SATURDAY: Dems are leading in six states!

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). That said, we thought you should hear the rest of the story, at least as told by Jessica Tarlov yesterday on The Five.   

Her presentation starts here. After saying that El-Sayed will be hurt by his association with Hasan Piker, she went ahead and said this:   

TARLOV (8/14/26): [El-Sayed] is trailing Mike Rogers by four points. And I understand why Republicans want to look to that facet of the Fox poll, because everything else is a disaster for Republicans, except the Michigan race. 

You have Ossoff up 13, Cooper up 9, Brown up 8, Turek up 4, Talarico up 3, and Jackson up 2, and then El-Sayed trailing by 4, so there is definitely work to do.    

So Tarlov said. She was referring to Democratic Party leads by these Senate candidates in these six states, according to Fox polls:  

Jon Ossoff in Georgia (+13) 
Roy Cooper in North Carolina (+9)
Sherrod Brown in Ohio (+8)
Josh Turek in Iowa (+4)
James Talarico in Texas (+3)
Troy Jackson in Maine (+2)  

Is that a disaster for Republicans? Not necessarily, no. 

Will those leads hold up in the end? We have no idea. 

That said, our nation is in a world of extremely serious hurt, and Blue America's largest news orgs (and best-known journalists) just keep playing it safe—just keep averting their gaze.  

For reasons too depressing to state, we don't think a "prickly" approach will work for Candidate El-Sayed. With respect to life at the bottom of the barrel, consider the way El-Sayed is being portrayed by the droogs of the Fox News Channel as our Blue stars look away.

Gutfeld! is the third most-watched program in American "cable news." Its viewership more than doubles that of corresponding shows on MS NOW, with CNN's viewership lagging behind even that.  

Gutfeld! is a corporate messaging vehicle being misidentified as a "late night comedy" program. (It airs at 7 p.m. in the west!) Last night, in his handful of opening jokes, its host hit these favorite themes:   

Rosie O'Donnell is too fat
Michelle Obama is too big and too strong  
Something's wrong with Nancy Pelosi's face   
Hillary Clinton likes to kill people 

A certain pattern may seem to obtain. Along the way, he included this messaging moment with respect to El-Sayed: 

GUTFELD (8/14/26): You know, the Internet was amused over Abdul El-Sayed's Blue's Clues parody video. 

[Brief excerpt from El-Sayed video] 

Except the part where he stones Dora the Explorer to death for traveling alone.  

AUDIENCE: [General puzzlement]   

(Blue's Clues? What's that? Just click here.)

Understandably, the audience seemed a bit bewildered by that rather obscure presentation. That said, this was meant to deliver the message that El-Sayed is a violent "Muslim extremist" who would stone a little girl to death if she dared to venture out alone. 

This sort of sickness is now standard fare on this inexcusable "cable news" program. As people like Jeff Greenfield refuse to notice, the program's host is constantly suggesting that, just as Hillary Clinton likes to kill people, Mayor Mamdani and Candidate El-Sayed like to fly planes into the side of buildings or, in this particular case, are inclined to stone people to death.

This is ugly, prehistoric fare. CEO Suzanne Scott is now paying this man to do this sort of thing on a nightly basis. 

None of Blue America's news orgs are willing to report the fact that Suzanne Scott is doing this. No one is willing to ask her why she would do such a thing. 

This is ugly behavior of an undisguised, unmistakable kind. As our nation continues to slide toward the sea, the point of this conduct is obvious.

The point of this ugly conduct is obvious. Maddow and French and all the stars are all averting their gaze.

FRIDAY: Like every poll, it's only one poll!

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.

“Tonight we have the first look at new Fox polling. The battle for Senate control in the midterms is leading to nationwide attention on really only a handful of races across the country that could decide the balance of power next year. Of course, Fox’s Alexis McAdams is in New York with a look at the new numbers. Good evening, Alexis,” began Fox’s chief political anchor Bret Baier on Thursday night.

“Bret, good evening. So, according to a brand new Fox News poll, Republicans have a slight edge in Michigan, in one of the most expensive and competitive Senate races in the country. So tonight, Republican Mike Rogers has 51 percent of the vote, and far-left Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has 47 percent. So Rogers has a four-point edge, which is still within the poll’s margin of error among Michigan’s registered voters,” McAdams reported.  

