The Daily Show identified one of those "crisis actors" the Right Wing is always talking about.

CRISIS ACTOR EXPOSED: Why is @FoxNews paying a fake victim? #TammyMustGo pic.twitter.com/nVjhXAdwMC

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) February 22, 2018

Wow!

I have to admit I'm surprised.

I didn't think they actually existed.

Now with people actually looking forward to it Trump pushes back date for his "fake news awards."

The Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers on Wednesday, January 17th, rather than this coming Monday. The interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Trump announced last week that he would present “The Most Dishonest & Corrupt Media Awards” on Monday to highlight reporters who run with what he calls "fake news." 

Celebrity chef Jose Andres offered a free lunch at any of his popular restaurants to winners, and the watchdog group American Oversight planned to hand out “Most Dishonest and Corrupt” awards to Trump administration officials on Monday as a response to Trump's plans.

Some folks got themselves a little excited about the possibility of being singled out for one of these "honors."

For instance The Daily Show took out a full page ad in the New York Times.
.@realdonaldtrump, prove you're not semiliterate by reading our full-page ad in the Failing @nytimes! #InItToWinIt #TheFakies #Fakies2018 pic.twitter.com/sSVqah4rlx

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) January 5, 2018

While Stephen Colbert bought advertising space in Times Square.

Tonight! My desperate bid to get Trump’s disapproval! #TheFakies pic.twitter.com/7exZSesI8m

— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) January 4, 2018

Now I am a little torn over all of this.

On the one hand these comedians have given Donald Trump positive attention, and clearly he is excited about stringing them along now. 

But on the other hand if he focuses on putting together another reality show like this, he will be too distracted to keep tearing down the country.

Yep, that's a conundrum alright.

The Daily Show creates video homage to the now departed Sean Spicer.

Oh that was.....let's just say beautiful.

But I think we all know what we will miss most about Spicey leaving.

 Oh yeah, I feel a hole in my heart already.

Trump voters in a nutshell.

Andrew Napolitano, the source for the false claim that Britain bugged Donald Trump for President Obama, has been kicked off Fox News indefinitely.

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano is being kept off the air indefinitely amid the controversy over his unverified claims that British intelligence wiretapped Trump Tower at the behest of former President Obama. 

Fox News did not respond to inquiries about Napolitano’s status Monday. Napolitano was conspicuously missing from the network’s coverage of the confirmation hearings on Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch — an event in which he typically would have played a significant role. He has not been on the air since Thursday. 

People familiar with the situation who could speak only on the condition of anonymity said Napolitano is not expected to be on Fox News Channel any time in the near future. Napolitano was not available for comment.

Wow, when you are too full of shit for Fox News, you know you are REALLY full of shit.

But here's the thing, Fox News is the source for MANY of Donald Trump's false statements.

As the Daily Show pointed out last night, not only is Fox News virtually the only cable news outlet that can interview Trump these days, but they also the ONLY news outlet he seems to think is not "fake news."

Which is hysterical since most of us know that Fox News is often ground zero for fake news.

However, like Trump, they are in complete denial that they are essentially the bullshit network. (Except of course for Shepard Smith who seems inoculated against the bullshit.)

And that makes statements like this seem to be dripping with irony.

O'Reilly: Trump Would Be Wise to 'Embrace Only Facts' in the Future https://t.co/yA7gLPp0cA (VIDEO) pic.twitter.com/yMqEqwHbcl

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) March 21, 2017

Yes, Donald Trump certainly needs to "embrace the facts."

But do you know what might help with that?

If his go to news outlet did it first. 

Sure firing Judge Napolitano is a good start, but what about Sean Hannity? Jeanne Pirro? Everybody on Fox and Friends? And yes Bill O'Reilly himself?

The facts are that there are rarely actual verifiable facts on Fox News. And when there are they are twisted to fit their conservative agenda.

Personally I would fire the whole crew, with the exception of Shepard Smith who actually seems to have journalistic integrity.

