THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2024King Lear on the moors: Can a large modern nation function this way?Plainly no, it can't. At issue is a pair of questions:What did President Biden say? Also, what did President Biden mean by whatever it is that he said?Yesterday evening, Kevin Drum was u … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2024 King Lear on the moors: Can a large modern nation function this way? Plainly no, it can't. At issue is a pair of questions: What did President Biden say? Also, what did President Biden mean by whatever it is that he said? Yesterday evening, Kevin Drum w … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2024 The president handed it back: What was happening in the 6 o'clock hour as today's "news coverage" started? It could be described in various ways. One way would be this: On Morning Joe, Mika was crying (again). On Fox & Friends, the four friends were exu … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2024The president handed it back: What was happening in the 6 o'clock hour as today's "news coverage" started?It could be described in various ways. One way would be this:On Morning Joe, Mika was crying (again). On Fox & Friends, the four friends were exulti … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2024 Also, the president does it again: Let's start on the brighter side of the matter in question. This morning, in a news report, the New York Times reports what happened at one candidate's Garden Party. It does so to a reasonably full extent. The paper d … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2024Also, the president does it again: Let's start on the brighter side of the matter in question. This morning, in a news report, the New York Times reports what happened at one candidate's Garden Party. It does so to a reasonably full extent.The paper doe … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2024 Two of the ways we got here: Last evening, Candidate Harris engaged in some rude behavior. She was making a major address—a speech which had been billed as her "closing argument." Rudely, the candidate let her comments extend into the 8 o'clock Eastern … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2024Two of the ways we got here: Last evening, Candidate Harris engaged in some rude behavior.She was making a major address—a speech which had been billed as her "closing argument." Rudely, the candidate let her comments extend into the 8 o'clock Eastern h … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2024 Kubrick does it again: This very morning, far off campus, we found ourselves thinking, again and again, of Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. We plan to rewatch it this weekend. For today, this capsule, from memory: In Eyes Wide Shut, the Tom Cruise character dis … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2024Kubrick does it again: This very morning, far off campus, we found ourselves thinking, again and again, of Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.We plan to rewatch it this weekend. For today, this capsule, from memory:In Eyes Wide Shut, the Tom Cruise character discov … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2024 Perhaps no more fish today: We expect to be losing a large chunk of time today. Yesterday, some encouraging news came in. For the record, there's no way to tell from the various polls who is going to win the election. But as of Monday morning, the new po … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2024Perhaps no more fish today: We expect to be losing a large chunk of time today. Yesterday, some encouraging news came in.For the record, there's no way to tell from the various polls who is going to win the election. But as of Monday morning, the new poll … | Continue reading
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2024IN RE What's goin' on: Within the past month or so, we've suggested that we the Americans may have reached the end of the modern political era.The era began in 1960, with the iconic Kennedy-Nixon election. It seems to be grinding to a halt in this, the age … | Continue reading
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2024 IN RE What's goin' on: Within the past month or so, we've suggested that we the Americans may have reached the end of the modern political era. The era began in 1960, with the iconic Kennedy-Nixon election. It seems to be grinding to a halt in this, the a … | Continue reading
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2024One candidate's Garden Party: On balance, Sid Rosenberg isn't a well-known national figure.Yesterday, he was a featured speaker at a Garden Party. It wasn't Rick Nelson's Garden Party, concerning which he wrote and recorded this song in 1972. It was the Ga … | Continue reading
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2024 One candidate's Garden Party: On balance, Sid Rosenberg isn't a well-known national figure. Yesterday, he was a featured speaker at a Garden Party. It wasn't Rick Nelson's Garden Party, concerning which he wrote and recorded this song in 1972. It was the … | Continue reading
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2024 We can't quite answer that question: "It can't happen here," Sinclar Lewis once said. He didn't exactly mean it! Actually, that was the title of a famous book: It Can't Happen Here It Can't Happen Here is a 1935 dystopian political novel by American autho … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2024 On balance, is Marc Thiessen right? This very morning, at 6 o'clock, there we sat, watching the first hour of the "cable news" program, Fox & Friends Weekend. The three regular friends were all present. We'd say that two are "true believers." On balance … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2024 The candidate sounds off: In a move that has deeply surprised the experts, Candidate Donald J. Trump has sounded off again. For Alex Griffing's report at Mediaite, you can just click here. Meanwhile, gaze on his works and despair: Donald J. Trump: Truth S … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2024 Levin and Campos-Duffy are stealing something more primal: Way back when—last Saturday night!—The Man Who Screams was letting off steam concerning Candidate Harris. On our meters, he was already shouting by 8:03 p.m., just three minutes into his Fox News … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2024 Perhaps he should drop that first word: Candidate Trump is playing for the masculine vote, Charles Blow writes today in the New York Times. We're intrigued by the following passage, which comes near the start of Blow's column. That said, we'll guess tha … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2024 ...the candidate tried to answer: Sometimes, you just have to feel sorry for our political candidates. Such a time occurred last night during CNN's Town Hall. Early on, Candidate Kamala Harris ran through a list of her policies, plans and proposals. And … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2024 ...Fox & Friends swung into action: Ainsley Earhardt wasn't present on the Fox & Friends couch today. For that reason, the four friends this morning were these: Fox & Friends co-hosts, October 23, 2024 Steve Doocy Brian Kilmeade Lawrence Jones Kayleigh … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2024 At the Times, this disappears: It was 5:20 p.m. Finally, the little guy was ready to spout. We refer to his physical stature in part because he himself constantly does. Tragically, we're forced to guess that his physical stature, and the way it may hav … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2024 Tapper gets it (remarkably) wrong: In our view, the Fox News Channel is conducting a fraud against the American public. As it does, the big news orgs in Blue America agree to avert their gaze. We're speaking about a journalistic fraud. Under the American … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2024 A good deed which never occurred: We first heard about the good deed on last Friday's Gutfeld! program. Because we're familiar with the rolling (journalistic) fraud perpetrated by the Fox News Channel, it occurred to us that we'd better fact-check what w … | Continue reading
