I can’t stop reading or watching the news. I don’t read as much or watch as obsessively as I used to, but I can’t stay away.
I do have an antidote to the craziness and corruption I read about during the day. The secret to my mental stability is a healthy dose of the late night talk shows. They reaffirm my belief that intelligent and moral life still exist in this country. It also confirms for me that I’m not alone in seeing the Trump Administration as dangerous and erratic, out of touch with reality, and just plain stupid and uninformed.
I’m comforted by the jokes and comments of the liberal late night hosts. They voice my frustrations and fears, horror and exasperation. Lately it even seems that the late night personalities are having an impact on the national discussion of issues.
Jimmy Kimmel recently gave an emotional monologue about his infant son’s heart surgery and his need for health insurance in order to survive. It reached, and touched, a lot of people. A conservative Republican Senator got into a pissing contest with Kimmel and came off badly. Some people think that Kimmel may have humanized the issue of health care and helped prevent the repeal from passing in the Senate.
Kimmel talking about his son and tearing up
Maybe when the ‘Trump is crazy and dangerous’” drumbeat from different sources gets loud enough and broad enough, it may give courage to the timid Republicans who agree, but are afraid to act.
Republican Senator Bob Corker said in an interview that most Republican senators agree that Trump is insane, incompetent, a moron, and temperamentally unfit to be President. They also agree he is a serious danger to the country and the world. So now, all we have to do is get these assholes to speak out. Then something constructive might actually happen in Washington, D.C.
Even Trump’s faithful are beginning to abandon him. Recent polls show significant erosion of support from his ‘base’. So maybe soon, Republican Congressmen can be less afraid of losing electoral support from this ‘base’, and more afraid of a nuclear war being started by a tweet.
Maybe the voices of sanity in the government, the press, the internet and on television, will crescendo to a level where Republicans will have to listen and actually do something about Trump. I don’t know if or when this will happen. But my nightly doses of reality and sanity keep my hope alive.
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Categories: Entertainment, Humor, political parties, Politics
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Making us laugh about 45 and his minions is very, very difficult. I know I disagree with folks about some of the late night comics but it’s subjective. Before 45 became reality it was so easy to laugh about the obviously absurd notion that he could be elected. Ka-BOOM!
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We are here on the other side of the border wondering what the heck is going on??
Leslie
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No matter how puzzled you are, we are at least equally puzzled … and scared.
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we’re a little scared too…
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Most of us thought that Trump would be a disaster. But none of us guessed how monumentally horrific it would be on so many levels! This is beyond my worst imagining. He is devolving and getting worse as time goes by, which I didn’t anticipate. It’s really scary. And I’m so angry at the Republicans who are putting their political concerns above their concerns for the country and the world.
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Ellin you are not alone…
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The frustration continues when you realize most people agree that we have an insane, incompetent moron running our country and nothing is being done about it.
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The chorus is rising against him and more and more people are coming out to voice their concerns and fears. I think it will reach a point when even Republicans will have to do something, particularly if the tension with North Korea continues.
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they are keeping me going, during this crazy time
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I think they are keeping ALL of us going.
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I think that humor helps so much in this world. It cuts through the crap and lets you see what’s really going on. And It makes you feel good about it, even if only for a short while.
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Trevor Noah, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Seth Meyers are recorded nightly on my DVR for watching the next day, along with the weekly shows of John Oliver and Samantha Bee. Jordan Klepper’s “The Opposition,” which follows “The Daily Show,” is pretty good, too. I do miss Jon Stewart, though.
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We ALL miss Jon Stewart. He was on Colbert this week and the two of them together are GREAT. I wish he’d come back. We keep missing Samantha Bee … we never seem to know when her show is on, but we watch Trevor, Jeffries, Oliver, Colbert … sometimes Seth Meyer and rarely, Kimmell. Garry just doesn’t find Klepper funny. We watched The Daily Show for years and we have always watched late night comedy … but it’s different now. It used to be funny. Now, it gives us hope that not everyone is crazy.
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I still find the late night takes on the world funny. They are lucid analyses of what’s going on, but they’re done in a way that makes us laugh. We do miss Jon Stewart, but there are so many good people out there at night now, I miss him less than I used to.
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We are totally in sync with you. We love Seth Myers, who is less well known than Colbert and Noah and Kimmel. But really on point and very well done. Oliver and Bee should be on more often as far as I’m concerned! And the new Jordan Klepper show is actually very well written. We weren’t sure at the beginning but we’ve grown to love it. The more the merrier!
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On the West Coast, I tend to watch late news and early morning news to ensure that, just because I didn’t see it, there wasn’t a great white flash during the night.
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I wasn’t THIS paranoid about getting blown up when I was kid and they made us hide under the desks in school. I thought we’d made some progress here. Didn’t we? I was sure we did.
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I surely thought so — but then along came two juvenile leaders taunting each other — either could make a simple mistake and that flash would happen! I understand there’s a boomng business selling bomb shelters right now!
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We should reinstate ‘duck and cover’ exercises in schools and offices! I read that some top WH aides were talking about what they would do to stop a nuclear first strike by Trump. I hope they have a good plan!
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I love getting news on my phone because the newspapers continuously update the stories throughout the day. I can go to the Washington Post three hours after I read the morning news and there are new stories already posted.
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Yes — the LA Times sends out bulletins all day too. If there’s anything really going on, I keep watch on those too!
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Ellin, did you see Bob Schieffer on with Colbert the other night? I loved Bob’s “old school” advice about getting your news. Newspapers, vetted broadcast news organizations, NOT Facebook.
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We missed Bob Schieffer. Buut his advice sounds good. I only read Facebook articles that come from sources I know are legit. I get a lot of Washington Post and NY Times articles on Facebook, so I know they’re kosher.
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And, as this posts, we are watching Colbert. I go into withdrawal on the weekend until Oliver comes on.
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I kknow what you mean! Weekends can be tough without our nightly fix of political humor and clarity.
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Interesting how the same bits are used by Trevor and Colbert, etc. I like Trevor because he does his verbal body slams with that cute impish smile. I find it hard to smile sometimes when people like Jim Jeffries (playing Jim Jeffries, the wasted Aussie) rants on about the state of our union. I feel the same way about Jordan Klepper. There’s so much crap out there. Give me baseball or Steven Segal beating the bee-jeezus out of 45-like scumbags.
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We love all the late night hosts, except for Jimmy Fallon. He’s just mindless, silly entertainment. The political humorists all have their unique styles and often cover the same material. But it doesn’t seem repetitive because they all cover the material so differently.
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