Sunday, March 20 – The opening
included corruption in Brazil (I loved the the comment about their legislative
body having only 40% fewer criminals than their prisons) and Merrick Garland’s Supreme
Court nomination; while the latter story didn’t have much new to say, the
intransigence of McConnell and co. should be pointed out whenever possible, so
I liked it. Even better, though, was the
ending tag, in which John brought out the potential Garland stand-ins for the
show’s all-dog Supreme Court. But before
adorable judiciary dogs was the main story:
Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. In John’s trademark fashion, he
systematically tore apart every claim and rationalization about the wall. It will not
1) cost $4-12 billion, 2) be easy to erect/maintain, or 3) be widely effective
in keeping out undocumented immigrants (who, by the way, are statistically less likely to commit crime, not more.) Any other questions?
Monday, March 21 – While it feels kind of
contradictory to do a news/satire story on how Trump has benefited from news over-saturation, the show did an interesting job with it. The statistics
shared were especially enlightening (Trump’s campaign coverage has been
comparable to that of the entire Ebola crisis,) and I liked Trevor calling out
the uncoolness of news moguls who admit to knowingly contributing to the Trump
machine in exchange for ratings. So-so piece from Ronny on robots and AI technology. My favorite part was his point that, if we don’t want to AIs
to rise up against us, we should stop teaching them war strategy games like
chess. The guest was Shaka Senghor, who talked about his experiences in
prison and the need for reform. I especially liked his comments about adjusting
to contemporary life/technology after a long prison sentence.
Tuesday, March 22 – It felt odd that Brussels didn’t
come up until the interview (although there was a brief tribute at the end – along
with Ankara, which I appreciated.) As
such, the first story, a blurb about the online voting that may result in a
British research vessel being named “Boaty McBoatface,” was funny but felt
weirdly chipper. Good story on Obama’s visit to Cuba; I loved Obama “cock-blocking”
Castro’s attempt at a photo op, as well as Trevor calling out “braving the rain”
as a first-world phrase. Nice to see Desi back, reporting on the planned gentrification of Cuba. Roy did a field piece on an NBA player who
fought/beat the charges that had involved him being injured by police, comparing
his case to the many that don’t go in Black people’s favor. I liked the interview with Taavi Rõivas, prime
minister of Estonia. I liked hearing about some neat things he’s done
there, as well as his remarks on not giving in to fear amidst terrorism.
Wednesday, March 23 – On Monday, Trevor looked at
the media’s culpability in the Trump mess; tonight was the GOP’s turn. It
was a great story, pointing out that, despite the GOP’s insistence that Trump
doesn’t reflect the Republican Party, a lot of their stances align pretty
closely. All the comparative clips were perfectly chosen, and I loved
Trevor taking Trump to task for calling America a third-world country.
This led well into the guest, Senator Lindsey Graham. He was a
surprisingly good sport about Trevor undermining his endorsement of Cruz by
repeatedly showing clips of Graham talking about how awful Cruz was, including
one where he compared the prospect of a Cruz presidency to being poisoned.
Graham got two segments of the episode, the final one featuring a pool game between him and Trevor in which they had to read compliments about Trump
every time they missed a shot.
Thursday, March 24 – We opened
with Tay, Microsoft’s new AI that was taken off Twitter when users taught her
to be racist (with Twitter, it was inevitable.)
Next came a story on reactions to the Brussels attack. The juxtaposition between calls for unity/strength
(most world leaders) and opportunistic fearmongering (Cruz and Trump) was just
as pronounced as you’d expect. There was
an update on the Apple vs. FBI showdown, or lack thereof; I loved Trevor’s
annoyance at the FBI for the whole thing.
All this, unfortunately, was crammed into the first segment to make way
for more Third Month Mania stuff in the second.
Roy and Hasan’s commentary wasn’t even as funny to me this time (except
for their description of Congress as a surfeit of assholes.) Enjoyable interview with Ethan Hawke,
promoting his Chet Baker biopic. I liked
his story about how his wife keeps him accountable when his characters get into
his head.
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