Sunday, March 13
· Headlines – Ukraine, Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill
o John thoroughly agreed with Zelenskyy’s statement, “We’ve been repeatedly convinced, if you want to know Russia’s plans, look at what Russia accuses others of” – To that, John added, “If a man looks like a porn parody of a Bond villain, maybe assume everything he says is horse shit.”
o Great point that while Gov. DeSantis and senators supporting the Don’t Say Gay bill are quick to note that the bill only bans talking about sexual orientation/gender identity at the K-3 level, it requires that any instruction in 4th and above must be “‘age or developmentally appropriate’ without defining what that is.”
o The bill boils down to this – “It’s not about sex at all. It’s about significantly denying the existence of gay people.”
o A good chunk of this piece was devoted to Disney’s generous donations to DeSantis and many of the bill’s co-sponsors, as well as CEO Bob Chapek’s three attempts at “apologizing”/justifying the company’s actions – In response to Chapek’s insistence that Disney’s “inspiring content” is the only statement they need to make, John said, “Here’s the thing: generally, movies can affect how people view the world. But is this really a path you want to go down, Disney? Because you’re the same company that’s coded basically every villain in your movies as gay, stereotyped minorities to a breathtaking degree, and had something called a ‘wench auction’ in place at Disneyland until 2018! So I don’t know that you’ve had a 100% net-positive effect here.”
o John didn’t mince words when Chapek claimed that he doesn’t know what kind of things a senator is going to vote for when he gives them money – “That is such bullshit, it is actively insulting.”
o Great line – “Marginalized creators have made billions of dollars for Disney. Now, should it embarrass them that it took them until this week to realize they shouldn’t take that money and use it to actively undermine those creators’ interests? Who’s to say? I’ll tell you: I am. I’m Zazu, remember?”
· And Now This – Jim Cramer talking about his wife on air
o A surprisingly-long montage of Cramer specifically discussing his wife’s love of the Baconator from Wendy’s, a move which the title card called “grounds for divorce.”
· Main Story – Concert tickets
o I laughed at one TikTokker’s lament about the exorbitant price of Bad Bunny tickets – “Y’all make me wanna sell my husband’s feet on OnlyFans!”
o Though the story wasn’t exclusively about them, we did spend much of our time talking about Ticketmaster – after checking a range of ticket prices, the show found that fees often amounted to at least 75% of the original ticket price, and at least one instance where the fees exceeded the price of the ticket.
o When Ticketmaster’s CEO testified before Congress in the late 2000s, he likened the company to the IRS as the face of the entity taking your money, even if it’s not the sole entity ultimately pocketing it – “It’s true. Ticketmaster is very much like the IRS, in that it’s an opaque bureaucracy, takes more of your paycheck than you think it should, and is represented by men so catastrophically uncharismatic, they look like they’re putting themselves to sleep.”
o Another major issue we looked at was resales through – Wild stories like “Justin Bieber sells out Madison Square Garden in 30 seconds” become less staggering when you learn that only 10% of the available tickets were released for sale to the general public.
o The show found that professional brokers markup tickets by 49% on average, but it can be over 1,000% and in the case of a particular One Direction concert, 7,000%.
o John acknowledged that Ticketmaster wasn’t the only problem here, but it was very emblematic of the problem – “It turbo-charged many of these shitty practices that have now become industry standard.”
Monday, March 14
· Headlines – Tom Brady unretires from the NFL, COVID updates, Jane Campion’s Critics Choice Awards speech
o Trevor wasn’t surprised that Tom Brady is returning to football – “His leaving the NFL was like when Charlie Sheen left Two-and-a-Half Men. Yeah, there were still two-and-a-half men, but which men? Not men we cared about. Where’s the cocaine?! Step it up, little kid!”
o Trevor compared Brady to other “greats” who’ve come back from retirement, like Michael Jordan and, of course, Jesus – “Yeah. That guy retired from life for three days before He was like, ‘Naw, the game needs me.’”
