SATURDAY, JUNE 27, 2026
A tool pretends to explain: The meltdown came from various directions in the course of this past week.
In one venue, the meltdown started with a set of video clips. The clips were aired at the start of a segment on Thursday's edition of The Five.
As you know, The Five is the most-watched program in American "cable news." As you can see by clicking this link, the segment to which we refer started with these video clips:
PRESIDENT TRUMP (6/22/26): Barack Hussein Obama. Have you ever heard of him?
PRESIDENT TRUMP (6/4/26): Barack Hussein Obama. Have you heard of him?
PRESIDENT TRUMP (7/22/25): Barack Hussein Obama. Have you heard of him?
PRESIDENT TRUMP (1/27/26): Barack Hussein Obama. Have you—have you heard of him?
The dates were included as the four clips played. The point of this otherwise pointless presentation was obvious.
President Trump can't seem to stop talking about Barack Obama. During the segment in question, Jesse Watters was the first messaging agent to state his view about this situation.
He quickly offered an explanation for President Trump's behavior:
WATTERS (6/25/26): Trump talks a lot. He says a lot of things. So yeah, he’s gonna mention Barack Hussein Obama.
Part of that is just, he likes to say "Hussein."
President Trump just likes to say "Hussein," this simpering man boy said!
Let's state what's blindingly obvious. There's a reason why the sitting president always includes the former president's middle name. Also, everyone knows what that reason is.
In reality, everyone knows why Trump always says "Hussein." As Watters tried to move to his next point, Jessica Tarlov interrupted and asked an obvious question:
WATTERS (continuing directly): But the other part of it—
TARLOV: Why does he like to say "Hussein?"
Why does he like to say "Hussein?" With that, the die had been cast.
In the past, we've described the programming of the Fox News Channel as an assault on the very possibility of continuing the American project, such as that project has been. The idiocy of Watters and his towel-snapping partner, Greg Gutfeld, is a major part of the frontal assault waged by this corporate entity.
What shape will that practiced idiocy take at a moment like this? Below, you see the way Watters responded to Tarlov's question:
WATTERS (continuing directly): Cause it’s funny that the president’s middle name was Hussein. You don’t think that’s hysterical?
TARLOV: No, I don’t.
WATTERS: OK, OK! It was the name of the dictator—
TARLOV: I think it’s interesting in the context of saying that he’s a Muslim. Which is why he says it, so that people still think that he’s a Muslim.
GUTFELD: It's so problematic.
Stating the obvious, everyone knows that's why Trump keeps saying Obama's middle name. Everyone except the corporate tool Watters, who's paid fantastic sums, by the Murdoch empire, to recite the corporation's agitprop and to play the fool in this way.
Jesse Watters stepped forward this day to play the fool again! In his view, why does President Trump keep saying "Hussein" whenever he mentions President Obama?
According to the corporate messaging agent, President Trump likes to say "Hussein" just because it's funny! It's just funny that President Obama shares a name with Saddam Hussein, this simpering idiot said.
Needless to say, that isn't what Watters actually thinks. Surprised by the rare interruption from Tarlov, he struggled to keep his practiced idiocy on the winning side of the street.
We're sorry, but Barack Obama isn't a Muslim! (As everyone knows, millions of good, decent American citizens actually are.)
Still, the sitting president wants to float that possibly scary suggestion. Everyone, including Watters, knows that's why the sitting president does what he constantly does.
Stating the obvious, Watters knows why President Trump does what he constantly does. He also knows that that is why the "news channel" which employs and scripts him opened that grisly segment with four ululations of "Hussein" by the sitting president.
As Thursday's segment proceeded, Watters attempted to recover, in a way we won't describe. It ended with the little mutt Gutfeld extending his twice-daily practice of undermining the possibility of the American project, such as it has been:
WATTERS: I don’t know what he is. I don’t care what he is. He’s probably an atheist.
TARLOV: You know what he is!
WATTERS: He is, I know. He’s retired.
GUTFELD: No god-fearing person would eat a dog.
That's what the second mutt said!
Watters and Gutfeld are the two leading players at today's Fox News Channel. They co-host (and dominate) The Five, the nation's most-watched cable news program.
Jesse Watters Primetime (8 p.m.) is the nation's second most-watched "cable news" show. Gutfeld!, which airs at 10 p.m. (that's 7 p.m. out on the coast), is #4 on the national list.
Regarding Watters himself, let us briefly say this. It's amazing to see how far the clown-adjacent propagandist has fallen, distinguished ancestry-wise:
Jesse Watters
Jesse Bailey Watters (born July 9, 1978) is an American conservative political commentator and television program host on the Fox News cable television network. He frequently appeared earlier in his media career on The O'Reilly Factor, the political talk show hosted by commentator/moderator Bill O'Reilly...
