Not a surprise that Hannity is staying for now. His smug attitude last night indicated as much. But as we noted in the other thread, he really doesn’t have a choice. No legitimate network will take him, and going with any startup or better yet, with Newsmax, would mean a huge pay cut for him. And once he loses his perch at Fox News, he’d take a huge hit in his radio situation as well.

Hannity figured he’d troll his viewers on this tonight. Word had been out he was going to say something at the top of his show about what was happening. I switched it on at the top to see if he would admit his failings and act like an adult. Instead, he took a smug tone of voice and “welcomed” anyone trying to find out what was happening. He then said he “might” say something before the end of the show. So I turned him off and did other things for the rest of the hour. Turned him back on for the last 30 seconds and noted him saying only that “everything you’ve been hearing is a lie”. No specifics and nothing to dispute his own desperate tweets on the subject.

I think he was impressed with himself – as if he’d raised his ratings via trolling. I tend to doubt he did, as most people would respond the way I did – not give him the time of day. Let’s see if more tidbits come out during the week. If not, we’ll have solid evidence that Hannity doesn’t have any other options than to stay at Fox News. I can’t imagine any legitimate network wanting anything to do with him, so his only other choice would be to leave television (which would impact his radio show) or to go with something like Newsmax and take a big pay cut.

These numbers are actually testament to the failures of two GOP presidencies – the elder and younger Bushes – and to the real successes of Clinton and Obama. Fox News already knows this and is hoping their loyal viewers don’t figure it out.

The Clinton presidency started on the heels of the 1991-1992 recession under HW Bush, and saw the economy take off due to internet expansion and its effects. The Obama presidency started in the depths of the W recession, which would have plunged the country into a full depression if the GOP had had their way. And if the GOP had actually worked with President Obama rather than obstructing every single thing he did, the economy would have recovered a lot more quickly. But it had been their goal to mire him down and keep anything from improving, which would have allowed the Right to campaign on how Obama wasn’t making things any better. Of course, even after the economy improved, the Right campaigned on the bad news notion anyway – figuring their loyalists would believe Fox News and not their lying eyes.

In the current day, the Pence White House is obviously bent on doing as much damage as it can, in the name of appeasing the Far Right and creating a completely alternate version of reality. The actions Pence is taking may well cause major problems in the economy, particularly in terms of health care once Pence removes the subsidies from ACA insurers and crashes the system. The Dems are now doing anything they can to stop these guys, not in the name of trying to crash the economy as the GOP attempted 8 years ago, but in the name of stopping the GOP from crashing it now.

I’d say these first 100 days are a good microcosm of what we will see over the next 3 3/4 years – many more sneaky backroom orders from Pence, many more blustering tweets from Trump, many more court orders stopping Pence’s wilder ideas, many more deportations, and total gridlock in the Congress – leading potentially to stagnation and uncertainty in the economy. Leading then to even greater anger throughout the country and paving the way for the next president to need to clean up a large mess in 2021 when Trump and Pence are emphatically shown the door. I’ll be curious to see how Fox News will play that story…

The Right has made extremely clear that they intend to destroy the ACA, one way or the other. I’m frankly surprised that they waited this long to take this action.

I expected the Pence White House to immediately stop subsidizing the insurers as of January 21st, but it looks like they wanted to use that as a stick a little later on.

From what I can see, there’s going to be a stalemate on funding the government, and Pence will take revenge by simply pulling those subsidies. Which will crash the ACA and remove that problem from the Congress’ hands.

Keep in mind that this has nothing to do with health care and it never did. This is about erasing the presidency of Barack Obama. Hannity and the Right desperately need the ACA to be tossed out, so they can finish their victory lap and retroactively declare President Obama the failure they always claimed he was.

Here’s yet another example of why Tucker Carlson’s hour of viciousness is something that most sane people would prefer to skip.

First, that poll is not showing what Carlson is frantically trying to say it shows. The poll shows that many Dems are disillusioned right now, which is understandable given that Dem congresspeople are outnumbered and mostly irrelevant at this time, while the Right Wing is theoretically free to romp their agenda through. The only thing stopping the Right these days is themselves, as we saw in the spectacular failure of the Pence White House to ram through its first assault on the ACA. The more relevant polls are those recent elections where GOP candidates in supposedly safe districts are being given a run for their money by Dems who shouldn’t have been able to come within 15 points and are instead scaring the heck out of the Right.

