Jon Stewart on Trump’s sweeping bill: ‘What is Ice going to do when they have real money?’
Late-night hosts delve into Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” and consider his UFC proposal for next Independence Day.Jon Stewart returned to The Daily Show following the Fourth of July holiday in the US, during which Congress and Trump passed the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”.The legislation will, among other things, cut $930bn from the Medicaid budget, thus putting 11 million at risk of losing their health insurance, end Biden-era green energy credits and cut funding for 3 million kids’ school lunches.“It’s a lot of painful cuts on a lot of vulnerable populations,” Stewart summarized on Monday’s Daily Show.“But, to be fair, at least America will finally make a dent on the deficit.
” Well, not quite – Stewart then played a news clip tallying the bill’s increase of $3.4tn to the deficit.“What the fuck?” he exclaimed.“You somehow managed to severely cut the safety net and expand the deficit.That’s impressive.
That’s one of those, ‘Hey man, how did you gain all that weight?’ ‘Ozempic.’ That’s something that’s hard to do!”“So even though some of our nation’s most vulnerable are taking a pay cut, fear not,” he continued.“Other people are getting a raise.” The new law includes $150bn more for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).“Are you telling me all this crazy shit that has been happening is broke Ice?” Stewart wondered, referring to the raids in Los Angeles that garnered widespread protests.
“What is Ice going to do when they have real money?”Though the new law represents what Stewart called a “victory for Maga”, it also encapsulates “a ton of general Washington bullshittery”.For instance, “political hypocrisy”.“This bill was 970 pages,” Stewart explained.“They jammed it through with barely any time to read it.How did Republicans feel about that when Democrats did it?” Stewart queued up several clips of Republican politicians criticizing Democrats for doing the same thing.
“When it happens to them, it’s shoving it down their throats.It’s an outrage,” he said.“But when it’s for Republicans it’s just, ‘Come on, America.Relax the glottis.Breathe through your nose.
It will all be over soon.’”Furthermore, the cuts rely on “this lazy, bullshit narrative that our finances are screwed because of how comfortable we have made it for the poor”, Stewart fumed.“The problem in our country isn’t the sliver of able-bodied people that are somehow coasting on the unearned medical coverage they may or may not use, but the millions and millions of people in this country who work fucking full-time jobs and still need food and medical assistance! That’s the system that’s broken! Fix that system!”In sum, “this bill is the most fucked-up performance review our country could ever deliver”, Stewart concluded.“It’s the government sitting us all down and telling us where we’ve been irresponsible with the spending.”“Blaming migrants and the able-bodied poor is why Trump won this election,” he added.
But “a system where working people struggle so much is why [Zohran] Mamdani won his election” in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York,“And for all the people who are worried about Mamdani’s socialist tendencies, guess what? He’s the best-case scenario because this system is not sustainable,And if this doesn’t change, there’s gonna be more drastic action,”And on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Anthony Anderson filled in for Kimmel as he continued his annual summer break from hosting duties,Anderson acknowledged the Fourth of July, for which there is “one true way to celebrate independence: eating 10,000 calories in a single sitting, then blowing your dick off with a firecracker”.
“Speaking of dicks,” he added, “Donald Trump was in the White House this weekend,” where he anticipated next year’s celebrations – for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence – “in the biggest and dumbest way possible”,Trump claimed that he would bring a UFC fight to the grounds of the White House for a “full fight, like 25,000 people”,“Yes UFC, which stands for ‘U fucking crazy?!’” Anderson laughed,But he actually agreed with Trump,“There should be a UFC fight at the White House – between Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” he quipped.
“Golf Clubber Lang v the Ketamine Machine, bitch-slapping each other in the Octagon.Who’s with me?”
UK government’s deal with Google ‘dangerously naive’, say campaigners
Google has agreed a sweeping deal with the UK government to provide free technology to the public sector from the NHS to local councils– a move campaigners have called “dangerously naive”.The US company will be asked to “upskill” tens of thousands of civil servants in technology, including in using artificial intelligence, as part of an agreement that will not require the government to pay. It is considered in Whitehall to be giving Google “a foot in the door” as the digitisation of public services accelerates.However, the agreement prompted concerns about the precariousness of UK public data potentially being held on US servers amid the unpredictable leadership of Donald Trump.The Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said Google Cloud, which provides databases, machine learning and computing power, had “agreed to work with the UK government in helping public services use advanced tech to shake off decades old ‘ball and chain’ legacy contracts which leave essential services vulnerable to cyber-attack”
Linda Yaccarino stepping down as CEO of Elon Musk’s X
The CEO of X, Elon Musk’s social network, announced on Wednesday she would resign.“After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of 𝕏,” Linda Yaccarino wrote.Musk replied to her tweet: “Thank you for your contributions.”The outgoing CEO said, “When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App
Nvidia becomes first company to reach $4tn in market value
Chipmaker Nvidia became the first public company in history to scale a $4tn market value on Wednesday as its stock price continues a years-long stratospheric rise.Shares of the top chip designer rose roughly 2.4% to $164, benefiting from the ongoing surge in demand for artificial intelligence technologies. Nvidia’s chips and associated software are considered world leaders for building artificial intelligence products.Nvidia achieved a $1tn market value for the first time back in June 2023 and the surge continued unabated with its market value – the total value of its shares – more than tripling in about a year, faster than Apple and Microsoft, the only other US firms with a market value of more than $3tn
Sony WH-1000XM6 review: raising the bar for noise-cancelling headphones
Sony’s latest top-of-the-range Bluetooth headphones seek to reclaim the throne for the best noise cancellers money can buy with changes inside and out.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The Sony 1000X series has long featured some of the best noise cancelling you can buy and has been locked in a battle with rival Bose for the top spot
Futurist Adam Dorr on how robots will take our jobs: ‘We don’t have long to get ready – it’s going to be tumultuous’
If Adam Dorr is correct, robots and artificial intelligence will dominate the global economy within a generation and put virtually the entire human race out of a job. The social scientist doubles up as a futurist and has a stark vision of the scale, speed and unstoppability of a technological transformation that he says will replace virtually all human labour within 20 years.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more
Musk’s AI firm forced to delete posts praising Hitler from Grok chatbot
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence firm xAI has deleted “inappropriate” posts on X after the company’s chatbot, Grok, began praising Adolf Hitler, referring to itself as MechaHitler and making antisemitic comments in response to user queries.In some now-deleted posts, it referred to a person with a common Jewish surname as someone who was “celebrating the tragic deaths of white kids” in the Texas floods as “future fascists”.“Classic case of hate dressed as activism – and that surname? Every damn time, as they say,” the chatbot commented.In another post it said, “Hitler would have called it out and crushed it.”The Guardian has been unable to confirm if the account that was being referred to belonged to a real person or not and media reports suggest it has now been deleted
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FTSE 100 hits record high as investors shrug off trade war concerns
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