The Frankish Reich

Called it!

Yes, he was my "favorite" of the 3 network talk show nightlies. (I'm not counting Seth Meyers here) Not a super high bar! I will watch Bill Maher pretty much every week, but the others only occasionally. But tomorrow night is Must See TV, baby!

You should wait for your official talking points before going all hot take on us. I'm pretty sure MAGA will settle in for "boycott Disney."

You mean Kash "there is no reason to believe Jeffrey Epstein procured underage girls for anyone but himself" Patel? Poor Prince Andrew! He should demand his money back.

This actually did happen. Thank you for the reminder! I suspect it is on Peterman's resume: "Won NFL starting QB job in a 3-way competition with former BCS Championship QB AJ McCarron and future NFL MVP Josh Allen." [Yeah, I know there were other reasons, but still ... it is true]

When I see things that don't make sense - like "why did Kristi Noem leapfrog Tom Homan to become DHS Secretary" - I keep that question in the back of my mind. And sometimes the answer becomes all too clear in due time ... Yes, there is a ton of corruption in DC, including the never-ending game of musical chairs: government official --> lobbyist --> government official. But this one sounds like a particularly ham-handed scheme. The video is either out there or it's not, and if it is out there, it's gonna surface.

Well, it just got more interesting. I expect Homan to resign to spend more time with his family before the tape leaks.

It's true. Jimmy's Very Unfunny and Poorly Rated audience is the perfect lead-in!

Kimmel himself has been very quiet about all of this. I suspect there's some kind of cooling-off period and a behind the scenes negotiation about some kind of apology ("I'm sorry that I obviously offended some people ... that was never my intent ...") and a return to the air until his contract expires, with some kind of understanding about no jokes even tangentially related to Kirk. Why? Well, ABC/Disney probably don't want to be seen as fully bending the knee (or bending whatever) to Trump. I'll admit it's a total guess. They could be negotiating a buyout instead ...

So far, the new vaccine and autism guidance doesn't bother me. These are fairly minor tweaks. Should Tylenol have a label like "if you are pregnant, you should consult with you health care provider before taking?" Whatever, that's fine, as with most medicines. Will Trump/RFK Jr. attempt to oversell this possible "link"? They already are. Will this oversell cause some woman somewhere to avoid taking Tylenol and to cause damage to her baby based on an untreated high fever? Almost certainly. Nothing is cost or risk free.

The bribery investigation explains a lot to me. I expected Homan to be nominated as DHS Secretary. Well ... that is obviously a position requiring Senate confirmation, and the then-ongoing investigation would've been a bit awkward for him to say the least. So create an uber-Border Czar position for him to exercise the same policy leadership without the need for all that messy stuff. Disgusting that people would think that a guy who took $50K cash in a Cava fast food takeout bag should have any place in public life.

I didn't watch this in real time, and I've just been poking around the main clips. Takeaway: Erika Kirk and Marco Rubio deeply understand the message of the New Testament. Stephen Miller and Donald Trump are purely Old Testament.

And the Broncos could have (should have) beaten the Chargers. Other than those two things, it really is the best possible scenario after Week 3!

Thanks for the comment. I was aware of New College if only because I found it intriguing way back when, when I was actually starting to apply to college. There's plenty of room for it to tack away from 20th Century "progressive" ideas to traditional Liberal (of the Great Books kind) of education. I'm hoping they are able to pull that off instead of becoming some kind of conservative parody of a liberal education.

Kudos to Marco Rubio. It was ostensibly a Christian Memorial Service even though we know it was a political event too. Rubio delivered an impassioned Christian sermon. Was it appropriate for a Secretary of State to do that? Well, that is a topic for debate. But as far as setting the right tone, he was pitch perfect.

I'm not aware of any bags of cash being delivered to Joe Biden. Bag of cash = presumptive bribe.

So nobody watches Kimmel, nobody cares what he thinks. He's the Poorly Rated and Very Unfunny Jimmy Kimmel. Yet somehow the FCC Chairman finds it absolutely critical to threaten owners of local affiliates about "hard way" consequences if he isn't taken off the air.

Back to Homan: It was a sting operation. So presumably the $50K was handed over to Homan and then they waited for evidence of the quid pro quo. So ... where is the $50K? Weird for anyone to defend Homan here. No legitimate public official or person planning to become a public official takes huge amounts of cash like this.

The problem is the FCC is not-so-subtly threatening to use its unrelated authority to approve mergers in order to gain leverage. That's how the CBS/Paramount settlement happened - after it was done, Larry Ellison's son completed his takeover. Same here with the Tegna proposed merger. And here I thought MAGA was about constraining the power of an unaccountable bureaucracy ...

Well, as I said he implied the kid was a MAGA type, but he didn't say it. What he did say was there was a furious attempt by MAGA folks to get ahead of anything that might implicate him as a MAGA supporter. Whatever. This is an abuse of the FCC's powers, and note that they are now relying on an obsolete distinction between over-the-air broadcasters like ABC and "cable" broadcasters like Fox News. So Gutfeld can make fun of Paul Pelosi all he wants but Kimmel can't even gently chide Trump's cynical attempts to capitalize on an assassination. The FCC Chair called it "the sickest comments possible." Really? Watch it and tell me where he criticizes Charlie Kirk.

I'm not a regular Kimmel watcher, but I did tune in on Monday - that fateful night, in retrospect - to see how he'd deal with the Kirk murder. It was all pretty standard, with Kimmel properly decrying the killing. He then pivoted to how the MAGA folks were all too eager to use the killing to gain a political advantage. He did imply that a MAGA guy was probably behind it (something that we now know for sure isn't true), but he didn't flat-out accuse a MAGA supporter of being the killer. His line about Trump somehow rambling on about his White House patio/ballroom project when asked about Kirk was spot-on, and kind of cringe rather than laugh amusing. But perfectly fair. So I have to conclude this isn't about comments about Charlie Kirk at all, since there really weren't any. This is about criticism of Trump. As it always has been.

There's a Gutfeld for every Kimmel now, a Ben Shapiro for every Rachel Maddow. Maybe we just click to a different show?

Free speech absolutist Charlie Kirk would presumably be turning in his grave but he's not even buried yet.

Yes, I am the Voice of Reason! Luigi 1st Degree Murder charge dropped? Outrageous! Sounds like First Degree Murder to me!! I was scared!!! That's terrorism!!!! Liberal something something!!!! Me: umm, maybe we should read the law?

How long was it going to take for your little friends to bounce outside their echosphere and actually look at why the judge dismissed the terrorism-related charges? You should be thanking me. Oh, I don't deny the political implications. But looking at the NY State murder law - the one in play here - I have to agree with the judge. NY (our old friend Mr. Bragg) argued things like "the fact that he did it in Manhattan on a public street shows the intent to terrorize." But what if he had done it while the victim was onstage giving a speech, Charlie Kirk style? Well, I guess that's worse. What if he had done it by taking the elevator to the guy's private suite and killed him in his room? They're all horrible offenses. It's just that there was nothing here that fit well within NY's special circumstances warranting 1st Degree Murder. Do I think it's a stupid law that needs to be changed? Yes, I do.