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John Oliver is the best thing on TV. (2 Viewers)

Mario Kart said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opi8X9hQ7q8
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His best performance ever. The stunt shows - the ones where he brought activism to the net neutrality fight or rewrote Mike Pence's pet book - were more important, but this one combined the best of Oliver's strengths with his old boss's "well, now you've not only fallen into my lap, but actually jumped right up on it" gleeful satires. Matter of fact, it would not surprise me me if Oliver got a call last week......"John, it's John. Like me to help you write this one up?".

Til watching this - the back-and-forth between two sides for whom i have no respect doesnt interest me so i pay little attention - i figured the charges were Democratic payback for the criminal delay of the previous confirmation - but Oliver's, and not Ford's, performance convinced me it wasn't

 
Watching Jon Oliver, and I can't even believe this guy is in play.  Devil's Triangle?  Lol GTFO.  Drinking game.  Lol.  Really?  This is the best guy in the nation for this post?  This guy is the best one? 

 
Sabertooth said:
Watching Jon Oliver, and I can't even believe this guy is in play.  Devil's Triangle?  Lol GTFO.  Drinking game.  Lol.  Really?  This is the best guy in the nation for this post?  This guy is the best one? 
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What was also interesting about his response to Devils Triangle is that he hesitated in answering. There was a definite pause before he blurted out “drinking game”. 

 
Saw this Sunday's episode. Pretty sure Oliver's writers stole the "Henry Fondle" idea from BoJack Horseman (unless the BoJack Horseman writers stole it from someone else first). I'm not going to link the Henry Fondle stuff directly as I'm pretty sure Joe wouldn't dig it, you can google for it if you want.

 
Kind of a weak episode this week. He barely touched on the surface of what future automation might do to the economy, and he failed to dig very deep into the current administration's 1) failure to protect jobs, and 2) opposition to retraining workers.

 
Ned said:
We're an ep behind, but the first 2 were :yawn:  
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Yeah, the psychic one was entertaining at times, but not much to discuss or illuminating there.  I mean, yeah, we all know they don't really have clairvoyance to the afterlife.  It felt one step away from an episode taking down Chinese fortune cookies as frauds.

 
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Don Quixote said:
Ned said:
We're an ep behind, but the first 2 were :yawn:  
Click to expand...
Yeah, the psychic one was entertaining at times, but not much to discuss or illuminating there.  I mean, yeah, we all know they don't really have clairvoyance to the afterlife.  It felt one step away from an episode taking down Chinese fortune cookies as frauds.
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The psychic show was alright, but a lot of it was done before (and done better) by South Park.

 
1-800-824-1223

Not sure if you get a mobile phone company or not but I'm surprised they didn't block the number out.

 
Ilov80s said:
My god our country is a freaking mess. 
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I can't stop thinking about this.

One of the people i counsel is someone whose life has forced him into a situation where toil & trouble has been almost his entire day these last few months, with no relief and little appreciation. An analogy i've been using to help him get perspective on his difficulties is Jean Valjean of Les Miserables (PBS's Masterpiece Theater has been serializing it the last couple months, w a remarkable performance by The Wire's Dominic West), who struggled impossibly for decades with naught but his concept of himself to drive him but, in the end, defeated judgement with virtue.

But I myself am near crisis because it is getting harder & harder to recommend life to others with all the venality around me. Having been brought up in the Kennedy Era with the belief that the American Miracle was a step on the path to humankind's inevitable perfectibility, it has not been easy realizing that it is much more likely to have been an anomaly, a blinding flash of glare interrupting an endless parade of human corruption, cruelty, vanity, delusion & jealous greed. Not only am i beginning to feel utterly surrounded by it, but i seldom see any realization from the horde that the ways of selfishness are something that does not recommend us and should even be adjusted.

So how was your day?

 
wikkidpissah said:
But I myself am near crisis because it is getting harder & harder to recommend life to others with all the venality around me. Having been brought up in the Kennedy Era with the belief that the American Miracle was a step on the path to humankind's inevitable perfectibility, it has not been easy realizing that it is much more likely to have been an anomaly, a blinding flash of glare interrupting an endless parade of human corruption, cruelty, vanity, delusion & jealous greed. Not only am i beginning to feel utterly surrounded by it, but i seldom see any realization from the horde that the ways of selfishness are something that does not recommend us and should even be adjusted.
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Progress, like pizza, does not come in a straight line.

