Colbert and Kimmel comment with comedy on Trump's hush money trial

Happy Flashback Friday! I'll get to today's look back at the 13th year of this blog over the jump after continuing with the main topic of yesterday's Meyers, Colbert, and Kimmel take closer looks at Trump's trial and other news with last night's monologue by Stephen Colbert, Michael Cohen’s Mean Nickname For Trump | Noem Defends Killing Her Puppy | Boeing Sends A Message.

While Donald Trump snoozes in court, his former lawyer Michael Cohen is mocking him on TikTok. Elsewhere, Governor Kristi Noem tried to explain away her puppy murder story, and another Boeing aircraft lost a crucial part mid-flight.

Courtroom drama? In the hands of Colbert and his writers, it's more like courtroom comedy, which makes the news a lot easier to digest. This includes Kristi Noem, who acts like she thinks she's the latest version of Sarah Palin, right down to shooting canines (wolves in the case of Palin) and being the running mate on a Republican presidential ticket. I'll get back to that and Boeing's problems, but I'm moving on to Jimmy Kimmel Made it Into the Trump Trial, Donald "Can't Even Testify" & Crazy Abortion Law Repealed, which didn't bleep out what Michael Cohen called "Naptain America." I guess showing a cable news clip slipped it past the censors.

We are officially part of the record of the People vs Donald Trump, prosecutors entered into evidence a series of text messages between lawyers for Trump and Stormy Daniels about our show, Trump has been encouraging supporters to come to the courthouse and support him and was greeted by a single fan, he is very upset about reports that say he’s been sleeping during the trial, the courtroom sketch artist appears to hate him, today he tried to float the idea that because of the gag order he’s not allowed to testify, he played shows in Wisconsin and Michigan yesterday where he fired up the crowd telling them everything’s a disaster and America is dead, we have a new water pressure edition of Drunk Donald Trump, the state Senate in Arizona finally voted to repeal their antiquated and crazy abortion law from 1864, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem went on Hannity last night to do damage control after she revealed she shot her puppy, and This Week in Unnecessary Censorship.

Kimmel and his writers and editors made up for not bleeping CNN's Jake Tapper with "This Week in Unnecessary Censorship." They should do that to Marjorie Taylor Greene more often.

Speaking of CNN, I'm returning to Stephen's show with his interview of a CNN anchor telling him that “Both Sides Are Framing It Incorrectly” - Laura Coates On Trump’s Hush Money Trial.

CNN Chief Legal Analyst Laura Coates breaks down the arguments on both sides of Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York City, and explains why it’s important for the public to know what really happened. Watch “Laura Coates Live” weeknights on CNN.

That's enough for me to pay attention to Coates. She sounds smart and knowledgeable.

I close this portion above the jump with two of The Late Show's cold opens about the trial, beginning with Trump’s Aggressive New Attorney.

Angry that his lawyer wasn’t tough enough, Donald Trump hired someone much more aggressive.

That's only a slight exaggeration. Trump is in the WWE Hall of Fame and a telegenic lawyer who used to be a wrestler would be right up his alley.

Now last night's cold open, which asked Do You Have Trouble Falling Asleep?



Reach for a Magatonin!
This trial is teaching me to appreciate a good fart joke.

Follow over the jump for the Flashback Friday retrospective of the most active shares from the blog on Instagram and Threads during its 13th year.

Meyers, Colbert, and Kimmel take closer looks at Trump's trial and other news

It's time to follow through on the promise I made at the conclusion of Vox explains 'The lies that sell fast fashion'.

Stay tuned for the return of more timely topics, like Donald Trump's trial in New York. I've been ignoring that and postponing my retrospective of the most read entries featuring late night talk show hosts. It's time to cover both.

That was supposed to happen Tuesday, but I didn't finish grading final exams until dinner time, so I didn't have time then. Better late than never. I begin with Seth Meyers recapping last week's trial highlights in Pecker Gives Damning Testimony in Trump Trial; Noem Faces Backlash for Killing Dog: A Closer Look.

Seth takes a closer look at the prosecution's first witness in Trump's hush money trial confirming in damning testimony that the payments were part of a criminal conspiracy to defraud the electorate and help Trump during the 2016 campaign.

Trump falling asleep in court after years of calling President Biden "Sleepy Joe" and calling news he doesn't like "fake news" after years of suppressing stories he doesn't like isn't just hypocrisy, it's projection. As I first wrote twelve years ago, Projection is the Right's favorite defense mechanism and Trump is demonstrating it over and over again.

