted.  This time, I've donated my PS4 Pro.  It was one of those "mistake" buys that I thought I would play more; well I didn't.  I was not impressed with the games offered, so the console took up space and gathered dust.  I did offer it to people.  There was little interest because the PS5 has been out for some time now.  No gamer wants an old console.  However, at a Silent Auction, there's a good possibility someone will take interest because... well, people do like to bid on things.  They think they're getting a deal and a there are quite a few who simply cannot turn down a deal.

And, of course, everyone knows Dominion settled with Fox News out of court.

Many were upset Dominion chose this path rather than follow through with their lawsuit.  Even if they had won, Fox would never have to publicly admit to lying.  That wasn't what this lawsuit was about.  Dominion wanted Fox to pay, and they did.  What the settlement did deprive Americans was the daily reports of how badly Fox lied.  Of course, Dominion did release a lot of examples of that before the trial actually commenced.  There's no doubt in most minds that Fox is a cancer on the skin of cable news.  What we don't know is what type of internal changes will take place at Fox to avoid further lawsuits... oh, wait, there are still a number of lawsuits waiting to go to court.  Now, isn't that nice.  The more pressure that gets put on the Murdochs, the better things will be in the world.  This isn't saying they'll change, however they might modify.

Indictment?

 Wednesday.  Temps are supposed to climb up into the 60s (F) today.  Both today and tomorrow are supposed to be sunny.  On one of those days I will be putting in some yardwork.  I need to clear the flower bed in the front yard and sow some zinnia seeds.  They're a great late summer and early autumn flower.  I also need to clean the bed at the side of the house, many tulips are sprouting there.  

The River Birch in the side yard are going to be trimmed as well.  And, out at the front porch, I think I'm going to get rid of the wisteria that's been growing there for years and years.  For a long time, the flowers were pretty, but wisteria is a vine that needs constant pruning.  Sometime this spring, I don't doubt that it will be removed.

Here's a picture of my nectarine buds.

The NYC Grand Jury has been quiet for some time.  Will there be an indictment shortly?  That's difficult to say.  Word was out that they may reconvene tomorrow and possibly look at other cases.  I don't think that's how it works.  I do think Grand Juries are convened for one specific case, when the decision is made to either indict or not, that jury is let go, they move on to other cases.  There, I suppose, the possibility they may be working on indicting more than one individual Trump's case.  

And Mikey Pence needs to testify before the DOJ Grand Jury.  That's a good thing.

I find it amusing how the Republicans talking constantly about how Democrats have weaponized the government while it's they who have been weaponizing everything they can to hurt Centrist America.  They fail to understand that they will never get a majority to sign on to an authoritarian America and they don't care if they end up destroying the one thing that makes us great.  And there is so much hatred in their hearts.

Finally, I've been laughing at Fox and how they're trying to keep Rupert Murdoch from testifying in the Dominion Law Suit.  Are they afraid he might say something damning?  And the fact that their extremists are going to have to testify?  That's almost yummy.  Tucker Carlson in the witness box is a gift.

The Force

 Holy Crap was it windy yesterday.  The March lion was definitely on the prowl in Central PA.  Not only did gustiness abound, yesterday was also garbage day, so quite a number of unfettered garbage cans roamed the neighborhood, propelled by winds with speed up to 35 mile per hour.   Having a driveway in which to park, my car was relatively safe, however those cars parked along the street were fair game.

Today I'll drive to the Municipal Building a pay my taxes.  There was a time when I'd go inside, but now I just put the envelope with the check in the drop box.  I could email my bank and have them send a check, but I'm also going to have to hit my local giant for walnuts.  

So, I watched "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once" last evening, or I should say watched most of it.  For some reason, there have been issues both times I've tried to watch it.  The first time the sound wasn't synced right.  I sat through the entire 2 hours and 19 minutes with words never matching lips.  Last night the sound was right, and I was enjoying my second viewing until 20 minutes from the end.  Then, a blue vertical rectangle popped up in the center of the screen, about 2 inches wide and 6 inches tall.  It was right in the middle of the screen.  The movie played for another few minutes and then shut down.  I had the option of restarting, but chose not to.  There's nothing wrong with the TV, but there does seem to be some force out there which wants to prevent me from watch this movie.