o Depressingly-accurate description of COVID – “The virus that goes away then comes back more times than an evil twin on a soap opera.”
o Some clarification on a lockdown happening in China right now – “For those watching from the United States, this is a real lockdown, right, where you can’t leave your house, not an American lockdown where everything is open but there are stickers on the floor that everyone ignores.”
o Perfect description of Venus Williams’s expression when Jane Campion implied that her job is more difficult than the Williams sisters’ tennis coach, since Campion has to “compete against the guys” – “Venus looks like someone just told her how well-spoken her backhand is.”
o Great encapsulation of the issue with Campion’s acceptance speech – “It felt like a white woman on top of her game was telling two Black women on top of their game that her game is harder than theirs.”
o This was a great joke – “You know, you almost wish that someone could have intercepted her right before she said that line. You know? Where’s Kanye when you actually need him?”
· Main Story – Ukraine
o Sad but true characterization of Russia’s targets in Ukraine – “Apartment complexes, hospitals…. Basically, the less threatening the building, the more Russia wants to bomb it.”
o We looked at Russia’s move to threaten expanding the war, bombing a military base 15 miles from the border with Poland – “15 miles about as close as you can get to bombing Poland without actually hitting it, which means this missile strike was basically Russia going, ‘Oh, I wish a NATO would.’”
o Loved this bit – “Like I said, nobody wants World War III. We don’t want it to start for any reason. I mean, American hasn’t even defeated all the Nazi’s from the last World War,” (complete with a photo from Charlottesville.) “And like my mom always says, you can’t have more until you finish what’s on your plate.”
o With news that Russia is appealing to China for help, Trevor worried that the U.S. wouldn’t have as much room to sanction China – “Shit. I bet America would sacrifice three or four states just to keep getting new iPhones.”
o Amazing footage of a Russian state TV employee running on camera during a news program with an antiwar sign – “Although, knowing Russia’s propaganda machine, it’s probably gonna find a way to, like, twist this whole thing. Yeah, they’ll be like, ‘You saw the sign—“No war.” There is no war. Everything is normal. All good.’”
o After Russia announced it was shutting down Instagram, some influencers posted videos of themselves crying at the thought of losing all their followers – “Yeah. If you thought being a Ukrainian refugee was bad, imagine being forced to pick up your whole life on Instagram and move it over to Cameo. That’s tragic.”
o Our latest Kremlin-approved replacement app was “Instavlad” – “With close comrade mode, your photos will only be available to your best friends, and also our secret police.”
· Interview – Evan Rachel Wood
o In talking about Phoenix Rising, her new documentary addressing the abuse she experienced under Marilyn Manson, Wood answered the question “why now” – “I do get a lot of people commenting on how I’m able to speak about things and put on a brave face and… and how ‘strong’ I am. But it took 16 years to get here.”
o This was an interesting response about her choice to get into the “messiness” of the situation, including talking about her abuser’s own past history of being abused – “Violence in the home is the root of so many issues in this country, in the world, it bleeds into almost every area of society, and we don’t even realize it. And violence begets violence. It is a cycle. And there are people that can stop the cycle. And there are some people, I feel—like Brian—that don’t want help.”
o Wood acknowledged her privilege in having 1) the platform to speak out and 2) the resources to unpack some of her trauma – “It really breaks my heart to think of people that don’t have access to the things that I’ve had access to and how alone they must feel, and that really is what drives me.”