Next, it’s clear that Pence intends to pull the federal subsidies from the insurers still in the ACA – he’s already threatened to do this in short order. Trump gilded the notion by suggesting that he’d hold off on this approach if the Dems either supported the vicious Wall project or supported the various gutting proposals re the ACA. Pence is fully aware the Dems will play no part in this kind of nonsense, and even Carlson is aware that current polling shows that 61% of the country is holding the GOP responsible for what it does to the ACA.

I really have to wonder how Carlson is going to react if the Dems consolidate the very real anger in this country next November.

O’Reilly certainly isn’t concerned about only getting the 25 million as his consolation prize for being fired. He’s been paid a LOT more than that over the past 20 years from Fox News and by every account I’ve read, has not been a wild spender (other than when compelled to pay for legal matters like these suits and his divorce).

O’Reilly’s real punishment is going to be the denial of what he wanted most over the next decade or two – the status of being an “elder statesman” like Brit Hume or better yet, a less stuffy George Will. O’Reilly had been pushing for this in his appearances on other Fox News shows – presenting himself as the elder expert on matters political whenever asked to provide some sage wisdom on current events. He’d been maneuvering to become the next Brit Hume of the network, where he could make one or two appearances a week and be paid to just expound on his opinions but not need to actually put together a full hour five times in that same period. It’s a nice gig if you can get it. That, plus the inevitable speaker engagements would be enough to not only further line his pockets but also flatter his ego.

Instead, O’Reilly is now a pariah at the network and can’t really be picked up by any legitimate outlet. He could always go with Breitbart or Glenn Beck’s foundering network or even Newsmax if they’ll take him. But it’s more likely that he’ll just go with retirement and make the usual appearances at Right Wing events where he won’t be subject to any tough questions.

I’ll be curious to see if Fox News tries to sneak O’Reilly on as a commentator in another year or two.

Bob is correct. It’s clear in watching the clips that Perino was very stiffly reading an official Fox statement from the legal department. The concern being shown was not about the conduct that got O’Reilly thrown out the door after Ailes but rather about the viewership of the O’Reilly Factor.

The statement scripted for Perino sounded very much like it was aimed at viewers who probably don’t turn on the TV until O’Reilly time, and didn’t know that he’d been fired. Given that O’Reilly himself refused to discuss the matter, this group of viewers were left wondering what the heck happened to the usual hijinks they were expecting to return next week – what with the opening smug monologue, the cozy chats with Lou Dobbs and Dennis Miller, the back and forth with Charles Krauthammer, and the usual scoldings O’Reilly would inflict on lesser lights on his show like Juan Williams and now-deceased Alan Colmes.

Instead, they’ll be looking at a prime-time lineup of Martha MacCallum continuing her cheerleading section, and then they’ll get Tucker Carlson’s snide meanness in O’Reilly’s slot, followed by The Five and finally the usual viciousness from Hannity. I have a feeling that the ratings won’t quite be the same for Carlson as they were for O’Reilly.

Carlson’s juvenile behavior since November has been a model of Trumpesque bullying and smugness.

This clip is his typically vicious approach. He sets up a completely false premise, sneaks in his biased narrative in a setup question that is intended to immediately knock the guest into a sidetrack, and then repeatedly interrupts her with irrelevant jabs to try to distract her from saying anything.

Carlson and Hannity appear to be vying for who can win the title of Bully of the Year for the Year of the Bully.

I frankly see no point in having any educated liberal appear on Carlson’s show if he is not going to even allow them to say anything without cutting them off, talking over them or making a point of laughing derisively at them when they do manage to actually get six words out without an interruption.

Fox News reshuffles the deck chairs. They’re basically refusing to change anything. Eric Bolling gets to spend an hour extolling Trump’s goodness on his own.

I had previously thought that O’Reilly was going to retire his show this year and not renew his contract. I’m betting that right now, he wishes he had done so, which would have allowed him to save face and just say that he was choosing to end his show on his own terms and all that. Instead, he’s essentially been fired in public. Given the way he has treated others throughout his career, this treatment is probably more appropriate.

I’m very happy to stand corrected on my first paragraph. Sadly, the second paragraph is mostly correct – the programming adjustment being made will not actually change the vicious tone Fox News has taken lately.

This kind of viciousness should not be surprising coming out of Fox News and the Right this year. Just par for the course for the Year of the Bully.

But we should remember that this happened, and thankfully, this behavior has been preserved. So any time that Meghan McCain speaks at a “Family Values” event or at a church event or at anything where she will attempt to tout her decency, this clip should be presented to her and to her audience. Until she apologizes in public for this behavior, she will not have any moral grounds on which to say anything.