Oof! That four-point lead for Candidate Rogers suggests only "a slight edge," McAdams politely (and correctly) reported. Still, Democrats pretty much need to win that seat—and this morning, we ourselves said this:   

"[Candidate El-Sayed] delivered a prickly response to the president's ugly insults. Assuming he wants to win in November, that struck us as possibly the wrong way to go, though of course there's no way to be certain."   

We Blues! Why would a prickly response possibly be the wrong way to go? The wrong way to go if you're trying to win the seat, that is?   

You're asking an excellent question—though for now, we must hurry off, with McAdams noting El-Sayed's prickly suggestion that he and Rogers should stage "a tackle football showdown." 

Every poll is only one poll, but we aren't thrilled with that one poll. That said, Candidate Brown is ahead by eight points in Ohio, McAdams also says. 

(Fox News polls have largely been respectable polls, down through the many long years.)

NEW ARRIVALS: The furious streamer came fighting back!

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 Abdul El-Sayed, is an American politician and epidemiologist who is the Democratic nominee in the 2026 United States Senate election in Michigan.

A progressive Democrat, El-Sayed supports regulated capitalism, Medicare for All, ceasing US military funding to Israel, and abolishing ICE. He ran for governor in 2018, placing second to Gretchen Whitmer in the Democratic primary.

He served as the director of the Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services of Wayne County from 2023 to 2025. From 2015 to 2017, he was the executive director of the City of Detroit Health Department, where he oversaw public health initiatives during the city’s recovery from bankruptcy. A graduate of the University of Michigan and a Rhodes Scholar at Oriel College, Oxford, El-Sayed holds a Doctor of Medicine from Columbia University, where he was an assistant professor of epidemiology.

That's where the leading authority starts. Continuing, that source also tells us this:  

El-Sayed was born in the Detroit suburb of Rochester Hills to Egyptian immigrant parents. His father, Mohamed, was raised in Alexandria, Egypt, and immigrated to the U.S. to pursue a PhD at Wayne State University. His mother, Fatten Elkomy, is a nurse practitioner in Missouri. Abdul was raised in the Detroit area by his father and stepmother Jacqueline (a native of Gratiot County, Michigan), both of whom are engineers.

El-Sayed graduated from Bloomfield Hills Andover High School, where he was a team captain for wrestling, football and lacrosse in 2003. He then attended the University of Michigan, where he majored in biology and political science...He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Highest Distinction in 2007 with a bachelor's degree and delivered that year's commencement speech.  

[...]   

As a second-year medical student, he received a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oriel College, Oxford, where he completed a D.Phil. in public health in 2011. In 2014, he completed a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons...El-Sayed did not pursue a medical license and instead went into public health epidemiology work.

There once was a time when a resume of that type might inspire grudging respect. In the madness of the present day, El-Sayed's win last week produced ugly pushback from President Trump, along with a flurry of commentary on the Fox News Channel in which the children complained that he refers to himself as a "physician" when he should really just say he's a "doctor."   

(No, we aren't making that up.)

Will Candidate El-Sayed win November's general election? We have no idea. 

He delivered a prickly response to the president's ugly insults. Assuming he wants to win in November, that struck us as possibly the wrong way to go, though of course there's no way to be certain. 

And then there's the fact he has campaigned with Hasan Piker, another of this year's "new arrivals." The nominee has even suggested that he might do so again. 

Would that tilt the vote more Red or more Blue? Would it change any votes at all?

We can't actually tell you that! We can say that Piker arrives on the front with a rather high profile, in part for reasons the leading authority summarizes here:   

Hasan Piker   

Hasan Doğan Piker (born July 25, 1991) is an American Twitch streamer, influencer, and left-wing political commentator. His livestreams usually include discussions on current affairs and lifestyle stories, playing video games, reacting to memes and media clips, and interacting with his viewers.

As of 2026, Piker's Twitch channel ranks among the platform's most-subscribed. Piker has been called one of the biggest voices on the American Left...He has regularly spoken about the Gaza war, advocating for Palestinians and criticizing the Israeli government. 

[...] 

