TDS 3.0: Season One Talk

[KerleyQ]

ETA:  Also, I usually adhere pretty closely to the whole Godwin's Law thing for the whole "internet arguments become pretty pointless the moment someone reaches for the hyperbolic comparison to the Nazis and Hitler" ....but you have a woman with a German accent, giving Nazi salute, and another unwashed, ignorant fool doing the same thing while telling someone to "go to fucking Auschwitz" and there's no way to avoid the comparison when people other than the participants of a discussion are acting like Nazis.  

 

Much has been made of that creature sticking one for the landing being "Born in West Berlin in 1946" and you know, I have a fucking guess as to what her parents were up to throughout the war.  Holy shit. 

 

I was saying the other day, "Just because Godwin's Law is a thing, doesn't mean Trump isn't Hitler."  There's something really scary going on with a segment of his support base.  I appreciate that shows like TDS and TNS are pointing it out, but it's also kind of depressing that, for the most part, it's only being brought up on comedy shows.  Any time it's brought up in other media forums, it's mostly just as a vehicle for Trump (or his minions) to play dumb and pretend that it's not exactly what's going on. 

[DeLurker]

I keep wanting Obama to knock Mitch on his back and spin him around until Mitch vomits.

 

Didn't know turtles could vomit.

 

For the record, I am opposed of putting turtles on their backs.  I have no objection to putting politicians on their backs.

[angora]

Doing a news/satire story on how greatly Trump has benefited from his insane news coverage feels contradictory, but overall, I think the show did it well.  Although they continue to cover Trump, I feel like they've been covering him pretty responsibly for a while now - yes, it keeps focus on him, but they convey in no uncertain terms what a problem he is.  And the story itself was crazy - I was shocked by some the statistics shared, like equating Trump's $2 billion in free advertising to the last five years of Superbowl commercials and putting his coverage on par with coverage of the Ebola crisis (plus, bonus, it gave Trevor a chance to compare Trump to Ebola.)  CNN cutting away from a Sandra Bland story in anticipation of hearing Trump speak was gross, and I loved Trevor comparing Les Moonves's comments to an oncologist crowing about how all the cancer was great for his practice.

 

Ronny's piece was so-so, I thought.  It was another piece without any dad references, so that's a plus.  I laughed at Ronny's concerns about continually teaching computers games that are all about tactics and war strategy.

 

I thought Shaka Senghor was interesting.  It's wild to think about coming back into society after so long and having to acclimate to all those changes (also, the description of trading food via fishing line as "their Internet" really amused me.)

[attica]

Gosh, I wonder if Trevor found any part of Shaka's story beautiful. He never said...[/eyeroll]

[tenativelyyours]

I did enjoy the piece on how much free campaigning the media has done for Drumpf.

 

However i wonder if anyone for even a tiny second thought about any parallels between chiding Drumpf free p.r. and Brennan's piece chiding anyone who complained about the Kanye West and his Porn Star wife?  After all I found that a bit rich for him to, in my opinion, a bit smugly sneer at people complaining about having to hear about those two by simply not tuning them out.  Well that would include TDS.  Which in that particular case actually was a bit hypocritical since I DO and recently have done everything I could to wash those two out of my awareness.  Only to have them pop up on TDS.  Telling me to ignore them if they bother me so much.

 

Yeah I still find Ronnie lacking but Neal can not come back anytime soon if that is the depth of his social commentary. 

 

Oh and carrying from last week.  Great Dimple Off.  But I have never actually seen anyone before Theo James sit down and then put his hand in his pants pocket like that.  Maybe it is a nervous tic he has developed for interviews.  Just found it odd since, as I stated, I had never seen someone do that before.  Maybe billions do it and I am just out of the loop.

[peeayebee]

Oh man. I loved the whole thing about Trump being incapable of sneaking into a room. The opposite of a ninja. The graphic of him as a one-man band was great but then topped by Trevor doing an imitation of him. And yes, President PuppyMonkeyBaby would be better than Trump.

[Victor the Crab]

Man, I loved Trevor's takedown of the media's culpability of Drumph's rise in the primaries. This is the kind of stuff Jon would do on a consistent basis. I wish Trevor would do more of this. And he was way more accurate than Bill Maher's reason on Real Time the other night which was self-esteem. As for Leslie Moonves, that guy needs to be haunted by the spirits of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, a la Freddie Krueger.

[possibilities]

I have never actually seen anyone before Theo James sit down and then put his hand in his pants pocket like that.  Maybe it is a nervous tic he has developed for interviews.  Just found it odd since, as I stated, I had never seen someone do that before.