I'm currently doing a re-read of Bruce Catton's Civil War books (the guy was a master). It's disturbingly striking how many parallels there are between the social/political environment then and what we have now. You had a lot of people committed to doing the wrong thing, for the wrong reasons while convincing themselves and any who would listen that they were right - they bought into their own delusions so much that reason based compromise became impossible. You had a lot of people who did the right thing for the wrong reasons as well, similarly talking themselves into positions via irrational emotion that they also would not compromise. You had a lot of people who did the right thing for the right reasons, sometimes  just as irrationally committed, but you had a critical mass of folks who somehow married reason with the will to push on.

In the end, one side (I like to think the "right" side) won because they had more resources to burn. I don't know that that outcome can apply today. But I do know it gives me a modicum of hope that things can still play out where doing the right thing will happen, and happen because reasonable people can figure out it's the right thing to do outside of emotional appeal to self interest. Try and find those people and let them reinforce the notion that we're not all hopeless. There's plenty of them who post on this board for starters.

 
wikkidpissah said:
I can't stop thinking about this.

One of the people i counsel is someone whose life has forced him into a situation where toil & trouble has been almost his entire day these last few months, with no relief and little appreciation. An analogy i've been using to help him get perspective on his difficulties is Jean Valjean of Les Miserables (PBS's Masterpiece Theater has been serializing it the last couple months, w a remarkable performance by The Wire's Dominic West), who struggled impossibly for decades with naught but his concept of himself to drive him but, in the end, defeated judgement with virtue.

But I myself am near crisis because it is getting harder & harder to recommend life to others with all the venality around me. Having been brought up in the Kennedy Era with the belief that the American Miracle was a step on the path to humankind's inevitable perfectibility, it has not been easy realizing that it is much more likely to have been an anomaly, a blinding flash of glare interrupting an endless parade of human corruption, cruelty, vanity, delusion & jealous greed. Not only am i beginning to feel utterly surrounded by it, but i seldom see any realization from the horde that the ways of selfishness are something that does not recommend us and should even be adjusted.

So how was your day?
Click to expand...
First, how was the PBS production? Worth checking out?

To the larger point, yes I grew up under Reagan who brought out (I think) a similar positive and exceptional spirit as Kennedy. Then in school I saw the rise of computers and the internet so the future seemed so bright- really the next step of Kennedy’s vision. Science and engineers, internet being the new “outer space”.

 Here we are at what is probably near the middle of my life and our country is guided by anger, rage, idiocy and incompetence. We elected not someone to bring hope or highlight exceptionalism but to articulate our rage publicly. That John Oliver story Sunday about how we can’t even handle death investigations properly is just another piece of lumber in the bonfire of our virtue. There’s no peace even in death. One might end up laying on a table in some back alley coroners office run by a bottom feeding scam artist because we are too dysfunctional to make sure there’s money provided to have doctors and medical facilities to handle autopsies. 

On the bright side, much of this is likely due to the increase in media coverage. John Oliver said doctors have been suggesting we improvise the coroner system for over 150 years. Crime rates are actually mostly lower than they were in the 60s and 70s. If we can somehow fix our economic system and pull the corporate hand from our rear hole, we might be able to get things back on track.

 
Gr00vus said:
Progress, like pizza, does not come in a straight line.

I'm currently doing a re-read of Bruce Catton's Civil War books (the guy was a master). It's disturbingly striking how many parallels there are between the social/political environment then and what we have now. You had a lot of people committed to doing the wrong thing, for the wrong reasons while convincing themselves and any who would listen that they were right - they bought into their own delusions so much that reason based compromise became impossible. You had a lot of people who did the right thing for the wrong reasons as well, similarly talking themselves into positions via irrational emotion that they also would not compromise. You had a lot of people who did the right thing for the right reasons, sometimes  just as irrationally committed, but you had a critical mass of folks who somehow married reason with the will to push on.

