Comedic round up of the news

This has been a manic week in US politics even by Trump standards, and the comedy shows were hard pressed to cram in all that happened. Both Seth Meyers and Samantha Bee paid close attention to the student walkouts all across the nation is support for real gun control. This clearly has the NRA and Republicans worried because political views are often shaped by one’s experiences as a young adult so they fear losing this generation. Being total reactionaries on women’s, minorities, and LGBT rights was bad enough but did not cause this kind of mass protests.
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Trump seems scared of firing people

Normally the way that someone gets fired is their boss calling them in to their office and telling them directly. Depending on the boss, the words used may be gentle or they may be callous but they are usually done in person, especially if the person being fired is high-ranking in the organization. To fire someone by text or email would be highly unusual and by Twitter would unthinkable.
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Jimmy Kimmel’s excellent Oscar monologue

As usual, I did not watch the Academy Awards ceremony last night. I was glad to read today that Frances McDormand won the Best Actress award for her performance in Three Billboard Outside Ebbing, Missouri along with Sam Rockwell for Best Supporting Actor. I had praised that film and McDormand’s performance before in my review of the film. The host Jimmy Kimmel gave an excellent opening monologue that was both funny and pointed and gave a shout out to the students at Parkland and their March for Our Lives rallies on March 24, although another unknown group has claimed the Mall in Washington DC for that day to film a ‘talent show’..

Here it is.

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The utterly corrupt Trump administration

There was a brief flurry of excitement when it looked like Donald Trump was going against the NRA and the gun lobby and proposing restrictions limiting the easy availability of guns. I did not share that excitement because I felt it was only a matter of time before Trump reversed himself and went back into the arms of the lobby and his gun nut supporters. And sure enough, that reversal happened the very next day, after a meeting with a top NRA official.
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A handy alert system

I wrote before about how to become more aware that you are about to say something obnoxious so that you can avoid doing so. But if you happen to be the kind of person who cannot help himself, reader flex sent me this clip from a Canadian sketch comedy show with comedian Rick Mercer about an alert system that warns people around you that you are going to give them your opinion even if it is not wanted.