SATURDAY: Another Communist / Bolshevik spotted!

SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 2026

Also, Gotham crime runs rampant: This very morning, we were surprised to learn what Mayor Mamdani has done.   

How will his term as mayor turn out? We have no idea! And of course, he's only been mayor since January 1. How much could he have done?

How will his tenure turn out? We plan to wait and see! But he has already let crime "sort of run rampant" in New York City—or so Rachel Campos-Duffy, the genial co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend, told Fox viewers this very morning, early in the 7 o'clock hour.

Right at 7:08 a.m., Campos-Duffy delivered that newsflash, referring to "the crime that Mamdani has allowed to, you know, sort of run rampant in the city because he doesn't care about that." 

Moments later, she turned to extremely familiar ground, saying that "his instincts are Communist. They're Bolshevik." 

At 7:11, she said that one of Mamdani's policies is "very Communist." But so it goes on this Fox News Channel program, which we would be willing to classify as an imitation of life.

How will the Bolshevik mayor's term turn out? We're willing to wait and see! We can show you what we found when we checked the surprising assertion that the mayor has been letting crime ("sort of") run rampant in New York City's streets.

When we googled the surprising claim, an infallible news source—"AI Overview"—instantly told us this:

"As of April 2026, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration reported record-low crime stats in his first 100 days, including significant drops in murders and shootings."  

So said AI Overview! When we clicked to the source for the Overview's claim. we found this transcript of an April 2 press event about this important topic:  

Transcript: Mayor Mamdani and NYPD Announces Fewest Murders, Shooting Incidents in Recorded History for First Three Months of the Year  

Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure to be here with you at 1 Police Plaza and to be joined by so many committed public servants. Thank you to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch for your leadership and your partnership. I also want to extend my gratitude to Chief of Department Mike LiPetri and the members of the NYPD executive staff.  

[...] 

The data we are releasing today should be encouraging to every New Yorker. The numbers tell a clear, indisputable story: our approach to public safety is working. Crime continues to decrease in New York City.   

In the first three months of the year, New York City has recorded the fewest murders and shooting incidents since we began tracking these numbers, decades ago. This quarter, we saw 54 murders across the five boroughs, a drop from the previous record low of 60, set in 2018. When you compare these figures to last year, which had already set historic lows for gun violence, murders fell by a significant 28 percent. Year-to-date, the murder rate is down by more than 57 percent in Brooklyn, [and] more than 44 percent in Manhattan, and there have been no murders on Staten Island in 2026. In fact, it has now been 178 days since the last murder on Staten Island, the second-longest period in recorded history.   

Additionally, overall crime in public housing fell 7.2 percent year-to-date and reached record lows for murders, shooting incidents, shooting victims and robberies. None of that is accidental. It is a direct result of the hard work and commitment of so many in this room...There is always more work to be done, as we can see in the 11.7 percent rise in hate crimes across our city, with the largest increase being of anti-Muslim hate crimes, a 140 percent increase, as antisemitic hate crimes continue to comprise more than half of the total number.   

Major crime is down in nearly every category, however, across our five boroughs. The Bronx leads the city in overall major crime declines, with a 9.4 percent decrease. And I want to thank every member of the NYPD for all that they do to keep every corner of our city safe from violence.   

You can read the full transcript yourself.  When we googled, we saw no reports challenging the accuracy of those data. As you can see, this editorial by the anti-Mamdani New York Post accepted the numbers as accurate.  

Our conclusions go something like this: 

If you read the anti-Mamdani New York Post, "The first quarter of the year saw the fewest murders and shooting incidents in recorded history, plus excellent news on subway crime, retail theft and even record lows in murders and robberies in public housing." 

That's what readers have been told by the anti-Mamdani New York Post. But if you watched this morning's Fox & Friends Weekend, you were told that the city's very Communist, Bolshevik mayor is letting crime run rampant, driving tourism away!  

Can a modern nation function this way? You're asking a major question. But she always knows where the Bolsheviks are, and her two co-hosts play along!

SORROW? PITY? FEAR?: There's no way to know how this will end!

FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2026

This seems to be where it started: "Conduct disorder?"