Seth returned last night with Sleepy Trump's Lawyers Can't Keep Him Awake in Court; Trump's Chilling Time Interview: A Closer Look.

Seth takes a closer look at Trump's lackeys in right-wing media making him seem like a hero for falling asleep during his New York criminal trial.

Fox News is living down to the nickname Faux Noise and Trump is exemplifying why I created the corn pone fascists label. Yikes!

Stephen Colbert emphasized the trial over other news in his monologue Tuesday night, Trump Judge: Jail May Be Necessary | Students Should Be Allowed To Protest | Blankenship For Senate.

The judge in Trump’s hush money trial threatened to jail the former president for violating his gag order, pro-Palestinian protests continue to ramp up on college campuses, and a Senate candidate from West Virginia is running some bizarre campaign ads.

I'm with Stephen; Trump may not require being jailed for contempt to behave, but it would be nice for the rest of us.

Jimmy Kimmel made my point about Trump projecting explicit in Trump Embarrassed He Keeps Sleeping During Trial & Klan Mom Marjorie Taylor Greene vs Mike Johnson.

Today is the first day of May and once again our nation’s news media can’t believe it, according to a new study of American accents the most attractive one is the Southern accent, Marjorie Taylor Greene is furious because her plan to oust Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House has been foiled, Ted Cruz is co-sponsor of a bill that would make it harder for consumers to get a refund from airlines in the event of delay or cancellation, Naptain America got his day started by asking where Sleepy Joe is, Trump touched down in Waukesha this afternoon in his first big rally since being fined for contempt of court, Wisconsin also got a visit from the Pillow Fairy Mike Lindell, we reveal our new product the MAGA Blaster, and stoners try recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

"Naptain America" — snork! I like it! I'm getting tired of The Former Guy, which even Colbert seems to have stopped calling him.

That's it for today's installment of comedy about Trump's trial. Follow over the jump for the top posts during the 13th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News featuring Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and Jimmy Kimmel making jokes about politics.

'New Zealand Girl Reacts to BOSTON CRUSADERS 2018 | S.O.S.' for a drum corps 'Mayday!' on Wayback Wednesday

A happy drum corps May Day to my readers! While the prediction I made last year that today's post would not feature drum corps maypoles in motion came true, I'm taking advantage of today being Wayback Wednesday to revisit 2018 Boston Crusaders 'SOS' for a drum corps 'Mayday!' Watch Courtney Coulston's New Zealand Girl Reacts to BOSTON CRUSADERS 2018 | S.O.S..


As I wrote in I begin Spooky Season with the 2016 Academy's 'Drum Corpse Bride' for a drum corps Halloween, "I always find Courtney's naive reactions fun to watch. Besides, she's preserving shows that would otherwise disappear from YouTube."

While I'm still ready to embrace May Day as International Workers' Day and showcase corps with themes that match, I'm glad I was able to postpone doing so one more year, thanks to Courtney.

Follow over the jump for the top performing posts on the Crazy Eddie's Motie News Facebook page (if you're on Facebook, please follow), which all featured drum corps and most also celebrated holidays.

Vox explains 'Why US elections only give you two choices'

Change of plans. Instead of "the return of more timely topics," as I promised yesterday, I'm sharing another evergreen video, Vox explaining Why US elections only give you two choices.

We don’t like the two-party system. So why do we have it?
...
America’s two-party system is widely hated. Very few Americans think the two major parties do an adequate job representing us, and most say more parties are needed. But when it comes time to vote, very few of us actually vote for third-party candidates. Often, this is explained as either a failure of will (we’d have third parties if more people would just vote for them), or a conspiracy (the political and media establishments suppress third-party candidates and ideas).

And it’s not that those things aren’t true. But there’s a much simpler explanation, and it’s the very basic rule governing almost every single one of our elections: Only one person can win. If you’re American, that probably sounds utterly reasonable: what the hell other kinds of elections even are there? But the answer is: lots. Winner-take-all elections (also called plurality voting, or “first past the post”) are actually a practice that most advanced democracies left behind long ago — and they’re what keep us from having more political options.

Even if you’re not sold on the need for more parties in the US, though, scratch the surface of “only one person can win” a little and you start to see how it actually produces perverse results within the two-party system as well. It’s a big part of why the political parties have moved farther apart from each other, and it leaves about half of the country without any political representation at all. Watch the video above to see how.

