For those paying attention to Rupert Murdoch’s empire and its expanding crusade against Robert Mueller (his Wall Street Journal has already called for Mueller’s resignation) connect these dots:
- Murdoch wants the FCC to relax rules against owning multiple media outlets in a single market (already happening)
- Murdoch wants to stop, or at least make it more expensive, for his competitors to merge against him.
The Trump Administration is facilitating all the above.
Ergo, Murdoch needs to stop Mueller. If he can stir Trump voters and GOP donors to a place where Republican congressional leaders look the other way if Trump fires Mueller, mission accomplished.
[Cross-posted via HuffPost]
boss, you might find this of interest from the guardian: Rupert Murdoch’s media empire may not last his lifetime
It used to be said that Rupert Murdoch’s media empire would not survive intact beyond the founder’s lifetime. Now, it seems, it may not get that far.
The stunning news is that Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox held talks with Disney about a sale of the bulk of its business – the movie studio, TV production and the international operations including the 39% stake in Sky in the UK. All that would remain would be Fox’s broadcast network and its news and sports assets in the US – a substantial operation in its own right, but not the stuff of empires.
The talks with Disney are said to have failed over price, but that factor can always change. If Murdoch has truly concluded that Fox can’t compete against today’s bigger media battalions, other bidders will circle. Fox’s shares rose 10% on Monday, expecting a contest. Murdoch has, in effect, advertised that he’s a seller.
This turn of events is extraordinary. We had assumed Murdoch’s attempt to seize 100% of Sky was a prelude to one last, and bigger, deal – a final expansionary adventure before control was fully passed to sons Lachlan and James. Selling is also entirely out of character: Murdoch rarely does tactical retreats.
This one, if it happens, would be forced by events. Plan A for Murdoch was a takeover of Time Warner but the attempt in 2014 was a flop. The initial $80bn (£60bn) bid was too low. Warner also made hay with the argument that Fox’s non-voting shares were a second-class currency that gave the Murdoch family too much control; investors seemed to agree.
The Warner episode was a brutal demonstration of Fox’s limited financial muscle in a world where US media companies are combining and getting bigger. Disney, for example, is worth $170bn, against Fox’s $50bn. Meanwhile, Fox’s ability to conduct share-based deals – as opposed to the £11.7bn cash offer for Sky – has continued to wither. Its share price is lower than it was at the time of the Warner failure.
That reflects the market’s view that media tides are running against Fox. Netflix and Amazon are changing viewing habits with their direct-to-consumer models. Disney will see an opportunity to slam Fox’s film and TV assets into its own ESPN operation to take on Netflix with a new streaming service. But the same strategy wouldn’t work in reverse: Fox is too small to bulk up now.
“21st Century Fox is embracing industry transformation head-on,” declared Rupert and Lachlan, the joint chairmen in the last annual report. It sounded like fighting talk – it now reads more like wishful thinking.
[…continues…]
still a good question now that they got him elected
Good on VA Dems yesterday. Turnout was up on a really crappy, cold and wet Tuesday. SFB said Gillespie didn’t embrace him so he lost. Ed would have had to change his name to Don III to have gone any further to embrace him than he did. More importantly, a brief review of the Virginia legislature looks like no incumbent dem was defeated by a Republican. Turnout was strong and a 32 seat repug margin was erased.
And the governor who ate New Jersey was replaced by a dem.
And Mike Barnicle just noted that Manchester New Hampshire elected a Democrat as mayor. What do you think that Renee? What are the odds?
El Pog……replied to your observation about Sir Douglas last thread……….
my pick for the best news of yesterday’s elections to celebrate
nytimes: Maine Voters Approve Medicaid Expansion, a Rebuke of Gov. LePage
Voters in Maine approved a ballot measure on Tuesday to allow many more low-income residents to qualify for Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act, The Associated Press said. The vote was a rebuke of Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican who has repeatedly vetoed legislation to expand Medicaid.
