Academy Awards Political Cartoons

Emmys ratings crater; Trump-bashing to blame?

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How low can the Emmys go? 

It looks like the 69th annual Emmy Awards are heading into sub-basement territory in terms of ratings after host Stephen Colbert spent much of Sunday’s event attacking President Trump.

It turns out American viewers may not have been as into Trump bashing as Hollywood would like them to be, as the 8.2 overnight rating among metered market households is down 2.4 percent from the 2016 edition, which would make it the lowest rated Emmy telecast ever.
The reason it’s hasn't been officially labeled the lowest-rated Emmys yet is because six of the 56 markets are in Florida have not reported, as Hurricane Irma is still holding up the process in areas that were severely impacted by the storm.
DOLLY'S RACY EMMY MOMENT
“The Emmys are a Hollywood bubble show," Media Research Center vice president Dan Gainor told Fox News. "Actors and directors get to pretend they are important because they are doing such insightful takes on life in America, when they have zero idea what life in America is for the other 330 million people."
Yet despite the cratering viewership, Gainor doesn’t think the Emmys will shy away from bashing Trump anytime soon.
“Hollywood won’t walk away from politics. The left wants to force politics into every single aspect of our lives -- from sports to movies to the food we eat. They won’t be satisfied until we are all appropriately woke to their struggles du jour,” Gainor told Fox News.
NICOLE KIDMAN BREAKS DOWN IN TEARS
Trump was attacked from Colbert’s opening monologue through the end of the three-hour program. Alec Baldwin won an award for portraying Trump on “Saturday Night Live,” and used his speech to mock the president for not winning an Emmy during his time hosting “The Apprentice.”
Ex-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer even made an appearance to poke fun at his tenure, but many viewers are even upset that CBS allowed the award show to normalize a former member of the Trump administration. Apparently it’s OK to laugh at Trump and his surrogates, but not with them.
Academy Awards prognosticator Steve Pond called the event “the most political Emmys show ever” and said voters even decided winners based on politics, opting for programs with a political agenda such as “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Atlanta” over less-polarizing shows such as “Stranger Things.”
WAS ACTRESS REALLY A SORE LOSER?
“Voters made it clear: They were sending a message,” Pond wrote.
Gainor agrees. “The Emmys celebrate shows that almost no one either watches or cares about," he said. "No ordinary Americans care about ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.’ No ordinary Americans watch ‘Veep.’ The only show the Emmys were honoring that most people even recognize was ‘Saturday Night Live.’”
The Emmys went head-to-head against NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” which presumably didn’t help viewership, but the awards have now hit new ratings lows for three straight years. Perhaps some viewers want to enjoy the awards show as an escape from politics, or perhaps some viewers simply don’t agree with everything the Hollywood elite has to say. Colbert and the event’s producers didn’t seem to care that roughly half the country wouldn’t be amused by non-stop attacks on Trump.
“Entertainment Tonight” anchor Kevin Frazier appeared on “CBS This Morning” on Monday to proclaim that “politics took center stage,” and the “recurring punchline was Donald Trump.” The CBS morning show co-hosts seemed to approve, with Norah O’Donnell calling it “one of the best shows ever,” but that was before the dismal rating came out.
Gainor asked, “Why would anyone who isn’t a die-hard liberal watch?”

Senate Republicans consider a trillion-dollar-plus tax cut for budget

Senate Republicans are considering writing a budget that would allow for up to $1.5 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade, said two people familiar with the discussions.
Budget talks are continuing and no final decision has been reached yet.
A budget that creates fiscal room for a $1.5 trillion tax cut, if adopted, would then be followed by a tax bill that would specify rate cuts and other policy changes that don't exceed that figure. Calling for a tax cut in the budget would let Republicans lower tax rates while making fewer tough decisions on what tax breaks to eliminate to help pay for the cuts.
Such a plan would assume that tax cuts would boost economic growth and generate revenue to help pay for themselves, but it would also likely mean that Republicans would need to make some of the tax cuts expire after 10 years, leaving decisions to a future Congress they may not control.
Republicans had talked earlier this year about tax proposals that would fully pay for themselves but they have been gradually shifting toward a tax plan that doesn't explicitly pay for itself in the first decade. Budget Committee member Mike Crapo (R., Idaho) said on Monday that the tax cut should be "as big as we can get."
The budget is an essential first step to the major tax bill Republicans want to pass this year. If the House and Senate agree on a budget, they can fast-track a tax bill through the Senate on a simple-majority vote through a process known as reconciliation, rather than seek a bigger 60-vote majority that would require support from Democrats.

