...and pass the ammunition

 For a Knight Commander of St. Gregory, Rupert Murdoch doesn't seem to have much patience with public displays of religiosity.  According to our old friend A. Source, he decided to rid himself of this turbulent host after Tucker Carlson made a weird speech to the Heritage Foundation which indulged in the end-times rhetoric now permeating the Republican Party.  There were other considerations -- the Dominion payout, the Abby Grossberg lawsuit -- but Rupe really didn't care to be told that politics is a battle between good and evil, evil being transgender rights which will somehow destroy America.  Here's the money quote:

"I have concluded it might be worth taking just ten minutes out of your busy schedule to say a prayer for the future, and I hope you will."  (Since prayer is mental masturbation that sounds about right for time.)

The last thing Murdoch needs right now is more people nagging him about god.  According to Gabe Sherman in Vanity Fair, Carlson had dinner with the boss and his then-fiancee Ann Lesley Smith.  Somewhere between the soup and the fish Smith pulled out a Bible and started reading from the book of Exodus.  Aloud.  She also told Daddy -- you just know she calls him Daddy -- that Carlson was "a messenger from god."  That apparently sealed his fate.  And this was before the Sermon to the Heritage Foundation.  "By taking Carlson off the air, Murdoch was also taking away his ex's favorite show," Sherman writes.  That is so Rupert.  Heartbroken but still rattlesnake mean.

Maybe I was wrong about Christian Broadcasting Network.  Carlson could be Ed McMahon to Robertson's Johnny Carson.

Trump didn't have the guts to confront E. Jean Carroll in court but that doesn't mean he isn't participating in the trial which began yesterday.  On Ministry of Truth Social he is repeating all his rants about "Witch hunt!" and "complete con job."  This time Judge Lewis Kaplan isn't having it, since this time it amounts to jury tampering ("a public statement that, on the face of it, seems entirely inappropriate").  In other words, Mr. Tacopina, control your client, who is "tampering with a new source of potential liability."  Two other women will testify to a pattern of gross behavior.  They too will be slandered, because Trump is too stupid and arrogant to identify his own best interest.

For conspiring to defraud sapheads who donated to "We Build the Wall" Brian Kolfage was sentenced to four years in prison by federal Judge Analisa Torres.  Andrew Badolato got three years and Timothy Shea will be sentenced in June.  Their co-conspirator Steve Bannon skated on a Trump pardon.  So long, suckers.

The word "demonic" is in heavy rotation, describing everything from transgendered people to music videos, but it really should be saved for cases like this:  Randall Cooke made a delivery for Uber Eats to the home of Oscar Solis in Holiday, Florida.  He was killed and dismembered, his body parts deposited in several garbage cans along with his car keys and wedding ring.  Sheriff Chris Nocco of Pasco County observed, "This person, you always say the word evil, but this is demonic."  Apparently Solis, an MS-13 associate, didn't want to pay for the food.  "Delivery driver" is starting to rival "lumberjack" for Most Dangerous Job in America.

Think of that when you order a pie to try out your new Marsha Blackburn pizza cutter.  It has the Tennessee stars on one side and "Cutting the red tape" on the other, but thankfully no likeness of the Republican Senator.  Only $20 wherever campaign tchochkes are sold (her website).  And tip the delivery person generously.

David Gianforte describes himself as non-binary, using both he and they as pronouns of preference.  Why is this significant?  Because his father is Governor Greg Gianforte of Montana, who has on his desk several anti-LGBTQ bills his son would like him to veto, or at least not sign.  This is a footnote to the case of state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, who terrifies the state legislature and its Republican supermajority.  Not content with refusing to let her speak, the rest of the mob are considering expulsion because that didn't backfire at all when it was tried in Tennessee.  Zephyr disrupted the decorum of the dignity by holding up a turned-off microphone while supporters chanted "Let her speak!" before being dragged out of the gallery.  (In a state whose governor is best known for slugging a reporter, what does decorum even mean?)

The laboratories of democracy, Justice Brandeis called the states in 1932.  I assume he had just seen Frankenstein.

Breaking news:  Fox News is "in bed with the left."  According to Kari Lake, so take it with a grain of salt the size of the Grand Canyon.  The Empress of the Southwest urged Tucker Carlson to speak out and sacrifice all the millions of dollars he won't be paid if he does (once again, according to A. Source).  "We need your voice over the next year and a half to save our country."  Watch out, Donnie -- another messiah shaping up.  Jonah Goldberg also sees a Carlson future in his crystal ball:  "I think there's a very real possibility he goes full Joe Rogan, creates his own thing, then he gets to do things on his terms."  And shaves his head?  I want him to shave his head.

Oh lordy, more tapes.  Specifically, there's one where Ted Cruz chats with Maria Bartiromo about his plot to create a phony "commission" which would succeed where Mike Pence let them down, by pretending to investigate the certification and proclaim it fraudulent.  Ari Melber got a copy from Amy Grossberg, once Tucker's stooge-booker, now Fox's enraged enemy.  Naturally Cruz denies the whole thing.  

On Monday night Carlson's name came up on the network he used to rule, and Sean Hannity cut off debate:  "We're not talking about him."  Now I am king of the cats! he did not add.