At least 80,000 additional Maine residents will become eligible for Medicaid as a result of the referendum. Maine will be the 32nd state to expand the program under the health law, but the first where voters, not governors or legislators, decided the issue. Other states whose leaders have resisted expanding the program were closely watching the campaign, particularly Utah and Idaho, where newly formed committees are working to get Medicaid expansion on next year’s ballots.
Supporters, including advocacy groups that collected enough signatures to get the question on the ballot, said the measure would help financially fragile rural hospitals, create jobs and provide care for vulnerable people who have long gone without.
[….continues…]
I’m thinking the upside of all this upside-downness is that more “average people” are starting to actually pay a bit of attention.
good point Sturg, think i agree
You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?”
ATTRIBUTION:
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Back to Methuselah, act I, Selected Plays with Prefaces, vol. 2, p. 7 (1949). The serpent says these words to Eve.
quote above from bartleby would also be useful for trail motto/mission. many times I’ve seen it manifested in comments here.
always bugged me, Patd, that RFK constantly stole that quote without giving credit, made it his own
your daily ko to help you “celebrate” the anniversary
read more on story at GQ Inside Donald Trump’s Election Night War Room
craig, well, he did expand on it…. just stole the essence/concept… but it seemed to run in the family. from that bartleby link:
President John F. Kennedy quoted these words in his address to the Irish Parliament, Dublin, June 28, 1963.—Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963, p. 537.
Senator Robert F. Kennedy used a similar quotation as a theme of his 1968 campaign for the presidential nomination: “Some men see things as they are and say, why; I dream things that never were and say, why not.” Senator Edward M. Kennedy quoted these words of Robert Kennedy’s in his eulogy for his brother in 1968.—The New York Times, June 9, 1968, p. 56.
‘course in a way, shaw stole it from genesis 2:16-17
Interesting article I read this morning in the Economist… Why you should remember Mueller’s job description.
Considering that it is a Shaw quote, at least JFK committed the theft in Ireland which is a tribute of sorts.
Trump Taint
Read it last night somewhere and believes it describes a lot of what happened yesterday. We even saw it is a local race to fill a vacant seat. The Republican, Mike Cierpiot, was a well know leader in the Missouri house who was term limited out and decided to run for the open seat in the Missouri senate. He was running in a safe Republican district. His opponents, on the Democratic side was an unknown newby and a perinial gadfly candidate that usually ran on the Rep ticket but this time as an independent.
Cierpiot outspent his opponents 15 to 1 $800,000 to $48,000to get a half point above 50% in a district that he should have rolled.
The only explaination, imo, Trump taint
Jack
renee, thanks for linking that. the 1st sentence about russky tactics struck me as accurate description of the twit’s tactics:
ACCORDING to NATO’s handbook, the preferred tactics in Russian information warfare can be summarised as “dismiss, distort, distract, dismay”.
Pogo…. I confess ignorance in what happened in Manchester. I don’t pay attention to NH cities politics. I tend to watch the Boston stations for news. Your question makes me realize maybe it’s time to watch the NH station from time to time.
Yup… I watched MSNBC last night. Thankful to know that by the news of yesterday’s elections this country hasn’t completely lost it’s collective mind. Glad to know that hatefulness and bigotry did not win.
Renee
As I don’t have a subscription to the economist and can’t access the article give me a clue as to why it was interesting,
Jack
Sure Jack…. here’s what IMO, is the main paragraph…
To think clearly about what Mr Mueller is up to, it helps to recall the terms of his appointment. The special counsel has been told by the Justice Department to investigate links or co-ordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with Mr Trump’s presidential campaign, and any other matters that arise directly from that endeavour. Unlike the three separate congressional inquiries into Russian government meddling in last year’s election, Mr Mueller is authorised to prosecute anyone who committed a federal crime (see article). The purpose of Mr Mueller’s investigation is not to take down Mr Trump. It is to make it harder for foreign governments to interfere in future elections
It has been more than 50-years since I have read any of Bernard Shaw’s wonderfully written works. He, being a socialist, I wonder what he would think/speak/write about our Bernie had they shared time on our Earth. He certainly couldn’t write a Major Barbara manuscript about him—what would it be?
http://news.wbfo.org/post/constitutional-convention-proposition-defeated-props-2-3-approved
The call for a Constitutional Convention in New York State was crushed yesterday. Unions went all out to defeat it. Could this be a revival of Union support or a convenient coincidence? The lesson of Wiunion – ?
