Sunday, June 18 – John caught up on
what’s been happening with the American Health Care Act while Stupid Watergate
has been imploding. He had a great bit
playing off of Orrin Hatch getting his lines fed to him in a discussion with
Democratic Senators. The main story was
on the coal industry, coal companies, and coal miners, particularly emphasizing
the idea that helping one (i.e., the companies) doesn’t necessarily help them
all (i.e., the miners.) I was stunned to
learn that there are only about 76,000 miners in the U.S. – fewer than the
country’s number of JC Penney’s employees!
And while the research is likely right that coal jobs aren’t coming back
regardless of what deregulation occurs, I appreciate that John didn’t overlook
the genuine hardship that a lot of miners are going through as they see their
jobs disappear. It’s a situation with no
easy answer, but John strove to maintain balance throughout the piece.
Monday, June 19 – We got started with
Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That. Trevor
covered Trump rolling back relations with Cuba (in his ongoing quest to “press
‘control Z’ on Obama’s presidency) and the confusion of whether or not Robert
Mueller is investigating Trump, featuring the most bizarrely double-talking
lawyer around. I was hoping Trevor would
talk about the verdict in the Philando Castile case, and he did, taking care to
call out the NRA for staying silent on someone with a legal carry permit being
killed by a police officer – despicable.
Not a whole lot to the story about a special election in Georgia,
although I liked Trevor’s point about politicians wringing their hands about
lack of money for things like education while they drop millions of dollars for
campaigns. Very good interview with
Janet Mock about her new book – I especially liked her remarks about the
language she uses and why.
Tuesday, June 20 – Opening bit on a
collection of Nazi artifacts found in Argentina; I liked Trevor’s joke about
the owner insisting it’s “just kiddie porn.”
I liked the latest piece on the health care bill. After reminiscing about the fearmongering the
GOP conducted in the run-up to Obamacare, Trevor urged Democrats to do the same
in a different way, using outrageous claims to highlight the point that we
can’t know for sure if they’re made
up, since the Republicans won’t release their draft of the bill. Ronny had a field piece on The Slants’s Supreme Court win over the right to use their name. I don’t think the piece articulated what The
Slants were really trying to do, but I liked Ronny realization that the
trademark wouldn’t have been denied to a non-Asian
group wanting that name. John Harris of
Politico was the guest. He did a good
job explaining how Trump/his administration are simultaneously secretive and transparent.
Wednesday, June 21 – The amusing opening
bit about Michael Phelps racing a shark and the story about the Democratic loss
in the Georgia election were good (in the latter, I loved Trevor’s remarks
about how it’s too early for Trump supporters to be disillusioned with Trump,
using the comparison of drunk people at a club vs. the designated driver.) But the piece of the night was again on the
Philando Castile shooting. Trevor aired
both the original post-shooting video and the recently-released dashcam footage
– I’d read descriptions of both but hadn’t seen either. Insightful and heartfelt as he always is with
this devastating subject. Here, I was
really shaken by his comments about how Castile’s girlfriend still called the
cop “sir” moments after the shooting.
After that powerful story, the weird cutaway sequence with DJ Khaled was
weird and felt shilly, but I enjoyed the interview with folk musician Jason Isbell.
Thursday, June 22 – First up was the Senate’s release of the health care bill; Trevor covered lessening health care
to provide tax cuts for the rich, the GOP’s ballsiness to push for such an
unpopular bill when they don’t have votes to spare, and the Democrats’
less-than-hard-hitting response. Good
story on Trump supporters at a rally, cheering Trump on despite his claims that
directly countered his campaign promises – I laughed at Trevor pondering the
logistics of a solar-panel border wall.
Hasan interviewed Preet Bharara, a former US Attorney Trump fired; Hasan
got Bharara to tell his (Hasan’s) parents that law school isn’t a sure path to
success, deaf to Bharara’s assurance that he is currently employed. Guest
Jerrod Carmichael was ostensibly there to promote Transformers, but after commending Trevor on his coverage of
Philando Castile, they spent most of the interview frankly discussing systemic
racism in police forces.
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