I posted this to my YouTube channel yesterday.

I find it amusing that Dominion is releasing all of these emails and texts sent by the on-air personalities of Fox; people whose on-air personas are extremely right wing complaining about Trump.  These says a lot about their lack of moral fiber.  They had no problem pushing Trump's outlandish claims of election fraud basically to insure they were getting a paycheck.  It makes you wonder if Tucker, and Laura are still being phony; do they take their programs seriously?  Is Rupert still pulling their strings?

Word is that a certain someone is going to be indicted this afternoon.  I give a name, but, if it's true, I wouldn't want to jinx the chances.  If it is true, there will be joy in Mudville this evening.

Living in a Haze

The skies are overcast and we have light rain showers outside.  Temps are predicted to climb up into the low to mid 60s (F) today.  That will be nice.  Tomorrow, however, they're going to tank, though the definition of tanking is relative when you take into account how warm it's been this winter.  For us, the mid 40s (F) means our temps are tanking.

Rather than riding the bike, I've been spending a lot of time on the treadmill.  Usually I keep the speed at a fast walk, between 3.6 and 3.8 mph, but I've been increasing the incline to over 5% so I'm walking fast up a continual hill.  Believe me, you don't need to run to get a good cardio workout.  An interesting side effect is that my Garmin Fenix 6 tracks that incline as a staircase, so a 2.5 mile walk will show me going up 45 flights of stairs.

Milky Chance released their first song of their next album.  That will be available in June.  Here's the song, Living in a Haze.  Can we talk about versatility?  They go from singing about smoking pot in Colorado to wanting to be a disco boy in this song.  Enjoy.

For those who didn't see it, and I'm one of those, Merrick Garland was testifying yesterday in front of some Republican hack committee trying to prove one of their conspiracy theories.  I did watch a clip where that buffoon Ted Cruz accused the DOJ of leaks regarding to photos from the Mar a Lago raid.  When Garland pointed out that the photos Cruz was using as a reference hadn't been leak, rather they had been part of a press release, the buffoon quickly played his 'no further questions,' card.

Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries sent a letter to Rupert Murdoch asking that Fox not air their re-edit clips of the January 6 attack on the the capital in order to avoid further violence.  I don't doubt that Rupert is not in a happy place right now.  With that letter being publicized, should Fox go ahead and air anything that incites violence, they will be to blame.  They may shriek Freedom of Speech, buy any and all public disorder will be laid upon their doorstep.  And, of course, there is the Dominion law suit.  You can that's going to play into old Rupert's decision, he's already on record as saying Fox out and out lied about the election.  I hope he's enjoying this haze he's put himself into and wonder if all he really wants to do right now is be a disco boy.

 

The Eyes Have It

 So, yesterday was a bit different, all around.  The day started off with bright sunshine, temps were moderate.  I had my eye exam.  Had my eyes dilated.  My ophthalmologist gave me a pair of those very unstylish sunglasses to protect my eyes from the glaring sun.  By the time I got to work, however, the skies had grown overcast.  I discovered I was scheduled for a lunch break and hadn't brought a lunch.  Then the weather turned sour, with heavy sleet and rain.  I scavenged my lunch, ending up with a Styrofoam cup of Ramen noodles and strawberry Pop Tarts. Tastee!

In the end, all I really got out of yesterday were some really neato shots of the inside of my eyes.  The eye on the left is actually my right eye and the one on the right is my left.  There are some light reflections on the screen and that banding across the bottom was caused by the camera and has nothing to do with the eye,

I am still borderline glaucoma, so I have an appointment for next February when we will do the whole thing again.

And I don't know about you, but I find myself feeling rather gleeful every time I hear the bad news coming from Dominion's lawsuit against Fox.  This doesn't mean I'm not pissed off by the evil that Fox represents, rather I am pleased that this shit, which so many of us have known in our hearts for so long, is finally being made public.  The fact that Fox sent copies of Biden's campaign commercials to Jared Kushner for analysis before airing them is treasonous, but then that's true for the entire conservative movement.  Why do conservatives feel the need to cheat?  No doubt it's because they're a minority group who can't win an election without deceit.  