Voter turnout overall was really poor.
Dotard/SFB dumps on Chinless Ed after Va voters decide against living in Trumpworld
Trump is delusional too bad we were depending on the equally ridiculous generals to save us
Rightwing Sinclair broadcasting would also benefit from rule changes
If it runs on your local PBS station, catch Lake Of Betrayal. It tells the story of the building of the Kinzua Dam in northern Pennsylvania (which is near where I grew up.) Focusing on the Seneca Nation, broken treaties, broken promises, liberties with the truth. Eminent domain may be a tool for progress but what if you are the one losing your home? Well done documentary, makes you think. One of my Dad’s favorite Sunday drives was to Kinzua. I wish he was still around to view this – also contains a song by his favorite singer, Johnny Cash. Looking at an issue from more than one side.
flatus, here’s an excerpt from an essay by shaw on socialism which was printed in the 13th ed of encycl Britannica in 1926:
[….]
In Socialism private property is anathema, and equal distribution of income the first consideration. In capitalism private property is cardinal, and distribution left to ensue from the play of free contract and selfish interest on that basis, no matter what anomalies it may present.
[…long article which concluded with this]
…..The argument for equalising the class incomes are that unequal distribution of purchasing power upsets the proper order of economic production, causing luxuries to be produced on an extravagant scale whilst the primitive vital needs of the people are left unsatisfied; that its effect on marriage, by limiting and corrupting sexual selection, is highly dysgenic; that it reduces religion, legislation, education and the administration of justice to absurdity as between rich and poor; and that it creates an idolatry of riches and idleness which inverts all sane social morality.
Unfortunately, these are essentially public considerations. The private individual, with the odds overwhelmingly against him as a social climber, dreams even in the deepest poverty of some bequest or freak of fortune by which he may become a capitalist, and dreads that the little he has may be snatched from him by that terrible and unintelligible thing, state policy. Thus the private person’s vote is the vote of Ananias and Sapphira; and democracy becomes a more effective bar to socialism than the pliant and bewildered conservatism of the plutocracy. Under such conditions the future is unpredictable. Empires end in ruins: commonwealths have hitherto been beyond the civic capacity of mankind. But there is always the possibility that mankind will this time weather the cape on which all the old civilisations have been wrecked. It is this possibility that gives intense interest to the present historic moment, and keeps the Socialist movement alive and militant.
George Bernard Shaw
not so sure mrs. bernie would go for the above nor bern himself.
Good Job Va Dems…you did the right thing no race uncontested and they took the House of Delegates
Bye bye Dotard and all you fake Dems who spent their time with Donna Butthead instead of listening to Tom Perez who should go on and “I told you so tour”
message from Tom
Because of you, Democrats just won big tonight in Virginia and New Jersey! What we’re doing is working.
This election cycle, the Democratic National Committee invested more in boots on the ground and grassroots and digital organizing than in any “off-year” before. Good old-fashioned organizing paired with the latest technology and tools helped put our candidates over the top.
I am so proud of the campaigns run by Virginia’s Ralph Northam, Justin Fairfax, and Mark Herring, New Jersey’s Phil Murphy and Sheila Oliver, and Democrats all over the country, up and down the ballot. These candidates worked hard day in and day out fighting to represent their states, and I know that they will take that same spirit and fight into their terms.
But here’s the thing: All of this is just the beginning.
We are going to keep investing in state parties and supporting Democrats from the school board to the Oval Office. And if we continue to channel our energy into powering this movement, there’s no doubt in my mind that we will see wins like this in 2018, 2020, and beyond.