In the end, one side (I like to think the "right" side) won because they had more resources to burn. I don't know that that outcome can apply today. But I do know it gives me a modicum of hope that things can still play out where doing the right thing will happen, and happen because reasonable people can figure out it's the right thing to do outside of emotional appeal to self interest. Try and find those people and let them reinforce the notion that we're not all hopeless. There's plenty of them who post on this board for starters.
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You've got a point, but how far is reason from the order of the day? I'd reckon it somewhere behind Marvel & porkbelly & ranking aps, nm where it places amid human motive

 
Gr00vus said:
Progress, like pizza, does not come in a straight line.

I'm currently doing a re-read of Bruce Catton's Civil War books (the guy was a master). It's disturbingly striking how many parallels there are between the social/political environment then and what we have now. You had a lot of people committed to doing the wrong thing, for the wrong reasons while convincing themselves and any who would listen that they were right - they bought into their own delusions so much that reason based compromise became impossible. You had a lot of people who did the right thing for the wrong reasons as well, similarly talking themselves into positions via irrational emotion that they also would not compromise. You had a lot of people who did the right thing for the right reasons, sometimes  just as irrationally committed, but you had a critical mass of folks who somehow married reason with the will to push on.

In the end, one side (I like to think the "right" side) won because they had more resources to burn. I don't know that that outcome can apply today. But I do know it gives me a modicum of hope that things can still play out where doing the right thing will happen, and happen because reasonable people can figure out it's the right thing to do outside of emotional appeal to self interest. Try and find those people and let them reinforce the notion that we're not all hopeless. There's plenty of them who post on this board for starters.
Click to expand...
Then the right side sold out the cause a few years later for political power. You are right though that often through history we see periods of change followed by periods of backlash. 

 
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wikkidpissah said:
You've got a point, but how far is reason from the order of the day? I'd reckon it somewhere behind Marvel & porkbelly & ranking aps, nm where it places amid human motive
Click to expand...
I agree with you to an extent - our society is beset with adults who are operating as adolescents (fully admitting I have my moments too). When I see grown men and women walking around in their Target bought Millennium Falcon T-Shirts unironically, it makes me a bit sad. But not all of us are stuck there. Someone cleverer than I will figure out how to distract those into doing the right thing, instead of the wrong thing - I hope. If we keep talking about it, and demanding some reason from each other at least, that will keep hope alive.

 
Ilov80s said:
First, how was the PBS production? Worth checking out?

To the larger point, yes I grew up under Reagan who brought out (I think) a similar positive and exceptional spirit as Kennedy. Then in school I saw the rise of computers and the internet so the future seemed so bright- really the next step of Kennedy’s vision. Science and engineers, internet being the new “outer space”.

 Here we are at what is probably near the middle of my life and our country is guided by anger, rage, idiocy and incompetence. We elected not someone to bring hope or highlight exceptionalism but to articulate our rage publicly. That John Oliver story Sunday about how we can’t even handle death investigations properly is just another piece of lumber in the bonfire of our virtue. There’s no peace even in death. One might end up laying on a table in some back alley coroners office run by a bottom feeding scam artist because we are too dysfunctional to make sure there’s money provided to have doctors and medical facilities to handle autopsies. 

On the bright side, much of this is likely due to the increase in media coverage. John Oliver said doctors have been suggesting we improvise the coroner system for over 150 years. Crime rates are actually mostly lower than they were in the 60s and 70s. If we can somehow fix our economic system and pull the corporate hand from our rear hole, we might be able to get things back on track.
Click to expand...
Magnificent production, screenplay by the immense Andrew Davies (who's written 90% of the great novel adaptations ever) with an all-time performance by West and some great supporting roles (inc our reigning Best Actress Olivia Colman). Never seen a Les Mis adaptation that doesnt bog down at the blockade and this is no exception, but still the best TV i've seen this season (gave up on GoT after S2).

I applaud Oliver for hitting some 60 Minute-type areas instead of pounding the politix this season, but it abets the view that selfishness & corruption abides and that its path may be our inextricable course for the foreseeable future.

 
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