The "Hannity" town hall featuring President Trump was the most-watched hour of television across both broadcast and cable networks.
The sitdown between the president and Fox News host Sean Hannity drew a whopping 5.1 million viewers on Thursday night, which beat MSNBC and CNN combined during that same 9 p.m. time slot according to final Nielsen data. MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" drew just 3.1 million viewers while and CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time" drew a measly 1.8 million viewers.
"Hannity" also dominated among the key demographic of adults age 25-54 with 968,000 viewers while CNN's Chris Cuomo edged out MSNBC's Rachel Maddow with 490,000 and 484,000 viewers respectively.
The town hall event, which took place in the swing state of Wisconsin, drew more viewers than the entire primetime lineups on ABC, CBS and NBC. The most-watched programs on broadcast television on Thursday night were CBS' encore airing of "Young Sheldon," which drew 4.8 million viewers, and ABC's "Holey Moley" with 3.8 million viewers, both during the 8 p.m. time slot.
Fox News maintains its strong lead among cable news competitors. "Tucker Carlson Tonight" was the No. 2 most-watched show across all cable networks with 4.2 million viewers, "The Ingraham Angle" landed the No. 3 spot with roughly 3.8 million viewers, and "The Five" kept its No. 4 spot, earning 3.2 million viewers.
CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time," which is the network's most-watched program, continues to struggle for viewers. While primetime cable news programming is usually watched more than daytime programing, Cuomo was beaten by "Fox & Friends," which airs at 8 a.m., with 1.816 million viewers versus his 1.814 million viewers.
On Wednesday, "Cuomo Prime Time" came dead last on Wednesday's 9 p.m. time slot with just over 2 million viewers tuning in to the latest interview between high-profile brothers Chris Cuomo and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Fox News Channel finish as the most-watched network in all of television during primetime for the week of June 15-21, as President Trump’s rally with record-setting viewership helped the network surpass primetime averages of even CBS, NBC and ABC.
Fox News Channel also finished May as the most-watched cable network for the 47th consecutive month, as viewers flocked to hear the latest information on everything from the coronavirus pandemic to the nationwide protests in the wake of George Floyd’s tragic death in police custody.
The American flag flies at half-staff from the rooftop of the White House,
It has become deeply dubious, even suspicious, to try to look at Western civilization through a half-full glass. Nevertheless, it must be asserted with full-throated enthusiasm, that liberal Western society has been mankind’s greatest achievement in the attempt to provide dignity of life to as many as possible.
Part of the West’s achievement has been an openness to remediation, improvement, atonement and change.
The price of this great experiment, this magnificent edifice, has been forbearance. Like tolerance, forbearance demands that we recognize that there are those among us who we disagree with, even unto the point of hating. Yet, we willingly channel that dislike into socially acceptable vehicles such as voting, demonstrating, letter writing, and working to support organizations that take different positions from those we despise.
The result has been an exquisite, yet delicate social fabric, one reflecting complexity and contradiction, and yet, remaining intact.
The great challenge for any liberal society is to withstand its own de-legitimization from within. Great societies have been historically far more vulnerable to internal decay and dissolution than they have been to conquest. Internal decay first creeps and seeps and then ultimately, floods.
Sad to say, much of the West is facing these seem internal challenges of dissolution. It is mindboggling for many, particularly older people schooled and steeped in the values of their society, to see speakers booed off the stage at universities, to see those who with nonconforming views harassed – verbally and physically.
The idea of defending to the death your right to say things I completely disagree with has become the anachronistic redoubt of dead white males. A society predicated, however very imperfectly, on equal opportunity for all, has now embraced equal outcomes for all, and better outcomes for those who had not previously shared fully.
The great anchor of our grand experiment, individual freedoms: of speech, of association, of religion, are all under attack. Most destructive of all is the frontal assault on free speech, for without it, all other freedoms fall as well.
Nowhere is free speech more at risk than at the very institutions which best represent free speech’s triumph, and which therefore would seem to be its natural and logical defenders: the university, and the media.
The number of lynchings of conservative speakers on US campuses has grown to the point of requiring a scorecard, and the US main stream media has long jettisoned objectivity for opinion. Beyond embracing opinion though has been the unwillingness to tolerate any opinions out of one’s ideological silo.
The recent palace revolt of younger staff at the New York Times in response to the effrontery of printing an op-ed by a US Senator, will, I fear, mark in hindsight, a very painful and enduring milestone in the dissolution of the fabric of American society.
That the publisher and senior editors could be cowed and bullied by a walkout of young staffers say worlds both about the personal courage of the paper’s leadership, as well as the world view and mindset of the future leaders of the paper.
