musings on the mainstream "press corps" and the american discourse
SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 2026 In search of the real Suzanne Scott: In yesterday afternoon's report , we noted the fact that Candidate El-Sayed is behind by four points in Michigan, according to a new survey by the Fox News polling unit. Sherrod Brown is ahead by eight in Ohio, we noted, also according to Fox. We're concerned about Michigan, where "prickly" is unlikely to win (or so it seems to us).…
FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 2026 But here's what this one poll says: As with any poll, it's just one poll. Still, here's what this new poll has said : ...New Fox News Poll Sounds Alarm Bells In Michigan For Democrats A new set of Fox News polls set of alarm bells for Democrats in Michigan’s key Senate race this week , while also highlighting how Republicans could lose their majority in the chamber.…
FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 2026 We won't repost what he said: Judged by any normal standard, last week's "new arrival on the front" is no one's idea of a joke. That new arrival was Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Party's Senate nominee in Michigan. There's a lot to look at, so here we go. Fellow citizens, just try to hang on : Abdul El-Sayed Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed (born October 31, 1984), known as…
THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2026 ...to the walls of The Whathisname Center: Kurt Andersen's essay appears today in print editions of the New York Times. As we've noted, it starts with an ominous-sounding, fairly recent observation from the late Rush Limbaugh: Has America Already Undergone a Soft Breakup? “I actually think,” Rush Limbaugh told his many millions of listeners during the weeks between Donald…
THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2026 Hasan Piker remains: Based on her lead in the polls, the new arrival on the front was supposed to be Francesca Hong. It was thought that she would be the Democratic Party's nominee for governor of Wisconsin. In this passage from a profile in The Atlantic , Helen Lewis starts to explain why that didn't happen. Dual headline included : AOC Knows a Lemon When She Sees One…
THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2026 We'll be posting maybe by noon: We're off on a rare trip to, where else, the medical mission. We expect to be posting by noon. Today's subject: New arrival Hasan Piker!
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2026 We agree with him all the way down: We agree with TMZ's Harvey Levin. One part of this story has, in fact, been strangely "tempered" — or at least, so it seems. Levin was referring to the president's flight from Air Force One on his way out of Turkey. So let us just link you to this : TMZ’s Harvey Levin Questions Why Threatened Air Force One Was Allowed to Take Off with…
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2026 ...after the president left: Crouched behind barrels of chicken salad, he made his way out of Turkey! It was the Washington Post which broke the story. The Post's report starts like this : Contradicting public statements, Trump took secret flight from Turkey amid Iranian threat An Iranian assassination threat against President Donald Trump prompted an extraordinary…
TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2026 One cable star knows for sure: Yesterday afternoon , we took a look at the David Wallace-Wells opinion column about the Senate hearing in which mountains of rage were directed at Dr. Fauci In print editions, the column appeared in last weekend's Sunday Times. Online, the headline on the column says this: Fauci Has a Lot to Answer For. But We’re Asking the Wrong Questions.…
TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2026 ...did what a news org should: Incomparably, your astonishing Daily Howler keeps banging out those results! We refer to a news report which appears in print editions of this morning's New York Times (but also online, of course). The news report starts like this : Trump Stokes Islamophobia by Calling Democratic Candidates ‘Jihadists’ President Trump on Monday described…
MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2026 ...elude the Times' Wallace-Wells? "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting its shoes on?” (Or while it's putting its pants on? Is that also true of a misstatement, even of a false impression?) It's a famous apocryphal statement! Back in 2017, the New York Times shot the standard attribution down. The report by Nirai Chokshi started off…
MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2026 ...was met with familiar old conduct: "The appearance on the front of a new arrival...became the topic of general conversation." In the translation by David Magarshack for Penguin Classics, that's the first sentence of Chekhov's Lady with Lapdog. The famous story has its own Wikipedia page. Included there is this : The Lady with the Dog "The Lady with the Dog" is a short…
SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2026 Why was Blanche confirmed? Was that an example of tribal group rage in that Senate hearing room last week? Was that an example of the deadly rage no modern society can really expect to withstand? (Was that a gang of Achaeans coming over the walls?) Presumably, stated opinions will differ. No senators embarrassed themselves more than Hawley and Moreno did. But two questions…
FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2026 He was delighting his heart: We've beaten the famous resource to death, but we promised we'd do it. We promised we'd show you what comes next, after these treasured lines from Professor Fagles' translation of the Iliad : BOOK NINE The Embassy to Achilles [...] So Ajax and Odysseus made their way at once where the battle lines of breakers crash and drag, praying hard to the…
FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2026 Group rage comes to the Senate: Just to be honest and fair, what happened last night supports the idea that news orgs should never involve "mental health" issues in their political coverage. Caroline Sunshine (actual name) was appearing on the 10 p.m. shoutfest, CNN NewsNight . The program is designed to replace attempts at intelligent discussion with a raucous modern-day…
THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2026 The doldrums invade our camps: As a matter of fact, we did in fact take Hum 3 during the first semester of our junior year. We know that because we believe our transcript. It says that we received an A-minus in the class. It also says that we failed Kant — that we were handed an F. Or, perhaps, "did Kant fail us?" We're quoting our award-winning college years memoir, for…
THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2026 The Wall Street Journal says no: Despite the fact that he didn't exist, Homer has been in the air of late. In our opinion, Keats may have overdone it a bit with respect to Chapman's translation : On First Looking into Chapman's Homer [...] Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He star'd at…
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2026 The rage of Kennedy Junior: Dana Bash and Bobby Kennedy never got on the same track on Sunday morning's State of The Union. The first apparent misstatement arrived right away — and it came from Kennedy Junior : BASH (8/2/26): You have been placing nearly all the blame on the Covid pandemic and the way that the U.S. responded to it squarely with Dr. Fauci. But, of course,…
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2026 The New York Times won't go there: As far as we know, there was no historical Homer. There wasn't even a Homer Price, he of the doughnut machine . (That Homer lived in a different time: "It [was] America laughing at itself with a broad and genial humanity....") There was a Homer Parrish in The Best Years of Our Lives (Best Picture, 1946), "the highest-grossing film in the…
TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 2026 Endless approaches to fury: The latest bizarre MAGA meltdown, this time involving the reflecting pool? Reflections on the furious behavior of Secretary Kennedy on Sunday's State of The Union , complete with the kooky misstatements? Reflections on the pitiful way the kidz on The Five pretended he masterfully nailed it? Please, dear God, no thanks! Instead, how about a…
TUESDAY, AUGUST 4, 2026 Tommy Tuberville's rage: For better or worse — we'll guess for worse — the prevailing rage of the current era was directed at Dr. Fauci last week. It was directed at him in a Senate hearing. That said, in certain essential ways, the story of this tribal fury had been told long before. We return to Book One of the Iliad , in which the disastrous rage of Achilles emerges. As…
MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 2026 But also, those crazy claims: Yesterday, in a rare Sunday outing , we linked you to Mediaite's report about the sitting president's latest, rather unusual social media posts. We refer to last weekend's rather peculiar Truth Social posts. Because the posts seemed rather strange, we used them as an occasion to ask a rather familiar question: Is it possible that something is…
MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 2026 But also, the rage of Senator Paul: Now that's we've all seen the film adaptation of the Odyssey , let's go all the way back to the start. More specifically, let's return to the first few lines of the Iliad , the war poem which preceded the poem that's known as the Odyssey . The Iliad was a war poem, but it was mainly a poem of rage. Or so said Professor Knox, in his…
SUNDAY, AUGUST 2, 2026 Even today, on a Sunday: Is something wrong with the person serving as the sitting president? We've decided to ask that question again. We base our question on Zachary Leeman's report for Mediaite . We've omitted one word from the headline, but the start of Leeman's report seems to speak for itself: Trump Kisses Jesus and Arrests Aliens in Truth Social Posting Spree…
SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2026 Is he mentally ill? Is something wrong with President Trump? Once again, we started the current week with that same old question. On Monday night, Lawrence O'Donnell repeatedly called the president a madman. At one point, he referred to the president's "insanity." In our view, O'Donnell did excellent work all week. But at one point on Monday night, he made a deeply…