"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Friday, May 29, 2020

News Satire Roundup: May 24th


Sunday, May 24
·       Main Story – Inequities in the Legalized Marijuana Industry
o   Hasan hearkened back to the first days of the pandemic, when he hoarded toilet paper, Purell, and batteries – “I really thought the apocalypse would involve a lot more flashlights”
o   He admitted that he wasn’t the ideal person to discuss the marijuana industry, given that he gives off “big narc energy”
o   I liked Hasan’s confusion that weed is still illegal federally but deemed an essential industry in 31 states during lockdown – “Illegal but also necessary: it’s the water boarding of drugs”
o   John Boehner brushing off all the people thrown in jail for drug charges while he was an anti-pot Speaker of the House (when he now runs one of the biggest cannabis companies in the U.S.) was gross – as Hasan argues, you can’t use the “it was a different time” excuse when you left office 5 years ago
o   We looked broadly at how legalization laws profit large companies over small business, and specifically at massive racial disparities in profit in an increasingly-legal industry that’s historically shown massive racial disparities in punishment
o   Case in point, profit? 81% of dispensaries are white-owned
o   And still-ongoing, punishment? Black people make up 13% of the U.S. population and 40% of the people jailed for marijuana, despite equal rates of usage in Black and white communities
o   In Montana, Black people are 10 times likelier to be arrested for pot than white people – Hasan felt bad for “the one Black dude in Montana. (Clarence, if you’re watching this, be careful)”


I really missed The Daily Show this week. At first, it was just Trevor’s ongoing perspective on the pandemic and his always-thoughtful interviews, which I’ve been appreciating a lot these last few months. But then, of course, it was the murder of George Floyd and the unfolding situation in Minneapolis. As the protests have continued there and throughout the country this week, I’ve been wishing I could hear Trevor speak on it, and thankfully, he posted a long video on YouTube thoroughly breaking down all the “dominoes” that have fallen this week.
  •  Setting the stage – “While everyone is facing the battle against coronavirus, Black people in America are still facing the battle against racism and coronavirus”
  • Next, we looked at Amy Cooper – “So many people act like they don’t know what Black Americans are talking about when they say it, and yet Amy Cooper had a distinct understanding” of why calling 911 on Christian Cooper was a threat to his life. Trevor described it as a “curtain being pulled back,” explicit proof of a white woman overtly weaponizing her whiteness to threaten a Black man
  • This brought us to George Floyd. Trevor looked at Derek Chauvin’s calm as he murdered Floyd, in sharp contrast to the usual “the officer feared for his life” defense – “You can do it, so you did it”
  • He also had great remarks on the protests and some of the property damage/looting that has gone on, focusing on the idea of society as a “contract” that people need to agree to in order to maintain it – with the oppression Black people experience everyday, “the contract that they have signed with society is not being honored by the society that has forced them to sign it with them,” so what’s in it for them to keep holding up their end?
  • He asked people to take the disgust/horror they feel at the footage of Target being looted and imagine having that feeling every single day: “Police in America are looking Black bodies”
To the protesters, be safe.

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