Season Two Talk: FFwSB

[formerlyfreedom]

Sam is back (again?)! Season two begins on Wednesday, January 11 February 15, 2017 - discuss the season here!

(Please check out the forum to see links to more on Sam and the show; links to Previously.TV articles and clips from the show, media information, discussion of Sam's snappy blazers, and more!)

[Lantern7]

I was poking through the schedule, and it said that this is the season finale. Just wanted to confirm. Also curious if there would be a ceremony where Sam passes the baton to John Oliver because Last Week Tonight will be coming back on Sunday night.

ETA: I need to stress that the schedule could have been wrong, or I'm not remembering things correctly.

ETA2: The schedule says finale. But . . . there's a new episode next week. Dunno if this a TBS or Time-Warner/Spectrum thing. Once again, I apologize if anybody out there has been distressed.

[Victor the Crab]

2 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

I was poking through the schedule, and it said that this is the season finale. Just wanted to confirm. Also curious if there would be a ceremony where Sam passes the baton to John Oliver because Last Week Tonight will be coming back on Sunday night.

ETA: I need to stress that the schedule could have been wrong, or I'm not remembering things correctly.

ETA2: The schedule says finale. But . . . there's a new episode next week. Dunno if this a TBS or Time-Warner/Spectrum thing. Once again, I apologize if anybody out there has been distressed.

This would be the first anniversary of FF's debut, so technically that would be correct.

[formerlyfreedom]

4 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

ETA2: The schedule says finale. But . . . there's a new episode next week. Dunno if this a TBS or Time-Warner/Spectrum thing. Once again, I apologize if anybody out there has been distressed.

 

2 hours ago, Victor the Crab said:

This would be the first anniversary of FF's debut, so technically that would be correct.

@Victor the Crab is correct. They originally started Season Two with the January 11 show, but apparently moved it to today for some reason?

[attica]

I've never seen a microsecond of coverage of Paul Ryan that has ever done anything but convince me of his to-the-core horribleness. Even rote congressional coverage reveals his inner reptile. "The Pride of Janesville" is indeed good snark that deserves wider usage.

[peeayebee]

In this day and age, one could attribute "He's the worst" to many people. Ryan is one of them. Plus it's frustrating, head-shaking, angering to see people refer to him as a great intellectual and leader.

[attica]

Ashley's interviews were all really great. "...As if I'm not sweet enough!" Awww!

[ganesh]

Ryan is toeing the party line. He's spineless. He spouts the same policy canards back from Reagan like they are new ideas and haven't been proven failures. 

[Victor the Crab]

Paul Ryan has all the courage of a puppy cowering under a thunderstorm. The fact that some people think they see strength in him is as laughable as Drumph as president.

[Hanahope]

Well the GOP got what Norquist said, someone with enough fingers (barely big enough) to sign the executive orders and eventually laws for them.  That's all trump is, a hand with fingers attached to a pen, with Bannon, Ryan and McConnell moving the hand.  As Sam said, party over country for sure.

Edited February 17, 2017 by Hanahope

[ABay]

Referring to Ryan as the intellect and conscience of the Republican party reveals how intellectually and morally bankrupt the party is.

[Victor the Crab]

Anyone know if there's a new show tomorrow? I can never trust them delivering something new or just a rerun.

[Lantern7]

It's a repeat.

[biakbiak]

24 minutes ago, Victor the Crab said:

Anyone know if there's a new show tomorrow? I can never trust them delivering something new or just a rerun.

The commercials on last week said she would return March 8th.

[Victor the Crab]

Joy. *sigh* <:(

[attica]

Nice to see Sam in International Women's Day Red!

I gotta say, just walking away from the 9/11 truther dude in mid-sentence was really the way to go. Any other approach leads cray-way.

[Hanahope]

I sortof got the impression that the people at CPAC shown, may not be 'trumpers', but I presume that many others were and could have provided at least some sort of rational sounding answer to the questions.  I would have liked to actually hear those and have the interviewer engage in some real dialogue with them, as opposed to just showing the 'dummies' for laughs.

It looks like Bee is at least trying to focus on 45's acts as well, which is good.

[Lantern7]

26 minutes ago, attica said:

I gotta say, just walking away from the 9/11 truther dude in mid-sentence was really the way to go. Any other approach leads cray-way.

I would not be surprised if Sam wanted to do that back in her TDS days. Or it might have been a dream of any of the many, many correspondents that she worked with. "If you're in the field, and somebody says something unbelievably absurd, just walk away. We'll keep the camera on until it occurs to the person that you won't be coming back."

[meowmommy]

She had me until the circus peanuts.  Do not ever diss the circus peanuts.

I just love the Herzog takeoffs.

