WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2024Cronkite then, a nightly garbage can now: Labor Day is drawing on fast. With it comes the apocryphal start of the general election campaign.Given the withdrawal of President Biden from the race, a special burden has been placed on American political jour … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2024None are for Candidate Trump: Today, it's the New York Times' David Leonhardt who's rolling down Storyline Road.Perhaps for perfectly good reasons, Leonhardt has long been branded as one of the brainiest scribes at the Times. For the record, he prepped at … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2024 None are for Candidate Trump: Today, it's the New York Times' David Leonhardt who's rolling down Storyline Road. Perhaps for perfectly good reasons, Leonhardt has long been branded as one of the brainiest scribes at the Times. For the record, he prepped a … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2024 ...it was fatuous all the way down: Let the word go forth to the nations: There was a time when that bromide about the "Labor Day kickoff" actually made basic sense. Long ago and far away, our presidential campaigns worked on a tighter time scale. Conside … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2024...it was fatuous all the way down: Let the word go forth to the nations:There was a time when that bromide about the "Labor Day kickoff" actually made basic sense.Long ago and far away, our presidential campaigns worked on a tighter time scale. Consider t … | Continue reading
MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2024But where are the questions for Trump? It's as we noted this very morning. For better or worse, Candidate Harris almost surely has a fair amount of splainin' to do. Due to the way her candidacy came into being, she has only had a month to get her campaign u … | Continue reading
MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2024 But where are the questions for Trump? It's as we noted this very morning. For better or worse, Candidate Harris almost surely has a fair amount of splainin' to do. Due to the way her candidacy came into being, she has only had a month to get her campaign … | Continue reading
MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2024The fatuous conquers all: Nor all that long ago, tradition held that next Monday—September 2—would be when it would actually start.By tradition, American presidential campaigns were said to start on Labor Day. Back in May, NPR's Steve Inskeep recalled that … | Continue reading
MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2024 As it does, the fatuous conquers all: Nor all that long ago, tradition held that next Monday—September 2—would be when it would actually start. By tradition, American presidential campaigns were said to start on Labor Day. Back in May, NPR's Steve Inskeep … | Continue reading
SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2024The Post's fact-checking is slight: For the record, the Washington Post's Michael Kranish has had a very substantial, high-end journalistic career.That said, he may have had a certain "narrative" in mind when he wrote a long and fascinating profile of Candi … | Continue reading
SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2024 The Post's fact-checking is slight: For the record, the Washington Post's Michael Kranish has had a very substantial, high-end journalistic career. That said, he may have had a certain "narrative" in mind when he wrote a long and fascinating profile of Can … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 2024A second type is not: Today, as we finish a week on disorder, we'll largely blow past the latest unusual plan. We'll move on that (latest) very strange statement. Still, the brief report on that plan by the New York Times started off like this:Fund-Raiser … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 2024 A second type is not: Today, as we finish a week on disorder, we'll largely blow past the latest unusual plan. We'll move on that (latest) very strange statement. Still, the brief report on that plan by the New York Times started off like this: Fund-Rais … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2024As does their great aunt: As happenstance has it, we'll be seeing one of our own great nieces today.Her parents are driving her north from Durham, then farther north from here. She's lucky enough to be on her way to her freshman year in college. She's lucky … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2024 As does their great aunt: As happenstance has it, we'll be seeing one of our own great nieces today. Her parents are driving her north from Durham, then farther north from here. She's lucky enough to be on her way to her freshman year in college. She's luc … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2024Journalistic fecklessness doesn't help: Dear reader, no—it never happened!Yesterday, the candidate let the claim loose on an unsuspecting North Carolina crowd—but also, on the whole world. Below, we show you again what the candidate said—but no, this neve … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2024 Journalistic fecklessness doesn't help: Dear reader, no—it never happened! Yesterday, the candidate let the claim loose on an unsuspecting North Carolina crowd—but also, on the whole world. Below, we show you again what the candidate said—but no, this ne … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2024 Insults v. neighbors and friends: Is "something wrong" with Donald J. Trump? It's one of the possible disorders we've been discussing this week. In the land of journalistic euphemism—in the realm of the refusal to speak—could something be "wrong" with th … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2024 Attack of the Planned Outage: We're not sure we've ever heard of a "planned outage" before, though that of course could be wrong. That said, our part of town is scheduled for some such outage today—one of many such planned events. (Our vicinity is liste … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2024 Nary a word was said: Is our nation's discourse possibly dogged by recognizable types of disorder? Consider what happened early this morning at the Washington Post. It was time for Catherine Rampell's column to appear again. In her previous column—it appe … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2024 With respect to "price controls," snark and speed conquer again: Is "something wrong" with Donald J. Trump? Is it possible that something is severely wrong—that something is severely wrong in the clinical sense? The possibility is obvious—but by the rules … | Continue reading
MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2024 False springs of the 20's: Yesterday, on one occasion, she finally took the bait. We hope she never does it again. As described in Jeff Mason's report for Reuters, this is what she said: Harris implies Trump a 'coward' during Pennsylvania campaign appearan … | Continue reading
MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2024 Also, is something wrong with the press corps? Some will say that the Washington Post's Catherine Rampell has a whole lot of splainin' to do. We're going to spell that out tomorrow. For now, consider what happened, on Saturday evening, to the Fox News Chan … | Continue reading
SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 2024 Her language says something different: In her column in today's New York Times, Maureen Dowd seems to say that the Democrats did the right thing. In fact, she says so explicitly! This is the assessment she offers near the start of her gossipy column: DOWD … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 2024 Citizen Barro, please! Josh Barro may turn out to be right on the merits. At present, we can't rightly say. That said, his essay in the Atlantic basically makes a pair of claims. Here's what the dual headline says: Harris’s Plan Is Economically Dumb but … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 2024 The question which won't be asked: In the past few days, a statement from the Nixon era has been bouncing around in our heads. Over time, the statement became very famous. It's been simplified through repetition, but as you can hear on the White House ta … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2024 Our broken American discourse: On Tuesday night, it was Andrew Gruel, an American chef, reciting the script on the Gutfeld! program. As we showed you yesterday, his claim was already bogus as of Tuesday evening. For the record, this is the mandated tribal … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2024 CNN's Brown never asked: We're not sure that Andrew Gold of the New York Times should have begun his news report this way (headline included): At News Conference, Donald Trump Says He’s ‘Entitled to Personal Attacks’ Against Kamala Harris Toward the end of … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 2024 Here's how it's discussed on Fox: As far as we know, Andrew Gruel is an excellent chef. Also, he may be the world's nicest person—superb as a next-door neighbor. We're less thrilled with him as a television personality. Here's the start of his basic thum … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 2024 ...Senator Graham evaded: Judged by any traditional norm, Candidate Trump made some startling claims when he appeared in St. Cloud. Let's set aside the silly claims about all the adulation: TRUMP (7/27/24): By the way, I feel so bad. There are 25,000 peo … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2024 Timpf says Harris says words: As a starting point, consider this: Tucker Carlson was the founder of the web site in question. That doesn't mean that the site in question could never present decent work. But that bit of history might qualify as a soberin … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2024 A candidate's crazy claims: Just a guess: The bullroar was general over St. Cloud when the candidate in question made the highlighted statements: TRUMP (7/27/24): You know what's a friendly rally? This is a friendly rally! AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA! USA! … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2024 Also, Berman succumbs: We probably should have mentioned this about The Big Weekend Show. As we suggested yesterday, the show is devoted to steady-state world-class Dumb. On Sunday evening's edition of the program, this next thing actually happened: Uh-oh … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2024 Perhaps a "bizarre double standard:" We became aware of the candidate's comments on Tuesday evening, July 30. He had made the (inflammatory) comments three days earlier, speaking from a platform off in the clouds. We became aware of the candidate's commen … | Continue reading
MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2024 Curry overtakes France: In the realm of NBA basketball, it's often said that the rest of the world is catching up to the U.S. Partial reason: The biggest stars who are still in their prime are a passel of oversized Euros. We refer to Giannis, Jokic and Don … | Continue reading
MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2024 ...with respect to Walz and China: From weekend to weekend, the lineup changes on the Fox News Channel's ramblin' wreck of a "cable news" program, The Big Weekend Show. Other elements of the show are completely reliable. There are always four panelists on … | Continue reading
SUNDAY, AUGUST 11, 2024 Siena, don't fail us now: You can't assume that some particular survey is "correct." The possibility of error is built into the very method. That said, we're going to start with this Sunday morning prayer: New York Times/Siena Polls, please don't fail us n … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 2024 ...meets our "Gödel made easy" books: Long ago and far away, we were appalled and bored. We decided to swing into action. We considered the possibility of writing a novel—more likely, something like a novella—which would have this title: My Life, on Eart … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 2024 A point we should have made clear: After one echocardiogram and six biopsies, we returned to our sprawling campus eager to add a key point. We'll also describe our reaction as we watched yesterday's edition of The Five. First, this: In this morning's report … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 2024 The Underbelly and Us: We've never spoken to Kevin Drum. We have exchanged the rare email on the rare occasion. Will his striking work on lead exposure make its way into the history books? We don't know, but we awoke today to his frustration—his frustration … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2024 The silence of the lambs: We'll take you back, though only briefly, to the world of Charly Arnolt. Last night, Arnolt hacked her way through another appearance on the Fox News Channel's Gutfeld! program. We're living in an ugly time. As we noted this morn … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2024 The revolt from below on Fox: Late yesterday, in the 5 p.m. hour, the termagant kept it up. As we've noted, the two of us went to high school in the same sunny western land. We ourselves graduated from Aragon High. He graduated from Serra, a Catholic high … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2024 Smiles of a summer night: Since early last evening, we've been thinking about Maurice Chevalier—but also about various others, including the young Martin Lawrence, who started out right here (or hereabouts) in Washington's comedy venues. Good lord, but C … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2024 The latest thing Gutfeld has said: For starters, it might be worth reposting what JD Vance recently said. He said it last Saturday evening, during the Atlanta rally at which Candidate Trump staged a long rant about Georgia's (Republican) governor. As Tru … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2024 Blue America's leaders at work: Blue America, how about it? Did Candidate Donald J. Trump really commit a "verbal glitch"—a verbal glitch which would have been "obvious to anyone watching?" So said Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post, in her most recent … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2024: We'll tell you this afternoon: Did Donald J. Trump commit a "verbal glitch"—a verbal glitch which would have been "obvious to anyone watching?" So said Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post, in her most recent column. This is all part of our flailing soci … | Continue reading
MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2024 Also, the (latest) Manchurian candidate: We love to report good news at this site. With that in mind, we're happy to say that the New York Times' Bret Stephens may be moving toward voting for candidate Harris. No, it isn't a done deal—and yes, it's only one … | Continue reading
MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2024 Jennifer Rubin's glitch: For quite some time, we've been advancing a basic point: We humans weren't exactly built for this task—for the current assignment. Nor have we ever been "the rational animal" in any obvious sense. The great anthropologists have noti … | Continue reading