WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 2026
He reminds her of David Koresh: Tinseltown rarely gets it wrong.
We only wish we could say the same thing about the cowardly kittens who wrestle in their cardboard boxes. They're sold to us in Blue America as the journalistic giants we can trust.
Tinseltown gets it right! Last night, the battles weren't everywhere all at once—it wasn't exactly one battle after another--but the warfare came remarkably close.
On MS NOW, the sitting president was attacked as a "sociopath" again, at 10:09 p.m. Eastern. (He was attacked as "a pathological liar" at 10:04. He was attacked as "a madman who thinks bombing is fun" at 10:10.)
That battle was fought on MS NOW. On the Fox News Channel—indeed, on this nation's most-watched "cable news" program—the warfare yesterday virtually defied comprehension.
In the second segment of The Five, the ritual "over-talking of Tarlov" had already occurred. That opened the way for what happened in the program's third segment, when this collection of messenger children had been told that they should pretend to discuss James Talarico, the Texas Senate hopeful:
The Five: Tuesday, 3/17/26
Emily Compagno: co-host, Outnumbered
Jessica Tarlov: twice-weekly punching bag
Johnny Joey Jones: co-anchor, The Big Weekend Show
Dana Perino: co-anchor, America's Newsroom
Greg Gutfeld: host, Gutfeld!
The over-talking had already happened during the second segment. Below, you see a brief overview of the Senate candidate they would now pretend to discuss, even as the cowardly kittens in Blue America agreed to avert their gaze:
James Talarico
James Dell Talarico (born May 17, 1989) is an American politician, Presbyterian seminarian, and former educator who has served since 2018 as a member of the Texas House of Representatives. Talarico is the Democratic nominee for the 2026 U.S. Senate election in Texas and has been called a "rising star" among Texan Democrats.
Born in Round Rock, Texas, Talarico graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Arts in government. He later joined Teach For America, where he taught sixth-grade English language arts in San Antonio. Afterward, he served as the Central Texas executive director for Reasoning Mind, a nonprofit focused on bringing technology to low-income classrooms. He later graduated from Harvard University with a Master of Education degree in education policy.
Talarico serves as vice chair of two bodies in the Texas House: the Trade, Workforce, and Economic Development Committee and the Subcommittee on Academic and Career-Oriented Education under the Public Education Committee. He also serves on the Public Education Committee and the House Administration Committee.
[...]
Talarico attended Round Rock ISD schools and graduated from McNeil High School in Williamson County, Texas...Talarico's maternal grandfather was a Baptist preacher in South Texas who Talarico says taught him that Christianity "is a simple—though not easy—religion, rooted in two commandments: 'love God and love your neighbor.' "
He grew up in a tiny, dusty Texas town, emerged from a small rural high school. Except wait!
Round Rock is a Texas city whose population exceeds 135,000. The back-country high school from which he emerged is home to 2,700 students!
"Love God and love your neighbor," he says his grandfather said. This leads to the disgraceful GOP scam which Tarlov quickly described yesterday, though only in a very limited manner.
We'll detail that scam at some point in the next few days. Our question is this:
Will Jeffrey Goldberg ever get off his ascot and report this disgraceful behavior in the pages of The Atlantic?
(Also, will the PBS NewsHour get off its aspic and detail this McCarthy era-level scam? Will the program dare to name the people who are conducting this scam? Or will standard avoidance prevail?)
Tarlov went first, profiling Talarico. Then the zombies closed in.
In Tinseltown, the zombies were featured in Sinners this year. Yesterday, there they were, behaving in astonishing ways on the "cable news" program whose viewership dwarfs that of our own Blue American shows.
When the zombies came rolling out, a basic fact emerged. Simply put, they aren't impressed with this Senate candidate!
As Dana Perino covered her eyes—she's cast as the MAGA supporter who isn't insane—astounding assessments emerged:
As it turned out, the zombie Gutfeld isn't impressed with the Texas Senate candidate. He said that Talarico is a good deal like "a radical Islamist," in that he believes that people who don't share his views "are evil."
