News Satire Roundup: May 6th-May 10th

Sunday, May 6 – After a week off, Last Week Tonight was back with a vengeance.  John started with Senate candidate Don Blankenship, noted for ads in which he leans hard into his past jail time (that was not for blowing up a mine) and warns against Mitch McConnell’s “Chinaperson” father-in-law.  The timely main story looked at Rudy Giuliani – chiefly, the idea that his current insanity on Trump’s legal team is less “what happened, Rudy?” and more who he’s always been.  Informative as always, though I especially enjoyed John’s amusement at Giuliani “accidentally” marrying his second cousin and his repeatedly buying Giuliani-relevant web domains and redirecting them to ferret gifs.  We also got a follow-up on the show shipping Russell Crowe memorabilia to the last Blockbuster in Anchorage, with Crowe using the money to start a “John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Ward” in Australia.  John’s utter delight at this was everything.

Monday, May 7 – We opened on Trump’s remarks at the NRA convention (I loved Trevor talking about how America would react if Emmanuel Macron mocked one of our national tragedies) and an NHL player who keeps getting in trouble for licking his opponents.  Next up was the latest in the Giuliani ridiculousness.  Trevor rightly scorned him for simultaneously trying to claim both “you can’t hold me to what I say – I just got here and don’t know what I’m doing!” and “trust me completely that this is absolute fact.”  What a shit show.  Michael also did a piece on Giuliani, demonstrating just how thoroughly his wildly-contradictory statements have attempted to muddy the waters of objective reality.  The guest, Ronan Farrow, talked about the role he played in breaking the Harvey Weinstein scandal before getting to his new book on America’s shrinking diplomacy and the ramifications that could have on the world stage.

Tuesday, May 8 – First was the volcano in Hawaii; Trevor pointed out the craziness of having to warn tourists not to approach molten lava.  Quick bit on a Google Home feature requiring people to say “please,” with Trevor approving of it (for impending-robot-revolution reasons.)  Big story on Trump pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal – I appreciated Trevor’s remarks about why on earth you’d rather have Iran start building nukes tomorrow instead of 10 years from now, complete with Dwayne-Johnson-related analogy.  The piece on former attorney general Eric Schneiderman’s abuse of women, the polar opposite of the women’s ally he painted himself as, featured a quick note on the fact that Ronan Farrow was polishing up that story while he was there for Monday night’s interview.  Tonight’s guest was presidential historian Jon Meachum.  He looked at Trump’s place in history and how the founders prepared for a situation like this.

Wednesday, May 9 – After reactions to the U.S. leaving the Iran nuclear deal, it was more Michael Cohen, specifically a number of suspicious payments he received from Russian oligarchs and big corporations.  I liked the joke that no one needs to pay $200,000 for “insight” into the administration; just read Trump’s Twitter.  We looked at DonBlankenship’s primary loss, covering a lot of the same ground John Oliver did on Sunday, including “cocaine Mitch” and Blankenship’s defense of the term “Chinaperson.”  A new segment, Cops Just Wanna Use Guns, highlighted instances of unnecessary police escalation – I especially liked the bit about the media digging up dirt on a groundhog shot by an officer.  Orange is the New Black’s Diane Guerrero was the guest, talking about her memoir on dealing with her undocumented parents being deported when she was young.

Thursday, May 10 – The latest in Black people being seen as threats:  a white Yale student calling the cops on a Black student for sleeping in the common room.  I loved the ominous line, “You never know what she’s dreaming about!  Last time they had a dream, we had to give them voting rights!”  Quick piece on prisoners released from North Korea, with Trump oh-so-approriately focused on the ratings their return garnered.  Then, it was even more Michael Cohen – I loved Trevor’s point that he was basically running a Nigerian prince scam.  Desi reported on asylum seekers leaving the U.S. in hopes of a better life in Canada.  The parallels with what the U.S. ought to stand for – land of opportunity, etc. – were good.  Guest Joaquin Castro, a congressman from Texas, had some nice things to say about learning to reach across the aisle when you’re in the minority party.