This ties into two of the most read posts in the history of this blog, Vox explains how proportional representation can solve gerrymandering and help minor parties and Update to 'Vox explains how proportional representation can solve gerrymandering and help minor parties,' the second most read entry for the seventh year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, plus minor parties. It's an attempt to nullify or at least bypass Duverger's Law, which Vox described, but didn't name. Tsk, tsk.

That ends April's blogging. Stay tuned for May Day on Wayback Wednesday to begin a new month's blogging.

Vox explains 'The lies that sell fast fashion'

I've written about fast fashion mostly as a tale of the Retail Apocalypse starring Forever 21, although I have mentioned its environmental costs along the way. Vox gave me an opportunity to revisit fast fashion's externalities earlier this month when the channel uploaded The lies that sell fast fashion.

You deserve better than Shein.
...
There are countless articles and videos breaking down the abysmal labor practices, horrifying environmental toll, and overall mountain of waste produced by the fast fashion industry. Activists and even just large swaths of the general public have been raising the alarm about this for well over a decade, but it hasn’t stopped the rise of some of the worst offenders in the industry. For example, the ultra-fast fashion brand Shein has skyrocketed in value over the past five years largely due to their marketing success on TikTok. A lot of us know that fast fashion is bad, but the only way companies like Shein still thrive is if we convince ourselves otherwise and hit “add to cart” anyway. So why do we do it?

The answer is that e-commerce has completely warped our view of what items should cost and how long they should last (this includes and extends to our obsession with Amazon and two-day shipping). We’re moving through trends at an unprecedented pace and it’s doomed to get worse if we don’t adjust our buying habits and learn to slow down. Consumers are being manipulated, but we can do better.

I made a pessimistic assessment five years ago that "as an environmentalist, I probably should be more opposed to fast fashion than I am" and predicted "until Americans, especially young women, change their fashion tastes, they will just buy fast fashion online..." I have become more opposed to fast fashion and Americans have apparently accelerated their acquisition of cheap clothing, a trend being pushed by new chains I hadn't even heard of then, Shein and Temu, and haven't mentioned until now, through a social media platform, TikTok, I wouldn't mention until 2020. Then, I was concerned about TikTok's capacity to monitor users on behalf of China and its ability to misinform, which are why I don't use it, despite its promotion of dance, a phenomenon I can watch on YouTube shorts, thank you very much. I didn't think enough about it as an advertising medium affecting Americans' shopping habits beyond convincing young people to shop local. Now I am. That's another reason to be suspicious of the platform.

That's it for today's more-or-less evergreen post for Earth Month (if TikTok actually is blocked in the U.S., I expect most of its users will migrate to YouTube shorts, including the shopping influencers, so the issues will just move to a new platform). Stay tuned for the return of more timely topics, like Donald Trump's trial in New York. I've been ignoring that and postponing my retrospective of the most read entries featuring late night talk show hosts. It's time to cover both. A topical Throwback Tuesday tomorrow!

Two Marvel movies win superhero categories at the Critics Choice Super Awards for Superhero Day

Happy National Superhero Day! I closed PBS Terra explains 'How Big Business Broke Recycling (And Blamed You)' with a program note and a question.

Stay tuned for a Sunday entertainment feature for National Superhero Day. Superhero winners at the Critics Choice Super Awards Super Awards, anyone?

Since no one objected or proposed another topic, I'm revisiting what I wrote in 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning' and 'The Last of Us' lead nominees at the fourth Critics Choice Super Awards.

This category sets up a matchup between the winner of Best Animated Film and Best Superhero Film at the Saturn Awards, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3. Since Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse won Best Animated Feature at the main [Critics' Choice] awards, I'm predicting it to win here.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse won Best Superhero Movie. I called it! Also, congratulations to the producers, directors, cast, and crew of the movie. To see the acceptance speech, watch SUPER AWARDS "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" WINS Best Super Hero Movie!


I hedged my bets on the next category.

This is a really talented field, but I think the advantage goes to Ayo Edebiri, who swept Critics' Choice, Golden Globes, and Emmys for her role in The Bear. I think that might count for something, even though I'm rooting for Zoe Saldana or Iman Vellani and wouldn't be surprised if Hailee Steinfeld wins as part of a Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse sweep.

I'm pleased to see that Iman Vellani won. While The Marvels didn't earn a nomination for Best Superhero Movie, it didn't walk away empty-handed. Congratulations! I'm looking forward to seeing Vellani on my Saturn Awards ballot later this year for Best Younger Performer in a Film and The Marvels for Best Superhero Film.


