Fox’s Letting O’Reilly Go Was the Right Move to Make in Spite of the Pain in the Ratings the Move Will Cost: Now They Need to Find Another Conservative Firebrand

Bill O’Reilly is out at Fox News, and it was the correct move to make.   O’Reilly’s alleged behavior was a continued liability exposure to Fox that could no longer be tolerated.

In doing this, Fox will probably lose their ranking in the ratings during the “O’Reilly Factor” timeslot for the time being, but if they put someone in there who is a firebrand and can keep part of the conservative audience that O’Reilly enjoyed, they’ll do OK and claw their ratings and advertisers back. 

Fifty companies pulled their ads out of the “Factor” timeslot when news of this scandal broke, which were worth in the neighborhood of $100 million.

Fox may be at risk of a lawsuit from O’Reilly, and possibly from the victims for failing to act, so their legal troubles aren’t over.   They’ll have to pay more out, but if they can change the culture over there, the hemorrhage will slow and stop, or move to a more manageable level, similar to other like-sized companies. 

It will be interesting to watch.

Fox Still Has Problems Over at Their News Division: Nothing’s Been Done to Deal With Fox & Friends Issues, and Now Bill O’Reilly’s on the Radar Too

The sexual harassment problem plaguing Fox News is still there and is intensifying; this is not good.

They’ve done nothing to reprimand members of the Fox & Friends team, and now Bill O’Reilly has popped up on the radar, and not in a good way.  One F&F cast member featured prominently in a sexual harassment lawsuit and helped to establish a hostile work environment, as I wrote about back in 2016.

Now, Bill O’Reilly has been settling lawsuits with accusers who have come forward to the tune of $10 million of his own money, and $3 million of the network’s money. 

If he was using just his own money to settle with women who are after him, I’d be willing to accept his explanation that he’s a target for lawsuits, and that he was trying to protect his kids from being humiliated.  But the fact that the network is contributing to payoffs to these women tells me there’s much more to the story than what has been revealed.

Fox management needs to deal severely with these situations.  It’s already cost them a lot of credibility with their conservative audience, at least $60 million to settle the Gretchen Carlson lawsuit and millions more to cover up whatever O’Reilly’s doing,  and they’ll lose a lot more if they don’t start making some examples out of these people and enforcing sexual harassment laws on and off the set.

Workplace sexual harassment is ILLEGAL.

Solution to North Korean Problem Rests With Chinese PLA Forces: They Could Seize Control of North Korean Nuclear Facilities, Missile Complexes and Weapons and Make It Unnecessary for U.S to Launch Military Strikes

China holds the key to solving the North Korean nuclear problem once and for all, and it is going to have to make a decision soon.

We already know that China doesn’t like the idea of U.S. and South Korean troops near its border with North Korea, as demonstrated in the 1950s when the Chinese sent their army across the border into North Korea to attack advancing UN troops.   

In this current crisis, North Korea doesn’t seem interested in following the advice of China, which has threatened to use force if North Korean actions lead to any kind of damage to northeastern China.  This is very interesting, especially since any use of nuclear weapons above ground will undoubtably damage large swaths of the Chinese electrical grid, and not just in the northeastern part of the country.

I say “above ground” because it is entirely possible that if a military confrontation begins between the U.S. and South Korea against North Korea, the idiot running Pyongyang will use nuclear weapons first, possibly on South Korean territory, possibly on his own territory or elsewhere.   Hopefully he hasn’t developed nuclear torpedoes yet.

China could stop this before it even started, if they were to send their army across the border and seize the missile fields, nuclear facilities/materials and weapons and take them back to China with them, along with North Korea’s nuclear scientists.   I think North Korean nuclear weapons under Beijing’s control is preferable to the immature and insane North Korean leader’s questionable control. 

I find it doubtful that the North Korean military would be prepared for a sudden Chinese military move.  They’re focusing all their attention south and not taking China seriously.

This is probably all wishful thinking, but if it were to happen, China could keep the peace on it’s own terms, prevent an exodus of North Korean refugees, and put Pyongyang in check, so that it would start to behave to international norms. 

I think we’d leave North Korea alone if they started behaving like grown-ups and not the petulant child nation.

Major Turn-Around in Trump’s Reaction to Assad and Syrian Use of Chemical Weapons: U.S. Military Hits Syrian Airfield Where Airstrike Originated

Finally, some decisive action on the Syrian chemical weapons attack.  Hopefully North Korea and China are watching very carefully, and considering what kind of U.S. President that they’re dealing with now.  

President Trump may still be formulating his foreign policy, but once he decides to do something, it’s become very clear that he will.   It’s very encouraging, and a reversal of his words from a couple of days before.  The videos coming out of Syria horrified President Trump, too.  

U.S. forces struck the Syrian airbase where the chemical airstrike originated from.   I think that Assad took a gamble that the U.S. would do nothing, and he miscalculated very badly.  This is not the previous Administration.

Russia and China should encourage their clients to start behaving to international norms.   They’re in a very good position to do so now, if they weren’t before. 

I found it interesting that Russian air defenses apparently did not engage the Tomahawk cruise missiles.  I’m sure we’ll hear more about this as the story develops.

Trump Language on Syria Chemical Weapons Attack is Disappointing: We Need a Really Strong Response

President Trump took the opportunity to blame Obama’s weak red line foreign policy concerning Syria’s chemical weapons and ducked saying what he’s going to do about today’s chemical weapons attack.

Old news, Mr. President.  What are you going to do differently?

And for that matter, are we sure that is was the Syrian government, or was it ISIS with aircraft that they’ve seized from Syrian air bases during the initial  ISIS overrun of Syria?   I doubt it was Russia.

What I saw on TV this evening in the aftermath of the chemical attack is going to give me nightmares.   

If the world doesn’t react with overwhelming negativity and start handing out some severe punishments, this won’t be the last time that we’ll see chemical weapons being used in a war zone.  They’re either illegal, or they’re not.

I hope President Trump watches those videos coming out of Syria in detail.  They’re HORRIFIC.

“Nuclear Option?” Nonsense! Senate Should Have Been on Majority Vote (51 Votes to Cloture) LONG Before Now, Not This 60 Votes Garbage That Has Paralyzed Congress for Far Too Long

I’ve never liked the 60 vote rule in the United States Senate, and think they should have been doing majority votes LONG before the current Supreme Court nominee was up for a vote.

The sooner they go back to majority rules in the Senate, the better.

The only 2/3 or 3/4 votes that should be required are the ones specifically mentioned by the Constitution of the United States.  Everything else should be a simple majority, like in the House.

If a Supreme Court nominee is truly awful, or is discovered to be an axe murderer during the confirmation process, he or she will not get 51 votes.  Enough people in Congress will vote against the nominee, or they’ll convince either the nominee or the President to withdraw the candidacy and choose someone more palatable.

And if the party who doesn’t control the Senate doesn’t like being in the minority, then they need to do a better job of getting people in their states out to vote for their party’s candidates. 

Currently the Republicans run the Senate, but there will more than likely be a turnover eventually, as control has swung in both directions at one point or another.

If anything, we’ll get better Congressional performances from both parties, which have been dismal going back to before the 2000 elections.

Forget about Friday, change the rules now.