Congressional Fundraising: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) 

+Joshua Ehl Believe that can be said for most of things in the US today.

Seth Crimson Nailed it.

To be fair the said founders were slavers, so it's probably for the best :)

Eh the same could be said for the USA not officially supporting slavery but here we are anyway.

Who gives a fuck what a bunch of flea bitten primitives thought hundreds of years ago.

That must have skinned the senator if he got any. Cold blooded unmasking of a politician.

And the way it was delivered? So dry? Absolutely some of his best work.

Tom Magennis He seemed pretty relatable. Very real.

When you're retiring with a hefty pension, a padded savings account in the bank, and are about to be freed from Congress for life, I think it's fair to not give a shit about anything.

It's not though. The same way that this video wasn't just a piss-take. It's things like this that manage to get this important information to many people; Steve Israel simply got another medium to inform the public about how ridiculous that system he despises is and how we _really need to change it_ - which is what he himself wants, far as I understood it. For people to get upset about it and to work together to change it.

I enjoyed watching him die inside as John drank the wine from the bag 😂

@@Ethan-yk3hi me too. It was so sadistic but, worth watching. John nailed it.

+Matthew Sexton Not really If I were a Congressman or Senator I would ask for direct contributions from my voters and not big corporations or rich people because because I'm a real progressive and I want our country to become a Social Democracy like Denmark ( A Capitalist economy with actual rules to make everything fair ).

And new tele- is social media, not phones

@@harrychristofi6725 As the system currently is, you'd pretty much have to be in a safe seat and be an independent candidate in order to be able to do that sort of thing.

+xXXDumbWordStupidNumberXXx Fair enough, but it’s possible to be a Progressive in a deep blue Democratic U.S House district lol

@@harrychristofi6725 But they'd still have to take large donations in order to pay party dues, that's why I said they'd pretty much have to be independent.

PROTIP

i am from germany, i don't understand that. what is it about?

+Malory Acher clearly the best part was his analogy about the massage that starts with a handjob :D

+Synapsenkitzler Basically, Girl Scouts, an organization has a famous reputation for selling you their cookies. And some can be very insistent. So John Oliver is basically saying that politicians can be even more desperate than a girl scout who owes people money. I think.

+Malory Acher She knows where you live! 4 BOXES!

MrHousecup that and the vast amount of different views and proposals too

MrHousecup it’s worse than that. They get tons of stuff done for their donors - but only for the ones who can donate hundreds or thousands of dollars at a time.

they get plenty done.. they keep getting re-elected

LOL Imagine thinking THIS is the reason that nothing gets done by politicians. You fucking buffoon.

@@leannaburnell1745 If someone spends half or two thirds of their time on the job trying to convince people to help them keep their job instead of actually doing it, just think about what that implies for their job performance. And when you consider every other candidate has the same problem, yeah, you are looking at a system that is designed around maintaining the appearance of job performance rather than working.

His job was to be the soul crusher, and he was proud of that fact, and damn good at it.

Well, the entire premise of show is examining definitive soul-crushing aspects of being an American... ...and our developmentally arrested species in general.

Bucky Hate even though you made this comment 10 months ago, I have to compliment the brilliance of it.

@@thekwjiboo here here

Craig Johnson here here

+

Red

Haha same here

+Ankit Hazarika we all wanted sleep

same!

+Django 776 we all know that wasn't going to happen when you check youtube

The accuracy

0 shots given. A true political machine workhorse.

he's going to telling other politicians to do stuff but a horrible politician himself then again, most of America's politicians are idiots. Most of the politicians in the world are idiots or selfish if not both.

It's because he was leaving office, so he could finally tell the truth.

@@knytetech7732 yeah. Sadly

Yes! 😂😂😂

@@London_J pp3q

One of the 3 best lines!

😂

I'd watch it.

I don't think they could handle all that money

+Some Body and someone is going to fap to it. Just because this is the internet.

+Emmey *sigh* *unzips*

Truer words have never been spoken. Except probably the words “Pootis Spencer here” but that’s beside the point.

It's not exactly corrupt tho. They're not taking bribes from anyone

@@kaushikiyer4881 corruption takes many forms

An obsession with the free market can be dangerous, the US is a perfect example of privatization gone wrong

It's weird seeing this capitalised like this because in Croatian the name for the US is SAD (Sjedinjene Američke Države, literally United American (we use adjectives a bit differently here) States)

Perspective: They are not willing to change it so let them sit in their shit.

Think we could be using this money for waffle irons.

Citizens united made their job easier , they only need to talk to Bill Gates and he does the rest.

Connar Comstock but they were crazy before they had to do that

4 hours is nothing compared to what they get paid.

As someone who worked in a call center I can confirm it drives one mad

@@basillah7650 4 hours in a call center is only a tiny part of what they have to do to get paid.

