Tucker Carlson: On the Death of Comedy

Tucker Carlson: Late-night Comedy died during Trump’s Presidency.

Adam Carolla:

You know they’ve got to everybody when they’ve got to comedians.  Think about that, Professors, cops and politicans — they caved.  Now the fact that comedians have caved means everyone is scared of the Woke Mob. “

UPDATE: Youtubes gone, so Bitchute whole Episode here. Mark Steyn does some parody at 11 mins.  The discussion of the Death of Comedy starts at 27 mins.  25 March 2021

But comedy is not complete dead on late night cable: check Mark Steyn — especially on the fawning slavish American Media:

Biden said we have to raise every road 3 feet because of climate change, … and they took that, these people, the Court Enuchs went along with it…

Mark Steyn on Joe Biden declaring he might run for another term:

… I have no idea who the government of the United States is, but if the Deep State can get away with this, they can get away with anything.

The Deep State are saying, if we can pull this off, we don’t need anyone in the Oval Office. 

 

Matt Taibbi: The Death of Humor

Review of “Killer Cartoons,” edited by David Wallis, and “White,” by Bret Easton Ellis

Humor is dying all over, for obvious reasons. All comedy is subversive and authoritarianism is the fashion. Comics exist to keep us from taking ourselves too seriously, and we live in an age when people believe they have a constitutional right to be taken seriously, even if — especially if — they’re idiots, repeating thoughts they only just heard for the first time minutes ago. Because humor deflates stupid ideas, humorists are denounced in all cultures that worship stupid ideas, like Spain under the Inquisition, Afghanistan under the Taliban, or today’s United States.

A lot of the anti-Trump cartoons were neither all that creative nor funny — if “He’s gay and has a little dick!” is the best you can do with that politician, you probably need a new line of work …

9.7 out of 10 based on 70 ratings

133 comments to Tucker Carlson: On the Death of Comedy

  • #
    Gloabl Cooling

    he Deep State are saying, if we can pull this off, we don’t need anyone in the Oval Office.

    What if we the people want to live without White House, Capitol, Washington DC, Brussels, Headquarters of United Nations, … ? Our representatives would live near us and meet and vote remotely. This would make lobbying more difficult. Short term limits, of course.

    No Climate Change events anymore.

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    • #
      Lawrie

      It used to be that way once when the local Chieftain controlled the tribe. The trouble was the only way to get elected was to do away with the incumbent. Come to think of it that is what happened in November. Small tribes are swallowed by bigger tribes until you get a nation and hey presto we are where we are.

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    • #
      Tilba Tilba

      What if we the people want to live without White House, Capitol, Washington DC, Brussels, Headquarters of United Nations, … ? Our representatives would live near us and meet and vote remotely. This would make lobbying more difficult. Short term limits, of course.

      This is the basis of Anarchism … they were (are) very deeply suspicious of a powerful state, and the ascendancy of a ruling political class. I think they have a good point.

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      • #
        Kalm Keith

        “This is the basis of Anarchism ”

        More Verbalism.

        Anarchism is helped along by the shutting down of reality and a failure to address common abuses of trust like the Catastrophic Global Warming and death by incineration due to CO2 levels meme being applied to dominate and control.

        Propagating unrestrained greed and envy is not the way to achieve growth and improvement in society as we are currently experiencing.

        Build on the rock, and not upon the sand.

        Building on a swamp is even worse.

        KK

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        • #
          Tilba Tilba

          Not sure which way you’re swinging there … are you pro-Anarchism or not?

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          • #
            Kalm Keith

            I’ve never looked.

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            • #
              GlenM

              Well I guess we’re sick of being governed by inept idiots – centralised government at that. You can see what’s going on down in Canberra with this pile on from the leftist Press gallery. All of this is politics for urban dwellers and doesn’t concern the bush one bit. Stuff them.

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              • #
                Sceptical Sam

                Of course, you’d not be talking about a National Party member of the NSW Parliament on his way home to his electorate of Upper Hunter who dropped into Yellow Rock on the way for an assignation with a hooker in the bushes, would you?

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    • #
      OldOzzie

      American Exodus

      Don’t wait for the oligarchy to let you in. Just walk away.

      Today, the oligarchy that controls American society’s commanding heights leaves those who are neither its members nor its clients little choice but to marshal their forces for their own exodus. The federal government, the governments of states and localities run by the Democratic Party, along with the major corporations, the educational establishment, and the news media set strict but movable boundaries about what they may or may not say—on pain of being cast out, isolated from society’s mainstream. Using an ever-shifting variety of urgent excuses, which range from the coronavirus, to the threat of domestic terrorism, to catastrophic climate change, to the evils of racism, they issue edicts that they enforce through anti-democratic means—from social pressure and threats, to corporate censorship of digital platforms, to bureaucratic fiat. Nobody voted for this.

      What forces can and can’t this oligarchy bring to bear? We have a hint from Time magazine’s Feb. 4, 2021, valedictory of “a vast, cross-partisan campaign” by leaders of business, labor, and the media, in cooperation with the Democratic Party, that “got states to change voting systems and laws” for the 2020 presidential election in contravention of black-letter constitutional law. Rulings by judges in Michigan and Virginia that changes to those states’ absentee ballot laws were blatantly illegal matters not one whit.

      Why not? Because the coalition of masters controls the levers of the state and the press. As Time reveals, they “helped secure hundreds of millions in public and private funding. They fended off voter-suppression lawsuits, recruited armies of poll workers and got millions of people to vote by mail for the first time. They successfully pressured social media companies to take a harder line against disinformation and used data-driven strategies to fight viral smears.” Because these elites realized that “engaging with toxic content only made it worse,” they decided on “removing content or accounts that spread disinformation and by more aggressively policing it in the first place.” Instead of answering facts and arguments with which they disagreed, they would ignore their substance and smear whoever voiced them.

      The boldness and novelty of these as well as of unmentioned tactics delivered the desired electoral result, and power heretofore unimaginable: Americans in 2021 are being fired or “canceled” from society for whatever anyone connected with the oligarchy finds objectionable—even for asking for evidence of the oligarchy’s assertions. Yet Time tells us that because the process of defeating Donald Trump’s voters angered them further, these oligarchs worry that they gained only “a respite.” Hence the united oligarchy must seek, as The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie put it, permanent “national political dominance.”

