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This week... Henry Kissinger died at age 100. George Santos was expelled from the US House of Representatives for ethics violations. And Now: People On TV Talk About AI The Only Way They Know How (in terms of the Terminator movies). Main story: on organ and body donations, organs for medical use, and bodies for scientific use. Organ donations are wildly popular, with 42,000 yearly transplants, but with a waiting list of over 100,000 people, and with 17 people dying every day waiting for a transplant. Are there problems with the systems set up to handle organ and body donations and where they go? And could there be ways in which rich people manage to jump the line for a transplant? Hint: yes. On Youtube (32 minutes). [more inside]
posted by JHarris on Dec 6, 2023 - 10 comments

Civil war continues in Vietnam as President Richard Nixon resigns. After North Vietnamese troops regain control of Saigon and the war ends, people from all sides search for reconciliation. [more inside]
posted by cashman on Oct 14, 2017 - 7 comments

The South Vietnamese fight on their own, succumbing to terrible losses in Laos. After he is reelected, President Richard Nixon strikes a peace deal with Hanoi that sees the release of American prisoners of war. [more inside]
posted by cashman on Oct 13, 2017 - 0 comments

With morale plummeting in Vietnam, President Nixon begins withdrawing American troops. As news breaks of an unthinkable massacre committed by American soldiers, the public debates the rectitude of the war, while an incursion into Cambodia reignites antiwar protests with tragic consequences at Kent State University.
posted by dnash on Sep 26, 2017 - 4 comments

Public support for the war declines, and American men of draft age face difficult decisions and wrenching moral choices. After police battle with demonstrators in the streets of Chicago, Richard Nixon wins the presidency, promising law and order at home and peace overseas. In Vietnam, the war goes on and soldiers on all sides witness terrible savagery and unflinching courage.
posted by homunculus on Sep 25, 2017 - 8 comments

Week of 10/23:

• The final debate of the election, and some highlights of awful Trump statements made during it, particularly his promise to keep us "in suspense" as to whether he'd accept a loss or not. Clinton and Trump were also both present at the Al Smith dinner in New York, where Trump spoke, and bombed. Henry Kissinger's reaction to Trump's speech: "Dis is not good." At the end, in order to allow Trump to save face should he lose the election, Oliver makes a bet with Trump on-air: he will bet Trump that he wins the elction, with the stakes being Oliver's Emmy award statuette.
• And Now: You'll Never Guess What Christ Matthews' Favorite Movie Is
• Main story: The rise of addictive opioid prescription pain killers (Oxycontin, Vicodin, Percocet), resulting in over 30,000 overdose deaths a year, and actively promoted, predictably, by the pharmaceutical industry. YouTube (19m)
• People Who Somehow Got Elected: US Representative from Wisconsin's 6th District Glenn Grothman.

Bonus! If you were as enchanted by that guy with the shocked expression in the Al Smith dinner segment as I was, here he is in animated GIF form! [more inside]
posted by JHarris on Nov 6, 2016 - 2 comments