"I'm getting Ted Bundy vibes," this undisguised zombie eventually said. As you may recall, Ted Bundy—he was executed in 1989—was this vastly disordered person:
Ted Bundy
Theodore Robert Bundy was an American serial killer who kidnapped, raped and murdered dozens of young women and girls between 1974 and 1978. His modus operandi typically consisted of convincing his target that he was in need of assistance or duping them into believing he was an authority figure. He would then lure his victim to his vehicle, at which point he would bludgeon them unconscious, then restrain them with handcuffs before driving them to a remote location to be sexually assaulted and killed.
Bundy killed his first definitively-known victim in February 1974 in Washington, and his later crimes stretched to Oregon, Colorado, Utah and Idaho. He frequently revisited the bodies of his victims, grooming and performing sex acts on the corpses until decomposition and destruction by wild animals made further interactions impossible...
And so on from there. The craziest zombie on the panel said he gets "a Ted Bundy vibe" from the Texas Senate hopeful!
Soon after that, it came time for Emily Compagno to offer her thoughts and impressions. Among other extremely strange remarks, she offered this assessment:
"He's like the goblin version of Pete Buttigieg, where he's going to take off the outer layer and you're going to see a David Koresh."
That's one of things she said! As you may recall, David Koresh—he died in 1993—was this disastrous person:
David Koresh
David Koresh was an American cult leader and preacher who played a central role in the Waco siege of 1993. As the head of the Branch Davidians, a religious sect, Koresh claimed to be its final prophet. His apocalyptic Biblical teachings, including interpretations of the Book of Revelation and the Seven Seals, attracted various followers.
[...]
Koresh was alleged to have been involved in multiple incidents of physical and sexual abuse of children. His doctrine of the House of David did lead to "marriages" with both married and single women in the Branch Davidians.
A six-month investigation of sexual abuse allegations by the Texas Child Protection Services in 1992 failed to turn up any evidence, possibly because the Branch Davidians concealed the spiritual marriage of Koresh to Rachel's younger sister, Michele, when she was 12...
Let it be said that those are largely allegations. But this is the person who comes to mind when Compagno thinks of the Senate hopeful.
(Later, she described the candidate as "a terrifying child" who "grew up on the Love Israel cult in Washington, or something frightening." Could she possibly have been referring to the Love Israel commune in the state of Washington, back in the 1970s? At this point, we're prepared to guess that that's who she did have in mind!)
So the battle went. To watch the entire segment, courtesy of the Fox News Channel itself, you can click right here.
During this segment, Talarico was compared to a mass murderer / sexual pervert, but also to at least one disordered cult leader. "You are right that he is dangerous," the frightened Compagno said.
In the next few days, we plan to transcribe the fuller set of remarks in this segment—the remarks which won't be reported or discussed in the pages of the New York Times or at The Atlantic (or on MS NOW). We think this conduct should be memorialized for future historians, if any such people turn out to exist.
At any rate, this was one of the battles enacted yesterday on the imitation "cable news" channel where, just to be honest, it's one manufactured battle after another, pretty much all at once.
Two weeks ago, these same beasts amused themselves by pretending that President Clinton was ogling photos of sexual victims during his deposition for the House Oversight Committee. We Blues have heard nothing about that egregious journalistic misconduct from the people at Blue America's exalted news orgs—from the people we're told we can trust.
Yesterday, the collection of zombies comported themselves in the manner described. It was one battle after another as Perino pretended she couldn't see or hear what was happening all around her.
(In fairness, the paychecks are large, Red and Blue paychecks alike.)
Perino pretended she couldn't see and couldn't hear. Over here in Blue America, our most exalted corporate stars affect the very same pose!
Tomorrow: More of what was said last night? Or will the battles move on?
Also this: As of this very morning, Mediaite has blown right past this astonishing conduct.
Instead, the site has reported this speck of nothingness from the very same show!
The least surprising thing of all of this, is that the Republican Party nominated a sexual predator to be their Presidential nominee three times in a row.
ReplyDeleteTalk about on-brand.
Latest Trump Approval poll:
ReplyDeleteRepublicans 62%.
People not sexually attracted to children 0%.
Dow tumbles as hot inflation reading and higher oil pressure market ahead of Fed:
ReplyDeletePPI rose 0.7% in February, well above the 0.3% economists estimated.
Woohoo, Brownie you're doing a heck of a job!
