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More Reflections on the Gravity of the Reflecting Pool; and Nicolle Wallace Is No Longer Trying

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Jun 29, 2026
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Both Kinds of Standards – MS NOW

  • From “Democracy is saved!” to “Democracy is DOOMED!” within the span of one hour.

Beware of investing too much emotional heft into court decisions—especially on a morning with numerous SCOTUS rulings coming out—or else you could look as foolish as the panels on Stephanie Ruhle’s new show Money, Power, Politics. The program today began with elation, when the high court ruled that mail-in votes in elections could be counted days after polls closed. We lost track of how many times the various guests declared this to be a “huge win for democracy.”

Then later in the same program, another ruling was handed down, this one granting the president certain powers to fire members of certain government commissions. This was when legal affairs expert Lisa Rubin declared the day had become “much darker.”

Low-Octane Gaslighting – MS NOW

  • She really is just getting lazier, isn’t she?

While we have never really been too impressed with Nicolle Wallace (her perennial placement on our Townhall 50 list is an indicator), of late she is delivering a noticeable change; not for the better. It appears as if she has given up trying.

Just last week we nabbed her delivering the tired trope of the poem on the Statue of Liberty dictating immigration policy. Now she is delivering a list of things that Barack Obama never did, and all of them are, in fact, things he did oversee, including algae in the Reflecting Pool. We have to wonder if Nicolle is on the verge of just checking out.

News Avoidance Syndrome – CNN

  • Seems like items that would have been more valid two weeks ago.

The press has been very excited about all of the “Democratic Socialists” winning their primary races. Drawing less media interest had been the particulars of those individuals. Well, we are starting to see some of the troubling particulars of these candidates coming to light, as the press has been releasing reports about their possibly controversial pasts.

Now that the elections have passed.

CNN has a list of entries that the problematic Darializa Avila Chevalier has put out on her social media accounts, some of which were deleted. They are normally disqualifying—in a sane world. But the main issue is seeing these details emerging after the primaries. Given that they are arriving in Democratic strongholds means the likelihood this could affect their electability is rather slim.

Artisanally-Crafted Narratives – WASHINGTON POST

  • Could we take this to an even higher level?! We are guessing not.

Ah yes, the Reflecting Pool. Yes, the press is still harping on this, and leave it to the WaPo Art & Architecture columnist to weigh in, and strive to gain special notice. According to Philip Kennicott, the arrival of algae at the pool is not just cause for…alarm, we guess, but something far more grave.

A place that was meant to amplify the ideals of our democracy by reflecting an image of its sacred monuments was now a police zone, where cops carried out what seem to be arbitrary arrests motivated by the president’s need to blame his own mismanagement on an imaginary enemy. This doesn’t reflect well on democracy.

Gilded Reframe – FOX NEWS

  • Those pretending this is isolated to Fox are rather precious

On Fox we saw a couple of instances of an on-air correction issued following comments made by "Shark Tank" fixture Kevin O’Leary. He was on the network last Thursday complaining about a data center project he is backing that is being blocked by special interests in the area. He made the claim that these groups were backed by Chinese money.

Maria Bartiromo, and later Joey Jones, cut into their programming to announce that no proof of this Chinese connection was ever established, and that Leary has walked back his statements.