Hello, buglers! John Oliver has a weekly show, "Last Week Tonight"

on the plus side, anyone here CAN buy up old debt through Rolling Jubilee right now!
http://rollingjubilee.org/

Or not! But you _can_ support the Debt Collective which is lobbying for systemic overhaul of the system.
https://debtcollective.org/

What I don't get is that the debt he bought was beyond statute which would mean it's not recoverable, doesn't it? (And explains why it was so cheap) Or was the point that some dodgy debt collectors would still bully people into paying it? Possible through uncontested court cases?

Correct. And they could use state support to garnish wages, be legally entitled to harass people even though they were not legally bound to pay the dept, and so on...

That was the point the sneering guy at the conference was making: the debt collection company is legally required to say in their letter that the debt is beyond statute, but he reckons that their targets don't or can't read those letters properly, so they'd still be scared enough to pay up in enough cases to make it worthwhile.

ah, ok, i was watching at work and obviously missed some details.

americans, eh?

This joke has to have been made re the Al Smith dinner: 'Henry Kissinger thought Trump bombed horrifically, and Henry Kissinger is pretty much the world's leading authority on horrific bombings'

If not, then good job, LWT writers.

The Bugle is back, with American comedian/podcaster Hari Kondabolu being the recipient of Andy's puns from the other side of the pond:

https://soundcloud.com/the-bugle/bugle-4001-tony-the-tiger-rip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlHo-F1z_aw

kinda sums up the general media's complicity in this shitshow

hah yeah that clip was on his show last week. I know this whole thing is great for the comedy shows but I do believe John when he says he'd so much rather be talking about anything else.

I don't think you can blame Oliver or the media - we (almost) all thought it was a hahaomgtheynominatedhimWIN situation right up until 6pm CST Tuesday.

and for all the Monday morning quarterbacking about not seeing the possibility and understanding how a populist ideologue playing on fears could work or how people could ignore bad behavior it is still almost impossible to understand how it didn't bother 48 million people that he was a reality TV star and braggart. If you ran into a guy at the bar who couldn't go two sentences without talking about how amazing he is, you'd hate him. That's universal! No one likes or respects that guy.

You'd think so, but there are people who dig that kind of personality

we (almost) all thought it was a hahaomgtheynominatedhimWIN situation right up until 6pm CST Tuesday

well many people who lived in that bubble are still in it. it was a very well-constructed bubble.

Yeah that's the part that gets me too. Trump has always been about as well-liked as a Kardashian. He's a massive dick and proud of it. He was famous but I don't think you would ever want to meet him. When Schwarzenegger won governor I understood it, people love him for reasons they know has nothing to do with his ability to be a politician, but they wanted to give him a chance because of it. Who the hell loves Donald Trump? His merchandise sucks. He's a walking punchline.

I mean, I feel guilty in all this too. I shared the hell out of those Vic Berger videos where he rips Jeb apart and commented stuff like "Trump is such a savage, haha". I mean, I had no idea either. We all assumed he was going to drop out as soon as he got bored.

I never assumed that, but I figured he wouldn't be taken seriously.

Anyone know why the latest episode is being geoblocked?

they built a firewall, and cisco is gonna pay for it!

Shame that the series has come to an end. Hope the next series will happen and nothing is done to prevent satirical shows from happening under the new presidency.
Just discovered a lot less people seem to be torrenting Full Frontal this week. Would hope there would be even more of an appettite for this kind of show after the electi8on results.

Anyone know why the latest episode is being geoblocked?

― Manitobiloba (Kim)

he got sick of all the british people mercilessly making fun of him?

It's been geoblocked for about ten months from here. I assume for the most likely and obvious reason.

Not on Facebook. It's been fine there, until Sunday.

It's on YouTube. Although the one I watched claimed to be hd but was obviously done using a phone pointed at a TV.

(Here = UK)

It's usually worth searching out on YouTube for the bits that they don't put on Facebook, which is usually everything but the one main 'article'

Ah, first comment on Facebook says that last week's was posted using YouTube instead of Facebook because of some special promotion. And looking at it the Facebook post is just a link to YouTube, whereas previous week's are hosted on Facebook.

Did those fake commercials air during Morning Joe this morning?

that handshake montage was one of the laziest, least funny things i have ever seen

John Oliver is painfully unfunny IMO

did they steal those sound effects from Dave Coulier

I do wonder if he's always shaken hands this ineptly or if it's another signal of his rapidly decaying motor faculties. honestly probably the latter, which is less funny but more terrifying.

deport john oliver
deport trevor noah

I'm glad Oliver's back, I was missing these very perceptive takes on the quality of his show.

I still like the show's relative "deep dive" approach to specific topics but I've liked it less and less as it's increasingly become just one long Trump piece (a fatigue Oliver has himself expressed tbf)

it would be a bit odd for him to tackle anything else right now, understandably

Trump actually makes those deep dives even more vital considering how scattershot this administration has already been. 30 minutes on any one of the many topics that gets buried every day under the blizzard of bullshit could be essential.

I will admit it was really fucking stupid to act like the worst thing about Puzder is that his companies make commercials with models eating greasy cheeseburgers. and now it seems as though Congress has picked up the scent:

https://twitter.com/crushingbort/status/831945473669869568

Oliver's show seems easily distracted. one minute he's cowering under the desk in existential fear, the next introducing a wacky sound effects handshake montage like a snobby Jimmy Fallon.

maybe because i only watch the monologues posted online and not the full show, i'm not really sick of of schtick yet

I generally like the show but it often comes off like a really long Gawker article, with jokes that seem like they would've worked better printed rather than delivered through JO's rushed cadence.

I've been really impressed with John Oliver this season so far. He's been able to address the ongoing fuckery without always focusing on Trump himself, and I've found the slight change in perspective a salve of sorts. And his stuff about the zebras this week made me laugh harder than I have in months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAMQHyjr4xA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzheZlnz9TU

yeah the zebras thing was funny. It reminde me of something Andy and he would go on about for 15 minutes on the old Bugle.

I can barely watch this show though, since it's so much less funny than the podcast was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg5Ui6JwoIs

what a great way to come down from the mueller report

Feel like he's been on a really good run lately, I really liked the WWE episode.

yeah, that was great. very well-timed too

i had mostly written this show off but been watching the youtubes lately and he seems improved

Aw, I feel like he never had a dip in quality.

I really appreciate that they use this platform to do some actual useful journalism, I find the main segments really informative (and usually depressing)