Okay well you have to admit that this is pretty damn great.

We made a browser extension that converts Trump’s Tweets into their rightful state: a child’s scribble. Download: https://t.co/pgL64CCJ00 pic.twitter.com/XQ30Fz6m9H

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) February 15, 2017

You know they DO seem much more "Trumpian" in this form.

Harry Reid just comes out and says that he is confident the Trump campaign was in on the Russian hacks. Update!

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with WikiLeaks in the runup to the presidential election to damage Hillary Clinton, outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) charged on Monday. 

Reid, who has sharply criticized FBI Director James Comey for sitting on intelligence connecting Russian operatives and the Trump campaign, said he was unsure if Trump himself was aware of the activity. But he said people in Trump’s orbit certainly were. 

“Someone in the Trump campaign organization was in on the deal. I have no doubt. Now, whether they told [Trump] or not, I don’t know. I assume they did. But there is no question about that,” Reid said in an interview with The Huffington Post. “So there is collusion there, clearly.” 

“Don’t put blindfolds on,” he said. “Here is the deal: We have a situation where during the campaign, especially the last few months of the campaign, WikiLeaks was heavily involved in trying to hurt Hillary Clinton and it helped Trump. And you have Trump who said he likes Putin better than he likes Obama.”

You know considering that Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, has deep ties with Russia, I concur with Reid that it is VERY likely that Trump's campaign coordinated with Russia on these hacks and how they were released.

And it is not as if Russia's ties to the Trump campaign were exactly secret even months ago.

Remember Trump himself once invited the Russians to hack Hillary while appearing on TV.

Personally I would like to see someone in the Clinton campaign, or "gasp Obama administration, make this same accusation.

Because I think they are completely justified in doing so.

Update: Well if you wish I guess you will receive.

I wrote this post late in the afternoon yesterday, and then late last night President Obama was on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and essentially did exactly what I wished he would do.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast: 

Noah didn’t waste any time before asking Obama about the report. 

Obama then pointed to the Oct. 7 joint statement issued by the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which said: “The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations.”

“Well, it’s not a rush. Keep in mind, when the DNC got hacked, we immediately assigned our intelligence community—our law enforcement—to investigate what had happened. And we determined—and announced—in October that it was the consensus of all the intelligence agencies in law enforcement that organizations affiliated with Russian intelligence were responsible for the hacking of the DNC materials that were being leaked. That was a month before the election. This was not a secret,” the president said. 

“I will say this, though, Trevor: None of this should be a big surprise,” he continued. “This was reported on before the election. I don’t think there was any doubt among anybody in the media or among members of Congress as to who was being advantaged or disadvantaged by the political gossip that was being put out in drip-drip-drip fashion leading up to the election.” 

Then POTUS took things one step further, drawing a line between President-elect Donald Trump’s team and the Russians. 

“This was not a secret running up to the election!” exclaimed Obama. “The president-elect [Trump] in some of his political events specifically said to the Russians, ‘Hack Hillary’s emails so that we can finally find out what’s going on, and confirm our conspiracy theories.’ You had what was very clear relationships between members of the president-elect’s campaign team and Russians, and a professed shared view on a bunch of issues.”

And there you have it, in his own very careful way President Obama has essentially confirmed that the Russian government hacked American agencies and civilians in order to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump get elected.

He did not go as far as to openly accuse the Trump campaign of collusion with the Russians, but he left little doubt that such was the case.

Trevor Noah interviews conservative firebrand Tomi Lahren. Perhaps his best interview so far.

Courtesy of the Business Insider: 

Conservative firebrand Tomi Lahren appeared for an interview on Trevor Noah's "The Daily Show," and it immediately turned confrontational as Noah asked Lahren to explain her positions. 

"Why are you so angry?" Noah asked Lahren to start after showing a clip of the conservative host for TheBlaze railing against protesters of President-elect Donald Trump in the days after Trump won the election. 

