On Even More News this week, Katy, Cody, and Jonathan are joined by guest comedian Mary Houlihan. It’s a great show, focussing on the reflecting pool debacle, the LA mayoral race, and especially affordability, and you should totally watch the whole thing, but there’s one part I wanted to call out.
You know how Trump was asked this week how much he cared about Americans not being able to afford things, and he said “not even a little”? Well, okay, that’s a slight exaggeration; here’s what he actually said:
Reporter: To what extent are Americans’ financial situations motivating you to make a deal?
Trump: Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran, they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think about Americans financial situation, I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.
Oh, I guess he actually used the exact words “not even a little” ... so not exaggerating at all, really. And, a few minutes later, Cody says this:
Inflation all over. Prices are up a lot over the past year. And most of the high prices we’re seeing right now still aren’t because of what’s going on. Like, that is yet to come; this is just other stuff. Some of it’s like climate related and like weather related, where like certain things can’t be grown as easily— shipping and stuff. Some of it is just like general inflation. Some of it’s tariffs: specifically tomatoes are specifically because of his tariffs against Mexico. And so all this stuff that was like “oh, prices are really high now because of this war”— it’s actually not yet because of the war. It’s going to get so much worse.
To which Jonathan responds:
Everything with Biden was because, you know, everyone thinks the president has a “lower prices” button or a “lower inflation” button, which they don’t, really. You know, you pass some legislation, you try to do some things, they got it under control. The president doesn’t really have a lever to pull to do that. But the president does have a few “make prices go up” levers to pull. And Trump has pulled them all in the last year and a half. He’s pulled the tariffs one, he’s pulled the start the war— zero inflation levers he has not pulled.
Gee, thanks Cody: being all truthful and incisive and shit and bringing us down. Because, as Jonathan so rightfully notes, the president of the United States can only do so much that will cause prices to come down
It’s tough to find a silver lining in all that, but I’ll posit one anyway: even if Trump stops the war in Iran tomorro
Other things you need to know this week:
- The Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act continues to be a big story; this week Brian Tyler Cohen gives a more forceful discussion of the Court’s hypocrisy. A lot of BTC videos tend to fall into the category of “impotent rage,” and I don’t recommend him nearly as often as I watch him for that very reason, but in this case the rage is justified, and, impotent or not, we all need to be on the same page about it.
- Continuing on that trend, in a highlight from this week’s Runaway Country, Alex Wagner talks to Stacey Abrams about how the Republicans are rigging our electoral system. Chilling, but important to understand.
- And, in even more Supreme Court coverage, Last Week Tonight featured even more on the Shadow Docket. I didn’t think John Oliver was quite as informative as all the previous sources I pointed you at (mostly two weeks ago, but also at least one last week), but, as always, he’s damned entertaining.
- Charlamagne tha God is back on The Daily Show’s “In My Opinion” segment, this time talking about Trump’s third term. People keep saying it’s just a joke, but I have doubts, and apparently Charlamagne does too.
- Adam Kinzinger is now doing breakout videos of his day in review videos; sort of the “shorts” version, or a highlights reel. But it’s basically just one story out of all the stories he mentioned in the longer video, which is nice, if that one story is the main thing I wanted you to watch the longer video for anyhow. For Monday’s day in review, the breakout story is that Stephen Miller is, potentially, getting sidelined. I’m not sure I’m too optimistic yet personally, but I had to chuckle when Adam introduced the story with this quote: “I’m not smiling; you’re smiling!” Too real.
- I picked up on Gabe Sanchez, I believe, at the same time I discovered Brian Tyler Cohen: it was the writer’s strike, and I needed new entertaining takes on the news. Sanchez was funnier than BTC, but not as informative, so I didn’t continue watching faithfully after the strike was over, and anyway Sanchez disappeared for while: posting hiatus, I suppose. But I think he went and got himself a journalism degree while he was gone or something, because his video this week on Trump’s reflecting pool scam was really well-researched (and also pretty funny). My one quibble: Sanchez seems to think Trump is using the racism as a distraction from the corruption, whereas I think he’s just getting less and less capable of keeping the racism in the closet as he gets older.
- On The Weekly Show this week, Jon Stewart interviews Ben Rhodes from Pod Save the World, mostly talking about Iran. In this show in particular, Jon says some really smart shit, and, despite his protestations, he really tends to jump out at one as a potential candidate for office. Look, Jon, if you want people to stop asking you if you’re running for President, you’ve got to stop sounding smarter than all the other potential candidates. Besides, the fact that he keeps saying he doesn’t want it makes him even more perfect for the job: as Douglas Adams famously wrote in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, “anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.” Which only leaves us with those people who absolutely don’t want it.
- Hasan Minhaj interviewed Jennifer Welch this week. If you don’t know her, Welch is an Oklahoma wine mom who was, in her words, radicalized by Kamala’s loss, and is now a pretty far left progressive. Her background gives her some really great perspectives on what the Dems are doing wrong and how to fix it. Long interview, but totally worth it.
- If you follow UK politics as closely as I have been lately, you’ll appreciate SNL UK’s cold open this week. (And, if you don’t, you almost certainly won’t.)
Is there hope this week? I mean, in the sense that there’s always hope, I suppose. Like Kat Abughazaleh, Graham Platner is demonstrating that, even if he loses, his candidacy will have accomplished something. Over on Legal Eagle, Spencer the Scowl Owl posits that Kash Patel’s charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center will likely go down in flames like almost all the cases from this DoJ seem to. Kinzinger seems to think that Trump’s gerrymandering plans will not be as successful as he hopes, and, while I’m not sure I’m on board with all tha
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