I was so distracted by that! I have never seen anyone do that before, either.

[revbfc]

After a day of news reports about the bombings in Brussels, Trevor not mentioning it (until the interview) felt weird.

[angora]

Agreed.  I did think the graphic they put up at the end in lieu of the MoZ was lovely, and I like that they included Ankara as well, but it felt weird to jump right into the show with no mention of it.  Hopefully tonight, they'll at least go over Ted Cruz's slimy reaction.

 

I thought the Cuba story was really good.  That picture of Castro holding up Obama's limp hand was made of so much win.  I also loved the whole thing about Cubans "braving the rain" and the plans to gentrify Cuba in case Trump is elected.

 

I can't remember - did the prime minister say anything about safeguards in the event that your ID card is stolen?  Do you have a card AND a password/PIN or something?

[marceline]

It was nice to see Desi back. I didn't realize how much I missed her.

[ganesh]

I think all the opposition to Obama opening up Cuba is largely that they can't stop him from taking credit for it when it works out. For example, on the show, when Cruz was ranting on about "how he didn't want to go to the party anyway! So there!"

[Muffyn]

We never heard the details of the voter card because of the awkward break in the interview.  The prime minister was explaining the process when Trevor suddenly asked about Brussels.  I preferred the way this was handled on the Nightly Show in which Larry made a statement at the start of the show, then proceeded. 

 

I am still DVRing this show but I find myself liking it less and less.  I don't know that I can pinpoint one thing.  I think I no longer find it challenging or particularly informative.  I laugh sometimes but they usually feel like cheap laughs that I could get elsewhere. 

[possibilities]

The Obama-Castro press conference report was disappointing because they left out the most provocative thing Castro said. He didn't just object to being asked about political prisoners. He also said this:

There are “61 instruments of human rights....What country complies with them all? Do you know how many? I know. None. None whatsoever. Some countries comply some rights, others comply with others. Of these 61 instruments, Cuba has complied with 47 issues...." He turned the exchange into an opportunity to beat up on the U.S. In Cuba, they think universal health care is a human right, Castro said. Every child is born in a hospital, no matter where they’re from, or who their parents are, he added. They believe education for all is a human right, he said. And finally, in a point that got Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett nodding at communications director Jen Psaki, implying the Cuban leader had a point, Castro said he thinks equal pay for women is a human right, too.

(from http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/how-obama-set-a-trap-for-raul-castro-221059 )

I would have loved to see TDS examine those claims more closely.

 

I did appreciate very much the inclusion of Ankara in the solidarity expressed at the end of the show.

 

I'm starting to see why some people are saying TDS is not really as hard-hitting as it used to be, though. Lately I think the jokes have been way too light and obvious and easy.

 

On the other hand, I think he has more interesting and varied guests than Jon did, at least most of the time. He's not really asking them tough questions, but I like that he's diversified the guest list both in terms of gender and race, and that he seems to actually familiarize himself with the person's work (like Jon did and so many other late night hosts do not). The only interview I couldn't get through was Sasha Baron Cohen, and I just loathe SBC so there's really nothing anyone could have done about that.

[Victor the Crab]

I want Boaty McBoatface to win SO BAD!!! That has got to be the best thing ever in online voting.

 

It was nice to see Desi back. I didn't realize how much I missed her.

 

I had the opposite reaction.

[s-k-s]

I liked how he mentioned Ankara as well in the closing.  The media failure to cover attacks in the middle east/asia to the same extent as the ones in Europe has created such a false perception that terrorist attacks only happen on Western countries and so it is "us" that is under attack by "them", when in reality, that is not the case and "they" are as much or more often the victims of terrorist attacks.  

[formerlyfreedom]

Wow. I was not looking forward to Lindsey Graham. I'm glad I stuck around!

[Lantern7]

As fun as the pool game must have been . . . would it have been better than Jon coming back in a white wig, fanning himself with one hand while holding a mint julep with the other? And he'd have the accent to boot.

 

Wow . . . Congressman Sean Duffy is not a Trump fan. So much for the idea of an all-reality "star" ticket.

[backformore]

Ok, this is weird. Am I liking Lindsey Graham?

It's like it was Dave Foley doing a lindsey Graham impression.

[possibilities]

The whole show was good. I'm glad they are talking about how Trump is actually not that far from the party in a lot of ways. They hate him because they don't control him, that's all.

