FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2023One of our favorite pet peeves: All kidding aside, it has seemed to us that President Biden is sometimes perhaps a tiny bit nutty about the people he calls "the Bidens."For better or worse—we'll go with for worse—we Americans have established certain politic … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2023Justin Jones, bring us together! After Monday, it's been a very good week, mass shooting wise.Admittedly, Monday was bad. On that occasion, a 25-year-old man walked into a bank in Louisville and fatally shot five people. One week earlier, a mass shooting ins … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 2023A fascinating column by Blow: Charles Blow offers a fascinating column in today's New York Times.He's wondering about what could happen next year. The headline on the column says this:What Are Biden’s 2024 Chances? I Asked These Democratic Campaign Veteran … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 2023Governor Lee's proposal: As we watched last evening's Last Word, we liked the cut of his jib.Stumbling over his description of the proposal, Lawrence asked Rep. Justin Jones (D-Tennessee) what he thought about it. At one point in his reply, Rep. Jones said … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 2023In the meantime, this: Can our struggling nation—the slightly misnamed United States—possibly find a way "back out of all this now too much for us?"You're asking an excellent question! That said, we're losing a chunk of time this morning. We won't be posti … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2023Judge Davis rules: In this morning's New York Times, Jeremy Peters reports the latest rulings by Judge Eric Davis in the high-profile defamation lawsuit being brought against Fox News.Some of the rulings seems a bit curious, but so does the reporting by P … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2023She also gets something right: Is there any hope for us the people? For us, the current American branch of "the rational animal?" We can't necessarily say that there actually is! Below, we plan to recommend something Professor Cottom says in her new opini … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2023Storyline battles statistics: In a new, intriguing Kevin Drum mentions a conversation, then offers a set of statistics about public school test scores in the various states.According to Drum, the conversation went like this. There's something we might be ab … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2023Observing our tribe, we aren't: The Washington Post's Perry Bacon grew up in Louisville.Also, he lives in Louisville now. This morning, he offers a column in which he reacts to yesterday's mass shooting right there in his hometown.Below, we'll return to the … | Continue reading
MONDAY, APRIL 10, 2023Still looking for what to call it: "Back out of all this now too much for us..."That's the way a poet began a somewhat inscrutable poem. We often think of that opening line as we examine our perhaps unwinnable, rapidly devolving, embarrassing national politi … | Continue reading
MONDAY, APRIL 10, 2023Carlson, ignored and unbound: Last Friday, we said we were going to spend this week reviewing Tucker Carlson's "meltdown."(We're quoting Salon's Samaa Khullar, who reported what Carlson did.)We didn't lie when we said that. But as it turns out, we misspoke.I … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 2023...on programs like Morning Joe: Everywhere President Roosevelt looked, he saw a constellation of human conditions—conditions which actually matter. Also, he saw "a challenge to our democracy." This was part of FDR's second inaugural address:ROOSEVELT (1/20 … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2023Mr. Gorbachev, build up that wall: Tennessee wasn't always bright red.In 1992 and 1996, the Clinton/Gore ticket won the state, though it did so fairly narrowly. In 2000, Gore/Lieberman lost the state by four points. On the presidential level, it's been all br … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2023But also, the danger and the silence: Tucker Carlson was loaded for bear when last Tuesday night's program began.He began, as he often (though not always) does, with a baldly inaccurate statement. His presentation dealt with NPR—and with the transgender movem … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2023Who should we pity / detest? How strong does Alvin Bragg's case against Donald J. Trump seem to be?We asked that question yesterday. We'll ask it again today.For ourselves, we simply don't know the answer! As with any other defendant, we'd like to see Donal … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2023Possibly not on this topic: We're losing a chunk of time this morning. For that reason, we won't be posting until this afternoon, possibly not on this topic.We want to record the very strange things Tucker Carlson was saying last week. We want to question t … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2023Rachel can't say naughty words: How strong does Alvin Bragg's case against Donald J. Trump seem to be?At this point, we have no idea. If Trump is going to be charged with a crime, we'd like it to be a recognizable, explainable crime. (For the record, we wo … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2023At Salon, a young journalist spoke: Late last Friday afternoon, a peaceful, easy feeling prevailed oner blue tribe cable.News of Donald J. Trump's indictment had been released the day before. As we noted yesterday, viewers were rewarded with some good stro … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2023Florida culture war ends: Last evening, UConn defeated San Diego State in a national championship basketball clash spoiled by the failure to taunt the losing team after the game was over.In a related matter, Kevin Drum has called attention to a dual headline … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2023...as Tucker girded for war: We start today with a report from the world of blue tribe cable.Last Friday afternoon, on blue tribe cable, a peaceful easy feeling obtained in the immediate aftermath of the indictment of Donald J. Trump.On Deadline: White House … | Continue reading
MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2023Also, LSU wins: Moments ago, it occurred to us to check it out—to do so one last time.As it turns out, the New York Times stuck to its guns! It never filed a news report about the one (1) Florida elementary school where one (1) parent stated her view about th … | Continue reading
MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2023No buzzkill need apply: Tribal warfare can lead us humans to say the darnedest things.In fairness, we won't all agree on what the silly things are. In our view, Michelle Goldberg made a fairly silly suggestion in this portion of a recent New York Times column … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 2023No river to skate away on: Last evening, watching the Joni Mitchell PBS special, we felt sorry for "the amazingly talented Ledisi."Ledisi had agreed to sing Mitchell's well-known song, "River." Certain songs, by certain singer-songwriters, should possibly n … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2023The way Others see the world: Quite recently, we praised the humanitarian values of Nicholas Kristof.This morning, he pays us back with a slightly shaky overview of the indictment of Trump.As Kristof starts, the wheels are still (largely) on the wagon. This … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2023Also, Trump indicted: Last night, during the 8 o'clock hour, we found ourselves changing our mind.More specifically, we found our mind changing within us.Until then, we had never quite been able to picture Donald J. Trump winning next year's presidential ele … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2023Charles Blow and the non-event: We continue to sing the praises of the New York Times.It's now past 3 P.M. in the East—and as we noted in today's early edition, the Times still hasn't published a news report about a recent non-event.The non-event took plac … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2023The horribleness, it burns: "History is full of horribleness."So writes Charles Blow, somewhat memorably, in his new column for the New York Times. The column appears in today's print editions under this earnest headline: A Ban on a Film Is a Ban on Americ … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2023Rachel's great drinking pal: We're listing this as the morning when we learned that Greta Van Susteren is now the host of a program at Newsmax TV. (A short clip from her program aired on Morning Joe.)The program started last June. For the record, we've ne … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2023Could the demagogues sometimes be Us? "Every man [sic] a king," Huey Long famously said.It turned out to be the impossible dream. Today, our analysts see a less pleasing picture when they observe our declining world."Every pundit a demagogue!" these young … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2023The Washington Post reports: How did the culture war about public school instruction actually get its start?To her credit, the Washington Post's Hannah Natanson recently tried to address that question. On the down side, Natanson tried to address that questi … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2023Otherization and Us: What the heck is "theory of mind?"On the front page of today's New York Times, Oliver Whang explains the concept in a piece about AI.More specifically, Whang explains the way the term is used by psychologists. For our money, he clouds h … | Continue reading
MONDAY, MARCH 27, 2023Perfect for Storyline: In our view, Kevin Drum basically had it right, from his headline right on down.At issue was the forced resignation of a charter school principal at one small school in Tallahassee. Drum's killjoy headline said this:BREAKING: Unbelieva … | Continue reading
MONDAY, MARCH 27, 2023A changing of the guard: An unusual exchange occurred on yesterday's Meet the Press.The critique began with Peggy Noonan, then jumped to host Chuck Todd. At issue was the recent behavior of former president Donald J. Trump. The night before, Trump had taken … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 2023Spectacular con men R Us: Is anybody phonier than our blue tribe corporate hacks?We refer to the foolishness which transpired last evening on The 11th Hour.Once again, Mehdi Hassan was sitting in as guest host for Stephanie Ruhle. He launched the evening's … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 2023The spectacular dumbness, it burns: According to disconsolate experts, it's true among all human tribes at times of partisan warfare.Because it's true among all such tribes, it's also true within our own tribe:It's very hard for us to see how dumb we actua … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 2023Associate frog-marched to jail: For what it's worth, Boston's legendary Mayor Curley was a semi-associate of our father, though probably not a friend. Our father was 65 years old when we were born. The humorous adventures to which we refer all occurred long … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 2023Donald J. Trump has gone wild: We may have misled you yesterday. For that, we apologize.That said, full disclosure:When Hacks Like Ours service Marks Like Us, their work doesn't have to make sense! So it went on Wednesday's Morning Joe, as the gang flogged t … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2023Teaching American history: Go figure!Somehow, Nicholas Kristof decided to run for governor of Oregon (his home state) without checking to see if he was eligible to do so under Oregon law.It turned out that he wasn't! As evidenced by his column in today's N … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2023This is the garbage we've chosen: Should Donald J. Trump be charged with a crime with respect to those payments to Stormy Daniels?Imaginably, it could depend on what he actually did! For example, did he write off those "legal fees" on his tax returns, ther … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2023Also, though, Mary Trump: We don't think we've ever seen the 1979 film, With Justice For All. Al Pacino is often said to have made this statement as part of that courtroom drama:"This whole court is out of order!"Apparently, that's a misstatement of what … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2023CNN tries and fails: In a thoroughly sensible column, the Washington Post's Ruth Marcus has given voice to some doubts. In no way is Marcus any kind of Trump supporter. But in this new column, she says she's getting a slightly bad feeling about certain ev … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2023These are the hacks we have chosen: Last evening, at 9 P.M., former Rhodes scholar Rachel Maddow emerged from the company clowncar.We thought her lengthy opening segment was the dumbest segment ever. Just like that, her second segment arrived, and it was ev … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2023It's peddled by Hacks Like Ours: Rachel Maddow spilled out of the clowncar at 9 o'clock last night.It would be hard to create a dumber show than the one the cable star authored. This is the way it goes at times like these, when a red world authored by Hacks … | Continue reading
MONDAY, MARCH 20, 2023Why Cohen got three years: In this, the possible Week That Was, we're going to show you some of the ways we blue tribe viewers may perhaps get misled by our own tribe's corporate tribunes.(More correctly, "some of the ways we get misled" on a regular basis.) … | Continue reading
MONDAY, MARCH 20, 2023But also, Trump in chains: Today was an especially big day on Morning Joe.At 6 A.M., Joe and Mika were joined by one sidekick (Jonathan Lemire) and by five other guests. The eight participants shared time in an uninterrupted opening segment whose contets wer … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 2023The stupidification, it burns: Let the word go forth to the nations:The word "woke" appeared on the front page of Friday's New York Times! Indeed, the key if deeply baffling term appeared in the second paragraph of a front-page report by Sarah Mervosh, a g … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2023Poverty abolition: Where does the New York Times find these guys?In the present instance, we refer to Matthew Desmond, a sociologist at Princeton, where he is the director of the Eviction Lab. His new guest essay for the Times appears beneath this somewhat m … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2023From there, it's dumb all the way down: In full fairness, George Will's column got off to a pretty good start.The column appeared last week, on Wednesday, March 8. The Stanford Law School hecklefest hadn't happened yet.Having said that, how prophetic! In the … | Continue reading