SNL

-by Joseph Mamét So one thing I haven't seen teased out or talked about at all is, if the President has such serious concerns with what the Bidens did in the Ukraine, why didn't he ask his own investigative services like, for example, the FBI, to look into it? Why let a country we know is corrupt lead the way? And why isn't anyone asking that question?

Andy Paley is a very old friend, a singer, songwriter and producer who has worked with Madonna, Brian Wilson, kd lang, John Wesley Harding, Jerry Lee Lewis, NRBQ, SpongeBob, Jonathan Richman, Elton John, Brenda Lee, Chris Isaak, the Mighty Lemon Drops, Nasa and...

SCAM-ALERTElizabeth Warren was in tiny Kermit, West Virginia yesterday, where she and her message were warmly received. The media dubbed it Trump Country. Politico's story headed it like this: Trump backers applaud Warren in heart of MAGA country. And it is true that Mingo County voters went strongly for Trump in November of 2016.

Friday evening, Bill Maher did what you would expect Bill Maher to do-- excused Joe Biden's behavior, with some cute jokes ("his hands have been part of an exploratory committee for decades"). Although he considers the whole #MeToo thing "a little nitpicky," he did acknowledge that "of course, no one likes to be touched unwantingly and women get a lot more of that than men but..." Yes, but. One of the best-- and most productive-- members of my senior management team at one of the companies I ran would go a little further than Biden did.

On Saturday, while Bernie was kicking off his 2020 campaign with a speech of substance, hope and love in Brooklyn, Trump was delivering a hateful scorched-earth address to the far right radical fringe of American politics, "calling the Russia investigation 'bullshit,' adopting a southern accent to mock his former attorney general, and asserting that some members of Congress 'hate our country.'"

by NoahRepublicans have been whining for days about Alec Baldwin's dead on accurate portrayal of Crazy Donnie's recent rambling Rose Garden presser or whatever it was. Tough shit. If they didn't want people laughing at them and their president, they shouldn't have chosen to run a joke as their best candidate. Baldwin didn't even need to act, just as SNL's writers didn't even have to write the skit. Making fun of Trump is easy.

Adam Schiff was on CNN yesterday, questioning questioning congressional Republicans' devotion to Congress as an institution (and the U.S. Constitution) in light of Trump's fake national emergency. "It will not be a separation of powers any more," he said, "just a separation of parties. So this is going to be a moment of truth for my GOP colleagues." When Republicans go on TV to discuss arguments they can't win-- like Trump's blatant lies about this or that or the other and all of the above-- they gravitate to their safe space: Trump TV.

What would Saturday Night Live have done for the last two years without Señor Trumpanzee? The media appears to need him. But what's scary to me is that in some sick way, we all seem to have needed him. How much time do you spend talking about him with friends and family? How are we going to get back to normal? I wonder if Bernie has a plan. I should ask. I'm going to.Oh, yeah... and Trump certainly, absolutely needs the media too: the Other, the scapegoat, the easy target. Trump's tweets this morning were better ads for the show than anything could have bought.

photo by David KeithThis morning after being asked by George Stephanopolous on “This Week if he'd cooperate with Mueller's investigation, this was Roger Stone's response: "You know, that’s a question I would have to... I have to determine after my attorneys have some discussion. If there’s wrongdoing by other people in the campaign that I know about, which I know of none, but if there is I would certainly testify honestly.

Friday, Michael Bloomberg was campaigning in front of the Democratic Business Council of Northern Virginia when he assailed Señor Trumpanzee for what he called "a complete failure of presidential leadership" and "totally incompetent management." Addressing the Trump-McConnell shutdown, he added that "The whole episode really is a cynical, political stunt, and, unfortunately, we’re the ones paying the price.