Last Week Tonight Takes on America's War on Voting

To celebrate the return of Last Week Tonight, and primary season in America, here's John doing what he does best.  Especially like that trick Oliver has of pulling it all back together at the end, then bam !

Last Week Tonight: Revised Resolutions

Well, timely...

John Oliver on Laibach in the DPRK

Should have known I suppose that John Oliver would address Laibach in the DPRK.  Though I do wonder if Oliver personally is genuinely ignorant of Laibach's music as the piece would seem to purport.  Laibach are way cooler than might seem to anyone whose only exposure to them was this bit.


Oh, and I guess this is the DPRK's official Twitter account ?  Tempted to follow them, if they are consistently this awesome.  Not so sure about the CIA & Dawkins...

Just What Are You Thinking, Jack Warner ?

Ex-FIFA Official Slams John Oliver as "Comedian Fool"

John Oliver is not making any friends with FIFA officials.

The HBO host recently bought television airtime in Trinidad to lampoon former FIFA vice president Jack Warner's televised message to the nation. In his video, Oliver encouraged Warner to reveal all the secrets that he had previously threatened to disclose. 

Now, Warner has fired back, posting a video of his own in which he refers to Oliver as a "comedian fool."

Good grief.  Jack Warner surely should be preparing himself for his looming jail-sentence, and whether flipping on a certain other official might shorten said sentence.  Instead of which, he responds to provocation by John Oliver, who is rapidly making a career of taking down people like Jack Warner.

Of course, this is the same man who recently, and very publicly, mistook an article by 'The Onion' as actual news, and was rightly skewered by Oliver for the very same.  Does a man with his kind of money really have no-one around him to provide advice ?  You do not mess with John Oliver and Last Week Tonight.  This cannot end well for you, fool.

And what the hell is up with that music ?


Update:

And did Oliver respond ?  Oh, c'mon, you know he did.

Jack, concentrate on trying to get a cushy cell due to your age.  Taking on the (not-yet) American 'Comedian Fool' is not going to work out for you.

Oh and yeah, they answered the question of the music as well.

TPP & TTIP

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Revelation 17:1-2

TPP & TTIP (the Trans-Pacific Partnership & the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) don't seem to get much coverage in the media, despite their likely impact on so many countries, likely because a) the deals are complicated, and b) the deals are being worked in secret behind closed doors.  These are just 'trade deals' remember, not exactly a nuclear deal with Iran; Totally innocent stuff, and the reason the US, UK, and other governments don't want you to know about what's being discussed, is simply that it's so boring.  They'll tell you all about it eventually, such as...four years after the deals are already done and dusted.

In the meantime, you're just gonna have to trust them that the deals are in your best interest and will result in more jobs, more prosperity, and rising wages, just like...say NAFTA...or say...the MFN deal Clinton pushed with China.  Those worked out really well, didn't they ?  And the PRC is going to turn into a flourishing democracy with respect for the human rights and civil liberties of all its citizens any day now, right Bill ?

Basically, like all 'free trade' deals, the idea is to maximise corporate profits at the expense of labour costs (i.e. your paycheck), civil liberties, national sovereignty, safety, and the environment; to drag every nation slowly down to the lowest-common denominator.  To drag the EU standards down to those of the US, down to those of South America, down to those of east Asia, down ultimately one would imagine to those of Somalia.  And if any national government gets in the way of corporate profits by passing pesky laws to, say protect the safety & wellbeing of its citizens, well fuck 'em. !  They can just be sued, in trans-national arbitration tribunals, run by said corporations, and outside of national law.  Bye-bye national sovereignty.  And you think the EU is the threat, Ukippers ?


Here's a nice summary of the deals for the uninitiated (yes with Russell Brand, sorry):

Sounds good, huh ?

Remember this bit from Last Week Tonight ?  (Might want to skip to 8'05).  Think Philip Morris is the only corporation that does this stuff ?  Think making this shit even easier is a good idea ?

What to do, other than try to find some non-corporatist non-fascist non-cocksucker politicians to vote for ?  Well the first video has some suggestions towards the end.  I don't hold out much hope myself, but you never know.

For the American Sparkle-pony crowd, here's a bonus video, with not-going-to-be-the-Democratic-nominee-for-president-any-time-soon Elizabeth Warren on TPP and the ISDS tribunals back in February.

And if you really want lots more details on TPP, check out Gaius Publius' writings on the subject.  Don't know if Gaius has a dedicated page, but Hullabaloo & Americablog are probably good starting points.

Earth Hour

As John Oliver might say, How is this still a thing ?

If it makes you feel good about yourself for participating in this ridiculous act of tokenism, then yeah, go ahead, knock yourself out.  But if you think this will convince your right-wing climate-change-denying neighbour, then you're delusional.  And if you needed this annual event to remind yourself personally of the reality of climate change, well...

Vote out the right-wing fuckers that keep kow-towing to their/our Big Energy overlords and pushing a Globalisation agenda that is simply relocating industrial production and all its attendant problems (i.e. including pollution) to third-world nations if you really want to make a difference.

Oh and can someone put this painfully dire video in a time-capsule ?  It'll give the aliens a laugh when they come across the rotting corpse of our civilisation.