July 23, 2019

The Daily Show: "Send Her Back" & Trump's Divisive 2020 Strategy - Between the Scenes

“Trump’s plan is to paint The Squad as the most un-American people possible… to appeal to that portion of white voters who determined the electoral college in the last election and say, ‘I’m with you, not these people.’”

July 23, 2019

The Daily Show: Video Surfaces of Trump Partying with Jeffrey Epstein

After footage emerges of Donald Trump partying with alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in 1992, Michael Kosta analyzes how bad this could be for the president.

July 22, 2019

Trump Denies Being at North Carolina Rally

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump attempted to further distance himself from a racist chant shouted at a North Carolina campaign rally earlier this week by denying that he had attended the rally.

“I wasn’t there,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday. “If I had been there, you can be sure I would have done everything I could to stop them from chanting.”

Trump said that he was furious that thousands of people had apparently assembled in North Carolina to chant racist things when he was nowhere near the rally and thus totally incapable of intervening.

“It’s the kind of thing I would have been disgusted by if I had been there to hear it,” he said. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t there.”

On Capitol Hill, Senator Lindsey Graham lashed out at reporters for persistently claiming that Trump had, in fact, attended the rally. “If he says he wasn’t there, then, damn it, he wasn’t there,” a visibly furious Graham said. “How do you people sleep at night?”


Short article, no more at link: https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-denies-being-at-north-carolina-rally




Photograph by Madeline Gray / Bloomberg / Getty

July 22, 2019

Chevron Has Spilled 800,000 Gallons of Crude Oil and Water Into a California Canyon Since May

California officials ordered Chevron Friday "to take all measures" to stop a release that has spilled around 800,000 gallons of water and crude oil into a dry creek bed in Kern County, KQED reported.

The order, issued by the new acting head of the state's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) Jason Marshall, also said the fossil fuel company had not done enough to stop the spills that had begun May 10. The order came a day after California Gov. Gavin Newsom fired former DOGGR head Ken Harris after a significant rise in fracking permits.

"The Chevron spill clearly shows that California needs stronger climate leadership from the governor," Greenpeace USA Executive Director Annie Leonard said in a statement reported by KQED. "Oil and gas infrastructure will never be free from spills and leaks or from spewing climate pollution. We face a growing public health crisis and climate emergency stoked by rampant oil and gas development."

DOGGR had initially issued Chevron with an order of violation and ordered it to stop some extraction in the area. Friday's order upped the ante by mandating the company completely stop the releases and take steps to prevent future ones.

"Chevron takes these matters seriously," the company said in a statement Saturday. "We will review the order and continue working in a collaborative manner with the involved agencies."

Officials began Friday to clean the spill, The Associated Press reported, which is the largest of California's recent oil spills.


Read more: https://www.ecowatch.com/chevron-spilled-crude-oil-and-water-california-2639195275.html



In this May 10 photo oil flows at a Chevron oil field in Kern County, California. California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Office of Spill Prevention and Response

July 22, 2019

Babies Born Near Oil and Gas Wells 70% More Likely to Have Congenital Heart Defects, New Study Shows

Babies Born Near Oil and Gas Wells Are Up to 70% More Likely to Have Congenital Heart Defects, New Study Shows

Researchers at the University of Colorado studied pregnant women who are among the 17 million Americans living within a mile from an active oil or gas well

Proximity to oil and gas sites makes pregnant mothers up to 70 percent more likely to give birth to a baby with congenital heart defects, according to a new study.

Led by Dr. Lisa McKenzie at the University of Colorado, researchers found that the chemicals released from oil and gas wells can have serious and potentially fatal effects on babies born to mothers who live within a mile of an active well site—as about 17 million Americans do.

The researchers studied more than 3,000 newborns who were born in Colorado between 2005 and 2011. The state is home to about 60,000 fracking sites, according to the grassroots group Colorado Rising. In areas with the highest intensity of oil and gas extraction activity, mothers were 40 to 70 percent more likely to give birth to babies with congenital heart defects (CHDs).