As for old man Murdoch?  I'll bet that asswipe is shittin' bricks.  He pulled this same crap in the UK, funding conservatives who chose to listen to him in an attempt to control parliament.  There, too, it was one of his newspapers that brought him down.  Crushed him.  He got hit in the face with a cream pie and suffered public humiliation.  I don't doubt he has a little itch in his brain sayin' "been there, done that, doin' it again."  I, for one, find this simply satisfying as hell.

Tonight

 Well, yesterday turned out to be a do nothing sort of day.  I did do laundry and some yardwork, but not much.  This is what usually happens when I stay up late watching movies.  These old bones aren't used to my burning the midnight oil.  On the plus side, the dogs and I took a nice, long nap yesterday afternoon.  

So, what other films did I watch on Tuesday night.  Well, of course one of the was X - the Unknown, and the other was a remastered Blu-ray of Help, a very old Beatles movie.  Help was an extremely popular movie, one of very few films I saw twice in a movie theater, but from my understanding was not a lot of fun for the Beatles.  Life was becoming very complicated for the most popular band in the world and neither the world, nor the Beatles were ready for it.  Here's the only full length trailer I could find.

I ordered a new printer.  The 13-year-old HP laser printer downstairs doesn't handle Windows 11, even though I updated the drivers.  My laptop, still Windows 10, had serious issues printing to it last fall that were so bad I worked with Microsoft to try and fix them, it would only print 'current page.'  Back when I purchased it, I remember the salesclerk telling me that printers had gotten so inexpensive, when they went bad, people simply upgraded.

And, of course, tonight is the night the January 6 committee goes prime time, sans Fox, and Fox is scared.  Laura Ingraham spit out some sort of nonsense saying the network 'caters to their audience.'  Doesn't she admit that's an admission of guilt?  Republicans are scared.  Rubio spit out the broken record comment "no one is going to watch," thought I don't doubt for a second what he's saying is true those who supported the insurrection.  They are terrified because this hearing is going to be everywhere... except Fox, which is not good for that entertainment network.

And Tonight is just going to be the beginning.  True, there will be MAGAs that will call these hearings lies.  There are Evangelicals who will deny everything, since the truth will mean that... well, they will never admit that God didn't choose Donald Trump to give them what they want, that would be a denial of their faith.  Tonight will not go well for either of these groups.  In fact, for some it might be the beginning of the end. 

 

The Truth

 Holy Crap!  It's Thursday, and I'm scheduled to work a full 8 hour shift!  Of course, I'm off tomorrow.  Saturday is the last day I work this week.  Of course, the downer bit is that the schedule posted yesterday for 3 week out has me working 4 days.  Ouch.

While almost all of the reviews for West Side Store have been very good, I did see 2 that slammed the movie.  Andrea Gonzalez-Ramirez wrote for New York Magazine that the 2021 version, just like the first version, as well as the original Broadway show failed to truly show the Puerto Rican experience.  Richard Brody, from the New Yorker, cited the fact that one of the neighborhoods referenced in the movie was a black neighborhood and there was only one black speaking part in the movie.  I'm sure these people must have hated The Sound of Music, the most popular musical ever put on film, because the story is an almost complete fictionalization of the Von Trapp Family experience.  There was no escape from a music festival, no hiding in a nunnery, and no climbing over every mountain.  Nope.  The Von Trapps simply packed up their belongings, got on a train, and moved to Switzerland.  And as for the movie's portrayal of nuns?  Well, I don't believe there were any actual nuns cast.

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This  Never Happened!

And aren't the Fox Fools funny, throwing their little hissy fits about their texts being made public?  I think so.  I also think it's rather sad that the red-handed lies are being revealed and instead of showing remorse or contrition, the part of the Orange Anus is simply lying even more, or denying the truth.  This is the 'do nothing' party showing their true colors.  They don't like democracy.  They want to be in charge of an authoritarian government that dictates.  We've heard it from them over and over again, so this should come as no surprise.  "Shut up!  We're in Charge."  This is why they needed to be voted out and taken down.

