Commentary and analysis on American politics, culture, and national identity, U.S. foreign policy and international relations, and the state of education
- from a neoconservative perspective! - Keeping an eye on the communist-left so you don't have to!
And, of course, here's the inimitable, and hilarious, Tucker, to deliver the coup de grâce.
(And as I schedule this post for later, I still haven't finished watching Tucker's entire episode from "yesterday," because again, family, work, and actually, emailing all my classes about the story of Marlena Pavlos-Hackney, who Tucker covered about midway through his program, had me procrastinating like a lazy mofo, lol; and so, if I'm behind on my grading, it's only my fault, and I'll probably have to pull another 10-hour-day on Monday, just to get caught back up; but the late afternoon is, really, the only time I can catch a little news, so if a couple of awesome Fox News segments here and there actually, "make my day," then it's a trade-off I'm more than willing to take.)
Shoot, I'm surprised Fox News actually posted this whole segment, because as I've mentioned before, they're kinda stingy on posting Turker's stuff to YouTube. But this one is phenomenal, and I'm glad they did!
(Maybe they're just really "pumping up" some of the new content that will be part of the new "Fox Nation" package of specials, of which Tucker's new programming will be the highlight.)
Anyway, he keeps getting better, that's for sure, and as always, I can't stop laughing when I'm watching his segments.
I wish I had the entire show from last night's Tucker Carlson. Half the time I can't stop laughing, especially during his takedown of NYT's fake-journalist and online teen stalker, Taylor Lorenz, to say nothing of the footage of CNN's Brian Stelter broadcasting a segment in his underwear. Just great stuff.
In any case, Piers Morgan walked off the set at his morning show, "Good Morning Britain," and he demonstrated genuine courage and principles for standing up for his opinions, and refusing to be bullied.
I made a few points about Tucker Carlson in my post from a few days ago.
Now I love the guy, and I rarely miss an episode of his show. But c'mon! It took me one second to search Google and up pops his comments from 2003, defending the George W. Bush administration's foreign policy, and in particular the Iraq war. See, "Questioning Bush's motives on Iraq."
What's happened, I think, and not wrongly, from the perspective of good television opinion commentary, is that Tucker's "changed his stripes," so to speak, to keep up with the times. He's transformed himself into a "populist-nationalist," obviously because there's been a big market for it this last four years, and he's good at what he does.
But when he airs commentary like we can see at this video below, unless you're someone who has a long history of following politics (and cable news), then you'd probably wouldn't notice Tucker's wishy-washy hypocritical bull. Remember that old saying about, "having your cake and eating it too"? Well, that's Tucker.
The thing is, interestingly, I personally like a restrained foreign policy. I mean, while Trump didn't start any "new wars" during his time in office, he himself indeed took dramatic and effective military action to defend vital national interests (like the drone strike killing Major General Qassim Suleimani, who was a very bad man, who was personally in charge of killing 100s of U.S. troops during the Iraq war). So, while I think Biden's actions in Syria a week or so ago look questionable by comparison, it's a joke to argue the President Biden doesn't have "the authority" to launch such a strike. Can you name any president since, I don't know, Gerald Ford, who in fact hesitated to take swift military action, even without congressional approval? I can't. And the reason is that the "War Powers Act" itself is probably unconstitutional, though it's never been struck down by SCOTUS.
Again, I think Tucker's great, and I won't be tuning him out any time soon. His coverage of Biden's immigration disaster is superlative. And Tucker's consistent championing of the forgotten "working class" of this country --- and his hilarious segments taking down the left's "indoctrination" fascination --- is worth the ticket right there. But I'm not going to be some uncritical "rube" who just nods along with everything the guy says, because, remember, it's not insignificantly for *show.* And obviously, his show pays, as there's no chance Fox News will "cancel" Tucker, and indeed, his programming is being expanded big time, starting in April, with exclusive "Fox Nation" subscription content, coming to your screen in no short order.
So, it's all good. Hopefully my faithful readers can see what I'm saying. (And if you're so inclined, you can read some of the best political science research on such matters, here: "Don't Come Home, America: The Case against Retrenchment.")
With that, carry on dear readers, and thank you for your support.
Here's Tucker at the video from earlier this week:
In her book, she lays out "ten-steps" on the road to "totalitarianism," and at the interview, she asserts that with the current "Covid fascism" encroaching the land, America is now at "step 10":
Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy. Create secret prisons where torture takes place. Develop a thug caste or paramilitary force not answerable to citizens. Set up an internal surveillance system. Infiltrate and harass citizens' groups. Engage in arbitrary detention and release. Target key individuals. Control the press. Cast criticism as espionage and dissent as treason. Subvert the rule of law.
The book was published in 2007, during the G.W. Bush years (when it was popular on the left to call President Bush, "BusHitler").
So, frankly, she's not the kind of person you'd expect to see interviewed on "Tucker Carlson Tonight." But one of the reasons I rarely miss Tucker's show is that he's literally "fair and balanced," which I can't say about Sean Hannity, who, I think I mentioned previously, recently gave Texas Governor Abbott one of the most softball interviews earlier I've ever seen --- which was an abomination (like, c'mon, you know Texas screwed up, and even a so-called "conservative" governors may from time to time unwittingly [or not] enable the forces of leftist destruction right at home (or, that is, right at home, in Texas).
In any case, Tucker is most kind and gracious when speaking to Ms. Wolf, and she returns the kindness, which is really remarkable, because Tucker, towards the end of the interview, indicates, it's almost like the far-left media outlets (looking at you CNN) are deliberately "trying to divide us."
The interesting thing about this pre-announcement, which I saw earlier on Twitter, is how exactly the ratings jump for Carlson's show is what I'd been predicting in some of my blog posts here.
