NEW YORK (AP) - Alan Colmes, the radio and television host and commentator best known as the amiable liberal foil to the hard-right Sean Hannity on the Fox News Channel, has died.

Fox spokeswoman Dana Klinghoffer confirmed his death Thursday. Fox also aired a tribute to Colmes, narrated by Hannity, and a statement from his family saying that he died Thursday morning after "a brief illness." Colmes was 66 and is survived by his wife, Jocelyn Elise Crowley, the sister of longtime Fox contributor Monica Crowley. In a statement issued through Fox, Hannity called Colmes "one of life's most decent, kind and wonderful people."

Colmes was a New York City native and Hofstra University graduate who worked for years in radio, notably on WABC and WNBC, and standup comedy before joining Fox in 1996. That same year he and the conservative Hannity began a 12-year run as co-hosts of the popular "Hannity & Colmes" program, which brought Colmes both fame and ridicule. Admittedly a minority voice on the conservative channel, Colmes was often mocked as too nice and easily overshadowed by the ever-aggressive Hannity. The liberal media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Media likened him to the hapless Washington Generals, the dependable losers to basketball's Harlem Globetrotters. Al Franken, in his best-selling "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them," imagined Colmes earning his salary by "adding toner to the copiers and printers, loofah-ing Roger Ailes in his personal steam room, and ordering Chinese food for editors working on misleading video packages."

Colmes was aware of the criticism, but said that getting mean was not his style.

"People say to me, 'Why don't you fight fire with fire?'" he told The Associated Press in 2003. "You fight fire with water, not fire."

Colmes continued to appear as a commentator on Fox after his show with Hannity ended. He also was an author, his books including "Thank the Liberals" and "Red, White & Liberal."

Published: February 24, 2017 7:51 AM EST

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Alan Colmes, liberal voice on Fox, dead at 66 - Philly.com

Tony Abbott, as a conservative, is the one figure who can shore up the party's base against the surge in support for Pauline Hanson's nativist One Nation Party, and the recent defection of South Australian Senator Cory Bernardi.

In Working Girl, a charming film made by Mike (The Graduate) Nicholls, a male character is caught by his girlfriend, played by Melanie Griffith, engaging in what H.G. Nelson calls "horizontal folk dancing" with another woman.

The male character, played by Alec (Saturday Night Live) Baldwin, blurts out: "This isn't what it seems."

Expressed in different ways, this has been pretty much the standard response of Liberal politicians to the all-but-declared warfare between former Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and the man who blasted him out of the job, current Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

But even this flimsy verbal charade collapsed on Friday in a welter of bitter recriminations against Abbott by Malcolm Turnbull and cabinet ministers such as Mathias Cormann and Christopher Pyne.

These followed Tony Abbott's attack on his successor at a book launch, followed by an interview on TV, in Sydney on Thursday night, including the incendiary: "The risk is we will drift to defeat if we don't lift our game."

In response, Turnbull said his nemesis "knows exactly what he's doing and so do his colleagues" and that Turnbull's government had achieved more in the last six months than had been achieved in the previous three years, when Abbott was PM.

Finance Minister Cormann, who backed Abbott during that fateful meeting of Liberal MP's on September 14, 2015, branded the former PM's intervention "deliberately destructive". Pyne, a senior moderate in the government and minister for defence industry, slammed Abbott's proposals, including sharp cuts in government spending and a slowdown in the immigration rate, as either "catastrophic" or ones that had failed when he was in office.

This new, open war phase means there will be intense focus on the result of a looming NSW Liberal Party ballot. At one level it is just a state parliamentary preselection, one that routinely creates little interest outside the relevant political party and political commentators.

But at another level the preselection result for Manly, a Sydney harbour-side seat held by NSW Premier Mike Baird until he suddenly resigned last month could affect the future course of the Abbott-Turnbull warfare, on the careers of both, and even the Turnbull government's survival.

Manly lies inside the federal seat of Warringah, which has been held by Abbott since he won a byelection in 1994. The current Liberal Party preselection for the seat is being contested by six candidates. These include Walter Villatora, who was campaign manager for Mike Baird when he first won the seat in 2007, and is President of the Liberal Party's Federal Electorate Conference (FEC) in Abbott's seat of Warringah.

The close ties Abbott has with Villatora showed up again last year when he backed him in his unsuccessful bid to win Liberal Party's preselection for the adjacent seat of Mackellar, which had been held by former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop since she, too, won a byelection in 1994. The final winner was Jason Falinski.

Complicating matters another strong possible Liberal candidate for Manly who is also on the right in a highly factionalised NSW Liberal Party is John Hart, the chief executive of Restaurant & Catering Australia. Hart lost his bid to succeed former federal treasurer Joe Hockey in the nearby federal seat of North Sydney in late 2015 to Trent Zimmerman.

He is well-liked in the Liberal Party, although he attracted some controversy as the head of Joe Hockey's now mothballed electorate fundraising arm, the North Sydney Forum.

But in what is shaping up as a close contest, both Villatora and Hart are facing a strong challenge from James Griffin, who, at 34, is already a director in the risk consulting practice of KPMG in Sydney.

In preselection manoeuvring, Griffin, a moderate, is being framed by the right as the candidate of the NSW Liberal Party's dominant moderate faction, but he is in fact non-aligned and has deep roots in the area as a former local councillor.

So far, Baird, who resigned as premier to spend more time with his family and sick parents, has studiously kept his distance from the preselection process. However, it would not surprise close observers of the Liberal Party if Baird swung his support behind Griffin, touted as a possible future minister, in the final stages of a preselection which is likely to occur in mid-March.

Whatever the outcome, attention will inevitably shift to Abbott's parliamentary future. His Liberal Party opponents will argue that Abbott cannot remain as an MP when he is openly undermining Malcolm Turnbull, and even publicly casting doubt on the ability of a Turnbull-led Liberal Party to win the next federal election.

But the Abbott argument for remaining as the Liberal member for Warringah assuming he wants to stay in that role was already being put by his close Liberal Party supporters in private conversations by the end of the week. The nub of it is that Tony Abbott, as a conservative, is the one figure who can shore up the party's base against the surge in support for Pauline Hanson's nativist One Nation Party, and the recent defection of South Australian Senator Cory Bernardi.