 

Lindsay Graham... wow. It's like he "broke character"-- whatever that means when you are a real person and not a work of fiction. I don't really have that much sympathy for him or the party's position, as I do think they brought it on themselves, but it was still very interesting to watch. And he was actually a little funny. His invocation of Boehner Orange took me totally by surprise. I'm glad Jon didn't show up. I find his impression really offensive, to be honest.

 

RE the ostrich: I think it was racing, not chasing, the people. It over took them and kept on going.

[fastiller]

Lindsay Graham... wow. It's like he "broke character"-- whatever that means when you are a real person and not a work of fiction. I don't really have that much sympathy for him or the party's position, as I do think they brought it on themselves, but it was still very interesting to watch. And he was actually a little funny. His invocation of Boehner Orange took me totally by surprise. I'm glad Jon didn't show up. I find his impression really offensive, to be honest.

I think all politicians are works of fiction to some extent.  They're all showing us a facade and never who they really are.

[topanga]

The whole show was good. I'm glad they are talking about how Trump is actually not that far from the party in a lot of ways. They hate him because they don't control him, that's all.

 

Lindsay Graham... wow. It's like he "broke character"-- whatever that means when you are a real person and not a work of fiction. I don't really have that much sympathy for him or the party's position, as I do think they brought it on themselves, but it was still very interesting to watch. And he was actually a little funny. His invocation of Boehner Orange took me totally by surprise. I'm glad Jon didn't show up. I find his impression really offensive, to be honest.

 

RE the ostrich: I think it was racing, not chasing, the people. It over took them and kept on going.

I still liked the ostrich reference. I love it whenever Trevor compares a situation in the US to one he 'experienced' while growing up in South Africa.

 

Such as telling the story about his friend who scratched his Boyz II Men CD--I can't recall which episode that was this week. I loved the picture of the little African boy holding up the scratched CD (was he African? Could've been a kid from Brooklyn).

[angora]

Great episode.  The "How the Fuck We Got Here" segment was terrific - all the comparative clips were perfectly chosen, and the love/hate movie romance analogy was fun.  I loved Trevor taking Trump to task for calling America a third-world country.  Both Monday's segment and this one are really good examinations of how Trump was able to "happen."  (Side note - I noticed it during the Cuba story, too, but I think Trevor's Ted Cruz impression is really getting good.)

 

ITA on all that's been said about Lindsey Graham - wow.  I liked his reactions to the clips Trevor showed of him talking about Cruz, as well as Trevor presenting similar arguments from "How the Fuck We Got Here" when Graham was listing the reasons Trump doesn't represent the GOP (although really, how do you listen to a Cruz supporter talk about Trump's race-baiting and Islamaphobic fearmongering without bringing up Cruz's "patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods" thing?)  I think I'd have preferred more interview, but the pool game was still pretty fun.

[GHScorpiosRule]

 

ITA on all that's been said about Lindsey Graham - wow.  I liked his reactions to the clips Trevor showed of him talking about Cruz, as well as Trevor presenting similar arguments from "How the Fuck We Got Here" when Graham was listing the reasons Trump doesn't represent the GOP (although really, how do you listen to a Cruz supporter talk about Trump's race-baiting and Islamaphobic fearmongering without bringing up Cruz's "patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods" thing?)  I think I'd have preferred more interview, but the pool game was still pretty fun.

 

 

I haven't watched last night's show yet, and maybe I'll end up editing this post, but Graham has done more than his own fair share of hate and fear mongering. Nothing he says will get me to see him in a positive light.

[formerlyfreedom]

I haven't watched last night's show yet, and maybe I'll end up editing this post, but Graham has done more than his own fair share of hate and fear mongering. Nothing he says will get me to see him in a positive light.

 

I can only speak for myself, but I didn't come away thinking of him as 'What a great guy!' I was fascinated by the fact that he seemed like a real human being in the two segments, and actually spoke some in a way that seemed far more truthful than we see from 99.783% of politicians.

 

Would I invite him over to my place for dinner? Hell, no. Would I play a game of pool with him in a public venue? Sure, maybe I could get him to tell me a few stories from 'behind the scenes.' There is far more to most people, especially those in the public eye, then we see, and this was a great peek behind the curtain.

[peeayebee]

The whole show was good. I'm glad they are talking about how Trump is actually not that far from the party in a lot of ways. They hate him because they don't control him, that's all.

They hate him because he threw away the Republican dog whistle.

 

Lindsay Graham's joke was great -- Trump makes John Boehner look like an albino.

