Sunday, February 28 – Strong out of the gate with
Egypt’s president entering on a two-mile-long red carpet before announcing
massive cuts. There was also some side-eying of Obama’s well-intentioned
but nonspecific plans to close Guantanamo Bay and a bizarre bit of
filibustering from a Kansas congressman. The main story was on Donald Trump. However, rather than addressing the racism, xenophobia, or
warmongering, John kept it much more basic, systematically dismantling the
various non-bigoted reasons people give for supporting Trump. Under John’s
laser-sharp commentary, Trump was given no leg to stand on as being frankly
honest, tough, a man of the people, and a self-made success. Rather, we
were shown a serial liar who talks a big game but delivers nothing and is so
notoriously changeable that we have no idea what he’d actually do as president.
Masterful takedown.
Monday, February 29 – All-around fantastic
show. A few gems on the Democratic
primary in South Carolina, especially the graphic of Clinton as Madea. The piece on Trump and fascism was perfect, similar
to the “Trump is an African Dictator” parallels but with more “oh, crap, I’m
not sure this is funny anymore” sentiment mixed with the humor. The Trump clips chosen to illustrate the various
elements of fascism were spot on, and the mini-stories – Trump not backing down
on quoting Mussolini, vowing to ensure politicians can slap journalists with
libel suits, and going to insane
lengths not to denounce the KKK –
were all great. The hackneyed barbs traded
by Trump and Rubio in the next story were ridiculous in their immaturity; it
must be at least an unwritten rule
that presidential candidates don’t make dick jokes. And while I wasn’t familiar with guest Morris Chestnut, he was a lot of fun, personable and entertaining.
Tuesday, March 1 – In a bizarre twist, a Nation of Islam leader is the latest to endorse Trump. I loved Trevor’s
impression of bewildered Trump supporters no longer sure who to be prejudiced
against. I liked the story about a new law allowing kids in Iowa to use
handguns. There were some excellent lines there, and I loved the montage
of tantrums to demonstrate why children might not be the best to trust with
guns. I was glad to see Kristen again, but her piece on body acceptance
felt a little lacking. I liked different parts of it, talking about the
new Barbie body types and a plus-size model posing for Sports Illustrated, but
it didn't quite come together. The interview with comedian Neal Brennan,
however, was interesting. I liked that he and Trevor compared notes on
having depression, as well as how people react in general to comedians with
depression.
Wednesday, March 2 – A lot packed into tonight’s show.
Between the Inside Out-style
cold open, Carson’s announcement to announce the date he’ll announce he’s
dropping out of the race, and Cruz and Rubio’s desperate attempts to spin their
unimpressive showings as successes, Super Tuesday had a lot to offer. I
adored the story comparing Trump to climate change, with GOP leaders denying
both the existence of the problem and their culpability in it until it may be
too late to stop it. Trevor also made some good points on the Democratic side, questioning the logic of Sanders supporters accusing Clinton of “stealing”
Sanders’s ideas, since smart money says she’ll be the eventual candidate and it’s
to their benefit if she shares some of the same views. The interview with
model Chrissy Teigen was kind of all over the place but enjoyable; I’m not even
sure I could articulate why I liked it as much as I did.
Thursday, March 3 – Nice finish to the week. The
shine was taken off Romney’s Trump-denunciation apple with a clip of Romney
singing Trump’s praises when Tump endorsed him in the last election – whoops!
I really loved the piece on the KKK and how Democrats and Republicans
have largely exchanged racial attitudes since the Civil War. That history
has always been interesting to me, and Trevor’s commentary on it was first-rate.
I especially liked the “shit/pizza” analogy (just watch it – it makes
perfect sense in context, believe me.) Jordan
had a good field piece on gun violence and the ways the CDC is blocked from
researching it; the “odd couple” of the CDC researcher and the reformed
opponent of gun research that Jordan interviewed was really fun. Decent
interview New York mayor Bill de Blasio. I liked his discussion with
Trevor on new app services like Uber and AIRBNB.
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