John Oliver's Last Week Tonight

Yeah, I'm used to him focusing on huge national or international issues that kill hundreds each year. This is obviously still important, I just wonder why it was chosen.

Also I'm curious as to what happened to the sub contractors, if they assumed all liability then shouldn't their owners be in jail for negligent homicide?

Also what the hell kind of insurance company covers what amounts to negligent homicide?

It's all about getting the oil out of the ground and into cars. There is a wanton, almost deliberate carelessness about how that's accomplished. As long as companies can pass off the costs of their disregard for safety to other people, they win.

edited 12th Oct '15 9:43:53 AM by Fighteer

I don't see the problem with him picking this problem. Sure, it's regional. Sure, it's not killing hundreds each year. On the other hand, it's killing people, and it's a gross violation of the kind of assumed trust that Americans have in corporations. I don't think there's anything wrong with him picking a problem that's not "big" enough, simply because the problem isn't that small. One state with lax legislation can be enough of a problem that it affects an entire industry.

edited 12th Oct '15 9:49:43 AM by frosty

The North Dakota oil industry practices are also symptomatic of the right wing pro business race to the bottom that is becoming a real threat to the American underclass. Maybe LWT should do a piece on modern international socialism next, and how it's not at all the evil commies trying to establish a one party state.

This Week's Story: The Canadian Election: They're too nice so John has to do the insultin'....(forgive me anyone who is actually Canadian)

edited 18th Oct '15 11:41:24 PM by TwilightFalchion

I wonder... should we all get together and tell Canadians not to vote for Harper? Seems like they couldn't possibly enforce that silly law against millions of people?

I think we just sussed out Harper's scheme for fixing the economy.

Most people on here don't have to be told. Also he left out a bunch of stuff like bill c-24 and bill c-51 but I guess there is only so much time. Also I feel they had a missed opportunity by not showing the earlier Conservative attack ads for the Liberals. And they had he doesn't care about 'x' people and didn't mention how little he cares about First Nations.

Okay done now.

Yeah, most of the things talked about in the video (niqab, marijuana, etc.) are just the recent headlines. The guy's got 10 years' worth of this stuff.

To give just one example (and to tie into the "doesn't care about First Nations" thing mentioned ): several FN communities were hit particularly hard by the swine flu outbreak in 2009, and requested help from the government. The help they asked for was medicine and vaccines. The help they got was hand sanitizer, face masks, and body bags.

edited 19th Oct '15 9:14:15 AM by Blueeyedrat

Yeah that is particularly infamous, as well as the whole "not high on our radar" comment (pertaining to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Woman) we shouldn't think that all racism issues will be solved by voting him out, but he certainly isn't helping in fact he's making it worse.

I was hoping he'd show the "Nice hair though" ad. That one is comedy gold.

Although I've never that clip of Justin pretending to fall down the stairs. I laughed at that more than the other clips showing the other leaders.

edited 19th Oct '15 10:48:59 AM by latenight

The problem has never really been the number of people who don't vote for Harper. It's that the non-conservative votes get split up by a bunch of parties.

The video also featured an update on my home country.

Denmark. Aka. Not Norway, Different Sweden, and That's Not Actually Finland.

Apparently we hosted a public demonstration whereby some zoo employees dissected a lion.

The event was open to children.

Apparently this is some kind of horror?

I don't really get it.

According to Maclean's he will have to find another way to fix the economy as the bill is mostly towards foreign powers investing money, rather than individual people from outside Canada stating their opinion: http://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/elections-canada-says-john-oliver-is-free-to-mock-at-our-expense/

@Math Yes I'm sure that says stuff about different views on animals and what children should see.

It's a voluntary event that's part of the ticket price for that day. If parents are worried their kids can't stomach it...don't take them?

I'm honestly not seeing the problem other than some kids getting grossed out and leaving.

I actually hope there's enough momentum to change our voting system. FPTP is a really inefficent system with a ton of wasted votes. I'm both surprised and glad he brought it up our election at all.

Less than five minutes after I finished watching the episode, Windows decided I needed to know that the AP is projecting a win for Trudeau.

Now that the Liberals have a majority, I don't know how much priority they'll put on changing FPTP...I hope it will change but I'm cynical.

The problem with electoral reform is that it relies upon the people who've benefited the most from the status quo to make a change.

Harper is a shitty guy and Oliver does spend time poking fun at the other parties but I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with him openly (anti)endorsing candidates like that. Granted it's a show aimed at people who can't actually vote up there, but at least the Daily Show knows its audience is smart enough that it can play a clip of Republicans being stupid without also telling them "Vote Democrat". Let the guy's actions speak for themselves.

Well, he's been in office for over a decade apparently. I think the lack of subtlety is understandable.

I got the impression he did it mostly to lampoon the law, rather than to influence the outcome of the election (cutting it pretty close otherwise). That being said, I agree that it's kind of uncomfortable.

Yeah he's kinda made a thing out of violating stupid foreign laws. Look at all the monarchies he insulted specifically because their countries had laws against insulting the monarchy.

This weeks story: The Medicaid Gap

AKA: How Republican states are screwing their citizens out of healthcare and themselves out of billions of dollars in free federal money on principle.