Tuesday, March 15
· Headlines – Ukraine, Ford gets around computer chip shortage, Dolly Parton turns down Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination
o Trevor was impressed with three Eastern European leaders meeting in Kyiv to show their support for Ukraine – “These people are having an in-person meeting in an active war zone. Meanwhile, some of us are too scared to go back to the office. Yeah. I mean, we say it’s about COVID, but it’s really about Dave at the water cooler.”
o 14,000 people have been arrested for protesting the war in Russia.
o Protesters have been arrested regardless of how subtle their protests have been – “Damn, that is next-level censorship there. Imagine that. Even people holding up blank signs, nothing on it, are getting arrested in Russia. I mean, think about it. If you see a blank sign, and you automatically assume people are criticizing you, that’s your insecurity showing.”
o In lieu of having the computer chips they need to run the rear seat temperature controls, Ford is selling the vehicles without the chips, which they’ll send to the dealers for installation once they come in – “You know, when you think about it actually, this make you realize that a lot of the problems we have in society aren’t problems. We’ve just gotten used to fancy shit. Cars not having heat controls in the back—that’s not a problem. Back in the day, you didn’t have to worry about the chip that controls the temperature in the back seat because if you were in the back seat, you had no say.”
o This made me laugh – “Everyone likes Dolly Parton. Yeah. I’m sure even QAnon is like, ‘Sure, she eats babies like all other celebrities, but only the babies who deserve it.’”
o Also a great line – “For all those people who said, ‘Dolly doesn’t deserve to be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,’ this is just proving you wrong. Because turning down the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is the most rock and roll thing you could do. Dolly’s like, ‘I don’t consider myself rock and roll,’ and the Hall of Fame is like, ‘Aah! That is so punk rock! Aah!’”
· Correspondent Piece (Lewis) – Oscar Awards
o Lewis characterized the Oscars as “that night when America’s finest actors seethe with rage while British actors pretending to be Americans steal their awards.”
o The piece was on this year’s plans to attract viewers to the ceremony, which as shortening the broadcast by not airing some of the technical and design awards – “You can’t cut out the men and women who work behind the scenes. Without them, the Oscars are just awards for Hollywood’s greatest sex criminals.”
o Lewis pointed out that the Oscars are inevitably a hard sell, since the majority of people haven’t seen any of the nominated films – “Okay, I did see The Power of the Dog, but only because they tricked me into thinking it was a superhero movie. If the dog doesn’t fly, that’s not a power.”
o That said, Lewis didn’t appreciate the Academy’s attempt to pander to the masses by awarding a “fan favorite” movie based on a hashtag – “There’s already a vote for fan favorite. It’s called buying a ticket, asshole!”
o There was a bit at end featuring Lewis heckling Oscar winners for their overly-long speeches – When Renée Zellweger brought up Neil Armstrong in a list of people who’ve inspired her, Lewis shouted, “Neil Armstrong’s speech was one sentence! You’re a disgrace to his legacy!”
· Kanye West, Kim Kardashian & Pete Davidson
o This made me smile – “For those who don’t know, Kim Kardashian was married to Kanye West. If you don’t know that, I really envy your life. I want to know how you roll and how you avoid all these things.”
o The main topic here, was Kanye’s new (Claymation) music video, in which he chops Pete Davidson’s head off – In comparison to a rapper like Eminem, who Trevor notes has always used a violent “shtick” that audiences know is just a persona, “With Kanye, we don’t know how to feel, we don’t know how to worry. And I think Kanye doesn’t seem to understand that.”
o Not that Pete appears to be helping to smooth things over between him and Kanye – “I’m sorry, guys, to start a message with, ‘I’m in bed with your wife,’ and then go, like, ‘Let me help you with your mental health.’ Yeah, now you’ve added to the mental health of the person that you’re trying to help them with.”
o This was a point Trevor kept coming back to in the story – “It’s spun into a story that seems fully tabloid, but I think, I think… deserves a little more awareness from the general public. Because it touches on something that is more sensitive and more serious than people would like to admit.”
o That sensitive/serious issue? The fact that Kim Kardashian is being harassed by her ex-husband, who just made a music video about killing her new boyfriend – “What we’re saying, though, is one of the most powerful, one of the richest women in the world unable to get her ex to stop texting her, to stop chasing after her, to stop harassing her. Just think about that for a moment. Think about how powerful Kim Kardashian is, and she can’t get that to happen.”
o Trevor tied what he’s seeing here with what he witnessed growing up in an abusive home, particularly the way his mom’s experience was denied by the people around them – “You see a world where women are questioned for what is happening to them as opposed to people questioning what is happening to them.”
