Fox, Tucker, Dominion, Smartmatic, Greenwald, Newsmax

Trust me. In my normal way with headers like this, I'll tie it all together.

First, the actual news: Cucker Tarlson, known to some as Tucker Carlson, has been kicked to the curb by Fox News. Reports say it was actually mutual, as in Mediate quoting from Fox's release, but let's be real. CNN Biz notes that there's no farewell show or nothing. What aired Friday is it.

So why?

Many people bemoaned that Dominion didn't get an actual on-air apology from Fox negotiated as part of settling its lawsuit. That said, Fox had apologized before, and admitted "falsehoods" in its statement related to the settlement.

Was shit-canning Tucker a backdoor deal? I doubt it.

Was this a pre-emptive move with Smartmatic's lawsuit now teed up on the first hole, and for half again as much as Dominion? Possible.

UPDATE: Rupert himself offed Tucker, related to the Abby Grossberg lawsuit.

Was it to head off possible lawsuits by the likes of Ray Epps? Possible, and more, per that UPDATE link. That's the NYT saying that it was due to Cucker going conspiracy theorist on Epps and that the lawsuit, being about coerced testimony allegations as well as harassment ones, "needed" to go.

With Cucker now on voluminous record about hating Trump, even as for 2024, Ron DeSatan's campaign implodes and the GOP seems to be searching for a credible alternative to the racist permatanner, could it be about sweetening up to him? Possible.

Replacement? Well, I speculated on Twitter when I saw the initial news:

You're shitting me on Fox and Tucker dumping each other. If Greenwald (or maybe Taibbi) is his replacement, remember, you heard it here first.

And, there, I'm not joking.

You'll note the "maybe" after Taibbi. Matt still seems to be trying to straddle multiple political stools to some degree, and he knows that Fox would be a bridge too far for many contrarian leftists who hate Democrats (I dislike a fair junk of national ones myself) but hate wingnuts even more.

Glennwald? Different story.

He's never been a leftist, contra some leftists like David Bruce Collins who once claimed he was. He has long been a libertarian or libertarian-conservative, despite him denying the l-tard label. He's been a general rectal irritant worse than Carlson.

And, people would watch him.

That said, given his "don't edit" me fallout with the Intercept, and people before that, in the print world, would Fox want someone who would possibly be an even bigger prima donna? Would Greenwald have other hangups?

And, adding one sector to the header that I didn't originally have?

Newsmax has been struggling for PR, and struggling to continue to get carried by various cable providers. Would it make a play for Tucker? That said, Newsmax has a big old boner for Trump, and given that Carlson's thoughts on that are now out in the open, that would be a tough issue. OTOH, Newsmax loves conspiracy theorists.

UPDATE 2: Newsmax, hell. Vivek Ramaswamy, supposedly running against Trump himself said Cucker should jump in the race! Given that Cucker does indeed have less than fond feelings for Trump IRL, THAT would be interesting.

UPDATE 3: Joy Ann Reid notes Cucker has the trifecta of cable news firings.

UPDATE 4: Rolling Stone reports that Irena Briganti, Fox's head honcho for bullshitting (ie, corporate communications) has a shit file on Cucker in case he trashes it post-exit.

UPDATE 5: Contra Jefferson Morley channeling David Talbot, JFK conspiracy theory mongering had nothing to do with Cucker getting fired. Also via there, contra Counterpunch, no, Cucker was not fired for talking about US troops possibly fighting in Ukraine (he's not the first to make that claim) or related. And, contra Jonathan Cook there channeling Glennwald, Tucker is only on a new path of populist pandering.

Texas Progressives talk Cancun Ted, Beto-Bob the politician, Shelley Luther

Off the Kuff presented the primary campaign interviews it has conducted so far.

SocraticGadfly offers some thoughts on Karl Rove, election thuggery and election theft in the wake of Rove's Jan. 6 column.

Shelley Luther is continuing to look for political relevance after getting squashed by Drew Springer a year ago. (With the money and notoriety she has, surprised she didn't take a gander at a state House seat, or even primarying Michael Burgess for the U.S. House with redistricting.) Her latest? Calling for a ban on Chinese university students. That said, yeah, some of them may indeed have CCP connections, and two-party duopolists may not look at the issue with more depth.

Van Taylor is getting bigly primaried for supporting an independent commission to investigate Jan. 6, even though he later opposed the House commission. (Remember, this was one of those ersatz "filibusters" by Senate Rethugs.)

What does "progressive" actually mean in Texas politics, at least in Congressional candidates? The Express-News takes a look.

Gus Bova takes the latest state news sites look at R.F. O'Rourke. He indicated that Beto is at risk of becoming Just.Another.Politician.™ Got news for you, Gus. Beto was long there. Like in 2018. Bova does note that after his "take your guns" screed, he then was part of the Texas Democratic Mafia that cock-blocked Bernie Sanders. So, say that he hit a more thorough version of JAP (a prince, or princess version, I see what I did) in 2020. Meanwhile, at the Dallas Observer, Simone Carter goes full bromance on R.F.

For the unknowing, after actually saying something halfway close to the truth about the Jan. 6 insurrection, Ted Cruz then went on Cucker Tarlson, I mean Socialist Swanson Tucker Carlson, and proceeded to cut his balls off and put them on a plate for Tucker. Per that link, Cancun Ted has actually said things 25 percent of the way to the truth about Jan. 6 for months, even while refusing to admit that his vote not to certify electoral votes contributed to the problem. He should have known Swanson Tucker was going to do just what he did, which means Carlson is wrong about one thing — Havana Ted ain't so smart.

Nature vandalism is getting worse at Big Bend, as at other NPS and general nature sites.

Michael Li explains why the discourse about how Democrats have "won" redistricting misses a lot of the picture.

Glasstire eulogizes Ann Harithas, artist and curator and co-founder of the Art Car Museum.

Rick Casey predicts the future following the ongoing 2020 election fraudit.

National

Just when you think Texas election law is hard for third party ballot access, Georgia says hold my beer.

Michael Lind writes about the strange career of Paul Krugman. (And does so without irony, though possibly with some hypocrisy, given Michael Lind's own peregrinations within a tight box generally focused on left-neoliberalism, as in, yes, left, but still within neoliberalism.) Interestingly, per the next piece, Lind notes that Krugman went on to call Stephen Jay Gould an academic fraud.

Sociobiology, like its successor, ev psych, IS sexist, but it's hard to argue that it's racist. So, I would agree with this guy that calling the late E.O. Wilson racist, AND doing so after his death, AND doing so in a Sokol fashion, was a hit job. Who did that? Per Peter Burns, none other than Scientific American. (OTOH, Burns is wrong in thinking Wilson is Mr. Innocent. Sociobiology, and even more its successor, ev psych, was and is sexist. And, both were/are more pseudoscientific than scientific.) Per the graf above, Gould was one of the first to call out sociobiology.

The Nation has a fatuous mini op-ed on climate change, talking about how expensive it will be but NO actual discussion of the details, Tweeted with an even more fatuous hot take about how this is all Republicans' fault when Status Quo Joe has allowed new gummint drilling leases and Dear Leader publicly pushed his "all of the above." And, that's why, after years of 10 cents on the dollar starter subscription offers for the mag, I've continued to refuse.