Jon Stewart "killed comedy"

By Mike Huckabee

I always personally liked Jon Stewart, even though we don’t agree on much politically. Whenever I was a guest on “The Daily Show,” I thought he treated me fairly, and we had a good time jousting and joking with each other. Of course, that was back in the days when liberal hosts could have friendly debates with conservatives without the woke Twitter mobs branding them as heretics.

Still, it’s hard to argue with Matt Purple at the Spectator when he makes the case that Jon Stewart “killed comedy.”

https://spectator.us/topic/jon-stewart-killed-comedy-daily-show/

In his defense, I don’t think Jon meant to kill comedy. It was really more a result of too many people imitating him (badly), and audiences becoming too hyper-partisan to be able to laugh at anything other than vicious attacks on the “others” (i.e., Trump Derangement Syndrome.) Jon may have set the template, but EVERY late night comic on TV didn’t have to try to squeeze into it and then stretch it until they broke it.

Late night comedy used to mean Johnny Carson or Jay Leno poking fun at the foibles of both parties and giving all Americans something to laugh at together. Now it means someone sitting behind a desk like a pretend news anchor and lecturing us with DNC talking points, occasionally interrupted by a goofy metaphor, swear word or out-of-context video clip to remind us that it’s supposed to be “comedy.” You can tell where the “jokes” are (“joke” being redefined as “some political point I agree with”) because the studio audience cheers and claps instead of actually laughing.

Marketing experts explain that they do this because the viewing audience is so splintered that they don’t believe it’s possible to reach a mass audience anymore, so they’re pandering to the small leftwing slice they still have left in a desperate attempt to hang onto them. They don’t think conservatives or independents would watch a late night show anymore. Maybe they should try doing one that didn’t insult us constantly and find out. Greg Gutfeld seems to be doing all right with that strategy.

In Democrats' playbook, the "Russia Hoax" refuses to die

By Mike Huckabee

Remember the name Konstantin Kilimnik? The Mueller team and Democrats in Congress, with no evidence, tried to tie him with Russian intelligence as part of the “Russia hoax” and accused him of offering Russians, on behalf of Paul Manafort, sensitive polling information.

In an exclusive interview with RealClear Investigations, Kilimnik, who now lives in Moscow with his wife and two children, maintains that this was just very basic, publicly available polling, such as what was appearing in the LA TIMES. Also, he was sharing it not with Russians but with Ukrainian business associates. “I shared this info with a lot of our clients in Ukraine, who were closely following the race and who were excited about Paul [Manafort] working for [Trump].”

“I have no relationship whatsoever to any intelligence services, be they Russian or Ukrainian or American, or anyone else.”

He says he would be happy to talk with the FBI but that they have never contacted him. “I have been pretty open all my life,” he tells Aaron Mate at RCI, “and have not been hiding from anyone...But I refuse to be a toy in bizarre political games and have my life ruined more than it has been because of the senseless and false accusations.”

It’s strange: there’s a $250,000 FBI “reward” for Kilimnik in the Paul Manafort lobbying case –- they said they want to charge him with one count of witness tampering –- but according to him and also the public record, he has never once been contacted by a U.S. government official. The FBI has never reached out to him, he says, alleging that they are deliberately avoiding him. “The FBI and others could have had the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv or Moscow, or have any of my numerous contacts in the U.S., reach out and have a conversation,” he says. “But they do not really need it. All they need is a scarecrow. And as one of the few people within the Trump campaign who has a Russian passport, they picked me.”

“Nobody ever tried to talk to me because they know the truth," he says. "They understood damn well that I would tell them what I’m telling you.” I would add that they’ve treated WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who published the purloined DNC emails and knows the real source for those, the same way, with Mueller never contacting Assange and the Senate Intelligence Committee ignoring his offer of an interview.

Kilimnik says that if he tried to come back to America and defend himself, he would be “crucified by the media,” and that because of the current political climate here, he would have “zero chance of justice.”

“This is a sad continuation of a deeply wrong story,” he says. “I thought it would be over with Trump gone and the need to create lies about his ‘ties to Russia.’ But, obviously, I was wrong.”

With Trump being seen by Democrats as a re-emerging threat for 2024, get ready to hear a lot more unsubstantiated drivel about “Russia Russia Russia.” Political efforts to tie Trump to Russia are underway again already, and names like “Kilimnik” will be tossed around again, not because there’s any substance behind the accusations but because the names sound Russian and shady. For when you have time, this very detailed but engaging article shows how someone can be pulled into an investigation and made to seem like a criminal and a spy over what appears to be essentially nothing.

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/05/19/accused_russiagate_spy_kilimnik_speaks_-_and_evidence_backs_his_no_collusion_account_777328.html

In a recent Intelligence Community Assessment, Kilimnik figures prominently and is identified with no evidence as a “Russian influence agent,” a term which is not defined. It says he was part of a “network of Ukrainian individuals...connected to the Russian Federation Security Service (FSB)...who “took steps throughout the [2020] election cycle to damage U.S. ties to Ukraine, denigrate President Biden and his candidacy, and benefit former President Trump’s prospects for re-election.

Ah, that’s the ultimate sin, of course. But Kilimnik insists he doesn’t know what they are talking about. And he says he’s never even met Andriy Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker with alleged Kremlin ties, with whom he’s accused of working. The report says that “Derkach, Kilimnik and and their associates sought to use prominent U.S. persons and media conduits to launder their narratives to U.S. officials and audiences.”

Kililmnik says, “I would really love to see at least one confirmation of the things they allege. Pulling me into this report with zero evidence shows that [U.S. intelligence] people high up do not give a damn about truth, facts or anything.”

His name also appears numerous times in the Mueller Report, where, in one colossal mistake –- Kilimnik calls it a “blatant lie” –- it says he obtained a “Russian diplomatic passport” in 1997 to travel to the United States. This makes it seem as though he were an intelligence operative, because spies often travel with diplomatic passports. But Kilimnik can show the passport he had from that period, and it’s the standard red passport, not the green one of the diplomatic corps. “I never had a diplomatic passport in my life,” he says. It’s one of many very sloppy things in the Mueller report, which don’t make sense.”

It should be noted that even the infamous Peter Strzok wrote, in unsealed notes from 2017, that “We are unaware of ANY Trump advisors engaging in conversations with Russian intelligence officials.” But just as we’re going to hear a drumbeat of vague, unsubstantiated accusations related to the investigation into Trump’s business affairs being conducted by Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance –- a gigantic fishing expedition we recently reported on –- so we’re also going to hear about Russia, all over again.

The Democrats can’t help themselves; this is right out of their playbook of phony strategies.. The closer we get to 2024, the louder and more senseless it will get. The “collusion” narrative is alive and well and refuses to die.

…………….

Postscript: Just as the Manhattan DA is hounding Trump, so also is the attorney general of New York State, Letitia James, who ran for office in the first place on a platform of “getting” Trump. It was announced yesterday that she has opened the inevitable criminal investigation into the Trump Organization. Obviously, this woman is motivated by pure Trump-hate; in 2019, she said, “We just do our job to ensure that the man currently occupying the Oval Office is held accountable to any and everything he has done.” And in 2020: “Our investigation will continue when Mr. Trump becomes a private citizen. Nothing will preclude our investigation going forward, and we will...continue to investigate.”

It never ends. Laura Ingraham had an eye-opening segment on Wednesday night’s INGRAHAM ANGLE.

https://video.foxnews.com/v/6255129256001#sp=show-clips

A Reader Writes Back... 

Thank you for what you are doing Governor! Please continue to keep these stories alive! I wish you were President!

America The Beautiful

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