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!

WEDNESDAY: Virginia's redistricting by the numbers!

 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2026

Virginia is for questions: These were the vote totals on Virginia's (temporary) redistricting:

In favor of (temporary) redistricting: 51.5%
Opposed to (temporary) redistricting: 48.5%

The (temporary) measure squeaked through by a fairly narrow three points.

Virginia's current House delegation looks like this:

Democrats: 6
Republicans: 5

In theory, the new districts trend like this:

Democrats: 10
Republicans: 1

Plainly, that looks like a major (temporary) change. Now, for a pair of questions:

Will Democrats really win ten seats in Virginia this fall? Also, was so severe a (temporary) gerrymander really a good idea?

Virginia Democrats went for broke, though only on a temporary basis. In the long run, was this a good idea? For example, would 8-3 have been enough of a temporary redistricting?

In the long run, was this a good idea? That may be a later discussion as our nation (hopefully) tries to recover from the partisan body blows of the past too many years.

Also, our apologies: Distracted by a bureaucratic matter, we accidentally forgot to post this morning's main report!

SORROW, PITY, OUTRIGHT FEAR: In search of the actual President Trump!

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2026

Sources of pity—and fear: Who is the actual President Trump? This very day, on Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough called attention to a new column in the (conservative) Washington Examiner. 

The column was written by Dan Hannan. He's described by the Examiner as "a member of the [British] House of Lords and a former Conservative MEP [Member of the European Parliament]." 

Hannan isn't a "lefty lunatic." He also isn't a medical specialist, but his Examiner column—provocative headline included—starts off like this  

Donald Trump is losing his mind  

Imagine it was someone other than President Donald Trump. Suppose a different leader were posting deranged rants in the small hours, insulting the spiritual leader of 1.3 billion Catholics, threatening entire civilizations with annihilation, and comparing himself to God. What would be the reaction?

We all know the answer. Both parties would be rushing to bundle him out of office before he did irreversible harm to the republic. Yet, as we all also know, different rules apply to Trump. Democrats, having had their fingers burned by two failed impeachment attempts, are reluctant to try again, for they know that there is no surer way to boost his support. Republicans, who privately despair at the electoral damage he is doing, let alone the constitutional damage, are paralyzed by fear of upsetting their primary voters. 

You can read the entire column here. Presumably, Hannan didn't write the headline on his piece, but along the way, he makes such statements as these: 

[Continuing directly] 
Harold Macmillan, the suave British postwar leader, liked to quip that there were three institutions that no sensible man challenged: the Brigade of Guards, the National Union of Mineworkers, and the Roman Catholic Church. Yet Trump, in one of his nocturnal forays, decided to conjure a fight with the Bishop of Rome out of thin air...

The president, whom critics accuse of having a God-complex, then followed up with an image of himself as Jesus healing the sick. This image was offensive, not only to Catholics, but to almost every practicing Christian and, come to that, to almost every Muslim. 

[...]

[Various] things are possible, I suppose. The likelier explanation, though, is that this is exactly what it looks like. A 79-year-old man who has long dealt in chaos is now being consumed by that chaos. His episodes are becoming more frequent, his good days further apart. What he has lost is not a sense of decency or decorum—he never had those—but any remaining sense of self-control.

Everyone around him can see it. Yet, whether from ambition, cowardice, or weary acceptance, they keep looking for ways to rationalize his behavior. The tragedy is no longer Trump’s. It is now America’s. 

That's the way the column ends. Hannan doesn't quite say that the president "is losing his mind," but some might say he comes close.   

Hannan does say that the president's critics "accuse [him] of having a God-complex." It isn't entirely clear what that "accusation" might mean, but if critics have been making that accusation, they've done so very rarely and only among themselves.  

Is the sitting president "losing his mind," perhaps as once happened with Lear—perhaps as may have happened with former President Biden? The claim is fuzzy, but given the president's enormous power, the claim is cause for enormous fear—and that fear is not just "America's."  

Some such fear would belong to the world.

Hannan's column returns us to a familiar journalistic play, in which people who aren't medical specialists seem to be expressing views about the president's (mental) health.  So too with MS NOW's Alex Wagner, who offered a sidelong assessment of President Trump as she discussed Tucker Carlson's recent disavowal of the president.

Along the way, Wagner assesses President Trump. Headline included, Mediaite offers this report:  

...MS NOW’s Alex Wagner Says Tucker Carlson’s Trump Apology ‘Feels’ Genuine

MS NOW’s Alex Wagner admitted Tucker Carlson’s apology for helping to elect President Donald Trump “feels” genuine, though she remains skeptical of how much help he could actually be to Democrats.   

Wagner joined Ari Melber on MS NOW’s The Beat on Tuesday evening, where she reacted to Carlson offering an apology on his show this week for ever supporting and campaigning for Trump. Though he threw an endorsement Trump’s way, Carlson has become increasingly critical of him over issues like the Iran war.  

[...]

