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For a guy who boasts of his Mixed Martial Arts fixation, his firearms training and just general tough-guy bona fides, Sean Hannity hurts his image when whining. But thats the activity he undertook last night in a 10-minute monologue. A well-hyped monologue, at that:

Heres a snippet from that important tract: Theres not a single liberal cable host in American that I know of that has spoken out against the effort to get me fired, said Hannity last night. Not one. For example, theres people like Bill Maher well, they say they stand up for freedom of speech and they have in the past, but why is he, why are others so eerily silent? In this case, nobody came to the defense of me, defending me and my rights here. Theres a massive double standard when it comes to the First Amendment and the left in this country. Lefties, says Hannity, get to say and do pretty much anything they want when it comes to smearing and attacking conservatives, and 99 percent of the time they get away with it. They dont have to face any backlash, no outrage, no uproar, no boycotts trying to silence them.

Then he cited the example of Kathy Griffin, who earlier this week was shown to have posed with a decapitated head of President Trump. Of course, Griffin faced backlash, outrage, uproar and, yes, she was silenced by CNN, which has pulled her from future New Years Eve specials. But Hannity said, Did you hear me call for her firing? No, you did not.

What has Hannity so upset? Media Matters in May posted a list of Hannity advertisers on its website. Though the post didnt call for an advertiser boycott of the cable veteran, its message wasnt larded with subtlety. Sean Hannity is a professional propagandist for President Donald Trump, as well as a bigot, a sexist, and a conspiracy theorist, started the post. The post landed on a raw backdrop, as Hannity for the previous week had been hyping an evidence-free theory about Seth Rich, a Democratic National Committee aide who was killed in July 2016. Though police thought that it was a robbery attempt gone awry, Rich was left with his wallet and watch and credit cards and so some people concluded that it was he and not the Russians who had leaked all those DNC emails to WikiLeaks.

On his program and Twitter, Hannity in May gave wind to this school of thought, based on reports from Fox News and Fox5 (D.C.s WTTG) that cited a break in the case. Even though the reports turned out to be bogus, Hannity kept going with the madness. Why? Because a good Seth Rich conspiracy would be good news for Trump. If this is true and Seth Rich gave WikiLeaks the DNC emails which ultimately led to the firing remember Debbie Wasserman Schultz on the eve of the DNC convention? this blows the whole Russia collusion narrative completely out of the water, Hannity said on his program. Also, Twitter:

A great deal of pressure from the media, social media and Richs parents forced Hannity to eventually bag the story for now, as he said on his show. Disgust with his shenanigans, however, had reached such a level that some advertisers bailed, though the snowball effect that dethroned ex-King of Cable News Bill OReilly and his multiple sexual-harassment settlements didnt materialize.

And so heres Hannity, railing about adherence to the First Amendment. Should Hannity care to consult his pocket Constitution, hed come to grips with the Civics 101 reality that this business about advertisers and his show doesnt pertain to the First Amendment, which outlaws only government abridgment of free speech.

If people want to abridge the rancid speech that Hannity spreads across the Fox News airwaves, well, thats their right their First Amendment right. That doesnt mean its a constructive use of that right. Writing in Politico Magazine, Jack Shafer in April railed against boycotts on the grounds that they turn corporations into content arbiters always a bad choice, he argues.

In the particular case of Hannity, however, the push to separate advertisers from his show isnt precisely what he claims. In his phrasing, its about crushing conservative voices. Whats so conservative, though, about far-flung conjecture about the slaying of a promising young man? Whats conservative about ignoring signpost after signpost indicating that this Seth Rich notion is a loser? Whats conservative about making statements without evidence? Its not as if the backlash against Hannity is pegged to his advocacy of lower taxes, a strong military and deregulation. The backlash isnt even linked to his offer to fly Barack Obama to Kenya!

Pressed on his behavior, Hannity told the Huffington Posts Michael Calderone: Nobody tells me what to say on my show. They never have and frankly they never will. Im not that type of person you can say, Go on air and say this. Thats been the beauty of Fox News all these years. They leave me alone.

Everyone needs editors, especially Sean Hannity. Since theyre nowhere to be found at his workplace, he is encountering them in the public realm.

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Sean Hannity whines: Why aren't liberals defending me? - Washington Post (blog)

President Donald Trumps decision to pull America out of the Paris climate accord was one of the most consequential of his presidency. This was evident in the fact that so many individuals tried to persuade him to stay in the deal and that their efforts often wound up having the opposite of their intended effect.

As counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway told The Washington Post, Hes stayed where hes always been, and not for a lack of trying by those who have an opposite opinion. He started with a conclusion, and the evidence brought him to the same conclusion.

Trump actually seemed pleased when he could upset European allies who were trying to change his mind, with a senior White House official telling the Post that Trump felt disappointing them was a secondary benefit of withdrawing. European leaders even avoided directly rebuking Trumps decision to scold them for their defense spending onNATO so that they could instead focus on persuading him to reconsider his climate change stance.

French President Emmanuel Macron didnt help matters by bragging about his prolonged handshake with the president, arguing that he did this as a moment of truth to demonstrate that he was Trumps masculine equal. This apparently upset Trump and may have influenced his decision to reference Paris in his public statement on withdrawing from the climate accord.

There was another target for Trumps change on the climate: liberals. Asone White House aide told Axios, This is religion for the political left, and our supporters are constantly being asked to change their behavior.

From Trumps perspective, as Amy Harder of Axios noted, the Paris climate deal has nothing to do with climate change. Its an economic issue. To Trump, withdrawing from the accord represents a triumph of populist America over greedy globalism.

Original post:
Liberals and Europeans like the Paris deal, and that's why Trump wanted to get rid of it - Salon

Comedian Kathy Griffins anti-Trump beheading art has worked its way into Georgias June 20 special election.

A battle between Republican Karen Handel and Democrat Jon Ossoff for Georgias 6th Congressional District heated up this week with an Islamic State-like execution photo shoot by Ms. Griffin. A Republican super PAC, Congressional Leadership Fund, released an ad Thursday tying Mr. Ossoff to his celebrity supporter.

These angry liberals will go to any extreme to elect Jon Ossoff, a narrator in the ad says. Theres a reason 95 percent of Ossoffs campaign donors are out-of-state liberals.

The Ossoff campaign issued a statement demanding the ad, which airs in Atlanta, be taken down. CLF rebuffed the Democrat.

The more Jon Ossoff complains about the [Griffin] ad, the more money well spend broadcasting it across Georgia 6, Corry Bliss, CLFs executive director, told The Washington Examiner on Thursday.

The Democrats campaign called Ms. Griffins actions despicable and CFLs ad a disgrace.

Ms. Griffin apologized for her photo shoot on Tuesday, but she claimed on Friday that President Trump is trying to destroy her career.

A sitting president of the U.S. is personally trying to ruin my life forever, she said at a press conference. The death threats that Im getting are serious. This is a woman thing.

See the original post here:
Kathy Griffin's 'Trump' beheading in PAC ad for special election: 'Liberals will go to any extreme' - Washington Times

Trumps decision on Paris accord has lefties everywhere shitting bricks, crowed Ann Coulter. Now if they could just sh*t some rebar, we could build the wall!

By Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic/Getty Images.

As soon as Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate accord, the landmark international agreement to curtail the effects of climate change, the front page of the Drudge Report lit up with celebrations. But it shouldnt come as a surprise that these werent about all the coal jobs that were saved, or that America had reasserted its interests and the world, supposedly, would not longer be laughing at America.

Instead, the Drudge Report devoted key front-page real estate exclusively to headlines about the elitist meltdown: OBAMA SLAMS AS LEGACY DISMANTLED, Big Business Begged President to Stick With Deal, DiCaprio Urged Moral Decision, and DEM SUPER DONOR: TRAITOROUS ACT OF WAR! among them. The morning afterward, Breitbarts lead story was not about the withdrawal itself but about Ted Cruz slamming Elon Musk for flying on [a] private jet while lecturing Trump about global warming. And throughout right-wing Twitter, the feeds were filled with this:

Much more than any specific policy matter, Trumps decision to withdraw from the Paris accord is seen as a right-wing victory over lecturing liberals and their holier-than-thou preaching. The right has a highly articulated philosophy of this dynamic. In right-wing circles, the term virtue signaling has been transformed from an academic term in evolutionary biology into a catchall describing any expression of angry liberal dissent to a conservative idea, particularly on social media. And the moment that the anti-Trump blogosphere erupted in anger against the presidents decision, conservatives, even the ones opposed to Trumps stance to withdraw from the agreement, couldnt help but feel a sense of vindication. At The Weekly Standard, author and Trump critic Jonathan M. Last, who himself believed that it was pointless to withdraw from the accord simply as a matter of greasing the wheels of diplomacy, could hardly suppress his glee from watching liberals go apoplectic.

