WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2025
...this collection of strangers emerged: Among the cognoscenti, the anti-journalistic movement in question has come to be known by a striking name:
The Revolt of the D-Minus Students
Next week, we expect to explore that revolt in more detail. For today, we'll start with the obvious:
The Fox News Channel's Greg Gutfeld is one of the major priests of this destructive, extremely dumb movement.
As we briefly noted in last Friday's report, Gutfeld had always seemed to be just a little bit "off." But when the Fox News Channel decided to make him an integral part of this nation's "cable news" structure, a bit of oddness was transformed into genuine cultural madness.
In Monday's report, we showed you what this "unrecognizable" said and did on his prime time "cable news" program on Thursday, July 24. Our question:
Has anyone ever appeared on an American news broadcast and made a dumber presentation? Also, has anyone ever been more coarse, and more profane, than this strange person was as he dumbed this large nation down?
Has anyone ever been dumber than that? Has anyone been more openly misogynistic, if that term has any meaning? (We all get to decide whether it does,)
We're forced to suppose that the answer is no—that no one has ever been dumber. Spewing ad hominem insults as he went, the fellow attempted to support Tulsi Gabbard's latest fugue—her claim that President Obama engaged in treason—by directing ridicule at the many journalists who have done these things:
Targets of Gutfeld's derision
1) Journalists who claimed that the Russians "hacked the 2016 election."
2) Journalists who discussed Konstantin Kilimnik's role in that election.
Spewing insults as he went, Suzanne's child told millions of viewers that the RUSSIA COLLUSION HOAX was built upon those laughable pillars. Along the way, as he spouted and fumed, he forgot to mention this:
Everyone on the face of the earth agrees that the Russians actually did "hack the 2016 election." Everyone understands that basic fact—everyone except the millions of people who get propagandized by this "prankster" on a daily and nightly basis.
Everyone had long agreed—the Russians actually did "hack the 2016 election." Also, the following passage from the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee's report might start to explain why someone like Rachel Maddow had been discussing the aforementioned Kilimnik on her own cable news show:
REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE, UNITED STATES SENATE
VOLUME 5: COUNTERINTELLIGENCE THREATS AND VULNERABILITIES
[...]
[Trump campaign chairman Paul] Manafort hired and worked increasingly closely with a Russian national, Konstantin Kilimnik. Kilimnik is a Russian intelligence officer. Kilimnik became an integral part of Manafort's operations in Ukraine and Russia, serving as Manafort's primary liaison to Deripaska and eventually managing Manafort's office in Kyiv. Kilimnik and Manafort formed a close and lasting relationship that endured to the 2016 U.S. elections. and beyond.
[...]
The Committee found that Manafort's presence on the Campaign and proximity to Trump created opportunities for Russian intelligence services to exert influence over, and acquire confidential information on, the Trump Campaign. Taken as a whole, Manafort's highlevel access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services, particularly Kilimnik and associates of Oleg Deripaska, represented a grave counterintelligence threat.
There was much more about Kilimnik in that report. We're just offering the basic lay of the land.
Every Republican senator agreed with the findings of that lengthy, high-profile report. That includes the finding that Kilimnik "was a Russian intelligence agent" whose association with Paul Manfort, Candidate Trump's campaign chairman, had created "a grave counterintelligence threat."
Every committee member from each of the two major parties signed on to those basic assessments. Years later, the aforementioned Gutfeld ridiculed Maddow for having discussed "this guy," directing his trademark personal insults at Maddow as he went.
"It's hard to believe that this was taken seriously," this manifest idiot said. Concerning the journalists who cited the fact that the Russians hacked that election—a fact that everyone on the plane agrees on—Gutfeld voiced one of his angry assessments:
The press corps "swallowed it like a dick!" As we showed you on Monday, that's what this strange person said.
On Thursday evening, July 24, starting at 10 p.m.—7 p.m. out on the coast—that's the way this very strange person staged the latest episode in his long-running "cable news" series, The Revolt of the D-Minus Students.
Fellow citizens, please! On this enchanted Thursday evening, Gutfeld was functioning as a disinformation machine. It's hard to believe that anyone has ever made a dumber or coarser presentation in the history of American broadcast news. But that's what Gutfeld said and did that night, as the better people in Blue America all agreed to avert their gaze.
In fairness to Master Gutfeld, this is the "cable news" product that Suzanne Scott wants. Also, there's strength in numbers:
As this harmless prankster spewed his insults and spread his astounding disinformation, he was surrounded by this gang of stooges whose names we'll say again:
We've managed to say their names before. They were eager to cheer their flyweight potentate on:
Gutfeld!: Thursday, July 24, 2025
Joe Germanotta: restaurant owner
Kennedy: former VJ
Guy Benson: Fox News contributor
Michael Loftus: comedian
It may not have been the perfect group to assess the topic under review, but they were eager to cheer their flyweight potentate on.