· Interview – Dr. Deepak Chopra
o Chopra was there to promote his new book on fostering inner wealth – He explained the book was “inspired by a lyric from Bob Marley, who said some people are so poor, all they have is money.”
o I really liked this – “If joy is not the measure of success, you have wasted your life.”
o The conversation moved to Russia and Ukraine, with Trevor worrying about what might happen if the “wrong person,” like Putin, applied the strategies from Chopra’s book – Chopra was confident that Putin would pay for his crimes in the end, saying, “I believe in the law of karma. It’s an echo from the past.”
o They also talked about Chopra’s suicide prevention campaign, particularly his website that uses a chat bot to talk to teens in crisis – I understand his point that kids like the anonymity of talking to an AI that they know isn’t going to judge them, but he didn’t really address Trevor’s question about how you go about programming an AI for that kind of work. He just kind of said it was an “ethical AI” and left it at that.
Wednesday, March 16
· Main Story - Ukraine
o Great bit about states offering cash rewards for citizens who “snitch” on oligarchs – “It’s probably gonna mark the first time that people are gonna call the cops like, ‘Hey, 911? I just saw a very suspicious yacht sailing by. And look, some of my best friends have yachts, but there’s something fishy about this one. Yeah, I’m in danger.’”
o Oh man, I loved this impression of Trump addressing European leaders about Ukraine, in response to Don Jr.’s suggestion that he go instead of Biden – “Russia is stealing Ukraine’s land, just like Black Lives Matter stole the voting machines. And the toilets. They don’t flush anymore. They don’t flush! And that’s why we got to ban windmills. Got to get rid of all of them.’”
o Looking at Zelenskyy’s address to Congress, Trevor was impressed by his references to U.S. history, from Mount Rushmore to Pearl Harbor to the “I Have a Dream” speech – “Props to him. I mean, he knows way more about America than most U.S. senators know about his country. Like, can you imagine how they would sound if they had to give an inspiring speech using Ukrainian history? ‘Uh, people of Ukraine, remember the vision of your founder, I want to say, Daniel Ukraine?’”
o Oof, the person on Twitter to responded to Zelenskyy’s speech with, “I understand times are hard, but doesn’t the president of Ukraine own a suit?” – “Damn. What a weird criticism. This is the kind of guy who’d see Jesus come back and be like, ‘Really? Sandals, my guy?’”
o While many politicians in the U.S. are of course sympathetic to Ukraine and want to help, Trevor acknowledged their concern that any more direct action on their point could drive Russia into a larger war with NATO, kicking off World War III – “That’s a sequel no one wants! Except maybe the History Channel. Yeah, you think they want to be talking about aliens and shit? They hate it as much as you do.”
o A good chunk of this story focused on different ways Americans are trying to help. Some are booking Ukrainian Airbnbs (without the intention of staying there) to put money in Ukrainian host’s bank accounts – I laughed at Trevor’s impression of the one guy who didn’t realize this was purely about donating, not vacationing, saying, “Really disappointed. WiFi was spotty. And sound of missiles exploding kept me up all night. Two stars.”
o My first response to news of police forces sending their military-grade equipment to Ukraine was, “So I guess this isn’t equipment they actually need for their day-to-day police work. Who’d have thought?” – Trevor said, “That’s what I’m talking about! America’s police forces are sending their military-grade hardware to help Ukrainians fight a war in Russia. That’s dope. And if you’re asking, ‘Wait, why do our police have things that you can use in a war?’, you’re not asking the right questions!”
o Other politicians are calling for citizens to donate their guns to the war effort – “At what point does America realize it has too many guns? Because you realize that that guy just said, ‘We can get a million guns and we can send them to—’ That’s when you know your country has too many weapons, is when another country needs weapons and everyday people in America are like, ‘Yeah, we can give them the spare Glock in the guest room, honey.’”
