Tonight's guests are Laura Poitras on The Daily Show and Bernie Sanders on The Colbert Report.
Laura Poitras is a documentary filmmaker, journalist, and artist. She is of course one of the people to whom Edward Snowden leaked the NSA documents. She has a new documentary about Snowden titled
Citizenfour
In January 2013, Laura Poitras started receiving anonymous encrypted e-mails from "CITIZENFOUR," who claimed to have evidence of illegal covert surveillance programs run by the NSA in collaboration with other intelligence agencies worldwide. Five months later, she and reporters Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with the man who turned out to be Edward Snowden. She brought her camera with her. The resulting film is history unfolding before our eyes. Written by Anonymous
Sobering 'Citizenfour' documentary is a must-see
Citizenfour plays like a thriller as it chronicles a complex and vitally important chapter in our history.
In the year's most riveting documentary (***1/2 out of four; rated R; expanding to additional cities), director Laura Poitras focuses on the earth-shaking revelations of former CIA analyst and National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Poitras doesn't interview NSA representatives, though she does include scenes of hearings in which officials testify that surveillance of ordinary Americans does not occur. She follows retired NSA technical director William Binney as he discusses the perils of government access to personal communication. Poitras doesn't address the legalities of what Snowden did, nor the irony of his being given asylum in Russia, a country whose government isn't known for transparency.
The film delves into a host of ethical and political concerns about government surveillance, not just in the U.S. but in several Western European countries. It also lays bare the abetting role of major corporations.
Poitras is essentially a fly on the wall during the encounters between Snowden and Greenwald, which grow claustrophobic while Snowden is confined to the hotel. He spends most of his time in a T-shirt and jeans, consulting a laptop from a rumpled bed.
No detail seems too small to compound Snowden's mounting fears — and the audience's paranoia. When a fire alarm goes off in the hotel, it's hard not to think it's connected to Snowden. (Apparently it wasn't.)
It's a tense, complicated tale, but Poitras' sharp editing makes it easier to digest.
This is a movie I really want to see. Hopefully it will make it to my local theater that often shows smaller films (they showed "An Inconvenient Truth", for example.) It would be even better as a nationwide release, but that is rare for a documentary, even one with a story this well known.
Bernie Sanders is a socialist! :D As you are probably well aware he is a senator from Vermont. You may also be aware that CNN often needs a kick the ass, but what you might not know is that Sanders recently delivered one.
CAMEROTA: Even if it means that by acting unilaterally he threatens the relationship for any possible compromise. If election meant that there was a new beginning that now they will once again be at loggerheads, there could be a government shutdown, and all the other ripple effect.
SANDERS: Threaten, compromise. Is that what you said?
CAMEROTA: Well —
SANDERS: For six years we are trying to get the Republicans to support anything. Look, the Republicans — I have to say I’m an independent. I’m not particularly partisan. But any objective observer understands they have become a right wing party, not a center-right party. They have a right wing base. They have an agenda can which does not want to work with the president.
And I think what the president is saying, look, we’ve got problems. We have got to move. To say that we’re going to break the wonderful harmony and working relationship that we’ve had six years, that did not exist.
CAMEROTA: It’s not that. It’s that they are threatening shutdown, that they won’t work with Democrats and the president if he were to do this.
SANDERS: Then the American people have to make a choice. If they think the government shutdown is a response to the enormous problems facing this country. Look, the American people in poll after poll and on Election Day said we could raise the minimum wage. Do you hear Republicans talking about that? The American people in poll after poll say women should get paid the same amount of money as men. Do you hear the Republicans talking about that? The American are disgusted with Citizens United.
Bernie Sanders Storms CNN and Destroys Their Pro-Republican Talking Points
The self-described “democratic socialist” senator appeared three days on CNN’s dayside to discuss the same topic, only to face a tough grilling from Carol Costello, who wondered why Sanders ignored the government’s own study suggesting the pipeline would not cause any environmental damage.
Sitting at the New Day desk Monday morning, Sanders said “If we do not transform our energy system away from fossil fuel, this planet is going to face serious problems,” and that approving the pipeline would “give a green light for transportation of 800,000 barrels of some of the dirtiest oil in the world.”
When host Alisyn Camerota pointed out the same studies as Costello did days prior, Sanders replied that they were “faulty” and assumed that if the project does not get approval, the same oil would come by rail instead.
“I don’t accept that,” Sanders said. “The people who that did that study had a prior relationship with [Canadian energy company] TransCanada.”
And as for whether the project would create jobs, Sanders remained skeptical: “Republicans talk about this with a jobs program. The number of jobs created on this: 35.”
Chris Cuomo challenged the senator on that statement, telling him, “You’re defining it narrowly.”
“It’s not just the making of the pipeline,” the host explained, “it’s what this will provide in commerce, changes dependence on foreign trading. There’s a lot.”
But Sanders countered with a line similar to what he said to Costello: “It might be a good idea to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, roads, rail system. Start creating millions of jobs, not 35 jobs.”
CNN’s New Day Grills Bernie Sanders on Keystone: ‘You’re Defining It Narrowly’
Bernie Sanders: Approving Keystone XL 'Makes No Sense To Me'
As the Senate prepares to vote on the Keystone XL pipeline this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) reiterated his position that he doesn’t want it to pass the upper chamber.
“I hope very much that we will not provide the 60 votes,” Sanders said in an interview with CNN on Monday.
“Well, the scientific community tells us, virtually unanimous accounts, that climate change is real. It’s already causing devastating problems and if we do not transform our energy system away from fossil fuel, this planet is gonna face some serious problems," said Sanders. "The idea that we would give a green light for the transportation of 800,000 barrels of some of the dirtiest oils all over the world makes no sense to me.”
I am looking forward to this interview, Sanders is on the correct side of many issues and should be heard from far more often than he is.
This Week's Guests
THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART
Tu 11/18: Benedict Cumberbatch
We 11/19: Jessica Chastain
Th 11/20: Eddie Redmayne
THE COLBERT REPORT
Tu 11/18: Eva Longoria
We 11/19: Toni Morrison
Th 11/20: Jon Stewart
The week of Thanksgiving (11/24-11/27) they are taking off but will return Monday 12/1.