Brain Trust Live

BTL #132 - SHUTDOWN, THE REMIX - 11/17/14

In Which We Discuss:

1. Obama enters a “gives no fucks” zone and promises executive action on #Immigration, his support for #NetNeutrality, and a major climate deal with #China.  Let the lame duck games begin!

2. The GOP’s only strategy is the one thing they strategized to not do again.  All hail #shutdown2015, the remix.

3. Centrists and Liberals are about to throw down Tea Party style as Democrats reckon with how to not get shitstomped in future elections.

4. Still don’t have healthcare?  What are you thinking?!  (Also, open enrollment is in session!  You could totally fix this!)

5. ISIS still in the business of producing exceptionally long, disgusting videos.  We’re starting to doubt their much-touted social media savvy.  16 minutes is too long, guys!

6. Well we landed on a comet.  (Yay?)  But besides causing a real #shirtstorm, we might not have accomplished much.  Turns out that sunlight is a really important ingredient in launching a successful solar energy space probe.

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BTL #129 - IT KNOWS WHERE YOU LIVE - 10/27/14

In Which We Discuss:

1. Another school shooting, but instead of gun control, lets talk about EBOLA!  It knows where you live!

2. Alaskan pollsters just can’t know who lives in Alaska and how to reach them.  Hopefully next year’s races won’t be so close and they can get back to their real love: drunken limo brawling.

3. Fearing a repeat of Bush-Clinton, Liz Warren is not not running for president.  She is instead aware of the many “possibilities that the future might bring.”

4. In military tactical news, man on man massage is how the terrorists win.

5. Every once in a while, reality stars are forced to live in reality.  RIP Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.

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BTL #128 - SOCIAL EXPERIMENTS - 10/21/14

In Which We Discuss:

1. If @LenaDunham’s book and Lila Nordstrom’s memory are any any guide, mock slavery social experiments were how history got taught to a generation of NYC kids in the 90s.

2. Newly appointed Ebola czar is not the czar John McCain would have picked if he was in favor of appointing czars which he’s not so stop asking him about it.

3. U.S. practices favorite kind of armchair diplomacy - air-dropping “lethal aid” on rebels with ambiguous goals.

4. Politico poll proves that it’s easy to be panicked about everything when you know nothing about anything.

5. This week in #HillaryPillory  - Thought-crime strikes again, this time care of @Harpers 

6. #SCOTUS faces their biggest gender divide yet...and not over gender issues.  #VoterID

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BTL #127 - ARMED WITH A SANDWICH - 10/13/14

In Which We Discuss:

1. New revelations in the case of #PalinBrawl2014.  Apparently the Palins rented that stretch hummer just to drunkenly crash a stranger’s birthday party.

2. As of this week, Ebola is a disease you can get without having gone to Liberia or Sierra Leone.  Time to stop making out with strangers!

3. We know the Middle East is confusing, but are we sure we’ve gotten our geography right with the whole ISIS airstrike campaign?

4. St. Louis cops and residents disagree on whether you can be armed with a deadly sandwich.

5. This week in Senate election news, Independent candidates are rousing the electorate’s weirdest rabble.

6.  Dick Morris is still in the business of making totally wacko, inaccurate predictions.

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BTL #126 - DISCOMFORT SAGA - 10/6/14

In Which We Discuss:

1. You might as well continue to peddle your crazy Ebola conspiracy theory.  It’s certainly not going to get unproven this week.

2. Teenager-led Hong Kong pro-democracy rallies are the most mature thing that’s happening in Chinese politics right now.

3. In the midst of the Dear Leader “discomfort” saga of 2014, three senior North Korean officials took a journey to the land of the Choco-Pie for a weekend of cookie gluttony and peace talks.

4. Secret Service still roughly as capable as Lila’s last run-in with them would suggest

5. Mitt Romney continues to “not” run for President by being in Iowa and stumping with wingnut conspiracy theorist Joni Ernst.