1 hour ago, attica said:

I gotta say, just walking away from the 9/11 truther dude in mid-sentence was really the way to go. Any other approach leads cray-way.

That was great.  Needs to happen more often.  Good on the cameraperson to hold the shot and not bolt when the interviewer left.  Loved the jaw drop, and then he just stands there, and stands there.  He couldn't believe he was trolled.  

I think the guy with the huge hat was trying to disguise the absence of a brain underneath.

And I was quite gratified to see Sam calling out MSNBC for their ridiculous pursuit of every available blond Faux bimbo while simultaneously ignoring their already amazing in-house talent (Joy Reid!).

[peeayebee]

1 hour ago, meowmommy said:

And I was quite gratified to see Sam calling out MSNBC for their ridiculous pursuit of every available blond Faux bimbo while simultaneously ignoring their already amazing in-house talent (Joy Reid!).

"Lighten Up" was great.

I'm a little puzzled as to why the pundits and journalists who are usually critical of Trump would fawn over his SOTU speech. It didn't seem like they were trying to avoid looking partisan. 

I enjoyed the CPAC segment. What's the guy's name? Mike something. "Hold on a second," and then speed-walking away cracked me up.

Ugh, Scott Walker. $6M to update the cream puff pavilion? *head shake*

[ganesh]

Calling Conway a Cylon is arguably the best joke of this whole mess. 

[Sesquipedalia]

22 hours ago, ganesh said:

Calling Conway a Cylon is arguably the best joke of this whole mess. 

It's one of those jokes that's so spot on it made me wonder why I hadn't thought of it. 

Sam's one-minute take-down of Trumpcare was also spot on. 

[Nysha]

Sam highlighted one of my major gripes about all the anti-Trump protests -- they don't translate to people actually freaking voting! The U.S. deserves what it gets if people aren't willing to vote for change.

[scrb]

Yeah it's a relatively long time until the midterms.  Who knows if the energy of the protesters and marchers can be sustained that long.

And there's going to be outrage fatigue, as Trump keeps tweeting and saying more crazy things.

That is why during the elections, the last few scandals around Trump didn't have staying power and people forgot or overlooked them.

[iMonrey]

I haven't really been hearing about this "Deep State" buzz-phrase, although admittedly I don't watch 24-hour cable news. Still, I'm up on the news enough to think it's not catching on the way the Fox pundits want it to. I know of course that the administration and its apologists will continue to blame Obama for anything that doesn't go their way, but to say Obama has some shadow government with thousands of soldiers waiting to stage a coupe is tinfoil hat-wearing levels of crazy. 

As for low voter turnout, it can be ascribed to any number of factors depending on the election in question. In the case of mayor for L.A. most probably felt the outcome was a foregone conclusion and were fine with it. If we're talking about non-presidential elections in general it's mostly due to the fact that the majority of people who show up for those are old, retired people who have nothing else to do. The rest of us are busy just trying to do our jobs. We need to talk about having elections on days people are off work, like Saturdays and Sundays, and allowing online voting. We also need to talk about engaging younger voters by fielding younger candidates instead of the same old career politicians and stuffed shirts that energize nobody.

[peeayebee]

Several months ago as my sister approached retiring, she found stuff on money making/management/etc and investing online, and as she talked about various things, it sounded like a lot of fear-mongering to me. The people she listens to talk about Deep State. As I said, this was months ago, and it sounded like conspiracy stuff to me. I think the idea of Deep State didn't originate because of Obama -- though he's a handy scapegoat for many people -- but I'm really not sure about the believers in this. I guess it is what movies like The Parallax View are about.

The thing about Dems not voting really pisses me off. I live in the LA area, and the ballot was very small: a couple of Measures and a community college board. I voted. Big changes can happen on the community level, so people need to be informed and stay vigilant. Isn't it true that Republicans vote in a greater proportion than do Democrats?

[ganesh]

Deep state is all over talk radio too. 

I like this show, but sometimes Sam's mocking approach just doesn't work for me. Yes, the 'deep state' is patently ridiculous. Yes, you're delusional if you seriously think this. Look at the montage on the show though and how many right wingers were hammering at the phrase. We've said this across so many threads on this site: the extreme right does nothing if not control the narrative. Butthurt white dudes totally buy into this garbage because they need a scapegoat to excuse how miserable they feel. They're delusional and that's why they consistently vote against their own interests and ruin everyone's lives. This is how we got here. 

[ChelseaNH]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

allowing online voting

Have we learned nothing from the internet of things?  Voting by mail seems to work pretty well and can't be hacked nearly so easily.

I really appreciated the "Vote, dammit!" segment.  The whole "raising awareness" thing is nice, but it's just the first step.

Edited March 16, 2017 by ChelseaNH

[Irlandesa]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

We need to talk about having elections on days people are off work, like Saturdays and Sundays

People work on Saturdays and Sundays too.  That's why I've changed my mind on making voting day a national holiday. I used to think it was a great idea until the obvious was pointed out to me (and I felt dumb for not realizing it) but, with the exception of maybe three holidays, restaurants are open.  Retail shops are open.  It privileges a certain group of people for whom it's already probably easier to vote. 

I think we need to make it easier to vote.  All mail-in voting seems to work well in states that do it and there's a paper record.  I think it's unfair that some areas have to wait hours to vote while other areas just have to walk in and out.  Also, I wish there weren't so many different polling days.  We have the Nov. day. The April day.  The random day in Feb. or some other time depending on when a town decides to have voting. 

[iMonrey]

They could have seven days of voting when you come down to it - that way everyone has a day to vote on their day off. Although I think they could find a way to make online voting safe. I'd trust it about as much as I trust the current Diebold machines, anyway.

[ganesh]

Honestly though, there's still too many people who will say, "eh, it's my day off. I don't want to stand in line/take the bus an hour, etc." Or just leave the mail ballot on the table. I think it's got to mandatory, and there has to be a way to make sure districting is fair, which there are, so people realize they have an actual stake in voting. 

[marina to]

In Canada we have a law that employers have to give employees three consecutive hours off during polling hours on election day so they can go vote. That kind of thing would have to go hand in hand with reducing waiting times to vote (therefore, tackling voter restrictions).

[meowmommy]

38 minutes ago, ganesh said:

I think it's got to mandatory, and there has to be a way to make sure districting is fair, which there are, so people realize they have an actual stake in voting. 

You can make it mandatory but you can't force someone to make choices on the ballot.  I've left boxes blank when I had no idea what I was voting for.  Gerrymandering is a time-honored tradition and eliminating it depends entirely on whose ox is being gored.  I've also lived in safe districts where the incumbent will only go out in a pine box--that's a tremendous disincentive to voting.  And on the national level, if you're a blue person in a red state or vice versa, feeling like there's any point to voting can be quite the challenge.

3 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

People work on Saturdays and Sundays too.  That's why I've changed my mind on making voting day a national holiday. I used to think it was a great idea until the obvious was pointed out to me (and I felt dumb for not realizing it) but, with the exception of maybe three holidays, restaurants are open.  Retail shops are open.  It privileges a certain group of people for whom it's already probably easier to vote. 

When I was still a staff nurse, if your work shift was on election day and you hadn't made arrangements to vote absentee, you pretty much couldn't vote, owing to working 12 hour shifts that overlapped voting hours.  With early voting, that's become a moot point although I know not everywhere has early voting.

[Irlandesa]

47 minutes ago, marina to said:

In Canada we have a law that employers have to give employees three consecutive hours off during polling hours on election day so they can go vote. That kind of thing would have to go hand in hand with reducing waiting times to vote (therefore, tackling voter restrictions).

Similar laws exist in the US.  The basics depend on each state (the amount of time given, whether or not voters have to offer proof, whether or not it's paid and whether or not polls being open enough time before and/or after your shift should matter) but they're there.  I think it helps a bit but for people who use public transport, the amount of time might not be enough.  For the states where the time off isn't paid, it's a loss of income. And frankly, due to some chicanery, there are just some polling places in heavily populated areas where the lines are always long.  Hours long. Like, even if a voter worked across the street from the polling place, they wouldn't be able to vote.

I don't think voting should be compulsory, though.  There are states with high voter turnout and we could learn from them.  My state has high voter turnout because it's easy to register day of, no stupid voter ID laws, and even in populated neighborhoods, there are enough places to vote.  (I think using paper helps because machines aren't needed.)  Then there are the states with all-mail ballots.  They tend to have good turnout. 

[ganesh]

31 minutes ago, meowmommy said:

You can make it mandatory but you can't force someone to make choices on the ballot.

Yes, but those countries that do have it mandatory have a more well-informed voting populace. 

31 minutes ago, meowmommy said:

 Gerrymandering is a time-honored tradition and eliminating it depends entirely on whose ox is being gored.

California has a panel of retired bipartisan judges iirc. It's not easy, but doable. 

I think if it's mandatory people could start making a huff about making it easier to actually vote. 

[Kel Varnsen]

17 hours ago, peeayebee said:

 

The thing about Dems not voting really pisses me off. I live in the LA area, and the ballot was very small: a couple of Measures and a community college board. I voted. Big changes can happen on the community level, so people need to be informed and stay vigilant. Isn't it true that Republicans vote in a greater proportion than do Democrats?

The 12% voter turb out (or whatever it was) seems crazy. Even the most out there fringe candidate could win the majority of votes with that low a turn out. Depending on how many candidates there are you could win with support of 6% of all eligible voters.

Edited March 17, 2017 by Kel Varnsen

[iMonrey]

Bottom line, Democrats should be fighting aggressively to make voting easier rather than just reacting to Republican efforts to make it more difficult. It should be a priority and a vocal platform. It galls me that Republicans get away with using "voter fraud" as an excuse to enact all these restrictive voting laws. People need to start standing up to them and asking why they're so determined to make it harder to vote. 

[ganesh]

22 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Bottom line, Democrats should be fighting aggressively to make voting easier rather than just reacting to Republican efforts to make it more difficult. It should be a priority and a vocal platform. It galls me that Republicans get away with using "voter fraud" as an excuse to enact all these restrictive voting laws. People need to start standing up to them and asking why they're so determined to make it harder to vote. 

^Fundamentally, as we've been shown on the show, the Democrats have been consistently reactive than proactive and are woefully losing left and right as a result. Sam also pointed this out on the show in the failure to turn out for the midterms. In this episode, all of the 'deep state' narrative. More people voting makes the butthurt vote count less. 

[marina to]

22 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

(I think using paper helps because machines aren't needed.)  Then there are the states with all-mail ballots.  They tend to have good turnout. 

Big fan of paper ballots. We use them here. They don't take that long to count at the end of the night and with the crosschecks built it it's very hard to stuff the ballot. Then you have records to refer to with no opportunity to tamper electronically with the results.

[purist]

3 hours ago, marina to said:

Big fan of paper ballots. We use them here.

Where is 'here'?

[marina to]

Canada.

Which reminds me that our previous government was trying to pass a measure that would prevent Elections Canada from encouraging people to vote. Need to see if that thing is on the books.

Edited March 20, 2017 by marina to

[wknt3]

The show just posted this. Sounds like they are working on an interesting bit...

https://twitter.com/fullfrontalsamb/status/844705055433506816

Edited March 23, 2017 by wknt3
fixed link

[Fable]

First of all, Gorka is not Hungarian or at least wasn't raised in Hungary.  My grandparents and my father are all from Hungary and not one of them sounds anything like him.  

[biakbiak]

35 minutes ago, Fable said:

First of all, Gorka is not Hungarian or at least wasn't raised in Hungary.  My grandparents and my father are all from Hungary and not one of them sounds anything like him.  

His parents fled Hungary afterthe Hungarian Uprising of 1956 and he was born and raised in London.

[iMonrey]

Again - it's more depressing than amusing now when things like Fox News using Gorka as a go-to "expert" on terrorism are even mocked on shows like this. People believe this shit. There's a frighteningly large audience for Fox News that accepts everything they say as gospel. 

[attica]

I looked up Renee Unterman, the pol blocking the GA rape-kit bill detailed in such charming animation, to see if she ran unopposed. She did not, as it happens -- she'd been in the state house, and ran for the state senate after a  4-way primary. But I did notice something interesting. Wikipedia has her on the board of Amerigroup, a big-ass health insurance company that makes money from Medicaid.  (In a state where O'care Medicaid expansion was not instituted, what a delightful irony.)  Her campaign materials, though, list her as a former nurse, with no mention of the big-bucks-board position. Nice. Way to support patient care by blocking kit testing, there!  And to be extra cynical, jumping on the bill's passage when it looked to be unanimous in its last few minutes.

I mean, I know Sam's bit wanted us to feel better, but there's so much shit underneath that it's hard for me to feel them fuzzies. 

[ChelseaNH]

I appreciate that the show gives kudos where deserved and that they're willing to give specific ideas on action to take -- snark is a valuable release valve, but not in itself all that productive.

[peeayebee]

I loved that whole animation segment with the Representative narrating it. I felt the fuzzies.

I noticed after the opening Trump segment was a commercial for Tic Tacs. Since it's not their fault, I try not to associate those mints with Trump, but it's hard not to do when it follows right after a story on Trump.

[iMonrey]

Quote

I mean, I know Sam's bit wanted us to feel better, but there's so much shit underneath that it's hard for me to feel them fuzzies. 

Agreed. Nice effort trying to give us some "positive" news but it doesn't fix anything to know the entire George state house can agree on something obvious. The gerrymandering in that and every other state is still so vomit-inducing no amount of fluff can overcome it. 

[meowmommy]

Being stuck in the red state of Georgia, in a flaming red district and an even redder town, I was pleased to hear that not everything produced by this state since Jimmy Carter has been horseshit.

If I lived in that asshole's district, I'd run.  If only to run as the grammar police.