Sunday Shows Of 2025 Off To Predictably Terrible Start
We watch so you never have to.
New year, same Sunday shows. So, let’s dive right in.
‘90s Kids’ Movie Villain Tom Homan
On CBS’s “Face The Nation,” host Margaret Brennan began her interview with Trump’s incoming “Border Czar” Tom Homan by asking what success would look like during the promised “the largest deportation operation in history,” when deportations are at a record high currently during the Biden Administration.
Whether out of frustration that Brennan broke the “open border” talking point or that he will now not be able to take credit for those deportations when he becomes Border Fuhrer, Homan began complaining.
HOMAN: Well, let's talk about this administration, what they claim is a huge deportation number this year. Actually, if you drill into the numbers, about 80 percent of those numbers are actually Border Patrol arrests that the enforcement operation of ICE processed and moved back across the border. They weren't enforcement arrests. […] So, even though they claim they've got the highest number of deportations, look at those deportations, who actually made those arrests, who actually removed those people, it's not ICE.
Does a deportation done by an agency with another name not taste as sweet to isolationist xenophobes? Does it just not do it for Homan that undocumented people are not being arrested or abused by ICE specifically while still being deported? Because if the goal is immigration enforcement, this should thrill Homan. We guess it’s just not cruel enough for this emotionally developed man.
When Brennan asked if the Trump administration would go after the many industries in this country that hire undocumented workers because they are cheap labor, like construction or farming, Homan seemed to ignore the question.
HOMAN: The — President Trump's been clear, as I've been clear from day one, that the president is going to concentrate on public safety threats and national security threats.
So Trump does not intend to go after companies that employ undocumented workers to depress wages and be able to skirt labor laws? All of this is very confusing, unless the point is the cruelty and the cruelty is the point.
This could also signal to companies that “it’d be a shame if they didn’t comply and suffered some consequences,” if they don’t pay Trump a vig, as illustrated by Pulitzer-winning former Washington Post political cartoonist Ann Telnaes's now-viral cartoon and editorial.
New Mitch McConnell: Less Turtle, More Jellyfish
On NBC’s “Meet The Press,” host Kristen Welker interviewed the incoming Senate Majority Leader, John Thune of South Dakota, for over 20 minutes. When asked about Trump’s proposed mass deportation of everyone undocumented in this country, Thune seemed to be lowering expectations:
THUNE: Is it realistic to deport everybody? I mean, there's a lot of people in this country who are here illegally. But I think we have I -- there have identified already-- and, like I said, anybody who has committed a crime in this country clearly out to be on that list.
If an undocumented person has committed a crime, they are already apprehended and cause no “danger to national security” or “safety.” Much like Republicans (incorrectly) say in response to any modest proposal for gun control: “There are already laws about that.” Thune, whose state’s large agriculture industry would be crippled without undocumented workers, shifts over to the “easiest” low-hanging fruit. His problem is that the Trump administration, and ghouls like Homan, want to abuse that by turning the mere existence of being undocumented in this country into the crime itself (without even going into their wet dreams to eliminate the 14th Amendment).
Using “when everyone is a criminal …” logic is some real Saturday morning cartoon villain shit.
The topic then moved on to Trump possibly pardoning J6 insurrectionists when he takes office. Thune showed he would be as tough on Trump as a shell-less turtle.
THUNE: That's ultimately going to be a decision that President Trump is going to have to make. And, you know, what I'm focused on is the future and not looking in the rearview mirror.
Very courageous. Truly an example for all future Neville Chamberlains.
We’re All Gonna Die
Speaking of political cowardice, we end with Lousiana Senator Bill Cassidy on “Fox News Sunday.”
Guest host Jacqui Heinrich asked Cassidy about the possible confirmation of anti-vaxxer and legendary failson Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Cassidy, while not being as embarrassingly stupid or blatantly partisan as his fellow Louisiana senator John Kennedy (no relation, but clearly a cursed surname) joking during a serious press conference after a mass killing attack on his state, showed he is more than willing to doom us all to go with his party.
CASSIDY: I agree with him [RFK Jr] on some things and disagree on others. The food safety … I think the ultra-possessed foods are a problem. Vaccinations -- he's wrong on.
But will Bill Cassidy will vote for RFK Jr. nonetheless?
Cassidy and the GOP’s new concern for public health is as hollow as the space in RFK Jr’s skull where his brain worm once lived. How do we know? We and other outlets have pointed out how the GOP attacked former First Lady Michelle Obama when she made proposals about eating healthier, less processed foods, to cite one obvious example.
We are old enough to remember (or good enough to search for) this statement a decade ago from Louisiana politicians like Rep. Steve Scalise and Senator Bill Cassidy opposing healthier foods when the proposal was not championed by an elitist old white man.
Spare us the faux concern as you confirm a guy who will “Make Typhoid Great Again.”
Have a week.
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You know what's going to happen if and when Trump's minions manage to drive any significant proportion of immigrants out of the country?
The same thing that happened to the UK when Brexit kicked in, and all of a sudden, all of the Polish, Romanian, etc., holders of EU passports had to skedaddle. Lo and behold, no one was left to drive the trucks, staff the food processing factories, and do the thousands of other poorly paid and low-visibility but vital jobs they'd been doing. Native Britons were not interested. Businessmen were running around with their hair on fire, trying to get labor. It helped fuck up the country's economy for a good long time.
But we're Americans, the greatest, smartest, bestest people in the world, and we never learn from anyone else, anywhere. So here we go.
"Using 'when everyone is a criminal …' logic is some real Saturday morning cartoon villain shit."
True story, one that I may have told here before but that is relevant:
Some jagoff in the fitness room where I live was wearing a "the Founders were felons too" shirt.
I subsequently put a RESIST button on my gym bag.
I know the asshole saw it because I caught (and returned) his glare.
Asshole hasn't been to the fitness room (at least not when I'm there) since...