6. Russian bank hackers might have ties to the Russian government, which might be the most Russian story ever told.

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BTL #125 - TOWNS WITH DOORS - 9/29/14

In Which We Discuss:

1. A couple of ISIS bombings and Republicans are already excited about the prospect of boots on the ground in unnecessary war.

2. Thanks to Senate discord, Eric Holder’s resignation might end up just being for show.

3. After Obama’s fake #lattesalute gaffe, how long will we have to wait for a pumpkin spice latte salute campaign from Starbucks (#PSL).

4. The struggle is real for would-be murderers who just happen to be Muslim.  It’s hard to be notorious when Al Qaeda gets all the credit for your crimes. 

5. Value Voters can’t decide whether gay marriage is just boring or a scourge on society, but they all seem to know who Ben Carson is.

6. Self-appointed Real-Life Disney Princess sues Disney for stealing her tale of having a sister and living in a village with doors.

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BTL #124 - WATCH OUT WORLD - 8/22/14

In Which We Discuss:

1. What do Ban Ki Moon, Bernie Sanders, and Sting all have in common?  They all went a’ climate marching this weekend!

2. We finally figured out what it takes to make GOP-ers fund the government: war resolutions.  Watch out world!

3. In Obamacare news, despite GOP scare-mongering, people can be trusted to pay for products they’ve purchased, just like has always worked in the past.  Hooray capitalism!

4. Secret Service combat training and sniper rifles are not enough to stop one Texas man with an important message about the sci-fi apocalypse

5. J.K. Rowling wins the day in an uber-expensive campaign against two obese Scottish lottery winners looking to buy a nation

6. Shonda Rhimes takes on the New York Times TV critic over a super un-clever play on words

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BTL #123 - LIPSTICK ON A TRACK - 9/15/14

In Which We Discuss:

1. The Palin family’s extracurriculars prove that you can put lipstick on a drunk shirtless man giving the finger to everybody, but it’s still a Track Palin

2. The US may or may not be at war with ISIS, but it’s definitely at war with itself over foreign policy semantics

3. Left-wing “money for schools, not for war” demand takes on bizarrely literal meaning

4. America learns an important lesson: refusing to acknowledge a political opponent named Zephyr Teachout is a fool’s errand

5. Hillary Clinton proves she’s running for president by pretending to believe “steak frys” are a real thing

6. CNN was right all along- you definitely will die of ebola

7. Like your 13 year-old cousin, Mark Sanford breaks up with his girlfriend on Facebook.

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BTL # 122 - FAKE FRY - 8/25/14

In Which We Discuss:

1. Obama administration casually wonders if we should stop arming our local police forces with tanks.  They’ll look into it...

2. ISIS delusionally believes they might take over India and, hell, why now throw in Saudi Arabia too?

3. #HillaryPillory : In the face of challenges from “fringe isolationist” Rand Paul, DNC assures Americans that we will definitely go to war if Hillary is elected.  Whew!

4. Hillary Clinton to headline the Harkin “steak fry,” a kind of “fry” that is mysterious to even born-and-bred Iowan Brent Thornburg.  

5. Unsurprisingly, a MN anti-gay crusader and GOP congressional candidate knows way too much about gay sex.

6. Updates on all of the most important pop culture events of the week: #Jessie Williams, #GreysAnatomy, #TaylorSwift, #MichaelSam, #IceBucketChallenge and more!

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BTL # 121 - HILARIOUS DRUNK PEOPLE - 8/18/14

In Which We Discuss:

1.  RIP Robin Williams.  Your death is at least bringing attention to the dangers of mental illness, which is something even repeated tragic school shootings couldn’t.

2. Ferguson, MO is just the latest in a series of war-torn regions that the American military, ie. a municipal police force, is having to “save” via ruthless military intervention.

3. Rick Perry really doesn’t like hilarious drunk people, is obviously no fun.

4. Nouri al-Maliki is so over it, realizes that fixing Iraq will require somebody with a desire to do so.  

5. Do not even think about nominating us for the ice bucket challenge.  We mean it.

6. As if the fear of your flight just disappearing into thin air isn’t enough, we now have proof that armless pilots are captaining planes.  

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