· Montage – “Now vs. Then”
o This was good, a classic montage of revisionist history about Trump’s stance on Ukraine and Russia from a variety of politicians/pundits, juxtaposed with footage of what was actually said during his administration.
o This news piece was paired with a quote about how dictators like Putin knew they couldn’t mess with Trump – “Most of the dictators Trump is friendly with now understand they can play Trump, get what they want from him by flattering him.”
o This was Trump’s response to an interviewer referring to Putin as a killer – “A lot of killers. We got a lot of killers. What, you think our country’s so innocent?”
· Correspondent Piece (Ronny) – The metaverse
o This made me smile – “Yes, the metaverse is coming, not that anybody asked for it. These companies just decided to move us all into the metaverse like they’re putting their grandma into a nursing home.”
o Relatable (except for the part about the unicorn orgies) – “Apparently, we should all be excited, because the metaverse will let us build our own worlds and explore the limits of human imagination, which makes you think you’ll be flying on dragons through an orgy full of unicorns—you know, the thing we all dream about. The only problem is the metaverse is being made by Microsoft and Facebook, so you know it’s gonna be boring as shit.”
o I love ornery/disdainful Ronny – “Oh, thank God there will be PowerPoint in the metaverse. I can’t wait for the immersive experience of feeling like I’m inside a pie chart.”
o I loved this response to the metaverse “land rush,” where virtual property is going for six to seven actual figures – “This is how bad the real estate market is. Now I’m being price out of worlds that don’t even exist. There’s nothing more depressing than showing up to the metaverse and needing a roommate.”
· Interview – Comedian/actor Quinta Brunson
o In promoting her show Abbott Elementary, Brunson talked a lot about her mom, a teacher whose work experience helped inspire the series – She recalled the many challenges her mom dealt with above and beyond what many people consider the regular demands of teaching, saying, “‘This child has this learning issue.’ ‘This child over here comes from a home where this is happening.’ ‘This child is excelling too fast, and I have to make a little extra room for them.’ She’s doing this for 30 kids all at once, my mom.”
o She praised the environment on set, saying, “I feel like I got to pick everyone I wanted for the cast, and I think that’s rare,” and, “I also have a personal connection to each person that I cast and knew what type of person they were.”
o She also had some really interesting things to say about the young actors playing her students – Because 1) the set is a functioning classroom where the child actors also have school and 2) a lot of kids aren’t used to mockumentary-style filmmaking, it’s taken some of the actors a while to sort out what parts of their day are real and what parts are acting.
Thursday, March 17
· Headlines – Netflix tests out account-sharing, Omicron subvariant BA.2, kindergarten positivity hotline
o I liked the description of Netflix as “the friend who checked on you most during the pandemic,” with an image of the “are you still watching?” notification.
o Good bit – “No, Netflix! This wasn’t the deal. The deal was that we get to share a single account for our 30 closest friends, and in return, you get to keep murdering people to get material for your true-crime documentaries.”
o This was a great segue – “Let’s move on to the coronavirus pandemic, which, unlike most Netflix shows, has been renewed for season three.”
o I loved Trevor’s reaction to hearing that COVID surges in Europe could be a harbinger of what the U.S. will be seeing soon – “Aw, shit. A harbinger? I don’t even know what that word means, but harbingers are never good. Yeah. It’s never like, ‘This dog is heavily pregnant, which could be a harbinger of more puppies!’”
o The elementary-school kids who set up a positivity hotline are currently getting 11,000 calls an hour, which really speaks to how life/society is affecting adults’ mental health.
o This made me smile – “I gotta say, I like getting advice from kids way more than the alternative. Because if you tell a kid you’re stressed, they’re like, ‘Go buy some ice cream.’ That picks you up, you know? But if you tell your therapist you’re stressed, what do they do? They’re like, ‘Let’s relive every failed relationship you’ve ever had.’”