[...]
Watters was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Stephen Hapgood Watters, a teacher, and child psychologist Anne Purvis, daughter of Morton Bailey Jr., publisher of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. His maternal great-grandfather was another Morton Bailey, publisher of the prominent longtime magazine The Saturday Evening Post; his maternal great-great-grandfather was Morton Shelley Bailey (1855–1922), a lawyer, politician, state senator, and district judge in Colorado, later serving as an Associate Justice on the Colorado Supreme Court.
Watters' paternal grandfather, Franklin Benjamin Watters, was a cardiologist at the Veterans Administration Hospital at Newington, Connecticut, and a professor at the University of Connecticut Medical Dental School...
Watters has Irish ancestry on his father's side. Watters is named after his mother's great-grandfather, Jesse Andrew Burnett, an associate chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court in their state capital of Topeka, Kansas.
Reversion to (well below) the mean has taken place with remarkable speed within this particular family. The leading authority also includes a lengthy section concerning this peculiar fellow's peculiar views regarding the various ways boys and girls should correctly behave:
Comments on masculinity
Watters criticized former President Joe Biden for licking ice cream in public as "a grown man." He has instructed men on how they should wave and belittled those who grocery shop with their wives. In September 2024, Jesse Watters was criticized for comments he made on The Five regarding Tim Walz, the Governor of Minnesota and a running mate of the US Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who had shared a photo of himself drinking a milkshake with a paper straw. Watters mocked the image as an example of Walz's lack of masculinity because he used a straw, which he claimed made women not like Walz, because women like masculinity. He said that asking for a "vanilla shake" instead of a "vanilla ice cream shake" also makes men look weak...
In March 2025, Watters listed his "five rules for men" on The Five – don't be that serious, just be funny; don't eat soup in public; don't cross your legs; don't drink from a straw, and don't wave simultaneously with two hands because men wave with one hand, not both hands at the same time. He added that one of the reasons you don't drink from a straw is the way your lips purse, which is very effeminate...
And on and on from there. Gender rules without end, amen. This idiocy never stops.
In fairness, full disclosure:
Sometimes, Watters seems to be lapsing into his "I'm just a silly dimwit" comedic persona when he makes these inane observations. On balance, though, we get the impression that he really believes this idiocy, which he routinely traffics.
Returning to Thursday's segment:
Everyone knows why President Trump never fails to say "Hussein." Also, everyone knows why the Fox News Channel opened Thursday's segment with those video clips.
Like President Trump, the bosses believe their audience is dumb enough to be swayed by such messaging. We know of no sign that this belief is wrong.
A downfall started in earnest this week. Starting on Monday, we'll be discussing that latest menacing assault on the American project.
For today, one final point:
Who is most at fault as this latest assault takes shape? Their names are legion, and their names are Blue.
They're the overpaid stars who work for the New York Times, for MS NOW, and also for the Atlantic. They refuse to report or discuss the potent behavior which occurs on the Fox News Channel.
Their own corporate checks are spending real good. To a man, to a woman, they have agreed to avert their gaze. They have agreed not to speak.
Also this: For a report on that segment by Mediaite, you can just click here.
I'll take "Things said by a child rapist" for $500, Alex.
ReplyDelete“ Who is most at fault as this latest assault takes shape? Their names are legion, and their names are Blue. ”
ReplyDeleteThis is pure, ugly garbage, as bad as when Trump says Hussein. Somerby attacks blues like Trump attacks Muslims and Obama.
What we blues need more than ever is more preachy middle aged feminists at the Atlantic scolding men for laughing at Democrat men who give tampons to boys.
ReplyDeleteYou spelled "guillotines" wrong.
Delete10:39,
DeleteNice job!
Your use of sarcasm to call for violence, is not lost on me.
Fucking weirdo.
DeleteAre we blaming the Left for the Republican Party running a global pedophile ring, yet?
ReplyDeleteThat was 30 years ago. Ongoing.
DeleteSomerby's correct.
ReplyDeleteIt's long past time for us blues to take back the country by using our 2nd Amendment Rights.
Not knowing what side of the political aisle you call home, but most, in not all the guns in this country are owned by those on the right.
DeleteSo good luck with that.
Like the guns used to shoot Charlie Kirk? What about all the guns purchased by Blue America for self-defense?
Delete"Approximately 75% to 80% of handgun-only owners report that personal protection and self-defense are their primary motivations for purchase. Protection against people is now the leading reason for American firearm ownership overall, cited by about 79% of all firearm owners."
If most guns are owned by right wingers, how do they expect to use them without exposing themselves to 79% of the rest of the firearm owners?
