Mondays With Jon Stewart

[Lantern7]

*sigh* Looks like the right wing media outlets defended Trump without flinching. Little Marco got to coin the phrase "Ukraine-splain." On the bright side, at least Jon's hand is doing better.

[Ottis]

Musk isn't wrong in that Steward went pretty far left during his last 5 years or so as FT host (why I stopped watching). And he has continued it in these Monday stints, though he will now take a shot at Dems/Shumer now and then. The problem is, Trump is so horrific it's a target rich environment and nothing is really funny because real life is dismally sad. TDS just feels flippant and immaterial.

That said, the last 3-4 minutes of JS's 15-minute rant about Ukraine last night were perfect and explained what is happening. Unfortunately, it followed lot more minutes using a silly wrestling analogy. I wish he would have started with those last few minutes and then expanded.

[DoctorAtomic]

I don't really care that Jon is not 'non partisan'. It's a comedy show about the news. Also, it's not entirely accurate in that the show has ripped Biden plenty. It's not late night shows' fault that the current administration is providing such a deluge of material. You're hiring a drunk womanizer to be SecDef? That's where they're going to go. 

They were correct about Zelenskyy shooting himself in the foot, but at least he held back somewhat. He wasn't yelling or anything. Sometimes I can't get over myself either, usually, I'm correct, and I have to press the point to death. Nothing he said was wrong, but look at UK and France, how they buttered him all up. There's a clear playbook here. I think Vance being there threw him off. I hope Europe can step up. 

The interview was good, but the problem was, if we were really going to recover $1 trillion per year in the uncollected taxes, all that is probably going straight to the military and not social programs. That's the real solution. The defense budget is the biggest social program there is. 

Edited March 4 by DoctorAtomic

[Shrek]

59 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

 

The interview was good, but the problem was, if we were really going to recover $1 trillion per year in the uncollected taxes, all that is probably going straight to the military and not social programs. That's the real solution. The defense budget is the biggest social program there is. 

They're going to need more money to pay to decommission all the obsolete armaments that were going to Ukraine, saving the USA millions in decommission costs.

And to make the unemployment payments to unemployed federal workers that Musk keeps firing.  

[DoctorAtomic]

Senate Democrats need to consider a new leader because Shumer just isn't it. And it's not just this CR vote. He just hasn't met the moment with everything going on. 

I don't really subscribe that shutting down the government is this huge catastrophe. The gop needed the votes. You can play some hardball. Even if you vote to pass the CR, you can claim something of a win if you extract concessions. At the least, play some chicken. Draw a (reasonable) line in the sand. 

The strategic planning has been atrocious. They didn't think the House was going to pass the CR, so they were caught flat footed. 

I'm not saying two wrongs make a right, but a shutdown is a tactical move.

I think Jon was too much on Biden, but he's was correct here. 

Edited March 18 by DoctorAtomic

[kittykat]

Agree.  I've been critical on Jon for attacking the Democrats when he should be going for Trump and for the last few weeks he has been.  But last night was on point and a well deserved takedown.

Poor Jon almost lost it during "this is it.  This is the it.". I know buddy, I know.

[Ottis]

On 3/4/2025 at 11:53 AM, DoctorAtomic said:

I don't really care that Jon is not 'non partisan'. It's a comedy show about the news. Also, it's not entirely accurate in that the show has ripped Biden plenty. It's not late night shows' fault that the current administration is providing such a deluge of material. You're hiring a drunk womanizer to be SecDef? That's where they're going to go. 

As my post noted, Stewart went left long before Trump. And his shots at Biden are also very recent. The problem is he isn't hard enough on Trump (who is a different animal than "the right") and when he takes shots at the left they are mostly reaching (oh, Biden is old, haha).

You're right that a comedy show about the news can lean in whichever direction it wants. It is why I stopped watching TDS.

Years ago, in the good old days, TDS took smart shots at stupidity on both sides, and it was usually funny, insightful or both. But those days went away.

Does TDS struggle today in landing conservative guests? When I do watch, I almost always stop at the guest because whoever it is, is pretty left. It gets old.

On 3/4/2025 at 11:53 AM, DoctorAtomic said:

They were correct about Zelenskyy shooting himself in the foot, but at least he held back somewhat. He wasn't yelling or anything. Sometimes I can't get over myself either, usually, I'm correct, and I have to press the point to death. Nothing he said was wrong, but look at UK and France, how they buttered him all up.

Well, Z "shot himself in the foot" by being honest and straightforward. That is usually desirable. What he didn't recognize is how utterly ridiculous Trump is when it comes to flattery and butt-kissing, which is what Z should have opened with. I don't fault him, however, because the man's country is at war with a more powerful invader. he probably has little time for niceties.

On 3/18/2025 at 1:53 PM, kittykat said:

I've been critical on Jon for attacking the Democrats when he should be going for Trump and for the last few weeks he has been. 

The problem is that Trump is perfectly predictable and unchanging. That *should* provide a route for the Dems to effectively counter. But the Dems can't seem to get past their special interest group demands. That stunt in Michigan in the Dem primaries where 300,000 or more voters chose "no one" to express their annoyance at the Biden White House's approach to Gaza played directly into Trump's hands. Beat Trump, then infight. That should have been JS's drumbeat.

Edited March 21 by Ottis

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Ottis said:

The problem is that Trump is perfectly predictable and unchanging. That *should* provide a route for the Dems to effectively counter. But the Dems can't seem to get past their special interest group demands. That stunt in Michigan in the Dem primaries where 300,000 or more voters chose "no one" to express their annoyance at the Biden White House's approach to Gaza played directly into Trump's hands. Beat Trump, then infight. That should have been JS's drumbeat.

Not just Michigan either. But I have my own, private conspiracy theory about this.

Edited March 21 by shapeshifter

[DoctorAtomic]

I take the point about the free speech issues, and it's certainly more glaring than it's ever been, but, at the same time, it's nothing new. Republicans have been whining about this since the days of 'politically incorrect'. Sure, even then people could lean too much into it, but I'm not seeing anything new here except for there's more people whining due to the 24/7 news cycle and social media. 

I did enjoy an ironic laugh over lunch as I was looking at TDS FB page with the quote about Doritos, and you comments doing literally what he was talking about. 

[shapeshifter]

27 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

it's certainly more glaring than it's ever been, but, at the same time, it's nothing new.

The free speech hypocrisy being "nothing new" actually support's John's humorous metaphor:

• “…these powerful creatures have been genetically modified to resist shame [or] self-reflection of any kind”
  (youtu.be/sNMdRzK9Nj0, 3:23 mark)

LOL! 

[Ottis]

15 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I take the point about the free speech issues, and it's certainly more glaring than it's ever been, but, at the same time, it's nothing new. Republicans have been whining about this since the days of 'politically incorrect'. Sure, even then people could lean too much into it, but I'm not seeing anything new here except for there's more people whining due to the 24/7 news cycle and social media. 

I did enjoy an ironic laugh over lunch as I was looking at TDS FB page with the quote about Doritos, and you comments doing literally what he was talking about. 

JS's point wasn't the whining. It was that, despite whining about it for years, Republicans are now clearly doing the very thing they had been whining about, ie the blatant hypocrisy.

[purist]

Ah, seeing Paul Rudd on TDS brought back sweet memories for me of being in the audience back in late 2008 when I was visiting from Australia. Rudd was the guest that day and he and Jon were hilarious together. And of course I'm obliged to say that he looks the same now as he did 17 years ago. 😄