Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Voting Rights
September 27, 2021 3:20 AM - Season 8, Episode 24 - Subscribe

This week.... Two hosts of The View test positive for COVID mid-show moments before Kamala Harris was due to appear. In Del Rio, Texas, Haitians attempting to cross the border were met with border patrol agents on horseback wielding makeshift whips. And Now: Local News Anchors Announce The Changing Of The Seasons The Only Way They Know How. ("It's Fall, y'all!") Main story (YouTube, 20 minutes): Voting rights, why they're under attack, and what should be done to protect them. And Now: The Utterly Spectacular Dramatic Pauses Of ESPN's Stephen A. Smith. Finally: duck stamps. They're not postage stamps, but kind of a hunting permit. But they're also collectable, and effective at raising money towards wetland preservation. There is much more to this than you'd expect there to be (see inside for more info).

Every year there is a competition held to determine the art to be used on the next duck stamp, and the competition is very serious. And what does Last Week Tonight tend to do when finds an important and very self-serious competition that's open to the public?

Last Week Tonight commissioned a painting of a Blue-Winged Teal flying by the dog from Duck Hunt (refering to a stupid Trump-era rule, since abolished thankfully, this one that all the paintings had to contain hunting paraphernalia), and were going to enter it, but it was disqualified for having lettering or numbering on the entry: ("002000 SCORE"). But! In fact they submitted five paintings, and three weren't disqualified. It is true that none were picked (or even made it past the first round of voting), but all of them are not only available for viewing, but are being auctioned off, with all the proceeds going to the federal Duck Stamp program, until Friday, at: bestduckingstamps.com. Here are the five eBay auctions.

On running a television show: "...it's basically like raising a toddler. It's unpredictable, occasionally frustrating, and if you ever find yourself having to scream 'NO,' someone's about to run into a deadly situation."
New Hampshire: "They present themselves as charming but, deep down, they're basically just Florida with foliage."
The Outdoors: "Home to lakes, trees, and a candy witch who lures children to their doom."

F. 37: "So Langela," ANGELA MERKEL
posted by JHarris (4 comments total)
 
Oh lord, I actually scrolled through the duck stamp entries last week ahead of the contest (shut up, it's not like I watched the livestream) and saw a couple of these entries. I thought it was funny people were trolling the duck stamp competition, but never guessed it was Last Week Tonight. I am sure I don't have the funds to secure an original, alas.
posted by the primroses were over at 7:21 PM on September 27, 2021 [3 favorites]


I totally remember duck stamps from back then. I recall hearing that it was actually doing some good - glad to have that validated all these years later.

Duck stamps is a US Fish and Wildlife Service thing. I've heard that 'Ducks Unlimited' (in the US and in Canada) also does good work.
posted by porpoise at 8:10 PM on September 27, 2021 [1 favorite]


I noticed from the audio in that border patrol footage that one of the men on horseback was chastising the Haitian refugees about how they "use their women". He seemed to see this as justifying any violence he wanted to inflict on them.

The only explanation I can think of for this odd remark is that he'd conflated Christian refugees from Haiti with the actions of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Either that, or he simply assumed that anyone with dark skin must, by definition, be a fundamentalist Muslim - and hence a potential terrorist too.
posted by Paul Slade at 2:54 AM on September 28, 2021


The only explanation I can think of for this odd remark is that he'd conflated Christian refugees from Haiti with the actions of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Either that, or he simply assumed that anyone with dark skin must, by definition, be a fundamentalist Muslim - and hence a potential terrorist too.

There is an SMBC (?) cartoon that observes that every nationalist/racist characterization of any identifiable group (“they’re lazy, they have never done an honest day’s work in their lives, they treat women terribly”) applies to all of humanity.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:00 AM on September 29, 2021 [1 favorite]


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