Senator Adam Schiff announced that he and all House Judiciary Committee Democrats are filing a court brief seeking the release of Volume II of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report on Donald Trump’s classified documents case. The move comes after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon permanently blocked public disclosure of the volume following the dismissal of the case after Trump’s 2024 election victory and a change in Justice Department leadership.
ReplyDeleteJudge Aileen Cannon, when asked to explain why she is criminally blocking release of the report replied:
"Donald Trump is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life."
She later added to the reporter: “fuck you, what are you going to do about it”
Delete
ReplyDeleteI too like to say "Hussein". Huss-ssein. I love it. Love it.
Does it mean I am a bad person? Yes, ladies, I am a bad, real bad person.
Trump links Obama with Hussein in order to diminish his reputation among those who hate Muslims. Trump links himself with Kid Rock in the hope that some of Kid Rock's enormous charisma will rub off on himself (Trump). Classical conditioning does work. I hate Trump and thus now hate anything and anyone associated with Trump, from golf to the Lee Greenwood Bible.
DeleteIf there were a choice between criticizing Fox and criticizing Trump, I think journalists should focus on Trump. Fox may be damaging to its viewers, but the president has the power to be way more damaging to us all. Is there a choice? Yes, because resources are limited. There are only 24 hrs in a day for any of us, whether we are blue or not.
ReplyDeleteIt amazes me that Somerby does not realize the trade-offs involved. I realize Somerby himself said that math is hard, but it isn't that hard to figure out that we all need to establish priorities in order to accomplish important goals.
Bob, if Trump’s middle name was Benito would you find it terribly dire that his political critics/adversaries made use of that EVERY time?
ReplyDeleteSomerby knows that maligning Democrats by altering and mocking their names is one major right wing tactic. Cecelia has done it herself with Kamala's name. The left doesn't do that. We tend to adhere to the dictum that mentioning your opponent's name only benefits them because it gives them more name recognition among those low information voters. I'll bet a very high % of Republicans don't know what the name Benito means, even though Mussolini is taught in middle school. AI says:
Delete"While the first name "Benito" occasionally surfaces in Latino culture—Mussolini himself was actually named after the Mexican president Benito Juárez—the historical association remains firmly defined by the Italian dictator for most Americans. I'll bet Cecelia didn't know that the name goes back to Juarez.
Who was Benito Juarez? "Benito Juárez was an Indigenous Zapotec lawyer who served as Mexico's president from 1858 to 1872. He transformed Mexico by leading the Liberal cause during the La Reforma movement, separating church and state, and organizing the successful military resistance that expelled French occupying forces." In other words, a liberal, not a fascist like Mussolini.
If most people don't recognize the origin of a middle name, that makes using it a lot less effective, even stupid when it turns out to undermine your point.
Does Bushitler know how magnificent you are?
DeleteCecelia is insufficiently educated to be an effective troll.
DeleteAnonymouse 5:58pm, everyone would immediately ascertain which Benito being used as comparison. Anonymouse 5:58pm sufficently dishonest for trolling websites.
DeleteTrump’s middle name isn’t Benito. A stupid what if from the idiot who helped put the tyrant in power.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:13pm, however you have an actual tv personality on a highly rated show obviously using Pres. Obama’s middle name as an appellation, but you chide Bob for highlighting that reality, AND chide my own attempts to mitigate Bob’s ire over it.
DeleteDo you really think Obama himself has any problem with his own middle name? Liberals don't either. This is an imaginary burn that red America thinks others in red America will care about and hate Obama for. That makes it an ugly smear because it arises from double hatred: (1) of Obama, and (2) of Muslims.
DeleteI don't know what you were attempting and I doubt you know what the word "mitigate" means, given how you've used it. If you think people on the street know who Benito Mussolini was, got ask a handful of people on the street and see what kind of answers you get. That is, if you live in America and not Eastern Europe yourself. No wonder you don't know who Benito Juarez was,.
Anonymouse 6:52pm, how many sides are you going to take in this argument? It took me to cause you to agree with Bob. I’m taking a bow.
DeleteFascinating your mind wouid head towards Benito (Mussolini). The resemblance between Mussolini and Trump is not trivial. In the case of Obama, what is “Hussein” supposed to suggest? Things that Obama isn’t.
DeleteI will not ever agree with Somerby any more than I would agree with Trump. Neither says anything coherent.
DeleteTo be fair, the orange turd would much prefer being called Adolph rather than Benito
DeleteTom Sullivan at Digby's blog says this today:
ReplyDelete"I’ll vote for the Democrat who instead of running for cover responds the same way to being accused (like clockwork) of being a socialist.
You got a problem with socialism? Is that why Republicans want to eliminate Social Security, Medicare, and take food out of the mouths of hungry children?
How hard is that?"
Or how about the interstate highway system? Are you against collective ownership of the military services?
