📺 The Daily Show with Trevor Noah – May 10, 2018 – Joaquin Castro | Comedy Central

Watched The Daily Show with Trevor Noah - May 10, 2018 - Joaquin Castro from Comedy Central
A black Yale student is interrogated by police for napping, Desi Lydic investigates a refugee flow from the U.S. to Canada, and Rep. Joaquin Castro sits down with Trevor.

📺 The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: July 25, 2017 – Rola Hallam

Watched The Daily Show: July 25, 2017 - Rola Hallam, S2 E135 from Comedy Central
The Senate votes to begin a debate on health care, Democrats unveil a new slogan aimed at working-class voters, and Rola Hallam explains how her company CanDo is aiding Syria.
Not as solid as most episodes. The interview with Dr. Rola Hallam on Syria was the solid piece of work here.

The Daily Show S2 E135

📺 The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: July 24, 2017 – French Montana

Watched The Daily Show: July 24, 2017 - French Montana, S2 E134 from Comedy Central
Anthony Scaramucci joins the Trump administration, Trevor bids farewell to former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, and French Montana discusses "Jungle Rules."
Loved the Profiles in Tremendousness! Sad that I’m so far behind on episodes that when I’m watching the episode introducing “The Mooch” is the same day that he’s fired from The Apprentice: White House Edition.

The Daily Show S2, E 134

📺 The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: July 26, 2017 – Charlize Theron

Watched The Daily Show: July 26, 2017 - Charlize Theron, S2 E136 from Comedy Central
The GOP makes another push to repeal Obamacare, trans veterans react to President Trump's ban on trans people in the military, and Charlize Theron discusses "Atomic Blonde."
The segment on trans people in the military was phenomenal and truly humanizing.

The Daily Show S2 E136

📺 The Daily Show: Your Moment of Them: The Best of Ronny Cheng

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The Daily Show salutes correspondent Ronny Chieng's reporting as he covers Fox News's racism, an interfaith initiative and Donald Trump's China policy.
This series of episodes about the correspondents is great. Not only is it a great way to program with old entertainment which these shows don’t often do, but it’s nice to see an extended set of work from some hilarious people.

The Daily Show: Ronny Cheng

📺 The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, S22, E80 – March 13, 2017 | Comedy Central

Watched The Daily Show, Season 22, Ep. 80 - March 13, 2017 from Comedy Central
President Trump fails to provide evidence that Barack Obama wiretapped him, Hasan Minhaj and Roy Wood Jr. announce Third Month Mania, and Lee Daniels discusses "Star."

The treatment of the ubiquitous correspondent on Korea being interrupted by his children was great. The interview with Lee Daniels brought up some interesting paradoxes about race in America which aren’t commonly discussed.

📺 The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, S22, E79 – March 9, 2017 | Comedy Central

Watched The Daily Show, Season 22, Ep. 79 - March 9, 2017 from Comedy Central
Trevor and Jordan Klepper sing to "forgotten" Americans, Team Trump threatens to erase climate data, and Alynda Segarra discusses Hurray for the Riff Raff's "The Navigator."

Poignant, but not as strong an episode as usual. I was thinking that Jordan was a horrible washboardist and was shocked that it came back as a topic in the interview. I hope Segarra’s album is awesome, in some sense to make up for my total disinterest in her interview. I sampled some of her music and Spotify and it’s just not my cup of tea.

📺 The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: February 16, 2017

Watched The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: February 16, 2017 from Comedy Central
President Trump holds a turbulent press conference, Jordan Klepper talks to New Jersey residents living on Dick Street, and Ezra Edelman discusses "O.J.: Made in America."
The opening five minutes was about as compact as you could make the craziness of today’s press conference. Holy Crap!

📺 The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: February 15, 2017

Watched The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: February 15, 2017 from Comedy Central
Trevor reflects on having a president with grandpa tendencies, Donald Trump weighs in on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and Mark Mazzetti discusses Russia's election hacking.
The Trump “Old Guy” opener was about as good as it gets for political satire lately.

The capper: http://maketrumptweetseightagain.com/

📺 The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: February 14, 2017

Watched The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: February 14, 2017 by Trevor Noah from Comedy Central
National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigns and Republicans don't know how to handle questions about it, and Laverne Cox discusses the TV show "Doubt."
“That guy gets so much poutine.” -Trevor Noah on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s good looks.

The Mike Flynn “cartoon” was an interesting method of storytelling.

There was a nice portion just before the interview in which Noah shows several examples of the ways in which the Trump administration tries to have things both ways, and then denies that they’re not telling the truth. Why must they waffle? Why can’t they just stand up and say “this is who we are.” We couldn’t do anything but respect them for that, but lying just ruins it all.

A map of Russia on the episode makes me wonder why I haven’t seen any pundits or comedians take the map and turn Russia’s highlight into Trump’s hair and then superimpose his face over South Asia. This image may help others with the idea:

📺 The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: February 13, 2017

Watched The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: February 13, 2017 from Comedy Central
President Trump meets with Japan's Shinzo Abe, Trevor profiles Trump's senior adviser Stephen Miller, and Elaine Welteroth and Phillip Picardi discuss Teen Vogue.
Interesting to see what’s happening at Teen Vogue. The Stephen Miller portion actually went pretty easy on his performance on the Sunday Morning shows this week. Not quite as funny as most episodes, but still interesting and relevant within the overall political environment.