Those who take conservative views, and most certainly those who proudly and unapologetically tout those views have been marked with the kind of vilification that has the distinct smell of physical threat.
There are those who are oblivious to the threat that they pose to the edifice of America’s liberal Western civilization. They just want to drive Donald Trump from office. Then there are those who want to use the readily popular cause of driving Trump out for the purpose of making profound structural changes in American society.
There are the not so closeted communists or socialists, and there are the not terribly subtle identity politics authoritarians. Both groups have a more pervasive agenda than electoral change; both groups are happy to use the electorally focused as their “useful idiots” to provide cover for a far more insidious goal.
Those of us deeply worried about the direction of things in America know that this is about far more than who will be the next President. For many on the Left, it is possible that they do not even care about driving Trump from office, because they believe they can advance their anti-Liberal Western agendas with a visible rallying figure in office.
In this mindset, Trump himself serves as the Reichstag Fire of contemporary America: that event (in his case, that person) which provides the excuse and the rationale for committing horrendous acts.
What happens if Biden becomes President? There will not be peace and love, but there may or may not be a clearer path to civilizational disruption. Many anti-Trumpers will assume that the cause has been won, but of course this is far from the case for the ideologically committed.
What is clear is that all Americans, spanning the entire spectrum of political affiliation, need a jarring wake up call. They need the kind of lesson given to young children who are brought to a jailhouse to see the real-world implications of shoplifting and minor crimes.
In other words, all must confront the reality that so much that is taken for granted in American society could actually disappear. Freedoms, discretions, choices not exercised or made in the politically acceptable format will be rejected. And he or she who acted so egregiously will be deemed a threat and an enemy.
Perhaps the summer of love that we are now beginning to experience will show itself to be the shape of totalitarian things to come, and will serve as an inoculation against going down a very dangerous path. If not, however, the prospects for the center holding are increasingly remote.
I fear for America, as America’s loss of vision, commitment and sense of what made it America, will be a disaster for the entire Western world.
Understanding that scary possibility might be the only thing that allows us to back away from the cliff.
Today it's a simple little curry that can add a little twist to any meal as a side dish if you are a carnivore, or if you're a vegetarian or vegan, you can always add additional veggies or lentils or chickpeas to make it a complete meal. :)
So here is the BASE recipe. Depending on your own palate, you can change out the veggies or even add more to your own taste. :)
Put the spinach in a colander and pour over a kettle of boiling water until it is wilted. Press with a wooden spoon to remove excess water, then roughly chop. Stir into the curry, then warm through. Serve scattered with the crisp roasted onions.
-------
As I wrote earlier, EVERY base recipe can be made to be your own so if pumpkin is not your thing, then you can use sweet potato or aubergine, carrots, potato... whatever you want to.
You can even make it a nice creamy curry by adding a splash or two of coconut cream or milk and serve it with some saffron rice.
We have had it as a nice side dish, served with some mildly spiced lamb chops or chicken.
A squeeze of lemon or lime juice is always a nice little freshener you can add too, just before serving as well as a sprig of fresh coriander ( cilantro).
Portland is turned into a 'war zone' as stores are looted, anti-police protesters set a precinct on fire during violent night of demonstrations
Protesters attempt to create an 'autonomous zone' outside the Portland Police Bureau's North Precinct Thursday night
+11
Demonstrations turned violent in Portland on Thursday night and Friday morning, with protesters started several fires and cops firing tear gas in an attempt to disperse crowds
+11
Videos and images posted to social media by demonstrator James Martin showed several separate fires set up at barricades placed between protesters and police
+11
One commentator described the area as looking like something from 'a war zone'
Another image posted online showed a demonstrator left injured in the fracas, with a 'chunk' of flesh allegedly cut out of her ankle
+11
A still from a video posted to social media shows a large fire lit outside a store as protesters mill around
+11
Several fires were lit in addition to the blaze which later erupted at the police precinct
+11
A statue of George Washington with a burning American flag draped across it was toppled by protesters in Portland, Oregon on Thursday night
+11
Images from the scene show the statue lying face down on the ground and covered in graffiti that read: 'Genocidal colonist'
+11
It comes after a statue of Thomas Jefferson that was based outside Portland's Jefferson High School was torn down earlier this week
+11
+11
The base of the Jefferson statue had the words 'slave owner' and Floyd's name spray painted across it
+13
PORTLAND: Photo released by the Portland Police Department shows damage to buildings after protesters vandalized businesses and set fire to a precinct earlier that morning
+13
+13
PORTLAND: several separate fires were set up at barricades placed between protesters and police
+13
PORTLAND: Demonstrations turned violent in Portland on Thursday night and Friday morning, with protesters started several fires
