TUESDAY: Sitting president abandoned by allies!

TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2026

But also, a furious fellow explains: It's stunning to see the extent to which President Trump has been abandoned by Murdoch World. 

We refer to the way his deal-which-isn't-a-deal has been trashed by the Wall Street Journal, by the New York Post, and by a wide range of Fox News Channel commentators. 

What makes it "a deal-which-isn't-a-deal?" There's nothing deep about the answer, but the editorial board at the New York Post explained in a pithy way:   

The still-mysterious Iran deal leaves a LOT of work undone—at best   

Aside from the vast damage the war did to Iran’s military assets and the deaths of so many of the ruling cabal, this Memorandum of Understanding seems to leave things right back where they were before the bombs started dropping.

That is: Tehran hasn’t actually agreed to give up its nuclear program or its support of terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas—but only to talk about it all some more.

In our view, nicely rendered! With respect to the "deal" which isn't really any such thing, Iran hasn't agreed to do the things the president wants it to do. Iran has only agreed to talk about it some more! 

The editors call this a "deal" in their headline. We'd stick to the bureaucratic term, "memorandum of understanding," and we'd make a point of leaving the description at that. 

That said, the editors aren't the only residents of Murdoch World who are walking away from the president's triumphant claim of a wonderful deal. The Wall Street Journal editorial board follows suit in an editorial which carries this dual headline: 

Trump Stages an Iran Retreat
The regime gets financial relief to reopen Hormuz and hold more nuclear talks.  

"[T]here’s no denying that Mr. Trump is retreating from his main goals as political pressure has built at home and finishing the job requires greater military risk," the unhappy Journal board says. 

Meanwhile, Mediaite spills with reports about Fox News personnel taking a walk away from the new arrangement. We'll start with a link to Mediaite's report about the New York Post editorial, then link you to some reports about blowback from inside the Fox News Channel:

‘When Does the World Get to See It?’ The New York Post Calls Out Trump Over ‘Mystery Deal’ 
(for full report, click here)

Retired General [Jack Keane] Shreds Trump’s Iran Concessions on Fox News...
(for full report, click here)

Fox’s Ben Domenech Shreds Trump’s Iran Deal—Appears to Brand JD Vance ‘Hillbilly Obama’...
(for full report, click here)

....Fox’s Andy McCarthy Goes Scorched Earth on ‘Neville Trump’ Over ‘Laughable’ Iran Deal 
(for full report, click here)

...Fox’s Dana Perino Calls Out Trump White House for Keeping Iran Deal Details Under Wraps
(for full report, click here)

That is correct! Yesterday, the president was even challenged at substantial length on The Five. Dana Perino did so right at the start of the show, in a lengthy demurral.   

It was surprising to see Perino depart from the expected messaging norm in that extended way. Meanwhile, here's one thing which didn't happen in the second segment of yesterday show:

None of the program's four pro-MAGA co-hosts managed to say that UFC fighter Josh Hokit shouldn't have insulted Michelle Obama at last Saturday night's White House event.  

None of them managed to say that! As we noted this morning, liberal co-host Jessica Tarlov directly questioned Greg Gutfeld:   

“Why can’t you just say that the guy should never have said that Michelle Obama is a man?" 

It wouldn't be hard to agree that Hokit shouldn't have said that. But Gutfeld went on an extended, histrionic rant in which he explained his increasingly peculiar "cable news" agitprop messaging style.   

We think you ought to watch his agitated rant. 

Below, headline included, you see the start of Sarah Rumpf's report for Mediaite, where video is included. We then include Rumpf's quotation of a key part of what Gutfeld said: 

Fox’s Greg Gutfeld Defends UFC Fighter Who Called Michelle Obama a Man: ‘We Enjoy It When You’re Upset’

Fox News host Greg Gutfeld defended comments by UFC fighter Josh Hokit in which he called former First Lady Michelle Obama a man by downplaying it as the fighter just being a “troll,” and adding that the right enjoyed it when the left was “upset.”  

[...]