"I guess it’s welcome if overdue. Pardon me for being a little cynical about [Carlson's] mea culpa. Ari, this is someone who witnessed Trump stage and foment an insurrection at the Capitol and still went and campaigned for the man. Like, did you not think his narcissism was malignant in early January of 2021? Because I sure did. Like, here was a man that clearly was going to stop at nothing, including tearing down our own democracy, to regain power. So the idea that it’s just dawned on [Carlson] that this man’s moral compass may not be pointing in the right direction, and he may not be operating with the most strategic manual is like maybe a little bit late and maybe a little bit not as genuine as I wish it was."  

For ourselves, we'd be reluctant to assess the sincerity of anything Carlson says. But along the way, Wagner seemed to say that she has believed, ever since January 2021, that the sitting president can be characterized as a "malignant narcissist."   

Malignant narcissism! That's an actual medical / clinical term, though only, it appears, of a sort. (The leading authority discusses "malignant narcissism" here.) 

Should the sitting president be viewed as a "malignant narcissist?" If so, it seems to us—we aren't medical specialists either—that that would be cause for a great deal of fear.   

That said, Wagner isn't a medical specialist—and, as far as we know, she has never gone on the air and directly stated this major cause for concern. This has been the game our Blue American journalists have played down through these (apparently) dangerous years.  

Wagner apparently thought the sitting president was a "malignant narcissist!" As far as we know, she never challenged her news org to bring (carefully selected) medical specialists on the air to discuss this possibility—this obvious source of concern and fear.  

In such ways, our Blue American thought leaders have, for better or worse, played a type of double game. For ourselves, we want to express a different reaction to the president's most recent behavior. 

We're very sorry, but yes! Given his enormous power, we do regard the president's erratic conduct—his endlessly bizarre behaviors—as an obvious source of concern and outright fear. 

We'll also admit that, even in the face of that fear, we feel pity for a 79-year-old man who has been reduced to the pitiful state in which he offers messages to the world as pitiful as this:

Truth Details

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

Iran doesn’t want the Strait of Hormuz closed, they want it open so they can make $500 Million Dollars a day (which is, therefore, what they are losing if it is closed!). They only say they want it closed because I have it totally BLOCKADED (CLOSED!), so they merely want to “save face.” People approached me four days ago, saying, “Sir, Iran wants to open up the Strait, immediately.” But if we do that, there can never be a Deal with Iran, unless we blow up the rest of their Country, their leaders included! President DONALD J. TRUMP

So reads his latest Truth Social post. For a report from Mediaite, you can just click here.

That's the president's explanation for his latest change of course. As with Lear, so too here: 

We feel sorry for any person who's been reduced to such desperate twaddle as that.

"How did it get this far?" Don Corleone once asked. Tomorrow, we'll ask The Ghost of Childhood Past to refresh you as to how this deeply dangerous situation seems to have started to surface, way back in the distant past.

Tomorrow: First inklings?

TUESDAY: Cable star can't quit Jerry Nadler!

TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2026

"Unrecognizable" speaks: Yesterday, at 5:06 p.m., Jesse Watters was discussing a possible approach to the enriched uranium believed to be stored deep under Iran's co-called Pickaxe Mountain.  

Here's what the gentleman said:

WATTERS (4/20/26):  Now, the one site we haven't hit is Pickaxe Mountain because they have tunnels underneath there that are 2,000 feet deeper than at Fordow. And now there's discussions about using toxic chemicals in there, spraying it so it's inhospitable for about a hundred years.  

Is some such proposal under discussion? We have no idea. But two minutes later, up jumped co-host Greg Gutfeld with his standard "cable news" shtick. 

Sadly but inevitably, here's what the cable star said:   

GUTFELD: What's this spray thing? I'm curious.   

WATTERS: So it's like this horrible agent that you spray deep inside the tunnel that no man can go in for a hundred years.   

GUTFELD: I think it's called "the Nadler vaccine?"  

WATTERS: I think that's what they called it.  

DANA PERINO: They're looking for approval for it now. It's being tested in the lab?

GUTFELD: Yeah, they've been collecting the flatulence of Jerry Nadler for ten years just for this moment.  

WATTERS: Yes. It's a WMD!   

The little guy can't help himself. For the record, this is part of the "American exceptionalism" which gets discussed, around the clock, on the Fox News Channel.   

For the record, The Five is our flailing nation's most-watched "cable news" program. Gutfeld is 61 years old, but this truly seems to be who and what he is. 

Simply put, he refuses to quit his astounding obsession with Rep. Nadler's (imagined) bathroom practices. Even now, at 61, he can't let his inanity go.

Perino played her standard part. To our ear, she seemed to be pretending that this all made perfect sense.

SORROW, PITY, OUTRIGHT FEAR: Somewhere ages and ages hence...

TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2026

...we may be a more mature people: We'll start by quoting Gretta Conroy, from the famous Joyce story, The Dead:

“He died when he was only seventeen. Isn’t it a terrible thing to die so young as that?”  

You can read the full novella here. 