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The budget sets the maximum size of any tax cut over the next 10 years, making it a crucial fiscal marker in this fall's tax debate. A budget with a tax plan that is revenue-neutral would effectively pay for itself, meaning any reduction in tax rates would be offset by reducing breaks or other revenue-raising measures. A budget with $1.5 trillion in tax cuts wouldn't be revenue-neutral.
Republicans face internal tension in trying to bridge the gap between those warning about large federal debt levels and the desire of many to cut taxes. The Senate Budget Committee, led by Mike Enzi (R., Wyo.) hasn't yet scheduled a committee vote or released a draft budget.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.), a Budget Committee member, said in an interview Monday that he has been advocating a $2 trillion tax cut. Mr. Toomey's preference is partly based on arguments that the tax bill, which is still being written, would generate significant economic growth that would yield additional tax revenue on its own and make the actual hit to the budget from tax cuts smaller.

'Eyes Wide Shut' actress: Reaction to my 'coming out as a conservative' story was absolutely shocking

Julienne Davis is an American actress, singer and model.

A few weeks ago I wrote an op-ed for Fox News about some of my difficult experiences as a conservative in liberal Hollywood. I never expected it to have much impact – but I was wrong.

As people started reading and commenting in greater and greater numbers and thousands of personal messages started pouring in to me, one thing became abundantly clear: my experience of being attacked for holding conservative beliefs resonated with many people.

Sadly, bigotry and even hatred directed at conservatives remains politically correct among progressives. It is one of the few socially acceptable forms of prejudice still around.
My op-ed sparked so much reaction not because of who I am – a mostly unknown actress with some minor credits to my name, most prominently for acting in the film “Eyes Wide Shut” in 1999.
I’m convinced that my op-ed drew attention because it mirrored the experience of so many other conservatives in our daily lives. The response I got to the essay opened my eyes to just how common attacks on conservatives are in our country today.

Being conservative or a supporter of President Trump in America today invites attacks and insults from the left. We are shunned, unfriended, shamed, vilified, ridiculed and sometimes we even lose work. It seems we are considered part of a new Axis of Evil.