There they sat—the panel! They waited politely as their host rattled on, politely awaiting their chance to support his crackpot presentation.
When Suzanne Scott pried the lid off the garbage can that night, those enablers slithered out. If anything, their performances were even more appalling than Gutfeld's performance had been.
They made the debacle that much worse. Just to refresh you, Gutfeld's braindead monologue had angrily ended like this:
GUTFELD (7/24/25): The New York Times and Washington Post won Pulitzers for spreading the hoax. It's like Lia Thomas being named female athlete of the year just because she could fill her urine sample cup from four feet away.
So today the media is like a junkie that made your life hell for ten years, and now suddenly they claim it is all behind them...So should you forget the hell that they put you through? No, we can't let this go. They need to make serious amends because we're still living with the aftermath...There needs to be consequences...
There needs to be scalps.
There must be scalps, this stranger said. At that point, the stooges took over.
After yesterday's medical layoff, we wanted to refresh you today. We think we've accomplished that task. Tomorrow, we'll show you what this collection of stooges said and did when they finally got the chance to earn their checks from the Fox News Channel.
What happened this night on this "cable new" show was an assault on the possibility of maintaining something like an American nation. As that possibility was undermined, the finer people in Blue America all agreed on one key point:
They mustn't speak up or complain.
Everybody I met seemed to be a rank stranger? That's what the famous old song sadly says.
The Library of Congress has honored that song. Tomorrow, four strangers will speak.
Tomorrow: "I found they were all rank strangers to me..."
"Has anyone been more openly misogynistic, if that term has any meaning? (We all get to decide whether it does,)"
ReplyDeleteYes, many people have been more misogynistic than Gutfeld, and yes the term does have a meaning distinct from the decisions of individuals, because language is a collective enterprise -- you cannot have a personal private language and still communicate with others using it, because they will not know the meanings.
This is Somerby's way of hinting that he disagrees with the views of feminists about how women are treated in our society. He makes snide remarks like this all the time, such as when he referred to the death of women in the Iliad as "sexual politics".
Here is a description of Kate Manne's definition of misogyny in a political context:
https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/5/16705284/elizabeth-warren-loss-2020-sexism-misogyny-kate-manne
Trump is more misogynistic than Gutfeld. Trump dismantled DEI and supports the return of women to traditional roles in the home, in accord with his Christian Nationalists followers. That is more misogynistic than Gutfeld who merely makes crude jokes without affecting any woman's actual life.
Somerby reveals himself to be an asshole, once again, when he tries to define women's feminism out of existence by declaring it dead, or trivializing it by reducing it to ugly jokes told by right wingers.
Somerby has never actually discussed the concept of misogyny or how the word is used by feminists. His style is this hit-and-run jibe. It is part of a larger hostility to women's issues, such as the gender wage gap. He has never discussed abortion or any women's health care issues either. He did accuse feminists of not supporting Hillary when Chris Matthews made sexist remarks about her, but that was untrue. Feminists did object. Somerby made a big deal out of trying to prove that Trump did not stalk Hillary around the stage during his debate against her, but we all saw the video of that happening and Hillary herself said it happened. And then there was the Chanel Miller crusade where Somerby repeatedly claimed that the press ignored Miller's drinking, which he somehow felt was an extenuating circumstance in Turner's rape conviction. Somerby claimed the University was to blame by permitting fraternity drinking (despite having members who were of drinking age). Somerby has a worse record than Gutfeld when it comes to misunderstanding and ignoring feminist or even women's issues.
DeleteSomerby's defense of Roy Moore displayed a lack of understanding of women's issues. There is a growing movement in the US to outlaw child marriage, especially under circumstances of rape. Somerby attempted to justify Moore by referring to the films romanticizing May-December romance, and couples such as Bogey and Bacall, as if such fantasies offset the statistics showing the negative health and social consequences for the girls, who generally discontinue education before high school graduation, who have more complications from early pregnancy, more domestic abuse and violence complaints, and whose marriage are way more likely to end in divorce when the girls mature and realize what has happened to them by being forced into a marriage they were to young to meaningfully consent to.
DeleteIt is no surprise that men like Somerby, and right wing men in general, have so little understanding of the consequences for women of policies that suit such men. It is back to the bad old days when women had no control over spacing of childbirths, earning money of their own to give themselves options of leaving abusive men, the ability to educate themselves and engage in careers that fully used their talents and abilities, and the right to vote, which some right wing extremists say should be denied to women. Look at the way Trump treats political women who are Democrats, especially women like Jasmine Crockett who is outspoken and assertive. This is the muck that Somerby supports without actual discussion, with creepy snide remarks in appropriate contexts.
I have no idea what Somerby's sexual interests may be, but I know that most women respond poorly to such attitudes and run from guys who express the views Somerby plainly holds.
