"The Five" -- #1 on Cable News Tucker Carlson's risky push against U.S. engagement abroad, even as Putin bombs Ukraine cities into oblivion, has drawn heavy criticism from Republicans as well as Democrats. GOP House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Michael McCaul, for example, branded Carlson's show “an organ of Russian disinformation.”   So how have these attacks affected Tucker's ratings? Seems not at all. Carlson's show remains neck-and-neck with the more frothy "Five" in the latest cable news rankings, well ahead of every other show. Tucker in fact has nearly a million more viewers than the combined audiences of the CNN and MSNBC shows competing in his time slot.         Top Cable News Shows       Network       Audience (mil., 3/18/22)       MSNBC+CNN   1. The Five                           ...

  A common view holds that America is sharply divided into two camps of roughly equal size. Yes, the last three presidential elections were nearly even, with the winner gaining 51% (2020), 46% (2016), and 51% (2012), and last time Congress finished evenly split. The HIDDEN TRIBES study, however, suggests a more unbalanced divide between elite and ordinary people.   A one-by-one look at high-profile issues separates us into six “tribes” below the elite — 11% traditional liberals (boomers), 15% passive liberals (healthcare key), 26% disengaged (few voting, no college), 15% moderates (media influenced, but anti-“politically correct”), 19% traditional conservatives (worry about terrorism, no jobs), 6% devoted conservatives (border wall, church-supporting). On top with only 8% — the “progressive activists.”  The progressive elite differs from the group average by being:  More than twice as likely to list  politics as a hobby  (73% v. 35%) Much les...

We have an elite that insults our intelligence. Our puppet leader Joe Biden knows helping Ukraine defeat Putin requires Europe boycotting Russia’s oil. He knows a boycott works only if America supplies Europe the substitute oil and gas they need. But Biden acts like we don’t know he shut down needed fossil fuel production here, and that — in the name of climate change —he won’t reverse course, even as gasoline prices rocket, even as Europe must buy Putin’s oil and gas. The Federalist’s Elle Reynolds has these facts : Asked by CNN’s Dana Bash in 2019 “would there be any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking, in a Biden administration?” Biden responded , “We would make sure [all are] eliminated [with] no .   .   . fossil fuel.” A February 2020 campaign rally video shows Biden pledging , “We are gonna get rid of fossil fuels.” An October 2020 Washington Post op-ed headlined , “Of course Biden meant what he said about fossil fuels. There is a price to...

"foreign threats cannot be dealt with by ignoring them or wishing them away ... they must be confronted by clearheaded and informed calculation”  — John F. Kennedy’s thinking in his book, Why England Slept (1940) This blog has argued we are living through Barack Obama’s third presidential term. Obama has been America’s leading Democrat since 2008, a position he carries since leaving office in 2017. In power politics terms, he helps bring blacks, people of color, and youth into a party coalition built upon unmarried white women, the government bureaucracy, environmental activists, religious non-believers, and led by the nation’s progressive elite, including academia, the media, nonprofits, the entertainment industry, high tech, and corporate chiefs. From 1968 to 2008, Republicans held the White House 28 of 40 years (70%). From 1994 to 2008, Republicans held the House all but 2 years (86%). Obama shifted the power balance toward progressives.  Through the Democratic Party,...