Believe it or not, that innocuous sounding designation is an actual clinical term. Behind that innocuous formulation lies a vast amount of human tragedy and personal hurt. 

We've discussed this topic in the past, but for today, let's go there again. The leading authority speaks:

Conduct disorder

Conduct disorder (CD) is a mental disorder diagnosed in childhood or adolescence that presents itself through a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior that includes theft, lies, physical violence that may lead to destruction, and reckless breaking of rules, in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate norms are violated. These behaviors are often referred to as "antisocial behaviors," and is often seen as the precursor to antisocial personality disorder; however, the latter, by definition, cannot be diagnosed until the individual is 18 years old. Conduct disorder may result from parental rejection and neglect and in such cases can be treated with family therapy, as well as behavioral modifications and pharmacotherapy. It may also be caused by environmental lead exposure. Conduct disorder is estimated to affect 51.1 million people globally as of 2013.

So says the leading authority, at the start of a lengthy discussion. That said, can there really be some such "mental disorder"—some such clinical diagnosis?

The innocuous name of this disorder may trigger a skeptic's instinctive denial. That said, for the Cleveland Clinic's thumbnail on "Conduct Disorder," you can just click here.  For the overview by Johns Hopkins Medicine, you can just click this.

We're telling you these things, as best we can, because our major news orgs and journalists won't. In truth, the American discourse barely comprehends the basic fact that "mental illness" exists. Our society's understanding of "mental illness" is extremely limited. 

Within this branch of medical science, "Conduct Disorder" is an actual thing! And then the story leads on from there. The leading authority on Antisocial Personality Disorder (colloquially, "sociopathy") says this about the connection between these two disorders:

Antisocial personality disorder

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is a personality disorder defined by a chronic pattern of behavior that disregards the rights and well-being of others. People with ASPD often exhibit behavior that conflicts with social norms, leading to issues with interpersonal relationships, employment, and legal matters. The condition generally manifests in childhood or early adolescence, with a high rate of associated conduct problems and a tendency for symptoms to peak in late adolescence and early adulthood.

 [...]

In the main section (section II) of the DSM-5...antisocial personality disorder is defined as being characterized by at least three of seven traits. In order to be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder under the DSM-5, one must be at least 18 years old, show evidence of onset of conduct disorder before age 15, and antisocial behavior cannot be explained by schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. 

We're telling you this, as best we can, because our high-end journalists won't. But yes—it seems that a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder requires evidence of "conduct disorder" before the age of 15.

We pity the child who's so disordered—the child who badly needs some help. For the child who doesn't get that help, a troubled future may well beckon. That brings us back to the (widely reported story of the sitting president's early life.

For ourselves, we pity the (disordered) child who doesn't get the help he needs, though it isn't clear that every such child actually can be helped.  We think of one profoundly troubled child who was once in our fifth grade class—a plainly troubled child who was later murdered in the street when he was still quite young.

(He plainly seemed to be deeply troubled during the short time he was in our class. Did he ever get the help he seemed to need? We don't know that part of the story, but we mourn the loss of that child.)

With that, we return to the sitting president—to the troubling behavior he evidenced when he was still a child. He grew up as part of a wealthy family—and ss we mentioned the other day, both his brothers prepped at the tony St. Paul's.

Among the trio of brothers, he alone didn't prep at St. Paul's. 

The basic facts are not in doubt. That said, this is the way his niece, a doctorate-holding clinical therapist, told this part of her family history in her best-selling book, Too Much and Never Enough:

CHAPTER THREE: The Great I-Am

[...]

Encouraged by his father, Donald eventually started to believe his own hype. By the time he was twelve, the right side of his mouth was curled up in an almost perpetual sneer of self-conscious superiority, and [his older brother] Freddy had dubbed him “the Great I-Am,” echoing a passage from Exodus he’d learned in Sunday school in which God first reveals himself to Moses.

[...]

