Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: The US Coal Industry
June 21, 2017 5:26 PM - Season 4, Episode 16 - Subscribe

So recently you may have heard these things happening....
  • The mistrial in Bill Cosby's sexual assault case, the result of which prompted Cosby to exclaim Fat Albert's catchphrase "Hey hey hey!" while exiting the courtroom, further soiling all of our memories.
  • The incredibly unpopular AHCA Take Two, accompanied by a fitting graphic of the GOP logo with a blue skull superimposed with stars for eyes. Of the version passed by the House, Trump (who held a presentation where he celebrated its passing) was quoted as saying it was "mean," the irony entirely lost on him. Its very existence is causing problems in insurance markets, as companies decide if they want to pull out of the current markets or not.
  • And Now: Things People's Fathers Used To Say
  • Main Story: Coal, coal mining jobs, coal executives, coal mining companies, executives of coal companies, and Donald Trump's fixation on the mineral, discussed divorced of its (tremendous) ecological toll. Eventually the story comes around to involving a giant squirrel.... YouTube (24m)


The things people's fathers used to say:
  • Secretary Wilbur Ross: "There are three things you'll never change people's minds on: politics, baseball and sex."
  • Rep. Mark Sanford: "At times in life it's important to call an ace, 'an ace.'"
  • Former Gov. Mike Huckabee: "Son, don't look too far up the family tree. There's some stuff up there you don't need to see." (Personal aside: any time someone says "you don't need to see" something, you probably need to see it.)
  • (unnamed on Fox News) "If you draw a circle and shut me out, I'm going to draw a bigger circle and shut you in."
  • Rep. Alcee Hastings: "'It's Wednesday all day long unless it rains.' I never knew what would happen if it rained. I guess it would just be Rainy Wednesday."
  • Rebecca Hagelin: "Them are the rules."
  • Rep. Buddy Carter (the representative of my district, Savannah, Brunswick, Waycross): "You gon' have that. You gon' have that."
  • Sen. Angus King: "You can't tell the players without a program."
  • Sen. Angus King: "Congress is always in session."
  • "Mr. King": "There lies the body of Jonathan Gray, who died defending his right of way."
  • (unnamed on Fox News): "Dogs don't bark at parked cars." (unnamed respondant) "That is very profound."
Coal: "Cocaine for Thomas the Tank Engine."
Bob Murray: "I'm not going to say he looks like a geriatric Dr. Evil, even though he clearly does."

Ah, and now we get to the material on coal.... F.37 "Gratia Spermus" FATHER'S DAY
posted by JHarris (12 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Correction, "Bob Massey" should probably be "Bob Murray" in the Wilbur Ross bulletpoint.
posted by JHarris at 5:38 PM on June 21, 2017


It's a terrible idea for the subject of one of Last Week Tonight's segments to try to tell John Oliver not to make fun of or criticize them. It's inadvisable in a "pouring gasoline on a tire fire" kind of way.
posted by orange swan at 7:35 PM on June 21, 2017 [7 favorites]


I think this is the "Promises Made, Promises Broken" article you were looking for: "Promises Made, Promises Broken: Exposing the Real Robert Murray"
posted by joethefob at 7:53 PM on June 21, 2017 [1 favorite]


Ah! Internet Archive, I should have checked there, thanks.
posted by JHarris at 8:18 PM on June 21, 2017


at the very least he was a law professor
A lot of those jackasses think unless you are making loads of money or making someone else loads of money, it's not a "real job".

Also, HBO has been served. Considering HBO are with Maher occasionally running his mouth for 15 years, yeah, good luck with that.
posted by lmfsilva at 7:57 AM on June 22, 2017 [4 favorites]


The Daily Beast hosts the text of Murray's suit, although frustratingly it only allows for online viewing unless one wants to copy-and-paste each page of badly OCR'd text out of it. But still, the beginning of it at least it makes for fine reading. Most of page 2 is a sob story claiming that Murray needs an oxygen tank to live and doesn't expect to live to see the end of the case. Page 5 begins a tirade against Hillary Clinton and the defendants' "anti-coal agenda." Murray's cease-and-desist is framed as them helpfully pointing LWT towards studies backing up their worldview.
posted by JHarris at 8:54 AM on June 22, 2017


I went ahead and copied out the text (which as I said is badly OCR'd and thus full of misspellings) and put it into a text file here.
posted by JHarris at 12:10 PM on June 22, 2017 [1 favorite]


Only just caught up on this (LWT broadcasts late Monday evenings in the UK, so Mrs Clanger and I usually watch it on catch-up on Tuesdays, but for various reasons have only just got around to doing so this week.)

Gosh. That'll be John Oliver's version of the Reply in Arkell v Pressdram, which I previously explained here.
posted by Major Clanger at 2:03 PM on June 22, 2017


Interesting that West Virginia doesn't have a SLAPP statute.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:24 AM on June 23, 2017 [1 favorite]


Here is the PDF of the complaint. Had to dig around on The Daily Beast's site to find it.
posted by DJWeezy at 9:32 AM on June 23, 2017 [2 favorites]


Could I just say I deeply and totally support Trumps obsession with the mining industry, because just imagine if he seriously decide to mix it up in world affairs and gets a few nice wars going in the south china sea, Philippines (send marines to kill drug dealers?), or other regions. Basically a relatively small distraction that's going away anyway via market forces and it could be SO MUCH WORSE.
posted by sammyo at 9:24 AM on June 24, 2017




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