One of those who may be attracted to such an argument is Walter Villatora. As a seasoned Liberal Party figure, he also knows that even prior to last July's federal election, there were stirrings in Abbott's own electorate of Warringah.

At a tense four-hour meeting at the Warringah Golf Club last April, Abbott fought off an attempt to curb his control of the Warringah electorate by former Liberal Party Treasurer Philip Higginson, a one-time friend and now a fierce Liberal Party foe.

Higginson was defeated in his attempt to replace Villatora as President of the Liberal Party's Warringah Federal Electorate Conference, which selects the party's candidate for the seat. Villatora defeated Higginson 57-41.

The position of FEC President is honorary. It is also sensitive, and the tension at that closed meeting may be just a mild foretaste of what is to come.

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Woes of the Liberal party go all the way down to arcane NSW state politics - The Australian Financial Review

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Friday, February 24, 2017, 2:57 PM

The NRAs top gun revealed a paranoid vision of the world in a Friday speech that painted Democratic protesters as well-paid criminals bent on terrorizing the country.

National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre unloaded on the left, saying its demonstrators are paid $1,500 a week to wreak havoc.

Theyre angry. Theyre militant and theyre willing to engage in criminal violence to get what they want, LaPierre said at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland.

Many of these people literally hate everything America stands for.

Trump demands no more anonymous 'sources' after W.H. briefing

LaPierre described protesters in black ski masks who spit in the face of Gold Star families, tomahawk beer bottles and rocks at police, and smash business plate glass windows while customers cower inside.

And that was just on Inauguration Day, according to LaPierre.

The Lefts message is absolutely clear, LaPierre said. They want revenge. Youve gotta be punished. They say youre whats wrong with America, and now youve gotta be purged.

The NRA honcho also took aim at the media and lumped together reporters and protesters with drug lords and terrorists.

Steve Bannon says 'globalist media' will stay 'opposed' to Trump

If youre a member of the leftist media or a soldier for the violent left, a violent criminal, a drug-carteled gang member or a would-be terrorist, hear this, LaPierre said, youre not going to win and you will not defeat us. LaPierre cheered President Trump and chillingly exhorted the NRAs 5 million members to be prepared to fight back.

With all the threats facing America today, your right to protect yourself and your family may be more relevant and urgently needed than ever before, he said.

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NRA boss Wayne LaPierre lambasts 'militant, paid' liberal protesters who hate 'everything America stands for' - New York Daily News

Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017. Susan Walsh / AP

The comments were red meat to conservatives but varied only slightly from Pence's usual stump speech.

Pence echoed campaign trail promises from then-candidate Donald Trump that the replacement to Obamacare would allow Americans to buy healthcare over state lines. Congressional Republicans released a broad outline of a

The vice president also pushed for a states' rights approach to health care that allows local governments "to take care of the least fortunate in the best way that will work in their state and their community."

Related:

The vice president also spoke passionately about Israel, promising that "under President Trump, America will stand with Israel." He did not elaborate on the Trump administration's vision for an end to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Pence mixed comedy with conservative bluster in his remarks and used part of the speech to whet the audience's appetite for Trump's speech at the conference Friday morning.

Contrasting himself with the president, Pence quipped that Trump was "known for his bigger than life personality, charm, and charisma. And I'm, like, not."

Continued here:

Pence to CPAC: Obamacare Will Fall Despite 'Liberal Activists' - NBCNews.com

Last Updated Feb 23, 2017 11:26 AM EST

NEW YORK -- Alan Colmes, the radio and television host and commentator best known as the amiable liberal foil to the hard-right Sean Hannity on the Fox News Channel, has died. He was 66.

Fox spokeswoman Dana Klinghoffer confirmed his death Thursday. Fox also aired a tribute to Colmes, narrated by Hannity, and a statement from his family saying that he died Thursday morning after a brief illness.

Colmes is survived by his wife, Jocelyn Elise Crowley, the sister of longtime Fox contributor Monica Crowley.

He was a great guy, brilliant, hysterical, and moral, the family statement said. He was fiercely loyal, and the only thing he loved more than his work was his life with Jocelyn. He will be missed.

In a statement issued through Fox, Hannity called Colmes one of lifes most decent, kind and wonderful people.

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Fox News Correspondents Alan Colmes and Sean Hannity attend the Fox News Channels 10th anniversary celebration on Oct. 4, 2006, in New York City.

Peter Kramer/Getty Images

Colmes was a New York City native and Hofstra University graduate who worked for years in radio, notably on WABC and WNBC, and standup comedy before joining Fox in 1996.

That same year he and the conservative Hannity began a 12-year run as co-hosts of the popular Hannity & Colmes program, which brought Colmes both fame and ridicule.

Admittedly a minority voice on the conservative channel, Colmes was often mocked as too nice and easily overshadowed by the ever-aggressive Hannity. The liberal media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Media likened him to the hapless Washington Generals, the dependable losers to basketballs Harlem Globetrotters.

Al Franken, in his best-selling Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, imagined Colmes earning his salary by adding toner to the copiers and printers, loofah-ing Roger Ailes in his personal steam room, and ordering Chinese food for editors working on misleading video packages.

Colmes was aware of the criticism, but said that getting mean was not his style.

People say to me, Why dont you fight fire with fire? he told The Associated Press in 2003. You fight fire with water, not fire.

Colmes continued to appear as a commentator on Fox after his show with Hannity ended. He also was an author, his books including Thank the Liberals and Red, White & Liberal.

Former Fox anchor Megyn Kelly, conservative commentator Ann Coulter and Fox personalities were among those who took to social media following news of Colmes death.

2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Alan Colmes, liberal voice at Fox News, dead at 66 - CBS News

Alan Colmes promoting his book 'Thank The Liberals ... For Saving America' in New York in October 2012. Ilya S. Savenok / Getty Images, file

In his best-selling book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them," Sen. Al Franken, D-Minnesota, imagined Colmes' earning his salary by "adding toner to the copiers and printers, loofah-ing Roger Ailes in his personal steam room, and ordering Chinese food for editors working on misleading video packages."

Colmes was aware of the criticism, but he said getting mean wasn't his style.

