THURSDAY: Sexuality has always been hard!

THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2026

But why is he still on the air? It's been hard to chronicle all the surroundings—all the phenomena in the air last week in the run-up to our struggling nation's latest war.

The most difficult such undertaking involves the moral and intellectual squalor which characterizes such "cable news" programs as Gutfeld! and The Five. That's especially true of the throwback sexual politics which dominates those two propaganda messaging shows. 

Sexuality has always been hard! That said, rebellion against the feminism of the past sixty years is especially powerful on those imitation "news" programs. Last Thursday night, that produced the state of affairs in which millions of viewers were subjected to the moral squalor of watching Greg Gutfeld offer this "joke," as we noted this morning:

GUTFELD (2/26/26): Rosie O'Donnell's daughter Chelsea has been accused of assault after touching a man's genitals. 

Apparently, she never learned boundaries growing up watching farmers milk her mom.

The program started at 10 o'clock; he offered that at 10:01. We've always advised you to "pity the child" when you see a 61-year-old person screaming for help, but we offer a superseding question:

Why is that man on the air?

Regarding the blowhard tub of lard who performs on these shows as "Tyrus," we floated a certain suggestion this morning. We'll repost our suggestion in the form of a question:

Yesterday, as he played the fool with respect to the Clintons' depositions, did he mistakenly think that the Clintons had sat for a single joint deposition?

After watching him play the fool on The Five and then on Gutfeld!, that's the way it seemed to us. Now for the rest of the (possible) story:

After posting this morning's report, we read a new essay by Monica Hesse in the Washington Post. When we did, we wondered if we suddenly understood where "Tyrus" might have acquired that misimpression.

Headline included, Hesse's column starts as shown. As she mocks the latest foofaw from the House Oversight Committee, she includes the dumbbell videotape which might well prove misleading to an underinformed observer:

Now streaming! The Clinton depositions were the week’s best new drama.

This week on Season 250 of “America,” the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform offered up the testimonies of a former president and a former secretary of state in the manner of a broadcast network unveiling a new midseason procedural drama.

“EXCLUSIVE,” read the post on X. “Watch the depositions of President Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary Clinton in front of the House Oversight Committee as part of our investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.”

A 21-second trailer followed: In split-screen, two of your favorite recurring characters—who happen to be married to each other—were each shown sitting at a conference table as an offscreen voice instructed, “Can the court reporter please swear in the witness?” The Clintons’ heads turned, they raised their right hands, and they swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth: “I do.”

At that point, Hesse inserted the "21-second trailer" the Oversight Committee had posted. You can watch that 21 seconds of videotape simply by clicking here. 

Our question:

Did a certain "cable news" blowhard get fooled by that 21 seconds of tape?

It looks like the Clintons were there together! Is that what the big blowhard thought?

Sexuality has always been hard, dating all the way back to events in a famous garden. On The Five, but also on Jesse Watters Primetime and on the Gutfeld! program, Watters, Gutfeld and "Tyrus" seem to display a deep desire to return gender norms and expectations to a rather moldy old format.

These fellows seem to want to be in charge in the manner to which they seem to feel accustomed. Especially on Gutfeld!, this leads to endless ugly insults aimed at liberal women by the star of that braindead show. 

We refer to the relentless purveyor of sexual insult who offered this last week:

GUTFELD (2/26/26): Rosie O'Donnell's daughter Chelsea has been accused of assault after touching a man's genitals.

Apparently, she never learned boundaries growing up watching farmers milk her mom.

At Fox, they open this garbage can every night and a tortured person comes slithering out. In Blue America, journalistic and academic elites have all agreed not to notice.

(In fairness, we've reminded you to "pity the child"—to pity the fellow who has possibly had a hard time keeping up with basic rules of decency and respect.) 

Greg Gutfeld could do much better! Having said that, we'll also say this:

Why in the world—why on earth—is he still on the air?

Sadly, also this: In our view, the bulk of Lawrence's O'Donnell's program was weirdly dismaying last night. 

At present, our society seems to be coming apart. On some other disordered day, we'll provide the details.

SURROUNDINGS: Farmers had milked her mom like a cow!

THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2026

Watters and Gutfeld go off: Three nights before the war began, the State of the Union event was held. 

On this occasion, we wouldn't necessarily describe it as an "address." Over at the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan didn't seem to care for the foolishness either. 