Being conservative or a supporter of President Trump in America today invites attacks and insults from the left. We are shunned, unfriended, shamed, vilified, ridiculed and sometimes we even lose work. It seems we are considered part of a new Axis of Evil.  
I have received messages from fellow conservatives – not just in the U.S. but from around the world – telling me their own stories of being attacked and offering their prayers and support. I was humbled to know I was clearly not alone.
Judging from all the positive messages, I hope that in some small way I have empowered other conservatives to stand up for what they believe and not be bullied into silence by progressives and the media and entertainment elites.
But in addition to messages of support, I got plenty of messages from the haters. The overwhelming response from them was basically: “Who are you?” As if to say that because I’m a “nobody” I’m irrelevant and what I have to say is also irrelevant.
Such irony, coming from progressives who claim to be for the underdog, the victimized and the oppressed. Apparently, the oppression of conservatives and conservative thought doesn’t count in this case.
I also got a dishonorable mention on “Real Time with Bill Maher” on HBO, complete with cutaways to others laughing at my “lack of fame” and my “irrelevance.”
Those like Maher, who see themselves as some kind of cosmopolitan liberal elite, are only too ready to sneer at the culture that worships fame. And yet, when someone who isn’t famous contradicts their worldview, their first response is: “Who is this person? They aren’t famous, why should we listen to anything they say?”
Rather than discuss what I said, these elites just sneered at the fact that I’m not a top-grossing film star with a shelf full of Academy Awards who is mobbed by fans everywhere I go.
I wonder why we value this thing called “fame” anyway. I learned with my small moment in the limelight that “fame” in and of itself has no real value. Looking at some of the personal train wrecks in Hollywood over the years, it’s sadly clear they took the fame game to heart.
Let me pose some questions to every successful “famous” leftist pundit and celebrity:
How are you using your voice? For a good cause, or just to burnish your brand, draw more fame and make more money? Are you trying to end the hate and the polarization in our country or increase it?
The sad truth is that so many who mount hysterical, hateful and almost nonstop attacks on conservatives and President Trump are fanning the flames of division that pit Americans against each other. Instead of seeking to bridge differences, they seek to accentuate them.
Our great country is called the United States of America – but so many are trying to make us the Divided States of America, filled with citizens who reject cooperation and embrace confrontation.
People with some measure of fame – whether from appearing in films or on TV – have the power to change minds and hearts. Yet instead, too many look lovingly at their bank balance and huge estates, and ignore the hypocritical monsters they have made of themselves and cater to the groupthink trolls they’ve created. It’s so ugly.
It was also telling that, in my case, the haters who attacked me rarely if ever were willing to engage in actual debate on the issues I raised. Sadly, they stuck to small-minded, petty, ad hominem insults on my character, my looks, my intelligence, my talent, and even my name.
And all the attacks on me came from a place of smug, egotistical, self-righteousness. En masse bullying, basically. But, oh, how I must have struck a nerve! Otherwise, why would they bother attacking me at all?
Moving forward, we are all still faced with the same dilemma: What do we do about this war of ideologies. Progressives can demonize and insult conservatives around the clock if they wish. Conservatives can even choose to respond in kind.
But what does this war of words accomplish? It reminds me of children on the playground, yelling insults at one another as they throw temper tantrums that are a sign of their immaturity.
My advice to conservatives is not to play dirty and return ad hominem insults with the same snarky smugness. This accomplishes nothing.
Instead, we need to bypass the insults, engage in rational discussion and serious debate, and not allow our egos to get in the way. And we need to invite our progressive critics to join us on the high road – if they are willing to act like mature adults. After all, what is the alternative?

Non-STEM professors reportedly push for boycott of UC Berkeley 'Free Speech Week'

Citing the threat to the student body’s “physical and mental safety,” 177 professors at the University of California, Berkeley, have signed an open letter calling for a boycott of the campus’ so-called “Free Speech Week.

The speakers scheduled for the week—from Sept. 24 to 27— reportedly include Milo Yiannopoulos, Steve Bannon and Ann Coulter.

The San Francisco Chronicle described the event as “four days of rallies and speeches.”
The report said that—even without the boycott—it is unclear if the event will go through. Organizers did not pay for the facilities, the report said. The price tag for such an event is expected to be exorbitant. It cost $600,000 to secure a recent speech by conservative Ben Shapiro.
The letter from the professors said the event forces some students to risk their “physical and mental safety in order to attend class.”
A spokesman for the school told the paper that faculty members can decide where or when to teach their classes.
The Daily Californian, the student newspaper, reported that only five professors who teach STEM courses on campus signed the letter.
Michael Cohen, a co-author of the letter, said the amount of STEM professors on the letter does not show any differences of opinions. The letter was released last week, and they could still join. He told the paper that the humanities buildings are near where these protests often take place.
Kristie Boering, a chemistry professor, told the student paper that she plans on holding her class as planned.
“I have a job to do,” she said.

Stephen Colbert Cartoons

Pres. Trump Takes Pride in Strong U.S. Stock Market, Massive Job Growth

FILE – In this Sept. 15, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump waves as he walks from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington to Marine One for the short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Trump is taking pride in the country’s economic performance.
In a tweet Saturday, the president says a great deal of good things are happening in the U.S including jobs and the stock market, which are seeing all time highs.
Since taking office the president has helped create more than one million new jobs.
The stock market has also seen record highs, including the Dow Jones which hit over 22,000 in August for the first time ever.
Additionally, the nation’s unemployment rate fell to 4.3% last month matching a 16 year low.

