THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2025
This is the illness we've chosen: Aside from a few basic points, we won't even try to describe what happened yesterday on The Five.
The full tape of the relevant segment is available at the program's web site. Somewhat comically, the dual headline says this:
We're in a season of 'real leftist violence,' says Paul Mauro
'The Five' co-hosts discuss a shooting at an I.C.E. facility in Dallas and the state of political rhetoric in America
We call that comical for an obvious reason. What actually happened during that segment had nothing to do with the things Paul Mauro said.
What actually happened involved a remarkable example of "the storm"—a remarkable example of the irrational fury which increasingly seems to come from the Fox News Channel's Greg Gutfeld. As we've been noting this week, this irrational fury has also been coming from other members of Red America's elites.
The basic background to yesterday's storm is this:
In every segment of this ludicrous show, one of the five co-hosts is assigned to serve as the moderator. The other four co-hosts then take their turns discussing the topic in question.
As we've often noted, the gruesome program achieves its considerable frisson on the days when Jessica Tarlov sits in the one (1) "liberal / Democratic Party" chair.
The four (4) pro-MAGA children all listen politely when their pro-MAGA colleagues take their turns to speak. The excitement starts when Gutfeld and Watters start interrupting and overtalking Tarlov, with the other pro-MAGA co-hosts sometimes joining in.
(That was especially likely to happen when Judge Jeanine was still a daily co-host.)
Yesterday, the first topic involved the fatal shooting at the ICE facility in Dallas. Jesse Watters, acting as moderator and seeming to be on his best behavior, threw to Tarlov in the manner shown:
WATTERS (5/24/25): Jessica, you've never called ICE agents "fascists" or "Gestapo," "Nazis." You've never done that. But there are people in your party that have done that. Do you think that's responsible?
TARLOV: Listen, I think that "fascism" and fascists" is a very special category of people, and you should use it when it's really applicable and sparingly, because then people will believe you when you say it. And it has become too common to hear words like that...
So far, so acceptable! At that point, Tarlov began recalling her recitation, on last Friday's show, of the many times when President Trump has dropped that same f-bomb on Democratic heads.
Yesterday, she said it was a "both sides problem." That's when the roof fell in.
"That's garbage! That's absolute garbage!" the visibly furious Gutfeld now shouted, breaking in. After ordering Tarlov to "Continue," he instantly began railing at her again.
By our count, Tarlov had been permitted to speak for 37 seconds before the roof fell in.
Gutfeld's furious interruptions went on and on, then on and on some more. At one point, he seemed to have decided to stifle himself. But he soon returned to the practice of shouting at Tarlov, generally as soon as she had uttered three or four words.
It wasn't the familiar rudeness of the behavior, and it wasn't the sheer stupidity of some of the ways he tried to refute Tarlov's assertions. For us, it was the raw fury this extremely unusual person exhibited in his rant at Tarlov this day.
At Sunday's memorial service for Charlie Kirk, Stephen Miller described a growing reality. We offered a longer transcript this morning, but this was Miller's key statement:
MILLER (9/21/25) When I see Erika [Kirk] and her strength and her courage, I'm reminded of a famous expression:
The storm whispers to the warrior that you cannot withstand my strength. And the warrior whispers back, "I am the storm."
Erika is the storm. We are the storm. And our enemies cannot comprehend our strength, our determination, our resolve, our passion. Our lineage and our legacy hails back to Athens, to Rome, to Philadelphia, to Monticello. Our ancestors built the cities. They produced the art and architecture. They built the industry.
[...]
We will prevail over the forces of wickedness and evil. They cannot imagine what they have awakened.
We assume that Miller's reference to "the storm" is a nod to the QAnon crowd. But the fury to which Miller gave voice erupted yesterday, on The Five, in Gutfeld's weirdly unhinged performance.
We strongly suggest that you watch the tape; to do so, just click here. Tarlov starts attempting to speak at the seven-minute mark. Strangely, the tape of the program is missing from the Internet Archive's compilation of yesterday's Fox News Channel programs.
