North Carolina voter ID laws, RNC and DNC review with John Oliver (video)

Posted on August 2, 2016 by I'm Incorrigible

“Last week was a historic week for voter ID laws, as many of the most prohibitive and baldly racist among them were struck down, which was particularly significant in North Carolina. For those of us who were unaware of just how prohibitive and racist these laws were, John Oliver, as usual, is here to explain it and shine a light on some things you might have had no idea were going on in our country. On Sunday’s episode (July 31), John Oliver shut down North Carolina’s voter ID law on Last Week Tonight, and boy was it a doozy.

The voting restrictions in the law as described by John Oliver were apparently described as “the most restrictive voting law North Carolina has seen since the era of Jim Crowe” as well as the fact that it “target[s] African Americans with almost surgical precision.” Which, wow. Oliver commented, “That is not something you want to hear outside of a marketing meeting for Dark and Lovely Healthy Gloss Shea Butter Relaxer.” He followed this up with “I’m pretty sure that joke is fine. I’m about 80 percent confident we have no problem there.” (Romper 1 August 2016)

“Even when John Oliver is supposed to be talking about Democrats, he just can’t deny the urge to put Donald Trump on blast. On Sunday night, as the Last Week Tonight host discussed the Democratic National Convention, he repeatedly noted the contrast between what Democrats and Hillary Clinton had to offer, and what we saw from Trump at the R.N.C. last week. One might think that Oliver, who has slammed Trump several times over the past few months, should be running out of fresh material by now, but his new remarks might be his most biting yet.

Following the D.N.C., Trump was asked about the speech that Khizr Khan delivered about his son, a fallen solider. Khan spoke alongside his wife Ghazala. In his response on ABC News, Trump ignored the speech’s core message—that the Republican candidate has “sacrificed nothing and no one”—and suggested that Ghazala remained silent onstage because she, as a Muslim woman, might not be allowed to speak.

Ghazala herself has already resoundingly refuted the notion that she has nothing to say—and Oliver minced no words in backing her up, starting with the fact that “she chose not to speak because she gets too upset when she sees images of her dead son’s face, you fucking asshole.” (Vanity Fair 1 August 2016)

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

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Video © HBO

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