Sunday, November 4 – We started with some
midterms ugliness, including Duncan Hunter’s fearmongering of his opponent,
Steve King not saying he’s not a
white supremacist, and a representative for Jeff Fortenberry getting way too up
in arms about him being called “Fartenberry” on the Internet (he compared it to
blackface – why?!) As is tradition, we also got an And Now This
on local news anchors in Halloween costumes.
The main story focused on family separation. John did a great job showing how, at pretty
much every level, this was even worse than it seemed on the surface, from the
transparent xenophobia of its conception to the colossal chaos of its execution
to the devastation of its fallout and after-effects. The video of a young, formerly-detained boy
sobbing that he wants to go “to jail” because his mother doesn’t love him
anymore, as all the while she desperately tried to comfort him, was brutal.
Sunday, November 4 – Really great episode. Hasan focused on Amazon, and I loved his
examination of the “wokeness vs. laziness” conundrum; he covered how Amazon
exploits its workers, cuts out small businesses, and absorbs other online
retailers but still admitted that he wasn’t about to live without the
convenience of it. It was a strong way
to frame the larger story of the more mercenary things Amazon does. Within that, we also got some interesting
information about tech monopolies and why current antitrust laws are so
ill-equipped to address Silicon Valley. A
second, shorter story looked at the midterms, specifically the sort of
down-ballot races that Hasan described as “the Minor Leagues” of politics. His story about not knowing who any of these
people are but voting with the cheet sheet from “your woke friend Andy” was
pretty spot on.
Monday, November 5 – Opening blurbs on the
migrant caravan (loved the comment that, instead of sending the military to the
border, Trump could’ve used that $200 million to fly the whole caravan to
Norway,) Trump using a Game of Thrones
meme to announce sanctions on Iran, and the tallest statue in the world, now in
India. A collection of midterms-related
topics, including celebrity endorsements (Trevor’s incentive plan of having
Oprah hide in one random voting booth somewhere in America was awesome) and
polling, with Trevor arguing that issues,
not polls, should decide people’s votes.
Two interviews tonight. The first
guest was John Kasich, who discussed possibly running as an Independent in 2020
and urged people to make their voices heard.
The second, Cory Booker, pointed out that America has spent too much
time condoning atrocities and needs to stand against them.
Tuesday, November 6 – Live show for the
midterms, considerably less funereal than 2016’s. After celebrating the Democrats’ overall
House victory, Trevor looked at some historic firsts (shoutout to Minnesota’s
Ilhan Omar!) and Desi reported on the Ted Cruz-Beto O’Rourke race. I liked Roy’s prediction that Trump was happy
about the results, since a Democrat-let House gives him a scapegoat for
anything he can’t get done. Michael
interviewed non-voters from an important district in a pretty depressing
segment, Ronny went in-depth on voter analysis for one man, and, for lack of
time, Dulce and Jaboukie delivered simultaneous election commentary. Journalist Jamil Smith was the guest, looking
at the takeaways of the night and the deciding hand voter suppression may have
played (like Andrew Gillum narrowly losing in Florida on the same night the
state voted to reenfranchise over a million people shut out of the election.)
Wednesday, November 7 – The starting theme
was a familiar one, the “what we thought
was gonna be the news today.” Trevor
opened on the midterms, pivoted to Trump’s colossally off-kilter press
conference (in which he constantly insulted reporters and flat-out admitted
he’d now blame the Democrats for anything he didn’t get done – Roy was right!),
and then jumped to Jeff Sessions’s “resignation.” The riff on the acting AG’s previous
spitballing of how he’d defund the Russia investigation out of existence was
top-notch. Next, we looked at one
bizarre state race, which was won by a literal “dead pimp” – I loved the
accompanying trailer for Ghost Pimp
Assemblyman, starring Roy. Author
Rebecca Traister, the guest, discussed her new book on women’s anger and the
role it’s often played in social change.
I appreciated the attention she paid to intersectionality and the
importance of white women not hijacking the spotlight.
Thursday, November 8 – First were short
bits on the White House sharing a doctored video of a CNN reporter “assaulting”
an intern, Ruth Bader Ginsburg recovering from a fall, and new research about
the ills of spanking. We returned to
acting AG Matt Whitaker; Trevor looked at Whitaker as an addition to Trump’s
“shady people” collection, and more interestingly, examined his history of
criticizing the Mueller investigation on CNN in the (self-admitted) hope of
catching Trump’s eye. I loved the bit
about how seriously he leveled up, winding up as acting attorney general when
he’d been aiming for a judgeship in Iowa.
Fun story on the difficulty of finding jurors for El Chapo’s trial –
like Trevor, I was amused by the guy who was dismissed for asking for his
autograph. Rapper Swizz Beatz was the
guest. He discussed his long-awaited new
album, as well as the importance of learning how to manage his earnings.
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