      Hate-as-identity was key to the ruling class’s victory in the 2020 election. For the elites, indulging sentiments of moral superiority, promoting hate, and rubbing “deplorable” faces in the dirt is a means to secure and mobilize supporters, which itself is incidental to securing the material benefits of power. For those who deliver the votes, indulging hate is affirmation of identity.

      Ruling people by insulting and harming them is problematic, and not reversible. The use that the oligarchy made of the COVID epidemic added to insult and injury, as well as to its power, in a manner previously unimaginable.

      The oligarchy’s cancellation of most ordinary people out of its desired America leaves the latter with the choice between helotry and exodus. But since submission to inconstant, inept masters is impossible, common sense suggests counter-canceling: limiting involvement with the oligarchy to minimizing its interference on individuals who don’t share its aims and preferences.

      The oligarchy’s cancellation of ordinary working people—of those who actively participate in forms of organized religion, and are otherwise attached to the common norms and values that prevailed in America and shaped the civilization in and by which most of us live—signals an alienation deeper than that between citizens of different but friendly nations.

      Extremely Long but accurate assessment

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      • #
        Tilba Tilba

        Today, the oligarchy that controls American society’s commanding heights leaves those who are neither its members nor its clients little choice but to marshal their forces for their own exodus.

        It’s really interesting that writers like this (and there are plenty of them), can’t bring it upon themselves to use the word CAITALISM … that the system of power, ownership, wealth accumulation, control of legislation, and the dismemberment of unions and the working class is anything other than Capitalism working as it does.

        These authors tie themselves in knots by using terms like oligarchs, elites, globalists, the deep state, the compliant mainstream media … and the highest level of irrationality is to implicate the Democrat Party. Note to readers – the party of capitalism is the Republicans!

        There is not one piece of legislation in the last 50 years that was initiated and passed by Republicans, and signed by a Republican president – whose aim is to assist or support average working Americans … not one. Let alone minorities and really poor people.

        Why are the Republicans desperate to keep the filibuster? It has been used and abused for more than one hundred years as a Jim Crow blunt instrument, and for much else besides. The Republicans want the filibuster so that no serious Democrat legislation can be passed.

        Anyway – I think far too many people see problems, but then blame the wrong cause for the problems. The Dems, CNN, and Yale University did not cause the hollowing out of hundreds of Midwest industrial towns – capitalism did it – they sipped their factories to Mexico or China or Vietnam.

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        • #
          Global Cooling

          blame the wrong cause for the problems. The Dems, CNN, and Yale University did not cause the hollowing out of hundreds of Midwest industrial towns – capitalism did it – they sipped their factories to Mexico or China or Vietnam

          This what governments and big businesses do together. This what bad “ism”s do. Government taxes, subsides, regulates and does weak trade deals. If you have good business, government steals it and gives it to the oligarchs. No American dream anymore.

          Factories then either go out of business or work with countries with lower taxation, heavier subsidies, fewer regulations, lower energy prices and weaker employee rights.

          Then we have no initiatives, innovations, entrepreneurship. Business fades. Government prints more money, adds social programs and entitlements until the whole house of cards breaks down.

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    • #
      Kalm Keith

      A good way to move the emphaasis of input to decision making.

      Lots of local relevant opinions sifted through to be sent on to head office.

      Barring head office antics, a much better system: sort of “grass roots”.

      KK

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  • #
    Michael Reed

    Years ago I discovered that comedians would only mock Climate skeptics (long before Woke,SJW
    and Ext-reb) and they would defend CAGW by making out that heretics weren’t understanding
    or following the “science”.In time I’m of the feeling that a lot of these comedians(and politicians) never were that much interested in even high school science and probably went on to do arts
    or law degrees at Uni.So they have become that indoctrinated with Climate Change activism
    that they believe its there “duty”to save the world by putting down anyone who has the audacity
    to question this faux science.
    Cheers Mike Reed

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    • #
      Jojodogfacedboy

      It’s all about who’s covering the tab.
      You don’t piss off the people paying your career.
      Many examples exist on this of the media proping up terrible actors while lambasting good ones who unfortunately opened their mouths at the wrong time.

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    • #
      Dave in the States

      “…never were that much interested in even high school science and probably went on to do arts
      or law degrees at Uni.”

      A large percentage of these never got an arts degree either. Unless they started handing out degrees for alcohol, marijuana, and pizza consumption.

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    • #
      Ian

      “In time I’m of the feeling that a lot of these comedians(and politicians) never were that much interested in even high school science and probably went on to do artsor law degrees at Uni.”

      It isn’t only comedians and politicians who are not scientists but the majority of the people in populations around the world are not scientists either. Denmark heads the list with 15.65 scientists per 1000 full time equivalent employed (FTEE) followed by South Korea (15.33) Sweden (14.78) and Finland (14.52). The UK and the US are at 9.53 and 9.33 per 1000 FTEE respectively with Australia at 9.03 and NZ at 10.09.

      https://www.statista.com/statistics/264644/ranking-of-oecd-countries-by-number-of-scientists-and-researchers/

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      • #
        bobn

        Of course it depends on how you define ‘scientist’. If you define it as someone who uses the ‘scientific method’ you could probably devide those numbers by 10 to find actual scientists, and not just self proclaimed advocates and computer gamers.

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      • #
        David Maddison

        Israel has a high ratio of scientists (probably mostly non-government) and therefore probably a fair bit of climate change skepticism. This is reflected by only one very old 10MW wind farm plus a few small solar projects.

        Israel does have one legitimate, economical and extensive use of solar energy and that is rooftop solar heaters for domestic hot water.

        From Wikipedia:

        Israel counts 140 scientists and technicians per 10,000 employees, one of the highest ratios in the world. In comparison, there are 85 per 10,000 in the United States and 83 per 10,000 in Japan. In 2012, Israel counted 8,337 full-time equivalent researchers per million inhabitants. This compares with 3,984 in the US, 6,533 in the Republic of South Korea and 5,195 in Japan. Israel’s high technology industry has benefited from both the country’s highly educated and technologically skilled workforce coupled with the strong presence of foreign high-tech firms and sophisticated research centres.