"Hell, I seem to remember, not too long ago, how often I heard that Melania Trump was an escort—and from a lot of people who are now “oh, oh, oh!” huffing and huffing. People who say that a Black kid who stabs a White kid, that was just him defending himself. People faking Charlie Kirk getting stabbed in the neck, thinking it’s funny. People hoping for another Luigi Mangioni to take out Elon Musk or perhaps Trump or maybe both!

"See, we don’t have to listen. In fact, we enjoy it when you’re upset.

"That guy is a troll. He showed up at the weigh-in pretending he was drunk and was throwing up applesauce as a fake pretense because he was pretending he was scared. That’s called a troll. We get it. Not our fault if you don’t. He knows it’s going to upset you. He’s a troll! You give a mic to a troll?"

We don't have to listen to you libs any more! Gutfeld has been saying this, over and over, in the past few months. 

It's all a game of owning you libs! We enjoy it when we say things that make you libs get upset!

He's been saying this sort of thing for moths. Yesterday, he ranted it hard. This is being broadcast to audiences which are triple the size of nightly MS NOW audiences.   

This is the world of a type of unstated secession. Later, on the Gutfeld! show, this angry fellow returned to the joy of insulting Michelle Obama himself.

A large modern nation can't expect to function successfully this way. Luckily, if you read the New York Times or the Atlantic, you will never have to know that this insult-driven cultural secession is actually going on!

This 61-yeatr-old angry child loves to feed this gruel to his viewers. CEO Scott tells him to do it, pays him nine million per year!

REGIONS OF THE MIND: Tarlov and Gutfeld and Compagno oh my!

TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2026

But also, subsection (b) of the Voting Rights Act: In fairness, American incoherence is just part of a much larger human story. 

Here in America, one current snowstorm of incoherence got its start in 1982, when the United States Congress agreed, by overwhelming margins, to add some murky language to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. 

At that time, the Congress added subsection (b) to Section 2 of that important piece of legislation. 

Borrowing from the later Wittgenstein, had "language gone on holiday" in that addition to the Voting Rights Act? To a large extent, we're going to say that it pretty much had. You can peruse subsection (b) below

SECTION 2 OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT

42 U.S.C. § 1973. Denial or abridgement of right to vote on account of race or color through voting qualifications or prerequisites; establishment of violation.

a) No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision in a manner which results in a denial or abridgement of theright of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color, or in contravention of the guarantees set forth in section 1973b

(f)(2) of this title, as provided in subsection (b) of this section.

(b) A violation of subsection (a) of this section is established if, based on the totality of circumstances, it is shown that the political processes leading to nomination or election in the State or political subdivision are not equally open to participation by members of a class of citizens protected by subsection (a) of this section in that its members have less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice. The extent to which members of a protected class have been elected to office in the State or political subdivision is one circumstance which may be considered: Provided, That nothing in this section establishes a right to have members of a protected class elected in numbers equal to their proportion in the population.

To be clear, it was subsection (b) which was added in 1982, in part for reasons which Carl Hulse described last month in the New York Times. 

Did language "go on holiday" in that new part of the Voting Rights Act? We're going to say that it did! Even today, forty-four years later, it's virtually impossible to untangle the balls of confusion which have come into being in the wake of the vacation taken by clear, concise language within that jumble of words. 

Somewhat oddly, there's one declaration in subsection (b) which seems to be fairly straightforward. It comes at the very end of this addition to the original VRA:

[N]othing in this section establishes a right to have members of a protected class elected in numbers equal to their proportion in the population. 

Paraphrasing slightly, this new subsection said that members of a protected class are not guaranteed "proportional representation" in (for example) the House of Representatives. You may think that was a lousy provision but, in fairly straightforward language, that's what this new subsection said.

You may think that's a lousy provision but there it sits, in fairly straightforward language, right there in the VRA. Oddly, the recent Supreme Court cases which have generated anger and controversy seem to involve claims by plaintiffs who were demanding proportional representation under terms of the Voting Rights Act.  

The Act doesn't guarantee such representation. To appearances, plaintiffs seemed to be seeking it all the same

Proportional representation might seem to be fair. In principle, it would seem that it plainly would be fair," whatever objections might arise with respect to some such legal requirements. That said, subsection (b) seems to say that there is no right to some such outcome on the part of the "protected classes" under consideration. 

