'The Staffing Was Not Normal.' Tabs, Fri., Jan. 31, 2025
Morning news roundup and things to read!
Good morning friends and enemies. Let’s do some news!
Nods sagely, mmhmmm? Mmmhmmm?
[O]h wait, Donny can’t call up the Aviation Safety Committee — because right now, there’s no one at the other end to pick up the phone.
Government works until it doesn’t. And none of Trump’s lickspittles know their tongues from his asshole. (Garrett Graff, but he didn’t say it like that.) Staffing was not “normal”; the guy who let (?) the helicopter and airplane crash was doing two jobs. (New York Times) Don’t worry though, Trump’s already blaming Democrats, Joe Biden, and Pete Buttigieg is gay. It’s at the New York Times if you feel like going to look for it.
Moment of silence for Marianne Faithfull, here summoning among my favorite antifascists, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht.
My governor, Gretchen Whitmer, should have been on this MAD DEM GOVS call with Chuck Schumer telling him to BUCK THE FUCK UP CHUCK. (Gift link New York Times) I’m always the *most-defendiest* of all the pundit people when it comes to the Democrats — “they weren’t feckless, it’s not their fault we had Manchin or Sinema or fucking Max Baucus” or whatever — but this shit has been unbelievably dispiriting. The Fucking News is much more used to yelling at Democrats, and does so here. (TFN: link fixed!)
Is a college Lunar New Year lunch for international students “DEI”? Fuck it, why not. Michigan? Be ashamed. Be very ashamed. (Bridge Michigan)
Robyn covered it for open thread yesterday, but this douche priest did a Heil Elon Hitler salute and Anglicans defrocked him TOOT FUCKIN SWEET, and you need to read their excellent statement. (Anglican Catholic Church) And of course there’s the Pennsylvania town council lady who had to resign just for not-anti-semitically doing the Elon Musk Hitler salute. She’s so sad you would think she meant anything bad by it, anything at all. (HuffPost)
Here she is with her shit-eating grin. Hope she’s doing okay.
The Zambian priest who evangelizes about solar power — and who’s been trained to repair the devices as they age and break down. I love this story. (Reasons to Be Cheerful)
Friends of immigrants in Alabama got their PROTESTING SHOES ON. (AL) I love it when Fox local affiliates aren’t all Foxy. This one is about “Detroit councilwoman urges immigrants to know your rights” and they’re like “and don’t forget the Fourth Amendment!” (Fox 2 Detroit)
As always, fuck Ted Cruz. (Techdirt)
EVAN POPS IN: Wonkette will have more on this today, but at my Friday place, I’m on about how assholes like Trump and Pete Hegseth scream “DEI!” to hide what losers they really are. Come by! Share! Subscribe! [The Moral High Ground]
EVAN BACK OUT!
Suggested by our friend Jeannette, it’s a great song of love and friendship and just kidding no it’s not, but it is our new anthem. Obviously we’re going with the uncensored version, which means you have to click over to the Youtubes so it can ensure your poor virgin ears are of age.
Here is where you give Wonkette all your extra money with Paypal.
This is the button for giving us all your extra money with Venmo. It’s ventabulous!
Wonkette IMPEACH and HELL. NO. sale continues at Wonkette Bazaar!
Snow squirrel! Your hed gif info link: https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/ear-tufts-over-the-snow
And your meme chat: https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/8eba1dfb-b77a-4047-a5f3-7dbea2838282?utm_source=share
CBS’ potential capitulation, tossing 1A aside in favor of merger bucks, it’s so disgusting. Some snippets from https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/30/business/media/paramount-trump-cbs-news-settlement.html
Paramount in Settlement Talks With Trump Over ‘60 Minutes’ Lawsuit
A settlement, if reached, would be an extraordinary concession by a major U.S. media company to a sitting president.
When Donald J. Trump sued CBS for $10 billion days before the 2024 election, accusing the company of deceptively editing a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, many legal experts dismissed the litigation as a far-fetched attempt to punish an out-of-favor news outlet.
Now Mr. Trump is back in the White House, and many executives at CBS’s parent company, Paramount, believe that settling the lawsuit would increase the odds that the Trump administration does not block or delay their planned multibillion-dollar merger with another company, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.
…
Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, strongly supports the effort to settle, according to two people with knowledge of her thinking. Ms. Redstone stands to clear billions of dollars on the sale of Paramount […]
A settlement would be an extraordinary concession by a major U.S. media company to a sitting president, especially in a case in which there is no evidence that the network got facts wrong or damaged the plaintiff’s reputation.
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Mr. Trump’s legal complaint relied on a largely untested interpretation of a Texas law that prohibits deceptive trade practices in things like marketing products to consumers. Among other objections to the lawsuit, CBS lawyers have noted that Mr. Trump’s standing to bring the suit in Texas was tenuous at best.