"People say to me, 'Why don't you fight fire with fire?'" he said in 2003. "You fight fire with water, not fire."

Pundits and colleagues on both sides of the aisle remembered Colmes on social media on Thursday, among them Republican political consultant Karl Rove, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and conservative author Ann Coulter.

"Sad. We had some great times on Hannity & Colmes. Alan Colmes was fair & funny while hewing to his core beliefs. Condolences to Jocelyn," wrote Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump.

NBC News' Megyn Kelly, a Fox News host and contributor for 12 years, called Colmes a "positive force."

"Heartbroken my friend Alan Colmes has died. He lit up the FNC halls w/his kindness & humor. Incredibly positive force. Prayers 4 his family," she wrote.

Colmes continued to appear as a commentator on Fox after his show with Hannity ended. He also was an author of books like "Thank the Liberals" and "Red, White & Liberal."

Link:

Alan Colmes, Sean Hannity's Liberal Foil on Fox News, Dies at 66 - NBCNews.com

The French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron came to town this week to meet Theresa May and address the London French community, whose votes he was chasing. In our age of extremes, Macron, who is 39, is that rare thing a populist eruption from the liberal centre. A former merchant banker and economy minister in the failing Hollande Socialiste administration, he represents En Marche! (Forward!), which is less a party than a movement. His sudden rise would not have been possible in Britain, which is part of the stability and attraction of the parliamentary system but also its frustration.

I met Macron on Tuesday afternoon when he took questions from a small group of journalists at Central Hall Westminster. He is small and dapper, with short hair and a strong, straight nose. Because of the collapse of the Socialistes and the struggles of the discredited conservative contender Franois Fillon, Macron has emerged as the great hope of liberals and perhaps as the candidate to stop Marine Le Pen seizing the presidency. Unlike the Front National leader, Macron is an unashamed liberal globaliser in the model of Nick Clegg or a younger, less tormented Tony Blair. He is a passionate advocate of the EU and of the eurozone and, as a result, is under attack from the Russian media. He has been accused of leading a double life his wife, whom he met when she was his schoolteacher, is 20 years older than Macron and of being unwilling to admit that he is gay, or at least bisexual. His response to the Russian attacks was, he said, to disclose the manipulation and kill the rumours.

The far right in France has caricatured Macron as being globalisation personified, about which he is relaxed. In conversation, he criticised David Camerons referendum campaign. His message was Yes but . . . That is not the answer to No. I defend Europe and the four freedoms of the EU. If you are shy, you are dead.

On Sunday, I received a text from one of my cousins. The Lincoln City manager and his brother, the assistant, are called Cowley, he wrote. His father looks a bit like your father. Any relation? They are from Essex. I am also from Essex, born and brought up in Harlow new town, which turned 70 this year. But I had to disappoint my cousin. My father was an only child, as was his father, so its highly unlikely that these Cowley brothers are even distant relations of mine.

I already knew about the brothers, having been alerted to them by my seven-year-old son, who is a sports data enthusiast. Last season, Danny Cowley and his younger brother, Nicky, were working as teachers in Essex while coaching Braintree Town at weekends. This season, they have led Lincoln to an FA Cup quarter-final against Arsenal, making them the first non-League team to reach the last eight in more than a century. Lincoln are also at the top of the National League (English footballs semi-professional fifth division) and in the quarter-final of the FA Trophy, the premier non-League cup competition. The Cowleys are reported to be subsisting on a diet of toast and Marmite as they rise early each morning obsessively to study videos and analytics and prepare for the next match. They have introduced a new spirit of openness at the previously moribund club: fans watch training sessions and attend press conferences.

Its nonsense to believe, as some do, that only those who have performed at the highest level have the authority to coach the best. Wenger, Mourinho, Sven-Gran Eriksson, Roy Hodgson, Andr Villas-Boas: none of them were even remotely successful players. Asked once to explain his accomplishments, Mourinho said: Ive had more time to study. More English coaches so few of whom are working in the Premier League would do well to follow his example.

It will be fascinating to see how far the Cowley brothers progress in the game. Whatever happens next, they have reanimated interest in the FA Cup and given the resilient yeomen of Essex a small boost.

Boris Johnson accused Tony Blair of bare-faced effrontery for having the temerity last week to deliver an anti-Brexit speech, which itself was an act of bare-faced effrontery. Johnson is a huckster and narcissist whose vanities have been grotesquely indulged for far too long by his cheerleaders and paymasters in the media. (A standard question to Johnson when he was mayor of London: You do want to be prime minister, dont you?) No one should take anything Johnson says remotely seriously. Should the same be said of Blair?

Yes, of course he is the author of his own misfortunes and many will never forgive the former Labour prime minister for the Iraq catastrophe. Yet of all the politicians I have spoken to in recent times, Blair was the most intellectually nimble and the most alert to the defining complexities of the present moment. As he demonstrated in his speech, he also understands better than most why, in an age of intensifying ethnic nationalism, the parties of the left are failing across Europe, none more so than the British Labour Party, which looks as far away from power as it did after the 1931 election.

As an energetic and charismatic liberal, Macron has been likened to the young Tony Blair. Can he seize the progressive centre, as Blair did, and destabilise the old binary divisions of left and right? The anti-European and anti-globalisation extremes are winning elections, he said, in a veiled reference to Donald Trump and the vote for Brexit. But we dont have the same political cycles as the others. Its time for France to do the opposite. With that said, he thanked his interlocutors and was hurried off for a meeting with another Essex man, Philip Hammond, pursued not by a bear but by the journalist Robert Peston.

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Emmanuel Macron: a populist eruption from the liberal centre - New Statesman

Updated February 24, 2017 18:27:34

Liberal pre-selection nominations for 18 South Australian state seats have closed, and among the candidate is a former Liberal minister, who retired from politics more than 10 years ago.

Wayne Matthew was the member for Bright from 1989 to 2006, and held ministerial portfolios including police and emergency services in the Brown and Olsen governments.

He has nominated for the seat of Davenport and is one of many candidates who are taking a tilt at pre-selection, as boundary redistributions appear to have made a Liberal election win more likely.

Alex Brown, the son of former premier Dean Brown, has nominated for Colton, while six candidates are vying for retiring MP Isobel Redmond's seat of Heysen.