ɪᴍ ᴍᴀᴋɪɴɢ ᴏᴠᴇʀ 𝟷𝟹ᴋ ʙᴜᴄᴋs ᴀ ᴍᴏɴᴛʜ ᴡᴏʀᴋɪɴɢ ᴘᴀʀᴛ ᴛɪᴍᴇ. ɪ ᴋᴇᴘᴛ ʜᴇᴀʀɪɴɢ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ ᴛᴇʟʟ ᴍᴇ ʜᴏᴡ ᴍᴜᴄʜ ᴍᴏɴᴇʏ ᴛʜᴇʏ ᴄᴀɴ ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴏɴʟɪɴᴇ sᴏ ɪ ᴅᴇᴄɪᴅᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ʟᴏᴏᴋ ɪɴᴛᴏ ɪᴛ. ᴡᴇʟʟ, ɪᴛ ᴡᴀs ᴀʟʟ ᴛʀᴜᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ʜᴀs ᴛᴏᴛᴀʟʟʏ
Deleteᴄʜᴀɴɢᴇᴅ ᴍʏ ʟɪғᴇ…..➤➤ .. http://www.join.money63.com
Gutfeld is no stranger. He is a well-known entity who expresses repugnant ideas. We on the left are no strangers to men like him (and vice versa). Why does Somerby pretend otherwise?
ReplyDeleteRevolt of the D-Minus Student -- Somerby says he will explain what he is talking about later, but in the meantime, he uses this phrase as if we already knew what he is talking about. Language doesn't work that way. You define or explain first, then use your shorthand phrases.
ReplyDeleteGreg Gutfeld graduated from UC Berkeley, a top university, 1987. He wouldn't have been able to do that with a d-minus grade point average. AI says:
"No, it's not possible to graduate from UC Berkeley with a D-minus GPA. To graduate, students must maintain a minimum GPA of 2.0, which is equivalent to a C- average. Anything below a C- is considered failing, according to the UC Berkeley Office of the Registrar."
Whatever Somerby means by this new phrase, he isn't using it literally.
In the song by Ricky Skaggs, his family and friends had all moved away to a beautiful place by the sea. It wasn't that he didn't recognize them but that they weren't there when he went home to find them. He says he will see them again in heaven where no one will be a rank stranger to him.
ReplyDeleteHow Somerby twists that into Gutfeld being a stranger is anyone's guess. This recent conceit makes no sense.
Is there some earthly reason why Somerby needs to hide behind these meaningless affectations that distort the meanings assigned to them by singers like Skaggs in order to fill a page with words that obscure rather than clarify any topic?
When Somerby first began doing this on his current grand scale, I thought he might be having a schizophrenic breakdown. It continues to seem that way and perhaps he is on medication and this is his occupational therapy. At least he has credited Skaggs with his song this time and provides a link to it.
Misogyny involves support of patriarchy not hatred of women. There has lately been discussion of what is called Pedocon Theory, which links conservative attitudes toward women, support for patriarchy and abuse of underage female children to a desire to increase white birthrates and oppose a threat to white culture motivating white supremacists:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/8/6/2336512/-We-Need-to-Talk-About-Pedocon-Theory
This idea that men can define misogyny for themselves, as Somerby says above, is ridiculous in the face of discussions about what is happening on the far right.
The return of "Fake but Accurate."
ReplyDeleteJust before the 2024 election, newscaster Dan Rather presented documents that he claimed were copies of a bad performance review of GW Bush by his Air Force Reserves CO. These docs were rapidly shown to be forgeries. Nevertheless, some people defended the false documents, alleging that Bush's CO really did think badly of Bush. They called the docs "Fake, but accurate."
Today Bob is defending the investigation and villification of Trump based on the phony Steele Dossier. Bob implicitly argues that the people who used the Steele Dossier and other lies to persecute Trump, did nothing wrong, because there really was some Russia collusion. Sorry, Bob. The fake but accurate defense doesn't work. Whether or not there was collusion, law enforcement people who knowingly used lies to prosecute Trump did something wrong, and possibly criminal.
So you supported the candidate who went AWOL and initiated the Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry, cause you're a fucking fascist freak fuckface
DeleteWell said David.
DeleteBob should look in the mirror if he wants to see someone who's dumb.
Only a dummy would rely on the BIPARTISAN REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE, UNITED STATES SENATE because it was based on the fake intelligence created by Brennan, Clapper, Comey and Hillary at Obama's command to continue the Russian-Trump hoax that was spoon fed to the media lapdogs that Blue America looks to for the "news." LOL
Can't wait to see all of these
Sorry, posted before finishing that last sentence which was "Can't wait to see all these POSs hide behind the Fifth Amendment when they appear before Congress and the Grand Jury.
DeleteWhich “prosecutions” of Trump are you talking about, DiC? The stormy Daniels case? His tax fraud case? The stolen top secret documents case? Or the incitement of a coup, the one that was never tried? Because none of those cases had anything to do with the Steele dossier.
Delete