[DeLurker]

Damn it Trevor!  I don't like Lindsey Graham and you somehow made me think he was a warm blooded animal.  With, maybe, a previously never exhibited sense of humor.  It contradicts everything I know about the man.

 

I still don't like him, but he may have more dimension than I thought.

 

And Lindsey Graham has to be referred to as a binomial nomenclature to me because Senator Graham always will mean Bob Graham from Florida.

[ganesh]

They hate him because they don't control him, that's all.

 

There isn't much difference between Cruz and Trump if any, really. I think Cruz is more crazy on the religion side, and I don't think Trump is religious. They can't really control Cruz either, but they know Cruz will "play ball" in a way. 

 

I think that's what Lindsey Graham was really getting around to by saying how he's worked with Cruz. But the stuff he listed off was exactly what the republican base is. TN showed this clearly in the first piece, and he was only using fairly contemporary stories. Campaigning on fear and thinly veiled hate has been the m/0 for 40 years. 

 

I appreciate his candor, but at the end of the primary campaign, if Trump is the nominee, then he's voting for Trump, and so will the rest of them, and we all know it. He can crack jokes all he wants but the entire party leadership is duplicitous and disingenuous. They're misdirecting voters to focus on Trump, while they essentially support everything he says.

[Sesquipedalia]

The bit about the Trump/Republican party romcom romance put a big smile on my face. And what an awkwardly appropriate intro for the Lindsey Graham interview!

 

I don't usually watch the interviews anymore because I find Trevor's interviewing skills to be pretty lacking, but I have a huge soft spot for Lindsey Graham. Even though I don't agree with him on many (any?) issues, he was by far my favorite Republican presidential candidate. For one thing, he has always been funny, so I wasn't surprised that his Trump joke was the best of the night. He's also much more genuine than a lot of other politicians. Before one of the debates last year he spent the afternoon at a bar, where he played fuck/marry/kill (the sanitized version--date/marry/???) with a reporter--Who else would do that?! (His answer was that he would "date" Palin, marry Fiorina for her money, and do whatever to Hillary.) But I've actually heard him say nice things about Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, and I whole-heartedly approve his campaign promise that if he were to become president, Congress would drink a lot more. Tea Partiers like Cruz are so impersonable, and I think that's a big part of why there's so much more gridlock in Washington than there used to be. 

 

So I had to watch the interview. I'm not sure what Graham's purpose was in coming on the show. Usually Republicans have a book to sell when they agree to come on TDS. Graham seemed to be on for the sole purpose of publicizing his endorsement of Cruz. But touting Cruz as his 15th choice doesn't exactly make him a great surrogate. I guess Republicans are just spitting in the wind at this point. 

 

Graham's gun vs. poison analogy was spot-on in explaining why a lot of Republicans are backing Cruz.

[trow125]

The Graham interview & pool segment reminded me of Colbert's old "Better Know a District" bits where the politicians would let down their guard a bit and do something silly. Maybe my expectations are low, but I'm always happy when a sitting pol is something other than a wind-up talking-points-reciting machine.

[Victor the Crab]

I'm not buying what Lindsey Graham is selling. It seems he's lashing out at Drumph because the GOP can't control him, and only sees Cruz as the lesser of two evils because he's somewhat establishment. Trevor's piece at the beginning successfully showed how much the GOP has in common with Drumph. And if he does become the eventual nominee, then Republicans like Graham will rally around Drumph because they will consider Hillary Clinton to be far worse

 

The right says Drumph doesn't represent their views, yet won't admit that decades of their stupid, ignorant, mean spirited, repressive, backwards thinking policies that continue today are what gave the party Drumph as their presidential candidate in the first place. Either wash your hands with this nonsense conservatives, or STFU and GTFO. You don't get to have your cake and eat it too!

[Victor the Crab]

I know Jon would definitely do it if he were still host. Will Trevor dedicate tonight's MoZ to the memory of Garry Shandling?

Edited March 24, 2016 by Victor the Crab

[ganesh]

It seems he's lashing out at Drumph because the GOP can't control him, and only sees Cruz as the lesser of two evils because he's somewhat establishment.

 

Seems? I think Lindsay Graham flat out said it on the show when he said, "you have a better chance with poison because you might be able to find an antidote." I was shocked at how unabashed he was of it. Honestly, I thought he was drunk. 

All the "get behind Cruz" movement politicians, even Romney, which they showed his clip on the show, so relevance, are playing a huge con on the voters. There's not much difference between the two and they're trying to hoodwink everyone into not seeing that. 

