Immigration and the Republican primary

The issue of undocumented immigrants is turning into a big issue in the Republican primary race and you can be certain that it will feature in a big way in the debates and that any crime committed by such a person is going to get huge amounts of attention and be promoted by Fox News and other conservative media as proof positive that these people are a serious menace and will kill us all in our beds if we don’t immediately round them up and throw them out.
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Mandatory minimum sentences

On his show Last Week Tonight, John Oliver discusses the serious problem of having mandatory minimum sentencing laws that fill up our prisons with people serving long sentences that are not proportionate to the crimes. He makes a powerful case that these laws are unjust and abusive and should not only be repealed but that those already serving long sentences because of them should have their sentences commuted or pardoned altogether.
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Guilty pleasure

I believe that politics is a serious business. It has important consequences and so do not take it lightly or treat it as entertainment. I have little patience with journalists who do not cover particular issues in depth or certain candidates because they consider them too boring. On the other hand, I must admit that an important political story that also has high entertainment value comes along but rarely and must be savored when it does, and the candidacy of Donald Trump fits the bill. Watching the Trump show is better than any reality show or soap opera. Each night ends with you wondering what the next day’s news will bring about his latest actions and reactions.
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Details? Who cares about details?

The Daily Show looks at the critics’ reactions to the deal arrived at between the P5+1 nations and Iran. It is obvious that they had decided what to say before they even knew what the deal contained because that is the level of politics now, where your attitude is totally unconstrained by facts. When your goal is to frighten everyone by warning of the sky falling, the actual issue doesn’t matter.
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On wasting food

I hate wasting food. I really, really hate it. And it really sticks in my craw to see the amount of food that is thrown away in the US. Sometimes it is due to people just buying more than they can eat but at other times it seem just willful. For example, I am appalled by people and events that go out of their way to waste food, such as those contests involving butter sculptures and food eating contests and those all-you-can-eat buffets that seem to be designed to induce people to eat more than they would normally do.
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The sports stadium scam

One of the things I hate about professional sports in the US is the way that wealthy team owners extort public money for fancy stadiums that not only do not benefit the public but actually siphon money away from much needed and better services that many more people would benefit from. It is one more of the many ways that money is diverted from the poor to the rich.
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Jerry Seinfeld and Stephen Colbert talk over coffee

Jerry Seinfeld has a comedy series where he invites a fellow comedian to have coffee with him and they drive to a coffee shop, have breakfast, and drive back, just talking all the while. The series is called Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (naturally) and is a nice chance to see comedians have an unscripted conversation, though the footage is edited.

His latest guest was Stephen Colbert.
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