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        • #
          Gary Simpson

          From what I see of academic types, many who feel the need to call themselves ‘professor, ‘doctor’, etc., have gained their degrees so they can do exactly that. Perhaps they have not gained intelligence, but have accumulated lots of little pieces of knowledge to fit together with the intention of impressing others with their intellectual prowess. But none of this knowledge originated in their heads.

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  • #
    John R Smith

    We should not be making jokes at the expense of other people or species.
    Except those of European descent.
    (Being conservative transmutes to European regardless of heritage.)
    I myself, have in the past, made jokes at the expense of Asians.
    I aporogize.

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    • #
      Yonniestone

      Very funny, I laugh long time.

      People have forgotten that jokes are just a form of expression designed to get a reaction from the audience, there are ones that have an element of malice but the vast majority aim for a humourous result, what the ‘woke’ are aiming for is to condition people into thinking the opposite and that jokes (especially old ones) are a form of hate speech stemming from the bad old days of too much free speech and unknown insensitivities that they have discovered and need to educate the population about.

      What its really about is the old story of left wing politics gone unchecked to the point of not even trying to hide its obsession with control and the hatred of those that dare say no to them, just like humour those that say no will always exist and nothing in this world is forever.

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    • #
      David Wojick

      Fortunately most of the jokes I know are about Europeans. But surely most of those are ruled out by considerations of gender, sexual orientation, age, weight, height and myriad other features. There may only be two jokes left in the world!

      Screw it, let’s tell some jokes about Europeans. Why did the English invent the wheelbarrow? It was the only way they could get the Irish to walk upright.

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      • #
        another ian

        David

        Do you think that the likes of Tor might have “Jokenet” or do we have to reinvent nursery rhymes?

        40

      • #
        Tilba Tilba

        Screw it, let’s tell some jokes about Europeans. Why did the English invent the wheelbarrow? It was the only way they could get the Irish to walk upright.

        Good grief David! You have crashed and burned at the first hurdle! 🙂

        The Irish throughout history have been oppressed by the English – and many of the jokes have revolved around how drunk, stupid, and fickle the Irish are. Just so much oppression going on … and now such jokes would not be heard outside certain clubs and pubs! But this …

        Q: Where does an Englishman hide his money?
        A: Under the soap

        See – that one’s kosher.

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        • #
          bobn

          Those weren’t jokes about the Irish, they were social observations.
          And just remember, if it wasn’t for the English giving the Irish someone else to fight against the Irish would have fought themselves to extinction!

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          • #
            another ian

            And the Irish are being discriminated against again – the best tellers of Irish jokes were the Irish

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            • #
              Peter C

              Absolutely.

              Dermot Morgan (Father Ted) came immediately to mind. My favourite was Dave Allen.
              Dave Allen used to sit on a bar stool and tell stories and jokes. His only props were a cigarette and a glass of Irish wiskey!

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            • #

              The irish who told the irish jokes to an english audience to make their living. It was still the jokes that the English recognised. And bobn feeling confort in the idea that they were social observations of oppressed poor people is somehow not the powerful making jokes about the weak for their own benefit.

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          • #
            MichaelinBrisbane

            And for the Irish, what’s written on the bottom of Coca Cola bottles?
            “Open other end”

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        • #
          Just Thinkin'

          An Irish joke.

          Why do Aussies wear thongs?

          They haven’t learnt how to tie shoe laces.

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          • #
            another ian

            More truthfully

            “Why do Qld landholders wear elastic sided boots?”

            “Because Qld laws won’t let them tie their own shoe laces”

            And how things go in and out of “Government enthusiasm” – when I first heard that it was a Western Lands (NSW) joke and now people with land in both states tell me that they are better off in NSW

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        • #
          David Wojick

          You may have missed the point. Most jokes insult somebody. If we can’t do that there are no jokes.

          Re the Irish, me mither’s mither was a Moran. I might be kin to Bugsy.

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    • #
      Kevin kilty

      Two decades ago I was doing a lot of contract work for Shin Etsu Chemical. I was testing semiconductor wafer processing equipment for its compliance with SECS/GEM standard for automatic control. The equipment came from Taiwan, Korea, Japan, etc. I had to read technical manuals written in English, but actually written by many people whose first language was not English. In one of the Japanese manuals I read a passage that said “Do not do X or the robot will clash into the grass doors.”

      It may have been a coincidence, but I did wonder if the confusion between “l” and “r” sounds didn’t extend all the way to the written word.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/408063-why-arent-liberals-fun-anymore

    (Note, this article uses the US meaning of liberal meaning left wing, not conservative classical liberwlism.)

    September 24, 2018 – 10:00 AM EDT

    Why aren’t liberals fun anymore?

    BY STEPHEN MOORE, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR

    The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill

    Several months ago, the very night the Stormy Daniels story broke, I appeared on Don Lemon’s show on CNN. The producer told the guests a few minutes before we went on air that Lemon wanted our reaction to the Daniels allegations. The first guest said something trite about how “she may be doing this to call attention to herself, but we have to treat these charges against Trump very seriously.” Next, Lemon turned to me for my reaction. I really had no opinion about this story, so I just blurted out the first thing that popped into my head: “Gee, Don, who would have ever thought a stripper would want to call attention to herself?”

    Now, if you are a normal person, you probably at least laugh a little or smile about that line. But the video went viral on YouTube because the other three guests, all liberals, and Lemon sat stone faced when I said that. They didn’t crack even the slightest hint of a smile. There was just a long awkward silence until I finally said, “Hello, that’s a joke.”

    The point of this story is that liberals just don’t have a sense of humor anymore. The rage that the left feels now about President Trump, tax cuts, conservatives, Brett Kavanaugh and more has become so all consuming that it has made many liberals miserable to be around.

    Consider the statement by Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), who lashed out last week at her Republican colleagues regarding the sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh: “Guess who is perpetrating all of these kinds of actions? It’s the men in this country. I just want to say to the men in this country: Just shut up and step up.” It’s not just that she said it, but she now wears this nastiness as a badge of honor. She even received a standing ovation in the Capitol the other day from abortion activists.