[annabel]

I wish Trevor had asked something about the Supreme Court nomination. He could have phrased it like "so since I' m not from here, I don't understand, why do you have to wait for the next president to make the people's choice? Didn't the people already choose Obama?"

[possibilities]

That really was a missed opportunity.

[peeayebee]

I really like Roy Wood Jr's comic delivery. I thought it was great when he was going on about assholes, that Congress is full of them, it's like Costco. A pallet of assholes. "What am I going to do with all these assholes?"

 

My ears perked up when Ethan Hawke said the movie was about Chet Baker. I don't know too much about him, but I love his voice.

[33kaitykaity]

That pool segment with Lindsay Graham was fun.  I had no idea Senator Graham was a pool shark.  

[stillshimpy]

Wow. I was not looking forward to Lindsey Graham. I'm glad I stuck around!

 

I know what you mean.  We were watching solely to find out what in the freaking world Lindsey Graham was doing on TDS, after withdrawing from the race.  It was morbid curiosity and man, I have to give him props for a couple of things, one is that he had to know he was on an arctic expedition before he even walked out, but in case he missed that memo?  The absolute dead silence after his dig about Obama's presidency had to communicate:  Look, fella, here's the gig:  you are traveling through hostile lands here and relying too heavily on the good manners of the audience will only carry you through precisely one of those, so I hope that's out of your system. 

 

Then it was and it turned into what was almost a lucid dream of an interview.  In my wildest dreams I did not think a sitting Senator, who had just endorsed a candidate, would then equate that candidate to poison we might survive, while make it clear that he was backing Cruz in that "Oh sure, the world would be much better off if that man had never been born and his seed wiped from the face of the Earth, while we're at it, but he's incrementally better than The Prince of Darkness, King of Lies and Bringer of Pain that is the Evil Incarnate Trump.  Cruz we might be able to hold at bay with a combination of holy water, a diligent team of exorcists working 'round the clock and a solid roofie'ing on a daily basis!" way.  

 

A week or so ago, when Trevor showed that clip of Graham admitting that the Apple iphone hacking issue was far more complicated and perilous as a practice than he had first understood and that he had been wrong when he initially talked about it (why I almost had to call for ma smelling salts, y'all) , I had a strange moment of cognitive dissonance in which I had a vague feeling warmth towards him combined with  "Hey, do your GOP overlords know that you just went on the record as having been wrong and changing your mind? 'cause dude, that is frowned upon in that establishment!"  

 

I'm not ready to say "holy crow, do I like a Republican Senator?" because....witness their anti-woman platform, just for starters and their insistence that anyone who ever needs any kind of societal support is barnacle upon the hull of this great nation's ship that will cause us all to founder on the rocks of the gravestones of founding fathers....or whatever the fuck it is they're currently saying that fluffs the britches of yore without any true meaning.  

 

But I will say that Lindsey Graham has now scored three points with me between those two things and his destruction of cell phones in response to Trump giving out his cell phone number....and learning that he apparently grew up in the back of a bar and can shoot pool.  I would definitely go out of my way to put that guy out if he was on fire.  For real.  

 

Seriously, well played, Graham.  I'm still not entirely sure what he was doing there, but it was far more entertaining and "is this really happening, because that's sort of awesome!" than I ever dreamed possible when I saw his name in the ep description.  

 

Also, I love that Trevor was very clearly on the exact same page, because was he ever ready to rebuff a sneak attack and at first had his shields set to "Interloper, interloper! Action Stations, action stations!  Stand guard at all entrances and exits, we have a What the Fucker in our midst, intent unknown." 

 

That entire thing was the most fun I think I've had with the sudden appearance of someone from the opposite side of my political spectrum.  Usually when they show up on TDS, they're speaking in Bumper Stickers and prepared snippets that have next to nothing to do with the question being asked.  Usually they evade and have that brittle veneer of barely achieved civility and forced humor.  

 

It's not like I'd vote for the dude, because you'd have to kidnap my loved ones and make it a condition of the ransom before I'd vote for a Republican....and I have a couple of relatives where I'd have to weigh out if it was really worth it to get them back...but yeah, good to know.  He might have something resembling decent intent.  Yay? 

[ganesh]

I wonder if Graham knows that the gop is in shambles and will most likely be shredded in November. So he's kind of going out on his own so he won't be dragged down with everyone else. "Hey, I know those guys are jerks. I was saying well before anyone else. What do you want from me? I tried running for president to get us out of this mess." He's not up for re-election so he's got some space where he can distance himself.