Tiedrich quotes politicians on the SAVE Act today. He explains that they keep saying the quiet part out loud. First Mike Johnson:
ReplyDelete"Holy Mike Johnson can’t help but mumble the quiet part out loud, either.
reporter: “can you give one example of fraud in a previous election that the SAVE America Act would stop?”
Holy Mike: “look, we’re not gonna litigate all that.”
god bless the reporter who asked that question, because it really cuts to the heart of the matter: this fucked-up election-rigging SAVE Act will do nothing to prevent election fraud — because election fraud is not a problem. there is virtually no ‘election fraud’ in America. it’s a rounding error away from zero. Donny has been convicted of more felonies than there have been proven cases of ‘election fraud.’
every reporter needs to be asking every Republican the same question Holy Mike couldn’t answer.
now it’s Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s turn to say the quiet part out loud.
the SAVE Act is in the Senate now, where it seemingly has a snowball’s chance of passing — because there just aren’t 60 votes in favor of it.
the MAGAsphere is screaming at Thune right now to shitcan the filibuster, so the SAVE Act can pass— but Thune’s got a good reason for not nuking the filibuster, and he’s not ashamed to admit it.
“throughout history, it has protected Republicans and conservative priorities and principles a lot more often than it has protected Democrats.”
it’s true. Republicans have perfected the art of using the filibuster to block any legislation that would improve the lives of We the People.
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/white-house-dumbfuck-admits-that
Republicans seem to have a fascination with famous sociopaths, from Trump's repetitive mentons of Hannibal Lecter (who he equated with immigrants despite Lecter's inability to speak any language except British) to now Ted Bundy (a serial killer) and David Kouresh (a cult leader). This is a good illustration of why you don't use psychiatric and psychological terms for political purposes. Republicans have no idea what these bad guys did, but they know they were bad. Obviously there is no resemblance between them and the Democrats being labeled.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, Ted Bundy worked in the lab of Elizabeth Loftus, a famous memory researcher. She remains dismayed that she had no sense at all that he was that warped. And if a famous psychologist couldn't tell he was a murderous sociopath, how are any of the assholes on Fox News going to get a Ted Bundy vibe. It shows pretty conclusive that there was no such thing, even while he was actively murdering young women. It took actual evidence to convict him.
"Two weeks ago, these same beasts amused themselves by pretending that President Clinton was ogling photos of sexual victims during his deposition for the House Oversight Committee. We Blues have heard nothing about that egregious journalistic misconduct from the people at Blue America's exalted news orgs—from the people we're told we can trust."
ReplyDeleteWhy should red lies be reported by blue sources, widening the exposure to the lies? It would just have the effect of smearing Clinton more than has already occurred on Fox. No one expects Fox to tell the truth about any Democrat, but if the blue media pick up the story, they will give it greater credibility than it deserves, given that it is a big fat lie. So, why is Somerby continually advocating actions that will hurt Clinton specifically and Democrats in general. Would Talarico benefit if blue sources tell the public that he is being compared to Ted Bundy? I don't think so.
This is an ongoing theme for Somerby. I have to wonder why he continues to advocate widening these smears in a way that can only hurt Democratic candidates. Beyond that, the right wing theme on Fox is that Democrats in general are evil, Ted Bundy evil. Nothing good comes of repeating that stuff.
Meanwhile, Trump believes that Hannibal Lecter was a real person. I doubt he knows who Ted Bundy and David Kouresh were. He barely recognizes live people he knows anymore.
"Yesterday, the collection of zombies comported themselves in the manner described. It was one battle after another as Perino pretended she couldn't see or hear what was happening all around her. "
ReplyDeleteSomerby increasingly has adopted the Dennis Miller school of writing. String together other people's words and catch phrases so that the readers can enjoy being "in the know" and "hip" enough to recognize them. Somerby has always been a name-dropper but now he is a title-dropper too.
One Battle After Another is the name of the film that just won this year's Oscar for Best Picture. It isn't cute when he drops these names because the authors and filmmakers may not have agreed with the sentiment he is expressing as he steals their work. He is indiscriminate about that, as when Trump dances to YMCA, oblivious to the meaning and cultural references in that song.
Somerby is a big boy. He can think up his own words.