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2024 As noted, the chaos is general: Plainly, Gilda Radner was right. Quite plainly, it's always something! Today, our utility company conducted another "Planned Outage" in our area. This took our power out for roughly eight hours. With it went the ability to … | Continue reading
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2024 The chaos is already here: It's exactly as we noted in Friday afternoon's report. On Sunday morning, October 13, the former president—the current candidate—was asked if he expects "chaos." In fact, the question was more specific than that. Below, you see … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2024 President Lincoln's bet: Perhaps he was able to see where the culture would go! Whatever the explanation might be, President Lincoln chose to state his gamble in the form of a question—in the form of a test: Four score and seven years ago our fathers [s … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2024 Editing can be fun: Three cheers for Alex Griffing, breakout star of Mediaite. We see that he's done the transcribing we'd planned to do yesterday. We refer to something said by Candidate Trump when he spoke with Maria Bartiromo last weekend on her Sunday … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2024 The obvious question not answered: With apologies, we're going to quote sacred Thoreau one more time. Once again, we refer to his longing to be transported to a type of distant land: Walden; or, Life in the Woods [...] I should not talk so much about myse … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2024 A review of what happened last night: We'd planned to show you what we meant when we referred to the "doctored-adjacent" videotape of What Trump Was Asked and Said. We refer to something Trump was asked when he appeared with Maria Bartiromo last Sunday … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2024 Palm Beach is forever: Is there any possible chance the latest poll is "right?" We refer to the latest poll from Fox News. Yesterday, results of that survey were reported, including on the Fox News Channel itself. Those new results seem very odd. Online … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2024 A rarely discussed distant land: Sometime in 2023, we began watching the Fox News Channel on a much more regular basis. We did so because we'd come to feel, rightly or wrongly, that MSNBC's major programs had become unwatchably bad. Our incomparable co … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2024 Angelina's distant land: We were thrilled by the version of Candidate Harris which emerged yesterday as she spoke with Charlamagne tha God. More on that this afternoon. For now, if we had a Pulitzer prize to bestow, we'd give it to Philip Bump. Bump's … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2024 Taboos decimate discourse: As you may have heard, Candidate Trump ended up staging an unusual event in Oaks, Pennsylvania last night. It started out as a typical if somewhat ersatz "town hall," with citizens directing questions to Candidate Trump and Kri … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2024 Bret Stephens tries to explain: Will Candidate Harris win next month's election? At this point, there's no way to know. Is she even ahead at this point? That's unknowable also! On this morning's Morning Joe, the usual pundits began pushing back against t … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2024 Distant lands appear: We're losing a chunk of time this morning. For that reason, we won't be posting until this afternoon. As of today, we're exactly three weeks out from Election Day! Various "distant lands" are coming into view, some of them possibly … | Continue reading
MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2024 So suggests Charlie Warzel: Why are so many people going to vote for Candidate Trump? Over here in Blue America, inquiring minds do—but also don't—seem to want to know. Back in 2020, 74.2 million people did vote for Candidate Trump. That's a very large nu … | Continue reading
MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2024 Notes from a distant land: Back in the day—back at the start of the current century—these acts of political self-sabotage typically came from Blue America's big Hollywood stars. In one election, the (politically) clueless act came from Whoopi Goldberg. (S … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2024 All Misstatements by Trump Left Behind: Will Candidate Harris win this election? We'd bet against her at this point, but we have no real idea. In fairness, let's be fair: Vice President Harris was thrown into the race at a very late point in the game. B … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024 Gutfeld proves Hector right: According to this report by The Hill, the invaluable Internet Archive is fighting to get back online after some sort of cyber-attack. The Archive is widely ignored, but it performs what would be an invaluable service in some o … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024 Enlightenment values must die: Candidate Trump was waxing poetic out on the campaign trail. It happened yesterday, in Detroit. As far as we know, no one has yet discerned what he may have been talking about in the highlighted passages shown below. As anyo … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2024 When's the last time anyone did? How competent are the mainstream journalists at the very top of the pile? A remark today in the New York Times called this question to mind. Once again, the Times is offering a detailed "Political Memo" concerning Candid … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2024 Everything he said that night was just blatantly wrong: The Fox News Channel's Charlie Hurt seems like a genial person. Also, he comes from excellent stock. In addition to what we showed you on Tuesday, the leading authority on his background and his ca … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2024 Bill Whitaker gets it wrong: Yesterday afternoon, we said that Bill Whitaker got something right when he interviewed Candidate Harris for 60 Minutes. He asked her the world's most obvious question—a question about border policy over the bulk of the past … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2024 A new Martian culture at Fox: As you may already know, Stranger in a Strange Land is a highly regarded science fiction novel by Robert Heinlein. Don't get us wrong—we've never read it! But one thumbnail describes it like this: Stranger in a Strange Land … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2024 Bill Whitaker gets something right: How weird! But does it matter that 60 Minutes aired on Monday night, not on it's time-honored Sunday? Was the audience smaller as a result? We have no idea. That said, CBS made the obvious move. It bumped its election y … | Continue reading