If no such outcome is guaranteed, is the active pursuit of some such outcome constitutionally permissible? It seems that's a question the Court was batting around in its recent decisions.   

At any rate, a ball of confusion was set into motion when Congress passed that new subsection. According to Hulse's account, the Republican Party supported that new subsection for a grimly political reason:   

According to Hulse's account in the New York Times, the GOP wanted to cram Black voters into majority Black districts in the hope that this would help them win congressional seats in adjacent districts. According to Hulse, this was part of the GOP's attempt to win control of the solid South, a region which was slowly moving from solidly D to solidly R at the time in question.

That last part of subsection (b) seems to be reasonably straightforward. Did language go on holiday in other parts of that new subsection? Also, has language been on holiday in the decades of legal and journalistic writing which have followed the creation of that subsection?

We're inclined to say that the answer is yes—that an era of American incoherence has been added to the much longer story of human incoherence.

It's sad but plainly it's true. As a species, we the humans simply aren't built for this kind of analysis. That said, we'll continue to try to show you what we mean when we say that "language has gone on holiday" with respect to subsection (b) of the Voting Rights Act.   

Meanwhile, a larger chasm in understanding opened up yesterday, first on The Five, then five hours later on Gutfeld! Believe it or not, this was one of Greg Gutfeld's handful of opening jokes on his eponymous "cable news" program:

GUTFELD (6/15/26): At Sunday night's Freedom 250, fighter Josh Hokit ended his post-fight speech by yelling, "Michelle Obama is a man!"

AUDIENCE: Applause 

GUTFELD [scolding audience]: Terrible! Ohhhhh! Don't clap! Don't clap! 

GUTFELD: Barack Obama angrily responded, "Leave him out of it!"  

AUDIENCE: Laughter   

GUTFELD [feigning bewilderment]: I must have misread that.    

He delivered the joke at 10:01. While hiding behind several beards, the little guy pretended that the former president had referred to his wife as "him." 

You can see the angry fellow perform this function simply by clicking here. It's as we've told you again and again: "Michelle is a man" and "Barack is gay" are two of this angry nut-ball's favorite themes. 

He pushes a large assortment of such themes at his large Red American audience. He's paid $9 million by the corporation to perform this messaging function.

It's as we've told you again and again. Until he's told to stop by his corporate owners, this little guy isn't going to quit. And whatever you may think about the current state of the nation, therein lies a major societal problem.

Earlier yesterday, on The Five, Jessica Tarlov had explicitly raised a perfectly sensible question. Specifically addressing Gutfeld himself, this is what she said:   

“Why can’t you just say that the guy should never have said that Michelle Obama is a man?"   

Why can't you simply say it, she asked. It was a perfectly obvious question.

Gutfeld followed with an angry, multifaceted response in which he histrionically defended his refusal to reject Hokit's insulting remark. After that, Emily Compagno offered one of her hopelessly garbed orations in which she too seemed to refuse to say that Hokit shouldn't have said it.

Discussions of the Voting Rights Act come from the higher end of American public discourse. The intellectual squalor frequently driving the Fox News Channel comes from a whole different realm.

That said, even on its higher end, our public discourse is so unskilled that there is no real chance that anyone could ever untangle the endless confusions surrounding the recent Supreme Court decisions about the Voting Rights Act. 

Meanwhile, the tribal anger of players like Gutfeld and the Compagno reflect a silent secession from the existing American project. Whatever you think of some such secession, a secession like that can't be easily brokered, especially when our major mainstream Blue American orgs refuse to report or discuss the fact of this rebellion.

Over at Mediaite, Sarah Rumpf has reported what Gutfeld said on The Five, with videotape included. Rumph has thereby provided a valuable service.

True to the rules which seem to obtain at that site, no one at Mediaite has reported what Gutfed did, five hours later, on his eponymous primetime show. Also, Rumpf failed to record the garbled non-discussion discussion from the perpetually garbled Compagno. What if they staged a civil war and the press corps refused to come?

