John Oliver's Last Week Tonight

Where did I bring up the idea of the FBI arresting Trump?

They can’t arrest Trump for doing illegal things, but they can arrest anyone who does illegal things for him, even if the FBI was completely compromised, state law enforcement agencies can also arrest people for committing crimes.

Trump can’t prevent the election from happening without other people helping him, said other people can be arrested by either federal or local law enforcement.

Edited by Silasw on Mar 3rd 2020 at 8:50:37 PM

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran

More news on the coronavirus outbreak.

Basically, the CDC is lagging behind in testing and things are getting out of hand, so their advice is to just take a break from your life for two weeks. Yes, really. It's the government shutdown all over again.

Optimism is a duty.

Probably better suited for the COVID-19 thread in OTC.

Disgusted, but not surprised

I'm serving in the Peace Corps right now (Georgia) and we just had our first confirmed case here about a week, week and a half ago. Apparently it's gotten bad in some parts of the country and international travel is restricted. Some posts have been evacuated completely (like Mongolia). We might get to that point too if things get much worse.

ok boomer

John Oliver talks about US Sheriffs.

Also - this in reference to the recap segments - but what is it with Trump using the word "beautiful" in so many inappropriate contexts?

He's got a point. I have no idea if my local jurisdiction has a sheriff or a police chief or who that person is.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Maybe you're lucky like me, and you have 4 police departments stepping all over each other constantly.

My understanding is in general sheriffs are in charge of entire counties, but more specifically unincorporated areas that are not already covered by municipal police. Jurisdiction Friction means they don't have a lot of influence in the high population centers, and that's also why sheriffs have that association with the old west.

The real struggle is that it's a position with a lot of power and prone to incumbent advantage through sheer lack of competition. The law allowing sheriffs to personally pocket unused prisoner food budget money is insane, it's like semi-legal embezzling. Who thought that was a smart move under any circumstances? You pay your sheriff well so that this shit looks extra bad when they do it.

"Beautiful" is just one of Trump's stock catchphrases, like "sad!" or "fake news". There's also an element of Newspeak to it, using simplified, repetitive language to manipulate his audience.

Optimism is a duty.

I think that blackface guy sounds a lot like Mike Tyson.

I know Santa Clara County has a sheriff, Sheriff Laurie Smith.

Disgusted, but not surprised

Edited by terumokou on Mar 15th 2020 at 11:44:40 AM

Burning love!

So tonight’s episode is special, in that there is no audience, and John is presenting in the white void that is the movie afterlife. It’s a surreal and sombre episode despite the usual jokes.

Hitokiri in the streets, daishouri in the sheets.

"I think that's just a nasty question".

I guess we can add "nasty" to the list of words that Donald Trump loves to use in the wrong context.

Is it the wrong context, though? Trump clearly thinks it is nasty to bring something up that is obviously his fault, and that has so obviously come back to bite him now.

We can criticize Trump for many things, but in this case, nasty was a perfectly grammatical word to use for him.

Optimism is a duty.

It's a completely reasonable question that he deflected by accusing the reporter.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Of course it was. My point was that calling it a nasty question was not out of the ordinary for Trump, and that he probably really does believe it to be a nasty question.

Optimism is a duty.

You know, every time I ask myself "How can anyone still defend Trump in good conscience?" he tops it. He's not even the unhelpful government authority in a disaster movie anymore, he's the parody of one.

Edited by ZheToralf on Mar 30th 2020 at 9:47:17 PM

You lost!

Random trivia thing I noticed, the voice overs according to the credits are apparently done by David Kaye, AKA the Beast Wars Megatron.

That’s probably the most pleasant thing I can discuss given the subject matter and how it’s been handled is...making me upset to put it mildly.

Edited by Beatman1 on Mar 30th 2020 at 9:03:36 AM

Frankly, if we can't laugh at human foolishness, we might as well all give up. The comedy shows are my mental lifeline these days.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

This is true. What’s the saying, you laugh to keep from crying?

Yeah, but the strangeness of not having a live audience laugh along kind of puts a damper on them.

Optimism is a duty.

I assume OAN is about the same as Fox in making me irritable as hell just for existing I'm guessing.

Edited by terumokou on Apr 6th 2020 at 12:04:02 PM

Burning love!

Why does the acronym not seem to match the name of the network?

Optimism is a duty.

Should be OANN, or OAN Network, which in this case is not a recursive acronym. It's weird: my brain wants to read that as ONN, or Onion News Network, which in turn makes me think of Poe's Law and whether OANN is actually intended as a parody of extreme conservatism.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"