I expressed both my uncertainty and my annoyance about the last "superhero" movie category.

The parenthetical comment that "Superhero categories also include Comic Book and Video Game Inspired series" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, as Taron Edgerton earned a nomination for Tetris, which is a thriller about the development of Tetris taking place in the real world, not an adventure in the game world, and The Killer is based on a graphic novel, something I didn't know until I looked it up. Both Edgerton and Fassbender are great actors, and Saturn Award winner Xolo Maridueña should be happy to be nominated along with them. My favorite is Bradley Cooper, and I hope he wins, but I wouldn't be surprised by any of the field winning, including Shameik Moore, who might be part of a Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse sweep.

I'm not surprised to see Fassbender win. As I wrote, he's a great actor. He's also a former Marvel actor, having played young Magneto in the later Fox X-Men movies, so there is still a connection to the two actual Marvel winners.

Follow over the jump for the "superhero" winners on television.

PBS Terra explains 'How Big Business Broke Recycling (And Blamed You)'

I told my readers "I'm sure PBS Terra will upload more in this series for Earth Month. Watch for me to share upcoming episodes here" at the end of For Earth Day, PBS Terra asks 'Stop Saving the Planet?' Change the world instead. As promised, here is the next episode, How Big Business Broke Recycling (And Blamed You).

Recycling has been the gold standard for fighting pollution for decades. But most plastics can’t be recycled and the companies that push for recycling are the ones often generating the most emissions and waste in the first place. Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant looks at how we have been told to “reduce, reuse, recycle” to shift the responsibility from companies to the individual.

This makes up for the unpleasant surprise I wrote about to open 'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver' returns after winning two Emmy Awards with 'A History of Chuck E. Cheese,' a tale of the Retail Apocalypse.

I found that the video I wanted to feature today, Plastic Recycling is a Myth – Here’s How We Fix That, had playback on other sites disabled by PBS Terra. Shoot! I was looking forward to revisiting the plastic questions from Treasures of the Earth: Power.

I ended up examining those questions in PBS NewsHour and SciShow explain the difficulties of recycling plastic and plastic pollution.

The ubiquity of plastic is one of the topics I ask my students in the Worksheet for 'Treasures of the Earth: Power', which I'm showing this week. Here are two of the questions:

15. What uses are there for plastic? Name five uses or products.

The video lists cosmetic cases, chairs, phones, clothes, and toilet seats, or if it doesn't, I'll accept them as answers. The video shows lots more, including bottles and bags.

16. Why is plastic a challenge for disposal?

The video says that plastic doesn't break down and burning it creates greenhouse gases. In the way paper decomposes, it doesn't, although it does break down physically. Students also point out that the sheer variety of plastic complicates recycling. That's the point of the second video above, but it's not part of "Treasures of the Earth: Power." Still, it's true.

Students can also use plastic as an example of some of Commoner's Laws, Everything is connected to everything else, everything must go somewhere (there is no away), and there is no free lunch along with climate change.

This concludes today's episode of stories I tell my students.

Since I plan on recommending this series of videos to my students, it also makes this an episode of blogging as professional development. Yay, I finally got to write the post I wanted in February, when PBS Terra disallowing embedding of the Far Out video frustrated me!

Stay tuned for a Sunday entertainment feature for National Superhero Day. Superhero winners at the Critics Choice Super Awards Super Awards Awards, anyone?

Trees vs. climate change for Arbor Day, a Flashback Friday holiday special

Happy Arbor Day and Flashback Friday! I'm celebrating the original environmental holiday during Earth Month with two videos from PBS Digital about the effectiveness of planting trees to fight climate change followed by a retrospective of the most saved posts on Pinterest. Trust me, the two topics connect.

The first PBS Digital video is Be Smart asking If We Plant 1 TRILLION Trees Can We Stop Climate Change?

Can trees really save us from climate change? For eons, nature has relied on photosynthesis as a big way to keep carbon dioxide levels from getting out of control. But as we have put more carbon into the air, we’ve also cut down many of the forests we need to suck that carbon up. So big tree-planting initiatives like #TeamTrees to the rescue, right? Actually, we need to think bigger. Here’s three ways trees really can help us solve climate change, from a guy who wants to plant a TRILLION trees, to how we might save the forests we’ve got, to scientists hacking biology to make trees even better.