To see Anjelica Huston perform the scene in question, we advise you to click right here. Cast as Gretta Conroy, she's describing the death of the young Michael Furey in the 1987 film adaptation of the famous Joyce tale.

"Isn’t it a terrible thing to die so young as that?” she says.  But for today, as we start, we offer a somewhat analogous question:  

"And isn't it a terrible thing for a person to die when he's still in his thirties?"

The question takes us back to our days as a fifth grade teacher, and to the loss, a bit later in life, of a plainly troubled child. We've been thinking of that plainly troubled child in the course of the past week. 

You could even say, all these years later, that we've been mourning his loss. While planning to defer to privacy concerns, we may explain in more detail before the week is over.

We've been thinking of the early death of that troubled child, but also of President Trump. By the end of his seventh grade year, the future president was apparently a visibly troubled child—so much so that he had to leave the local private school where his father sat on the board of directors:

Isn't it a terrible thing, to be so troubled, to be so disturbed, at such a young age as that?

We'll recall the facts of that unfortunate case before the week is done. But as we mourn the fate of any such child who doesn't get the help he needs, we turn today to a more immediate question: 

Should we the people be concerned—should we be actively fearful—about the possible mental state of the sitting president? 

Should we be fearful about the president's mental health? About a possible cognitive decline? About the possibility that, in addition to any such decline, the president may be "somebody who for decades now has had serious, undiagnosed and untreated psychiatric disorders, which are only going to worsen?"  

That's what the president's niece has recently said—and she's a doctorate-holding clinical therapist who has known the president ever since she was a child. With almost three years left to go in the president's current term, should we the people, Red and Blue, be worried about the possibilities to which the niece has given voice? 

In our view, the obvious answer to that question is an obvious yes! That said—at the present time, we as a people simply aren't up to the challenge of discussing such possibilities.

Somewhere ages and ages hence, we may have matured to the point where we, as a people, are able to discuss such a state of affairs. But we aren't able to do so now—and we think that inability helps create a very dangerous state of affairs.  

Please understand! Our major news orgs do employ some journalists who are experienced in the coverage of such medical issues. In this recent report for the New York Times, Ellen Barry briefly describes her own journalistic career (dual headline included):

A Secret History of Psychosis   
Cohen Miles-Rath heard voices telling him to kill his father. After they passed, he spent years retracing the path of his delusions.

[...]

I’ve reported on mental health for much of my career, and frequently find myself writing about crimes committed by people in psychosis.

These make up a small percentage of violent crimes—around 4 percent, researchers have found—and the vast majority of people in psychosis are never violent. But they are the kind of crimes that newspapers cover: inexplicable, horrifying in their suddenness. Sometimes they are random; a commuter is shoved into the path of a subway train. But often they occur within the four walls of a home, as with Nick Reiner, who was charged with the fatal stabbing of his parents earlier this year. (Mr. Reiner, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder.)  

In that lengthy recent report, Barry discusses the history of a particular (and initially horrifying) case of "mental illness." She uses that specific term at five separate points in her report. 

Barry knows how to write about incidents of "mental illness." But under prevailing rules of the game, no such possibility can be discussed with respect to major political figures:

It's a long-standing rule of the road, and, for better or worse, our news orgs are sticking to it!

In that recent report in the Times, Barry is discussing a person who was gripped by the most terrifying kind of psychosis. No one has suggested that the sitting president is sunk in some similar affliction at this point in time. 

That said, some medical specialists have long alleged that the sitting president's "untreated psychiatric disorders" have created a very dangerous situation, and that those medical disorders "are only going to worsen." 

The fact that medical specialists have said it doesn't mean that it's true! But the fact that our news orgs refuse to discuss this state of affairs shines a light on the immaturity of our public discourse at this point in time.

Should we be worried about the president's mental health, even as his Truth Social posts seem to become stranger and more desperate? To read about those new Truth Social posts, you can click to read these reports:

Trump Drops Jaw-Dropping Attack On Democrats Opposing Iran War: ‘TRAITORS ALL 
Mediaite. To read the report, click here.

Trump rages against Democrats, the media over Iran: ‘I’m winning a War, BY A LOT’  

NJ.com. To read the report, click here.

Trump rages at Iran war criticism: "Time is not my adversary" 

Axios. To read the report, click here.

Should we be worried about such reports? With three years to go in this president's term, we think the answer is obvious. 

But that discussion isn't going to happen—and that's on us, the American people, not on the sixth and seventh grader in Queens who quite possibly never got the medical help it was already clear that he needed.

His older brother prepped at St. Paul's. His younger brother prepped there too.

The president, apparently in need of help, was shipped off to a "reform school" for the course of his junior high and high school years. For today, we leave you with a question:

"Isn’t it a terrible thing when a child doesn't get the help he needs at such a young age as that?”  

In our own (non-specialist) view, we're in a very dangerous time. Our orgs have agreed that it can't be discussed.

With that in mind, we leave you with one final question:

Isn't it a terrible thing to be as helpless as that?

Tomorrow: Once again, the troubled child in question