In May 2024, Piker described allegations of Hamas carrying out sexual violence during the October 7 attacks as "rape fantasies" and "rape hallucinations." Piker has also said, "It doesn't matter if rape happened on October 7th. It doesn't change the dynamic for me." 

In an April 2026 interview with The New Republic, Piker said of the quotation: "I think it's very clear what I was saying. I was debating someone at the time about there being sexual violence that occurred on October 7th. And I said sexual violence does take place in situations like this, and there was definitely testimony of sexual violence that had taken place amongst the hostages. But that doesn't change the dynamic of Israel committing a genocide against the Palestinians, and my opposing that genocide."

And so on from there, at substantial length, as you can see for yourself. Now for the rest of the story:

This Monday, Joe Scarborough voiced concern about the possibility that Democrats might be snatching election defeat from the jaws of victory at the present time. At Mediaite, David Gilmour presented a lengthy account of Scarborough's "fiery, must-watch rant." 

Gilmour presented transcript and tape of the "fiery rant." You can just click here. 

At that time, it still seemed likely that new arrival Francesca Hong was going to win in Wisconsin. In Scarborough's view, mainstream Democrats were failing to separate themselves from the less presentable views of such DSA / lefty types. 

As we showed you yesterday, Scarborough eventually said what you see below. Though he never said his name, he was plainly referring to Piker in this part of his fiery plea:

SCARBOROUGH (8/10/26): There's nothing wrong with the Democrats supporting economic justice. There's nothing wrong with the Democrats supporting...getting rid of the Trump taxes and making billionaires pay more in taxes. 

That’s a legitimate mainstream debate for people to have. "Healthcare for all! Healthcare is unaffordable!" That is something most Americans would agree with. 

But please, I don’t need people telling me, "Oh, you have to just turn a blind eye to people saying that women getting raped on October 7 didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things." No, Americans aren’t going to support that!   

Plainly, he was referring to Piker's famous statement about October 7. Later that day, Piker came pushing back, going on and on, at endless length, in a way we won't repost or transcribe.   

You can read what Piker said by clicking for Gilmour's follow-up report. Also, you can listen to what Piker said by clicking that link. 

(In our view, a fair amount of what Piker said that day was inaccurate.)

According to the leading authority, Piker seems to have become relatively wealthy providing content of that general type. "In 2021, he bought a $2.7 million house in West Hollywood," the leading authority says.

People also get wealthy on the Fox News Channel! But can the American project, such as it has been, really expect to survive a discourse of this type?   

The so-called "democratization of media" has created a new way of life. With apologies to Huey Long, our nation now runs on this rocket fuel:   

Every streamer a king!

To borrow from the early Dylan, in one of his most painful songs:   

But oh, what kind of democratization is this, which goes from bad to worse?

More on the composition: Yes, the song is called Tears of Rage. In the present day, our culture is running on the rage, perhaps in the absence of tears.

For the full lyrics, click here. 

THURSDAY: Pharaoh's name to be restored...

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 Trump losing the 2020 election and his supporters’ assault on the Capitol, “that we’re trending toward secession. It can’t go on this way. There cannot be a peaceful coexistence of two completely different theories of life, theories of government, theories of how we manage our affairs.” 

It can't go on this way? Given this struggling nation's "two different theories of [everything]," we're trending toward secession? 

We can't say that Limbaugh's basic perception was wrong. 

In the past, we ourselves have spoken of a "silent secession" by elements within the Red States. As Andersen's essay continues, he talks about a "soft secession" being practiced by attorney generals of the Blue States—and that phrase is being employed by those Blue State officials themselves, to describe their own activities!   

As he continues, Andersen comes up with some somewhat silly-sounding ways to deal with the fact that we've become two different epistemic entities. Here's one example:

We can’t keep going this way. Escaping federal dysfunction and avoiding real hostilities over the long term will require some kind of radical shift. Perhaps states and regions could become much more independent. Like the regional autonomous communities in Spain, some of which collect nearly all the taxes their inhabitants pay and then forward a negotiated share to the national government. Or the cantons of Switzerland, which can divide or reconfigure, and each one decides whether newcomers become Swiss citizens.   

