Note: The first episode shown during the Third Quarter 2015 was a rerun of #700 on June 22, 2015.
Episode #704: Probably Some Issues With the Rights
First Broadcast: 6/29/15
Accidental Repeat: 7/6/15 MNN showed this episode even though Episode #705 had been submitted on time.
The Confederate flag, one of the last racist holdovers from a war that ended 150 years ago, may have finally reached a tipping point with the American public, as businesses and governmental bodies across the nation stumble over each other to remove the flag from our collective sight. Good riddance, I say. Why continue to display a flag that's synonymous with slavery? We move from there to Jon Moritsugu, the director of Der Elvis and Terminal USA, among many other films. If you can see his work anywhere, I recommend you take the chance to do so. And Jurassic World raked in $1 billion in box office in two weeks! Jeez louise, that's setting the bar a bit high, isn't it? Time will tell, I guess.
Episode #705: Good News, Everyone!
Attempted First Broadcast: 7/6/15 MNN showed Episode #704 instead.
First Actual Broadcast: 7/13/15
Unintended Repeat: 9/14/15 MNN was supposed to show Episode #711 instead.
There was such an abundance of positive news this past week, that we couldn't even fit it all into the episode. First, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that people had a right to same-sex marriage throughout the entire United States. This followed the Supreme Court decision in King v. Burwell, which ruled that the Affordable Care Act did allow the federal government to assist people in states where state-run health care exchanges did not exist. Only a few days later, New York State officially banned fracking within its borders, citing potential dangers to "land, air, water, natural resources and potential significant public health impacts that cannot be adequately mitigated." More locally, New York City's Rent Guidelines Board voted to actually freeze rents for one-year leases of rent-stabilized apartments. And, the New York City Council approved a budget "that included $1.4 million to help pay for prisoners facing bails of up to $2,000", which should prevent a lot of people from going to jail just for being too poor to afford bail. I didn't even get to mention Bree Newsome taking down the Confederate flag from in front of the South Carolina state house, or the plans for the U.S. and Cuba to re-open embassies in each other's countries as they restore their diplomatic relations! More weeks like this one, please!
Episode #706: Velociraptor School
First Broadcast: 7/20/15
Repeated: 9/7/15, 6/27/16
Jurassic World and Inside Out quickly became tops at the box office! However, even though Jurassic World is the fourth entry in the Jurassic Park franchise, is it actually the most retrograde part of the series? My instinct says "yes," so we discuss that--naturally.
Episode #707: Show Your Colorful Fractals
First Broadcast: 8/3/15
Repeated: 11/2/15
Tim Leary, his LP, "virtual reality" from back in the day and today. LSD and its possible beneficial effects, and Steve Allen brush through our thoughts this week. It's all over the place, man!
Episode #708: In The Aftermath
First Broadcast: 8/10/15
We taped this episode before the Republican debate on Fox News on August 6th, so we couldn't talk about that. We also taped before the last episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart aired on the same night, so we couldn't talk about that either. Instead, we talked about all the things we didn't like about Terminator Genisys, which was the worst movie we had seen this year, up to that point. Something tells me we'll be talking about an even worse film next week...
Episode #709: Whole Body Affair
First Broadcast: 8/24/15
Topless women! In Times Square! Why do so many people want to put a stop to this? Why was no one concerned about The Naked Cowboy or the creepy Elmos for years, but as soon as women start showing their boobs it becomes a crisis? Why do Republicans want to eliminate the 13th Amendment? Donald Trump said in a CNN interview, "I'm gonna make our country rich and I'm gonna make our country great." Does he not know that the United States is already the second richest nation on earth based on three different rankings? In the same interview, Trump also said, "I would build up our military so strong, so powerful that nobody will mess with us." Does he not know that the United States already has the most powerful military on earth, with a budget larger than the military budgets of the next 10 largest militaries combined? I have even more questions, but there's not enough time!
Episode #710: All's Forgiven
First Broadcast: 8/31/15
We continue our discussion about the desnudas in Times Square, and wonder if Mayor de Blasio was talking out of his ass when he said he was setting up a "task force" to investigate them, and if he really meant to say that the NYPD was going to actively harass these women to intimidate them from being out in public? If he truly wanted an investigation, why didn't he just approach these women and talk to them, like Gothamist did? Is it possible that he might have reached the same conclusion that a New York Post reporter arrived at, namely "I realize the fight against the painted ladies is deeply sexist"? We then wonder what's up with Governor Cuomo; specifically, why did he approve almost $200 million in state funds and subsidies to General Electric when it still hasn't finished cleaning up all the PCBs it dumped into the Hudson River over the course of three decades? Feels like there's even more to say, but the episode can only be so long, you know.
Episode #711: That's A Thing
Attempted First Broadcast: 9/14/15 MNN showed Episode #705 instead.
Actual First Broadcast: 9/21/15
New York City is going to require chain restaurants to make it easier to tell when a dish on the menu contains "more than the recommended daily limit of 2,300 milligrams of sodium"! Apple has unveiled a new, larger iPad (and another iPhone)! I still don't know why conservatives don't want poor people to eat fish! There's probably more where that came from, but I can't think of what it was supposed to be...