There is also strong interest in two Labor held seats, with five nominees for both Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan's seat of Lee, and Sports Minister Leon Bignell's Mawson electorate.

Both electorates have become more marginal under boundary redistributions.

"It is fantastic to see such a high calibre of people nominating for preselection to represent the Liberal Party at the next state election," Liberal state director Sascha Meldrum said.

"The party is calling for hard-working candidates committed to representing their local communities as part of a newly-elected Liberal State Government that will provide responsible leadership and deliver a clear pathway for the state's recovery and success."

Sitting MPs Rachel Sanderson, Corey Wingard, Vickie Chapman, David Spiers, Vince Tarzia and Dan van Holst Pellekaan have all been pre-selected unopposed.

The names of the other candidates remain confidential until they are endorsed by the party's review committee next week.

Topics: government-and-politics, states-and-territories, liberals, sa

First posted February 24, 2017 18:22:49

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Liberal candidates revealed as pre-selection closes for South Australia election - ABC Online

McClatchy Washington Bureau

Liberal activists warn party's lawmakers: Primaries are coming McClatchy Washington Bureau Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, shown speaking on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, is among the Democrats up for re-election in 2018. Liberals warn of primary challenges if Democrats don't do their best to take on President Donald ... and more »

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Liberal activists warn party's lawmakers: Primaries are coming - McClatchy Washington Bureau

A provocative, button-pushing shocker that buries itself under your skin and lingers ... Daniel Kaluuya and Alison Williams in Get Out. Photograph: Justin Lubin/Universal Pictures

Theres a great, often under-appreciated, history of social commentary within the horror genre. From John Carpenters politically charged They Live to Bryan Forbes haunting adaptation of The Stepford Wives, Ira Levins icy take on the male fear of second-wave feminism, scares and satire used to arrive simultaneously. But somewhere along the way, that tradition has been jump-shocked out of its seat, popcorn flying, and replaced with vapidity, an impatient teenage audience force-fed predictable thrills over a story that might provoke or inspire debate.

Jordan Peele doesnt want to make things easy for his audience. Like the greatest sketches from his co-authored Comedy Central show Key & Peele, his new film Get Out is designed to lift the facade of post-racial America and showcase the ugliness that lies beneath. Whats quite astounding is not only how sharply he manages this but that he does so while also crafting a terrifying horror film.

Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) is understandably nervous. His girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), is taking him home to meet her parents for the first time. Its a frightening rite of passage for anyone, but Chris has an added level of concern: hes black and shes white. Rose brushes off his worry, assuring him that he has nothing to fear and initially, it seems like shes right. Her father (Bradley Whitford) is perhaps a bit too self-consciously woke (I would have voted for Obama for a third term he insists) and her psychiatrist mother a bit too keen to hypnotize him out of his smoking habit, but theyre friendly and seemingly unperturbed by his race.

But Chris starts to feel uncomfortable. Theres something up with the other black people in the house: a rather spooked groundskeeper and maid. Why are they acting so strange? Why is Roses mother so obsessed with hypnotizing him? And why the hell are all these white people suddenly descending on the house?

While writer-director Peele could have taken the easier, oft-trodden route of exposing the racism of redneck hillbillies, hes decided to target the underlying bigotry of rich liberals instead and, in doing so, has made something fiercely original. The white people Chris encounters wouldnt consider themselves racists but name-checking Jesse Owens doesnt give one a free pass. Referring to how well-endowed Chris must be or how his genetic makeup would make him a beast in a fight arent compliments, theyre reductive and offensive stereotypes that only serve to make him feel uncomfortable and fetishized.

As these micro-incidents stack up, Chris experience becomes a microcosm of what many black people experience in the US and beyond: telling someone that theyre welcome is different from actually welcoming someone. While the mechanics of the nefarious plot thats ultimately uncovered might be a tad silly, theyre grounded by the uneasy journey that weve taken to get there. The grotesquery of the white suburbanites might seem exaggerated at times but theres an embarrassingly well-observed truth to the interactions we see and Peeles comedic background ensures that nervous laughter is never too far away.

But Peele isnt interested in purely making a point, hes also determined to make a genuinely scary horror film and doesnt disappoint. Theres a refreshing lack of tired jump scares with Peele instead utilizing a queasy atmosphere of dread and a terrifically choreographed escalation of suspense and crowd-pleasing thrills. Its an artfully framed and remarkably accomplished debut film, and Peele has carefully cast an ensemble of skilled actors who effortlessly conjure up a believably fraught dynamic. Theres a successful piece of stunt casting with Williams, a star of HBOs Girls, but her white privilege isnt over-egged and instead, her character seems even more shocked at what unfolds around them. Its in smart opposition to the British actor Kaluuya, who, in a star-making role, calmly and glumly accepts the insidious racism around him before letting rage take over.

Get Out is a provocative, button-pushing shocker that buries itself under your skin and lingers, its genre trappings serving as devious delivery for a scathing takedown of liberal white suburbia. Its rare for a studio horror film to feel this fresh and daring and its arrived at a frighteningly topical moment for a country where racism is scarier than ever.

Get Out is released in US cinemas on 24 February and in UK cinemas on 17 March

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Get Out review white liberal racism is terrifying bogeyman in sharp horror - The Guardian

Liberal timelines have been clogged with wish fulfillment from these rogue accounts.

Photo illustration by Slate. Images via Twitter.

In a media climate shot through with both angst and alternative facts, a few pranksters have inevitably combined the two. Fake rogue government Twitter accounts! Welcome to the latest exercise in liberal self-soothing.

Katy Waldman is a Slate staff writer.

Last week, someone posing as disgraced former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn fooled thousands of readers (and Nancy Pelosi). While I accept full responsibility for my actions, faux Flynn wrote, I feel it is unfair that I have been made the sole scapegoat for what happened. But if a scapegoat is whats needed for this Administration to continue to take this great nation forward, I am proud to do my duty. Meanwhile, a counterfeit Stephen Miller favorited a tweet from David Duke, earning notice from at least one liberal magazine editor.