It sucks he doesn't post once a week every week but it's on HBO so, seasons

How’s the swearing going lol? You learned from the best!

Edie Snow love how John says oh oh congressman I would never do this to a glass

Does it go any older than that?

Buzzfeed.

+Electric Jesus Buzzfeed suck, my Lord and Electric Saviour

+Electric Jesus no.

Buzzfeed is nowhere close to being investigative journalism. Internet news in general is not journalism in any way.

+datguyyo I disagree (it's the internet, everyone does). The journalism (in America at least) industry is only hanging on because of online news. Internet reporters get Journalism/ Communications degrees like newspaperwriters. But you might think "Oh it's just BuzzFeed news, it's amateur work", but BuzzFeed writers are phenomal compared to other online news. All the writers do their job outstandingly as *journalists* and some of them even graduated from Ivy League Schools. These are all what makes online news *journalism*.

Awesome thanks for sharing

It looks like it was a great place. Johnny's hair didn't deserve that barb.

Phil Noll Actually, John Oliver filled in for Jon Stewart occasionally on The Daily Show, WHICH RAN ON COMEDY CENTRAL. But I see where you're coming from. Oliver made a FAR better choice to go to HBO.

+Lucifer lol

+alasoify a true fan of LWT

+Lucifer nah. she meant brillent

+alasoify Brillient. Nice, I like your style.

+Lucifer It's a reference to one of LWT's fan mail videos! xD

+Nick K you're right but I think he meant congress haha

Antonyms don't work like that.

+ISHKA with that logic, what will you make of constitution?

+ISHKA Digress?

+ISHKA congress amirite fellas

+Philo Janus To be fair, most people who work in call centers describe it the same way

Jonathon Moran Well sure, but we've earned the right to call it a shitty existence. These guys are just daytrippers.

Since we're bitching about who has the worst job, I work 10 - 12 hours a day in a shitty factory in 100 degree weather. I also usually work 7 days a week so about 70 - 84 hours a week. I would love to work at a cubicle or only work 8 hours a day.

Bernie still receives large donations from corporate interests, which can be viewed on the Open Secrets website.

I fed up with this world;

We learn to do that in drama class. At least, in mine we did. Full commitment & all.

it's his improv background haha. Object Work.

That's basically Stephen Colbert anytime he pretends to have a prop on the Late Show

Them Ustar Dprin Ce, Colbert is hilarious with how carefully he puts away his imaginary props, especially because he typically just flings his real props away. So funny!

Yup, you bring a prop in you see it through! 😀

only the us and maybe somalia

LMAOOOOOO LETS NOT REDUCE INEQUALITY BUT LET'S COMPLAIN WHEN OUR REPRESENTATIVES ONLY LISTEN TO DONATIONS AND LOBBYING

You've let big business and their money /lobbyists to take over. We have laws in Europe to protect us against that.

We have rules, but the money still is there. Just with a different name.

+Might Guy if you think this is depressing, try to binge watch his segments on Prosecutors, Public Defender, Municipal Violations, Bail, Mandatory Minimum, Prison and Prisoner Re-entry together. It's gonna break you down.

...

I do not think John needs to shill for TYT. They just are not relevant except on RU-vid.

+Phil Dog I would support their message from wolf-pac, but it is run by shitty regressive leftists.

+stinknus the regressive right costed taxpayers $24billion with their shutdown stunt. Traitors..

+stinknus thats weird. vote on the issues, not the people. its fine to support wolfpac but still dislike tyt

The money is not to do there job, the money is used to pay for campaign advertisements to convince Americans to vote for them so they get re-elected.

+Mitchell Nelson So in other words, their job right? If they were doing their "job", Americans will be convinced to re-elect them that is to say by using Ian's metaphor, if the employee does a good job and helps the boss secure a profit, the boss can then have enough money to afford rent. Did I really have to explain that?

Mitchell Nelson That is his job right?

+Mitchell Nelson in this comparison, the voters are the "boss"

Oh my god your right

YES.

And, now that we've been educated and entertained, let's all have a national discussion and work towards overturning this part of the system. I hope people don't just "like" and move on :)

That unfortunately won't help the solution.

+thelousyllama u dont say sherloc

Let's all calm down, accept that america was fucked from the beginning ever since lazy cowards invaded and stole the land from the indians, the true owners. Now raise your glass of wine. Say "We're terribly sorry, indians." Cheers!

+5chr4pn3ll agreed

same

I never thought I would see someone I know in a comment section.