If you’re even half as fired up as I am, chip in $10 or more right now to keep electing Democrats.
Chinless you should have run in Alabama
Last night, Las Cruces just got bluer. Progressive-backed candidates win every race, no repugs left on city council.
murdoch and sky takeover…world domination and control. Here, there, everywhere.
It is concerned the takeover would give Mr Murdoch, who has long been one of the most influential media barons in the UK, too much control of the British media.
fox entertainment is progressive, news is conservative, nationalism. Easy to control the stupid and uneducated masses and last night the educated citizens struck back by voting not fighting among themselves.
Pat, I read Shaw’s entire essay and agree with your conclusion, in spades, “…not so sure mrs. bernie would go for the above nor bern himself…” For those who haven’t followed Pat’s link to a 95-yo Encyclopaedia Britannica article on Socialism authored by George Bernard Shaw condemning all past economic systems except the flavor of socialism that he was espousing, here is the link.
flatus, one my favorite shaw books is The Black Girl in Search of God which is a tour de force of various religions in less than 100 pages.
from foreign policy:
Top U.S. Diplomat Blasts Trump Administration for ‘Decapitation’ of State Department Leadership
Weakening State cedes diplomacy to U.S. adversaries, say current and former officials.
Two former ambassadors have rebuked the White House in an increasingly vocal backlash against its efforts to sideline the State Department.
“Our leadership ranks are being depleted at a dizzying speed,” Barbara Stephenson, a former U.S. ambassador to Panama and current president of the American Foreign Service Association, the union for foreign service officers, wrote in a letter for the December 2017 issue of the Foreign Service Journal.
Scores of senior diplomats, including 60 percent of career ambassadors, have left the department since the beginning of the year, when President Donald Trump took office, according to the letter. There are 74 top posts at State that remain vacant with no announced nominee.
“Were the U.S. military to face such a decapitation of its leadership ranks, I would expect a public outcry,” Stephenson wrote.
It’s not just top leadership that is fleeing. New recruitment is falling dramatically as well, shrinking the pool for future talent. The number of applicants registering to take the Foreign Service Officer Test this year will be fewer than half the 17,000 who registered just two years ago, she wrote.
Stephenson wasn’t the only top diplomat with harsh words for the White House this week.
“Quite frankly, this administration is categorically destroying the Department of State and devaluing diplomacy as something important in this world,” said Wendy Sherman, former undersecretary of state for political affairs at the State Department under President Barack Obama, at a Nov. 7 event in Washington.
Morale at the State Department is crumbling, as Foreign Policy reported in July, amid an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to sideline the traditional motor of U.S. diplomacy. At a meeting last week, White House national security advisor H.R. McMaster appeared to justify the assault on State Department staffing by saying that some officials there did not support the president’s agenda, according to Reuters.
In a Nov. 2 interview, Trump responded to a question about unfilled positions at the State Department by stating, “I’m the only one that matters.”
In October, amid a State hiring freeze with no end in sight, the U.S. Agency for International Development notified
97 foreign service job applicants that the positions had been cancelled.
Congress, however, has tried to reaffirm the role of diplomacy, rejecting the president’s sweeping budget cuts to USAID and the State Department. Stephenson noted that the Senate had “directed” funds for State Department staffing to be maintained at September 2016 levels.
But that has not happened, Stephenson concluded — with potentially nasty implications for U.S. interests around the world.
“Where is the mandate to pull the Foreign Service team from the field and forfeit the game to our adversaries?”
wapo: U.S. judge issues gag order in Manafort-Gates Russia probe case
twit, tweet or not to tweet?
KGC
Your 11:01 post should be topic of the day.
