Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Tobacco (HBO)
Thanks to tobacco industry regulations and marketing restrictions in the US, smoking rates have dropped dramatically. John Oliver explains how tobacco companies are keeping their business strong overseas.
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(Photo: USO Tour, via flickr)
JOHN OLIVER does a lot of good educating the masses about the abuses and crimes of capitalism, especially on the home front, but he too, despite his courage to push the boundaries apparently must pay his dues to the empire in terms of “fealty to our defining national cause” these days, the eternal imperial wars against—well, you name it. There’s always some threat out there ready to strike at the good American people. Here he is entertaining the troops in the Middle East, the Washington cabal’s favorite killing fields. Why he felt he had to do that, join the by now highly questionable Bob Hope tradition of “supporting the troops” (which sends the message to the public that the wars are all right), is beyond me. I suppose he’ll explain that in his memoirs 40 years from now, when we are all dead and the whole thing no longer matters. —P. Greanville
Official photo caption: “Comedian John Oliver performs a USO show for troops stationed in the Middle East on August 19, 2013. Oliver is in the region for a week boosting troop morale alongside fellow “Daily Show” colleagues Rory Albanese, Elliott Kalan and Adam Lowitt. This is the group’s first-ever USO tour. USO photos by Dave Gatley”