We'll continue to discuss each of these rolling events, the sacred and the profane. For the record, we humans aren't built for this line of work, and that isn't going to change.

MONDAY: "Absolute trash," Tarlov says!

MONDAY, JUNE 15, 2026

It's on TV every night: For better or worse, the MMA on the White House lawn is over. 

To her credit, the Washington Post's Monica Hesse noticed the unusual element of Saturday's event which was saved almost for last:

The White House UFC fights showed us the America we needed to see   

The phrase “Platonic ideal” refers to the philosopher’s conception that real life and meaning exist on an abstract spiritual plain beyond our physical existence and comprehension. You think you have seen a donkey, say, but no, you have only seen a shadow of a donkey—a hypothetical representation. You cannot even begin to comprehend the real thing. All of us go through life like dogs seeing in muted colors, not knowing what we’re missing, except on Sunday night when anyone with a subscription to Paramount+ was allowed to experience the Platonic ideal of what it means to be an American in 2026, the real donkey, and it was a UFC fight on the White House lawn.

“There’s only one person more incredible than the Incredible Hok, and that’s my Lord and savior Jesus Christ,” brayed Josh Hokit in his victory speech after winning his heavyweight bout in the event labeled, insanely, Freedom 250. “And lastly, Michelle Obama is a man.”

That's what the highly religious visitor brayed—and Hesse heard him bray it. We'll link you to videotape down below, but here's more of what Hesse said in her column:

The octagon ring—“The Claw”—was set up on the White House lawn. The president and first lady sat in the front row. The U.S. Marine Band, long known as “The President’s Own,” soundtracked the whole event, in what was surely its weirdest gig of the season, and bless Staff Sgt. Hannah Davis, a young Black woman, for listening to that disgusting statement about Michelle Obama and then immediately singing “Superstar” so Sean O’Malley could punch Aiemann Zahabi for five minutes.   

Hesse wasn't afraid to report what was said. After that, she wasn't afraid to offer a judgment.  

Presumably, this is all part of the "masculinism" Helen Lewis recently wrote about in the Atlantic. We'll recommend that you pity the unfortunate men who can't get past the prehistoric longings involved in this nutcase behavior—but we'll compliment Hesse for seeing that this unfortunate conduct ought to be reported and discussed.

As we'll show you, and as was inevitable, the New York Times cleaned things up in its report of this incident. Over at the less timorous Mediaite, the initial report of the incident started like this:

UFC Fighter Unleashes Stunning Attack at Trump’s White House Event: ‘Michelle Obama Is a Man!’   

In a stunning attack, UFC heavyweight fighter Josh Hokit blurted out a shocking slur directed at former first lady Michelle Obama moments after winning a heavyweight bout at the UFC Freedom 250 held at the White House on Sunday night.

Hokit trounced Derrick Lewis via TKO to remain undefeated in his UFC career at the monumental event attended by thousands on the South Lawn.

But as he was interviewed by podcaster Joe Rogan in the octagon after the fight, he was clearly not done taking shots.

“And lastly, Michelle Obama is a man! Am I right, America?” Hokit yelled to a cheering crowd as Rogan smiled.  

Rogan to the rescue! Every former comic a king!

At that link, you can see these highly masculine men enjoying themselves in the manner described. Or you can go to this later report, which notes the negative reaction some people recorded on social media. 

It wasn't just Monica Hesse who thought this incident was worth mentioning. Ahmad Austin's follow-up for Mediaite starts like this:   

‘Absolute Trash’: UFC Fighter Sparks Intense Ire for Calling Michelle Obama a Man at Trump’s White House Fight Night   

UFC fighter Josh Hokit was slapped with a huge wave of backlash after he called former First Lady Michelle Obama a man after his match at President Donald Trump’s White House fight night.

On Sunday, UFC Freedom 250 was held on the White House lawn. In the weeks leading up to the event, UFC President Dana White insisted the event was apolitical and merely a celebration of America’s 250th anniversary.  

[...]

Hokit took on Derrick White in a heavyweight bout Sunday, winning by knockout in the second round. During his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, Hokit randomly blurted out, “Michelle Obama is a man!”

