Tuck, Tuck...boom!

 Fox News won't be the same without Tucker Carlson, who was apparently fired today on orders from Rupert Murdoch.  According to the Los Angeles Times the proximate cause was not the mendacity or the racism or the Russian propaganda but money -- specifically the pending lawsuit from former producer Abby Grossberg.  It looks like the proprietor, who just had to settle the Dominion Voting lawsuit for $787.5 million, wants to cut his losses before suits from Smartmatic and others come up.  

Stunned fans are putting the best face they can on the tragedy, with some claiming it means Carlson will be Trump's running mate.  His former colleagues are expressing their chagrin but I'll be surprised if one of them invites him to be a guest.  Going out on a limb, I'll predict that Carlson and Don Lemon (who got the long-expected push from CNN today) will form a Rowan and Martin-type comedy act, with Carlson as the straight man.  Long odds but a bigger payout, right?

Carlson's departure is good news for Ray Epps, who told Bill Whitaker last night that Tucker is "obsessed with me" and out to destroy him.  I guess 60 Minutes saw some ratings or journalistic value in providing a platform to Empty Greene and went looking for another Trumper.  Epps went to Washington before the coup attempt and was filmed urging people to invade the Capitol but never did so himself, which is why he was never indicted.  Carlson and others have spent hours accusing him of being a government agent provocateur and he wanted to tell his side.  It looks like he won't be getting that apology now.

"God spoke to my heart quite often about the direction of our country...and the message for us is it's time to unify again."  Joe Lieberman?  Marianne Williamson?  Pat Boone?  We could be here all day so I'll just tell you:  it's businessman/pastor Ryan Binkley announcing that he's available for the Republican nomination for president.  No one has heard of him outside Texas and very few within, but the "Huh?" factor hasn't stopped Vivek Ramaswamy and his "Woke...grrr....bad!" campaign.  Ramaswamy has already spent ten million of his own biotech dollars on this waste of time, while the Reverend Binkley probably sees politics as a fundraising sideline.  The more the merrier, I say.

I've just been handed a note that Ramaswamy was booked on tonight's Tucker Carlson White Power Hour.  Hard cheese, as the Englanders say.

As south Florida struggles to recover from historic flooding (25.6 inches in Ft. Lauderdale without a hurricane), its ambitious governor is in Tokyo praising Japan's military buildup and pushing investment in Florida to make up for all the damage he has done to the state's economy.  Since Disney has a park in Urayasu, he might be trying to talk them into some anti-LGBTQ regulations as well.  According to Haaretz Governor Pudding Paws will also meet Benjamin Netanyahu when he drops by Israel on his way home.  The DeSantis World Tour is scheduled to hit South Korea and the UK.  Is he planning to crash the coronation?  Stay tuned.  

A new book by Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell, Johnson at 10, takes us where we never wanted to go, inside the good ol' boys Special Relationship between Trump and Boris Johnson.  Apparently Trump amused Johnson on the phone with his nasty impersonations of Theresa May, which the authors call "appallingly rude."  Asked in 2018 why she was so often photographed holding Trump's hand, Mrs. May explained that she was merely helping him up stairs and slopes.  And this is the thanks she got.

You may remember he had to clutch the hand of the Superintendent to descend a ramp at West Point two years later and subsequently spent weeks telling hate rallies it was practically a ski slope.  He even showed them the soles of his shoes.  Fascists can never show weakness, especially obese ones who are unaccustomed to exercise.  With lifts in their shoes.

In response to this morning's bombshell news Lauren Boebert tweeted, "I STAND WITH TUCKER CARLSON!"  One can only hope she will soon be unemployed, too.