MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2024Here's what one blue army found: This past Saturday, presidential candidate Donald J. Trump delivered a remarkable keynote address at the annual CPAC political gathering.C-Span's videotape can be seen here. Warning! The tape is almost two hours long—and i … | Continue reading

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2024A second friend quickly joined in: As it seems to have turned out, Donald J. Trump didn't get to sixty percent. Nikki Haley didn't make it to forty.Each candidate fell a smidgeon sort of a statistical goal. The official totals seem to go like this:South C … | Continue reading

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2024Gutfeld! lets you decide: This afternoon's exercise is for extra credit only. We offer it as an attempt to complete our preliminary study of the culture of the Gutfeld! primetime "cable news" show, as seen on the Fox News Channel.Last night, host Greg G … | Continue reading

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2024Neighbors and friends call C-Span: This morning, we heard America singing. We started with Fox & Friends Weekend at 6 a.m., live and direct from South Carolina. By 6:15, the friends had introduced Tom Homan, who proceeded to discuss this horrible murder … | Continue reading

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2024Our blue tribe averts its gaze: According to the leading authority on such matters, the Fox News Channel's Brian Kilmeade is 59 years old.So is the channel's Greg Gutfeld. This morning, we'll start right there.We're so old that we can remember when Fox be … | Continue reading

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2024Also, NATO spending numbers: On the one hand, hallelujah! Then again, not so fast!A brand-new Quinnipiac poll has Biden ahead of Trump by four points nationwide. On the other hand, a brand-new poll by Morning Consult has Trump ahead by four.Just this on … | Continue reading

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2024Also though, Brian Kilmeade's $950: For today, we'll only briefly discuss Brian Kilmeade's play, last Saturday night, with that unexplained $950.In yesterday's report, we posted the transcript of what Kilmeade said. He's been at this for twenty-five yea … | Continue reading

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2024The soul of a certain news channel: At the risk of beating a dead horse, we thought you might want to see the type of primetime news analysis offered on the Fox News Channel this past Monday night.We're speaking about the Gutfeld! show which aired that … | Continue reading

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2024Kilmeade is forever: In Book One of the western canon's first extant poem of war, Calchas, who reads the flight of birds, offers a sound assessment.As we recorded yesterday, Agamemnon lord of men explodes in anger at the seer. With no explanation offer … | Continue reading

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2024Jesse Watters in action: Unexpectedly, we lost a large chunk of time today. For that reason, we're going to hand this first part off to the folks at Mediaite.Below, you see the headline on the Mediate report. Reporter Jennifer Bowers Bahney is discussing … | Continue reading

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2024Brian Kilmeade had it much better: It doesn't go well for Calchas the seer right at the start of the Iliad.As we noted yesterday, of all the seers who could read the flight of birds, Calchas was clearest, most knowing, by far.Within the war poem's first … | Continue reading

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2024Kilmeade works for Fox: The European world's first poem of war gets off to a blistering start.With apologies, Agamemnon, lord of men, has stolen the daughter of a priest to Apollo to serve as his sexual servant. Soon thereafter, the elderly priest arrives … | Continue reading

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2024Red tribe viewers get conned: Yesterday afternoon, we offered a report beneath this catchy headline:Comer's star witness crashes and burns!In our view, Kevin Drum's post about this matter offered the most succinct synopsis of what had occurred. Headline … | Continue reading

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2024His view was correctly reported: We're going to guess that this was Ezra Klein's debut on the Fox News Channel morning show, Fox & Friends Weekend.For the record, the view he expressed in his latest column was not misstated or misrepresented by the trio … | Continue reading

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2024Will Fox News viewers be told? Hoo boy! Headlines in the New York Times and the Washington Post are reporting an arrest:Ex-F.B.I. Informant Is Charged With Lying Over Bidens’ Role in Ukraine BusinessFormer FBI informant charged with lying about Biden busi … | Continue reading