The tweets hit the masochistic lefts erogenous zones, flooding us with pleasure and pain. Of course Miller was a shameless racist. And Flynns posts confirmed what everyone already suspected: The adviser hadnt courted Moscow alone; his overtures manifested a deeper White House rot. To the Democratic lawmakers who immediately called for a public hearing on Team Trumps ties to Russia, Flynns tweets told a damning story about a ruthless and dishonest administration that thought little of sacrificing its loyal foot soldiers. (And just look at that lackey persisting in his mindless obedience! I am proud to do my duty ghastly.) Amid the torture of Trumps presidency, the posts meant that the opposition might finally succeed in nailing some hides to the wall. Whats more, their rancidness provided a faint, secondary consolation: We were right.

Elsewhere in Shangri-La, progressives thrilled to a fake feed that sprouted after Sally Yates got fired for refusing to enforce the Muslim ban. You know you have made the right decision when there is peace in your heart, @SaIIyYates tweeted on Feb. 2. The subsequent missives seemed as relatably banal as our own bursts of online anti-Trumpism. Yates must feel impotent too, we observed, our empathy streaked with delicious self-pity. Still, it was comforting to think that the venerated legal figure had not lost her iron spine. Tender uplift (and questionable grammar) was also available from a bogus Bollywood starturnedYates impersonator, who claimed: I took and uphold oath to defend the constitution not to someones personal likings. (Meanwhile, the former deputy AGs actual account has been deactivated.)

One month into re-greatened America, liberal timelines are clogged with wish fulfillment. Its not only hoaxers targeting any Trump staffer (or ex-staffer) with an L in his name that can easily be replaced in a Twitter handle with an uppercase I. Theres also a crop of alternative government agencies@AltStateDpt, @Alt_DeptofEd, @Alt_CDCconjuring a shadow bureaucracy of men and women who share progressive values and want to fight. A Rogue POTUS Staff account (845K followers) proclaims itself the unofficial resistance team inside the White House. In language reminiscent of the jacket copy on a Le Carr novel, it continues: We pull back the curtain to expose the real workings inside this disastrous, frightening Administration. Typical tweets describe Trump as a tyrant, mock his statements to the press, and attempt to organize rallies. The other dark agencies post fact checks and strategy reads for the #resistance.

Like Josiah Bartlet, this person is probably a fabrication.

Then there is @AngryWHStaffer, whose bio flatly declares, I work at the White House. This is a disaster. This fantasy employee whispers blandishments like Its like rats off a sinking ship here. Full on crisis mode. Our inside guy promises: Give what Im seeing here, Im left with one option to save this nation. Im going to start leaking EVERYTHING.

True or not, the narcotizing vision of a White House riven by infighting and ineptitude is Chicken Soup for the Leftie Soul. Meanwhile, the accounts tone, neither inflammatory nor trolly, is a perfect counterweight to that unruly picture: It suggests an everyman driven to desperation by the chaos and malice around him. This is crazy, the staffer will say. Please dont let this happen. Our spy speaks for the silent, sane majority that imagines it would heroically leak some intelligence if given the chance; the beleaguered citizens who come home from work, rub their temples, and fire up The West Wing on Netflix. Like Josiah Bartlet, this person is probably a fabrication. But so what? The notion that decent, well-meaning folks are keeping vigil on Trump from inside the palace walls is a form of escapism, like alcohol or James Bond movies. Properly understood, its not fake news; its fiction as self-care.

To that end, many of the rogue accounts take pains to distance themselves from the official federal government. Yet they remain wildly popular: @AltStateDpt, for instance, has 153K followers despite a bio larded with disclaimers. The Alt U.S. National Park Servicethe first sham feed of them all, established when Trump silenced the real NPS after a feud about inaugural crowd sizesannounces that it is explicitly against political untruths, which is either encouraging or ironic depending on your perspective. Its bio: The #Resistance team against #AltFacts #FauxNews #FauxScience. #Science #Climate #Facts Run by non-gov individuals.

Top Comment

Oh I thought this was an article about people retweeting accounts they knew were fake because they were posting funny things. Yeah, please stop retweeting things you think are real unless they've been confirmed. More...

Its unclear how many people seek out these handles because they want information about the government and how many are chasing a psychic pick-me-up. For the first group, the persuasive value of a given post often lies in the retweet, which lifts the momentarily convincing message out of its questionable context.

For savvier consumers, though, the accounts may more resemble the Chrome extensions that convert Trumps tweets into crayon scribbles or swap his face for cat photos, literally altering reality to make it go down easier. Here is where the line between fiction as self-care and willful ignorance grows blurry. Of course we all need a break sometimes. And surely a few well-chosen parody accounts do not a filter bubble make. But as more and more imaginary good guys give us permission to turn inward, its worth asking whether the solace of a slightly rosier worldview comes at too steep a cost if it means disengaging from the truth.

Continued here:

Rogue Twitter Feeds as Liberal Self-Care - Slate Magazine

Chicago Sun-Times

Trump Wednesday: 'Liberal activists' are stacking town halls Chicago Sun-Times The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists. Sad! 5:23 p.m. Eastern Time Feb. 21, 2017. Backstory: Congress is out of session this week, with lawmakers, if they ... Donald J. Trump on Twitter: "The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in ...Twitter all 146 news articles »

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Trump Wednesday: 'Liberal activists' are stacking town halls - Chicago Sun-Times

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Some of the town halls held by other lawmakers have turned raucous, with liberal activists and others pressing GOP lawmakers on dismantling Obamacare, implementing tough new immigration rules and where they stand on other controversial policies emerging from President Donald Trump's administration.

A frustrated Rubio staffer dismissed the empty-chair event as "not a true or constructive dialogue."

"The protesters -- some of whom failed to show up for meetings they scheduled with our staff -- continue to fundraise off of it even though we informed them days ago Senator Rubio will not be there," Rubio spokesman Matt Wolking said. "We have been fully accessible and responsive to constituents, and our staff has already met with dozens of these liberal activists at our offices across Florida. As their manual reveals, their goal is to stage a hostile atmosphere, record themselves booing no matter what is said, and refuse to give up the microphone. That is not a true or constructive dialogue."