As the crowd around him cheered and Rogan smiled, the 28-year-old added, “Am I right America?”

The comments were met with immediate outrage on social media.

At that point, Austin posted a list of critical comments on social media—from Jonah Goldberg, from Tim Miller, from Joaquin Castro, from Rep. Melanie Stansbury. We were struck by the first such comment he posted:

[continuing from above]
Fox News's Jessica Tarlov called Hokit "absolute trash."

Actually, we'd say she called his comment "absolute trash." At any rate, we were struck by Tarlov's remark. Here's why we say that:  

Surely, Tarlov knows that this specific insult is standard fare, several nights a week, on her channel's Gutfeld! program. Frequently helped by his stool pigeon guests, the termagant who hosts that show calls Michelle Obama "a man" on a regular basis.  

Because the swill from this shows runs downstream, we'll guess that this particular insult has slithered its way onto The Five by now, possibly even while Tarlov is sitting there, cast in the role of the Democratic punching bag. Is it time for her to abandon her paycheck and take her asp off that show?  

The disordered fellow to whom we refer loves to call Michelle Obama a man! He loves to say that Barack Obama is gay; he loves to say that [NAME WITHHELD] is constantly shoving gerbils up his ascot.  

In the end, this is who the fellow is. The garbage flows nightly on this show while creeps like Kat Timpf play along. 

Surely, Tarlov knows all this. Is it time to her to speak about what's constantly going on?

In our view, it's also time for Monica Hesse to watch a nightly primetime program like Gutfeld! and report what she sees as the little guys issue their pathetic sexual / gender insults and the little girls of the Fox News Channel pathetically play along. 

It's also time for the New York Times to report what happens on that channel's astonishing "cable news" programs. To date, appearances suggest that the timorous Times is simply unwilling to do so.

So is every opinion writer at the Times, along with every writer at the Atlantic. No one will do so at MS NOW. Their bosses tell them that they mustn't do such naughty things and to a man, to a woman, our Blue stars play along.

When a mere UFC fighter offers thoughts of this type, he may get reported and trashed. When the stars of the Fox News Channel do this on a nightly basis, our heralded Blue journalists run off and hide in the woods.

To see the Time clean this moment up, you can just click here. This is who, and this is what, we self-impressed Blues really are.   

We're glad that Hesse took offense at this. It's on "cable news" every night!

DISTRICTS OF THE HEART: No one cares about Social Security!

MONDAY, JUNE 15, 2026

Everyone cares about this: At the start of yesterday's Meet the Press, Steve Kornacki was introduced.

Kornacki is NBC's numbers man. Here's the first number he offered:    

WELKER (6/14/26): With the midterms less than five months away, our Chief Data Analyst Steve Kornacki, joins me now with the results of our latest NBC News poll. 

So we are within five months of the midterms. What are the big headlines?

KORNACKI: Yeah, Kristen. To start, just the bottom line on Trump’s standing with the voters right now. His approval rating sits at 42% in our NBC poll. Now, this is with registered voters. And that is down a tick. You can see the last time we checked in, early in the spring, he was at 44%.

WELKER: Is that a new low, Steve? 42%?

KORNACKI: That is the second term low in our poll for Donald Trump, falling to 42% right now.  

As you know, President Trump won't be on the ballot in the midterm elections. For that reason, we're often struck by our own Blue America's focus on his approval numbers.  

That said: 

As Blue Americans, we're routinely invited to marvel at how low his approval number is. At this site, we tend to have a different reaction:    

Given the persistent lunacy of the sitting president's behavior, we're amazed at how high his approval number is!    

The president won't be on the ballot this fall. Almost a thousand Republican and Democratic candidates will be.   

Will Democrats gain control of the House? Could they take control of the Senate? Kornacki moved to a second set of numbers:  

[continuing from above] 
KORNACKI: And the other thing that this dovetails with of course is the generic congressional battle with the Democrats now. As you said, inside of five months to the midterm, a five-point lead for the Democrats here.

Now obviously, that’s a strong number for them. What the Republicans would say on this is: If you think back to Trump’s first term, that blue wave of 2018, this number was more at, like, eight to ten points. So Republicans hoping to contain the damage at least looking at a number like that.  