As Andersen starts, he's agreeing with Limbaugh there:  

We can’t keep going this way, he says. We need to come together long enough to agree to be more like Spain, or perhaps to let ourselves function more like the shapeshifting cantons of Switzerland.   

Could some such radical shift occur? It seems a bit hard to believe, but in theory, everything's possible. 

("Isn't it pretty to think so?" That's what Hemingway famously wrote, concerning something completely different, at the end of The Sun Also Rises. Recalling President Obama's claim that we're really just the United States, Andersen has borrowed the famous line just one paragraph earlier!)

Can the United States be more like Spain? It's hard to answer that question, but we thought of Limbaugh's "two different theories of [everything]" when we perused this bit of breaking warfare online at the New York Times:   

Kennedy Center Board Decides to Inscribe Trump’s Name on Building   

The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted on Thursday to inscribe President Trump’s name on the building beneath the main signage, aggressively testing a federal judge’s order to remove it, according to two people with direct knowledge of the proceedings.

According to the resolution approved by the Trump-allied board, the inscription underneath the institution’s name would read: “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.” The board’s decision came shortly after it voted to move forward with Mr. Trump’s plan to shutter the building for renovations.

The president’s name was added to the building last year, but the judge ordered the letters taken down, finding that only Congress had the authority to change the institution’s name. The center removed Mr. Trump’s name in June but is appealing the ruling.

In Thursday’s resolution, the board directed officials to undertake “all legal means” to honor Mr. Trump for bringing the center back “from the brink of disaster.”  

Are the AGs of Blue America engaged in some sort of "soft secession?" We aren't sure, but potent elements of Red America are looking for ways to pick fights about attributions and intimations of greatness in every conceivable sphere.

Andersen's soft headline notwithstanding, this never-ending attack on the priors—this ongoing attempted "reinvention [of everything]"—is well underway at this time. 

Potent chunks of Red America are trying to make their pharaoh live forever. Warning:

Over here, in Blue America, we may have our foibles too.

NEW ARRIVALS: Hong came and went as a new arrival!

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   
Francesca Hong’s surprise loss in Wisconsin is a blessing to the Democratic Party.

[...]  

Hong’s loss yesterday was unexpected. Two weeks ago, the 37-year-old state legislator was the front-runner in the polls, largely because the Democratic primary had turned into a clown show... [O]ne poll had Hong 22 points ahead. In the interim, another candidate, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, had returned to the race after previously withdrawing because of a lack of momentum. All the hopes of the Democratic establishment rested on Crowley’s Hail Mary pass.

Why were they so scared of Hong? Partially because she is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, an organization that calls for public ownership of large corporations, looser immigration laws, and the abolition of prisons. Hong has said that she does not agree with all of the DSA platform, but she entered the contest with an unscrubbed Twitter account, full of the most voter-repelling, peak-2020 statements you can imagine. 

At this site, we wouldn't be inclined to refer to Hong as a "lemon." On Election Day, we saw videotape of her taking questions from reporters, then walking away holding hands with her 10-year-old son.   

Years from now, that child may be lucky enough to feel that he was raised by the world's best mother. But his mother was deeply challenged as a candidate under prevailing rules of the game, according to which you run for office in order to serve, and to be allowed to serve you have to win a plurality of votes in a full-scale November election.   

Judged by any reasonable calculus, Hong was a shaky bet to win in November. As her profile ends, Lewis explains why David Crowley's surprising win this Tuesday was seen, by establishment pols, as "a blessing to the Democratic Party:"    

Crowley squeaked past Hong at the last minute. That is a nightmare for the Republicans, whose candidate Tom Tiffany was the only serious contender for the party’s nomination. In Congress, he is a member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus and voted against certifying Joe Biden’s victory in 2020. He has been heartily endorsed by Donald Trump—great for the primary, but worse than useless in the general.

Tiffany very obviously wanted to run against Hong, whom he could have painted as a dangerous radical who loves illegal immigration and hates cranberry sauce... 

The final winner, however, is democracy itself. Who would bet against Donald Trump calling up swing-state officials in 2028 and asking them to find a few more votes for the Republican candidate for president? After all, that’s exactly what he did in Georgia in 2020. Joe Biden won Wisconsin by just 21,000 votes that year, while Trump took it back by only 30,000 in the next race. For a decade, Trump and his allies have counted on Democrats to sound so out of step with mainstream voters on cultural issues that even his most authoritarian moves look tolerable by comparison. The Badger State is one of the most crucial places on the electoral map. Francesca Hong’s unexpected loss is America’s gain.  

