Hasan Minhaj has a new show on Netflix

The Daily Show alumnus Hasan Minhaj has been given a new weekly show titled Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj on Netflix that premiers today Sunday, October 28 at 7:00pm. He has been signed up for 32 weeks in advance, so he has been given a longer period to establish a rhythm and voice, unlike Michele Wolf whose show was canceled after just 10 episodes.

Minhaj was interviewed about the show and he said that he did not want to to become the ‘Indian John Oliver’ and it will be interesting to see how he distinguishes his show from the other political comedy shows.

Here’s the trailer.

Elite racism can be just as sincere as common racism

Amanda Marcotte has an interesting piece where she says that the recent Megyn Kelly episode explodes the common myth that exists among the intelligentsia that the elites are too sophisticated to really buy into racist ideologies and that when they do indulge in race-baiting, it is part of a cynical but conscious political strategy that does not reflect their real views. Such people can often point to ‘friends’ to dispute the characterization. It is this kind of thinking that may have prompted NBC to hire Kelly despite her past history of race-baiting at Fox News where the willingness and ability to do so is practically a job requirement. But even though she was no longer working at Fox, she still went there.
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Rapidly escalating political violence

This has been a hell of a week for politically motivated violence in the US. The mail bombs sent to prominent people perceived as opponents of Donald Trump by a fanatical Trump supporter are just one indicator of how toxic the political climate has become. Today we have the horrendous killings at a synagogue in Pittsburgh where reports say that eleven people have died and six others wounded. That synagogue is in a neighborhood that is very familiar to me from my days as a graduate student in that city, because it is adjacent to where both the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University are and many students and professors (including my thesis advisor) live there.
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If you thought Australian politics was a web of intrigue and backstabbing, check out what is happening in Sri Lanka

Late in the evening on Friday, October 26, the Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena (MS) swore in Mahinda Rajapaksa (MR) as prime minister and declared that he had removed the existing prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe (RW) from office, immediately triggering a constitutional crisis and upheaval, resulting in the president suspending parliament until November 16. As it stands, Sri Lanka currently has two people claiming to be prime minister.

To fully understand how bizarre and Byzantine Sri Lankan politics is, I need to fill in a little background. After the 1977 elections, the Sri Lankan constitution was changed and the country went from the British style parliamentary system with a strong executive prime minister to one modeled more closely on the French system, with a strong executive president independently elected of the parliament who then picks the prime minister who is usually the leader of the largest party in parliament or the one who can command a majority.
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Seth Meyers on Republicans lies about health care

Donald Trump is a president who clearly hates the work that goes into the job. The mid-term elections coming up November 6th has enabled him to stop doing any work at all and spend all his time doing what he enjoys most, holding rallies in front of his adoring fans and doing what has become effectively stand-up comedy routines, that require him to lie through his teeth about anything that comes into his head and whipping up racism and hate and anger. He is holding an average of two rallies a day all over the country in support of endangered Republican candidates.

Seth Meyers provides a good run-down of what is happening.

Chickens come home to roost for the UK

Many of the conflicts around the world have their roots in the way that the British colonialists drew lines creating nations that divided people that had common identities and joined together in one nation groups that had tensions with each other. After the British left as a result of the decolonization process, these ethnic conflicts simmered and exploded. Robert Mackey says that the British did the same thing with Ireland and that is now biting them in the rear when it comes to Brexit.
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Why is it so hard to understand that donning blackface makeup is racist?

I try to avoid the occasional dust-up involving media personalities, since I do not really care about their comings and goings. But the recent flap over Megyn Kelly’s comments expressing puzzlement as to why white people wearing blackface is seen as racist is worth noting. In this case, she was saying that if someone wanted to be Diana Ross for Halloween, then what was wrong with making her face black? As a result of her comments, it appears that she is being fired by NBC. Before coming to NBC, Kelly had a long history at Fox News of racist dog whistles, via statements proclaiming that Santa Claus and Jesus were white.
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Big Bird actor Caroll Spinney retiring

Sesame Street announced that actor Caroll Spinney, who played the parts of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch from its inception in 1969, is retiring at the age of 84. Big Bird became one of the most recognized personalities on the planet. It was not easy to do him, requiring Spinney to hold his hand up above his head in order to manipulate the head and eyes, while looking down at a tiny screen inside the stifling costume that showed him what the camera was showing, all the while reading the script as well.

Sesame Street Season 1 Caroll Spinney and Big Bird

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Mohammed bin Salman goes into damage control mode

In the wake of the widespread outrage over the involvement of the Saudi Arabian government in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has gone into full damage control mode. He has allowed Khashoggi’s eldest son Salah, who had been barred from leaving the country and was forced into a photo op with bin Salman a few days ago, to leave the country. bin Salman is also trying to placate the Turkish president,the person most dangerous to him because of his ability to release all manner of damaging information. After not saying anything for three weeks, bin Salman has now said that Saudi Arabia and Turkey must work together.
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