One Internet posting by the liberal group publicizing the event, Indivisible Tampa, said: "Citizens of Tampa are organizing a town hall event during the Congressional recess for Sen. Marco Rubio to address urgent concerns regarding health care, national security, and the President's links to Russia. We have invited Sen. Rubio to attend but cannot be certain he will attend"

Another posting said organizers hope to get Rubio to a future town hall.

"While we really wanted our Senator to attend and hope to work with him and his staff in the future to deliver a town hall to Tampa with his attendance - we are very happy to have a town hall where our voices will be heard," the group said in a Facebook post.

The event is planned for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 599 in Tampa and will be streamed live by organizers on Facebook.

Rubio is away all week in France and Germany, according to his office.

"Senator Rubio is traveling overseas this week to attend multiple bilateral meetings with heads of state and senior government officials in Germany and France, two countries with upcoming elections who are facing concerns about Russian interference," Rubio's office explained. "As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Appropriations Committee, and Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator Rubio is conducting this official oversight trip to discuss the US/EU relationship, NATO operations, counter-ISIS activities, foreign assistance programs, and Russian aggression in Europe."

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Liberals plan 'empty chair' town hall for Rubio - CNN

The Moscow Project represents a significant outside effort to move forward on the investigations of President Donald Trump, which Democrats have been eager to pursue. | Getty

Seeking to apply new pressure on President Donald Trump over his ties to Russia, the liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund is bringing on a former State Department official to run its new Moscow Project, while advocating the creation of an independent investigation even while the Senate Intelligence Committees probes proceed.

Max Bergmann a former member of the State Departments policy planning staff who was previously a speechwriter for Secretary John Kerry and a special assistant to the under secretary for arms control and international security will lead the groups efforts on Russia as political scrutiny mounts over alleged ties between Trumps campaign and Russian intelligence. The organization is in the process of hiring more researchers and communications staff in its war room, which is run by former Harry Reid aide Adam Jentleson.

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In addition to issuing a six-page memo to Capitol Hill offices on February 15 the document called for an investigation just hours after the New York Times reported contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russian intelligence officers the group is also launching digital ads targeted at House Speaker Paul Ryan in his home state of Wisconsin.

Aimed at Trump voters, Ryan voters, and veterans, the spots call on the speaker to support an independent investigation, which has been a rallying cry for some Democrats but few Republicans.

The Moscow Project represents a significant outside effort to move forward on the investigations of Trump, which Democrats have been eager to pursue, especially since the resignation of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn over his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States. But party leaders have been concerned about appearing overly partisan, and the memo which includes a long list of questions that must be answered publicly advocates the kind of commission outside of Capitol Hill that has so far been proposed by Democratic senators including Ben Cardin, Patrick Leahy, Dianne Feinstein, Tom Carper, and Amy Klobuchar.

Such a probe would have bipartisan membership, subpoena power, and a full-time staff.

The circulated missive, titled, RE: Investigations into Russian Interference, insists that Attorney General Jeff Sessions recuse himself from oversight of prosecutors investigating the president, and it suggests that elected officials be willing and prepared to walk away from the GOP-led committee investigations if theyre not both thorough and transparent. It also called the need for a 9/11 Commission-style investigation more critical than ever, while acknowledging the ongoing formal efforts by both the Senate and House Intelligence committees.

While these committee investigations are important, questions remain whether they will have the freedom to fully investigate all the serious allegations in the public domain, including subpoena power for the chairman and ranking member. In past moments of crisis from Watergate to 9/11, Americans have ultimately benefited from having both congressional inquiries and independent commissions, read the note. Indeed, an independent commission would ensure that both parties have full authority to investigate. Perhaps most importantly, it is essential that the process be non-partisan in order to fully explore the Trump teams involvement."

Attempting to guide along the efforts, it also insisted that any investigation must include: A full list of all contacts between the Trump campaign, its staff, and informal advisers with Russian officials, including any Russian intelligence officials, and/or WikiLeaks; Access to transcripts or recordings of those communications, including between General Flynn and Russian Ambassador Kislyak, as well as Donald Trump and President Putin prior to the inauguration; An accounting and summary of briefings given to Members of Congress prior to and after the election on this topic."

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Liberal group launches 'Moscow Project' to pressure Trump - Politico

To press the issue, Sanders veterans, along with allied activists and organizers, have launched a new political action committee called We Will Replace You. The group is demanding that Democrats on Capitol Hill uniformly oppose all Trump nominees, including Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, demand the firing of top Trump strategist Steve Bannon and use all the levers of their limited congressional power to gum up the White House agenda -- or face opposition from within their own party.

They are also asking new supporters to sign a pledge -- written at the top of their homepage -- promising to back "primary election challengers against any Democrats who won't do everything in their power to resist Trump."

"Democrats need to know there is an actual political cost and this isn't just going to be folks showing up at their offices, but folks showing up at the ballot and different organizations supporting challengers who are going to push the party in a different direction," said Max Berger, a co-founder of #AllOfUs, the millennial progressive group that launched the new campaign.

Early opposition to the Trump administration, most visibly in the form of mass protests and rowdy recriminations against Republicans at town hall meetings around the country, has turned up the heat on long-simmering efforts by the left to pressure moderate Democrats. With the party now totally out of power in Washington and at a crossroads, activists who gained experience during Occupy Wall Street and through work with the Movement for Black Lives, the Fight for $15 and other aligned causes see an opportunity for greater influence.

"We've had a generation of protests where people have learned how to fight those in power. But eventually, you get to a point where you realize that it's necessary for the communities that you represent to actually have power and not just to protest," Berger said. "The leaders that we see coming out of those movements are now looking to win elections and represent the communities they have been serving for the past decade."

We Will Replace You is operating as a hybrid PAC, meaning it can raise money and offer capped support to specific candidates while also making independent expenditures from a separate account. Co-founder Claire Sandberg, a former digital organizing director for the Sanders campaign, said the group is banking on a financial groundswell, delivered through ActBlue and other familiar channels, to deliver an early boost.

"We've seen the power of what an army of small dollar donors and grassroots volunteers can do when they are asked to do something that they believe in," she said. "We don't think that we need a giant pile of cash to make this project extremely successful electorally."

