Socialism is as American as apple pie

At a recent luncheon, I got involved in a political discussion where I disagreed with the stance taken by another guest. That person said that what he was advocating was required by capitalist principles, and acted as if that settled it. I told him that I was a socialist and not a capitalist so I did not accept his premises. He seemed shocked and said that since America was a capitalist country, I had no choice but to accept it.
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Veep and political reality

I have been enjoying the comedy series Veep starring Julia Louis-Dreyfuss that I reviewed earlier. It is one of the many TV shows and films that purport to show what life is like in the executive branch of government, like The West Wing or House of Cards. This naturally raises the question of which program most accurately captures what life is like in that world.
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Anti-Islam protests turned out rather differently

Last Sunday was supposed to be when a ‘Global Rally for Humanity’ was to occur which sounds like a good thing but in reality was the incongruous name given to the day when protestors were supposed to fan out to mosques across the nation to protest the presence of Muslims in the US. But at least at some venues, the event did not turn out quite as the organizers planed. For one thing, in many locations no protestors turned up at all while at others, counter-protestors outnumbered the protestors. In fact, the planned protests ended up generating solidarity between Muslims and their neighbors in the communities and between protestors and counter-protestors.
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Stephen Colbert tried to find his true self

He takes a lie detector test to find out who he really is.

It is clear from this field piece that he has adopted a lot of the features of the field pieces from his old show. One thing I noted is that his hair now is a lot less slicked down than it used to be. On his old show, it used to be so creamed up as to be shiny. The fact that it is no longer so suggests that he felt that look was necessary for the conservative doofus that he portrayed.
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New Jersey Archbishop puts pope Francis in his place

Pope Francis may be trying to put a kinder, gentler face on the Catholic church but it is good to remember that he has not actually changed the doctrine in any way, just shifted attention away from church stances that are becoming increasingly unpopular. The Synod of Bishops is currently in session and there is clearly tension between the various factions in the church.
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Reflections on the Democratic debate

Defying predictions that it might be a snooze fest, last night’s debate between the five Democratic candidates for the party’s nomination turned out to be both lively and substantive. The comparison with the two Republican debates was like night and day. The topics ranged over gun control, climate change, income and wealth inequality, Glass-Steagall and breaking up the banks, immigration, criminal justice reform, and recreational marijuana. You can read the transcript here
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The internet forces people to really read Playboy for the articles

It used to be a standard joke that when anyone referred to something that had appeared in Playboy magazine, they would quickly add that they read the magazine just for the articles. This was actually plausible because the magazine did publish many serious pieces, and was known especially for its interviews with prominent people including the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Fidel Castro.
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Donald Trump upsets the Fox News apple cart

The always-entertaining Matt Taibbi has a new article where he says that Donald Trump is upsetting the business model that Fox News has created and forced them to consider treating the nutty Ben Carson as their candidate. The relationship between Trump and Fox, once so cozy and full of mutual admiration, began to fall apart following the angry exchange between Megyn Kelly and Trump.

“[Fox News Chairman] Roger [Ailes] was not happy,” a Fox source told New York Magazine. “Most of the Fox viewers were taking Trump’s side.”

Neither Ailes nor Murdoch are too dense to know what this means. They know they’ve spent a generation building an audience of morons. Their business model depends on morons; morons are the raw materials of their industry, the way Budweiser is in the hops business.
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Keith Ellison endorses Sanders before tonight’s Democratic debate

Today is the day of the first Democratic debate, featuring Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chafee. The debate begins at 9:00pm Eastern time and will be streamed live for free by CNN and will likely be mirrored by other sites to prevent the system freezing from overload. (Some sites are saying that the debate begins at 8:30pm.)
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