News Satire Roundup: October 14th-October 18th

Sunday, October 14 – After a clip of Trump bizarrely praising Neil Armstrong for not taking part in the NFL protests during the moon landing(?), we looked at the midterms, particularly ads put out by candidates; the one GOP guy doing a montage teaching his kids Trumpy things (a la “building the wall” with blocks) was creepy.  The main story was on Saudia Arabia, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, and Trump’s chummy relationship with the country’s crown prince.  I liked that John emphasized that every president in recent decades has gotten dirty playing nice with Saudi Arabia for oil, but I also appreciated his point that Trump is the first who doesn’t seem to view that as a moral compromise.  The episode ended with a tour through the Instagram pages of various news personalities, with John kicking off his own hashtag featuring him doing things like not lifting weights (like Chris Cuomo) or picking up distressed pigs (like Mika Brzezinski.)

Monday, October 15 – Boo on Hillary Clinton skirting an interview question about Monica Lewinsky in light of #MeToo, but yay to an activist putting googly eyes on a Confederate statue (I loved Trevor’s joke that, if they didn’t want more people to do that, they shouldn’t have shown it on the news.)  After a bit on the proposal to charge a fee to Capitol protesters, we moved onto Elizabeth Warren’s DNA test “suggesting” a very minute amount of Native American blood.  Trevor had a great riff on Trump being all, “Who cares?” after harping on it for, like, two years, but I wish he’d gone harder on Warren.  Awesome story on the white woman who cried “sexual harassment” on a 9-year-old Black boy whose backpack accidentally brushed her.  The whole neighborhood laughing while she watched the security footage (proving the boy’s innocence) gave me life.  Good interview with Amandla Stenberg on The Hate U Give; I liked what they said about creating empathy and that “making white people cry” was the film’s goal.

Tuesday, October 16 – Opening blurbs on climate change potentially doubling the cost of beer and the massive increase in the federal budget deficit.  Next was Saudi Arabia’s response to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.  Trump’s “well, the crown prince absolutely denies it” reminded me of his easy support of alleged abusers/predators, and Michael had a good piece on Saudi Arabia floating possible lies  the U.S. would be comfortable “pretending” to believe so we could stay in bed with them on trade.  Roy did a new “C.P. Time” on Black athlete protests, looking at protests of the past and present; I loved the line about how Colin Kaepernick kneeled while sporting two of the statistically-blackest hairstyles known to man (an afro and cornrows.)  Melissa McCarthy was the guest, talking about her new movie Can You Ever Forgive Me?, playing a deeply-flawed character, and trying not to accidentally insult her husband (as it turns out, harder than expected.)

Wednesday, October 17 – We started with Trevor envying Canada’s legalized weed, being impressed at the “fine print” on abolition in various state constitutions, and admitting that he’d probably eat cookies even if he knew they contained human ashes.  We then moved onto some recent Trump interviews, spouting nonsense on climate change and pushing “innocent until proven guilty” for Saudi Arabia.  I was making mental comparisons with Kavanaugh and was slightly amazed that Trump explicitly went there himself.  Dulce reported on Jeannine Lee Lake, the first Black woman running for Congress in her Indiana district, and the Democratic committtee who won’t back her because they don’t think her race isn’t “winnable.”  The guest, politician Julián Castro, talked about courting Latinx voters in meaningful ways and potentially becoming the first presidential candidate with an accented letter in their name.

Thursday, October 18 – Fun opening bit on an Astros fans possibly getting in the way of a home run, followed by Stephen Hawking’s posthumus book and Kleenex changing the name of their “Mansized” box (to, Trevor posited, “Jerk-Off” box?)  Good story on voter suppression, from the voter ID requirements in North Dakota to Brian Kemp disproportionately removing Black voters from Georgia voter rolls for the election he’s running in.  I liked Trevor’s plan to have all Black people register as Republicans (and then vote for whoever they want) – “They’ll be waving Trayvons into the polls like a third-base coach!”  Ronny reported on new wearable technology that seems like more trouble than its worth, like a special jacket to operate a drone with your whole body or a jet-suit that only has enough gas for 3-4 minutes of flight.  Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton was the guest, talking about his combined love of racing and fashion.