Headline included, her column started like this:

The Oprah State of the Union

The president’s State of the Union address came straight from the heart of Crazytown. It had everything—tears, cheers, spectacle. They handed out medals and honors like Oprah in the early 2000s: “You get a car! Everybody gets a car!” At one point I thought he was going to pull out a ceremonial sword and knight Kristi Noem. There was yelling and booing and people crying, it was big and rousing, boring and absurd. And important in some things it revealed.

Ten years in, and Democrats still don’t know how to handle Donald Trump. He used them as foils and they allowed it...

Noonan continued from there. 

We don't agree with every word Noonan said. We don't even agree, in every way, with what she said about (our view) the sheer stupidity involved in bringing the men's hockey team in from the cold that night. 

(Noonan: "When the gallery doors swung open and the triumphant U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team marched in, it was vulgar and fabulous.")

We don't agree with everything Noonan said about this "Crazytown" event. But the State of the Union was part of the surroundings as the move against Iran drew near. 

In our view, the sheer stupidity of our devolving political culture was on display that night. That event was part of the surroundings as the move on Iran drew near—but so was the delicious two-day event up north, the Chappaqua depositions. 

Dearest darlings, it was delicious! On Thursday and Friday of last week—late that night, the move on Iran would begin—the pair of Clintons would be deposed about a pair of sexual felons. 

Hillary Clinton would be deposed on Thursday; her husband would be deposed the following day. On The Five, the mutts were well pleased—and yes, the braindead behavior of Fox News Channel "cable news" shows was also part of the surroundings as the start of this war drew near. 

How will this war turn out? Left to our own soothsaying, we have no way to tell you. 

We've seen people who plainly aren't nuts voice approval of the undertaking. (General Clark, come on down!) But on the nation's most-watched "cable news" show, the mutts weren't trying to produce a framework of understanding about the situation in Iran or about anything else. 

Instead, the mugging and clowning about the depositions got started. On Thursday afternoon—one day away from war—the children on our most-watched "cable news" program had some excellent fun with Hillary Clinton's deposition, concerning which little was actually known at that point. 

The children people our most-watched show—but oh, what kind of cultural madness is this? After an utterly pointless pseudo-discussion, one of the culture's leading mutts closed the segment about Thursday's deposition by scrambling to work this in:

PERINO (2/26/26): All right. Jesse, last word?

WATTERS: This was just the appetizer. Bill's tomorrow, and that's where it's at. 

He was on the plane. He may have been on the island. And there's an allegation that he had an affair with Ghislaine Maxwell. So let's just hope they have their stories straight.

PERINO: All right. Well, that will wrap us on The Five...That's it for us. 

He rushed to include the "allegation." There's an allegation, the simpleton said—the simpleton who also serves as a propaganda messaging agent for the corporation which owns him. 

So it went as the nation's most-watched imitation of life went off the air that day. As of yesterday, the various mutts were still having their fun with last week's depositions, though it seemed fairly obvious that the biggest dumbass of them all had exactly zero idea what he was talking about.

By yesterday, the former "wrestler" who performs as "Tyrus" had had six days to get straight about these depositions. At the invaluable Rev, you can read the transcript of the million things Bill Clinton said, even including this:

QUESTION (2/27/26): Can you briefly, for the record, describe the nature and extent of your relationship with Ms. Maxwell?

CLINTON: Yes. It lasted longer and was more extensive than my relationship with Mr. Epstein, because Ghislaine Maxwell started going with a man named Ted Waitt, who had made a lot of money making the first sort of self-designed computers, and he was a big supporter of mine and the Clinton Foundation before he started seeing Ghislaine. 

We had been friends, and he was interested in particular in reducing pollution in the oceans. And so when she started going with him, I would see her from time to time.

QUESTION: And when did your relationship with Ms. Maxwell end?

CLINTON: I don't think I've seen her in a decade. It's been a long time. I don't know exactly when.

[...]

QUESTION: Do you have any recollection of what year it would've ended?

CLINTON: No, but when she was with Ted Waitt, she was— When we were kicking off [the Clinton Global Initiative], she was very interested in that and she participated, but I don't remember—I don't know. It's been ten, twelve years since I saw her. I don't remember when the last time was.

There's much more if you're interested. As best we can tell, he wasn't asked about the "allegation" with which Watters had managed to close the previous day's pathetic imitation of life. 

As for the former "wrestler," let the word go forth to the nations! Yesterday, he was presented to the world two times, first on The Five and then, five hours later, on Gutfeld! 

