POKING AROUND - 11/21/24

This is a new feature at That’s Another Fine Mess. The first thing I do after feeding the felines is to take my cup of fresh TJ’s Dark French Roast into the office and go through the news feed. I’m looking for the One Big Thing that elicits a “Jeezus Fucking Christ!” response. But may days that One Big Thing isn’t there, or isn’t there yet. But there may be any number of “Holy shit!” events that have popped up. “Poking Around” will take note of the small gargoyles of the morning news, with my take on whatever they may be.

With that introduction, let’s see if this works. In no particular order...

JOE AND MIKA ARE CIRCLING THE BOWL: Following the Monday announcement from Joe and Mika that they traveled to Mar-A-Lardass to kiss the ring, over the 56 minutes after they started the Big Explanation, viewing figures went over the cliff. Between 7-8 a.m., viewership fell 17% - from 839,000 to 694,000. Among the “coveted demographic - viewers 25- to 54 - the ratings plummeted 38 percent. On Tuesday, ratings dropped further, making Tuesday the third-lowest of the year, with only 683,000 viewers, compared to the show’s average of 1.044 million . In the 25-54 demographic, the show had 78,000 viewers, down 40% from the average 129,000.

This follows the announcement last Friday by Comcast-Universal that the cable networks they own - which includes MSNBC - are going to be spun off into a separate company with a “For Sale” sign in the front window. Thus begins the long-forecast casting-loose of the “legacy media.” We can expect to see similar moves in 2025 by WBD-Discovery (CNN), Disney (ABC), Paramount (CBS). Welcome to the wonderful world of Streaming. I’ve looked all over for The World’s Smallest Violin, which I know was around here someplace, but the cats seem to have made off with it.

In Good Media News, Brett Meiselas, CEO of Meidas Touch, announced this morning that MeidasTouch became a Substack bestseller on November 9, less than two months after setting up operations on Substack. As of November 20, MeidasTouch has doubled its Substack subscribers and is in the top 25 of all political Substacks. Also - MeidasTouch is now one of the Top 10 most-followed Bluesky accounts in the world.

PETE HEGSETH IS EVEN WORSE THAN YOU THOUGHT: The Monterey California Police Department records regarding Hegseth’s “sexual encounter” with a woman in 2017 have been released. Woo-wee! While Hegseth’s lawyer Tim Parlatore has claimed she was “the aggressor,” the police report says different.

The unidentified woman confronted Hegseth at the event because "she did not appreciate how he treated women." She told the police she was drinking a "small amount of Champagne" at an after-party but didn't remember having any "hard alcohol." She and a group of women were at the hotel bar, where Hegseth was also present. She had more drinks, and "That's where things got fuzzy," she told police. She believed some form of drug was slipped into her drink.

When she left, Hegseth followed her. She told police she remembered Hegseth saying he was a "nice guy." She then found herself in an unknown room. Hegseth asked whom she was texting and took her phone, then physically blocked her attempt to leave the room; she remembered saying “no” a lot. Her next memory was being on a bed or a couch with Hegseth above her; his dog tags were hovering over her face and he was bare-chested. He ejaculated on her stomach, then threw her a towel and asked "Are you OK?"

She told police she did not remember how she got back to her room and the encounter with Hegseth didn't dawn on her until she returned home; she went to the hospital for an exam, four days later, where semen was found in her vagina.

Hegseth maintains that he had sex with the woman but it was consensual and that he made sure she was comfortable with what was going on. He had not planned to initiate sex with her and that afterwards she showed "early signs of regret."

If it wasn’t for rape, the Incels of MAGA would never “get any.” Fuckers.

RUDY CAN’T HELP HIMSELF: Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, the election workers who won a $146 million defamation judgment against Rudy Giuliani over his baseless claims of mass election fraud in 2020 are accusing him of defaming them again on two of his recent nightly podcasts. On two episodes of his “America’s Mayor Live” show last week, America’s Mayor again claimed the two were “quadruple counting” ballots in 2020, “brazenly violating” a court injunction that blocks him from continuing to claim Freeman and Moss engaged in wrongdoing. In court filings, their attorneys wrote, “These statements repeat the exact same lies for which Mr. Giuliani has already been held liable, and which he agreed to be bound by court order to stop repeating. They constitute unambiguous violations of the Consent Injunction.”

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, an appointee of President Obama, ordered Giuliani to respond in writing by December 2 and scheduled an in-person hearing in Washington on December 12. Giuliani is required to attend.

Giuliana spokesman Ted Goodman posted, “Mayor Giuliani, under the First Amendment of the Constitution, has every right to defend himself, especially as the other side consistently leaks to the press. The ongoing lawfare against Mayor Giuliani must end. It’s a complete abomination, and totally outrageous, to watch these people try and destroy this good and honest man who has dedicated his life to serving others. Mayor Giuliani took down the Mafia, cleaned up New York City, and comforted the nation following September 11.”

Gag me with a spoon. Please.

How fucking stupid do you have to be, to be stupid enough to be a MAGAt? Looks like “Pretty fucking stupid indeed” is the correct answer. That people this mentally deficient are the threat to the country they are is damn embarrassing. It’s like being run over by the Energizer Bunny.

GOOD VS BAD AT THE DNC: The first “leadership contest” for Democrats is shaping up over who will be Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

On one side are candidates like Minnesota party chairman Ken Martin, who has led the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party since 2011, during which time he turned the party from an indebted entity into a fundraising powerhouse, engineering total control of Minnesota government twice, and has not lost a statewide race on his watch. Also Ben Wikler, the chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party who led Democrats there to overthrow total Far Right control of the state, plans to run. In my opinion, both of these guys would be good - their records show they are the kind of Democrats we need to turn things around.

And then there are the Dim-o-craps we don’t need. Starting with Rahm Fucking Emanuel, the man personally responsible for firing Howard Dean and turning away from the 50-state strategy that gave President Obama the 62 senate seats in 2009-10 he needed to pass Obamacare, and for closing down Obama For America - the best presidential grassroots organization Democrats ever built - just as the GOP was creating the “Tea Party.” In place of the winning strategy and organization, Rahm declared the party would only support “winnable races,” thus conceding the playing field to ‘Republicans, which led to the Republican majority in statehouses in 2010, thus creating the opportunity for the Grand Reapportionment that put Democrats in the electoral hole we’re still trying to climb out of. This worthless piece of shit is joined by “Democratic consultant” Chuck Rocha and former DNC Vice Chair Michael Blake, another pair of Professional Losers.

Why can’t Emanuel just join his super-agent brother Ari in Hollywood, where the worst he could do is fuck up a movie?

BREAKING! BREAKING!! BREAKING!!! - MATT GAETZ PULLS NAME FROM ATTORNEY GENERAL CONSIDERATON!!! From Rolling Stone just now:

Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his name from consideration to become Donald Trump’s attorney general.

“I had excellent meetings with Senators yesterday,” Gaetz wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday. “I appreciate their thoughtful feedback — and the incredible support of so many. While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition. There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1. I remain fully committed to see that Donald J. Trump is the most successful President in history. I will forever be honored that President Trump nominated me to lead the Department of Justice and I’m certain he will Save America.”

Trump responded to Gaetz’s decision to drop out in a Truth Social statement: “I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General. He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect. Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!”

That’s the kind of Prime Weasel Speak that tells you the Ethics Committee Report is about to be made public through a leak.

This will soon be The Day’s Big News. Expect more.

And for now, “T-t-t-t-that’s all, folks!”

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