I’d pay attention to what these guys are saying – they’re not kidding. Yes, Watters plays it as “a joke” but he means it. He has repeatedly demonstrated his hatred for undocumented immigrants, and he’d be fine to see a few of them badly injured or killed as an example to the rest.

Keep in mind that Watters and Fox News were the ones banging the drum 10 years ago about their heroes Ramos & Compean. For those that don’t remember them, they were two Border Patrolmen who were imprisoned for trying to kill a fleeing suspect by shooting him in the back. (They actually hit him in the rear end) After this “story” was broken by Sara Carter (read: the same Sara Carter currently trying to foment conspiracy theories about Susan Rice), the Right went on full alert to play the duo as unjustly convicted martyrs. Of course, they also ignored all the inconvenient facts in the situation, such as that the duo tried to cover up their bad shoot until they were arrested for it several weeks later.

I bring up the Ramos & Compean story because it points out what the Right would prefer to see happening at the border. The whole idea was that they wanted those guys to get away with the shooting – it would send the message that it’s not fun at the border and maybe you don’t want to come this way anyway, you know? Think of Little Bill’s “message” in Unforgiven, as delivered through a vicious beating.

I honestly don’t know which is more unsettling – that Watters thinks this is appropriate behavior, or that he thinks it’s funny. The Year of the Bully continues apace.

This is completely consistent with the Right Wing’s posture. If President Obama had taken this action, we’d be hearing criticism and skepticism, particularly on the timing of the vicious action taken yesterday. Fox News would certainly have noted the suspicious timing of the bombing, since it was intended to take over the news cycle through the Easter weekend and present Trump as some kind of a “tough guy” rather than the inept bully he has proven himself to be.

But since it’s the Pence White House taking this action, that means it’s above reproach, and anyone saying different must be committing treason.

We shouldn’t be surprised at this.

The Year of the Bully continues full speed ahead.

I think Bannon saw a quick opportunity to hit an easy target, make Trump look tough, and change the news cycle away from the now-constant reports of trouble in the Pence White House. Syria was easy to attack, and they can play up the notion of being “tougher than weak Obama”. And given the situation in Congress, Bannon knew that there wouldn’t be any more than a token complaint about procedure. Lashing out like this makes Trump look like he’s decisive and strong in Bannon’s eyes.

I agree that plenty of other countries will be stepping up to teach these guys what’s what. I expect China will do so economically, and I expect many other countries will simply shun the US until a real head of state gets back to the White House in 2021. The real test, to me, will be if and when these guys actually start building “The Wall” on the southern border – the proper response there, which I think we’ll see, would be for Mexico to cut off relations with us until Trump is out of office.

A few thoughts:

First, this was a horrifying and vicious segment – typical of the Right Wing end zone dance they’ve been doing all day. I’d like to note that Mitch McConnell was actually seen happily doing high fives with Senators and aides on the floor of the Senate in celebration of his maneuver. Which puts the lie to the idea that what he or the Right ever thought this was a “very serious” matter. They didn’t. And McCain is right that someone here thought “Revenge is more important” – and that would be the Right Wing. They don’t get to walk that one back, and they don’t get to just bully other people about it.

Doors is correct that we’ve known all along, from the moment that Trump squeaked through in the swing states, that the GOP theft of the Merrick Garland seat had been sealed. There was no way that the GOP wouldn’t make it a priority to put a Hard Right judge on that seat – as a slap in the face to Garland, to the Dems, and specifically to Barack Obama. They may not have been able to eradicate the ACA yet, but they got this one through.

The Dems had a choice to make here – did they want to roll over on this seat and wait for another Pence nomination to fight, or did they want to stand their ground now and show they had some spine? It’s obvious that they did the only thing they could – they stood up for Garland, and for the fact that the GOP has put a black eye on the Senate, now in two ways. The first black eye came when McConnell and the Right refused to even allow a hearing for Garland, and the second came today when they decided that we no longer need more than a simple majority to get something as important as a Supreme Court seat filled. The result of the second black eye will be pretty much what David is suggesting – when the next Dem president is in office and has a Dem Senate, which I believe will be the case by 2020, the GOP will have no way to obstruct his or her SC nominations. McConnell even slashed the debate period from 30 hours to 8, which means nominations can be fast tracked in a single day.

