Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Corporate Consolidation
October 2, 2017 4:04 AM - Season 4, Episode 24 - Subscribe
- Donald Trump criticizes NFL players for taking the knee during the National Anthem to protest the treatment of black people by police in the US, because there is no issue of which he won't take the wrong side.
- A couple of Trump administration officials came under fire for their use of costly private jet flights. Tom Price reportedly made 24 such flights at a combined cost to US taxpayers of $400,000. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, worth $300 million, made a request (later withdrawn) to use a government jet, along the way being snide to the entire state of Kentucky.
- And Now: A Preview of Megyn Kelly's New Morning Show. (Quote from Megyn Kelly saying she hopes her show can be a "unifying force.")
- And Now: A Look At The "Unifying Force" That Is Megyn Kelly. (A quick selection of clips of her time at Fox News being anything but.)
- Main Story: Corporate consolidation. As we're reminded by clips from 34 politicians, "small businesses are the backbone of our economy." Despite rhetoric, the rate at which small businesses have been created has been falling since the 1970s, perhaps because large businesses have been getting larger and larger. YouTube (15m)
- And Now: All of Jim Cramer's Sound Buttons, Replaced With Fart Noises
- Finally, part two of the tale of the unreasonably large train set Last Week Tonight made for Scranton, PA channel WNEP's backyard train set. The station refused LWT's gift because it was just too dang big. (They had suspected it might be, but figured it'd just be more fun to build the thing anyway.) The train didn't go to waste however; it now lives in the Lackawanna County Electric City Trolley Station & Museum.
The US now has only four major airlines: American, Delta, United and Southwest.
90% of the US car rental industry is controlled by Avis, Hertz and Enterprise.
US Beer is 70% controlled by ABInBev (aka Anheuser-Busch) and MolsonCoors.
The US banking industry is dominated by JP Morgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo, "Citi" and Bank of America.
Your health insurance is probably handled by Anthem, United Healthcare, Cigna, Aetna or Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Funeral caskets are locked up between Hillenbrand, Matthews International and Aurora.
F.37: "Solidarum," PUERTO RICO AND MEXICO
I'm still amazed someone still believes any shit Kelly says. After a decade of being the face of some of the most divisive shit, does anyone actually believe she pivoted to a more reasonable stance?
For some reason, Mnuchin reminds me of a mix of two of the biggest tools on portuguese TV (the first is a completely inept sports commentator, the second is a "independent economic journalist" who claims not to be a politician but writing a book called "my government agenda" or something like that).
posted by lmfsilva at 6:50 AM on October 2, 2017 [2 favorites]
For some reason, Mnuchin reminds me of a mix of two of the biggest tools on portuguese TV (the first is a completely inept sports commentator, the second is a "independent economic journalist" who claims not to be a politician but writing a book called "my government agenda" or something like that).
posted by lmfsilva at 6:50 AM on October 2, 2017 [2 favorites]
(You could just put the large post write up stuff inside the post to reduce the height volume. I think a big batch of posts with More Inside is better than waiting!)
posted by bleep at 10:49 AM on October 2, 2017
posted by bleep at 10:49 AM on October 2, 2017
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posted by JHarris at 4:06 AM on October 2, 2017 [3 favorites]