All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Tami]

Mike Bloomberg urged to buy Fox News: ‘The greatest thing that he could do for the country’

If former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg wants to do something to help defeat President Donald Trump, Republican George Conway has an idea: buy Fox News.

Bloomberg owns his own news empire with tighter editorial standards than Fox News when it comes to factual information and avoiding the promotion of conspiracy theories. Fox, by contrast, has struggled as the demand for coverage of Trump requires an increased amount of suspension of disbelief. Bloomberg could fix that problem and raise the standards for factual information on the network.

Twitter Link

[Jackalope89]

Mike Bloomberg urged to buy Fox News: ‘The greatest thing that he could do for the country’



Twitter Link

I don't see him doing it (that would cost a pretty penny or 10), but interesting nonetheless.

[Kirby101]

It won't happen because FoxNews was never about making money for Murdoch. It was about turning America into the Republican hell hole we find ourselves in.

[Gray Lensman]

It won't happen because FoxNews was never about making money for Murdoch. It was about turning America into the Republican hell hole we find ourselves in.

The lemmings have been programmed fully now anyways. If Faux News started acting responsibly they would jump to OANN or some other place that tells them what they want.

[numberthirty]

Mike Bloomberg urged to buy Fox News: ‘The greatest thing that he could do for the country’

If former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg wants to do something to help defeat President Donald Trump, Republican George Conway has an idea: buy Fox News.

Bloomberg owns his own news empire with tighter editorial standards than Fox News when it comes to factual information and avoiding the promotion of conspiracy theories. Fox, by contrast, has struggled as the demand for coverage of Trump requires an increased amount of suspension of disbelief. Bloomberg could fix that problem and raise the standards for factual information on the network.

Twitter Link

Maybe Bloomberg should just buy Facebook while he is at it. Should be able to deal with truth in political ads pretty easily once he does that.

[Kirby101]

Maybe Bloomberg should just buy Facebook while he is at it. Should be able to deal with truth in political ads pretty easily once he does that.

Facebook has a value of over 500 billion, 10 times Bloombergs total worth.

[Tendrin]

More GOP $#$#ery.

Voters in Houston, Texas, elected 19 black women to local judgeships last year. The new judges, all Democrats, have instituted wide-ranging reforms to the county's bail system. Voters also sent Democratic judges to the state appeals court.

A few months later, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott — a former Texas Supreme Court justice — suggested that he wanted to change his state's system of choosing judges in partisan elections, citing concern about the courts' independence. Abbott has also appointed several judges that voters rejected last year to seats on higher courts.

https://www.facingsouth.org/2019/11/...ts-gain-ground

This year Republican legislators introduced a bill, supported by Abbott, that would have replaced judicial elections with a system in which the governor appoints judges, subject to Senate confirmation. Every four years, voters would decide whether to keep the judges in office through a nonpartisan "retention" election.

However, the bill would have ended elections only in counties with more than 500,000 people, targeting urban areas like Houston. That would mean the governor would choose judges in the state's larger, more diverse counties, while rural, conservative counties could keep choosing their own judges.

"Rural voters matter, urban ones do not."

Edit: Or more accurately 'elections for me and not for thee'.

[numberthirty]

Facebook has a value of over 500 billion, 10 times Bloombergs total worth.

Non-Issue.

It is about as "For Sale..." to Bloomberg as FNC is.

[Kirby101]

Non-Issue.

It is about as "For Sale..." to Bloomberg as FNC is.

That is true.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

Kshama Sawant surges ahead, paving the way for Seattle's 'most progressive council' in years

Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant has nearly completed a stunning turnaround in her quest for a third term Friday evening, recovering from a deficit of more than 8 percentage points and taking a 1,515-vote lead over her opponent, Egan Orion — putting her up by 3.6 percentage points.

At that margin, Sawant will retain her seat.

After a disappointing result in the initial ballot drop on election night, Seattle’s most famous socialist has cleaned up in the votes tallied in subsequent days, winning around 60% of ballots that were either postmarked or left in drop boxes on election day.