NY Times reporter slammed after saying boy mowing White House lawn sends bad signal on child labor

Steven Greenhouse, left, tweeted that the lawn-mowing gig was 'not sending a great signal on child labor, minimum wage & occupational safety.'  (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

A former New York Times labor reporter has been slammed on social media for a snarky tweet hitting the White House for letting an 11-year-old boy mow the Rose Garden lawn last week.

Steven Greenhouse, who worked for the Times for 31 years and still writes for the paper on occasion, took issue with the feel-good story of the boy, Frank Giaccio, of Falls Church, Va., who showed up at the White House Friday to cut the grass at the invitation of President Trump.

“Not sending a great signal on child labor, minimum wage & occupational safety >> Trump White House lets a 10-year-old volunteer mow its lawn,” Greenhouse, who covered unions for much of his time at the newspaper, tweeted.
The Daily Wire website slammed Greenhouse’s tweet as the “dumbest” ever posted on Twitter.
Others were just as critical.
“The sanctimonious and humorless finger-wagging of nanny state progressivism in one tweet,” conservative commentator and journalist Bill Kristol tweeted.
Trump accepted the Virginia boy’s offer after he wrote to the president saying it would be his “honor to mow the White House lawn.” Frank, who was 10 when he wrote the letter but has since turned 11, also enclosed a menu of his landscaping services, including weed-whacking.
Trump spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said at the White House press briefing Friday that it was an “honor” to host Frank.
“The president has always loved go-getters like Frank,” she said.
After his initial tweet, Greenhouse engaged in a spirited back and forth with other Twitter users who disagreed with his view and let him have it. He tweeted later, “What this kid wants to do is noble, but sorry, I'm mindful of problems--I've written lots about child labor & kids being hurt by machinery.”

Listen up, UN -- Trump means what he's telling you

To all you besuited, bespectacled, and soon-to-be bewildered diplomats slogging around the United Nations General Assembly this week, try to understand this: Donald Trump means every word of what he's going to tell you. Which is: the United States is done with being blamed for everything that goes wrong in the world, and then paying to fix it.

For decades since the UN's founding in 1945, ambassadors and their ever-sprawling staffs have lived, eaten and parked at taxpayer expense, enjoying a life far beyond the means most of them could ever hope to afford in their homelands. 

The UN has become a symbol of globalist elitism, of willful ignorance about real world conditions. It has passed resolutions condemning Israel for its policies toward Palestinians, while failing to note that Palestinian terror is still an everyday threat to Israelis. It has given lip-service to condemning North Korea's escalating nuclear ambitions, but been unable even to agree on a way to freeze the millions in assets of its unhinged boy-king, Kim Jong Un.
It has chided the United States -- a democracy whether far-left Democrats think so or not -- for voting irregularities in some of its elections, but failed to inquire how Vladimir Putin got twice as many votes as his nearest rival in a country whose economy is tanking or how Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro just neutered his country's national legislature.

The assembled multitude at the UN this week will get to hear first-hand what Trump means where he talks about making America Great Again and America First. The only things threatened by those twin dogmas are the status quo that has long ignored or scorned U.S. leadership and values.