DeleteIt's always so easy when you're talking to an audience of like-minded people.
DeleteDG, so liberals think socialism is any sort of taxation for any public interest task. Who’s extreme?
DeleteThe point isn't use of tax money but that the government initiates and controls these collective efforts on behalf of the people, and the people are happy with that arrangement.
DeleteCecelia, bless your heart, your wit is so peachy. But watch it, DG, she’ll gladly turn on you and order you into the gas chamber because you’re a commie Marxist socialist. So funny!
DeleteAnonymouse 6:42pm, people are happy with the arrangement in general, but not happy with many of the particulars.That’s the essence of a multiparty system. Long may it wave.
DeleteMusk's DOGE efforts were intended to destroy the well-functioning government services so that people would be less happy with them, so that the government could then defund them further or eliminate them entirely without too much popular objection. I do not believe that has worked out very well. This so-called socialist wave may be simply that people want the stuff Trump/Musk/DOGE destroyed to be restored to its original well-functioning state. No one in their right mind would trust Republicans to do that.
DeleteI don't believe this has anything to do with Socialism, much less Communism, but with govt providing the services people have come to depend upon over the years, especially the social safety net instituted after the Great Republican Depression by FDR.
DG’s Spirit Animal, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I don’t try to be witty. I just have a sense of the outlandish which is the anonymouse-troll playground. The humor is entirely of your making.
DeleteI wonder if Somerby understands that the word "mutt" is akin to the word "mud" used by White Supremacists to designate inferior mixed race people and brown people in contrast to pure white races. Somerby refers to the mutts, while Nazis refer to the "muds" with a roughly similar meaning, especially as the word mutt has been used before Somerby grabbed it for his own purposes.
ReplyDeleteWhile Somerby farts around, here is some real media criticism from Robert Reich:
ReplyDelete"Trump’s war with Iran is continuing. Today, Iran launched attack drones at Bahrain — which hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters, a major logistical base for U.S. military operations. Iran also struck an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, its second attack on a ship since Thursday.
Those attacks came after the United States carried out overnight airstrikes on Iranian missile and drone sites, in retaliation for Iran firing drones at a container ship on Thursday as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz.
The continuing hostilities are exposing the mind-numbing extent of Trump’s lies about “ending” his war — that he’s achieved a lasting peace in the Middle East, that Iran no longer has any capacity to fire missiles and drones, that the Strait of Hormuz is reopen to cargo traffic, that Iran is committed to reducing its stockpile of nuclear material and won’t seek a nuclear bomb, and that, overall, the war he launched on February 28 has made America stronger and safer than we were before he launched it.
These lies aren’t on par with his big lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him and that the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 was undertaken by peaceful, patriotic Americans. But his lies about the so-called “end” of his war with Iran could have equally large consequences, because they’re leading many Americans to believe that an end of the war is within sight and that America is stronger and safer as a result of it.
Yet the mainstream media refuse to call him out on his Iran lies.
The New York Times terms what’s now happening a “flare-up of in hostilities” that threatens “to unravel” ongoing “talks to reach a final peace agreement,” and that “neither side seems eager to return to a full-blown war.”
Well, they may not want to return to a “full-blown war” but they’ve returned to hostilities that are blocking the strait and destroying whatever shred of trust diplomacy depends on. And not a word about Trump’s lies.
The Washington Post calls it “the latest threat to a ceasefire and ongoing talks toward a broader peace” — which of course assumes there has been a real ceasefire, and that the talks now underway will result in a “broader peace,” whatever that means. Also not a word about Trump’s lies.
The Wall Street Journal says the hostilities have “added to pressure on a preliminary peace deal already under stress from continued fighting in Lebanon and disagreements over nuclear inspections.” But that assumes there’s already a preliminary peace deal. Has anyone actually read it? And the disagreements are hardly confined to nuclear inspections. What about free passage through the strait? Oh, and here again, no word about Trump’s blatant lies.
My expectations for the mainstream press were already low. From the outset of this war, the public has received half-baked and inconsistent reports. And although the media knows better than to rely on any words emanating from Trump’s mouth, why have they given up holding him to account for what he says about the war?"
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/why-wont-the-media-call-this-for
Reich is as blue as they come. The media that Somerby monitors is NOT blue media. It is corporate or mainstream media, and increasingly now it is owned by right wing billionaires. Asking why the right doesn't call out Trump's lies, then blaming that on Blue America, is yet another lie on Somerby's part.
DeleteFox is, of course, the Trump regime's state media, which is why it is about propaganda and not news, much less humor.
DeleteWatters left off one traditional masculinity test: When a real man looks at his fingernails, he holds his fingers spread out, not curled onto his palm.
ReplyDelete(Every 5th grader knows this.)