Washington's vote-by-mail system means some last-minute ballots take several days to count. With the late trend strongly favoring Sawant — part of a pattern in Seattle of late-counted ballots tilting left — and relatively few ballots remaining, her reelection is a near lock.

If Sawant indeed holds on for another term, an election that was cast by many as a referendum on the leftward lean of Seattle politics has almost completely backfired on the business groups and mainstream Democrats who spent millions in their effort to rein in the city’s progressives.

Far from a moderate takeover, the city’s leftist faction has more representatives than it’s ever had before.

“It is definitely the most progressive council in many years,” said political consultant Crystal Fincher. “The amount of money that was spent and to get these results, it’s just hard to quantify how devastating that is to the people doing it.”

Sawant is among the city’s most controversial politicians and a magnet for both love and hate. Her close reelection will do little to calm those emotions.

But she would be surrounded by a council much more closely aligned with her viewpoint. Of the four new council members, three are equally or more left-leaning than the people they’re replacing. A majority of the council is now fully supportive of taxing high-grossing businesses in Seattle — the infamous “head tax” that was passed then repealed in 2018. Just two — Debora Juarez and Alex Pedersen — were supported by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.

In an email to supporters Friday evening, Heidi Wills, who saw over $800,000 spent on her behalf and whom the chamber supported, said she called her opponent, Dan Strauss, to concede.

In the autopsy of Tuesday’s elections, many will wonder if Amazon’s last minute $1 million check to a political action committee supporting more moderate candidates swung close races to the left. Polling around the time Amazon dropped its giant money bomb — about the time voters received their ballots — was reportedly much friendlier for the city’s business-backed candidates than what Tuesday’s results showed, according to multiple sources.

[Malvolio]

Mike Bloomberg urged to buy Fox News: ‘The greatest thing that he could do for the country’



Twitter Link

It would serve the Republicans right, as they were the ones who got rid of the laws keeping the owner of one network from buying another network.

[numberthirty]

That is true.

I'm not even trying to ruffle any feathers.

There is just right around "Zero..." validity in trying to call Bloomberg on that.

While he's got issues, it's like trying to take him to task for not showing up with a cure for ALS.

[Tendrin]

Kshama Sawant surges ahead, paving the way for Seattle's 'most progressive council' in years

Wait what seriously? I saw all the gloating on social media and thought she was a goner. Really glad to hear that's not so.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Vindman Says He Heard U.S. Envoy Explicitly Push For Investigation Of Bidens

Alexander Vindman, a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, said Ambassador Gordon Sondland made it clear the Ukrainian president would need to investigate the Bidens in order to get a meeting with Trump.

**********

John Bolton Knows Of ‘Many Relevant’ Conversations About Ukraine, Lawyer Says

The former national security adviser has been called to testify in the impeachment inquiry by lawmakers, but his lawyers want a court to clear him to do so first. What did Johnny Warhawk know, and when did he know it?

**********

Trump Distances Himself From Sondland In Rambling Press Gaggle

He also said that the whistleblower’s attorney should be “sued” for “treason.” Traitor Tot was in fine form, distancing himself from a man who donated ONE MILLION DOLLARS to the Trump inauguration committee and appointed Sondland to be the American ambassador to the European Union.

**********

The Billionaires Hit The Panic Button

Bill Gates is thinking about voting for Donald Trump, while Mike Bloomberg intends to vote for himself. Anything to keep their billions for themselves.

**********

Parents Of Teen Motorcyclist Killed By Envoy’s Wife Say Trump Offered Them A Check

Britain’s Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn say they want justice, not money, for the death of their 19-year-old son, Harry. I hope they told Trump to **** off and die.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

Wait what seriously? I saw all the gloating on social media and thought she was a goner. Really glad to hear that's not so.

It looked like she was going to lose, but she made a comeback and is now guaranteed to win. Her lead is bigger than the number of votes left.