Fox News and Gerontology

This morning, while I was looking over my news feeds I saw a headline in the NYT which caused me to take a step back and reflect.  I didn't read the article, but evidently advertisers have a need to be concerned about buying time on Fox News because the median (average) age of viewers is 65.  To give you an idea of what that 65 actually means, for every 24 year old viewer, you would need to have 2 viewers who were 85.  This is not good, since the advertising on Fox is geared for the 24 - 29 year age group.  What should be even more troubling for the news network is that the message they are sending out over the airwaves is not attracting younger viewers.

Fox News, past it's prime?

Being the news network watching by aging Americans does not put you in a 'win-win' situation.  In fact, it's quite the opposite since your audience is slowly dying off.  Part of the problem is the notion that 'if it's not broke, don't fix it' seems to have fixated itself in the executive pudding heads.  People aren't going to turn on a network simply to watch some porcelain doll reading a news prompter... well, maybe the old farts will.  What they need to do is turn their message into something which is more progressive and less regressive, a challenge they may find too difficult to achieve.  I mean, there's nothing wrong with being a geriatric news network, you just need to realize your audience is going to continue shrinking, year after year.  This means Fox News is in for a slow and lingering death.

Seth MacFarlane triumphs, Fox News craps its pants

I watched the Oscar telecast last evening and enjoyed it thoroughly.  Originally I'd thought "Lincoln" might sweep, but then I saw "Argo."  When the audience broke into rousing applause twice before the film ended, I knew I was seeing Oscar gold.

As far as Seth MacFarlane hosting, I think he hit a home run; reviewers were not as kind.  People seem to forget, or else they never saw, both Both Bob Hope and Johnny Carson telling jokes that were considered a bit more than ribald and tasteless for their times.  Surprise, they did, and then they would stand there looking like guilty little boys.  The show was never meant to be a "G" rated family affair.  True, some of Mr. MacFarlane's jokes did make the audience wince, but again, this is pretty much a standard feature.  Everybody watching needs to have those "oh, he didn't say that," moments, without them the show would be rather lame.  The "I've seen your Boobs," number came close to hitting the mother lode.  Guess what everybody's talking about today?  Guess what everybody's trying to watch on YouTube?  If you don't think Bob Hope, or Johnny Carson, or even Billy Crystal would have done that number, if they could have gotten it passed the censors, you are living on another dimensional plane.  Thank you, Mr. MacFralane for making me laugh so hard!

Hopefully, he'll be back next  year

Some moron whined about having a Bondless, James Bond tribute.  Excuse me, two of the actors who played 007 are in the 80's.  I would rather remember them as being young and vibrant rather then elderly.  Two of the actors who played the character were not very successful in the role, so do we really want them onstage?  Some people need to think before they whine.

Another idiot complained about not seeing the audience reaction after Streisand sang.  Holy Crap, she ended the 'In Memorium' segment.  I was glad they faded to black rather then show the audience hooping and hollering because they'd gotten a chance to see the legendary Streisand.

And then there was the review by Fox News.  I could only wonder if the writer survived a pre-frontal lobotomy at some time in the past.  I'm reading this thing with phrases about 'conservative, family values,' wondering if they know they've just shit in their pants.  Their sister network is Fox Entertainment.  When was the last time you heard of Fox Entertainment advertising conservative, family value programming.  Over the past decades, this is the network which has proffered such titles as  Nip/Tuck, and Dirt, both enduring, family value shows.  I remember way, way back when they struck pay dirt with a raunchy little sex comedy call "Married With Children."  Of course, Fox News has always managed to show a blind eye to vulgar relative.

Fox news silences Palin

As most people now know, Sarah Palin was dumped by Fox.  Wait, let me put that more delicately, her contract was not renewed.  Of course, it doesn't make a difference how it's said, the truth is she was no longer seen as an asset.  I'm sure three years ago when she was hired for her not too brilliant commentary Fox News could not comprehend how Obama, the nation's first black president might even come close to winning a second term.  I'm sure the executives there said to themselves, "this tootsie is going to be the icing on the cake."  Wrong.  They paid her three million dollars simply on an assumption.  What they truly should have done was to have revisited the McCain campaign and recognized how detrimental her presence had been.  She turned off quite a few women voters, that select group she was supposed to welcome in to the Republican Brood.  While the campaign was run poorly, Palin did very little to help it.  In fact, it seemed as though every time she gave an interview a turd fell out of her mouth.  She wanted to go rogue with out knowing the definition of the word.  Americans want a stable government, not one that's goes rogue when it doesn't get its way.