IMO, Bitching about what Murdock or Trump or any other Republican supporter is doing is like bitching about the weather. It is there, it is nasty, but deal with it. For me it is time to stop whining about the Republicans and planning how to roll them back into the hole they came from. Nation wide yesterdays elections showed the way. ( and no there is no one size fits all)
To quote Sturge from last night
When democrats win……the GOP begins to lie and cheat harder.”
lol, it is just a given
Jack
Wisconsin is really going to the dogs..Scott Walker is running for a third term. Yikes
I always liked Shaw’s back and forth with Chesterton……articles, letters, etc
A debate between Shaw and Chesterton, with Hillaire Belloc in the chair.
http://www.gkc.org.uk/gkc/books/debate.txt
jack, topics like these in lieu of “whining”?
the guardian:
A night of firsts: 10 historic victories from the US elections
Montana elected its first black mayor, New Jersey elected its first Sikh mayor, and Danica Roem became the first openly trans person elected to a state legislature
and this one also from the guardian by senator al today:
We must not let big tech threaten our security, freedoms and democracy
The dominance of these companies requires that the government consider their role in the integrity of our democracy, writes Senator Al Franken
or how ’bout wondering what the hell’s happening in saudi arabia and how it will affect us?
last night from trevor noah:
“There has been a lot of news this week out of Saudi Arabia, which is basically America’s kooky rich uncle who occasionally beheads people,” Noah began. “But over the weekend, the kingdom went through some serious turmoil.” …..
“Now, to be fair, the situation in Saudi Arabia is a lot more complicated than that,…The crown prince isn’t just trying to grab power. He’s also trying to modernize Saudi Arabia. Sidelining the old guard could let him diversify the economy and expand women’s rights. So the kingdom might become more autocratic, but it also might become more free.”
“It’s like how not being monogamous can actually strengthen the relationship.”
I subscribe to the thoughts shared by Ms Cracker @ 11:01 AM and Mr Jack @ 1:13 PM. Wish I’d said them.
x-r
you can say them feel free
{think of Jack Benny at this moment – holding his glasses, looking at the audience} Welll
Right now there are a lot of Republicans ready to take their very generous retirement from the U.S. House and sit back doing an occasional talking head shot on faux snooze. At this moment the Dems pounded the ball through the hoop. But, and this is one of those BUT things, it was one night in several states in an odd year. Can this carry for a year? Perhaps, and maybe. But, it could be the republicans find a way to cancel next year.
For this transwoman the night was very special. Two transwomen won their seats. One a transwoman of color, won a mayor seat, which is a first for her, Andrea Jenkins. The second a transwoman, Danica Roem, who ran against the most hateful and monsterous of a human in Virginia 13th. Both women deserve the support of all of us and support if they have leftover campaign debt.
Times have changed. The two women ran on local issues and had the support of LGBT groups. Ten years ago I ran on local issues and was denied LGBT group support because I refused to run on same sex marriage and equality. Although gay marriage is now the law of the land, equality is always being discussed, see Texas, Virginia, North Carolina . . .many others. But, forcing LGBT candidates to run on issues which the voters don’t care about is now seen as dumb – finally. Some day I hope to meet Danica, perhaps at lunch with other trans people in the D.C. area.
Robber to Jack Benny: Your money, or your LIFE!
[Looooooooong pause]
Robber: Well?!?
Jack Benny: I’m thinking! I’m THINKING!
What were those musings about the TrailMixers the other day? Today, George Bernard Shaw and G.K. Chesterton are mixing it up with Jack Benny. O, Rochester! What a terrific bunch we have here.
Boy, do I need an uplifting. Two of our fox terriers got into a scrap and Chase, our little diplomat, the one who would not let go of his chew treat, is in surgery right now. A fang landed in just the wrong place.
SJWNY
It looks as if Lake of Betrayal will start to air on some PBS stations on Nov 14. In the mean time, here is the trailer.
Mr. DD
I do hope Chase comes through okay and feels better soon.
“….forcing LGBT candidates to run on issues which the voters don’t care about is now seen as dumb – finally”
bbronc, “forcing” any candidate to do anything bombs in the end… voters can usually smell the fakery…. well, except in the age of trumpence.