News Satire Roundup: July 29th-August 2nd

Still catching up on my News Satire Roundups after my trip - here's last week.

 

Sunday, July 29 – We returned with a catch-up on Stupid Watergate, all the latest on Trump, Michael Cohen, and the Russia investigation; I loved the bit about how unsurprising it is that Trump may have actually known about a meeting involving his son, son-in-law, and campaign manager getting dirt on his political rival that took place in the building where he both lives and works that has his name on it.  Great response, too, to Facebook’s evasive “apology” ad, and true to form, the show fixed it for them to be more honest about what Facebook is really for.  Excellent main story on workplace sexual harassment.  I appreciate how much time John spent emphasizing that we’ve seemingly galvanized over sexual harassment before to little effect, warning against complacency.  His interview with Anita Hill took pride of place, and he seemed genuinely humbled reflecting on times when he witnessed harassment and didn’t speak up.

Monday, July 30 – New “calling the cops on Black people” story, with actor Ving Rhames’s neighbor calling the cops on Rhames for entering his own house. Good bit on US marshals monitoring passengers during flights; I liked Trevor’s supposition that it’s a free-vacation scam, a la, “That guy flying to Bermuda seems shady, I’d better follow him.”  Next was either a zebra or a painted donkey at an Egyptian zoo, with Trevor pointing that this is what zoos will look like after we destroy the environment.  Great story on Rudy Guliani trying to discredit Michael Cohen, contradicting his own past statements about Cohen’s integrity (of course.)  A story on Robert Mueller investigating Trump’s tweets led to a plug for the show’s new book based on its Donald Trump Presidential Twitter Library.  The guest, journalist Andrea Mitchell, compared Trump with past presidents she’s covered and why this is like nothing we’ve seen before.

Tuesday, July 31 – First was an Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That, featuring Beyoncé hiring Vogue’s first Black cover photographer, Zimbabwe’s first post-Mugabe election, LeBron James starting a school in Akron (I loved Trevor’s point that shouldn’t that be the government’s job instead of a celebrity’s?), and Trump blowing hot and cold on Iran – Trevor’s impression of Trump as a mercurial boyfriend was great.  I thought the story on Trump’s tax cuts – which, surprise, surprise! haven’t “trickled down” – was really good.  The statistics there were ludicrously stark.  Michael joined in toward the end, explaining how “easy” it is for the middle class to take advantage of Trump’s newest tax plan, yeesh.  The guest was musician Skylar Grey, who talked about moving from folk singing into collaborating with rappers and closed the show by performing a few numbers.

Wednesday, August 1 – Opening blurbs on France banning smartphones in schools (featuring some obvious but amusing French jokes,) Paul Ryan discovering he’s 3% Jewish, and Trump calling for voter ID laws (and demonstrating that he has no idea how grocery stores work.)  More on 3D-printed guns, with some delightful new reasons to be worried about them – in addition to no license/background check required, we also have no serial number/untraceable and, because they’re mostly made of plastic, can pass through most metal detectors.  Good story on Jim Jordan, who hopes to be the next Speaker of the House but may have enabled sexual abuse during his time as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State; Trevor’s disdain for the “locker-room talk” defense was excellent.  Michael McFaul, former ambassador to Russia, was the guest, discussing the recent Helsinki summit and Trump’s interactions with Putin.

Thursday, August 2 – Quick bits on Apple’s market value hitting $1 trillion, Pope Francis speaking against the death penalty, and parents hiring video game tutors for their kids(?!?), followed by the start of Paul Manafort’s trial.  I liked Trevor’s riff on Manafort’s $18,000 karaoke set-up and his thoughts onTrump weirdly invoking “Alfonse Capone” in response.  Then there was Trump possibly obstructing justice in his anger at being accused of obstructing justice – Trevor’s whole bit about “out in the open” and “illegal” not always being mutually exclusive was awesome.  Next up was a piece on Jeff Sessions, “living his best Confederate life” in spite of harassment from Trump; the show imagined his new Religious Liberty Taskforce as an ‘80s action show starring RoboChrist.  Rapper A$AP Rocky was the guest.  I loved Trevor’s response to A$AP Rocky’s gift to him, a pair of “secret shoes” he’s been developing with Under Armour.