 

I'm sure he thought of the joke beforehand, or maybe told it before, but the Boenher joke was gold. 

[possibilities]

I wonder if Graham knows that the gop is in shambles and will most likely be shredded in November. So he's kind of going out on his own so he won't be dragged down with everyone else.

I think he does know the Repubs are in trouble. He said "Our party is screwed up right now; We're about to lose to the most dishonest woman in America." The dig against Hilary got mostly drowned out by the audience (and I'm not defending it or agreeing with it, just reporting that he still has some partisan hatred going on, even if he's now sharing it on both sides of the aisle), but he did say it. I think he realizes that they have very high unfavorables and he might be putting himself in position just in case they do split into two, or regroup to form a new leadership and he wants to be part of it. But I actually thought he was also genuinely disgusted. If he was campaigning actively to be the new guard, he would have been spewing positive platitudes and making suggestions of some kind, not just lamenting the horror. I don't really see him as a viable alternative, any more than I see Romney as one now that Romney has been speaking out against Trump. They're still supporters of what I consider wrong. But it's interesting to see them crack when the chickens come home to roost. And it's been a while since we had a funny opponent (I remember laughing at Bob Dole's sense of humor at times when he was running for President decades ago), and not just ones that were totally pickled in their own anger.

[ChelseaNH]

would then equate that candidate to poison we might survive

 

Graham was already on record calling Cruz "poison."  The big difference between him and pretty much anyone else associated with this race is that he didn't try to walk it back or revise history.

 

Next election's campaign slogan:  Lindsey Graham -- Hey, At Least He's Not Delusional!

[stillshimpy]

But I actually thought he was also genuinely disgusted. If he was campaigning actively to be the new guard

 

I got the sense that he was genuinely pretty horrified and disgusted.  This is something I rarely bother to say, but I actually do feel for true Republicans.  People who do believe in very little government oversight and small-centralized governments.  People who are fiscal conservatives but social liberals do exist and are every bit as freaking screwed by the lunacy and antics of the current GOP as someone who bleeds liberal blue, like me. 

 

I have no idea if that describes Lindsey Graham or not, and I'm actually not in anyway seeking to have a discussion about that, just commenting that his appearance here was the first time I ever wondered if perhaps he drove a little closer to that line than I had previously considered.   

 

Either way, whereas I don't agree with or support his random digs at democrats, I do actually appreciate any member of the current GOP who is willing to talk, with an actual attempt at honesty, about the current shitstorm of this election.  

 

Unless they go to a contested convention, which would have a huge slew of problems itself, then it will either be Trump or Cruz and Cruz is only slightly less despised than Trump is  by his own party.   So I actually did appreciate that Graham showed up and even if he had a vague shell-shock affect going on, he at least didn't try to pretend that Cruz was a good choice either. 

Edited March 25, 2016 by stillshimpy

[KerleyQ]

I wonder if Graham knows that the gop is in shambles and will most likely be shredded in November. So he's kind of going out on his own so he won't be dragged down with everyone else. "Hey, I know those guys are jerks. I was saying well before anyone else. What do you want from me? I tried running for president to get us out of this mess." He's not up for re-election so he's got some space where he can distance himself.

 

I'm sure he thought of the joke beforehand, or maybe told it before, but the Boenher joke was gold. 

 

Is there anyone in the US who doesn't have at least one orange Boehner joke in their arsenal?  

 

I got the sense that he was genuinely pretty horrified and disgusted.  This is something I rarely bother to say, but I actually do feel for true Republicans.  People who do believe in very little government oversight and small-centralized governments.  People who are fiscal conservatives but social liberals do exist and are every bit as freaking screwed by the lunacy and antics of the current GOP as someone who bleeds liberal blue, like me. 

 

I have no idea if that describes Lindsey Graham or not, and I'm actually not in anyway seeking to have a discussion about that, just commenting that his appearance here was the first time I ever wondered if perhaps he drove a little closer to that line than I had previously considered.   

 

Either way, whereas I don't agree with or support his random digs at democrats, I do actually appreciate any member of the current GOP who is willing to talk, with an actual attempt at honesty, about the current shitstorm of this election.  

 

Unless they go to a contested convention, which would have a huge slew of problems itself, then it will either be Trump or Cruz and Cruz is only slightly less despised than Trump is  by his own party.   So I actually did appreciate that Graham showed up and even if he had a vague shell-shock affect going on, he at least didn't try to pretend that Cruz was a good choice either. 