As Republicans learned earlier this decade, dedicated efforts to influence policy from within by launching contentious primary fights can yield mixed results. For every Mike Lee or Ted Cruz, both tea party-backed candidates who took on the GOP establishment before knocking off Democratic opponents in Senate races, there have been cautionary tales, like Sharron Angle and Richard Mourdock, who fumbled away seats Republicans expected to win.

Democrats have little margin for error in 2018, when 10 of their own come up for re-election. Republicans currently hold 52 seats in the upper chamber. If the GOP can flip eight more, they will claim a filibuster-proof majority and go forward with virtually no constraints on their legislative agenda.

Sandberg dismissed concerns, most often voiced by party centrists who backed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary, that a "tea party of the left" could harm Democrats on Election Day.

"We reject out of hand the notion that pushing Democrats to be better candidates will lead to more Republican victories," she said. "The much greater danger is a Democratic base that is uninspired by the party's tepid response to the Trump administration will not feel motivated to turn out."

We Will Replace You expects to ramp up its efforts in the summer. It has not yet named or set its sights on any particular race, though it could offer support to Virginia gubernatiorial hopeful Tom Perriello, who is running this year in a primary many Democrats will look at as a bellwether for 2018.

Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, told CNN that while there has been "a constant appetite" for pitting progressive newcomers against establishment picks in open seat primaries, the increased pressure on elected Democrats has been a long time coming.

"There's been ebbs and flows in the willingness to primary incumbents and that will likely be way more on the table in 2018 than it's been in past cycles," he said. "And most likely there will be at least one clear poster child that people identify and collaborate around."

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Liberal group threatens to challenge Democrats with primary ...

Donald Trump answers a question from CNN's Jim Acosta on Thursday.

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A daily roundup of the biggest stories in right-wing media.

On Wednesday evening and throughout Thursday, conservative media outlets continued their coverage of Donald Trumps conflict with the intelligence community.

On the Daily Caller, an article titled How the Nations Spooks Played the Game Kill Mike Flynn claimed, The talk within the tight-knit community of retired intelligence officers was that Flynns sacking was a result of intelligence insiders at the CIA, NSA and National Security Council using a sophisticated disinformation campaign to create a crisis atmosphere. Breitbart, meanwhile, aggregated reporting on the issue from the Wall Street Journal under the headline Deep State #Resistance: Spies Withhold Intel From Trump, Says WSJ.

Meanwhile, National Review stood largely alone on Thursday in proposing that Congress should investigate Trumps relationship with Russia. In a formal editorial, it proposed that such an inquiry is necessary, whether or not this matter is on the order of Watergate. The editors wrote, A steadier hand is in order. Its time for the appropriate committees to conduct the oversightof the executive branch, and of the intelligence servicesfor which they are responsible.

Most publications turned their attention Thursday to other media outlets. Several sites featured posts mocking mainstream publications for worrying that Trump had primarily invited questions from conservative news organizations at his Wednesday joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Media Freakout Over Pecking Order Rages On, read a representative LifeZette headline. The Daily Caller drew from eight years of Barack Obamas interactions with the press to present 13 Hard-Hitting Questions Liberal Reporters Asked Obama, including one from Jim Acosta of CNN, who has been especially upset about conservative media access to the White House.

Town Halls Guy Benson approached the issue somewhat more soberly, offering a four-point analysis. Its fair to say that if President Obama had exclusively called on explicitly left-leaning outlets over the course of multiple consecutive press conferences conservatives would have melted down, Benson acknowledged. He went on to write that he didnt think personal pique was the top driving factor of their grousing. He proposed, however, that the mainstream presss reaction was driven by a deep-seated arrogance and ideological myopia, which blinds its representatives to the journalistic chops of less-than-liberal reporters.

Continuing this trend, conservative publications zeroed in on the presidents bromides against the mainstream media during his Thursday afternoon press conference. On its home page, Breitbart quoted Trumps assertion that the media has become so dishonest that if we dont talk about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people. Town Hall described the event as Round Two of his battle with CNNs Jim Acosta, writing, Trump asked CNN to do some self reflection. He told them to honestly consider not airing such anti-Trump news every night, and theyll see their ratings rise.

Sean Hannity presumably wasnt surprised by all this rancor. Youve heard me saying since 2008: Journalism is dead. But what were seeing play out now is far worse, he pronounced in his opening monologue.

Posts from conservative pages about polls indicating high approval numbers for Trump circulated widely on Facebook:

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Conservative media outlets mocked liberal ones for their ...

Liberals have discovered a new word.

Lie: to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive.

MSNBC's Lawrence ODonnell went so far as to crown himself the enemy of Trump lies. Interestingly, the concept of lying has been noticeably absent from liberal vocabulary for the last eight years.

This characterization was nowhere to be found when President Barack ObamaBarack ObamaMellman: Rating the presidents Webb: The future of conservatism Moulitsas: Trumps warped sense of reality MOREs then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice appeared on five Sunday talk shows and blamed the Benghazi attacks on a YouTube video. In lockstep, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton allegedly assured the families of the four dead Americans that she would get the videomaker; this promise came despite Clinton knowing full well that terrorists were to blame.

Indeed, Clinton wrote in two emails in the immediate aftermath of Benghazi that these Americans were killed in Benghazi by an al Qaeda-like group not at the hands of a spontaneous protest triggered by a video. Nevertheless, she purportedly deceived the families of these American heroes.

The L-word was absent when the Obama administration promised 37 times if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it, only to be followed by millions of Americans losing their plans and doctors en masse. According to NBC, the Obama administration knew millions could not keep their health insurance. Liberals, nevertheless, played the naivet card.

Lying allegations were nonexistent when Hillary Clinton vowed that she did not email any classified material to anyone on my email only to be followed by a revised vow that she never sent nor received any information that was classified at the time it was sent and received before finally arriving at the promise that she never received nor sent any material that was marked classified.

Is your head spinning? Mine too! Clintons evolving and lawyerly defenses of course came as the evidence of her sending and receiving classified information became public. As the facts grew, so too did evidence of Clintons intentional deception.

Rather than label the Obama and Clinton duplicities as lies, liberals rationalized them. Obama and Clinton did not intend to deceive, and thus they did not lie.