MacCallum was following the Line of the Day, obviously. She didn’t want to listen to Swalwell. Her point was to muddy the waters so that viewers wouldn’t be able to figure out which was the real scandal going on.

In a best case scenario for the Right, a bunch of viewers will think the bigger problem is with suspicious Susan Rice, who nobody can trust, can they? That’s the approach being taken by Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, who both want to play the game of saying that clearly something rotten must have been going on in the state of Obama.

MacCallum’s approach is more sinister – she’s playing the “let’s just hear both sides” approach. That’s reasonable, right? Just let both sides have their say and then we can all look at it and see what we think. Except that this is one of those false arguments where there really isn’t another side. Like the viciousness of the “birther” questions. This is a matter of comparing a very real criminal investigation into potential collusion by the Trump team into foreign attempts to interfere in the last election with a fantasy about the people who conduct that investigation.

I agree that Swalwell should have simply laughed at some of the larger nonsense statements she was making.

This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone – nor should Fox News’ refusal to acknowledge that they have a problem. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for O’Reilly to acknowledge it either – he’s too busy running cover for the Pence White House and their attempts to distract everyone from the ongoing investigations.

O’Reilly and Trump’s behavior here is that of the typical bully – they’re practically daring people to call them on their viciousness. And when people do stand up to call them on it, these guys bat it away and act like it doesn’t affect them. They’re never going to concede any ground until it is physically taken from them.

So when the other shoes start to fall, it will be interesting to see how they react.

The desperation is really starting to show, both at the Pence White House and in Right Wing media as they go all-in for Trump. One really has to wonder what is scaring these people so much that they keep trying to throw up confetti. I’m still trying to figure out why they think it’s news that the National Security Advisor wanted to know about who was talking to foreign spies, particularly when that was potentially affecting one of our elections.

I have no problem with a sober discussion about the ethics of the NSA and surveillance, but it’s frankly surprising to me that the Right Wing is suddenly getting in on the action. Where were they during the W Bush years, when we were dealing with warrantless wiretaps and a whole pile of nastiness that the Right kept stonewalling? Where were they during COINTELPRO?

And it’s bizarre to hear the Right suddenly becoming prurient about people’s names being exposed – they had no such issue about Joe Wilson’s wife being outed a few years ago. Why the change of heart now?

My instincts say that O’Reilly will continue to ignore this matter on the air – like any bully, he would see acknowledging this situation as a sign of weakness. And he’d be right on that point. It is a sign of weakness that advertisers are leaving him at the moment.

But remember that advertisers jumped off the Limbaugh train a few years back when he attacked Sandra Fluke, and Limbaugh is still there churning out the hate every day on AM radio. O’Reilly will continue to do the same unless something really catastrophic happens.

Although I will say that his recent broadcasts are showing signs of paranoia on the one hand and wishful thinking on the other. For the former, he keeps desperately trying to fan the flames of the supposed “unmasking scandal” to try to distract everyone from the very real issues of the Trump campaign’s troubling connections to foreign agents. And he keeps trying to push a narrative of Dems being horrible obstructionists to the point that he shouted down two different guests last night when they tried to reason with him. Memorably, when someone pointed out the Merrick Garland issue, he screamed “That’s old news!”

On the wishful thinking front, O’Reilly is trying to tee up the expected confirmation of Neil Gorsuch on Friday as “a big win” for Trump. Not sure where he’s getting that as a “big win”. Gorsuch will get on the court with a large black eye because the GOP succeeded in spitefully refusing to do their job last year and then gaming the system to get away with the trick. So they’ll change the Senate rules, vote on a party line basis, and Gorsuch will be able to steal the seat that should have gone to Garland. That’s not what we call a “win”. That’s what we call a “theft”. History will record it as one of the most shameful moments ever seen in the US Congress. But we can count on O’Reilly to gloat about how great it all is.

Bolling tried this bit on The Five on Friday, I think. He pulled out a white board and showed a comparison of economic stats at the end of March for the first months of the Obama and Trump presidencies. Obviously, the numbers right now are much, much higher than they were during the recession President Obama inherited. Bolling got laughed off the set, even by his allies there. Williams immediately pointed out that those numbers actually support how well President Obama handled the economy. And the others could be heard chiding Bolling from off camera until he put the board down.

But Bolling’s approach here was clearly part of the Fox News Line of the Day, since it was repeated by multiple hosts over the weekend – idea being to promote the Pence White House as a “success”. If I didn’t know better, I’d say these guys are getting desperate to find a “win” in this mess somewhere.