After saying she wasn't actually angry, Lahren said, "Sometimes people just need to be called on their s---." 

The nearly 30-minute interview covered a lot of political and cultural ground including Lahren's conflicted response to Trump's lewd "Access Hollywood" tape, Colin Kaepernick, Black Lives Matter, and the "shake-up" Lahren has said Trump will bring to Washington, DC.

This bleached blonde bimbette is so ignorant and filled with conservative rage that it hurts my brain to listen to the garbage that falls out of her mouth.

However I thought that Noah did a very good job with this interview.

One of the things that I have missed the most since Jon Stewart left was his incredibly ability to interview people and get to the meat of their disagreements without denigrating them or attacking them personally.

This is the first time I have seen Noah demonstrate that skill set.

There was a point at the end of this interview that made me literally cringe.

In response to Noah's question about how black Americans should protest, she says this:

"I being a woman, I didn't have rights until after black people, until women got the right to vote. But because I feel I'm a woman, and I am marginalized in some way, I do not protest my country.....I don't protest, I'm not a victim."

OMFG!

This Lahren woman has NO idea how women, who she is very correct could not vote until 1920, got that right to vote.

They got the right because THEY PROTESTED THEIR COUNTRY!

In fact every fucking right this bleached barbie enjoys was earned on the backs of citizens who not only fought oppression and died during a war, but also protested in the streets against business, religious, and government powers who did not believe they deserved the same rights as the white Christian men who made the laws.

I think this entitled piece of conservative fluff, literally thinks that she has the job that she has solely based on her talent, and that she owes NOTHING to the woman who protested for her right to have a job in field that only thirty or forty years ago was a boys only club.

In reality she is nothing more than a younger, thinner version of a know nothing Sarah Palin, who spouts conservative talking points when you pull her string, and gets to be on television because men like to watch her rants with their hands down their pants.

She is an embarrassment to women every where, and she is too ignorant and self righteous to realize it.

Jessica Williams final segment for the Daily Show takes on the Bernie-bots who are now all in for Donald Trump.

That was a good segment that that last part got a little sappy.

In other news Politico is reporting that Bernie is still not quite ready to pack it in and call it day:  

Bernie Sanders is still spoiling for a convention fight. 

It seemed like Democrats could finally claim unity when no member of the Democratic National Committee's 15-person convention drafting committee voted against the draft of the policy platform draft during a meeting in St. Louis this past weekend: 13 members of the panel voted for the draft, one abstained and one missed the vote. But since then, Sanders-aligned members have teed off on the draft for not going far enough in key areas.

While both neutral national Democrats and Hillary Clinton-aligned Democrats on the DNC standing committees have hailed the draft document — which is headed to a full vote before the 187-member platform committee on July 8 and 9 in Orlando, Florida — as both satisfactory and historically progressive, Sanders supporters insist the draft remains unpalatable. Among the issues they've identified: the platform draft's treatment of Medicare expansion, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a carbon tax, and a ban on fracking. Sanders and his allies are vowing to fight for changes in Orlando — and all the way to the convention in Philadelphia, if necessary. 

This has led  David Corn of Mother Jones to ask the obvious question, "Can Bernie Sanders take yes for an answer?"

Have I already mentioned how fucking over all of this shit I am right now?

Trevor Noah attempts to confront Bernie Sanders supporters with the truth. Carefully.

Click to play video.

Courtesy of Vox:  

If you say anything negative about Bernie Sanders on the internet, it won't be long until you're labeled a shill for Hillary Clinton. 

On Thursday, The Daily Show took on this trend. When host Trevor Noah tried to raise some questions about Sanders's policies and chances in the Democratic primaries, he hit some roadblocks. 

As Noah started, correspondent Desi Lydic appeared on the scene, crashing a pair of cymbals to create a distraction. "I think we all know you meant that there's nothing wrong with Bernie Sanders. We love him and all of his policies," she said. "Trevor, have you ever pissed off Bernie Sanders supporters? It's like poking a hornet's nest — a hornet's nest with student debt. Can't you just do something less controversial — like, I don't know, draw a picture of Mohammed on a pig?"