+Kimberly LaFreniere Same. Wait, I don't know any of you nvm

+Amzin Barclay I'm pretty sure there is an analogous situation in every democratic system in the world, only with variations by degree of subtlety / secrecy

Kimberly LaFreniere NO WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

+The Master Politicans aren't owned by anyone that they don't want to be. These are the last people on earth that should be victimized, yet a way was found. There is no reason to believe that Congress would any less dysfunctional if this process were to change. There would still be phone calls and fundraisers and the peddling of influence. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Norm604 Not sure i understand what your point is. As i see it, the money hoarding required of politicians creates a big problem when talking about corruption. If all politicians need to gather a surtain amount of money through these fundraisers, to stay in office, then corruption cannot be stopped, since in order to keep your job, you hafto ask for money from shady corporations who wants something in return. So suddenly the congressman needs to honor the deals he makes for the donations, and this makes way for BAD laws and bills that are good for the corporation in question, but bad for every single normal citizen. SO the only solution to corruption is to abolish money from politics entirely, so politicians arent forced to make deals with greedy corporations. And if a politician has a good paycheck, he will not need the extra money under the table for his expencive stuff. I really dont see any other way to fix corruption. You cannot regulate it, since lawyers will find a loophole and all corporations will abuse that direction instead.

My point is that you can't buy your way out of this. It doesn't matter how much money you give someone, there is always room for more. There is always plenty of power and influence to be given out. When they leave Congress, almost everyone gets involved in lobbying somehow. Also, do you think that the public would be willing to pay more taxes to support candidates that they hate? You can be the one to tell the public that they are going to be forced to pay for Trump or Clinton's campaign. That will go over wonderfully.

Norm604 Sure, if that is your approach to fixing it. Moving one expence payed by rich people, to the poor people's taxes. Then you are right, we shouldnt do it. But if you removed the need to have money in politics all together, then this wouldnt be a problem anymore. There must be a better way, its just not allowed to think outside of money and profits in this society :)

I am just a realist. Just like with PAC money, they would all find a way around it and then it would just be a bigger mess. No one is ever in control in D.C. and they like it that way. Bernie wouldn't even put a dent in it.

+Patrick Nealon I cringed at that initially, but he only used that source for the table. Thankfully, Buzzfeed's credibility (or lack thereof) wasn't really involved.

Fat

+Boxertt Gaming I'm sorry, you're doing it wrong.

Tbh, Buzzfeed has been getting better at news reports.

BuzzfeedNews is actually one of the best in the game right now. Their main listicle-type page subsidizes some exceptional investigative journalism.

+Matt McMurran The fuck! Does sound like it!

Could be a really loud sneeze. Or it could be a service dog that acted up for a second. Though, the former seems a tad more likely.

☝️💯💯🙌😂😂📭💯😂📭👂🙌💯😂💯

+Matt McMurran dude I thought this will have much more likes! I had to pause a video and find your comment because it defi sounded like loud bark! wtf :D

yeah i scrolled through and was surprised no one else seemed to comment on it

I did, I wasn't sure what it was at first though, it seemed out of place. :)

+Phillip Corley it was a sneeze

That's just what English people's farts sound like. Oliver let one slip.

Yep, that and/or banging some 22-year-old female staffer in the loo.

Their...salaries...if you will come from taxes. But they got little or no money to run their campaigns - to buy advertising time on TV and radio, to rent out big auditoriums where they give speeches to potential voters, to fly across country to campaign events, to host big expensive dinners where they try and get rich people to give them money to pay for the aforementioned events.

Nicole C And why do they need campaigns? Candidates can just put their programs on the official websites and people will read and understand their policies and choose the candidate whose vision is the closest to their own.

+Vladislav Korchevoy You overestimate the common people...

+Vladislav Korchevoy are you trying to sound naive?

***** Not really. I just know that it is a unique practice and in most of other developed countries politicians don't get funded by corporations, and taking into account how harmful it is because politicians basically become donors' puppets, I believe it is an important question each American should ask himself

-_-

Answer to both you guestions is sadly: jews

+GuyOnAChair ​​ My child, you mustn't be watching this show. Why don't I read you some exciting snail facts instead?

+Kenyan Legs Jet Fuel can't actually melt anything seeing as it's cooled down so that they can store even more of it in the tanks. However it will burn quite a lot if a fire is present due to extreme heat development, and seeing as Steel has the low low melting point of 1600ºC and is a great heat conductor, so yes 9/11 was an inside job, they could've at least used something less prone to smelting such as Tungsten Carbide with the low low melting point of 3400ºC I say low low, because it's pretty much the only thing in existence with such a high melting point. However if you want a building then using Tungsten Carbide isn't the most efficient way, seeing as it's extremely expensive compared to Steel, and as it's literally impossible to build a house out of, seeing as it's not very malleable or bendy or anything else but rigid, hard, not likely to deform and so on. However if human technology did advance as far as I know it has then all they really needed to do was coat the whole fucking building in aerogel and the whole problem wouldn't have existed in the first place.

+I'm Very Angry It's Not Butter (#WTFU) but i want to go home :c

+SpraxIAKS Drink the pain away, friends. Drink it all a way.