On the screen, it was Democrats 49%, Republicans 44%! Just so you'll know, here's the question in the NBC News poll which produced those numbers:   

Q25: What is your preference for the outcome of this year’s congressional elections–(ROTATE) a Congress controlled by Republicans or a Congress controlled by Democrats?   

By a five-point margin, more people said they'd prefer a Congress controlled by Democrats. 

Does a number like that tend to have solid predictive value? Back in 2021, Larry Sabato's Center for Politics offered this assessment:   

MOSKOWITZ (2/11/21): Since 1968, the generic ballot has missed the real House popular vote by an average of 4%, and until 2008, it consistently overestimated Democratic support. Pollsters have mostly fixed both of these problems, and the generic ballot has been more accurate and balanced since the mid-aughts.

You'd rather be five points ahead on the generic ballot! But especially in the face of the mid-census redistricting war which President Trump kicked off, we'd say a five-point advantage in that arena may be less reassuring that it has recently been. 

(Also, there's no way to know what kind of election will be allowed to take place this year, given the "win at all costs" mentality of the strongman / royalist White House.)

That brings us back to our amazement—our amazement at the fact that the sitting president's approvals remain as high as they currently are.   

Given his unrelenting strange behavior, it's striking to us that President Trump can still boast something like 42 percent approval. We often find ourselves gnashing our teeth at the possibility that our own behaviors here in Blue America may help him keep his numbers that high.   

With that, we return to what we regard as the most interesting (and most painful) issue of the day. We refer to the Supreme Court's recent decisions concerning the Voting Rights Act—more precisely, concerning the kinds of congressional districting which are, and are not, permitted according to the Constitution and under terms of that Act.  

People, consider this:

According to the most recent Naep testing, America's younger public school kids may be on the way back! Here's the start of the recent report in the New York Times:   

Younger Students’ Test Scores Bounce Back After the Pandemic

The nation’s 9-year-olds, who were in preschool when the pandemic hit, have made a significant recovery in reading since 2022, and are now caught up to where 9-year-olds were immediately before the pandemic, according to a key federal exam. They are getting closer to being caught up in math.

In theory, that's important news—but it will, of course, produce exactly zero discussion. You'll see it mentioned nowhere else. The truth is, nobody cares.

Then too, consider the recent guest essay by Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama (2013 - 2017). Headline included, his essay started like this:  

I Worked in the White House. We Never Imagined This Problem Would Get This Bad.

The first major public policy issue I worked on in the White House, almost 30 years ago, was President Bill Clinton’s call to “save Social Security first.” Though the fund wasn’t projected to run dry for another three decades, the country seemed gripped by the issue...

This week the Social Security trustees announced that the trust fund for retirees and survivors will be exhausted in just six years. That’s six years before tens of millions of Americans could see their benefits cut by 22 percent. The crisis is closer than anyone in the Clinton or Bush years ever imagined we might let it get. 

Here's the June 9 news report in the New York Times about that announcement. Here too, you're going to see little or no discussion, whether of this matter or of the giant budget deficits the sitting president keeps expanding with his silly but high-profile tax cuts, 

(No tax on tips? Why not?)  

At present, major topics come and go, with barely a single word said. These topics get swallowed up by all The Crazy from the White House—the buildings torn down, the shrines renamed, and the UFC fights out on the lawn, with some ugly name-calling thrown in. (See this afternoon's report.)

That said, the Supreme Court's decisions involving the Voting Rights Act have produced a great deal of reaction within Blue America. That has happened for reasons which are perfectly understandable and perfectly obvious—but are those of us in Blue America possibly responding in an unhelpful way?   

Our nation's brutal racial history lies at the heart of the ongoing discussions this topic. For better or worse, so does this iconic statement by the later Wittgenstein:    

For philosophical problems arise when language goes on holiday.   

Wittgenstein was speaking there about the "problems" which constituted much of 20th century academic philosophy. He thought those "philosophical problems" were largely illusory—were the result of familiar locutions being air-lifted into contexts where no one knows what they mean, with the resulting incomprehension going undetected. 