I have admitted recently that I am not exactly warming to Noah, but this segment really knocked it out of the park.

And part of what made it so good was that it's so true.

We see it here on IM almost every single day.

In fact I have been steadily losing visitors since I started to point out that Sanders' campaign is effectively over. And I'm not talking a hundred or so, I'm talking over a thousand.

Bernie Sanders supporters just don't want to hear it.

Even my own daughter and I can't talk about it yet, because she is still deeply in denial.

But here's the thing that really concerns me.

I'm sure you remember how I gleefully predicted that if Cruz and Kasich stayed in the race until the convention that it would give Democrats the opportunity to demonstrate just who are the grownups in this race by having their act together while the GOP was dealing with an entrenched civil war.

Well now that shoe is on the other foot, since Trump is essentially the nominee and the GOP is already showing signs of unifying behind him, so that high ground will now go to the Republicans if the Democrats do not resolve their internal strife and come together before July when OUR convention is scheduled to be held.

I know right now that the polls show the Democrats in the lead for the general, but if Hillary continues getting hit by both Sanders and Trump for the next two months that lead may get whittled down quite a few percentage points.

The voters want a strong leader and a party that seems like it can work together to get things done, right now that does not seem to me an image that the Democratic party is projecting.

If you're still missing the Daily Show with Jon Stewart I think this might be your antidote.

I actually had no intention of watching this show, as I was never that much of a Samantha Bee fan.

However I just so happened to stumble across it Monday night, and holy smokes is this a good show!

Now don't get me wrong, I like Trevor Noah, but he just does NOT have the same timing and delivery that I came to expect from the old Daily Show.

That being said, Samantha Bee does.

So FINALLY I have a must see program to watch that starts to ease the pain of losing the irreplaceable Jon Stewart.

P.S. You can read more about the show here at Mother Jones.

Of all the people who are excited that Sarah Palin is back in the news, NONE are more excited than Stephen Colbert.

Courtesy of Salon: 

“God, I have missed you,” Stephen Colbert said to Sarah Palin on Wednesday night’s “Late Show.” “It’s like a magical eagle made a wish on a flag pin and it came to life. Which is great. For me.”

People always ask me "Why won't Sarah Palin just go away for good?"

And I think the best answer to that is the clip you just watched.

Because like her not, she IS a never ending fountain of comedic fodder for late night hosts, political pundits, and hard working dedicated bloggers.

Besides that for all intents and purposes Sarah Palin IS over.

Her book bombed, her cable shows are all preempted, her family is in ruins, and her career now consists of selling out completely in order to gobble up the scraps that Donald Trump tosses her direction.

That to me is finished.

P.S. If you liked Colbert's take on Palin's batshit crazy speech, you might get a kick out of what Trevor Noah did as well.

The Daily Show's brilliant take on the "good guy with a gun" argument is not to be missed.

I LOVED this last night, and I have to admit it was one of the first times that I really did not miss Jon Stewart and his stable of correspondents.

Jordan Klepper nailed this.

On last night's Daily Show there was a shift in the matrix.

Damn, you almost forget how good Jon Stewart was at driving home his point.

That was incredibly powerful, and if I were Mitch McConnell I would think about getting some stitches, because Stewart just ripped him a new one.

I like Trevor Noah, but I freaking idolize Jon Stewart.

So you just know this is how Fox News is feeling after Thursday night's finale.

I know that Roger Ailes is quoted as saying that the Daily Show "Never made a dent in us."

But I think that the evidence suggests that he did far more than simply make a dent.

He convinced his audience to look at Fox through a skeptical lens, and to fact check the snot out of them.

I actually think that Fox News played even more clips of Stewart on their programs than he played of the stupid things Fox News said on his. 