The “Moment of Zen” at the end with Trump shaking hands with Abe was truly hilarious.

📺 The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: February 9, 2017 – Laura Jane Grace

Watched The Daily Show, S2 E63 from Comedy Central, February 9, 2017
The Trump family is accused of using the White House for financial gain, Roy Wood Jr. prepares for Fashion Week and the Grammys, and Laura Jane Grace discusses "Tranny."

Watched Last week’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah episodes

Watched The Daily Show with Trevor Noah from Comedy Central
The Daily Show is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning program that looks at the day's top headlines through a sharp, reality-based lens. Along with the help of The Best F#@king News Team Ever, Trevor Noah covers the biggest news stories in politics, pop culture and more.
SEASON 22, EP 51
JANUARY 20, 2017 – JOY REID
Donald Trump is sworn in as president, Roy Wood Jr. salutes Barack Obama, Desi Lydic tackles parenthood in a new America, and Joy Reid discusses “We Are the Change We Seek.”

SEASON 22, EP 46
JANUARY 12, 2017 – CECILE RICHARDS
The U.S. Ethics Office blasts Donald Trump’s divestment plan, Ben Carson begins his confirmation hearing for HUD secretary, and Cecile Richards discusses Planned Parenthood.

SEASON 22, EP 47
JANUARY 16, 2017 – DAVID FAHRENTHOLD & BRYSHERE GRAY
Donald Trump lashes out at John Lewis, Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold talks about covering the 2016 election, and Bryshere Gray discusses “The New Edition Story.”

SEASON 22, EP 48
JANUARY 17, 2017 – JOHN ZIMMER
President Obama makes last-ditch efforts to protect his legacy, Lewis Black reflects on the lack of star power at Donald Trump’s inauguration, and John Zimmer discusses Lyft.

SEASON 22, EP 49
JANUARY 18, 2017 – SAMANTHA POWER
Secretary of education nominee Betsy DeVos undergoes a harsh Senate hearing, Michelle Wolf examines Donald Trump’s approval rating, and Samantha Power discusses her U.N. role.

A Bad Day at Black Rock America

There have been a growing number of reports [1][2][3][4] this week of creating lists of Americans and immigrants. I’m worried about the long term repercussions these acts will have on not only America’s future but that of the world at large. Though some of these reports contained slightly softer verbiage than Donald Trump’s original campaign statements almost a year to the day last year[5], I can’t help but think that his original statements were closer to his real intent.

Many have likely forgotten about the horrific black eye America already has as a result of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Why would we be contemplating thinking about going down this road a second time? Almost a year ago I wrote a short homage to my friend and WWII veteran Millard Kaufman, who I know would be vehemently against this idea. If you haven’t seen his Academy Award nominated film Bad Day at Black Rock, I recommend you pick it up soon–it’s held up incredibly well since 1955 and is still more than culturally relevant today.

In Memoriam: Millard Kaufman, WWII Veteran and Front for Dalton Trumbo

A crippled character played by Spence Tracy shows us by example how not to cave in to menacing bullies in the John Sturges 1955 MGM classic Bad Day at Black Rock written by Millard Kaufman.
A crippled character played by Spence Tracy shows us by example how not to cave in to menacing bullies in the John Sturges’ 1955 MGM classic Bad Day at Black Rock written by Millard Kaufman.

Even Comedy Central’s The Daily Show ran a snippet of the news with their thoughts:

 

For those who don’t think that senior leadership in America might bend the rules a tad, I also recommend reading my friend Henry James Korn’s reflection of the incident in which Eisenhower expelled him from Johns Hopkins University for a criticism of LBJ during the late 60’s: “Yes, Eisenhower Expelled Me from Johns Hopkins University.”

Yes, Eisenhower expelled me from Johns Hopkins University

In his article, Henry also includes a ten-minute War Relocation Agency propaganda film which is eerily similar to some of what is being proposed now.

Needless to say, much of this type of behavior is on the same incredibly slippery slope that Nazi Germany began on when they began registering Jews in the early part of the last century. When will be learn from the horrific mistakes of the past to do better in the future?

Footnotes

[1]
D. Lind, “Donald Trump’s proposed ‘Muslim registry,’ explained,” Vox, 16-Nov-2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/16/13649764/trump-muslim-register-database. [Accessed: 18-Nov-2016]
[2]
“Trump’s Muslim registry wouldn’t be illegal, constitutional law experts say,” POLITICO, 17-Nov-2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/donald-trump-muslim-registry-constitution-231527. [Accessed: 18-Nov-2016]
[3]
N. Muaddi, “The Bush-era Muslim registry failed. Yet the US could be trying it again,” CNN, 18-Nov-2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/18/politics/nseers-muslim-database-qa-trnd/. [Accessed: 18-Nov-2016]
[4]
M. Rosenberg and J. E. Ainsley, “Immigration hardliner says Trump team preparing plans for wall, mulling Muslim registry,” Reuters, 16-Nov-2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-immigration-idUSKBN13B05C. [Accessed: 18-Nov-2016]
[5]
“Donald Trump says he’d ‘Absolutely’ Require Muslims to Register,” New York Times, 20-Nov-2015. [Online]. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/11/20/donald-trump-says-hed-absolutely-require-muslims-to-register/?_r=0. [Accessed: 18-Nov-2016] [Source]