Here's the thing about virtue signaling: Sure, it's an empty gesture, but usually it's an empty gesture about something real, he wrote, bringing up the social-media reactions to the Iranian revolution or Boko Haram. But the left's reaction to Trump's Paris pullout is something entirely new. It's virtue-signaling about virtue-signaling. It's like the cold fusion of virtue signaling: the moment when the reaction becomes self-sustaining.

This nuanced schadenfreude seems to be shared in the West Wing. This is religion for the political left, and our supporters are constantly being asked to change their behavior, a top Trump aide told Axioss Jonathan Swan, adding that Trump was irked at being prodded by wealthy corporate magnates who ride in fossil-fuel-guzzling planes and SUVs, then act holier-than-thou. (Elon Musk and Bob Iger withdrew their support from Trumps economic advisory council after he announced his decision.)

But Trumps climate rage extended beyond corporate activists. The Washington Post reported that Trump committed to his plan after he saw Emmanuel Macron, the newly elected president of France, openly brag about how he won their handshake-turned-international dominance contest. Hearing smack-talk from the Frenchman 31 years his junior irritated and bewildered Trump, the Post wrote, and it resulted in his controversial Rose Garden declaration: I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.

The rest is here:
Trump's Paris Withdrawal: Was Causing Liberals Pain Its Central Goal? - Vanity Fair

Kathy Griffin landed in hot water over a controversial photoshoot. Buzz60

Kathy Griffin is under fire for a photo shoot where she held a mock severed head of President Trump.(Photo: Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY)

Media bubbles. Everybody's got one and everybody thinks the other side's stinks. For those of you who may lean liberal and not know what's trending on your conservative brother-in-law's Facebook page or vice-versahere's a look at what was hot from both right and left-leaning media and commentators this week.

Of all the posts about comedian Kathy Griffin'soffensive photo shoot with decapitated Trump head,this one from Fox News Entertainment, about Griffin losing her new Squatty Potty gig, made the biggest social media splash.

"We were shocked and disappointed to learn about the image Ms. Griffin shared today, it was deeply inappropriate and runs contrary to the core values our company stands for," Squatty Potty CEO Bobby Edwards in a statement, according to Fox News. "In response, Squatty Potty has suspended its ad campaign featuring Ms. Griffin. We have acted swiftly and decisively to demonstrate our commitment to a culture of decency, civility, and tolerance."

Not familiar withthe Squatty Potty? I'll just leave this here ...

"I know its theoretically wrong for a Republican candidate to smack around an annoying liberal journalist, but that still doesnt mean that I care," writes Townhall columnist Kurt Schlichter about Greg Gianforte's alleged assault of Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs on the eve of Montana's special election for its open House seat. The fact that he and other conservatives don't care about the assault is the fault of liberals who "have chosen to coarsen our culture,"Schlichter says.

Their validation and encouragement of raw hate, their flouting of laws (Hi leakers! Hi Hillary!) and their utter refusal to accept democratic outcomes they disapprove of have consequences. What is itself so surprising is how liberals and their media rentboyz are so surprised to find that we normals are beginning to feel about them the way they feel about us and that were starting to act on it. If you hate us, guess what?

Were going to start hating you right back.

National Review critic Kyle Smith was less than kind in his assessment of a recent New York Magazine interview with Hillary Clinton:

The funniest episode in the protective yet revealing new Hillary Clinton profile arrives when we learn that this sad, unemployed, 69-year-old lady is so desperate to keep her self-image alive that she still employs flunkies and retainers to treat her as though she actually were the president, or the secretary of state, or a president in waiting, or at very least the leader of the opposition.

Smith was particularly disgusted with what he says is Clinton's refusal to accept any blame for the election outcome.

"Every time she draws attention to the Trumpian flaws that were conspicuous to all during the campaign, she doesnt hear the obvious rejoinder echoing in every Americans mind: Then why couldnt you trounce him?" Smith concludes.

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And in other Hillary Clinton news:

"Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that her loss to Donald Trump might suggest that Democrats have to start learning how to twist the truth if they're going to start winning elections," the Washington Examiner'sPete Kasperowicz writes. Kasperowicz refers to remarks Clinton made at a tech conference in California, where she attributed part of her loss in the 2016election to what she considers the Trump team's open embrace of "falsehoods, fake news" and "lies."