And it wasn't just that the Daily Show fearlessly attacked the conservative cable news giant, it was that Stephen Colbert followed suit, as did the Tonight Show, Conan, Jimmy Kimmel, other cable news programs, blogs, etc., etc., etc.

And just because Jon Stewart is no longer on the front lines leading the charge, does not mean that the war is over by any stretch of the imagination.

I don't usually do a "Moment of Zen" on this blog, but today I think this would be a most fitting first time to do so.

Last night was such an emotionally draining experience for me that I woke up feeling almost as exhausted as I had been climbing into bed.

We keep hearing folks trying to suggest that Jon Stewart is a phony, and a misogynist, and even most recently a racist.

But I am here to tell you that if any of that were actually true that we would not have witnessed the incredible outpouring of love that we witnessed last night.

Yes I know they are actors, but I also recognize genuine love when I see it.

Good bye Jon Stewart, and thank you so very much for everything. 

As I dab my eyes after watching last night's final Daily Show with Jon Stewart let me present Arby's video love note to the man who once compared their food to "Shock and awe for your colon."

You KNOW you are a great man when even the fast food restaurant that you endlessly ridiculed is sorry to see you go.

I cannot believe I have to face Monday with no Daily Show waiting for me at the end of it.

P.S. Were as you blown away by Colbert's cameo last night as I was?

To close out our day here is the last interview that President Obama will give on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Click infectious smile to play video.

Courtesy of Rolling Stone:  

President Barack Obama joined Jon Stewart on The Daily Show for the seventh and final time Tuesday, and the president, with 18 months left in his term, sat down for an episode-long discussion with the host whose two weeks away from ending his own tenure. Obama's first order of business on The Daily Show was alerting the audience that he's issuing an executive order stating that Stewart can't leave the show. However, "it's being challenged in the courts." 

After wondering whether the president was suffering from "Senioritis," Stewart first asked Obama why many of his significant endeavors – universal health care, the Iran nuclear deal – have happened with just one year left in his presidency. 

"There's no doubt that you get better as you go along. It's like any other job," Obama said, acknowledging Stewart's own role as Daily Show host. "But what I do think has happened is a lot of the work we did early starts bearing fruit later. And it just so happened that over the last couple months that people are seeing some of the work that we started way back when I first came in." 

I like the idea that Obama planted the seeds of his most recent victories back when the Republicans were working overtime to block everything he did, and that these things simply skated right past their goalie Mitch McConnell.

I have to say that I thought this was less like an interview, than it was a conversation between two old friends.

And I also take heart with the fact that the President has stated on television, for everybody to hear, that he is working to keep Stewart on the show, and as we have seen fairly recently the man is certainly a force to be reckoned with.

Besides if Jon Snow can be resurrected from the dead, then why can't Jon Stewart?

Jon Stewart is back! Jon Stewart is back! And he immediately gave Donald Trump a smackdown and compared him to Sarah Palin. Ahh, life is good again!

Click image to play brilliance.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

Jon Stewart returned to The Daily Show on Monday to scoff at Republicans who are suddenly willing to distance themselves from Donald Trump — but only after he bad-mouthed one of their own in Arizona Sen. John McCain. 

“The only reason you like this guy in the first place is because of the terrible things he was willing to say about Obama,” he said. “But Trump has no control over the projectile vomit of dickishness that comes out of his mouth every time he opens it. It was inevitable some of his word puke was gonna get on you.” 

The GOP should have known better, Stewart said, because the party had been down the same road in 2008 with Sarah Palin and her “Wasilla word salad.”

“Once you cast a spell and bring an Internet comment to life, it no longer belongs to you,” he explained. “Only this time, the chatroom troll emoji you’ve conjured has $10 billion of its own money.” 

Oh, that was SO satisfying. 

John Oliver, Australia, and gun control, how could that NOT be entertaining?

This was posted on the thread following Friday's story about the conviction of Colorado theater shooter James Holmes, and I felt it was high time it was posted again here on IM.