    Similarly, the ugly incident when White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was kicked out of a restaurant weeks ago wasn’t an aberration. Liberals are so filled with a sense of moral superiority and rage that they literally don’t want to sit in the same dining room with us.

    Last week, I gave a talk at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley to some 250 technology executives and the venture capitalists who fund them. I asked at the start of my speech how many of them have a positive opinion of Trump. Now, mind you, if any group has been transformed into gazillionaires because of Trump policies, it was this crowd. Out of the 250 attendees, about three people dared to raise their hands. I knew that liberalism is transcendent in the Bay Area, but I didn’t realize groupthink was this lopsided.

    After the speech, about 20 to 30 of the attendees came up and said they enjoyed my talk. Several whispered that they really like what Trump is doing. Huh? Why didn’t they raise their hands? The answers: “I have clients here and I will lose them if they know I support Trump;” “I will be ostracized if my friends know my real feelings;” “I didn’t want to get into an argument with people;” and so on.

    The sad irony is that it is liberals who are running the sanctimonious and moralistic crusades to end bullying in America. Yet, apparently, there are just some views that aren’t worth tolerating. A conservative friend of mine always uses a line about liberals hating Trump more than they love America. It would be one thing to hate Trump if his policies were failing, as liberals unanimously believed would happen. But, lo, we now are nearing the end of 2018 as one of the most prosperous periods in modern times, and that has only further infuriated Trump haters.

    Perhaps it is just human nature to hate the one who keeps proving you wrong. Some are like comedian and talk show host Bill Maher, who admits he wants millions of Americans to lose their jobs, so that we can get rid of Trump. Yes, that’s just what this country needs now, a little more misery.

    The economic boom is now palpable to nearly all Americans. It transcends spin. Polls are showing that Trump is unpopular, but Americans are upbeat about the economy. Consumers are spending like there’s no tomorrow. That is what is so disconcerting about liberal rage. They are bitterly unhappy at the very moment that the American economy is as prosperous as at anytime in modern history, and when median family incomes just hit an all time high, when black and Hispanic unemployment have hit record lows. What’s so bad about feeling good?

    What a difference a generation makes. It used to be conservatives who were the stuffy ones. Liberals were the fun ones to be around. Now the ones who are so uptight are the liberals like actor Jeff Bridges, who once was funny but now is so embarrassed by modern day America that he seems to want to be anywhere on this planet, except here. OK, then, just go! Liberals are making it clearer with each passing day that they don’t want to associate with conservatives any longer. As a conservative, I hate to say it, but more and more the feeling is mutual.

    Stephen Moore is an economic consultant with Freedom Works and served as an economic adviser to the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. He and Arthur Laffer are authors of the forthcoming book, “Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive Our Economy,” to be published this fall.

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    • #
      Margaret Smith

      Very well written comment, David, and I enjoyed reading it. Of course, it helps that I agreed with the contents.

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    • #
      Jojodogfacedboy

      I think it more has to do with…
      Had President Trump been in office, alot of politicians were going to jail.
      He had 5 out of every 6 counties vote Trump. That was a pretty impressive red wave.

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      • #
        BruceC

        He had 5 out of every 6 counties vote Trump. That was a pretty impressive red wave

        And yet we are to believe that JoeBama won a fair and square 2020 Presidential election with +80 million votes. Heck, the squatter in the the WH can’t even get 10,000 viewers watching any White House press release videos. Go have a look at videos of when he visits towns and cities around the country and see how many people turn up.

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        • #
          Tilba Tilba

          And yet we are to believe that JoeBama won a fair and square 2020 Presidential election with +80 million votes. Heck, the squatter in the the WH can’t even get 10,000 viewers watching any White House press release videos. Go have a look at videos of when he visits towns and cities around the country and see how many people turn up.

          The number of counties you win, or the percentage of land area you win, and even the national popular vote – none of these count towards winning the presidency – only the number of states. I think they could make it MUCH more properly representative by allocating the electoral college votes proportionally. So if you win 55% of the vote in California, you get 55% of the delegates, not 100%.

          I think Trump lost because he was deeply unpopular outside the base. Biden was not deeply popular, is pretty boring, and people have turned off politics. Ratings for Fox, CNN, etc, have crashed since 20 January.

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          • #

            Or ratings crashed because everyone could see how fake their news was.

            The whole point of the Senate representation and uneven House allocation is so that large inner city areas and concentrated populations don’t end up dominating the whole democracy and minority groups. IF the Dems succeeded in doing that I expect the flyover states who make the food will secede. Given that schools in the inner city barely teach anything connected to reality of food, energy, manufacturing, history and the non-keynsian economy, inner city ignorant voters get swept up in these crazy fashions like Wokeness.

            One-equal-vote-democracies might work if everyone did 2 year national service in the military or on a farm. 😉

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            • #
              Kalm Keith

              Yeah: Nasho on a farm.

              Work or don’t eat.

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            • #
              Tilba Tilba

              The whole point of the Senate representation and uneven House allocation is so that large inner city areas and concentrated populations don’t end up dominating the whole democracy and minority groups.

              I didn’t talk about Senate or Reps voting – only presidential voting – but since it’s been raised, I can comment.

              I have no particular issue with the US House of Reps – the seats per state are more-or-less fairly apportioned against population. The scandal in the Reps is the corrupt gerrymandering, not only by the Republicans, but mostly. The flipside of this scandal is that partisan (elected) state officials get to do their own districting every ten years!

              A non-partisan electoral commission should do it … but of course it won’t happen – what politician gives up the power that keeps them in power? It has to be taken from them.

              As for the Senate, it was a compromise (as it was in Australia) – the small states demanding a states’ house to push back against the huge states. I don’t mind the principle – in theory. But like many things in theory, there are problems.

              Firstly, the uneven growth of the US over 250 years could not be forecast, and it is now ludicrous that huge states like California and Texas have only the same number of senators as Montana and Vermont. It needs fixing … but won’t be.

