Wondering on Wednesday, 6/15/22

Ready... Set... Wonder!

So, what's wonder-full tonight? 

The folks over at Fox Entertainment continue beating the drum about the 'assassination attempt' on Justice Bret Kavanaugh and how, if he were a liberal instead of a conservative, the Dems and the media would be apoplectic over the whole thing. That was one of the featured topics of a Fox News Sunday interview this week., in case you missed it.

That got me wondering how the network covered the 'workup' on Justice Sonia Sotomayor the FBI found when investigating Roy Den Hollander, the man who killed the son of a federal judge in New Jersey a while back in 2020. 

Would you be surprised that I found only one article about that threat, which is the same number of articles as there were about Justice Sotomayor's children's book, and about her mangled pronunciation of the vice president's name? You shouldn't be. 

We've got another January 6th Committee hearing tomorrow; it was postponed from today to allow the team to get the multi-media presentation ready. Rep Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said the postponement "is not a big deal. It's just technical issues." and that's fine. I mean, it's not like someone was having a baby or anything; that happened with Monday's hearing, when former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien had to miss his in-person testimony when his wife went into labor. 

We did get to hear from fired Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt, who was in on the decision on election night, when Fox was first to call Arizona for Donald Trump. "We were able to make a call early. We were able to beat the competition" he testified. Not only that, but as Deadline reported, 

After Nov. 7, when networks called the race for Biden, Stirewalt said, Trump’s chances of winning were “none,” barring something totally unexpected from happening. He said that Trump was “better off to play the Powerball” than betting he would win the election.

And, there's this 

Stirewalt said that they “knew it would be significant” calling the state, but “we already knew Trump’s chances were very small and getting smaller” based on the data they saw. 

So, what's the wondering on this? First, did anyone get Trump a Powerball ticket? Did he win anything? And finally, is anyone surprised that the guy from Fox was bragging about beating the competition?

What else? Well, there were some primaries yesterday, and there were some Trump-endorsed candidates who lost (but not many) and some who won, including all the races in Nevada where Trump made an endorsement. And, Sarah Palin will be one of four candidates moving ahead to the special election to finish the term of the late Rep. Don Young, who passed away in March. 

What's fascinating about the Alaska votes this year? It's not Palin; it's that Alaska moved to ranked choice voting this year. And if you're wondering, here's what it means: 

The special primary, where voters chose one of 48 candidates on the ballot, was Saturday; the special general, where voters will rank the top four candidates from the primary, is set for Aug. 16. 

Simultaneously, two more elections — a regular primary and general — are scheduled to elect Alaska’s member of Congress for the next full two-year term, which starts in January. The regular primary election is scheduled for Aug. 16, on the same day and same ballot as the special general. That means voters will be asked to rank the four candidates in the special election, then pick one of 31 candidates in the regular primary. 

The regular general election, where voters will rank the top four of the 31 candidates, is Nov. 8.

Now, I'm a fan of ranked choice voting; it was used in the NYC elections last year, but the rest of our state doesn't have the option, and I wish we did. I don't relish having to choose from over 30, or over 40 candidates for a single race, but being able to send someone to office who earns at least 50% of the vote would be a treat. I wonder, how do the rest of you feel about ranked choice voting? Have you used it? Do you want to? Drop me a message or leave a comment.

Finally, on tonight's broadcast of ABC's World News Tonight, David Muir repeatedly mentioned that Dolly Parton had done something newsworthy. He had it in his opening 'here's what we're talking about tonight" segment, and teased it at every break. When it was finally the last minute of the broadcast, we got the scoop: Parton had donated $1M to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "I love children..." Parton said; and we love you, Muir said, to close the show.  

Parton's great, Muir's the host of "the most watched show on all of television" so, what's to wonder about on this? Going back to the first story in the post, and the "fanboy" comment about Kimmel, I can't help asking, is there any more "fanboy" news anchor than Muir?

What's got you wondering tonight?