Uh-oh! During his smirking filibuster on The Five, it almost seemed he thought that the two Clintons had been present at the same time for a joint deposition. During his smirking on the Gutfeld! show, it seemed clear that that's what this big blowhard thought. 

It was all tied to his flyweight rumination about why Hillary Clinton became angry at one point during Thursday's event. All in all, it couldn't have been much dumber, though he may be willing to try.

That said, the misogyny-adjacent behavior is endless on these "cable news" shows. So it goes when Fox lets the dogs out each night, with every news org in Blue America agreeing to avert its gaze.

The sheer stupidity of these programs is their primary calling card. But especially on the Gutfeld! show, the truly astonishing ugliness also comes rushing in.

That ugly conduct was part of the surroundings last week as we approached our current war. Consider what that program's host said on last Thursday's program.

With apologies, a bit of background is required:

Unfortunately, Rosie O'Donnell's adult daughter, Chelsea O'Donnell, has been experiencing some legal problems related to addiction issues. 

Most news orgs have behaved in an appropriate way. In the manner which has become the trademark of the Gutfeld! show, the program's host decided to give the world this right at the start of last Thursday's program:

GUTFELD (2/26/26): Rosie O'Donnell's daughter Chelsea has been accused of assault after touching a man's genitals. 

Apparently, she never learned boundaries growing up watching farmers milk her mom.

It was one of his opening "jokes." He had joked about the same topic the night before, in a slightly less astonishing way.

When does a society decide it's time for conduct like this to go? In the matter of this "cable news" channel, this peculiar person's pathetic behavior has been enabled by Blue America every step of the way.

Please don't ask us to chronicle the endless ugliness of this primetime "cable news" program. "Jokes" about Rashida Tlaib's hairy face have been frequent in the past two weeks, as is the reliable norm.

(The ladies of the Fox News Channel just sit there as if nothing is happening. So do all the highly principled columnists at the New York Times.)

Last night, Obama was from Kenya again. Fox rolls this garbage can out each night. Blue America looks away.

The war began late Friday night. In the case of these "cable news" programs, it would be hard to chronicle the full extent of the gruesome surroundings.

Tomorrow: We no longer talk about this

WEDNESDAY: Denmark decides to give it a try!

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2026

The stigma of "mental illness:" Is this country currently dealing with an unfortunate but dangerous situation involving some form of "mental illness?" 

Last Thursday night, on CNN, Mary L. Trump said yes. Back in 2020, she had offered similar thoughts about a presidential candidate in her best-selling family memoir, Too Much and Never Enough.

Before that, back in 2017, the Yale psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee had edited a collection of essays in which, correctly or otherwise, various medical specialists addressed the same set of concerns. Her book was a best-seller too. Her thumbnail reads like this:

Bandy X. Lee

Bandy Xenobia Lee is an American psychiatrist whose scholarly work includes a textbook on violence. She is a specialist in public health approaches to violence prevention who consulted with the World Health Organization and initiated reforms at New York's Rikers Island Correctional Facility. She helped draft the United Nations chapter on "Violence Against Children" leads a project group for the WHO's Violence Prevention Alliance, and has contributed to prison reform in the United States and around the world. She taught at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School from 2003 to 2020.

Unfortunately, yes! In 2020, she ended up losing her position at Yale. Wisely or otherwise, Dr. Lee had been breaking the rules.

The rules still say that issues of mental illness, disorder or health may not be brought across the borders which limit the reach of the American political discourse. Journalists have religiously followed that rule ever since (roughly) the 1960s, except during brief periods when the MSM decided they wanted to question the mental health of Candidate Al Gore.

(In such ways, they managed to drag Candidate Bush across the finish line. That story has never been told by major mainstream orgs, because that's the way games are played.)

Just a guess! It's largely the stigma associated with "mental illness" that has helped keep that rule firmly in place. Presumably, that stigma also lies behind this reported change in preferred language in this arena, as reported by the leading authority on such terminology:

Mental disorder

A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is also characterized by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotional regulation, or behavior, often in a social context. Such disturbances may occur as single episodes, may be persistent, or may be relapsing–remitting. There are many different types of mental disorders, with signs and symptoms that vary widely between specific disorders. A mental disorder is one aspect of mental health.

[....]

Most international clinical documents use the term mental "disorder," while "illness" is also common. It has been noted that using the term "mental" (i.e., of the mind) is not necessarily meant to imply separateness from the brain or body. 