 

I agree.  I know some Republican leaning people who are as genuinely horrified as Graham seems to be.  And I feel for them, because, while I don't agree with their stances on some policy issues, they're not for the over the top mess the party has become.  Heck, I didn't think my father would ever not vote Republican, but he voted in the Dem primary this year (for Bernie), and he flat out refuses to cast a vote for either Drumpf or Cruz.  I may actually be able to convince him to vote for Hillary if she gets the nom (that will take work, but I'll have a few months to work on him), but, at minimum, he's not voting for the GOP, which is a huge deal for him.  

 

I kind of like that Graham has endorsed Cruz, but not in any way that Cruz can really use it.  He's on the record, both before and after the endorsement, as calling Cruz a poison (among other things).  If Cruz were to dare use that endorsement in any meaningful way in either the primary race or a general election, it could be immediately countered by a clip from this episode.  Not that I think that an endorsement from Graham is going to hold a lot of water with most voters (hence the reason he was one of the early drop outs from the clown car), but I just like that he basically said "fine, I'll be a good little soldier and endorse your new preferred candidate, but I'm going to make it damn clear that I think he'd be a real shit in the job...and in life in general."  

 

Bill Maher's already done it, but I look forward to Trevor and Larry covering Cruz's essentially saying "I fuck rats."  Nobody could have ever dreamed up the WTF that is this campaign season.  

[Sesquipedalia]

An extended version of one of the clips Trevor played during the Lindsey  Graham interview just popped up on my YouTube feed. I thought some of you might find it funny/interesting/sad in light of the discussion above. https://youtu.be/z_zEqsuvZ1k?t=41s

[angora]

Glad to have the show back last night.  So many jokes I loved:  more and more women coming forward to say they DIDN'T sleep with Ted Cruz, showing pictures of Idi Amin and Forest Whitaker before finally getting to Jacob Zuma, South Africans only seeing the red flags as flags because they've tried not to see color after apartheid ended, the absolute non-shock at the reveal that Putin is corrupt, and of course, "Approach Jackie Chan as a group, but then fight him one at a time."  Ha!

 

I know Bernie and Trump both say "yooge," but I think Trevor's Bernie impression overestimates how alike they sound - I couldn't tell the difference between his Bernie and his Trump (that story was a little lackluster for me, but I did like the bit about Bernie bringing up the various Hilary black marks he "wasn't going to talk about.")

 

I wonder if having Debbie Wasserman Schultz on in the second segment is just more experimenting with the format, or if they're trying to encourage people not to skip out early by putting the guest in the middle instead of the end. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

I wonder if having Debbie Wasserman Schultz on in the second segment is just more experimenting with the format, or if they're trying to encourage people not to skip out early by putting the guest in the middle instead of the end. 

 

Jon used to do that when he first took over--had a guest in the middle of the show. I remember that from when his shows were live streaming during the countdown to his last episode.

[possibilities]

I was disappointed in the interview with DWS. He allowed her to spew her talking points completely unopposed. The way to get people to watch the interviews is to make them interesting, to ask real questions and not take evasive answers. I don't know if Trevor isn't informed, or if he's not confident, but either way, he missed an opportunity to hold her to the fire and really get answers. There is a lot of controversy about how she's managed the party and how the party has handled the primaries. He could have at least tried to get her to go on record saying something substantive, but he didn't. Even if she stuck to her talking points, if he had tried harder, it would have exposed that and gotten more attention to how hollow she is, making the interview itself not a total waste of time.

 

BTW, Lindsay Graham has been taking his comedy/party-bashing around town. I don't know if TDS was an early stop or just one of many, but I've been seeing lots of clips in various places, of him really going after his own. "Ben Carson: he tried to kill someone with a hammer-- and he's the nice one!" I want to give Trevor and Co credit for booking LG, but maybe he's selling himself. And elsewhere, he actually has answered questions, like "What president in the past 20 years do you think has had the best foreign policy?" His answer: George W. Bush. Don't feel too sorry for LG; he's funny but he's still a true believer in the policies the Republicans have been selling; he's just not on board with the current packaging they're being offered in.