For those same decades, American presidents have taken the podium of the General Assembly in September and temporized, telling their audiences what fine chaps and ladies they are, how the United Nations is doing important work, and how proud they are to be standing in its hallowed headquarters on the East River of Manhattan.
President Trump will deliver no such encomiums. He has already demonstrated a signature willingness to insult his hosts, lecturing fellow NATO leaders on their failure to pay their fair share for defense, in pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord despite some chilly Gallic stares directed at him, or in demanding that the NAFTA free trade agreement be renegotiated in a way more advantageous to the U.S.
Speaking of paying a fair share, Trump is also likely to remind his listeners that the United States coughs up an outsize 22 percent of the UN's overall budget and 28 percent of its peacekeeping funds. He may also allude to the fact that some of those so-called peacekeepers are guilty of rape, another topic too sensitive for the refined world body to act upon.
Trump won't even feel out of place. After all, New York is as much his town as it is the UN's home, although there are probably as many New Yorkers who wish he'd get out as would like to say farewell to the hundreds of diplomats lucky -- or corrupt -- enough to live there.
Trump will meet with leaders of so-called allies like Britain and Germany, even though both Prime Minister Teresa May and Chancellor Angela Merkel have recently, and publicly, rebuked him for his policies and statements.
Perhaps most important, the assembled multitude this week will get to hear first-hand what Trump means where he talks about making America Great Again and America First. The only things threatened by those twin dogmas are the status quo that has long ignored or scorned U.S. leadership and values, and the hope that no one would notice that a so-called global economy works in favor of some nations like China and India, but not the United States.
Donald Trump won election last year promising to change that. His opponents -- and he has many -- should pay close attention to what he says this week. He means it.
John Moody is Executive Vice President, Executive Editor for Fox News. A former Rome bureau chief for Time magazine, he is the author of four books including "Pope John Paul II : Biography."

Russia and China Notably Absent at UN Reform Powwow

Russia, China and several other large United Nations member states are among a small but powerful group of countries that look to be dodging Monday’s U.N. reform summit hosted by the President and Secretary-General António Guterres, according to a list of countries to be in attendance, as seen by Fox News.
Fox News obtained a brief outline of a United States drafted 10-point plan for U.N. reform known as a “Political Declaration for U.N. Reform High Level Event,” which gives U.S. support to Guterres’s reform efforts at the world body.
On Friday, the United States U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters at the White House that the U.N. reform event being chaired by the president was “very, very important.”
“We asked other countries to sign on to their support of reform, and 120 countries have signed on and will be in attendance. That's a miraculous number,” she said.
All those 120 countries had to first sign the declaration before being allowed to attend the event. There are 193 member states of the United Nations.
Among those not attending are Russia and China — the two most powerful members of the BRICS group of nations, which has been working actively to counterbalance U.S. influence on the world monetary system. BRICS is the acronym for a group of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The group is estimated to make up some 41 percent of the world population.
India is the only BRICS member that shall attend.
While Russia and Chinese hold significant influence at the world body, their contributions to the U.N. budget is but a small fraction of what the U.S. doles out each year in contributions.
“It’s not surprising that some countries, especially those who have taken on geopolitically competitive positions to the United States, would shun this initiative,” said Jonathan Wachtel, a former spokesman for Ambassador Haley and director of communications at the U.S Mission to the U.N.
“In pushing back they would probably argue that any reform agenda taken up at the U.N. shouldn’t be driven by one country but rather by all member states of the U.N.,” Wachtel said.
Russia’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador, Sergey Kononuchenko, railed against the Secretary-General’s report on advancing the U.N.’s development system, all part of Guterres’s U.N. reforms.
In a speech earlier this summer at the U.N., obtained by Fox News, the ambassador said the Secretary-General’s reform was an attempt to weaken control by member states.
“We have carefully studied the report, which, unfortunately, raises not hopes, but rather serious concerns for the future of the United Nations development system,” Kononuchenko said in response to the Secretary-General’s earlier presentation to member states.
The United States is by far the biggest contributor to the United Nations paying 22 percent of its regular budget, 28 percent of its peacekeeping budget and hundreds of millions in voluntary contributions to U.N. bodies such as UNICEF.
Wachtel told Fox News that while the Russian and Chinese governments likely agree with some of the proposed reforms, the U.S. still plays a bigger role.
“The United States, the largest single contributor to the United Nations, has every right to demand that U.S. taxpayer money is not wasted,” he said.
Questions sent to both the Chinese and Russian U.N. missions went unanswered.