The answer to the question is no, it won't stop climate change by itself, but it will certainly help, along with conserving the trees we still have. As for genetically engineering a more efficient pathway to fix carbon, that's a new one on me, but it fits with the theme of yesterday's Be Smart asks 'Can AI Help Us Talk to Whales?' for Throwback Thursday, using technology to advance science.

That was the optimistic outlook. PBS Terra explaining Why Tree Planting Campaigns Don’t Work takes a more pessimistic perspective.

In 2019, a Turkey tree planting campaign set a world record. Three months later, 90% of those saplings were dead. Planting trees to replace old-growth forests is a common solution, but it typically does not solve the problem. With deforestation causing climate-related disasters, it’s time to take a hard look at reforestation and what we can do to save our forests.

The video's opening serves as an update on deforestation of the Amazon rainforest with news both good and bad. The video also pointed out flaws in the most common methods of reforestation and ways to do it correctly. I hope people pay attention to the suggestions.

Searching for previous posts about Amazon deforestation retrieved 'The Territory' leads nominees for Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking at the 2023 Emmy Awards, which reminded me that I'd never mentioned its Emmy Award.


I wrote "I'm confident about 'The Territory' winning this category" and it did. Congratulations! May it keep the cause of preserving the Amazon rainforest in people's minds.

Follow over the jump for Crazy Eddie's Motie News' year on Pinterest.

Be Smart asks 'Can AI Help Us Talk to Whales?' for Throwback Thursday

Happy Throwback Thursday! Today's retrospective covers the most commented on entries during the blog's 13th year. The post with the most responses last year talked about technology. Hmm, communication using technology — I just watched a video about that, Be Smart asking Can AI Help Us Talk to Whales?

New technology is revolutionizing how we study and protect nature. In this video, we’ll learn how artificial intelligence is being used to decode the sonic landscapes of the ocean - specifically, whale song. That’s right, there may come a day soon where AI allows us to understand and talk to whales. But some scientists are saying: the question may not be CAN we talk to whales, but SHOULD we talk to whales?

Roger Payne and National Geographic's release of "Songs of the Humpback Whale" shows the power of music to not only make people aware of issues, but to change how they think and feel about them. That demonstrates why I write about entertainment as much as I do. Not only is it fun, it's important, too.

Dr. Joe Hanson invited his viewers to watch We're putting a body cam on a blue whale by Planet Wild.

Blue whales are on the brink of extinction. Despite being the biggest animals to ever exist on Earth, they remain a mystery. To protect them, we first need to understand them better.

In our 14th Planet Wild mission, we’re using drones to drop camera robots on whales. Our goal is to find out what a day in the life of a blue whale looks like.

Special thanks to Cascadia Research for providing us with additional footage, taken under NOAA permit to John Calambokidis.

Additional footage by "World of Survival: Humpbacks–the Gentle Giants”, The world of survival show/ TV channel Anglia

First, A.I., now drones. Both show the importance of technology in advancing science.

Follow over the jump for the most commented on entries during the 13th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

'Inside the Messy Battle for the Biggest Swing State of 2024' by The Wall Steet Journal for Wayback Wednesday

Happy Wayback Wednesday! I'm continuing with the Keystone State theme from yesterday's Marching music for the Pennsylvania Primary, The Cadets, Buccaneers, and West Chester University with The Wall Street Journal reporting Inside the Messy Battle for the Biggest Swing State of 2024.

Both President Biden and former President Trump see Pennsylvania as a must-win state in the 2024 presidential election, but both are grappling with party divisions and sagging voter enthusiasm surrounding their rematch.

WSJ's Shelby Holliday traveled across PA to talk to voters, officials and campaign managers to learn how each candidate could win—or lose—the biggest swing state of the 2024 election.

Pennsylvania is important to President Biden because he was born there and it was the state that made him President-elect in 2020. Biden continued to recognize its significance when he made three visits to Pennsylvania in 2022 including one in Philadelphia where he warned about threats to American democracy. The video shows that his campaign is still focused on Pennsylvania.

I didn't write about Donald Trump winning the state in 2016 — I reacted to his win more generally in Kunstler said Americans would elect maniacs — but I did blog about how important the state was for Republicans in FiveThirtyEight on today's primary elections in Pennsylvania and four other states. As The Wall Street Journal's video shows, the Big Lie hasn't lost any of its power with GOP voters.

I plan on writing more about the election in Pennsylvania and the rest of the swing states, especially Michigan. On that note, follow over the jump for a retrospective of the top post about my adopted state during the 13th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.