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2024Seeing ourselves in such texts: Today, The Iliad exists as a written text.  It's published in the form of a book. In an array of translations, The Iliad can be ordered from any contemporary bookstore. It didn't exactly work that way during the many years … | Continue reading

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2024Along with its normalization: The Fox News Channel's Greg Gutfeld is 59 years old. That would be 59 years of age going on ten or eleven.We often wonder how he got to be the way he currently is. We're also struck by the fact that he performs his moral sq … | Continue reading

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2024In search of historic Troy: Was there ever some such city as the ancient walled fortress memorialized in The Iliad and remembered today as Troy?Inquiring minds decided that they wanted to know. We assigned the youthful analysts this task.They could have … | Continue reading

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2024Plus, a question from Michael Steele: Just this once, we're going to ask you to think about President Biden's "mental acuity" again.We start with Michelle Goldberg's assessment, as reported in these passages from her most recent column for the New York … | Continue reading

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2024Al Sharpton's sound advice: The state of New York's 3rd congressional district is found on the North Shore of Long Island and a long way from ancient Troy.The leading authority on the district thumbnails it as shown:New York's 3rd congressional distric … | Continue reading

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2024But also, MVP Krugman's: It's very hard to avoid being angry at pundit malpractice like this.More precisely, at what looks to be the latest case of scripted pundit malpractice. We've been commenting on such comment-by-the-numbers punditry going all the w … | Continue reading

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2024Our war involves (mis) information: Below, we'll show you something Greg Gutfeld said on red tribe cable last night.One hour before the gentleman spoke, we saw Rachel Maddow deliver a beautifully reasoned, hour-long broadcast on our own tribe's "cable ne … | Continue reading

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2024Or is it possibly Us? Before we read the Kevin Drum post, we had watched Jonathan Lemire on the 5 a.m. MSNBC show, Way Too Early.What we saw struck us as journalistic / political / electoral malpractice. After teasing the segment at 5:26, he returned at 5 … | Continue reading

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2024And in the Soviet camps: No people are uninteresting! Or so Yevtushenko said.Some will say that he was putting the best face on the situation. At any rate, the title of the poem in question is rendered, quite simply, as People. In translation, the poem st … | Continue reading

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2024The things they'll never hear: Last Saturday morning, at 6 o'clock sharp, "Trader Pete"—the Fox News Channel's Pete Hegseth—got busy denouncing the U.S. Army's attacks in the Middle East as an utterly useless "fireworks display."The campaign had only ju … | Continue reading

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2024Only time will tell: In private, is President Biden "perfectly lucid, with a good grasp of events?" Beyond that, does the president exercise good judgment concerning major policy matters?In this brief post, Paul Krugman answers those questions in the af … | Continue reading

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2024So too with President Biden's acuity and health: "I'll have [one of] what she's having!" We've added two words to the famous line from When Harry Met Sally.This morning, we'll have one of what Kevin Drum's having with respect to President Biden's current a … | Continue reading

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2024The foot soldiers fell into line: As the coming year's siege of the White House continues to pick up steam, yesterday turned into a full-blown example of "That Was the [Day] That Was." As with the earlier siege of the towering walls of Troy, a wide array o … | Continue reading

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2024We'll go with a solid yes: We've never voted for a Republican. That pretty much leaves Senator James Lankford (R-OK) off our future "might vote for him" candidate list.Aside from that, we've always semi-admired Sen. Lankford. Our reasons would have gone … | Continue reading

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2024...democracy died in the dust: What would a reasonably intelligent public discourse actually look like?Almost surely, it wouldn't start with a 59-year-old termagant-adjacent, "cable news" shouter referring to a sitting president as "President Poopy Pants … | Continue reading

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2024The claims voters hear on cable: By all accounts, the once bipartisan border deal has officially crashed and burned.In a front-page report in this morning's New York Times, Baker and Edmondson described yesterday's televised speech by President Biden co … | Continue reading

