John Oliver is Amazeballs! (Andy Zaltzman is in his shed)

sometimesdee wrote:

David Cameron is resigning. Now we need The Bugle more than ever.

Like I have said elsewhere, good for him that he can. A brandy and revolver is more than he deserves.

Yes, yes. But my point is, I need John and Andy's take on this in podcast form.

Or maybe Andy will get the hell out of Dodge and join John on Last Week Tonight?

Paleocon wrote:
sometimesdee wrote:

David Cameron is resigning. Now we need The Bugle more than ever.

Like I have said elsewhere, good for him that he can. A brandy and revolver is more than he deserves.

We've had plenty enough of guns mixed in with our politics of late. That is uncalled for.

sometimesdee wrote:

Yes, yes. But my point is, I need John and Andy's take on this in podcast form.

Or maybe Andy will get the hell out of Dodge and join John on Last Week Tonight?

Clearly John saw all of this coming years ago, when he decided to become one of us. At the time, I thought it was a clear nationality downgrade for him, but look who's laughing now?

gore wrote:
sometimesdee wrote:

Yes, yes. But my point is, I need John and Andy's take on this in podcast form.

Or maybe Andy will get the hell out of Dodge and join John on Last Week Tonight?

Clearly John saw all of this coming years ago, when he decided to become one of us. At the time, I thought it was a clear nationality downgrade for him, but look who's laughing now?

Who in their right mind thinks the US right now is a step up from the UK? It's a lateral move at best.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go hug some panda bears with Justin Trudeau.

Gravey wrote:
gore wrote:
sometimesdee wrote:

Yes, yes. But my point is, I need John and Andy's take on this in podcast form.

Or maybe Andy will get the hell out of Dodge and join John on Last Week Tonight?

Clearly John saw all of this coming years ago, when he decided to become one of us. At the time, I thought it was a clear nationality downgrade for him, but look who's laughing now?

Who in their right mind thinks the US right now is a step up from the UK? It's a lateral move at best.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go hug some panda bears with Justin Trudeau.

I mean, if Trump doesn't get elected, then we're at least a step up... minus the rampant shooting sprees... so, Ok, we might actually be a step down.

Jonman wrote:
Paleocon wrote:
sometimesdee wrote:

David Cameron is resigning. Now we need The Bugle more than ever.

Like I have said elsewhere, good for him that he can. A brandy and revolver is more than he deserves.

We've had plenty enough of guns mixed in with our politics of late. That is uncalled for.

Hadn't really considered that. Apologies.

Rope and a chair then.

Gravey wrote:

Who in their right mind thinks the US right now is a step up from the UK? It's a lateral move at best.

*puts hand up*

Mind you, I might think very differently come November.

Paleocon wrote:

Hadn't really considered that. Apologies.

Rope and a chair then.

The problem wasn't the gun. It's advocating violence against elected officials that rankles. It normalizes and encourages the asshats who think that political assassinations are a valid way to effect change, and frankly, Paleocon, f*ck that noise. It's disgusting.

Paleocon wrote:

Hadn't really considered that. Apologies.

Rope and a chair then.

Calling for the death penalty for being optimistic that the British electorate had a clue seems a tad excessive.

He's talking about suicide, you guys.

I dunno, made sense to me. The Brexit is effectively the UK as a whole shooting itself in the... well somewhere... and Cameron, who caused it, is metaphorically falling on his sword by resigning.

gore wrote:

He's talking about suicide, you guys.

Oh, I'm aware he's talking about suicide.

Which, as I said...

Jonman wrote:

It's advocating violence against elected officials that rankles. It normalizes and encourages the asshats who think that political assassinations are a valid way to effect change, and frankly, Paleocon, f*ck that noise. It's disgusting.

He's suggesting that death is the correct reward for bad political decisions. Things like that are fodder for the kind of person who's going to think "yeah, you're right, I should go kill me some politicians".

Which, as I said, is a pretty f*cking disgusting suggestion to make.

Like those 4chan asshats online who try to convince women online to kill themselves. Especially if they have admitted to mental health issues or are transgender. Probably not a group you want to be associated with.

gore wrote:

He's talking about suicide, you guys.

I dunno, made sense to me. The Brexit is effectively the UK as a whole shooting itself in the... well somewhere... and Cameron, who caused it, is metaphorically falling on his sword by resigning.

With his specific phrasing and context, I was taking it as literal, that someone should provide the man with brandy and a revolver and wait for him to 'do the right thing'. Same basic thing with giving him a rope and a chair.

I mean, sure, the guy made a mistake, but it seems to me the mistake was thinking British citizens were smarter than that. That doesn't seem like such a terrible sin.

My favorite part was the "Well you know that 300 million pounds that was going to the EU that could fund the NHS? I never promised that..."
How the hell do you pull that crap and live with yourself?

fangblackbone wrote:

My favorite part was the "Well you know that 300 million pounds that was going to the EU that could fund the NHS? I never promised that..."
How the hell do you pull that crap and live with yourself?

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Fan Mail Vol. 2

Was he on last night? All I could find in the schedule was a repeat of the debt buyers episode.
They were spamming "The Night of" premiere.

No, he's off until the 24th IIRC. But they release weekly web skits.

Campaign Songs

Auto Lending

That is NOT how I commute!!

API

Man, Andy was *into* that bear.

And they link to this video....about polar bear penisis.

John Oliver Asks Donald Trump To "DROP OUT"

Charter Schools

Oliver didn't even touch on the crappier parts of charter schools in Ohio. Governor Kasich has spent the past couple of years slowly cutting funding for public schools and channeling that "savings" into charter schools. The state's on track to spend $1 billion on charter schools.

But the thing is that study after study has shown that Ohio's charter schools consistently under-perform Ohio's public schools. Even the state's own "report card" on schools gives charter schools a failing grade. 40% of charter schools got an "F" and 19% got a "D."

Illinois school report cards for charter schools are largely blank. I believe charters are exempt from reporting much of that data.

As a public school teacher, I've always been suspicous of any move to privatize education or push a business model into our schools. As John said in his piece, students aren't commodities and you rarely get a second chance to get kids to embrace a love of learning if you screw them over in the name of "choice."

Thankfully, charter schools in my state are much better regulated than the ones he mentions, but they're still infamous for cherry picking their students and for pushing out lower-performing or struggling students in order to juice their stats.

If charter schools really want to show how much better they are than public schools, they need to prove some real gains they've made with students who have learning disabilities or special needs. Those are the students who are most at risk from "falling between the cracks" in our educational system and the ones who will be hurt the most if they're conned by a shady school operator.