Though Donald’s behavior didn’t bother [his father]—given his long hours at the office, he wasn’t often around to witness much of what happened at home—it drove his mother to distraction. Mary couldn’t control him at all, and Donald disobeyed her at every turn. Any attempt at discipline by her was rebuffed. He talked back. He couldn’t ever admit he was wrong; he contradicted her even when she was right; and he refused to back down. He tormented his little brother and stole his toys. He refused to do his chores or anything else he was told to do. Perhaps worst of all to a fastidious woman like her, he was a slob who refused to pick up after himself no matter how much she threatened him. “Wait until your father comes home” had been an effective threat with Freddy, but to Donald it was a joke that his father seemed to be in on.

Finally, by 1959, Donald’s misbehavior—fighting, bullying, arguing with teachers—had gone too far. [The private] Kew-Forest [School] had reached its limits. Fred’s being on the school’s board of trustees cut two ways: on the one hand, Donald’s behavior had been overlooked longer than it otherwise might have; on the other, it caused Fred some inconvenience. Name-calling and teasing kids too young to fight back had escalated into physical altercations. Fred didn’t mind Donald’s acting out, but it had become intrusive and time consuming for him. When one of his fellow board members at Kew-Forest recommended sending Donald to New York Military Academy as a way to rein him in, Fred went along with it. Throwing him in with military instructors and upperclassmen who wouldn’t put up with his shit might toughen up Fred’s burgeoning protégé even more. Fred had more important things to do than deal with Donald.

I don’t know if Mary had any say in the final decision, but she didn’t fight for her son to stay home, either, a failure Donald couldn’t help but notice. It must have felt like a replay of all the times she’d abandoned him in the past.

Over Donald’s objections, he was enrolled at NYMA, a private boys’ boarding school sixty miles north of New York City. The other kids in the family referred to NYMA as a “reform school”—it wasn’t prestigious like St. Paul’s, which Freddy had attended. Nobody sent their sons to NYMA for a better education, and Donald understood it rightly as a punishment.

(For much fuller background from that part of Mary Trump's text, see THE DAILY HOWLER, 4/24/25.)

That's the way Mary Trump told the story in her best-selling book. Based on her acknowledgments, she was likely relying on Marianne Trump, the sitting president's older sister, as a primary source concerning these childhood years.

His two brothers prepped at St. Paul's! He himself was shipped off to "reform school," the result of his misbehavior—including the bullying of younger children—at the local private school where his father sat on the board. 

His early conduct had become so bad he couldn't even stay there!

By the end of seventh grade, his misbehavior at the local private school was no longer tolerable. Was this an example of "Conduct Disorder?" In his years at NYMA, did he get the help he needed?

We feel sorry for the horrible kid who had to shipped off that way. However horrible their anger and their conduct may be, we don't blame 11- or 12-year-old children who are badly in need of help.

When children don't get the help they need, the consequences may be profound. One child was later murdered in the street. Yesterday, the absurd behavior of the other child continued in a string of gonzo statements as he insulted the press and lauded himself in new yet familiar ways.

He'll be in office for almost three more years. We can always hope for the best, but we regard that as a dangerous state of affairs.

We pity the child who didn't get helped. Right to this day, our vaunted press corps refuses to discuss the apparent medical dimensions of this dangerous state of affairs.

For better or worse, they're following a long-standing rule of the guild. In our view, that was always a very good rule—until the time came when it wasn't.

THURSDAY: Tormented Tarlov pushes back!

THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2026

"Cable news" bullroar mocked: We transported you to the set of The Five in Tuesday afternoon's post. Today, we take you to that gong-show program again, in part for some comic relief.  

We take you to yesterday's second segment, in which the gang pretended to discuss the state of Virginia's redistricting vote. In theory, ten congressional districts in the state will favor Democrats if the new House map survives court review. Only one district will favor Republicans under the new (and temporary) configuration. 

Needless to say, The Gang of Four wanted to savage the Dems for engaging in such a practice—but how well were Red American viewers informed about the convoluted chronology of this year's highly unusual mid-census redistricting process? 

Were such viewers suitably informed about the long and winding road which started in Texas, then moved on to California and to other states? As he threw to liberal co-host Jessica Tarlov, this is the way resident "silly boy" Jesse Watters filled in the background history:  

WATTERS (4/22/26): All right, so Jessica, you guys have been gerrymandering for quite some time. You're very good at it. Trump tried his hand at it, did it in Texas, got some good results. [Chuckling] And then you guys have just been running the table. Can you stop! Can you slow down?  

