Sunday, August 4 – New Patriot Act! The new block kicked off
with an episode on video games and labor. I was already pretty well aware of
the rampant sexism in the industry (as Hasan said, “It’s like finding out that Mike
Pence pulls his underwear down to his ankles to pee: it’s new information, but
it’s not surprising,”) although the specific stories shared here were terrible.
What I didn’t know was how big gaming companies work their developers to the
breaking point in the lead-up to a new game (months of mandatory 16-hours days
without overtime, called “crunch,”) then unceremoniously lay most of them off
after the game comes out. I liked the running gag of Hasan’s GFX team sending
us messages on the graphics behind him, and the ending, with him trying to
live-stream facts about labor abuses, was entertaining. I’m glad to hear that
industry workers are starting to unionize.
Sunday, August 4 – This episode was put
together before the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, so the show opened with an
added plea from John not to become numb to this type of senseless violence,
“because unless something hurts as much as it’s supposed to, nothing gets done
about it.” The episode proper started with Boris Johnson’s
less-than-illustrious visit to Scotland and the latest Trump nominee to be
cycled out (John Ratcliffe, for being absurdly unqualified for the position he
was nominated for.) The main story was on prison labor. Orange is the New Black introduced me to this topic and 13th taught me a lot more,
but John’s take on it was good. I loved his remark that an amendment abolishing
slavery shouldn’t include the word “except,” and the warden arguing against the
release of “good” parolees because of their value to him as essentially-free
labor was horrible.
Monday, August 5 – After quick blurbs
on a French hoverboard and a woman who scared off a cougar with Metallica, the
show turned to Saturday’s shootings. Trevor looked at the fingers pointed at
various causes: the Internet (for radicalization,) violent video games, mental
illness (although the majority of mass shooters haven’t been diagnosed with
one.) I loved his point that Congress tries to find a singular cause for all
mass shootings and, and in the absence of one, instead does nothing. He later
addressed Neil deGrasse Tyson’s rather tactless tweet about things that cause
more deaths than mass shootings, arguing that that America tries to lessen deaths from medical errors, car accidents, and
beyond, but very little action is really being taken on mass shootings. Guest
Eva Longoria also discussed the shootings (from her vantage point as a Texan,)
which Trevor noted shouldn’t have to be part of a Dora the Explorer press tour.
Tuesday, August 6 – We opened on the
escalating trade war with China, followed by “off the grid” luxury vacations
(why not just go somewhere ordinary and lock your devices in the safe if you
don’t trust yourself not to use them?) and a new app for assigning chores
(featuring a great tangent on Trevor’s hatred for chores.) More on the
weekend’s mass shootings, looking at Fox News’s plans to solve the crisis
without blaming guns. The news that the Dayton shooter killed 9 people (and hit
14 more) in just 30 seconds shook me, and I loved Trevor’s response to the idea
that we need armed guards “on every floor of every school and every hall of
every mall,” saying that this would make America a prison in which only the
guns are free. The guest, getting two segments, was presidential candidate
Marianne Williamson. She reiterated a lot of her points from the last debate
and posited why she, a non-politician, can connect with voters.
Wednesday, August 7 – First was a viral math problem along the lines of “the dress,” followed by increased traffic due
to ride shares (loved Trevor’s bit about “Uber Stride,” ha!) and footage of
cops on horseback leading an arrested Black man on a rope (good point that
there’s no non-racist visual of arresting a Black man while on a horse.) The
latest on the mass shooting aftermath included, as Trevor put it, Trump going
out of his way to avoid singling out white supremacy (“or any other kind of
supremacy,” seriously?!) and Joe Biden managing to botch the names of both places hit by mass shootings this
weekend. Two guests, the first being presidential candidate Michael Bennet. I
appreciated Trevor talking about his work in the Senate, since I really didn’t
know anything about Bennet before the first debates. The second guest was
Natasha Lyonne, talking Russian Doll
and her opportunities to be involved in engrossing projects.
Thursday, August 8 – Opening blurbs on
new climate-change warnings, emojis as gang codes (Abraham Lincoln was a Blood,
who knew?), and Trump floating a pardon for Rod Blagojevich, followed by a
video game the show designed to convince lawmakers to legislate gun control
(since video games are “so influential.”) Interesting story on progressives
threatening to cancel their Equinox membership because its owner fundraises for
Trump. I loved Trevor’s rift about how anyone hosting a Trump fundraiser can’t
also call themselves “a champion of diversity,” and Jaboukie had a fun bit
doing resistance-based “wokeouts.” Next was Turkmenistan’s president possibly
being dead and the bizarre propaganda footage that doesn’t actually prove
otherwise (I’m with Trevor – why is he bowling and driving racecars in the
video?!) Meek Mill was the guest, talking about his new documentary and the
effects of the probation system.
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