And so on, at enormous length from there.

Stigma is as stigma does, Mother Gump always said—and in the area of "mental illness," stigma can do great harm. For that reason, one of those annoying Euro nations has undertaken a program described by the New York Times in a lengthy report which carries this dual headline:

A Danish Program Takes On the Stigma of Mental Illness
One of Us, run by Denmark’s health ministry, works with people with mental health conditions to share their stories in schools, hospitals and police stations, helping turn fear into understanding.

In his report, Simar Bajaj uses a variety of terms—mental illness, mental disorders, mental health challenges. He mainly deals with people suffering from the ravages of schizophrenia—people who understand, acknowledge and know that, through no fault of their own, they're afflicted with a very difficult mental health condition and challenge.

One such person is Giuseppe Parlatore. Here's part of his role in Denmark's undertaking:

For years after he was diagnosed in 2009, Mr. Parlatore, 42, felt like schizophrenia had swallowed him up, leaving him “more or less a vegetable,” he said. But he has worked hard to manage the voices he hears—making deals, setting boundaries—and to carve out a life beyond his illness.

Today he is one of Denmark’s leading mental health advocates, working with the country’s top health officials to change how the public sees mental illness.

This government initiative, called One of Us, works with people who have mental health challenges—the program calls them ambassadors—to share their stories in schools, hospitals and police stations, with a focus on their recovery.

Why would Parlatore be sharing his story in police stations? Hopefully, so police officers can learn better ways of dealing with the occasional situation in which some person may be responding to their interventions in ways they don't understand and may mistakenly see as threatening.

None of this directly relates to the situation Mary Trump and Bandy X. Lee have said we're currently facing. For today, we'll leave you with a supposition:

People who are "mentally ill" (OldSpeak) didn't choose to be so afflicted. 

Some such people know they have a serious "illness" with which they must learn to deal. Depending on the specific condition in question, many other afflicted people one hundred percent do not.

"No people are uninteresting," the poet once said. He gave it voice all the way down.

SURROUNDINGS: On Friday night, Joe Biden spoke!

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2026

A few hours later, it started: As the midnight hour approached last night, there he went again. 

As of last Friday, he had made the final decision—the war in Iran would proceed. Last evening, as midnight drew near, he was now "truthing" this: 

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better - As was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons. Wars can be fought “forever,” and very successfully, using just these supplies (which are better than other countries finest arms!). At the highest end, we have a good supply, but are not where we want to be. Much additional high grade weaponry is stored for us in outlying countries. Sleepy Joe Biden spent all of his time, and our Country’s money, GIVING everything to P.T. Barnum (Zelenskyy!) of Ukraine - Hundreds of Billions of Dollars worth - And, while he gave so much of the super high end away (FREE!), he didn’t bother to replace it. Fortunately, I rebuilt the military in my first term, and continue to do so. The United States is stocked, and ready to WIN, BIG!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP 

The angry name-calling never ends in the course of the president's "truthing." 

To us, the name-calling seems astoundingly childish; some others find it "refreshing." It is, of course, their perfect right to assess this matter that

Yesterday, we floated several questions about the person at issue. For starters:

Is this the person you would have chosen to be the ultimate decision-maker with respect to a matter like this? 

That was one of the questions we floated. We also floated questions and concerns about the array of medical syndromes which are still often described as "mental illness"—about the array of medical conditions which may affect a person's intellectual and emotional capacities in ways which may be harmful. 

Do people choose to be so challenged? (Do people who are "mentally ill" choose to be "mentally ill?") We're going to guess that they don't. But "mental illness" is a condition we moderns have little ability to discuss. 

This leads us back to events and conditions surrounding this president as the decision in question was made. 

Last Thursday evening, the onset of the current war was a bit more than one day away. As happenstance had it, a pair of events took place on Thursday and Friday nights. They were part of this war's surroundings. 

We've been discussing the first event since last Saturday's report For better or worse, correctly or otherwise, the president's clinical therapist niece went on CNN last Thursday and offered the kind of assessment which has long been disappeared. 

By the rules of the Blue American game, you haven't been allowed to voice such thoughts, even as a worrying possibility. Those rules had held for the past nine years, but there Mary Trump went again:

ERIN 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. 

The fact that she said it doesn't mean that it's true. On the other hand, the fact that such ruminations have been forbidden doesn't mean that the musings are wrong. 

