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

Friday, April 27, 2018

News Satire Roundup: April 22nd-April 26th

Sunday, April 22 – I liked John’s point on the ongoing Michael Cohen story – the question everyone’s asking is, “Will Cohen flip?”, not, “Does Trump have anything to hide?”  Next, we talked Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, who’s repeatedly claimed to be a geologist but isn’t (also featured:  Trump’s failure to convince us he knows what the interior is.)  The main story looked at the Iran deal, which is in danger of breaking down if Trump doesn’t renew it next month.  As usual, John pointed out details of the deal that Trump appears to be twisting for the sake of his own narrative, as well as the details he’s outright lying about.  John also noted the potential fallout of dissolving the deal, the worrisome hawks that Trump has advising him on this issue, and the dwindling likelihood of accomplishing anything in talks with North Korea if the U.S. backs out of a deal it made with another country just three years ago.


Monday, April 23 – Looking at an E.coli outbreak in romaine lettuce, Trevor admitted he hadn’t even known there were different kinds of lettuce and decided it must be a white people problem.  Strong piece on Trump lying about what Trevor called his “origin story”:  getting on the Forbes list back in the ‘80s after overestimating his worth by $95 million.  Trevor pointed out how this goes beyond just lying, that it was a concerted effort and that Trump then used it to get loans his success hadn’t warranted.  Oh, and that this origin story was a big contributor in getting him to the White House.  Roy looked at a couple stories about racists who don’t think their actions are racist, like a town mayor arguing that someone spraypainting “Kill n*****” on the house of the town’s one Black guy might not be a hate crime.  I enjoyed the guest, Tracy Morgan.  In addition to a lot of jokes, he championed kindness in the wake of mass shootings.

Tuesday, April 24 – I loved Trevor’s impression of a golf commentator describing five Black women getting kicked off a golf course for playing too slowly:  “Looks like we’ve got a race war on the fourth hole…”  There was a good story on Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the U.S., and his talent for giving Trump what he wants to hear; I especially enjoyed his “impressed” reaction to Trump showing him the phone in the Oval Office.  Michael gave a report on a workers’ clash between strippers and “startenders” whose bars block the stages and intercept the dancers’ tips; I laughed at Michael’s plan to equip the strippers with long-handled church offering baskets.  Political writer Jonah Goldberg was the guest.  He lost me when he praised civil rights as one of America’s best achievements, then, a few minutes later, warned about the danger of “identity politics” – what does he think the Civil Rights Movement was about?

Wednesday, April 25 – After a quick look at Kanye West doubling down on his Trump love, it was onto the allegations about Trump’s VA Secretary pick, Ronny Jackson.  With everything from illegally supplying people with opioids to wrecking a government vehicle while drunk on the job, it seems Jackson being entirely nonqualified for the position may be a moot point.  I loved Trevor’s response to Trump’s “no one has the exact experience of running Veterans Affairs, so there’s no point in finding someone with any experience” so-called logic.  Two guests tonight, the first of which was Christina Hendricks, talking Good Girls.  I liked what she said about not necessarily gravitating to strong characters but instead finding the strength in them.  The second guest was Ricardo Roselló, Puerto Rico’s governor.  He discussed how the U.S. has let the island down and how Puerto Ricans in the U.S. are going to rally in the midterms.

Thursday, April 26 – I laughed at Trevor wondering who Kevin Hart’s agent is, that he even “appeared” in Meek Mill’s prison release.  He also touched on Bill Cosby’s conviction (finally!) and North Korea’s “concession” to shut down a nuclear test site, not mentioning that the site was no longer usable.  Next was Trump’s bizarre, rambling call-in tirade to Fox & Friends, where he ranted so long about so many things that even the hosts were uncomfortable and had to cut him off, citing that, as the president of the United States, he must have more important things to do.  The news that Michael Cohen will be pleading the Fifth led to a series of past Trump comments on the Fifth Amendment, all discussing the “you wouldn’t use it if you weren’t guilty” angle and calling it our worst amendment.  Author James Forman Jr. was the guest, examining mass incarceration and the need for criminal justice reform from within Black communities.

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