The history which underlies the debate about the VRA is brutally, painfully real. There's nothing illusory about such matters at all.

That said, language has often gone on holiday in our attempts to discuss this topic, and it seems to us that some of Blue America's reactions are the sorts of reactions which help the current president stay at 42 percent.  

Professor Brabender, the great anthropologist, insightfully had it right. Famously, he described the impulses of us the humans in the manner shown:   

Where I come from, we only talk so long. After that, we start to hit.   

That tends to be true of us the humans. It can even sometimes be true of us the Blues.

Centuries of brutality underlie this Voting Rights issue. Those endless brutalities really occurred. That doesn't necessarily mean that we're currently getting it right.

Tomorrow: We agree, and we may not agree, with what Terri Sewell said

SATURDAY: Rosen (essentially) gets it right!

SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 2026

What we saw on Fox: Can a modern nation expect to survive an epistemic arrangement like that of our own flailing nation?

We can't say that the answer is yes. At long last, we see a major figure in a major publication discussing this same broken culture. The dual headline above his essay says this:

IDEAS
American Democracy Wasn’t Designed for This
Can our 18th-century institutions survive 21st-century technology?  

There you see the double headline above Jeffrey Rosen's essay. 

Rosen is very sharp and highly knowledgeable. His piece will appear in the Atlantic's July issue—the issue which will be devoted to ruminations about America 250.  

Can our stumblebum nation expect to survive the technology to which Rosen refers? We've been asking that question for a very long time here on this sprawling green campus. 

Can our stumblebum nation hope to survive? Right at the start of his essay, Rosen offers this initial description of the (dangerous) technology he himself has in mind: 

American Democracy Wasn’t Designed for This

In 1787, after the Founders signed the Constitution in Philadelphia, Alexander Hamilton wrote in “Federalist No. 1” that there was more at stake than the future of a single country. The American experiment would “decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.”

The Founders were hopeful, in part because the information environment of the late 18th century was favorable to “reflection and choice.” A flourishing newspaper industry kept Americans informed and fostered vigorous debate. But the number of publications was limited—about 100 total in the 13 states—and the authority of editors and writers meant that a free press didn’t turn into a free-for-all. And at a time when nothing traveled faster than a horse or ship, the sheer size of the new country meant that news spread slowly, an obstacle to impulsive public decisions. Given time for deliberation, passions would cool, and elected representatives could focus on the country’s long-term good rather than short-term gratification.   

Today, those advantages have disappeared, thanks to a technological revolution the Founders could never have imagined. The internet has turned everyone into a potential publisher, able to instantly spread facts or falsehoods to millions. Most people get information about politics and current events not from newspapers but from social media, which discourages engagement with human beings of different political persuasions. Now the rise of AI is discouraging engagement with any human beings at all; instead, more and more people are forming their views in conversation with a machine that lacks moral sense. As America approaches its 250th anniversary, the biggest question for our democracy is whether a system designed for the communications technologies of the 18th century can survive those of the 21st.   

That's the way he starts.

We agree with Rosen's basic presentation. Our current "information environment" surely is, without any question, an invitation for the society, for the nation, to crash and burn. 

Without any question, "reflection and choice" are hard to come by given our current arrangements. We agree with that basic presentation, a form of which we've been advancing for a very long time.

Can "our democracy" survive the pernicious effects of our various new technologies? With respect to those technologies, Rosen mentions the internet, and he mentions social media. Playing by prevailing rules, he never mentions cable news or (let's say) the Fox News Channel.  

There's a great deal more to be said about Rosen's nuanced article. We expect do so when the Fourth of July draws near.   

That said, we couldn't discuss what we saw yesterday, on our own TV screen, without mentioning Rosen's essay. Even as he disappears partisan cable, he takes a first, significant step toward the articulation of an obvious societal danger—one which has already conspired with fate to give us President Trump.   

As to what we saw yesterday, let us say this:   

Good God!

We refer to what we saw during the full hour of The Five. We also refer to the steady stream of garbage and mental and more squalor we saw a bit later on Gutfeld!   

