Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: The Sackler Family
August 9, 2021 1:18 AM - Season 8, Episode 20 - Subscribe

This week, from the white void (for three more weeks).... Andrew Cuomo tries to ride out the numerous sexual harassment allegations against him. Russia competes under another name in the Olympics, as the Russian Olympic Committee. And Now: The Electrifying Small Talk Of San Antonio's 'Daytime With Kimberly & Esteban.' Main story (Youtube, 24 minutes): While on the surface it appears that Purdue Pharmaceuticals is finally being duly punished for their role in the opioid epidemic, the plan under consideration lets the Sackler family that currently owns it off in many ways. The Sacklers have created a website. judgeforyourselves.info, to give their side of the story, but Last Week Tonight got the dot-com version, judgeforyourselves.com, to give a broader picture, featuring video of "Richard Sackler" (played by Richard Kind).

The voice of the void is, again, H. Jon Benjamin.

F.37: "Resignum Timum," ANDREW CUOMO
posted by JHarris (4 comments total)
 
I haven't been watching the olympics, but ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) was really confusing (with Republic of China - but Taiwan is competing as Chinese Taipei). No fault of the show.

$2500 well spent.

TIL the Sackler settlement is even worse than I had imagined.
posted by porpoise at 7:24 PM on August 9, 2021 [2 favorites]


How is this still a thing: The Sackler family.
posted by Marticus at 10:56 PM on August 9, 2021 [2 favorites]


I've been watching the FARGO series lately & this episode made me think about the thin line between corporations and organized crime that they like to play with on that show.
posted by bleep at 12:28 PM on August 11, 2021 [2 favorites]


The whole ROC thing gets to be even worse (somehow) during the upcoming Paralympics.

Most sports have multiple sport classes based on impairment type, degree or required equipment. This leads to the possibility of many many more participants. The facilities and logistics of hosting a world class event don't exactly mesh with having every possible participant in attendance so countries are limited by a number of qualifying slots. In short because (for the most part) an athlete doesn't qualify for the the Paralympics their NPC gets a slot in which they can fill with an athlete who meets the qualification standards there shouldn't be anyway for an athlete to compete without a country.

The obvious counter example being, of course, the refugee team which (basically) the IPC home team with limited spots filled by athletes who meets the criteria of being a qualified refugee.

More than that the process of sportclass allocation cannot be requested by an athlete not can an appointment be arranged for an athlete. Again this is a process that is handled between the governing body of the sport in question and the NSO who then brings the athlete.

So in a couple of weeks we are going to see Russian athletes who no NSO or NPC who have had access to classification going to Tokyo to compete using limited slots and winning medals and setting records with no legitimate means of doing any of those things. What's the point?

Excuse me; I need to check on athletes who have been called to doping control at our staging camp tonight and make sure the support for the underaged athlete with an intellectual impairment hasn't run into any unforeseen hurdles. Because, y'know, this isn't 'Nam and there are (supposed to be) rules.
posted by mce at 9:42 PM on August 11, 2021 [2 favorites]


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