The silly fellow made it sound like a tsunami of gerrymandering had been underway "for quite some time," and that President Trump then decided to give it a try in the Lone Star State.

Redistricting efforts this year in other Republican states went unmentioned by Watters. To our ear, this was a rather modest attempt to present the background to Virginia's aggressive effort.   

At this point, a question comes to mind. We wonder if viewers of programs like The Five have ever heard a reasonably full-blooded account of this year's highly unusual mid-census redistricting efforts.  

As someone who suffers through The Five on a regular basis, we'll guess that the answer could possibly be no. Agitprop rules the day on The Five, information much less so.

At any rate, that's where the comic relief entered the scene! Tarlov responded with this:   

TARLOV (continuing directly): No! All gas, no brakes!

So the top ten gerrymandered states in the country, only two of them are Democratically controlled, by the way. So this isn’t really all about how we’re the evil gerrymandering force. 

But you are correct in your setup, which I think has never happened in recorded history, at least of me being on The Five, that you guys were the ones who started it. 

The lady continued from there. But she had mocked Watters' fleeting reference to President Trump's demand that Texas reconfigure its House districts, saying it was the only time in her long history on The Five in which Watters presented a setup which was at least partially accurate. 

Tarlov continued from there. You can see the videotape of her fuller statement by clicking to this report by Mediaite.    

Tarlov appears in the liberal chair on this imitation of a news show roughly two days per week. Within the past month or so, we've gotten the impression that producers may have coached her to fight back a bit more, though that may not be the case.   

Yesterday, Tarlov openly mocked the ridiculous way this ridiculous "cable news" program is run. She said Watters' overview was an historical first, in that it was at least partially accurate!

For the record, The Five is our nation's most watched "cable news" program. No large modern nation can expect to prosper by proceeding in the clownish, tribalized way performed each day on The Five.

OUTRIGHT FEAR: How did it [ever] get this far?

THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2026

In search of the way it started: "How did it [ever] get this far?"  

Within the context of modern American history, that's a well-known question. The question was asked by Don Corleone in an Oscar-winning film which appeared in 1972.  

Corleone was talking about a war which had broken out among the so-called "five families." Today, it's a question which might be asked about the chaotic state we Americans find ourselves in during this, the second term of the sitting president.  

It's still amazingly early in that second term. Indeed, the sitting president still has almost three years to go. 

That said, his erratic behavior and his endless bizarre pronouncements are, at least in our own view, reasonable cause for great concern—yes, for outright fear. 

Setting his behaviors aside, how strange have his pronouncements become? Headline included, HuffPost reports his latest bizarre Truth Social post:

Trump Drops Stunning New 2-Word Description Of Himself, And Critics Can’t Believe It

President Donald Trump on Wednesday fired off a lengthy rant attacking the Virginia redistricting referendum that’s expected to send up to 10 Democrats to Congress.

But two words in particular stood out, which came as he described himself: “extraordinarily brilliant.”

Trump, as he often does in votes that don’t go his way, complained without evidence that the referendum was “rigged.” He railed against mail-in votes. And he griped that the language on the ballot was “purposefully unintelligible and deceptive.”

“I am an extraordinarily brilliant person,” he declared on Truth Social. “And even I had no idea what the hell they were talking about in the Referendum, and neither do they!”  

In fact, the actual Truth Social post was even more delusional than you'd know from that overview. Sadly, here's the president's fuller claim about his astonishing brilliance:

Truth Details

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

A RIGGED ELECTION TOOK PLACE LAST NIGHT IN THE GREAT COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA! All day long Republicans were winning, the Spirit was unbelievable, until the very end when, of course, there was a massive “Mail In Ballot Drop!” Where have I heard that before—And the Democrats eked out another Crooked Victory! Six to five goes to ten to one, and yet the Presidential Election in November was very close to a 50-50 split. In addition to everything else, the language on the Referendum was purposefully unintelligible and deceptive. As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person, and even I had no idea what the hell they were talking about in the Referendum, and neither do they! Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of “Justice.” President DONALD J. TRUMP 

Good God! "As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person?" 