We strongly suggest that you watch that tape to see where the nation is going. Or you could just consider this:
In this morning's New York Times, we read this overview of President Trump's current stance on climate change:
At a Times Event, Opposing Views on Climate Change Collide
[...]
The split-screen view underscored the extent to which the United States under President Trump has become isolated from the rest of the world on climate change, perhaps more than on any other issue. Mr. Trump has said the United States will withdraw from the Paris accord, joining Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only four countries to not recognize it. In recent months, Mr. Trump has also issued numerous policies that could thwart renewable energy projects, and his administration has ordered a halt to the construction of offshore wind farms.
[...]
By contrast, Mr. Trump told the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday that climate change is the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” and called renewable energy “a joke.”
On climate change, it's Iran and Libya and Yemen—and it's also us! Meanwhile, on your TV screen, you have the endless apparent misogyny of Gutfeld, tied to the remarkable, barely controllable anger he put on display yesterday.
We're sincere in saying that the furious Gutfeld seems to need some help. We do want to comment on one of the many ridiculous things he said as he kept overtalking Tarlov:
GUTFELD: The left calls Trump a hatemonger. They've called me a hatemonger because ridicule the left, I ridicule protesters, I ridicule academia—Hollywood, the news media. I make fun of The View every day...
Actually, no. The gentleman doesn't "make fun of" The View. Night after night, he compares the women of The View to horses, cattle, cows and pigs, to whales and also to "livestock."
(After that, it may be time to start saying that "Tampon" is secretly gay.)
They open the garbage can every night. This is what comes slithering out. Blue America's orgs avert their gaze. To appearances, no one wants to report what happens on Fox.
Somerby is as capable of using a dictionary as anyone else. Frisson refers to a brief moment of excitement, a thrill. It is incompatible with the words "the gruesome program achieves its considerable frisson" not to mention the word "fury". These semantic problems contribute to the idea that Somerby is losing it, cognitively. He sounds like Cecelia when she tries to use words she doesn't know the meanings of. There is no "frisson" involved when buffoons like Gutfeld shout over Tarlov. Just noise.
BalasPadam"We'd like to see the guy get some help. But more and more, in various ways, this is the illness we've chosen."
BalasPadamNo, we on the left have not chosen Gutfeld or his illness. We don't watch Fox because shows like that are a waste of time. So is trying to refute them, when they are not saying anything coherent. For example, why should anyone debate whether Behar is a whale or not?
Somerby describes Fox in negative terms but then blames the left for what Gutfeld and the others on Fox are doing. That makes no sense at all. We have decided not to join Somerby in his blame game. The right is solely responsible for Gutfeld and the others on their various shows.
BalasPadam"We assume that Miller's reference to "the storm" is a nod to the QAnon crowd."
From you, Bob, paying so much attention to it, one might conclude that it was a nod (troll?) to the BlueAnon crowd.
But then, as Sigmund Freud once said, sometimes "the storm" is just a storm.
"TARLOV: Listen, I think that "fascism" and "fascists" is a very special category of people"
It's not a "category of people". It's a political ideology common in western and central Europe during the interwar period.
And these days, I believe "fascism" and "fascists" are just swearwords, like "asshole". And nothing more. Of course idiot-Democrats think that these words mean something important. But then they are idiots; what do you expect from them?
Fascism has certain behavioral tendencies being reenacted in the US today:
PadamFascists tend to cultivate a sense of overwhelming crisis requiring extraordinary solutions.
For Trump, examples are the problem of the federal deficit, which is used to justify the most minuscule cuts to an agency like USAID, or the problem of drugs, justifying the murder of Venezuelans without arrest or trial or any public evidence being provided.
The fascist leader's 'instincts' are touted as superior to mere science and abstract reasoning. Examples: Tylenol, vaccines, tariffs.
The fascist leader is claimed to be unique in his ability to rescue the country and return it to its destiny ("I alone can save you.')