These propaganda programs boast daily audiences which are double and triple the size of MS NOW's daily primetime programs. Can programs like these be survived? To that question, we offer this answer:

Go ahead! Take a good look around!

For a tiny example of what we saw yesterday on The Five, here's part of the way substitute co-host Kat Timpf began her meandering rumination about Hunter Biden's recent appearance on Gavin Newsom's podcast. 

Pathetically, that was the second topic under pseudo-discussion this day. On a day when the word "Iran" went unmentioned, this is part of what Timpf said:   

TIMPF (6/12/26): Honestly, I prefer Hunter Biden to Gavin Newsom. I do. Like, he's just—

 Because it is all out there. It is all out there. 

He doesn't— He's never really pretended to be anything but what exactly he is. He's like, "Yeah, I smoked a lot of crack." Like, "Yeah, that's me." ... 

And I do think that there is something really endearing about that for people. I think he does have charisma. I think you don't get to sleep with your brother's widow if you don't have charisma.  [Yes, she actually said that.]

But I think that people like Gavin Newsom—I just—

He's just icky. He just—he's icky! And he's not like, "Hey yeah, I'm icky."...   

WATTERS (serious demeanor): Are you saying that Newsom's ickier than Hunter Biden?  

TIMPF: Absolutely I'm saying that. Yes! Absolutely I'm saying—

WATTERS: Wow!   

TIMPF: ...I do think that Gavin Newsom, he's smarmy. I'll take a crackhead, recovered especially, over smarmy any day.  

WATTERS: Okay.

That's part of what we saw. That's what these corporate lunkheads were "discussing" in the second segment of the nation's most watched "cable news" program, on a day when the word "Iran" came up in exactly none of their pseudo-discussions.   

Indeed, every topic was tabloid this day. No serious topic was offered. 

In fairness to Timpf, this was a rare guest hosting spot for her on The Five. To a long-time viewer, it was obvious that she was trying to create an assertive persona which would fly on that program, as opposed to the familiar persona she employs on Gutfeld!, where she's a nightly panelist.  

That said, the inanity was endless on The Five, where every "discussion" was tabloid. And things got much worse on Gutfeld! last night, where the program's termagant turned propagandist almost seemed to chide Timpf a bit, saying this as he introduced her:   

"And today, we expect only eight references to Love Island."

That was a reference to Timpf's earlier performance during the first segment of The Five, in which she went on and on, then on and on, about that lamebrain reality show, with a comparison to The Bachelorette added in by Watters.   

That's what these flyweights were talking about, six minutes into our most-watched cable news program. Like everyone else, Rosen steered clear of any such reference, but can a nation survive the sheer inanity—and the steady stream of partisan agitprop—which form the basis of these propaganda programs?   

On last night's Gutfeld!, the ugliness of the evening's discussions overtook their sheer stupidity. As we watched Greg Gutfeld and four reliable panelists reveal the interiors of their minds, we wondered what it must be like to walk through life, all day, every day, with that much loathing, and that much squalor, banging around in your head.  

The program began where it often does—with the latest gerbil being shoved up [NAME WITHHELD]'s alleged ass while people like Timpf sit and watch. (Also, with the endless gaybaiting of Don Lemon, while Timpf provides her approval.) 

The anger and squalor continued from there, pushed along by the termagant host and his four reliable guests, including the bloated blowhard introduced as the former "wrestler."

Writing on a daily basis, it's impossible to capture the moral and intellectual squalor of these corporate propaganda programs. But can a modern nation expect to survive the effects of this endless dysfunction?  

In our view, Rosen advances an important idea in his essay for the Atlantic. But all around elite Blue America, the Timpfs and the former "wrestlers," the people like Gutfeld and Watters, are disappeared by the timorous orgs which—or at least so it seems—don't want to wrestle with Fox.

Fox is tribal propaganda too; it's tribal warfare of the dumbest, most undisguised kind. Can a modern nation survive this part of the new technologies?

For reasons only they can explain, people like Rosen won't ask.

Take the Fox News Channel Challenge: Go ahead! Force yourself to watch the full hour of each of yesterday's programs. 

One briefly thinks of Wilfred Owen, trudging behind the dying and dead in what was then called The Great War.