Fox News is clearly set to invest much more in programming involving Tucker, and while I do like Ingraham (and to some extent Hannity), Tucker is "must-watch" TV for me every evening at 5:00pm Pacific time.
So, if you're not checking out Tucker, what are you waiting for?!!
Tucker Carlson Tonight is one of the top-rated shows in the history of cable news. According to Nielsen Media Research, the program averaged 3.6 million viewers last month, and 653,000 in the younger Adults 25-54 demo, topping both CNN and MSNBC by double-digits in overall viewers. Recently, the show notched the highest-rated monthly viewership of any cable news program in history, with 5.4 million viewers. It has been number one in the 8 PM/ET time slot for 46 consecutive months with total viewers. Carlson has also eclipsed broadcast network programming since Memorial Day of last year. In 2020, he made history by hosting one of the two FNC shows ever to average more than 4 million viewers a night. Since moving to 8 PM/ET, Tucker Carlson Tonight has significantly improved performance in the time slot, which was previously held by The O’Reilly Factor. Carlson’s audience has grown by nearly 35 percent in total viewers, and more than 40 percent in the key Adults 25-54 demo.
One thing I've noted, for example, when I've posted videos of Tucker, is how totally hilarious he is. I can't stop laughing sometimes while watching, and my wife loves him too. So, have a great evening, as I'm about ready to flick on Fox News right now.Check back here later for more excellent blog content, and thanks for checking out my blog.
If you read my previous post, and clicked through at the W.S.J., some folks were apparently roaming the streets, wrapped in blankets, looking for food like a scene from "The Road."
And again, it's Texas, for crying out loud! Tucker Carlson was saying last night that if you're out of power in Texas, and families are freezing (and some folks have died), it'd be like starving to death inside a grocery store. Man, I'm still shaking my head.
Millions of Texans were without heat and electricity Monday as snow, ice and frigid temperatures caused a catastrophic failure of the state’s power grid.
The Texas power grid, powered largely by wind and natural gas, is relatively well equipped to handle the state’s hot and humid summers when demand for power soars. But unlike blistering summers, the severe winter weather delivered a crippling blow to power production, cutting supplies as the falling temperatures increased demand.
Natural gas shortages and frozen wind turbines were already curtailing power output when the Arctic blast began knocking generators offline early Monday morning.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, which is responsible for scheduling power and ensuring the reliability of the electrical network, declared a statewide power generation shortfall emergency and asked electricity delivery companies to reduce load through controlled outages.
More than 4 million customers were without power in Texas, including 1.4 million in the Houston area, the worst power crisis in the state in a decade. The forced outages are expected to last at least through part of Tuesday, the state grid manager said.
CenterPoint Energy, the regulated utility that delivers electricity to Houston-area homes and provides natural gas service, started rolling blackouts in the Houston region at the order of state power regulators. It said customers experiencing outages should be prepared to be without power at least through Monday.
“How long is it going to be? I don’t know the answer,” said Kenny Mercado, executive vice president at the Houston utility. “The generators are doing everything they can to get back on. But their work takes time and I don’t know how long it will take. But for us to move forward, we have got to get generation back onto the grid. That is our primary need.”
Dan Woodfin, ERCOT’s senior director of system operations, said the rolling blackouts are taking more power offline for longer periods than ever before. An estimated 34,000 megawatts of power generation — more than a third of the system’s total generating capacity — had been knocked offline by the extreme winter weather amid soaring demand as residents crank up heating systems.
The U.S. Energy Department, in response to an ERCOT request, issued an order late Monday authorizing power plants throughout the state to run at maximum output levels, even if it results in exceeding pollution limits.
Ed Hirs, an energy fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Houston, blamed the failures on the state’s deregulated power system, which doesn’t provide power generators with the returns needed to invest in maintaining and improving power plants.
“The ERCOT grid has collapsed in exactly the same manner as the old Soviet Union,” said Hirs. “It limped along on underinvestment and neglect until it finally broke under predictable circumstances.
I was watching this segment on Tucker tonight. William Jacobson started out pretty much as an everyday blogger about 10 years ago, and he's turned his blog into an entire project to literally hit-back at the radical left, across the entire country, in this case, with initiatives and programs that are available to all. He's a real mensch, heh.
My appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight about our new database and interactive map of Critical Race Training in Higher Education, criticalrace.org: "we’re trying to empower parents and students."
I know a lot of folks on the right are hatin' on Fox News, but frankly, I mostly just watch "Tucker" and "Ingraham," and that's only if I'm in the mood. All the cable networks are over the top right now, especially "moderate" CNN (and Jake "Asshole" Tapper, especially).
Anyway, Tucker is always worth a watch. Here's his opening segment from last night:
Tucker Carlson's spot-on commentaries assailing open borders have been so effective that he must be stopped, so says radical leftist Judd Legum, a Soros lackey who was the former editor-in-chief at the Center for American Progress attack site "Think Progress."
On Twitter:
1. I'll be listing the advertisers on tonight's Tucker Carlson -- along with any other notable moments -- on this thread.
So far Pacific Life, Indeed, Smile Direct Club, and Bowflex have suspended their advertising.
Carlson's crime? He rightfully argued that the illegals of the migrant caravan will make America "dirtier." The migrants are soiling Tijuana, and sowing crime and anarchy in the streets of that city. Of course that will happen here if we throw open our borders to them. Judd Legum would never face the consequences of that anarchy in his own life's reality. Leftists never do, holed up in their elite beachfront mansions and (exclusive and unaffordable) progressive urban enclaves. This is all politics. Populist nationalism is winning and leftists must therefore resort to fascist tactics to destroy it.
Fight the left people. They're your enemies. Fight them.
Here's Tucker's segment from last night. He's very effective. When you're that good the left paints a target on your back:
