TDS 3.0: Season Three Talk

[Vanderboom]

1 hour ago, ganesh said:

So if Rudy is "so new" and "still learning", why is he on every single news show on television as the voice of Trump's legal team? I get the first time. He went on tv and he screwed up. But he won't stay off tv and he's just so inept. 

This was my thought exactly. Why not hold off on TV appearances until you acquaint yourself with the case and an agreed-upon approach? I've always been surprised by the Trump/Giuliani friendship. It seems to me that they're too much alike to get along. Yet, here we are.

Ronan Farrow's book sounds interesting. I remember Fahreed Zakaria talking about some of the same criticisms of U.S. foreign policies years ago, so I hope Farrow's book adds to the conversation.

[ganesh]

Or, just tell Guliani, 'look stay away from making proclamations; just say, you just started and aren't sure about that yet, but, yes, it's an important point to consider.' Have him go on Fox "News", but putting him on a Sunday show, they're going to ask a few hard questions. I mean, this guy has been in politics, he should know the deal. 

Then again, I've been saying how amazing it is to me how stupid these people are on a daily basis. 

38 minutes ago, Vanderboom said:

Ronan Farrow's book sounds interesting. I remember Fahreed Zakaria talking about some of the same criticisms of U.S. foreign policies years ago, so I hope Farrow's book adds to the conversation.

There's no South Korean ambassador iirc. This is a major ally in a critical region AND we're supposed to be setting up a summit there with an historical adversary. It boggles the mind. 

[peeayebee]

7 hours ago, ganesh said:

I thought it was very astute of Trevor to point out that they haven't gotten the "facts" right because they can't figure out what story gets Trump off the hook. And then everything else will be fake news. 

I thought that was a great point, too. Then Michael Costa did a hilarious, yet accurate, summary of it all.

[ganesh]

Are Costa's charts supposed to be a running gag?

[ganesh]

Thursday show - Desi's piece was really good. The African guy she talked to really got to me. This guy went halfway around the world because he's worried his daughter isn't safe.

Why is this administration so heartless and cruel? 

[CheezyXpressed]

I was hoping Trevor would let Michael talk more, but at the same time the interview was funny.

[peeayebee]

Loved Michael doing the cockney accent -- "Consider yourself... AT home!"

Trump must LOVE having places and things in Israeli named after him. The love he's getting there has put him on cloud 9.

[ganesh]

Trevor singing the song "We Are The World" style cracked me up. I hope though someone in the press corps asks Sanders every day about whether the administration will issue an apology to McCain. 

If it's true, I'm actually amazed that the president talks to Hannity everyday *and* no one has told him not to. Or, spoken to Hannity privately. I don't expect Hannity to grasp how unethical this situation is because he's a blood sucking leech with not even a shred of integrity. I hope someone exposes this. Either Fox News has to act like the adult and cut this out completely, fire Hannity (zero chance), or we have to conclude that they aren't a news outlet and merely exist as a propaganda organization akin to state tv in dictatorships. 

Edited May 16, 2018 by ganesh

[peeayebee]

It's nice to dream.

[Victor the Crab]

3 hours ago, ganesh said:

If it's true, I'm actually amazed that the president talks to Hannity everyday *and* no one has told him not to. Or, spoken to Hannity privately. I don't expect Hannity to grasp how unethical this situation is because he's a blood sucking leech with not even a shred of integrity. I hope someone exposes this. Either Fox News has to act like the adult and cut this out completely, fire Hannity (zero chance), or we have to conclude that they aren't a news outlet and merely exist as a propaganda organization akin to state tv in dictatorships. 

Fox News has ALWAYS been nothing but a right wing propaganda machine that likes to convince everyone it's a legitimate news outfit, "unlike" the other news channels in the Liberally Biased Mainstream Media™. No one's ever going to successfully call them out because others have ethics they stand by and are too chickenshit to call Fox News out, lest they feel they're going to get exposed for whatever faults they may have. And because Fox News doesn't give a fuck what people think about their methods, which is why a living piece of shit like Hannity will never, ever be released from the network, unless he's caught up in some major sex scandal, which will never happen because as Samantha Bee said a while ago, who'd want to have sex with that said piece of shit.

But give kudos to Trevor for covering more and more of the awfulness that is Fox News. At the beginning, nobody thought he'd pay much attention to it. But since Drumpf became president, he's had to show more of how dangerous they have truly become. Especially now seeing that they have grown into a symbiotic relationship with the tangerine nightmare.

[possibilities]

The Daily Show has always covered how bad FoxNews is. I was relieved when Trevor branched out and started covering the horrors elsewhere in the world, but I don't mind him going back to FN sometimes.

I suspect that even if anyone IS telling POTUS it's wrong to talk to Hannity, he just doesn't do what he's told.

[ganesh]

This is a new low even for Fox News. 

[Caseysgirl]

Interesting to hear Terry Crews discuss his sexual harassment charges; has he been on the Talk Show circuit with this?

[peeayebee]

I don't know. I had read about it online a few weeks (months?) ago. I love that he wasn't afraid to make this public. After all, why should a victim be afraid of the reaction? 

Loved how much Trevor made fun of that rapper (?) saying "suh-ses." That never stopped cracking me up. I'm laughing now.

Happier than Ben Carson in a mattress store is a great expression.

The Peace/Off graphic was so good.

[ganesh]

Crews' harassment was in the news a while ago. 

Bolton shows that the administration knows nothing about statecraft and certainly less than nothing of the nuances of nonproliferation policy. Kim threatening to back out should have been circled on the calendar and a response beyond, "uh we're ready for them to give up their nukes, so I don't know what he's talking about" should have been prepared in advance. I can't imagine why Kim would have issues with South Korea and the USA flying around with nuke laden B52s about 75 miles from his house. 

On the other hand, with all that going on, a complete slime like DeVos falls through the cracks. She's horrible and is going to put people into massive debt and set back education 100 years. 

[CheezyXpressed]

Terry Crews is amazing and I love how open he is about toxic masculinity, porn, and the sexual harassment/assault he received from his dirtbag agent.

[2727]

I was surprised Trevor didn't mention Trump University in relation to the DeVos segment.

I used to work for a company that makes university education software. After for-profit Corinthian Colleges was shut down by the Feds, my company hired one of its former vice presidents of admissions and marketing to head up our customer support services.

I was out of there pretty quickly after that.

[Victor the Crab]

Trevor is absolutely correct in stating that Terry Crews is a very, very funny man. The first time I came across him was in those Old Spice commercials where he acted as a counter to the suave sophisticated "Look at me, ladies" guy. All of his ads can be seen right below. Trust me, they will be worth the nearly six minutes of your life you've wasted. :D

[Skyfall]

That moment of zen was perfect!

[peeayebee]

I liked Terry in those commercials, but nobody could beat the original guy for me. 

I think the first time I saw Terry was in Everybody Hates Chris. Such a good show.

[ganesh]

They couldn't book a full week of shows?

[Hanahope]

Are they off next week?

[possibilities]

My listings have a week of "Best of..." shows (one for Desi, one for Ronny, one for Dulce, one for Michael).

[applecrisp]

On 5/17/2018 at 9:29 PM, peeayebee said:

I liked Terry in those commercials, but nobody could beat the original guy for me. 

I think the first time I saw Terry was in Everybody Hates Chris. Such a good show.

It was and I always thought it was a tribute, by Chris Rock to his father,played by Terry Crews.

Edited May 24, 2018 by applecrisp

[Lantern7]

Just saw this on Facebook; immediately thought of Ronny's "critique" of Chicago deep dish pizza.

I like the "best of" episodes during breaks. It doesn't always have to be about highlights of Trevor trying not to rip his hair out. I don't know if Dulce and Michael had enough solo content, though. Dulce as God was sweet, though. She was really selling it.

[2727]

Evacuating one's bowels: A natural part of the coffee process..

Thanks to Trevor for hitting us with some research about recent inflammatory immigration tweets. It was nice.

[peeayebee]

I had read the corrections about the lost children outrage yesterday. I was worried as Trevor started the story that he wouldn't include that. I'm glad he did. 

The Johnny Knoxville interview was kind of enjoyable. I'm not a Jackass fan, but this new movie looks kind of funny. I doubt I'll see it though.

[iMonrey]

Dan Savage was on Real Time a few weeks back and had a great term for Trump: he's a "disinhibitor." I think that's the same thing Trevor was saying about Trump being responsible for Roseanne Barr's inflammatory racial tweet - Trump supporters all feel like they have a free pass to say anything they want because Trump does it and never has to pay for it. So they all think they're immune to consequences as well. It's a weird syndrome.  

[ganesh]

I was aware of the issues with the 'lost children'. The fundamental point Trevor was making is that we're largely underinformed. Still though, one can be outraged at the administration because they're creating the environment that makes people to not want to reply back to the agency. 

[ganesh]

I'm still amazed that the administration keeps trotting out Rudy. All he does is basically say, yes, we're conspiring to control the narrative and deflect what's going on by discrediting everyone. 

[peeayebee]

"... with these big beautiful hands." Man, he's just the worst.

[Lantern7]

1 hour ago, peeayebee said:

"... with these big beautiful hands." Man, he's just the worst.

They're normal-sized. Probably like shaking a sausage patty with five links attached by toothpicks.

I liked Roy's Starbucks video. It amuses me when something happens, and all locations shut down for a few hours for reorientation.

[peeayebee]

Loved Trevor saying, "We're got the envelope right here," then bringing out a mini envelope. Hee. 

I'm glad he dealt with the idea that Trump is too busy to testify. That's laughable nonsense. Also, yes to the line that you can't be the judge in your own trial, so you can't pardon yourself. Unless you burp. Maybe that's what Trump means.

"A getting to know you meeting plus. Plus what? Plus onion rings?"

[khyber]

That Facebook sketch was brilliant. 

[peeayebee]

Loved it. If there was anyone who didn't understand what goes on with Facebook, this should have cleared things up for them. I think I want to rewatch to catch stuff I'm sure I missed.

I also loved Ronnie's segment. Again I'll say I'm amazed at the 180 I've done on him. Not only is his subject matter entertaining, but his delivery always cracks me up.

I feel odd saying this about a feminist, but the woman is gorgeous.

[ganesh]

I didn't know who that woman was, but that interview was fantastic. She was so delightful. If someone asks me what feminism means I'm going to say, "It means you hold the door open for everyone."

[grawlix]

Loved the whole episode.  The Facebook analogy, Ronnie’s segment, and the guest were all on point

[Victor the Crab]

The Facebook segment should be a clear reminder to everyone that fuckface Zuckerberg's pledge to clean up the site will quickly fall on its face. Facebook really has no more reason to go straight than the Mafia does. And will Congress put pressure on Zuckerberg to follow through on his pledge? Not a fucking chance.

[ganesh]

Another really good interview about the military sexual assault and the problems with the system in place. One of the good traits of Trevor being a good interviewer (and I'm sorry if it's unpopular, but he's much better than Jon was) is that he knows when to get out of the way and let the people talk about the issue. At one point, the senator was directing the discussion, and Trevor joined in a minute or two later. Also the best part was "even Ted Cruz supports this bill. No. It's true!"

One thing that stood out to me was when they were talking about how the woman had a top secret security clearance and 3 years of military training, but was still forced out. That struck me as a total waste of resources. They invested a lot in this woman and just made her quit. For so-called fiscal conservatives, it can be a way to bring them on board with the issue.

It seems like having the C/O rule on the merits of an assault claim as textbook conflict of interest.

[Hooper]

Quote

Another really good interview about the military sexual assault and the problems with the system in place. One of the good traits of Trevor being a good interviewer (and I'm sorry if it's unpopular, but he's much better than Jon was) is that he knows when to get out of the way and let the people talk about the issue. At one point, the senator was directing the discussion, and Trevor joined in a minute or two later. Also the best part was "even Ted Cruz supports this bill. No. It's true!"

I agree that Trevor is a better interviewer, aided in no small part by the fact that he has far more interesting guests.  But, as much as I appreciate Senator Gillibrand's passion for fixing the issue of sexual assault in the military, after about two minutes I was shouting "Shut Up" at her.  Not that I disagreed with her basic message, but I was far more interested in hearing what the two other guests had to say about their actual real life experience than hearing her take a deep breath and then race through three minutes of non-stop talking points.  Trevor did finally manage to direct a question to the prosecutor when the good Senator stopped to gasp for breath, but really, I would have been happy to have had three separate interviews - one for the woman who was forced out after she reported a sexual assault, one for the prosecutor, and then one where Gillibrand could have discussed legislation to address the issue rather than making a campaign speech to rally support for a cause that I'm pretty sure her audience was already in support of.

