News Satire Roundup: December 5th-December 8th

Monday, December 5 – Ben Carson as HUD secretary makes no sense, but at least it gave Trevor another chance to break out his Carson impression.  Trump announcing the nomination on Twitter led to a story on Trump’s continued tweet habits.  I liked Trevor’s point about how it makes everything, from federal appointments to criticisms of foreign countries trade policies, have no more gravitas than his angry tweets about SNL, and watching Pence try to legitimize Trump’s crap was equal parts ludicrous and terrible.  I liked Jordan’s coverage of a Trump “victory tour” rally, especially how the attendees went out of their way to contradict themselves to keep up with Trump’s inconsistencies.  Good interview with CNN’s Van Jones.  His remarks about reaching out to those who voted for Trump “while holding their noses,” were really good, about not vilifying them so they’ll stand with us when Trump does something they can’t abide.

Tuesday, December 6 – Nice opener on Austria’s recent election, in which they opted not to elect a fierce nationalist – any story that works in “hang-gliding Nazis” is all right in my book.  Next was Trump’s phone call with Taiwan and what it could mean for US-China relations.  I liked Trevor’s major point that, whether this turns out to be a strong move or a stupid one, it’s a worrisome when we suspect we’ve given this more thought than our president-elect has.  Hasan had a field report on “green”Navy ships, looking at the notion that being environmentally-friendly somehow makes them less “Navy” (ie, red-blooded American.)  I enjoyed the dots he connected between senators decrying this “travesty” and the states with big oil interests.  John Legend was the guest.  Like many musicians on the show lately, he talked about his decision to use his music as a platform to express his thoughts about race and politics in America.

Wednesday, December 7 – Goofy story about Domino’s in Japan launching a disastrous holiday promotion involving pizza delivery reindeer – the line about Santa, a flying immigrant with a beard, not being welcome in Trump’s America was awesome.  Pretty good story on the Electoral College.  I was right there with Trevor on the bafflement at/frustration with the system, and I liked Jordan as a virtual Thomas Jefferson trying clear things up.  “Hamilton wouldn’t stop rapping in the corner!”  Hasan had a piece about criminal justice and social media, including a local police station’s bizarre Wheel of Fugitive show on YouTube and a shootout-themed mannequin challenge that ended in real arrests.  The guest was Brian Tyree Henry, who I love as Paperboi on Atlanta.  He and Trevor had some great discussion about the self-desribed Black-ass show, and I liked his comments about how he enjoys subverting people’s expectations of him.

Thursday, December 8 –Trevor’s right – it seems counter-intuitive when so many of Trump’s cabinet appointees appear to hate the departments they’ve been picked to oversee.  Great story looking at the “deal” Trump made with Carrier, in which he saved about 800 jobs at the expense of 7 million dollars in tax breaks.  I especially liked Trevor’s point about other companies seeing Trump’s “negotiation tactics” and deciding they want to outsource in the hopes of the president monetarily wooing them back to the States.  The first of two guests was former independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin, who tried to help Trevor parse out the difference between Trumpism and conservatism at large; given the partisanship, I was impressed that he got the audience squarely on his side at least a few times.  Not sure what to make of the second guest, DJ Khaled.  I’m still not entirely sure who he is and what his deal is about.