              By the way, California grows about 90% of a wide range of fruit and vegetables – the flyover states wheat, beef, corn, and pork!

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              • #

                The Senate deal might have been “a compromise” but the alternative is that states don’t have to be in the Union do they?

                And it might be better that way.

                If states with the faster growing populations could get more Senators what’s to stop states bringing in mass immigration to gain more power (and welfare)…

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              • #

                what’s to stop states bringing in mass immigration to gain more power (and welfare)

                red neck voters wont stand for that

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            BruceC

            I think Trump lost because he was deeply unpopular outside the base.

            Trump didn’t lose, it was stolen from him.

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              Tilba Tilba

              Yeah well … we’ve covered that. No poll showed Trump higher than 45% and that’s roughly what he scored (stand by for claims that all the polling was dodgy too!).

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      Tilba Tilba

      Now, if you are a normal person, you probably at least laugh a little or smile about that line. But the video went viral on YouTube because the other three guests, all liberals, and Lemon sat stone faced when I said that. They didn’t crack even the slightest hint of a smile. There was just a long awkward silence until I finally said, “Hello, that’s a joke.”

      I think the author is (or was) totally ingenuous. You don’t go on to a news program and say what was said … and not just CNN.

      Firstly, “being a joke” does not excuse offensive material – although it has been the typical defence for centuries. Secondly – while this is not a rape case, but a sex-for-money case, the joke has strong overtones of slut-shaming … you diminish the credibility or seriousness of a charge on the basis of the “character” of the person doing the claiming. This is not okay.

      And over my longish life, I have no doubt laughed at thousands of sexist, racist, anti-gay, anti-disabled, and much else … but not any more. I like the fact that the political Zeitgeist has changed pretty radically over the last generation or two. I don’t believe I have lost my sense of humour – I just don’t laugh at other people’s expense. And I did like the joke by Stormy Daniels at Trump’s expense.

      “I did have sex with Donald Trump one night … it was the worst 90 seconds of my life”. Now that is funny.

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        ” I have no doubt laughed at thousands of sexist, racist, anti-gay, anti-disabled, and much else … but not any more.”

        You are a good and obedient boy Tilba Tilba. Obviously it is fashionable today to insist that women, gays etc are a special unequal subclass who NEVER do anything self-serving, pious, or daft unlike the rest of humanity. Nor do they exaggerate, lie, or say things to gain status or funding. They are pure but weak angels that need special rules lest they suffer the slightest mockery.

        Your attitude that these subgroups need protection from laughter is a form of soft racism and sexism.

        As a women, if I cared about your opinion, I would find your offer of pathetic “protection” offensive.

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          Klem

          Exactly right. Andrew Breitbart once said that politics is downstream from culture. Where I live our politicians are decades behind the times and have created many state programs to help the women folk, because they still think of them as weak and helpless. I know lots of females but none of them are weak and helpless, they stand on their own two feet and don’t need help from anyone.

          Governments still think women are weak and need special help from the state. What century are governments living in?

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          Tilba Tilba

          Andrew Breitbart once said that politics is downstream from culture.

          Well … Mr Breitbart must have learnt from Marx, Hegel, and others who have discussed this in-depth and for a very long time. Perhaps Gramsci and Foucault as well.

          Governments still think women are weak and need special help from the state. What century are governments living in?

          Government think women are underpaid, and often face all sorts of discrimination in the workplace – and other environments too. It’s not about weakness and helplessness but the reverse of that … modern governments recognise that women aren’t weak and helpless but strong, competent, and the equal of men in most areas.

          We don’t have to go back many years to find vast areas of life that were closed off to women. That is changing for the good.

          11

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      Denny

      Dave

      An outstanding piece. I agree with all your points, especially about liberals having no sense of humor and feelings of moral superiority.

      The clowns on the left are economic illiterates believing that the Federal Government, the Tooth Fairy, Elf on the Shelf and Tinker Bell create national wealth and Capitalism is the enemy. Listening to the Democrats recently makes me feel as if we are back in the 1950s with their demands for voting rights legislation and the end of systemic racism. Apparently, the old Democrats were in a drug induced coma and missed out on the progress that has been made since the 1960s. They aren’t Progressives. They are Regressives. Cultural norms have passed them by.

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      • #
        Kevin kilty

        Half the Democrat party of the 1950s were unashamed racists and segregationists. Some were members of the KKK. They fought against Eisenhower’s civil rights legislation. Eisenhower had to send the 82nd Airborne to Little Rock, Arkansas to enforce school desegregation. The south was run by the Democrat party from after reconstruction until the 1980 or 1990s in places.

        People have to wake up to the propaganda and fake history of the Democrat party.

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    Penguinite

    The original comedians were the ‘court jesters’ whose self-perceived job was to make the King laugh and spread the news but risked his life while doing so. Stand-up comedy today is an oxymoron! Mostly delivered by morons on oxy or some other opioid. Their set pieces are just a list of swear-words. The audiences laugh and applaud at inane statements and ridicule. They are just not funny any more!

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    Gary Simpson

    So, slow Joe wants to raise the height of every U.S. highway by 3 feet? Does it not occur to the acolyte ‘journalists’ listening to this crap that there are many roads which are hundreds, if not thousands, of feet above sea level? How far is the sea supposed to rise? The only clear and present danger to the planet is that these morons continue to exist on it.

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    • #
      Murray Shaw

      One wonders if Obama is planning on raising his new pile on Martha’s Vineyard by the required three feet?

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      Gary Simpson

      Hey Joe, how about the houses?

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      Richard Ilfeld

      this is so dumb. All we have to do is pull the plug and wait a few minutes. The oceans will lower by three feet and the roads will
      be safe. See how easy it is to solve problems if you use science?

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    • #
      Paul Miskelly

      Tying in rather neatly with yesterday’s post on how fossil fuels subsidise the world: is slow old Joe so stupid that he does not realise that any attempt to raise the height of the roads requires the use of enormous quantities of energy which can only be obtained by the burning of enormous quantities of fossil fuels. The irony is that, according to his beloved climate models, he will merely exacerbate the “crisis” as he sees it.

      Gotta laugh at such utter stupidity.