[ganesh]

They may have been giving interviews as a group in order to show all the different sides of the issue. 

I didn't know the data well; 15,000 cases, etc., so I can get that the senator wants to underscore the importance. Like I said before, I think a strong way to do that is talk about the investment in the personnel and then just booting them out. So, it doesn't necessarily matter what the numbers are per se, you're wasting all this money. 

[Victor the Crab]

When I saw Monday's lineup, I assumed there would be two interview segments. One for Sen. Gillibrand, and the other for the two distinguished guests. Trying to interview three people together in a short period of time creates something of a clusterfuck.

Just when you think Drumpf couldn't be a bigger baby than he already is, the news that he tears up official documents shows there are no limits to his childish petulance.

That whole sports talk segment between Roy and Ronnie didn't really work for me. I don't know why, but Ronnie looked like a fish out of water. Was it deliberate?

There were better choices for the MoZ, like the Fox News talking head making a Freudian slip about the Drumpf/Kim summit as a meeting of two dictators, or even a tribute to Anthony Bourdain. The video mashup of LeBron and Curry was just a complete waste of space.

[Lantern7]

7 minutes ago, Victor the Crab said:

Just when you think Drumpf couldn't be a bigger baby than he already is, the news that he tears up official documents shows there are no limits to his childish petulance.

There were better choices for the MoZ, like the Fox News talking head making a Freudian slip about the Drumpf/Kim summit as a meeting of two dictators, or even a tribute to Anthony Bourdain. The video mashup of LeBron and Curry was just a complete waste of space.

1. Huge shock, right?

2. If you look at the Instagram tag, you'll notice it came from Roy. Given that the Warriors completed the sweep on Friday, it wasn't totally out of place. I thought it was funny, especially with Roy admitting his budget was "72 cents."

[Victor the Crab]

14 minutes ago, Lantern7 said:

 

If you look at the Instagram tag, you'll notice it came from Roy. Given that the Warriors completed the sweep on Friday, it wasn't totally out of place. I thought it was funny, especially with Roy admitting his budget was "72 cents."

I did notice the tag from Roy. I still think there were better choices.

[ganesh]

27 minutes ago, Victor the Crab said:

That whole sports talk segment between Roy and Ronnie didn't really work for me. I don't know why, but Ronnie looked like a fish out of water. Was it deliberate?

I think so because all he wanted to do was talk about soccer. Ronnie is nailing this sour persona he's been cultivating over the last year. 

[ganesh]

I found Bremmer's interpretation of the summit to be shortsighted and borderline naive. You might want to check with North Korea about being recognized as a nuclear power. Maybe Trump didn't explicitly say it, and they explicitly should have said the NK is not a nuclear power, but if you can't recognize that the picture of the two of the embracing that the show has shown over this week several times, then you're really missing what their motivation was. 

Similarly, he brushed off that freezing the military exercises wasn't that big a deal. He admitted that Trump didn't tip off anyone else about it. Yeah, but you can't make that important a decision unilaterally either. Saying that this is a 'freeze for freeze' just isn't accurate imo. It's not equal by any stretch. 

Everyone is saying, well, it's good that they met. Was it though? 

[Wilbur Whateley]

Was last night the first time Trevor made that goofy little whooshing noise as he transitioned from segment to segment, or is this just the first time I noticed it? 

[peeayebee]

Yes, I think that's the first time he's done the "Whoosh!" Very cute.

 

5 hours ago, ganesh said:

I found Bremmer's interpretation of the summit to be shortsighted and borderline naive.

I didn't care for the interview or him. I didn't understand his saying that no one has tried to get NK to get rid of their nukes, because I believe the US has done that in the past -- tried -- and NK has agreed and then did nothing. Maybe I have that wrong. The point is, this time is no different, IMO. There is no agreement except to agree to talk about it some more. 

Lewis Black's "nursery rhyme" was quite good. :D As for the videos of schools lockdown drills, etc., that is depressing. 

[Miss Dee]

I nearly cried at the Lewis Black piece. Insane to think this is the reality in a supposedly First World country.

[peeayebee]

I really enjoyed Roy's piece about sanctuary cities and crime. Although of course this is a serious subject, the segment was fun.

I also loved Trevor's whole first segment. I mean, accents! Love his Melania accent and his Russian accent. And hey, I didn't know Putin could speak English.