"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Saturday, January 27, 2018

News Satire Roundup: January 22nd-January 25th

Here's last night's News Satire Roundup - I'll get caught up on today's post later tonight.

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Monday, January 23 – Great jokes on the Eagles vs. the Patriots being the most American-sounding Superbowl ever, especially with Trevor’s musing on them teaming up to take on the Redskins.  I thought the story on the government shutdown was good.  There were some fun bits about how short it was, like saying that it was basically a regular weekend and imagining a future in which it’d be possible to say, “Hey, did you catch the war over the weekend?”  “No I missed it – who won?”  I also liked the bit comparing it to quitting on Friday, not telling anyone, and then marching into your boss’s office to announce, “I’m back!” on Monday.    Desi and Dulce did a bit on the new Women’s March, looking at marchers from last year who have since run for office themselves.  Michael Wolff, author of that book Fire and Fury, was the guest.  Nothing too special – he mostly just teased little hints to encourage more people to buy the book.

Tuesday, January 24 – I loved how impressed Trevor was at Amazon reselling the idea of “stores” to us after getting us used to home delivery.  More on the short-lived government shutdown, wherein the news focused mainly on who the “winners” and “losers” were in the Senate, all the while losing sight of the Dreamers whose futures still hang in the balance; Trevor’s impression of Mitch McConnell as the ultimate player was awesome.  Roy reported on representation at this year’s Oscars, naturally giving props to Get Out and Mudbound and really getting behind the “openly fish” romantic male lead of The Shape of Water (I died when he told us not to judge the little mermaid because of how limited roles for fish people were back then.)  Great interview with YA author Jason Reynolds, who talked about writing stories that meet kids where they are and making books that are cool enough for Black boys.

Wednesday, January 25 – Some quick blurbs to start:  I liked Trevor’s point that Tammy Duckworth being “the first to give birth as a serving senator” is just a roundabout way to say most senators are men, and his impression of Li’l John doing Elton John was awesome.  Good story on gerrymandering, our regularly-scheduled reminder that we’re incredibly capable of tampering with our own elections without outside interference; it’s insane to me that state legislatures are given leave to do this.  Dulce and Michael took a trip to Mexico to report on the wall, and Dulce interviewed Mexican citizens who all maintained that the wall wouldn’t do a thing to keep people from crossing.  The guest, hockey player P.K. Subban, discussed his humanitarian work, particularly a neat-sounding program to foster relationships between cops and disadvantaged kids.

Thursday, January 26 – After a few jokes on cloned monkeys in China, it was onto the Russia investigation, particularly the urging from GOP congressmen/conservative pundits to fire Robert Mueller.  I liked how Trevor framed it, taking the flimsy “evidence” of conspiracy (an actual secret society called “the secret society” in text messages?) and showing how it “all added up.”  Desi had a piece on how to interview Trump, based on her study of the flattering, sycophantic interviews he’s had with Fox News; the statistic that he’s done four times as many interviews with Fox as all other networks combined was a little staggering, though I can believe it.  Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood was the guest – in addition to talking about the organization’s work (and avoiding questions about her future plans now that she’s reportedly stepping down as its president,) she spoke about the administration’s involvement in the March for Life.

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