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2024Here's how democracy dies: Why are grocery prices still high? Inquiring minds want to know.In this recent analysis, the AP reports that egg prices are creeping back up due to a new wave of avian flu. Also, we think we've read that orange juice prices ma … | Continue reading

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2024Why in the world would he do that? Has the bipartisan Senate border deal actually crashed and burned?We can't say with perfect certainty, but so it may appear. Along the way, President Biden made little attempt to speak to the public about this highest pr … | Continue reading

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2024Battleship of fools: By now, it was 10:32 p.m. More precisely, it was 10:32 p.m. Eastern. It was only 7:32 p.m. on the west coast, where the 59-year-old man had received his sun-drenched start in life.At 10:32 p.n. Eastern, a 59-year-old man named Greg Gu … | Continue reading

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2024All praise to the Internet Archive: In this morning's print editions, last week's no-bail release of the Gotham cop-beaters has appeared in the New York Times.Andy Newman is the lead reporter. Print edition headline included, the report begins like this:Gr … | Continue reading

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2024We'll start to sing it tomorrow: It's sometimes called "a poem of war." We've seen it thumbnailed thusly:The Iliad, "a poem about Ilium (Troy)," is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of liter … | Continue reading

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2024As presented this morning on Fox: Last week, our reports appeared beneath this heading:CAMPAIGNThe fateful campaign was underway. Tomorrow, we'll start our second week of campaign reports under this unfortunate rubric: ARMIESWe expect to start with a very … | Continue reading

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2024What Red Nation hears: In our earlier report, we gave you a bit of background on Brigadier General Anthony Tata, who specializes in spotting the traitors found all over the land.He was today's initial guest on the Red Nation "cable news" program, Fox & F … | Continue reading

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2024Red Nation, separate from Blue: Early this morning, the question arose on our sprawling, mid-Baltimore campus:Who the heck is Brigadier General Anthony Tata (U.S. Army, Retired)? Below, we'll explain why that question arose. For now, we'll simply show yo … | Continue reading

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024Judge Jeanine goes off: Over the past few days, a new arrival on the front became the topic of general conversation. We refer to the no-bail release of the Gotham cop-beaters. This no bail release was widely discussed—everywhere except within our own tribe … | Continue reading

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024Not a word from the New York Times: Yesterday morning, Morning Joe arrived at the topic at 6:02 sharp.Thanks to the invaluable Internet Archive, we're now able to link you to the videotape of that detailed discussion. The discussion started with this:SCARB … | Continue reading

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2024We'd call this misleading reporting: Michael Grynbaum isn't some inexperienced kid. Also, he went to one of the finest schools!Let it be said that he's also a good, decent person. He thumbnails himself as shown:Michael M. GrynbaumI’m a media corresponden … | Continue reading

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2024Police officers beaten in Gotham: Yesterday morning, we started with some unwelcome polling figures.This morning, new data look good. As of now, the new national survey is very much an outlier—but the new survey says this:Biden Opens Up Lead Over Trump I … | Continue reading

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2024Better (way) late than never: This morning, we sat and watched Morning Joe all the way through to 7:30 a.m.We did so because the group was having a lengthy discussion about the role of misogyny—alleged, apparent or fully performed—in modern-day politics … | Continue reading

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2024On MS, entertainment and error: In yesterday morning's Washington Post, David Ignatius defined the new lay of the land.President Biden would soon be acting in his role as commander in chief. Ignatius, a deeply experienced foreign policy writer began his … | Continue reading

TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2024Paul Krugman, Steve Rattner and Fox: People say the darnedest things about the U.S. economy. In today's column for the New York Times, Paul Krugman flags one familiar example:KRUGMAN (1/30/24): [T]he world—especially MAGAworld—isn’t rational. And it’s a l … | Continue reading

TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2024Also, we listened to voters: Over the weekend, a thought came to mind:It had been a bit of a while since we'd looked in on the polls.We were thinking, of course, of the Biden-Trump polls—the polls of November's presumptive election. We went to 538.com and … | Continue reading