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    el gordo

    Comedy died years ago because of AGW and the world is desperately in need of a satirist on climate change folly. At least half the population would laugh.

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    • #

      Half the population would laugh except that Facebook, Twitter, Insta-what etc plus the ABC, Nine, Ten, Seven, SBS would immediately ban such an offensive comedian.

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      Global Cooling

      Greta in not satir ? 🙁

      Haven’t you seen puppet Greta?

      20

  • #
    Harves

    I suspected comedy was dead a few years ago when a white comedienne was bullied out of performing her act at an Australian Comedy Festival. Her crime? She was a white woman satirising a Geisha – yes you got it. A white woman can’t make fun of a yellow woman in ‘whiteface’!!

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  • #
    Maptram

    The way I see it, in the PC world of today, if I (a Caucasian male) tell a joke about an indigenous person, I am racist. If an indigenous person tells a joke about indigenous people that’s OK. If I laugh at a joke told by an indigenous person about indigenous people, am I racist?

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    • #
      wal1957

      If I laugh at a joke told by an indigenous person about indigenous people, am I racist?

      According to the rules of ‘woke’, just by asking the question you have confirmed that you are indeed a racist. It gets better though. Your acquaintances and friends must be also be racist too!
      After all, anybody who associates themselves with a racist must also be one too…no?

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      • #
        Maverick

        An escape for me from this dream like world of raising all roads by three feet is a couple of whiskies and Gogglebox. This week’s episode the Asian freinds laughed at themselves, how they have top billing in Border Security brining “its not food” in and on Bondi trying not to drown. The Lebs are the funniest people on TV, Sarah Marie constantly makes fun of Lebanese culture like how the men cant cook iron because their Mum’s do it. The white families make fun of themselves in a race way all the time. In this weeks episode there was a show about a black boys strippers dance group. You can imagine the snarky comments about size that was levelled on the middle aged white guy.

        Comedy is about making fun of facts, and the fact is that there are different races, mixed races and different cultures. These differences are an outstanding beauty of life a beauty that should not be immune from comedy because the additional layer of comedy enhances that beauty.

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      • #
        Deano

        ” After all, anybody who associates themselves with a racist must also be one too…no?”

        Only the white ones.

        40

    • #
      • #
        another ian

        Ancient Bluey and Curly line

        “If I knew you were coming I’d have baked a snake”

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      • #
        PeterPetrum

        My Goodness, OldOzzie. I did not know that was still in print or even around. There are some cartoons in that lot that are so true today that to publish them again would cause the second coming of Bill Leak. Bit what a great artist Jolliffe was, just using a pen. Every one of those cartoons is a work of art. Thanks for the memories.

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        • #
          OldOzzie

          A controversial cartoon by Bill Leak depicting an Aboriginal man with a beer can who does not remember his son’s name is an “accurate reflection” of what police see in the field daily, according to WA’s top officer.

          It comes after four boys were charged with trashing a high school in the Goldfields city of Kalgoorlie at the weekend.

          Police have now revealed one of the children accused of causing the damage, a 10-year-old boy, was taken home where his father refused to take responsibility for him.

          So we ended up, for many hours, looking after that child, trying to find a responsible adult,” Commissioner O’Callaghan said.

          “I will say though, as bad as it sounds, it’s not an unusual thing for police to have trouble finding responsible adults for children that we find in trouble or on the streets late at night.”

          Commissioner O’Callaghan said the cartoon by Leak, published by The Australian newspaper in August and criticised by some Indigenous leaders as an “attack” on Aboriginal people, was an appropriate portrayal of some communities.

          “From my perspective, Bill Leak’s cartoon is actually an accurate reflection of what our officers see on a day-to-day basis, when they’re dealing particularly with kids from Aboriginal communities or Aboriginal families who are in trouble,” he said.

          “It happens repeatedly, and I think what Bill Leak was doing was trying to indicate a broader problem for the community to sort out.”

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    • #
      Klem

      It’s much simpler than that, Maptram.

      Think of it this way: If you are a white male, you’re a racist.

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    • #
      Deano

      If you laugh, you’re a racist. And if you don’t laugh you’re also a racist for not appreciating an indigenous artist’s work. So you simply laugh yet not laugh simultaneously. Easy.

      30

  • #
    PeterPetrum

    Mark Steyn was hilarious! The trouble is, that what he actually said was not funny. It was sad and terrifying at the same time. “The Deep State does not need anyone in the White House”!

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    • #
      Peter C

      I am with you there PP,

      Mark said’ The deep state will say; If we can pull thus off we don’t need anyone in the oval office’.

      There is still a glimmer of hope, in my mind at least, that they will not pull it off. However that hope is diminishing with every passing day.

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  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    The funniest thing I have seen in a while?

    Danbury,Connecticut will name sewerage plant after John Oliver
    https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/aug/23/danbury-connecticut-sewage-plant-john-oliver

    John, the comedian, (I use that term loosely) did not think that was funny.

    I did.
    Funniest thing Oliver had been involved in in his career.

    80

  • #
    Penguinite

    Watch Pat Condell before the Youtube thought police cancel him!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epozNGNU6Yg

    50

    • #
      Annie

      Excellent, thankyou Penguinite. About 11mins. I went on to watch an address by Rowan Atkinson to ‘Reform Section 5’ (I think it was called), about 9mins

      20

  • #

    How many leftists does it take
    to replace a light bulb?

    Correct Answer:
    Nine leftists !

    One leftist on the ladder to hold the light bulb.

    Four leftists to lift up the ladder, and rotate it in circles.

    One leftist union representative, bragging about how many “green” jobs were created.

    One leftist diversity coach, to make sure all races and sexual orientations are included, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

    One leftist politician to give a speech to everyone passing by, bragging about how much carbon pollution was avoided by the use of an LED light bulb.

    One leftist thug, to “re-educate” any conservatives who stop to complain about wasting so much money to change one light bulb.