The fascist belongs to a group that has been victimized. Hitler made much of the 'stab in the back' that caused Germany's WWI defeat; Trump had the 2020 election 'stolen' from him.
The fascist leader Trump most resembles is Mussolini, menacing yet also buffoonish, as he dispenses expert medical advice on TV, or complains to the UN about a building contract he'd been denied 20 years before, or is caught on a hot mic voicing the schoolgirlish belief that Putin wants to end the Ukraine War as a favor to Trump ("for me").
PadamIdiot-Democrat's typical long-winded word-salad, exemplified by the above comment, means even less than "fascism"-"fascist".
Trump should have started his fascist campaign a lot sooner and moved more aggressively once elected in 2015. He is dying on his feet and doesn't have the mental ability to serve as leader any more. His increasing dementia will result in a scrum among his wannabe successors in which all will fail because they are all too greedy and narcissistic to work together. Back-stabbing has already begun on the right, which is dissolving into ineffectual factions. Too late. With any luck, Trump will be blamed and Republicans will help push him out the door along with his dwarves.
PadamSomerby is not blue. He is not liberal. I doubt that he votes for Democrats. He is bought and paid for by the right, or he is a true believer who does this for free.
PadamHateful, mentally deranged Democrat fascists don't know what fascist means.
PadamThe man on the street interviews asking them to define it are the funniest thing you'll ever see.
PadamThere's a million definitions of "fascism". One, rather famous, written by Georgi Dimitrov, defines it as "the open, terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic, and most imperialist elements of finance capital".
These days, Democrats represent global finance capital (George Soros being the poster boy), and they are the most imperialist elements in American politics (with a minor exception of one Lindsey Graham), so they, perhaps, could be called "proto-fascists" or something. With some credence.
"It is incompatible with the words 'the gruesome program achieves its considerable frisson'"
BalasPadamI don't see the problem. "The gruesome program achieves its considerable moment of excitement..." That's exactly what Gutfeld and company are shooting for. Give viewers an exciting moment of outrage, of anger against "them" the ones who hate you, who hate your way of life.
Complaint rejected.
I think you are right about what Gutfeld is shooting for, but using a word that refers to an instant instead of a longer time is a poor word choice. The show is not a "moment" much less a brief moment, but the shouting goes on for the entire length of the program. Fury is not frisson. Usually frisson refers to excitement, a thrill, not fury or rage or whatever Gutfeld is doing these days.
PadamYou can reject my complaint, but you don't get to rewrite the dictionary, especially since communicating via language is a shared activity between people, not something you or Somerby get to define for yourselves. To the extent Somerby distorts meaning, he undermines the ability of people to communicate clearly. If that's fine with you, then feel free to reject all the complaints you want, but it doesn't change what the words actually mean to the collective society in which you apparently live.
Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog says:
BalasPadam"The Reuters poll is terrible for Trump personally -- he's at 41% approval, 58% disapproval. Also:
Only 35% of poll respondents approved of Trump's stewardship over the economy, and 28% gave him a thumbs up on his handling of their cost of living, with both readings slightly lower than in previous polls.
So why don't these negative feelings extend to the GOP? Because Democrats never attack the Republican Party as a party, even though they're in lockstep with Trump on everything. In fact, Democrats endlessly sing the praises of bipartisanship -- and while that might be what swing voters want, it also conveys the impression that Democrats agree with Republicans that Republicans are good people who can be trusted with government power. Combine this with Democrats' many attacks on fellow party members (as too "woke," too focused on pronouns, and so on), and of course Republicans emerge unscathed.
The only hope for saving democracy in America is a forceful campaign to insist upon fair elections in 2026 and a concerted effort to hold the entire GOP accountable for its own actions since January 20. But the consultants will undoubtedly tell D.C. Democrats not to try either of those things, and our efforts to save democracy could die of consultancy."
https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-regime-and-its-allies-want-to.html