John Oliver takes on the tobacco companies

Tobacco companies are clearly in the running for the title of the most evil, lying, despicable companies on Earth, relentlessly marketing a product that when used as intended causes disease and death. Last Week Tonight takes on the issue of how tobacco companies are targeting people in other countries as the anti-smoking campaigns in the US cut into their profits here. In the process, he shows how news can be investigative, informative, and hard-hitting and yet interesting and worth watching.
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Sometimes the best thing is to do nothing

Critics of America’s interference in other countries by invading, bombing, and killing, and fomenting coups that overthrow their governments and create general chaos are often asked what the US should do instead. The US government always says that it is doing whatever it does for humanitarian reasons but history has shown that that is merely the excuse given to make the interference palatable to the public.
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Jon Stewart’s farewell announcement

On Tuesday, the long time host of The Daily Show announced that he would be leaving sometime later this year after doing this show for 16 years. Although like many others, I wanted him to continue doing it forever, just like with Stephen Colbert, I was not really surprised by his announcement. He had clearly found his niche and made an impact and anyone who is creative gets tired of the routine even, and especially, when it is a success and becomes a well-oiled machine. He had become a recognized leader in deconstructing the news and media coverage of it, exposing the shallowness and hypocrisy that is rampant in politics and journalism in the US.
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John Oliver’s Radio Shack ad

Radio Shack, the company that many hobbyists used to rely on for so many years to satisfy their needs, has like many other brick-and-mortar chain stores, been going through hard times recently, especially as more and more devices become black boxes and provide fewer opportunities to take apart and tinker with. Last week they announced that they were filing for bankruptcy and selling many of their stores to Sprint.
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The Daily Show on the anti-vaxxers

Jon Stewart looked at the recent outbreak of diseases that we once thought had been eliminated in the US and some of the reasons given by people behind the trend to not vaccinate children. Potential presidential candidate Rand Paul said the same kinds of things that Michele Bachmann said about vaccination back in 2012, and passed along stories that he had heard about children getting neurological problems from getting the vaccine. She was mercilessly ridiculed for it back then and it will be interesting to see if it will similarly come back to haunt Paul.
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Huckabee’s smarminess

The odious Mike Huckabee is continuing to make the rounds of interviews and trying to have it both ways on homosexuality. He seems to think that by smiling a lot and acting all folksy and telling people that he has gay friends, he can hide the fact that he is a hateful religious bigot who strenuously opposes giving equal rights (such as marriage) to the LGBT community.
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