Pretty but not that smart

She speaks about family values, yet her children can't seem to stay married.  Image is very important in politics, it's more then standing on stage behind a microphone and looking pretty.  Being successful is very difficult when your family is a star of the tabloids.  I understand she said, of her future, there will always be people who want to hear her message.  Does she understand speaking to a crowd of seven can be a little disheartening.  The truth of the matter is she was the Flavor of the Month who lasted a little longer then most.  Now, what she needs to do is disappear completely and not leave a bad taste in the GOP's mouth.

Rough Shoulders Ahead for Fox News?

Even though I don't watch Fox News, I get them.  They want to be the conservative mouthpiece of America, which for them means ratings.  Honestly, that is all they are concerned about, nothing else.  News is business.  To be successful your business needs to target a certain type of consumer.  This is why Best Buy doesn't sell clothing and Home Depot doesn't have a dairy section.  Fox wants every conservative in the United States to watch them, and only them.  This is where they run into trouble.  In order for them to maintain their image as the conservative mouthpiece, they need to brand every other media outlet as 'liberal' or 'progressive.'  Unfortunately for them, Independent voters are growing, and you can't count on every one registered as Republican or Democrat to stringently vote the party line.  In other words, if the United States was a two lane highway, in most cases, about 60% of Americans would hang around the yellow line.  True, they may veer a little to the left to pass on some issues and on others a little to the right but over all they go right down the center.  For Fox News to be the conservative mouthpiece. they need to push that yellow line as far to the left as possible in order to call it liberal.  As a result, Fox news seems to be spending a majority of it's time bouncing around on the shoulder and losing clout with those riding down the center line.

Are there rough shoulders ahead for Fox News?

This does not mean they will completely lose their audience, they can always count on that 25% to 27% the blood of the far right flowing through their veins.  Those people will only ever watch Fox so that part of the market is safe.  Others, however started dabbling a while back.  They will not only watch Fox News, but will also watch a little MSNBC and even a couple minutes a week of CNN.  A interesting statistic I ran across was that during the 2012 Presidential Debates more Americans turned into MSNBC.   Hhhmmm.  Were they more liberal, or more centrist.  Could it have been because that news network doesn't preach or pass judgement?  Or that they have both Republicans and Democrats on their staff?  Who knows.  I think we'll just have to tune in and see.  

From Secretary of State to Office Manager

I saw where the GOP has named Candice Miller to chair the House Administrative Committee.  This is a more then a bit funny.  There have been complaints for years, in fact there are some who feel it's one  of the reasons they lost the election, their women representatives have always been relegated to token status.  After Romney's loss, Fox News actually had three women on to skirt around the issue.  One of them made the point that they're only brought out when they're needed for a photo op.  That was not a very nice thing for a loyal Republican to say.  However, it is as true now as it was when McCain chose Palin for his running mate.  Of course now they say Palin just wasn't vetted correctly.  I think that's horse shit.  I'd say you can bet your bottom dollar the GOP high command gave McCain their approval.  I'm sure they thought she'd be like all Republican women, you know?  Keep their mouths shut and do as they're told.  Unfortunately for them Palin chose not to follow the script.

Candice Miller, Chairperson for the House Administrative Committee

Now they've taken the former Secretary of State for Michigan and made her, for all intents and purposes, Office Manager for the House of Representatives.  What's almost hilarious about this insult is there are a lot Republicans out there who will point to Ms. Miller and say "See, there is a place for women in our party."  You can bet those white guys in their navy blue suits who run the party are no doubt smirking to themselves, muttering, "there, that should keep them satisfied."

Is Jenna Lee just another brick in the wall?

I'll be honest, I don't normally watch Fox News.  Why watch conservative pundits constantly attack anything and everything they deem to be liberal?  Yesterday, I watched for about 2 hours and it was like entering into the Twilight Zone.  I unfortunately got to watch Jenna Lee in what I supposed was to be a discussion with 3 women, only one of whom was single, as to why single women voted for Obama.  One of the went so far as to say she would tell single women about all the good things conservatives have to offer.  Don't these people realize it's the things they want to take away from single women that most effected their vote?  There was also this bizarre inference that if you were married you would have voted for Romney.  I've heard more relative conversations between bricks then I heard between those 4 women.  They still don't understand why they lost the election.  Perhaps it is impossible for them to even acknowledge how off kilter they are.