Rice and Clinton were caught up in the fog of war during Benghazi, as Clinton stated to a congressional panel. Obama did not realize millions would lose their plans. And Clinton, despite having three decades of government experience, just did not know how to handle classified information.

In other words, because these liberals did not intend to deceive a questionable notion at best, given the facts they did not lie.

If the left would use this same exacting precision in analyzing the words of President Trump, not only would they find that Trump is not lying but that he lacks the nefarious cover-up motives involved in several of the aforementioned Democratic mistruths.

For instance, I was at Trumps Saturday rally in Melbourne, Fla., where he urged his audience to look at whats happening last night in Sweden.

The left used Trumps vague statement to impart sinister suspicion. How dare he make up a terrorist attack!? and liar! were but a few of the apoplectic freak-outs. Meanwhile, the person beside me heard it entirely differently. Hes referring to information he gathered regarding Sweden last night, this person said.

Trumps clarification on Twitter that his last night remark indeed referred to a Friday night Fox News segment on crime in Switzerland validated the latter interpretation over the former. Nevertheless, the former interpretation was adopted as gospel.

The lefts lying narrative was again on full display when Trump stated that the murder rate was the highest it has been in 47 years. The liberals accused Trump of intentionally planting a false statistic, but they ought to have done a cursory Google search, which would have clarified exactly what Trump was getting at: the U.S. had just seen the biggest increase in murders in 45 years.

Trump used this statistic several times throughout the campaign, and Politifact rated his statement as mostly true. But this time Trump left out one word increase and the left lost it, resorting to the lying label.

The truth is liberals are using every tactic possible to drown the Trump presidency. False allegations of racism, bigotry, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and now lying each have their own chapter in the Trump takedown playbook.

As it turns out, the only lies being told are not by President Donald TrumpDonald TrumpWH adviser Stephen Miller: 'Nothing wrong' with Trump travel order Mellman: Rating the presidents Webb: The future of conservatism MORE but by liberals, who will hypocritically mischaracterize Trumps every action. They do so intentionally the very definition of a lie.

Kayleigh McEnany is a CNN political commentator who recently received her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. She graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and also studied politics at Oxford University.

The views of contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.

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Liberal 'lies' about President Trump - The Hill (blog)

President Trump on Tuesday said that liberal activists are orchestrating agitated crowds in GOP lawmakers' home districts across the country.

The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists. Sad! Trump wrote on Twitter.

The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists. Sad!

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Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) and Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) both encountered protesters at recent gatherings in their home districts.

House Oversight Chairman Jason ChaffetzJason ChaffetzGOP rep pushes back on Trump's tweet about town hall protests Trump: Protesters at GOP town halls 'planned out by liberal activists' Juan Williams: Senate GOP begins to push Trump away MORE (R-Utah) earlier this month faced a group of demonstrators back in his district, as protesters called into question his treatment of President Donald TrumpDonald TrumpWH adviser Stephen Miller: 'Nothing wrong' with Trump travel order Mellman: Rating the presidents Webb: The future of conservatism MORE.

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Trump: Protesters at GOP town halls 'planned out by liberal activists' - The Hill

War historian: Will New NSA Get Leeway He Needs?

Selecting Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster as national-security adviser is President Trumps most imaginative decision to date, says Fred Kaplan at Slate. The question is, will Trumps inner circle let McMaster do his job? Hes widely viewed as the Armys smartest officer and has strong ties to Defense Secretary James Mattis. He has also made a career of speaking truth to power, often instinctively, without the slightest talent for fawning to his superiors. But hes spent little time in Washington and will need an excellent deputy. So if current deputy K.T. McFarland and a few others dont resign in the coming days, it may be an ominous sign that McMaster was given less leeway than hell need to do the job right.

Security expert: Trump Doesnt Need Public Opinion

Critics who never accepted Donald Trumps presidency are setting speed records raising the issue of impeachment or the specter of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him, notes James S. Robbins in USA Today. But their real fear, he says, isnt that Trump cant do the job, but rather that he is using the power of the presidency to do exactly what he said hed do, and quickly. Whether the public approves depends on which poll you read. Yet the question of the reliability of the polls is not as important as the fact that Trump does not care what they say. If he fretted about polling, he never would have been elected in the first place. Thats because Trump is not the kind of needy, approval-driven president who even feels it necessary to consult public opinion when naming his dog.

From the right: Why Jane Roe Defended the Unborn

Norma McCorvey, the Roe of the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling, died Saturday at age 69. And as Nicholas Frankovich notes at National Review, she underwent a midlife conversion from pro-choice to pro-life activism when she became a Catholic. In speeches, she noted that she never actually had an abortion (she gave birth while the case was being litigated) and confessed that she was lying when, to bolster her case, she asserted that her pregnancy resulted from rape. She also complained that abortion-rights lawyers and activists had used her as a pawn. So McCorvey spent the last two decades of her life defending the dignity of unborn children and, in the process, herself.

Conservative take: Sports Writing Has Gone All Liberal

Michael Brendan Dougherty at The Week agrees with those who contend that nowadays sports writing is basically a liberal profession, practiced by liberals who enforce an unapologetically liberal code. You can see it, he says, in the way sportswriters police a consensus against the Washington Redskins name, or for on-field political activism. They no longer speak for the common fan they speak at the common fan, or even just at a caricature of a fan that they assembled from the most voluble sports talk radio callers and the obscure Twitter accounts that jeer their work. But this narrowness, he says, puts them in an antagonistic position not just with fans, but with the entire sports culture beyond journalism.

Culture critic: Late-Night TV Is No Longer Funny

Once upon a time, says Rachel DiCarlo Currie at Acculturated, late-night comedians told jokes. Now, apparently, they destroy people. It started with Jon Stewart; the chief destroyers now are Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers and Trevor Noah. All this destruction, she notes, tends to be highly subjective because if you dont subscribe to the progressive worldview, you probably will not agree that these people effectively destroyed their mostly conservative targets. In fact, its politics, rather than genuine comedy, that drives the laughs: Its a culture that too often confuses snark with wit and sneering with reasoning a culture that values a good takedown more than a good argument.

Compiled by Eric Fettmann

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The liberal takeover of sports writing, how 'Jane Doe' switched sides, and other comments - New York Post