As happenstance had it, Mary Trump went on CNN and said that last Thursday night. (CNN offered no subsequent disclaimers for allowing this to be said.) As happenstance had it, that rumination was part of the surroundings as the war with Iran approached. 

One night later, a very important public figure made a set of statements in South Carolina—statements which, like Mary Trump's rumination on CNN, were almost completely ignored all through the rest of the discourse.

That major figure was President Bidem, President Trump's immediate predecessor. Tommy Christopher cited his comments in a report at Mediaite. 

Except for Christopher's report, we don't think we would have known about this event at all:

Biden Taunts Trump In New Speech: ‘I Handed Trump The Strongest Economy In The World!’

Former President Joe Biden taunted President Donald Trump over jobs and the economy, comparing their jobs records and declaring “I handed Trump the strongest economy in the world!”

At 2:30 AM Saturday, Trump posted an announcement that the United States was in the process of attacking Iran in a video message from Mar-a-lago, attacks that would dominate the news Saturday.

Hours before the attacks, Biden gave a speech to the South Carolina Democratic Party to commemorate the anniversary of his win in the state’s pivotal primary in 2020.

The war was hours away as President Biden spoke. As Christopher's report continued, he transcribed some of what the former president had said, with videotape included:

BIDEN (2/27/26): When I was president, we created over 16 million jobs in America. We had the lowest average unemployment rate in 50 years.

In fact, in just my last year as president of the United States in 2024, we created, just the last year, 2.2 million additional jobs.

You know how many jobs Trump’s created in his first year as president? 185,000 jobs! Total! That's it! 

Of course, it shouldn’t be a surprise. Trump’s the only president, other than Herbert Hoover, who had fewer jobs when he left office than when he came into office. That’s a fact!

[...]

The day I left office, border crossings in the United States were lower than the day that I entered that office, inherited from Trump. He is—I won’t say it. 

(LAUGHTER).

That’s just a fact.

The day I left office, I handed Trump the strongest economy in the world! In the world! That’s not hyperbole, that is a fact! 

So said the former president. For better or worse (opinions differ), the start of the war was mere hours away.

President Biden's accurate statements about the economy were part of the surroundings in the wake of last week's State of the Union address—but only if you read the New York Times, or if you receive your information from other parts of Blue American media. 

If you watch the Fox News Channel, you almost surely never heard the long list of accurate fact-checks about President Trump's inaccurate claims about the nation's economy. 

Red Americans weren't asked to hear about the sitting president's latest howlers. These are the wages of separation—of "segregation by viewpoint." 

With respect to that nation's economy, Blue Americans were allowed to hear the facts. Red Americans were not.

Having said that, we must also say this—what President Biden said about the border was, in fact, factually accurate but grossly misleading. There the former president went again, refusing to explain:

The day I left office, border crossings in the United States were lower than the day that I entered that office, inherited from Trump. He is—I won’t say it.

(LAUGHTER).

That’s just a fact.

"That's just a fact," he said, after the audience laughed. As far as we know, it's a technically accurate statement of fact—but that accurate statement continues a politically counterproductive evasion, one which is grossly misleading.

Palmetto State Democrats, please! The question about President Biden's performance at the southern border concerns the first three-plus years of his term in office. It doesn't concern what happened in the second half of his final year, when some policy changes were made.

Over at the Fox News Channel, deep in the heart of Red America, viewers never heard about all the absurd misstatements the sitting president made in his State of the Union address. They do hear all sorts of statements, many of which may even be accurate, about the policy the previous president maintained at the southern border.

Over here in Blue America, the situation is different. We get to hear about the sitting president's wide assortment of misstatements about the economy. Like the denizens of Red America, we still haven't heard an explanation of President Biden's unusual border policy—and what he said, to that laughing crowd, was the latest evasion.

Messengers at the Fox News Channel still live off President Biden's unexplained border policy. They refer to that matter all day long. Their statements are often basically accurate, even if the large numbers they cite may tend to be made up.

Red Americans hear about that; Blue American media tends to avert its gaze. In such ways, two large groups of American voters come to understand the world in vastly different ways.

Mary Trump spoke on Thursday night. One night later, so did President Biden. Their statements were part of the cultural surroundings as the war with Iran drew near.

As of last night, the decision-maker compared Zelensky to P. T. Barnum. People, we're just saying!

Tomorrow: In our view, astounding misconduct

TUESDAY: A banner headline in the Post...

TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2026

...brought a question to mind: Just this once, we're going to let you ask us about "mental illness."