· Main Story – Ukraine
o Trevor was staggered by the neverending reports of civilian targets bombed by the Russians – “I honestly don’t know what the point of it all is. Like, unless Putin’s plan is to win over the Ukrainian people with the world’s largest case of Stockholm syndrome, what is he doing?
o When Russia brought up Hiroshima in response to Biden calling Putin a war criminal, Trevor said, “Ah seriously, Russia, you’re gonna bring up something America did in the ‘40s? America’s committed plenty of war crimes since then.”
o A good portion of the story was on pro-war propaganda – We looked at the deepfake video of Zelenskyy telling Ukrainians to surrender, as well as U.S. networks like Fox News and Newsmax that are repeating Kremlin talking points.
o Reportedly, Russian state TV news has been urged to include clips of Tucker Carlson in their broadcasts, to demonstrate his support for the war – “And that’s a smart move by Tucker, you know? You might be like, ‘Why is he defending the Russians?’ Yeah, it’s a smart move. You don’t want to put all your eggs in the Trump propaganda basket. You got to diversify, you know? Think about other bad guys you could roll with. Putin, Kim Jong-un, hey, maybe the Joker!” This last reference was awesomely followed up with, “Are we really supposed to believe a Batman is keeping our streets safer? Why is that?”
o We also got an impressively, frighteningly long montage comparing statements from Russian leaders/news channels with statements from far-right pundits and politicians – The parroting covered a wide range of topics, including, “Ukraine is Russia,” Ukrainian Biolabs,” “Border Security,” “Ukrainian Nazis,” “Zelenskyy is Bad,” “US Aided Ukraine Coup,” and “Russia Canceled.”
· Correspondent Piece (Desi) – Anti-Russian-American backlash in the U.S.
o Desi spoke to people at a couple of Russian restaurants in New York that have seen a sharp decline in business since the war started – “Did Putin help you set up this place?” she asked one restauranteur. “How much of a share does he have in this business?”
o Another restaurant owner pointed out just how counterintuitive this “boycott” is – “People don’t understand many Ukrainians work for Russian establishments, and by blackballing the business, you’re hurting them earning their wages and their tips where they need to send it back home to help theirs, it becomes a problem as well.”
o This made me smile – “We are here to make borscht, not war.”
o Excellent point that Russian Americans shouldn’t be automatically viewed as people who support Putin/the Kremlin – “In reality, the Russians that are here left Russia for a reason.”
· Interview – Journalist/author Tiffanie Drayton
o Drayton and Trevor had a very interesting discussion about her book Black American Refugee, about her decision to leave the U.S. and return to her parents’ home country of Trinidad and Tobago.
o Drayton described herself as a refugee from America due to the systemic oppression she faced in the states, as well as being in an abusive relationship, which she noted was more prevalent among oppressed minorities – “It’s hard to find yourself not in abusive dynamics because, guess what, everybody is existing in a way that’s so traumatic and so full of constant distress.”
o She rejected the notion of the American dream of “upward mobility” as something that wasn’t tangibly available to Black people – “When you recognize that you are in a caste system, it is true that upward mobility may exist for the few, but what does that say about the majority? And is there truly upward mobility if, when you move into that rich neighborhood or you start driving that BMW, you are still under that same threat of white supremacy? Is it truly upward mobility if you have to be afraid to gift your child a car that’s expensive because a police officer may shoot that child because they think that the child stole the car just because they’re Black?”
o Great line – “When that brand of blackness put you at the bottom rungs of a society, there is really no way to escape that, aside from destroying that very system that seeks to put people in that rung and keep them there.”
o Drayton and Trevor disagreed over the overlapping influence of race and class within the caste system – While Drayton believed the two systems were one and the same, Trevor noted how the racial caste system can camouflage the class system, saying, “The system that exists screws over so many white people as well, right? Because there are so many white people who are kept poor by a system that has taught them that Black people are coming to take your shit, so you need to fight the Black people [instead of the system that’s keeping you poor].”
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