"The other side was using content that was just flat-out false and delivering it in a very personalized way, both above the radar screen and below," Clinton said.

Kasperowicz said at one point Clinton appeared to reconsider the wisdom of not using the same tactics against her opponent. He said she implied that future candidates might have to resort to lying if they want to win when she said, "I'm not rethinking it, but everybody else better rethink it, because we have to figure out how to combat this."

Citing CNBC, this post on Sean Hannity's website celebrates the private sector jobs report for May, which came in at a robust 253,000 after forecasts of 180,000.

"The Trump administration has made job creation the cornerstone of its economic plan, slashing regulations and rescinding burdensome government policies that inhibit growth," the Hannity post reports.

"Many economists believe its now possible to achieve the White Houses goal of 3% GDP growth per year," the report concludes, without providing specific examples.

President Trump dealt a "devastating setback to international efforts to curb global warming" when he announced Thursday that the US. was pulling out of the Paris climate change agreement, which the Obama administration had taken a big role in brokering, the Huffington Post reported.

The move is a particularly egregious repudiation of the international community because the Trump administration could have negotiated for lower emissions targets under the Paris Agreement, officials and the pacts advocates said. Because of that, the diplomatic fallout will likely be harsher than when President George W. Bush rejected the 1997 Kyoto climate agreement.

President Donald Trump has announced the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. USA TODAY

"We don't need additional information about the Russian covert scheme to undermine the 2016 campaign, or about the curiousinteractions between Team Trump and Russia, or about Trumppressuring and then firingFBI Director James Comey, to reach the judgment that the president of the United States engaged in wrongdoing," David Corn writes forMother Jones.

Explicit collusion may yet be proved by the FBI investigation overseen byspecial counsel Robert Muelleror by other ongoing probes. But even if it is not, a harsh verdict can be pronounced: Trump actively and enthusiastically aided and abetted Russian President Vladimir Putin's plot against America. This is the scandal. It already exists in plain sight.

The newly elected president of France, Emmanuel Macron, promised to be "demanding" in his dealings with Russia and denounced state news organizations like Russia Today as "fake news" and "propaganda" during a news conference alongside Putin on Monday. "Two weeks into his term, the 39-year-old Macron struck an assertive, principled tone that you would have expected from an American president meeting with an increasingly assertive adversary," wrote Elliot Hannon for Slate.

Macrons assertiveness is noticeably absent in American interactions with Russia, which have melted into a bizarre sycophancy. Macron, like an increasing number of European leaders, seems to have sensed the softening in Washington and has indicated he will strike an equally tough pose in his dealings with the Trump White House.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted Russia's Vladimir Putin at the sumptuous royal palace in Versailles on Monday to talk about cooperating on fighting terror. Time

There is "glaring hypocrisy" in the Trump family's outcry over Kathy Griffin's photo shoot because of their embrace of right-wing rock star Ted Nugent, writes Aaron Rupar for Think Progress.

"Just last month, Trump invited rock star Ted Nugent to the White House for dinner, despite Nugents repeated calls for the deaths of then-President Obama and Hillary Clinton," Rupar writes.

During Trumps presidential campaign, Nugents well-documented history of racism and violent threats didnt deter Trump fromfeaturing him in his campaign adsand at his rallies.

Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters could not be more clear on his 2017 U.S. tour: He does not like President Trump. At his shows, images played on a massive screen above the stage show Trump wearing lipstick, a wig, in dominatrix leather and naked, the Daily Kos reported. There are also anti-Trump messages that flashon the screen and agiant inflatable pig with Trump's face on it that hovers over the audience. Some fans at were not thrilled at the opening show in Kansas City, according to the Daily Kos.

The fans who didnt like the anti-Trump message must have beensuper bummed out to see children on stage, sporting Resist t-shirts during Waters rendition ofAnother Brick in the Wall. I mean, the guy wrote"The Wall" for Christ sakes. What did you think that was about?

Roger Waters dedicated some of his performance to ridiculing Donald Trump at Desert Trip in Indio, Calif., Oct. 9, 2016.(Photo: Jay Calderon, The Desert Sun)

And here's what had everyone fired up last week:

What really fired up conservatives this week?

What really fired up liberals this week?

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What blew up the liberal and conservative media bubbles this week - USA TODAY