Police Accountability: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

"The trust between police and the communities they serve is clearly a cornerstone of civilized society," states John Oliver. "Unfortunately, that trust has been rocked following a series of controversial police shootings from Alton Sterling to Philando Castile to Tamir Rice to so many others — I literally cannot mention them all. And cumulatively, these deaths taken with countless small incidence of police misconduct, have led to a common refrain."

John Oliver discusses the systems in place to investigate and hold police officers accountable for misconduct.

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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Debt Buyers (HBO)

“Debt-buying is a grimy business and badly needs more oversight, because as it stands any idiot can get into it. And I can prove that to you because I am an idiot and we started a debt-buying company,” said Oliver. “And it was disturbingly easy.”
John Oliver has a “giveaway” at the end of this 20-minute video on debt collectors which news sources are saying is the largest one-time giveaway in television history  - $15 million in medical debt helping out 9,000 Americans. A giveaway that even surpasses Oprah's $8 milion value free-car giveaway to each of her 276 audience members (remember that one?)...

Companies that purchase debt cheaply then collect it aggressively are shockingly easy to start. We can prove it!

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Info source: theguardian

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Public Defenders (HBO)

You have the right to remain … oh, forget it, this is Canada. 

We've all grown up watching tv where we see police arrest somebody and then read them their “Miranda” rights - "You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney." 
But as John Oliver explains, it doesn’t include the fact that these US public defenders are highly overworked and grossly underpaid...  

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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Back To School (Web Exclusive)

John Oliver starts off by trying to promise "not to swear for the next few minutes." But, as he admitted, "frankly, after a year and a half of being on HBO, I honestly don’t know if that is f***ing possible…whoops." As for chemistry class, "This is going to be disappointing – unless you have a really good teacher, you probably won’t even learn how to cook meth. And that’s all anyone’s really in it for." Check out Oliver's crash course in everything students will learn — or not learn — in school this year...

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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: LGBT Discrimination (HBO)

"Guess what," states presidential candidate John Kasich at a recent Republican Presidential debate, "I just went to a wedding of a friend of mine who happens to be gay. Because somebody doesn't think the way I do, doesn't mean I can't care about them or I can't love them..." 

John Oliver explains why we need a federal anti-discrimination law since surprisingly, LGBT discrimination is still legal in the US - despite the historical milestone of the Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage this year...

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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Sex Education (HBO)

"Only 22 states mandate that kids receive" sex education, says Oliver. "And only 13 require that the information presented be medically accurate — which is crazy. You wouldn't accept a history class not being historically accurate." Then he makes fun by saying, "'Prince started the American Revolution in 1984, and his Purple Rain lasts until the present day. Class dismissed!'"

Sex education for middle-schoolers is always a highly debated and heated topic for parents - both in the US and here in Canada, but this vid by the ever enlightening John Oliver, covers what some schools are too embarrassed to teach...

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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Food Waste (HBO)

"We love food in America, as you would know if you ever turn on a tv set," says John Oliver in the first part of his opening line. Then he shows a whole slew of tv ads depicting food promotions from various restaurants - 'all you can eat pancakes', 'all you can eat wings', and "everyone's favourite - 'endless shrimp is back..'" - you get the picture. But what we didn't get was the incredible food waste - 40% of all the food produced in the United States, never gets eaten!...

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: FIFA II (HBO)

"Despite being almost the dictionary definition of corruption, they've escaped any significant prosecution for decades, but that all ended on Wednesday," says John Oliver as he gives his follow up on the recent FIFA fiasco... 

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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: FIFA and the World Cup (HBO)

"We're a non-profit organization," says FIFA President Sepp Blatter, "and we have to remain a non-profit organization." To which the reporter immediately replied, "A non-profit organization with over a billion dollars in the bank?"

In light of what's going on recently with FIFA officials and marketing executives being indicted by the United States Department of Justice for corruption including wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering, we thought it would be interesting to look back at this old vid from 2014 by John Oliver...

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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Patents (HBO)

We learn something new all the time with John Oliver. In his latest vid, he talks about something we've never heard of before - 'Patent trolls'. They are a person or company who "typically don't invent anything or sell anything. They simply buy patents and make their money by threatening lawsuits." 
"Most of these companies don't produce anything — they just shake down anyone who does, so calling them trolls is a little misleading — at least trolls actually do something, they control bridge access for goats and ask people fun riddles. Patent trolls just threaten to sue the living s--- out of people, and believe me, those lawsuits add up." ...

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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Government Surveillance (HBO)

In Europe, many consider Edward Snowden a hero, but we think John Oliver's interview with the American computer professional who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) to the mainstream media, starting in June 2013, took many by surprise.
Check out the vid, with almost 4M views, of John Oliver as he traveled to Russia to square off with Edward Snowden about the NSA, the balance between privacy and security, and... dick-pics... 

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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Daylight Saving Time - How Is This Still A Thing? (HBO)

Yeah? Why is Daylight Saving Time still a thing? Russia stopped it. Why can't we? "If you're like most Americans, you've been groggy all day after losing an hour of sleep to Daylight Saving...", John Oliver starts off in this humorous vid that we all can relate to - not just the Americans...

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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Infrastructure (HBO)

"Infrastructure is not a sexy or glamorous topic", but somebody's got to talk about it. America's infrastructure is a scary problem as John Oliver explains...

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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue - How Is This Still a Thing?

Yes. Why is Sports Illustrated still and thing? As if we don't know. Lol. John Oliver does an amusing vid about why it still exists...  

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Turkey Pardoning (Web Exclusive)

"We're on hiatus at the moment, but like a psychotic ex, we still send you videos from time to time to remind you what you're missing..." Lol. Well spoken like only John Oliver can. Watch him here as he talks about 'Turkey pardoning'...

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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: The Lottery (HBO)

"Americans spend more money on the lottery than on America," says John, but does the U.S. lottery corporation really provide additional funding for education like it's suppose to? Well watch the vid and let John Oliver explain...

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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Home Depot Commercial (HBO)

"Robot Assistants are a terrible idea, and here's why..." Another interesting yet comical vid by John Oliver about the big Home Improvement chain store, Lowe's, and its plans on introducing robot sales assistants to one of their stores and what the other big chain - Home Depot should be doing in terms of a commercial....

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: State Legislatures and ALEC (HBO)

"State legislatures are hilarious." John Oliver talks about state legislatures and the passing of a lot of bills partly in thanks to a group called ALEC that writes legislation for them. John also states in the viralling vid: "So far, congress has just passed 185 laws, state legislation has passed more than 24,000 bills!" Something sounds 'fishy'...

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Sugar (HBO)

"This Halloween, Americans will spend $2.2 billion on candy this year." That's a lot of candy folks! John Oliver talks about that evil substance we all love so much - SUGAR -being it's Halloween and all, and how it is in EVERYTHING and how the sugar industry seems to think it's good for us....






 

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Pumpkins Spice (Web Exclusive)

It's Pumpkin Spice Latte time! You know, the coffee, as John Oliver says, "That tastes like a candle"....