Sunday, February 26 – This week’s Trump update
included his plans for cracking down on immigration and rolling back the federal
guidance on schools’ treatment of trans kids – awesome. I loved John’s line about Trump keeping his
promise to “to make entire subsets of the American citizenry concerned about
their safety and well-being again.” The
main story was on the Affordable Care Act:
its beneficial and problematic aspects, the extreme hate for it among
many congressional Republicans, and what little has been said so far about the
plan to repeal/replace it. I appreciated
John going through the phrases brought up by Paul Ryan and co., explaining what
each means and what the result could be, particularly for lower-income families. Lastly, John’s plan to cast a lobster as Neil
Gorsuch in his all-dog Supreme Court (as a reminder of the partisan
game-playing that will have gotten him there in the first place) was excellent.
Monday, February 27 – After a quick Oscar
bit (more on that later,) we got the next chapter in the ongoing saga of Trump
vs. the media, focusing was on leaks from inside the White House. I loved the montage of Trump singing the
praises of WikiLeaks back when they were to his advantage, and the bit about a
secret meeting to crack down on leaks (which was immediately leaked) was
great. Roy expanded on the Oscars in a
piece positing that we’re in a time of “peak Blackness,” which helped make way
for Moonlight’s victory. He had some great examples, and I loved his
point about how a white film being given something a Black film had earned was
instantly rectified, whereas you’d normally have to make a movie about a Black injustice to get it
acknowledged. John Oliver was the guest,
and he and Trevor talked about what he sets out to do on his show compared to
the verbal “eviscerations” he’s often credited with giving.
Tuesday, February 28 – I liked Trevor’s
assessment of “the Conway picture,” particularly his riff on Kellyanne Conway
obviously not having a Black
grandmother if she puts her shoes on a couch without fear. Next up was a good story on the unfriendly crowds
that have met many GOP congressmen at town hall meetings. Highlights included a crowd chanting “Shame!”
Game of Thrones style and a 7-year-old
boy wanting to know why Trump is taking funding from PBS Kids “just to build a
wall.” This led into the topic of
so-called “paid protesters” and a field piece from Desi outside a town hall in
Birmingham. It went down how these
pieces usually do, with people touting groundless conspiracy theories who are
completely tone-deaf to the glaring contradictions in their own statements –
ayiyi. The guests, rappers Run the Jewels,
discussed making music for free public consumption and being woke while
maintaining rap cred.
Wednesday, March 1 – I don’t think Trump’s address was quite as presentable as Trevor made it out to be, but I really Trevor’s
point here, that the “presidential-sounding” speech about optimism, cooperation,
and combating hate flies in the face of most of what Trump says/does,
including things he said/did earlier that day.
Trevor’s list of contradictory Trump talking points was excellent, as
was the comparison with a heist movie.
In the second segment, also on Trump’s address, I appreciated Trevor for
calling out how surprised and impressed the media gets whenever Trump breaks
out the “presidential” routine, reminding us that this has happened before and
they seem to keep falling for it. Having
CNN’s Jake Tapper as the guest continued the night’s theme, with Tapper
touching on the address as well as talking about how to report in an era when
saying things the president doesn’t like gets equated with being “fake news.”
Thursday, March 2 – Good opening on
Africa’s Mo Ibrahim leadership prize, awarded to a leader who peaceably steps down
(in theory, Trevor points out, since no African leaders did that this
year.) More on Trump and Russia, this time
with Jeff Sessions getting in on the unfortunate action; I don’t even know what
to do with this anymore. All the
Sessions-is-a-hobbit jokes were fun, especially Jordan reporting live from his
office in the Shire. Adam made an
appearance to talk about the recent rash of anti-Semitic threats and attacks,
along with the administration’s extremely overdue/tepid response. “Hey, Jews – it’s Adam from camp” made me laugh
so hard. Evan Osnos of The New Yorker was the guest, continuing
the Russia discussion. He laid out the
situation as we know it pretty well, and I liked Trevor’s observation that the
biggest story so far is mostly the fact that it feels like there’s a story here that hasn’t been uncovered yet.
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