Like millions of folks, mariner is a fan of the late shows on television: Trevor Noah, Brian Williams, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Myers, James Corden, Carson Daly, even the weather channel and CBS Overnight News if mariner is still awake.

One show mariner doesn’t watch much anymore is Stephen Colbert. His opening remarks are just too much over the top. This evening, Colbert trashed the North Koreans with full blown character assassination misrepresenting the quite legitimate skating pair that may come to the Olympics. This intense character assassination occurs in every show. Mariner is no friend of Donald but making fun of Donald in a uselessly destructive way does not help the audience understand reality. Not even Fox News goes to the lengths of Colbert. Mariner agrees with Anna Faris, star of the sitcom Mom, who told Colbert in a Late Show interview that she would not date him because he was a narcissist. Strong judgment perhaps but in mariner’s view, Colbert is not entertaining.

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On to legitimate news, two issues are rising in Congressional dialogue: The critically important fact that Russia is meddling in US elections – under reported by the media who are entranced with the Donald show. Donald, of course, still pretends that nothing is wrong. Surely this attitude alone leads to criminal neglect by the office of President and, to spread neglect, the Congress is so wrapped up in the survival of their careers that the validity of our election system does not matter as long as they are reelected. On the horizon is the Supreme Court hearing two cases about gerrymandering – keep an ear.

The second is the raping of policy and regulations that protect citizenry from big money abuses. The issues are slow to rise in the news cycle but the 2018 election will focus on the destabilization caused by Donald’s cabinet.

Mariner is in a sour mood. Best he ends it here.

Ancient Mariner