Sunday, October 15 – John covered a
number of good angles on the Harvey Weinstein’s allegations: Weinstein’s depravity, the awfulness of
people speaking in his defense, and the “yeah, but…” of the Academy ousting him while still keeping Roman Polanski,
Bill Cosby, etc. On Trump, John looked
at him rolling back provisions of Obamacare and refusing the recertify the Iran
deal – with the latter, I really liked John’s explanation of why that move was
so nonsensical and pointless. The main
story was on the Equifax data breach. In
addition to hammering home the importance of taking steps to protect our
credit, John also detailed the extent to which Equifax massively dropped the
ball on this one and yet is still trying to weasel out. The fraud protection company that shares part
of its revenue with Equifax (the reason we’re all in this mess) was especially
mind-boggling.
Monday, October 16 – The show is filming
in Chicago all week. We started with a
Ferris-Bueller-style opener of Trevor and the correspondents racing to the
theater – my favorite was the gender-swapped bit of Desi circling back to
introduce herself to hot sunbathers. I liked
the standup aesthetic the show had going on; it fit the atmosphere and the
crowd. Trevor had some great comments
about the perception of Chicago as the “murder capital” of the US. I loved the point about murder rates vs.
murders per capita (using Pennywise the Clown to illustrate!), and the montage
suggesting why politicians single out
Chicago in particular (the repeated references to “Obama’s hometown”) was very
telling. Roy had a field report on
Ceasefire, a group working to deescalate conflicts in the Southside. Common was the guest. In addition to talking about the theme of the
night, he also discussed the song he wrote for the new movie Marshall.
Tuesday, October 17 – After congratulating
Chicago on its title as America’s “rattiest” city, it was on to the news. More White House psychodrama, with Trump and
Mitch McConnell holding a press conference to prove how much they like each
other – Trevor imagining their hypothetical lovers’ quarrel was great. Next up was Trump pivoting from his
non-response on the deaths of US soldiers to bizarrely claiming Obama “didn’t
make calls” to Gold Star families – who is
this guy, seriously? Ronny’s field piece
on New York vs. Chicago-style pizza was terrific. It started out amusingly with the feud,
turned thoughtful as he checked out a program teaching culinary skills to
inmates, and then got funny again with a pizza prison-break parody. The guests, Arne Duncan and Curtis Toler,
talked about the Emerson Collective, their organization that works to engage
at-risk youth.
Wednesday, October 18 – Loved Trevor’s
reaction to one Chicago Bull punching another in the face. Good piece on the prototypes for the border wall. I enjoyed Trevor’s take, that Trump
has to conduct everything like a reality show, and his riff on the requirement
that the wall be able to withstand a “30-minute assault” was hilarious. Michelle came out to talk about sexual harassment, painting a vivid picture of the “Tough Mudder of dicks” that women
slog through on a daily basis. Dulce had
a nice field report about Young Chicago Authors, a group that helps kids
connect to themselves through spoken word.
I love how much attention this week is paying to community organization
and outreach programs, focusing on work people are doing on the ground. The guest, Lena Waithe, talked to Trevor
about her latest writing project and the fact that we’re still having “first
Black” award winners in 2017.
Thursday, October 19 – Great story on the
evolving scandal of Trump’s dealings with Gold Star families, from not saying
anything to promising $25,000 (what the…??) and then not sending it to allegedly
stating that a fallen soldier “knew what he was signing up for.” This led into wider remarks on Trump’s overall
propensity for creating scandals – I loved the bit imagining someone tuning in
just after a press conference,
flabbergasted at the new disaster the administration dug itself into in about a
ten-minute span. Hasan had a good piece
on Kim Jong-un’s basketball fanboy-ness, begging Bulls stars of years past to “take
one for humanity” and befriend Kim to distract him from testing nukes. I liked the interview with the guest, rapper
Vic Mensa. He and Trevor bonded over
being “halfrican,” and he discussed the way American society decides your
identity for you when you’re mixed.
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