It’s become normal for John Oliver to start every episode of Last week last night by saying “A lot happened this week” because it’s wildly precise. It seemed like he was speaking a mile-minute this week to try to fit in pertinent news at the top of the show.
First on the list was the Democratic National Convention, which many called an “unconventional” convention, and thought it was those who coined this phrase. It was unconventional because it was a virtual affair with delegates who came up with fun ways to represent their states during the call. Oliver especially put the spotlight on Rhode Island, which was one of the most memorable because they brought on calamari like a masked man, Oliver referred to as “the calamari ninja” presented a plate of the delicious appetizer.
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“I had no idea calamari was the official state appetizer of Rhode Island,” he said. “It’s maybe the first thing I learned about that state that I actually like.”
He then took a chance to take, once again, unclear jabs in Danbury, Connecticut. ‘Of course it does not include the city of Danbury, Connecticut. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: f *** Danbury … babies, parents, pets, buildings, you can go f *** yourself. Of course, this comes after the mayor of Danbury recently named her sewer wall after Oliver. This is an unlikely – and funny – feud that will provide our weeks for upcoming entertainment.
With the DNC, Oliver indicated that the convention was trying its best to get in the middle of the road. Although there were appearances by notable progressives such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Stacey Abrams, much real estate was given to Republicans such as Meg Whitman, Colin Powell and John Kasich.
“It’s hard to convince progressive voters that you’re a foward-looking party if your convention feels like a Zoom reunion, unless the show is the 2008 RNC,” he said.
Oliver noted that Biden’s nomination speech also played it safe. He showed warmth and empathy and name-controlled broad goals such as expanding childcare and ending racism. However, his speech was light on details. Instead, he relied heavily on lines like this: ‘This will determine what America will look like in a long, long time. Character is on the mood, compassion is on the mood, decency, science, demo – they are all on the mood. ‘ To which Oliver replied: “Now normally I would point out that compassion and decency are not concrete policy agendas, but considering open authoritarianism is also on the mood, sure, wtf … adequate vs evil – let’s go.”
The DNC has spent four days pointing out that Biden is not Trump. Oliver claimed that most of the convention by saying that Trump is not fit for office, might have been over, because 45 spent the entire week making that case for her by continuing to express his distrust give by post, to boycott Goodyear and reject the QAnon collusion theory.
Oliver turned to what we should have paid more attention to: the First Chamber report confirmed that Trump’s campaign was uncomfortably close to Russian intelligence. “It’s something we already knew, but it’s fun to have it in writing,” he said.
New details cited Paul Manafort’s “willingness to share information with people closely linked to the Russian intelligence services” as “a serious threat to opposition”. The report also describes how Roger Stone tried to get WikiLeaks to smash malicious emails from Hilary Clinton’s campaign chair just like Trump’s infamous Access Hollywood tape came out.
Oliver added that although Trump denied knowledge of Stone’s activities to Robert Mueller, the report put “one hell of an asterisk on that.” Contrary to what 45 claims, the commission has access to Trump talking to Stone on WikiLeaks on multiple occasions.
“The bilingual report coming from a Republican-led Senate committee is a really damning accusation of Trump’s character, and underscores just how important the November election is,” Oliver said, “and as well as the Biden’s DNC platform is not. “Trump ‘should be an overwhelmingly successful strategy, the truth is that Trump still has a real chance at reelection.”
Oliver goes back to the “calamari ninja” who was interviewed and said he did not know if he would vote for Biden because he does not know him well.
The host shared some sobering truths about this: “Although your instinctive reaction may be, ‘how can anyone still be indecisive?’ the sad fact is, a lot of people are still there, so I really hope the DNC strategy pays off this week from indefinite voters with the star power of John Kasich and Meg Whitman, because if the Democrats had just spent a week to call on conservatives who eventually vote Republican, this will actually be a depressing conventional convention. “