Rather, about what used to be called "mental illness." According to the leading authority on the topic, the use of that term is falling into something which sounds like disfavor, with the term "mental disorder" now being used instead. 

Quoting from the leading authority: 

Most international clinical documents use the term mental "disorder," while "illness" is also common. It has been noted that using the term "mental" (i.e., of the mind) is not necessarily meant to imply separateness from the brain or body. 

Just this once, we're going to let you ask us. Rather, we find ourselves with a question for you. 

Our question was triggered, mere moments ago, by this banner headline atop the front page of the Washington Post's website:

U.S. closes three gulf embassies as Iran widens strikes

That's the banner at the Post, even as we type. Before we get to the question we're going to ask, we're going to make these admissions:

The decision to attack Iran was made by the sitting president. For the record, we have no way of knowing how this military action will, in the end, turn out.

We don't know where this war will take us. We don't know how it will come to be viewed in the future. 

Having made those admissions, we ask you this:

Was it wise to let the person in question be the decision-maker? Was it wise to do so without ever rescinding the ban on discussing the possibility that he has been, and still is, afflicted with some significant set of medical challenges / disorders?

Was it wise to maintain the code of silence around that possibility? In our view, there's no obvious answer to that question, given the difficulty we modern Americans would have had in discussing that particular topic.

At any rate, there sits the banner headline. Was it wise when our own Blue American orgs kept telling us this:

Nothing to look at or talk about! Just keep moving along!

SURROUNDINGS: Hegseth spilled with tribal anger!

TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2026

The segregation we've chosen: Yesterday morning, at 8 o'clock Eastern, Secretary Hegseth briefed the nation along with General Caine. As usual, he was annoyed by the sheer stupidity of the Lilliputians by whom he was surrounded. 

Six minutes into the Q-and-A session, General Caine answered a perfectly sensible question. It concerned a report that additional troops were being sent into the theater. 

That Q-and-A was perfectly sensible on both ends. Now, the secretary's rabbit ears had him responding to a different question.

How long was this military action likely to be? The question had been shouted out without being formally recognized, but Secretary Hegseth had heard it:

HEGSETH (3/2/26): I heard the question about "four weeks." It's the typical NBC sort of gotcha type question. 

President Trump has all the latitude in the world to talk about how long it may or may not take. Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks—it could move up, it could move back. We're going to execute, at his command, the objectives we've set out to achieve. And what he has shown ability to do, that other presidents can't quite seem to have the aperture to do—well, I mean, Joe Biden didn't even know what he was doing—is to look for opportunities and off ramps and escalations for the United States that creates new opportunities to execute what we need on our own timeline.

So you can play games about "four weeks, five weeks." He has all the latitude. And I'm glad he does, because there's no better communicator than our president expressing those things.

I've been in meetings with the president for the last two and a half days. We know exactly where his head space is, and he will communicate, as he should, exactly what he would like, and we will follow those orders. And I think everything he said on that is right down the middle. 

Whatever his possible merits might be, Hegseth is a bit of a hothead. In the current instance, his rabbit ears had heard a reporter "playing games" by trying to ask a "typical NBC gotcha type question." 

Also, under current rules of the tribal game, there could be no presser without a statement about what a dumbass former president Joe Biden had been. 

Hegseth is routinely peeved with the sheer stupidity of the others. Two minutes later, there he went again:

REPORTER: Secretary Hegseth, and one for Chairman Caine as well. I understand to your point here, that you don't want to broadcast everything for our adversaries to hear, but the American people also want to know what they're sending their men and women to war for. Is there a concern of this spiraling into a longer war? And then one for the chairman when you're done.

HEGSETH: Did you not hear my remarks? I mean, we're ensuring the mission gets accomplished, but we are very clear-eyed, as the president has been, unlike other presidents, about the foolish policies of the past that recklessly pulled us in, the things that were not tethered to actual clear objectives. 

So we know we have plans, we have generals, we have chairmans, we have commanders, CENTCOM commanders, Admiral Cooper, who's executing very deliberately to ensure outcomes that I laid out are accomplished. But we would never, in front of a press pool, lay out how long that may take. The mission for our war fighters, which is what matters to us, is very, very clear and they're executing it right now, violently. 

Why can't these idiots listen? Once again, the fellow was peeved.

In fairness, Hegseth's answer makes basic sense. What's striking is the hostility with which he delivered his answer—and the constant denigration of the "foolish policies of the past" advanced by those dumb other presidents.