    Richard Greene
    Michigan,USA
    Where we love global warming.
    — Winner of a Rodney Dangerfield School of Comedy Award: The Student Who Most Looks Like Rodney Dangerfield Participation Trophy

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  • #
    mc

    Little Red Joke Book soon to be distributed to all libraries, schools and Government offices. Be the first in your street to secure a copy. Comes with a Government guarantee; “If this isn’t the funniest book of jokes you’ve ever read we will offer you humour re-education in a state of the art Government facility.” Should be a total hoot!

    90

  • #
    graham dunton

    From WUWT-this morning-interesting in its own rite
    But the phrase below should be promulgated more?

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/03/26/best-climate-change-temperatures/
    (SIC) The phrase “climate change” is redundant, climate always has always changed and always will, we should just say “climate (EQ)

    And hate speech, isn’t hate speech ostracizing skeptics.

    David Maddison- BY STEPHEN MOORE, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR.
    Opinions does not matter, unless there is functioning law, (legal system) that currently no longer exists in the US.

    Luckily the US has a constitutional means of correcting this.
    Larry Klayman Presents the Citizen’s Grand Jury with A Criminal Indictment Against the Bidens. This is a very lengthy and meticulous process. Those with the patience to follow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVFP1tjiQLU

    20

  • #
    Liz

    There is a very good article on morningmail.org titled “Think like those culture curators – Nah” which gives a really good insight to what is happening to our freedoms. Plus of course Pat Condell’s excellent speech.

    30

  • #
    mc

    “Now the fact that comedians have caved means everyone is scared of the Woke Mob. “

    The fact that my lame joke is in moderation demonstrates that point rather well.

    [Auto filter is working overtime today MC.]AD

    40

  • #
    Sirob

    This sort of sycophantism is reminiscent of Bolshevik power within a society. But this isn’t new in the US. In 2015 Netanyahu addresses the US Congress and was applauded 39 times – 26 were standing ovations.

    I don’t recall all the details now but, Solzhenitsyn, recounts in the Gulag Archipelago one of Stalin’s speeches that was met with wild applause. The problem dawned on the applauders that stopping would draw attention and the possible accusation of lacking sufficient enthusiasm.

    It all looks very familiar to the tragic recent past.

    60

  • #
    Sirob

    Comedy has become another blunt instrument of prevailing political power.

    60

    • #
      another ian

      Along the lines of a shearing joke of old.

      One of the team questioned the cook on what the meal was, to be told it was stew. On ribald comment was invited outside for a “discussion”.

      Returned worse for wear to announce

      “Well boys, it’s stew all right”

      50

  • #
    Ross

    In latter years I came to appreciate the rough humour of the late George Carson. As he got older he became less PC. He often targeted so much of what we call “woke” or trendy subjects this year. The stuff on Climate Change was priceless. We still have comedians in Australia making Trump jokes. They were never really funny and they still aren’t.

    90

  • #
    Simon B

    I used to put Stephen Colbert up there with Shaun Micallef as a brilliant satirist. Their ability to see stupidity and call it regardless of who said it. Micallef still has his bulls$#t meter finely tuned, Colbert is a caricature of a political comedian now. The sipping champagne piece isn’t comedy and definitely isn’t satire,it’s personal political comment.
    If a male comedian comes on stage and says my partner and I were on a plane the other day and he turned to me and said…….(insert amusing observation here), then you laugh and clap, or not depending on whether you believe the anecdote to be your type of humor or can relate to the observation.
    The last ‘comedy festival gala’ I attempted to watch had the first 5 ‘comedians’ come on stage and their opening lines were; ‘So I’m gay, so I’m black, so I’m gay, so I’m a lesbian, so it’s difficult being a gay black man’. All these ‘acts’ were uproariously cheered by the crowd! Only one of them went on to tell an anecdote relating to their opening line. As this article highlights, that isn’t comedy, that’s just a statement of fact and the crowd is allowing a low bar to be set by virtue signalling.
    Regardless of what the woke movement wants you believe the western world accepts partnerships and marriage of all orientations and accepts all cultures as part of their multicultural society. If a comedian believes they need to smack audiences over the head with their orientation, whether sexual, cultural or religious then they aren’t a comedian, they are appeasing a woke society to stay employed. There’s no tolerance in the tolerance movement!

    100

    • #

      If you’ve seen something that Shaun Micallef did that wasn’t embarrassing I’m keen to see it. The man can’t act. He may have some good lines but I’ve never seen him deliver them in a way that didn’t look like he was reading lines off autocue. Cringeworthy.

      True deadpan needs to be delivered as if the speaker doesn’t already know what he/she will say next.

      Colbert can play it out well, but is boringly PC now.

      Jon Steward has excellent delivery, and sometimes, in the odd moment, even fires the barbs at the left. He wasn’t entirely predictable and when he interviewed guys like Timothy Geithner. (Though just try finding that interview now, seems to have been cleared from youtube).

      I think only comedy Central customers can see it now?

      120

      • #
        Deano

        Jo wrote “True deadpan needs to be delivered as if the speaker doesn’t already know what he/she will say next.”

        – yes, exactly!
        This is a big problem with Australian Broadcasting Corporation ‘comedies’ now. They try dead pan humour but it’s so self-conscious it kills itself.

        I wonder if infants have as much fun in infancy as adults do in adultery?

        60

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    As far as humour is concerned, this site has certainly stepped up.

    28

  • #
    Speedy

    Someone once pointed out to a Russian academic that the Soviet constitution provided its citizens with Freedom of Speech.

    “That is true,” he replied. “But over here, you have Freedom AFTER speech”.

    Cheers,

    Speedy.

    70

  • #
    MP

    I saw a video of the Evergreen ship (Ever Given) stuck in the canal, it showed the ships tracking path drawn as a Pen_s and balls so I looked at this site, https://www.myshiptracking.com/ and it is indeed true. click on tracking 5 days and back out of the canal.

    Bit off topic but a joke none the less.

    Hillary Rodham Clintons secret service name was Evergreen, the ships call sign is H3RC

    70

  • #
    Old Goat

    Its a pity humour is dead – woke society is a target rich environment. Stupid has been the backbone of humour for centuries….

    70

  • #
    Ruairi

    A comedian thought fit to poke,
    Fun at the left with a joke,
    On police constables so P.C.,
    For B.L.M. take the knee,
    Which brought laughter but not from the woke.