Delusionally, that's what the sitting president has now openly said. 

For the record, "delusional disorder" is a clinical term found in the DSM-5. As the leading authority on the subject explains, it names a particular type of "mental disorder" ("mental illness"). 

We aren't medical specialists here, but we make this further point: 

As you can see at that link, the DSM "defines six subtypes of the disorder," including "grandiose (belief that one is the greatest, strongest, fastest, richest, or most intelligent person ever)." 

We don't mean it as an insult when we wonder if the sitting president is lost in this (clinically) delusional world, or when we suggest that some such (undiscussed) state of affairs might be, under the circumstances, a genuine cause of substantial fear with respect to the coming three years.

For the leading authority's report on "grandiose delusions," you can just click here. As we've often noted, we ourselves aren't medical specialists. You're reading this here because our nation's major journalists refuse to interview the people who actually are.

Is something wrong with the sitting president? If so, should that be an occasion for substantial fear?

We don't mean it as an insult when we say the answer to each question seems to be yes. 

As we've frequently suggested, people gripped by "mental illness" don't choose to be gripped by "mental illness." In some instances, the uninvited mental illness has possibly been in place for a very long time.

So it may be, tragically, with the sitting president, or so his niece has recently (once again) said. With apologies for the repetition, this is what she said on CNN:

BURNETT (2/26/26): You've known him your whole life. Do you actually see a [cognitive] decline?

MARY L. TRUMP: I do, but I think it's important to remember that Donald has never been fit in any capacity. Obviously, what we're dealing with now are age-related cognitive declines. We're dealing with physical issues that the White House tries to cover over.

But this is somebody who for decades now has had serious, undiagnosed and untreated psychiatric disorders, which are only going to worsen, especially given the pressure he's under and given the cognitive and physical declines.  

Again, that doesn't sound good. In line with established press corps behavior, that recent assessment came and went without a word of comment and without any wider discussion.

How did it ever get this far? How did it ever reach the point where the sitting president has created a situation in the Strait of Hormuz which seems to present no obvious means of resolution, even as he offers his latest delusional claim about his plainly non-existent astounding intellectual brilliance?

(Washington Post: "Clearing Strait of Hormuz of mines could take 6 months, Pentagon tells Congress")

How did it ever get this far? There's no easy answer to that question. A long and winding cultural road have led us to this astonishing point.

But have we reached a dangerous point? Is there cause for outright fear about the next three years? Here's the fuller statement by Dr. Lance Dodes, speaking to Lawrence O'Donnell on The Last Word three days after the riots of January 6:

DR. DODES (1/9/21): This is a deeply disturbed man, a delusional psychopath who has been the same his whole adult life, and who we knew would get worse the more stress he was under, because that's what happens with people with this kind of severe disorder. 

So when Nancy Pelosi said that she was making sure that the nuclear button couldn't be pushed, that was very wise and made a lot of sense. It was not an over-reaction in the slightest. 

And when she said he's unstable, absolutely! That's exactly the situation we're in and why he needs to be removed [from office] immediately—yesterday, really, because he is going to continue to get worse, and after he leaves office, he will continue to get worse.

You can watch the tape of the full exchange simply by clicking here. For ourselves, we would have liked it better if Dr. Dodes had stressed the fact that he was offering his best professional assessment, not a recitation of established medical fact.

That said:

Back in 2021, Dr. Dodes was deeply concerned about what President Trump might do in the eleven remaining days of his term. Skeptics might say that Dodes was over-reacting. We would say that assessments like those, mixed with the sitting president's ongoing conduct, still provide cause for enormous concern.

How did it ever get this far? With respect to our crumbling political and journalistic cultures, the answer is varied, complex. 

Red America has been at fault. Blue America has been at fault too.  Our journalism has increasingly been a meas. This is the chaos we have chosen—or perhaps which has chosen us.

With respect to the sitting president, how did it ever reach the point where he is picturing himself as Jesus Christ, and is boasting about his (non-existent) astonishing brilliance?

That too is a long and winding road. Tomorrow, as we pity the child, we'll recall where it seems to have started.

Tomorrow: As we've noted before:

"Conduct disorder." It's an actual clinical term!