Unlike the calm and professional General Caine, Secretary Hegseth is a bit of a hothead. He has the revolutionary fervor which can arise in the surroundings from which he emerged at the Fox News Channel.

Hegseth was working as co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend when President-elect Trump selected him to serve as Secretary of Defense. As such, Hegseth was deeply entrenched within the modern array of American "news orgs" built upon the principle of "segregation by viewpoint."

We now have Cable News Red and Cable News Blue, with CNN still trying to find some way to maintain some sort of tribal balance. Under current arrangements, the war fighters of our major "cable news" channels are kept separate, Red from Blue.

Rarely the twain shall meet. Unfortunately, the angry certainty voiced by Hegseth is part of the siloed segregation we've unwisely chosen

As is routine on the Fox News Channel, so too in Hegseth's remarks! To this day, it's rare to see participants expound on Fox News Channel programs without someone making mocking remarks about the dumbness of President Biden. Beyond that, the presumed bad faith and stupidity of Blue America is a constant part of the diet the Red American viewer is served. 

As usual, Hegseth was peeved with the NBC style gotcha questions at yesterday's press event. As usual, he broke from entrenched tradition, taking unsolicited shots at the foolish policies of the dumbbell presidents of the past.

This steady drumbeat of tribal attack is now a basic part of American journalistic culture. Luckily, Hegseth does know where the current president's "head space" is. He's also quite sure that "there's no better communicator than our president," and that everything that president has said "is right down the middle." 

In fairness, journalists sometimes do ask redundant questions. Also, the policies of past presidents have almost surely fallen short of some Platonic ideal. 

That said, an unsettling question about the sitting president arose on CNN just last Thursday night.  

Does Mary L. Trump have any idea what the heck she's talking about? For ourselves, we'd guess that she almost certainly does—but whether she does or whether she doesn't, this is again what she said:

ERIN 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. 

Say what? The doctorate-wielding clinical therapist said she sees a cognitive decline in her uncle, the sitting president. But she also said what she initially said in her best-selling 2020 book, Too Much and Never Enough:

She said her uncle "is somebody who for decades now has had serious, undiagnosed and untreated psychiatric disorders, which are only going to worsen." Last week, that very same sitting president launched a war against Iran. 

President Trump has launched a war against Iran. Opinions on the undertaking differ.

Yesterday, on the Fox News Channel's Will Cain Show, (retired) General Jack Keane offered a fascinating account of the past forty-plus years, expressing the view that the president's decision is long overdue. 

"Stop patronizing me," he gruffly told his host at one point, as Cain attempted to offer the standard thanks for the general's service.

General Keane apologized to Cain when the segment ended, but Cain's search for greater clarity about the actual goals of this mission had triggered a fascinating cable news segment. We'll recommend that you watch the full videotape, as offered by Mediaite. 

Even inside Silo Red, denunciations of the president's decision are now being heard. (Questions are even being asked, as Cain did this day.)

The current structure of American discourse has rarely produced disagreements within a tribe. Hegseth's views were never challenged by the other friends on Fox & Friends Weekend. Within this culture of viewpoint segregation, Hegseth's brand of angry certainty is likely to arise and take hold.

As we speak, the president has propelled us into a war which has perhaps been somewhat poorly explained. All week, we'll try to describe the surroundings of that fateful decision, including the anger and the tribal certainty exhibited by players like Hegseth.

For today, we'll offer one clear thought about the cultural practices surrounding the president's decision. That on clear thought would be this:

Twenty-four hour "cable news" has turned out be to be an extremely bad idea.

We'll also float this additional thought: 

We Blue Americans aren't as flawless as we occasionally may believe. 

Mary Trump has emerged again with what should be a troubling thought about the man she's known her whole life. From 2017 right through to today, Blue America's journalists and academics have agreed that a medical possibility of this type must not be discussed. 

We're left today with the possibility that the fateful decision to launch this war was made by a man afflicted with the unfortunate but dangerous medical conditions Mary Trump has described. When Dr. Bandy X. Lee offered similar thoughts in 2017, her own best-selling book got disappeared by the Blue American press, and she ended up losing her position at Yale.

We apologize for today's jumble—for the lack of one simple pure thought. We apologize for this grab bag of surroundings, but for those who are willing to stare into the sun, there are quite a few more surroundings to come.

Tomorrow: Joe Biden's recent speech?