 

I am glad they've hired another woman, because I think the show is flailing a bit on those topics. I know what he was trying to do with the Cosby-Cruz comparison, but I think it was a big fail. Saying women are clamoring to say they did NOT have sex with Cruz, and comparing it to women who were RAPED by Cosby, is trying to show symmetry between two very different things. I know he thinks he was making a joke about Cruz being undesirable and unloved, but the complaint against Cosby is not about his desirability or how popular he might have once been, and women are not saying they "had sex" with Cosby. I just think it's not at all a mirror image the way the joke was trying to say it was, and it wasn't funny enough to justify the tortured logic. It's mixing rape and consensual affairs in a way that is too close for comfort, and treads very clumsily into the issue of whether or not women are believed and a whole lot of other things that the joke just plain did not handle well. Much like the whole Kardashian photo stuff they did before-- it's like they only sort of get anything that has to do with women. It takes Kristen Schall or someone who actually understands feminism, to get a "playing with Barbie" piece to come out right. I'm really missing Jessica. I think the show is willing to tackle and is trying to tackle feminist issues, but it's just not clear enough to do it well without input from actual women, yet.

[DeLurker]

I was disappointed in the interview with DWS. He allowed her to spew her talking points completely unopposed. The way to get people to watch the interviews is to make them interesting, to ask real questions and not take evasive answers. I don't know if Trevor isn't informed, or if he's not confident, but either way, he missed an opportunity to hold her to the fire and really get answers. There is a lot of controversy about how she's managed the party and how the party has handled the primaries. He could have at least tried to get her to go on record saying something substantive, but he didn't. Even if she stuck to her talking points, if he had tried harder, it would have exposed that and gotten more attention to how hollow she is, making the interview itself not a total waste of time.

 

BTW, Lindsay Graham has been taking his comedy/party-bashing around town. I don't know if TDS was an early stop or just one of many, but I've been seeing lots of clips in various places, of him really going after his own. "Ben Carson: he tried to kill someone with a hammer-- and he's the nice one!" I want to give Trevor and Co credit for booking LG, but maybe he's selling himself. And elsewhere, he actually has answered questions, like "What president in the past 20 years do you think has had the best foreign policy?" His answer: George W. Bush. Don't feel too sorry for LG; he's funny but he's still a true believer in the policies the Republicans have been selling; he's just not on board with the current packaging they're being offered in.

 

I am glad they've hired another woman, because I think the show is flailing a bit on those topics. I know what he was trying to do with the Cosby-Cruz comparison, but I think it was a big fail. Saying women are clamoring to say they did NOT have sex with Cruz, and comparing it to women who were RAPED by Cosby, is trying to show symmetry between two very different things. I know he thinks he was making a joke about Cruz being undesirable and unloved, but the complaint against Cosby is not about his desirability or how popular he might have once been, and women are not saying they "had sex" with Cosby. I just think it's not at all a mirror image the way the joke was trying to say it was, and it wasn't funny enough to justify the tortured logic. It's mixing rape and consensual affairs in a way that is too close for comfort, and treads very clumsily into the issue of whether or not women are believed and a whole lot of other things that the joke just plain did not handle well. Much like the whole Kardashian photo stuff they did before-- it's like they only sort of get anything that has to do with women. It takes Kristen Schall or someone who actually understands feminism, to get a "playing with Barbie" piece to come out right. I'm really missing Jessica. I think the show is willing to tackle and is trying to tackle feminist issues, but it's just not clear enough to do it well without input from actual women, yet.

I'm not too worked about the soft interview last night.  Trevor is still getting acclimatized to TDS and is a comedian, not a journalist.  An aggressive approach to the likes of DWS would probably be more than he can handle at this stage since it would be a fluid conversation and might easily go out of his knowledge on an area where the guest is much more versed.  Letting the party people come on, feel comfortable, get at best 3-4 minutes of airtime sets him up favorably for access in the future.

 

I thought the Cruz-Cosby comparison was mildly amusing - I did not begin to think of it until you laid it it.  And now I feel icky.  In my own defense, it was past my bedtime.

 

 

Edited April 5, 2016 by DeLurker

[khyber]

I wonder if having Debbie Wasserman Schultz on in the second segment is just more experimenting with the format, or if they're trying to encourage people not to skip out early by putting the guest in the middle instead of the end. 

That's what I'm betting. I don't watch the interviews. Tried it at first, quit.  Tried it again after many months, quit again. If the interview is now going to be in the middle I'll just have to hit the FF button.

[Victor the Crab]

They're not doing the show any favors by putting the interview in the middle of the show. Maybe because they led of with the Democratic primaries and had on Debbie Wasserman-Shultz on as a follow up it wouldn't be too bad. If they try doing that with a celebrity type, I think many people would bail in a heartbeat. I thought the Panama papers leak was a far better story to lead off than the latest from the primaries.