Just another brick in the wall

And Laura Ingram made some sort of silly comment yesterday about the GOP possibly having to get back into the trenches.  Duh, doesn't she realize that unless there are Blacks, and Latinos, and Gays and Single Women in those trenches with them they're wasting their time?  If you take her words literally she is advocating trench warfare against every single soul who doesn't bow down and kiss the boots of conservatism, or at least the conservatism she advocates.  Instead of them saying that perhaps they should re-evaluate and possibly move a little more to the center, they seem to be driving themselves farther to the right.

Fox News is killing the Republican Party

Democrats are ecstatic and Republicans are devastated.  What else can you say about the recent election?  I'll also go so far as to say most Republicans now find themselves in a quandary; how to regroup and proceed when statistically they alienate women and minorities.  I actually work with an associate who was claiming in the break room that Obama won "because the Democrats were loading people into vans, registering them, and taking them to vote."  When I started listing voter polling results he claimed "that's all from the liberal media, who lie," though I'd actually seen the information on number of websites from the Washington Post, and Bloomberg, to MSNBC.  Oh, wait, I'm wrong, there is a bastion of Conservative Honesty on the airwaves and it's called Fox News.  As soon as this associate said that I knew Fox News would kill the Republican Party.  Why?  Ratings!

I'd first read, a number of years ago, the Republican Party playbook was based on the ancient television show Leave it to Beaver and that the family values represented by that fictional family were those they wanted all Americans to aspire to; it doesn't work.  There was a time when the Republican Party was, like the Democratic Party, more centrist.  This is where the majority of Americans sit, leaning a little right here, veering a little left there, but never really straying too far to either side.  The Democrats get this, the Republicans don't.  Fox News doesn't either.  They mistakenly believe, based on high television ratings, that the American People accept Fox as an authority.  While some, like the associate I work with, might, most Americans vote their gut instincts, not the way some news organization wants them to vote.  We are not sheep, well, most of us aren't.

As for the Republican Party?  They've sutured themselves to Fox and as a result are in a terrible dilemma.      They have shut out most Women, Black, and Latino voters because they did not fit in with their Leave it to Beaver playbook.  And, things are only going to get worse for them.  During this past election Puerto Rico voted to apply for statehood.  When this gets ratified there will be even more Hispanics the Republicans will need worry about.

Not what Fox News would like to hear

Since 2002 the number of people in the United States who believe the news they see on TV, on the Internet, or in newspapers has been declining.  Except for local news, evidently about 65 percent of the country still believes most of what they see of local coverage.  It's the National Coverage the people are not believing.  How do I know this?  The Pew Research Center has polled a number of Americans to get their views.  One thing about Pew, they seem to be very unbiased, all they really seemed interested in doing is putting out hard facts leaving it up to you to accept their findings or not.  Surprisingly it seems to be the cable news shows which seem to be the least believable.  I suspect this is because these purported news shows include quite a lot of entertainment.  While they're not as trashy as The Sun, The Daily, or even the National Enquirer they do tend to report a more People like, upscale version of the same gossip.

            Cable news has the same shit, just not as dirty 

Even more surprising is that Fox News has the lowest ratings when it comes to believability.  Well, now that I think about it, I don't think it's quite that surprising.  When it comes to regular news Fox can be very good, but when it comes to their political reporting they throw out integrity, aiming for what they consider to be the conservative base.  Check the link about and you'll see Fox News gets a 49% believable rating.  The poll also shows Republicans tend to believe Fox more then Democrats or Independents.  What this tells us about our Conservative brothers and sisters is that they want to hear what they want to hear.  No matter how inaccurate, they want to be able to say "see, I knew I was right."  Will this poll change viewing habits?  Hell no.  I would say that as far as market share, however, I would rather have a higher rather then lower rating.  If people don't believe you they're not going to watch you and you're wasting Ad money.