We live in a time of madness and rage (and in a time of mental illness). Who will end up in Wisconsin's state house? Given the madness of the time, a great deal may turn on that question.  

Or then again, possibly not! Those of us in Blue America have shown the ability to find ways to occasion our own defeats. The current president squeaked into the White House for his current term in part because of the conduct in which we Blues engaged along the way, the earlier Hong included.

Among other self-inflicted disasters, the Biden administration's open border and our less digestible "Woke One" claims were able to drive a certain number of voters away from Candidate Harris. Enough voters were driven away so that someone as unpopular as Candidate Trump was able to make his way back to what's now left of the White House.

And now, along comes the latest new arrival, one who sounded off at the start of this very week. Rightly or wrongly, Republican strategists love this arrival. The leading authority starts its profile as shown:   

Hasan Piker   

Hasan Doğan Piker (born July 25, 1991) is an American Twitch streamer, influencer, and left-wing political commentator. His livestreams usually include discussions on current affairs and lifestyle stories, playing video games, reacting to memes and media clips, and interacting with his viewers.

As of 2026, Piker's Twitch channel ranks among the platform's most-subscribed. Piker has been called one of the biggest voices on the American Left. He began streaming on Twitch in March 2018, while working at The Young Turks (TYT). In January 2020, Piker left TYT to focus on his career as a Twitch streamer. He has regularly spoken about the Gaza war, advocating for Palestinians and criticizing the Israeli government. 

Piker was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to Turkish parents. He grew up in Istanbul and was raised as a Muslim...His father, Mehmet Behçet Piker, is a political scientist and economist who was a board member and vice president of the Turkish financial conglomerate Sabancı Holding and is a founding member of Turkey's conservative Future Party. His mother, Ülker Sedef Piker (née Uygur), is an art and architectural historian who teaches at the New Jersey Institute of Technology...

Piker returned to the United States and attended the University of Miami, then transferred to Rutgers University, where he joined the Theta Delta Chi fraternity. In 2013, he graduated cum laude from Rutgers with a double major in political science and communication studies.

And so on from there. We'll start by stating the obvious:   

There's a great deal a person might criticize about the current Israeli government—about its conduct of "the Gaza war," about its excruciating behavior in the West Bank. 

There's a great deal a person might say about the ongoing plight of that region's Palestinians.

It seems to us that major American news orgs tend to shy away from coverage of the conduct in question. That said, we aren't specialists on such matters—and opinions, which are often ardently held, will differ on such matters among citizens of this country.

That said, Piker has become a favorite of the Fox News Channel because of some of the ways he has expressed his views and opinions. Correctly or otherwise, that channel sees him as someone whose aggressive rhetoric will tend to affect votes in a way which tilts more Red than Blue.

Joe Scarborough seems to hold a similar view. On Monday, he criticized the mainstream Democratic Party for failing to disassociate itself from vote-killing rhetoric of the farther left. Without ever naming Piker, he seemed to refer to something Piker once said when he offered this:   

SCARBOROUGH (8/10/26): There's nothing wrong with the Democrats supporting economic justice. There's nothing wrong with the Democrats supporting...getting rid of the Trump taxes and making billionaires pay more in taxes. 

That’s a legitimate mainstream debate for people to have. "Healthcare for all! Healthcare is unaffordable!" That is something most Americans would agree with.

But please, I don’t need people telling me, "Oh, you have to just turn a blind eye to people saying that women getting raped on October 7 didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things." No, Americans aren’t going to support that!

Women getting raped on October 7 don’t matter in the grand scheme of things? 

Almost surely, that was a reference to something Piker once said. Later, he created a case to justify, defend or explain what he had said. 

Without ever saying his name, Scarborough had presumably been referring to Piker. On Monday, the streamer responded at length.

Tomorrow, we'll show you what Piker said. He's an important new arrival. For citizens of Blue America, there's a great to think about here.

Tomorrow: Piker's arrival

BREAKING: Trip off campus to take place!

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!