Bill Maher tries to undemonize socialism

Maher is a supporter of Bernie Sanders and he had him on his show to try and make the word socialism not be so scary to many people. It actually was a good discussion that got into some real details about what Sanders means by socialism, something that has been discussed in the comments on this blog. I liked the fact that towards the end Sanders emphasizes that Democrats should not write off the large numbers of working class people all over the country who traditionally vote Republican but actually support his policies.
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Paul Ryan gets Playboy’d

As the Republican party flails around trying to find someone willing to be elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Jessica Williams explains that the process by which Paul Ryan went rapidly from being a right wing extremist darling to being seen as suspiciously liberal is similar to what happened with Playboy magazine, because extreme right wing politics and hardcore pornography have a lot in common.
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The issue of migrants and refugees

The issue of migrants has dominated the news recently, both in terms of US domestic policies in the Republican primaries and in Europe where people are taking desperate measures to flee horrendous conditions in their effort to find a more peaceful life. The media uses scary language to create a sense of foreboding among people that these migrants are going to destroy their way of life.
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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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Stephen Colbert on the chaos in the Republican party

He had a hilarious bit about the maneuvering to not become the next Speaker of the House of Representatives. I have not been watching his new show but it looks like the set-piece monologue segments like this are exactly like the ones he used to do on his old show and that is a good thing. The one difference is that he no longer has to act like a right wing nutter.
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Understanding Voter ID laws

By a curious coincidence, just as Republican candidates seem to be doing everything in their power to alienate minority voters, Republican controlled states are taking steps to make it harder for minorities to vote by creating hurdles to voter registration. Of course they claim they are taking these steps because of the problem of voter fraud that repeated studies have shown to be almost non-existent.
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Upping the ante on political hate

With Donald Trump cornering the market on Mexican-hate, it looks like Ben Carson has decided that Muslim-hate will be his own vote-getting message with the frothing-at-the-mouth crowd. But this time, when he was called to account by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, instead of whining about political correctness that has become his trademark, he went even further and urged that the IRS should investigate the CAIR, showing that, like most hatemongers, he can dish it out but can’t take it.
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