SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2024 Termagant does double duty: It was the termagant's second night back from a well-deserved, week-long vacation. At exactly 10:02 p.m., the termagant struck again. It was the second joke of his opening monologue. The deep discussions came later. The fellow … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024 There he goes again: Why was Michael Cohen sentenced to three years in prison? We'll explore that question over the weekend. We just saw Nicolle Wallace tackle the topic again. For today, we thought we'd show you one of the wonderful jokes with which Greg G … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024 It's all about Helen of Troy: At the start of last night's show on the Fox News Channel, Laura Ingraham was puzzled. She started with the Gotham "hush money" trial. Her puzzlement took this form: We start in New York where David Pecker testified for the thi … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024 As opposed to what you might hear: Actually yes, we know what we said. Yesterday afternoon, we said we'd walk you thrown an appalling pseudo-conversation which took place on that morning's Fox & Friends. During the event in question, Lawrence Jones, on th … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024 With what is Donald Trump charged? The future president made the statement back in the early days. Joe and Mika were in the process of flipping on the candidate—a candidate over whom they had fawned all through the previous year. It was January 2016. NPR … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2024 But also, Fox & Friends conquers Wisconsin: It's very, very hard to believe the culture change which has been engineered under cover of darkness at the Fox News Channel. We're so old that we can remember when "family values" was the hook for American con … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2024 Or is it extremely strong? Incomparably, your Daily Howler keeps churning out results. She appeared today at 6:03 a.m. Her appearance on Morning Joe ended at 6:20. Along the way, she restated her "basic takeaway" from yesterday's Morning Joe. Once again, … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2024 Old ways disappear: Journalistically speaking, we'd call it a moment that was. Yesterday, opening statements were delivered at the Trump hush money / election corruption trial. When we left off this morning, Donald J. Trump had somehow "corrupted the 2016 … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2024 The doorman knocks early and often: Journalistically speaking—and "at long last"—is it time for her to go? Journalistically speaking, we refer to Lisa Rubin. She's either "an MSNBC legal analyst" or "an MSNBC legal correspondent," depending on which part o … | Continue reading
MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2024 Excitement running high: There is no trial but the one true trial. All other news topics fail. We missed the start of Deadline: White House due to an appointment. We returned at 4:15 to find excitement running high and the (uniform) desire to convict runnin … | Continue reading
MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2024 Our journalism, ourselves: The New York Times is a national paper of record. Based upon a recent report, that's especially true for the jurors who begin their service today in Gotham's admittedly "lurid," hush money / porn star trial. Last Friday, the newsp … | Continue reading
SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 2024 Philosophy tooth and nail: Every so often, the big newspapers can't help themselves. They decide to publish an essay like the one found at the end of this link. It appeared on Wednesday, in the New York Times, under this dual headline: Why the World Still N … | Continue reading
SUNDAY, APRIL 20, 2024 Donald Trump's trial and American Journalism: Opening statements will be made tomorrow! That said: This very morning, we've been reading the Today's Paper site at the New York Times. As part of what we would regard as a comically tunnel-visioned Blue Americ … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2024 Can you believe these clans? Can you believe the factual claims you hear from our warring clans? You can if you love the "novelization of news." You can believe what you hear if you love soap operas or pro wrestling—if you love Storyline. Yesterday aftern … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2024 With a great deal more to be said: The headline on the Kevin Drum post is surely overstated: Fox News has destroyed American confidence in itself Kevin's post contains a startling graphic concerning the loss of faith in American institutions. Surely, it can … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2024 The Wreck of The Old #4: Friends, how well are you served by the works of your clan? The issue arose yesterday at the start of Deadline: White House. Two of the original seven Trump jurors had now been dismissed by Judge Merchan. We speak of the original Ju … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2024 What humans are able to do: He started out as a Democrat, then became a high-level conservative talk radio host. At this point, he's been NeverTrump for years. By human standards, he's very bright. That helps creates the current striking example of What T … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2024 Crystal Blue persuasion: On Tuesday, seven jurors were selected to serve on the "hush money" trial. As of an hour ago, the number had been bumped back to five. Yesterday morning, the New York Times reported a widely discussed incident from Tuesday's selec … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2024 Chris Hayes and the children's hours: At some point, George T. Conway III decided to switch his clan. In 2001, he married Kellyanne FitzPatrick, who we'd once known the tiniest tad. Roughly seventeen years after that, the gentleman switched his clan. Back … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2024 Except when she constantly does: Uri Berliner has been suspended, for a week, from his job at NPR. There's no obvious reason why he shouldn't have been. It sounds like he broke some basic rules when he wrote a widely discussed critique of his long-time e … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2024 These two clans never meet: In yesterday's time-altered report, we mentioned Pretty Boy Floyd. The leading authority on his short career thumbnails him as shown: Pretty Boy Floyd Charles Arthur Floyd (1904–1934), nicknamed Pretty Boy Floyd, was an Americ … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2024 Pretty Boy Floyd nods off: We're guessing that Rachel Maddow read yesterday's New York Times, though then again possibly not. (She surely read this lengthy piece from the April 7 Sunday edition.) We refer to one particular part of what had seemed to be a f … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2024 Which clan is currently worse? Quite possibly just until 11 a.m., we're on an excursion to Medical Land. For that reason, we won't be posting until this afternoon. That said, rejoice in interesting times! Has there ever been a more fascinating subject than … | Continue reading
MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2024 Saying what we saw: Over the weekend, we finally saw The Zone of Interest. The leading authority on the film offers this overview: The Zone of Interest is a 2023 historical drama film written and directed by Jonathan Glazer...Loosely based on the 2014 novel … | Continue reading
MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2024 All tangled up in Blue: We thought of Michael Corleone again, late this past Friday night. We thought about what he saw in the streets of Havana on the eve of Batista's fall. "I saw an interesting thing happen today," he tells a group of associates on a sun … | Continue reading
SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 2024 The goddess Athene moves on: Today's was no Sunday morning via Wallace Stevens, opening with "complacencies of the peignoir." We took early coffee in a slightly listing chair. Thus positioned, we could imaginably have "felt the dark encroachment of that old … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2024 The NewsHour meets Berliner: Can Blue America's votaries be a tiny bit devious too? If Stephanie Saul has it right today, so it might possibly seem. On the front page of today's New York Times print edition, her news report starts like this: State Bans on … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2024 But also, the flight of birds: Is this a form of madness? A possible second cousin to same? Does it represent a possible dance of the fairies in the forest near Athens, Midsummer Night's Dream-wise? It's a front-page report in the New York Times on this ver … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2024 Distinguishes falsehoods from lies: At times of partisan conflict, we humans often like to accuse our opponents of lying. Sometimes people do lie, of course. It's just isn't especially easy to know that they actually have. Our own work was widely cited in … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2024 The joy of fighting words: Perhaps surprisingly, there aren't a whole lot of "fighting words" in the verses of The Iliad. Within the modern American legal context, what the heck are "fighting words?" The leading authority on the concept offers the followi … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2024 And the band keeps refusing to play: At 10 p.m., the nightly assurance was extended to several million viewers by the Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity. Full disclosure! On one lone occasion, we appeared on Hannity & Colmes. Hannity now says this every nig … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2024 Blue America meets Forrest Gump: "Stupid is as stupid does," Forrest Gump famously said. On occasion, the statement is also attributed to his mother. We can't instantly confirm Mrs. Gump as the original source of the quote. Stupid is as stupid does? Exce … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2024 But not always totally wrong: Last evening, viewers had to wait until 10:29 to enjoy their first Lizzo joke. The theme of the joke was required by law. Delivered by a fellow named Tyler Fischer, the joke went exactly like this: I was one of the idiots that … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2024 ...are we gripped by a form of madness? In one of Shakespeare's best-known works, a midsummer dream state—a possible near cousin to madness—seems to command the stage. We'll let the leading authority set the scene, including some modern analysis: A Midsumme … | Continue reading
MONDAY, APRIL 8, 2024 ...except on Fox & Friends: Let it be said that Max Boot might be wrong in his assessment. Also, Kevin Drum might be wrong in assuming that Boot is right. That said: In this column for the Washington Post, Boot asserts that President Biden shut the Iran-spon … | Continue reading
MONDAY, APRIL 8, 2024 To see our own conduct more clearly: You're right! We continue to lead with an unconventional theme, based on this improbable bromide: Everything We Ever Needed to Know We Could Have Learned from Reading The Iliad As we explained last week, this bromide is p … | Continue reading
MONDAY, APRIL 8, 2024 "I'm Crazy," Patsy Cline said: A hint of the crazy was floating around during the late Ross Perot's 1992 White House campaign. Some people thought Perot was a little bit nuts to launch such a run in the first place. But one month before the July 1992 Democra … | Continue reading
SUNDAY, APRIL 7, 2024 ...and saying the others are evil: As always, it didn't take long for Mark Levin to start shouting. For reasons only its owners can explain, the Fox News Channel broadcasts Levin's hour-long program at 8 o'clock Eastern on Saturday and Sunday nights. Usually … | Continue reading
SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 2024 ...if you're on the air at Fox: This very morning, the regular Fox & Friends Weekend crew shot out of the gate rather fast. The regular crew was back in the saddle. We'll call the roll of that lineup: Regular lineup, Fox & Friends Weekend: Rachel Campos-Du … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2024 Paraphrase can never be perfect: Under current arrangements, denizens of Red America hear an array of statements and claims. Denizens of Blue America rarely receive those same presentations. This creates a type of Babel as our nation, such as it ever was, co … | Continue reading
FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2024 Once again, Kubrick's last film: Given the way our discourse currently works, by the end of the week it's a Babel—a Babel of many parts. Eventually, we'll try to show you what we mean. For now, let's return to a torrent of babble which was produced last Sund … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2024 No bait left behind: Has Candidate Donald J. Trump been using his words again? In Tuesday's speech in Michigan, he began flashing "blood bath" again, deliberately giving the term new weight. Along the way, he also offered the statement shown below, speakin … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2024 One meaning of "everything's possible:" Did Israel stage a deliberate attack on those humanitarian aid trucks, resulting the deaths of seven aid workers? Kevin Drum explores that question in a post which carries this headline: Did Israel deliberately destr … | Continue reading
THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2024 One "news channel's" secret society: Early this morning, we thought of Stanley Kubrick's 1999 film, Eyes Wide Shut. We've thought of that film fairly often of late. In our own imperfect recollection, it was frequently rejected by the critics. That said, th … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2024 Hard to believe but true: It's hard to believe but it's true. Last night, on Jesse Watters Primetime, Jesse Watters pretended to interview Niya, who is "not only a polyamorous British Columbian wolf, but she's also an elite hacker who takes down sex traff … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2024 Also, new polling data: Who will win November's election? We have no idea. It's our impression that Trump may win if he can survive his criminal trials. It also depends on what happens with the pair of major addiction addicts, Robert Kennedy Jr. and Corne … | Continue reading
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2024 If we did, we'd have three right here: If we believed in terrible people, they would be terrible people! We refer to one of the leadership cadres currently advocating on behalf of Candidate Donald J. Trump. Some of these leadership cadres actually make de … | Continue reading
TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2024 Prime time "cable news:" Does there (still) exist a "national discourse?" Such myths may still be believed by some. To consider the actual state of the disintegration, consider what we saw on two of our nation's "cable news" channels last night. We'll start … | Continue reading