"We observed more children were being born with a congenital heart defect in areas with the highest intensity of oil and gas well activity," said McKenzie in a statement.

The study was more precise than previous reports about the link between oil and gas extraction and CHDs. The researchers studied families in which the pregnant mother lived near an active oil or gas well up to the second month of pregnancy, when fetal cardiac development takes place.

They also estimated the level of intensity of the oil and gas activity, determined exactly how close the pregnant mothers lived to the well sites, and ensured there were no other significant air pollution sources which could skew their results.


Read more: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/19/babies-born-near-oil-and-gas-wells-are-70-more-likely-have-congenital-heart-defects



"Looking at where mothers lived immediately before pregnancy and during the first critical weeks after conception and what was going on at nearby fracking wells, researchers found startling patterns," said public health advocate Dr. Sandra Steingraber. (Photo: J. Pat Carter/Getty Images)

July 20, 2019

Stephen Colbert: Guest John Oliver

John Oliver Got To Meet Beyoncé... Kind Of



John Oliver is Zazu in the new 'Lion King' movie and he was intimidated by just the thought of one day being in the same photo as Beyoncé.




John Oliver Describes Boris Johnson, England's Very Own Trump



John Oliver gives Stephen an update on English politics and describes Boris Johnson, England's very own Trump.




John Oliver Has Trouble Describing What Gives Him Hope



All kidding aside, John Oliver confides to Stephen Colbert that he finds hope for these dark times when he sees kids being nice to each other.

July 20, 2019

Stephen Colbert - Monologue and Opening - 7/19/19

Cardi B Wants Her Fans To 'Vote For Daddy Bernie'



Thanks to Cardi B, Bernie Sanders now has a new supporter and a new nickname.




Why Presidential Candidates Are Staying Off FaceApp



Stephen put himself into the FaceApp old age filter. But what happens to that photo next?




A Statement From Area 51's Spokesperson



The spokesperson from Area 51 wants to assure Americans that there's nothing to see here.

July 20, 2019

Canadian platform spills 3,200 gallons of oil-mix into Atlantic

An oil platform off the Canadian island of Newfoundland spilled nearly 3,200 gallons of an oil-water mix into the Atlantic Ocean, and efforts were underway to minimize the environmental impact, ExxonMobil said Thursday.

The spill occurred a day earlier during "routine activities related to removing water" from a platform storage cell, the American oil giant said earlier.

"The estimated volume of oil released from the Hibernia platform was 75 barrels of oil, equivalent to approximately 12,000 liters (3,170 gallons)," according to aerial surveillance, the Hibernia Management and Development Company (HMDC) said in a statement released by ExxonMobil.

That area of the North Atlantic is rich in marine life, including species of whales, but HMDC said "no wildlife has been observed in the area" by specialists who were sent out.

"We're disappointed the discharge occurred, but we are working diligently to minimize impacts on the environment," the statement quoted Scott Sandlin, HMDC's president, as saying.

On Wednesday the company said it temporarily shut the oil platform after discovering the oil-water spill into the ocean.


Read more: https://www.afp.com/en/news/826/canadian-platform-spills-3200-gallons-oil-mix-atlantic-doc-1iw8vy1



An iceberg floats off Ferryland, Newfoundland in 2017 © Drew Angerer

July 20, 2019

Seth Meyers: Guest Rep. Hakeem Jeffries Wants His Republican Colleagues to Put Country Before Party

Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY-8) talks about Brooklyn, responds to President Trump’s comments on Rep. Ilhan Omar and shares what unifies Democrats in the House of Representatives.




Rep. Hakeem Jeffries on Robert Mueller, Impeachment and Mitch McConnell



Representative Hakeem Jeffries talks about the House Democrats’ path toward impeaching President Trump and working with a Senate controlled by Mitch McConnell.

July 20, 2019

Seth Meyers: Patriotic Singing Group Responds to Trump's "Go Back to Your Country" Comments

Amber Ruffin and the Go Back to Your Country Girls perform their hit song about people telling them to go back to their country despite them all being American citizens.