Sunday, August 19 – Of course, we opened
on Rudy Giuliani on TV saying that “the truth isn’t true” and somehow denying
collusion by describing collusion – I honestly don’t know what the
administration’s intention is with him.
Disturbing story on Fraser Anning in Australia’s Senate calling for a
“final solution” in banning Muslim migration, along with fellow senator Bob
Katter who backed him up. I really liked
the main story on Trump’s trade war. I
appreciated the detail, not just on the many ways it’s hurting rather than helping
the economy (such as the steel/aluminum tariffs creating about 25,000 jobs
while losing over 400,000,) but also
on the extraordinary degree to which Trump fails to understand the most basic
facts about trade, trade wars, trade deficits, tariffs, and so forth. As with so many Trump-related things, it was
alarming to listen to his insane claims and outright completely-wrong
“explanations.”
Tuesday, August 21 – It’s another
clip-show week, today’s theme being family separation at the border. The episode drew from a bunch of different
desk pieces, Michael’s report on “liberal outrage” driving voters to Trump, and
the interview with Rep. Karen Bass looking at the impact on the foster care
system. I’ll just hit some highlight
points/jokes from the episode. Refuting
the idea that it’s not that bad because of how “nice” the cages are (i.e., no
one whose child gets snatched asks how nice the van was.) Comparing the Democrats to “an iPhone 5 after
5:00 p.m. – they have no power” after Trump complained about his hands being
tied against “the Democrats’ law” that he “hates.” Racist arguments from the past reappearing in
the present, such as the “how at how nice those cages are!” echoing
descriptions of internment camps – I actually love that whole segment and wish
they could’ve revisited more of it.
Wednesday, August 22 – Today looked at
anti-Black racism in America – not openly-racist administration policies or
presidential tweets, or white supremacist marches, but rather the daily
grinding-down that Black people experience simply existing in America. There were a number of “white people calling
the cops oo Black people” stories, for the apparent crimes of hanging out at Starbucks,
playing golf, sleeping in their dorm common room, and selling bottled
water. Re: Starbucks, I again loved the joke that Black
people show up late because they get arrested for loitering if they’re early,
and I was glad to revisit Dulce’s remarks on “Permit Patty.” The second half of the episode looked at
other recent events involving racism: troubling
school curriculum on slavery, the racist tweet that got Roseanne canceled, and Kanye West suggesting that slavery was a
“choice” (featuring Roy in the trailer for 12
Years a Voluntary Slave!)
Thursday, August 23 – The theme for this
episode was “So Much Winning,” a general catch-all topic for Trump’s varied
claims of success. First up was Trump
overestimating his net worth by $95
million to Forbes Magazine in the ‘80s.
There were such “brilliant” ideas of his as moving the U.S. Embassy in
Israel to Jerusalem and launching “Space Force!”, as well as the credit he
claimed for his (Nobel Peace Prize-worthy?) role in the summit between North
and South Korea. The show also covered
his weirdness at the release of U.S. prisoners from North Korea (variously
thanking Kim Jong-un for being so “excellent” to the prisoners and obsessing
over ratings) and, most worryingly, revisited Justice Kennedy’s resignation and
the prospect of Trump’s presidency shaping America and its laws for decades to
come; the sequence of clips they picked for Trevor’s incredulous “this man?!” bit are still perfect.
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