    80

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    I seem to remember that apart from covid shutting down all live venues, but most of the comedians were complaining the the clown in chief had taken all their best lines

    114

    • #
      RicDre

      “I seem to remember…”

      You should probably get a memory upgrade as only left-wing “comedians” said that but nobody cared because they weren’t funny anyway. And the best meme at the time was picture of a Hillary Clinton with a scowl on her face and the caption “That’s not Funny!”

      60

  • #
    Tilba Tilba

    Progressive film-maker Michael Moore has stirred up the gun-nut base once again … with a pitch-perfect image and comment about the Boulder mass shooting.

    Welcome to American Culture

    26

    • #
      John R Smith

      Yes …
      only government should have access to lethal force.
      Anyone who thinks otherwise is a gun nut.
      Similar to sword and spear nuts in earlier times.
      Free speech nuts are even worse.
      Remember history, except for the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, because some of the people (men) that signed it owned other people.
      Apple and Amazon don’t own people.
      Why own people when the CCP can do it for you.
      Like a virtue Ap.
      (Don’t anybody steal my idea)

      50

      • #
        John R Smith

        Oh now I remember …
        Josephus does chronicle the terrible trouble the Romans had when the subjugated sword and spear nuts showed up to protest mass crucifixions.
        Which naturally required more mass crucifixion.
        Mass lethality should only be the province of government like Waco and B52 strikes.
        Especially when preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and heretical political and religious beliefs.
        The Founding Cyborgs Zuck and Bezos have shown us that in the age of social enlightenment concentrated power will never again be abused.

        50

  • #
    Rod

    Well, at least we Aussies can laugh at ourselves.
    We’re not offended-by-everything snowflakes (yet)
    For those that haven’t seen these, they’re great for a laugh.
    “How to talk Australians” series on youtube. Warning : contains real world language and cultural insults.

    First one:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHQRZXM-4xI

    30

    • #
      sambar

      Geez Rod, funny on so many levels I just don’t know which part to be offended with first. I’ll try and get back to you after the “gut I busted” laughing has healed. These script writers should be hunted down and given an Order of Australia for summing us up so succinctly ! The lamington comment in the second video just priceless.

      20

  • #
    george1st:)

    The ‘ Reds ‘ aren’t under the bed anymore .
    They are everywhere you look .
    But you can’t see them , they are disguised as distinguished authoritarians .
    Sceptics know who they are but are soon cancelled .

    70

  • #
    BruceC

    We don’t need comedians with the current demented old fossil currently occupying the White House, he writes his own stuff to laugh at.

    During his, what ever it was called, event the other day, the old fossil was critical of the Senate filibuster, calling it a “Jim Crow relic” and saying it has been “widely abused and racist” – sure has been abused, but not by the Repubs.

    Use of the filibuster in the Senate during 2020:-

    Repubs – 1
    Dems – 327

    Honestly, you can’t make this ___t up!

    60

    • #
      BruceC

      “It is not only a bad idea, it upsets the Constitutional design and it services the country. No longer would the Senate be that ‘different kind of legislative body’ that the Founders intended. No longer would the Senate be the ‘saucer’ to cool the passions of the immediate majority.”

      “Without the filibuster, more than 40 Senators would lack the means by which to encourage compromise in the process of appointing judges. Without the filibuster, the majority would transform this body into nothing more than a rubber stamp for every judicial nomination.”

      Joe Biden – Senate 2005 in what he calls his “one of the most important speeches for historical purposes that I will have given

      50

  • #

    John Cleese has warned of this alarming trend before. He said that all humour is critical and far too many these days simply won’t take criticism.

    The Left can dish it out but they can’t take it. Usually Leftist “humour” is totally unfunny nastiness.

    Jerry Seinfeld quit going on the road quite some time back, citing that people simply could not see humour and it was getting too dangerous with the cancel crowd taking over. That was then, now look how toxic it is.

    I just look at the world and in so many areas its going massively wrong as the Left destroys the basis for our Civilisation. As Jo says ” a good civilisation going to waste…”. Trouble is it seems too many still don’t see the incredible danger here…

    80

  • #
    Deano

    When mass media steer the perception of what the public finds offensive, it can ultimately influence how the courts rule on such cases. While there may be no specific law against, say, using blackface make-up in comedy sketches, a court might rule that “a reasonable person would consider it offensive” based on the amount of noise the media makes about that occurrences. And so a law simply making it an offense to be offensive (you can have fun with that phrase!) can be made to work for those who control what is reported.

    6 out of 7 dwarfs aren’t happy.

    50

  • #
    CHRIS

    Someone (I don’t remember who) said “Comedy is tragedy plus time”. A good example of this is when the Shuttle Challenger blew up in February 1986. Within days, one of the jokes going around was: ‘What does NASA stand for? Need Another Seven Astronauts’. I think that, in many cases, comedy tries to make tragedy just a memory.

    50

  • #

    Of course humour is dead.
    The Cult of Calamitous Climate and Our Progressive Comrades are impossible to parody.
    To be able to mock someone effectively,they must have some self awareness.
    Gang Green has taken all the cautionary material of old and made these their instruction manual.
    Monty Python,1984 and The emperor’s New clothes..cautionary tales of human nature..Not instruction manuals for the New Utopia,the March of the Mumbling Morons.
    We used to wonder out load;”How low can these Progressives go”.
    Now we fear to utter such questions as they seem to challenge the Parasites to deeper dives than we ever imagined possible.

    Sarcasm is wasted .
    Parody impossible.
    Maybe Brad Keyes’s way(Climate Nuremberg) is the only way to penetrate the smug shells of these characters..
    Kind of like a good computer virus,that sidles up to the firewalls and pretends to be a friend.

    Now the Gang Green have come out into the open,they are too toxic to treat with humour..
    Well I will be laughing..once they are living the logic results of their delusion.
    As long as I cannot be forced to share their fate.

    Was listening to an oldie “Drip Fed Fred” by Madness…
    Brings poor Joe Biden to mind…
    Worst case of international senior abuse since the shrivelled saint.

    60

  • #

    Oh come on everybody..
    Woke up!!

    40