S09.E05: Harm Reduction

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Main topic:  John Oliver discusses why overdoses in the U.S. have been on the rise and what we should, and shouldn't, be doing to prevent them.

Also:  Senate confirmation hearing of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson; UK royals Caribbean "charm tour"; yet another installment of coming up on Inside Edition; Nenana ice classic

Original air date 2022.03.27

[Annber03]

The fact that Ted Cruz still has a job is just beyond depressing. Stop talking, for the love of all that is good. Those SC hearing clips are just...sigh. I admire Jackson's restraint and subtle acknowledgement of how ridiculous these questions are, but yeah, I do wish she had the opportunity to call them out more openly. If Kavanaugh can get away with having a total meltdown, after all...

That peppy little anti-drug ad was certainly...a thing. Wow. Not gonna be able to hear the original song the same way ever again :p. Now I want to watch a full segment where they just air random anti-drug PSAs from the '80s and '90s and comment on them :p. I can think of a few memorable ones right off the top of my head right now. 

I fully agree with that woman's comments about how disconnecting and isolating people who use drugs does nothing to help them. It's both maddening and entirely unsurprising that even after the obvious failure that is the War on Drugs we still have people out there who didn't seem to get the memo and still seem to be under the impression that this war is working. 

And cops would exaggerate the dangers of being around fentanyl? I'm shocked, I tell you, absolutely shocked. 

[paigow]

How could HBO pass up the opportunity to pay for Tripod naming rights? 

[scarynikki12]

That don’t do drugs song was AMAZING.

Hats off to the Jamaican prime minister. He told William and Kate to their faces that he’s going to file for independence. I wonder how the trip was viewed back home after that.

Yeah if fetanyl were as potent and could be absorbed as easily as Blue Bloods claimed then no pharmacist would handle it out fear for their lives.

Ollie is correct that Naloxone is a fucking miracle and should be available in bulk and everywhere we turn.

I haven’t watched Inside Edition in a long time but I don’t remember it being so weird.

The Ice Classic piece is perfection. Ollie and the team were probably so happy when they learned about it. 

[Annber03]

10 minutes ago, scarynikki12 said:

I haven’t watched Inside Edition in a long time but I don’t remember it being so weird.

I remember "The Soup" doing similar compilations of some of the bizarre stories that "Inside Edition" would cover. My mom will catch that show every so often and yeah, these compilations are a pretty good glimpse into the kind of stuff they seem to cover on there nowadays. 

[JustHereForFood]

The past few weeks have been extremely shitty and I am prepared for yet another shitty week, probably worse than before. Seeing those people in Caribbean openly dissing the Royal family and seeing how John is openly gleeful about it has brightened my Monday morning by a lot.

[peeayebee]

14 hours ago, Annber03 said:

If Kavanaugh can get away with having a total meltdown, after all...

I think some Republicans said that Jackson had an attitude. I couldn't roll my eyes hard enuf since Kavanaugh displayed the attitude-iest of attitudes.

Call me naive or stupid, but why doesn't Great Britain just allow the Caribbean nations to be independent? Loved John's line, "Charm offensive? Well, it's certainly one of those things."

I appreciated the main story. I didn't know much about fentanyl, including the myth that merely touching it or being in close proximity is dangerous. My BIL used to watch Blue Bloods. I would occasionally see parts of it. Ugh. Not my cup of tea. Again, loved the observation that Blue Bloods = adult Paw Patrol.

What's the story behind "crack babies" being debunked?

I must admit that I've always had a knee-jerk reaction against places where people could safely do drugs. I understood the rationale behind it, but it's hard to change your feelings about illicit drug use. John's story has helped me change my attitude. I think some people who are against these centers probably think that drug users who OD deserve it.

I haven't watched Inside Edition in decades, but those teasers made me want to tune in. It's the original version of clickbait. BTW, what was swimming in the water in that one clips where the narrator says, "Hey buddy, how's the fishing?"

I didn't expect that tripod to be so tall. Also, I would think they'd paint it a bright red for visibility, but maybe it's tradition that it be B/W.

[heatherchandler]

33 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

 

Call me naive or stupid, but why doesn't Great Britain just allow the Caribbean nations to be independent? Loved John's line, "Charm offensive? Well, it's certainly one of those things."

 

I agree, and I will take it a step further... why should this group of people "reign over" anyone?  Do people in the UK like having a Queen, etc?

[Welshman in Ca]

1 minute ago, heatherchandler said:

I agree, and I will take it a step further... why should this group of people "reign over" anyone?  Do people in the UK like having a Queen, etc?

This group of people don't, the Queen does in name only & they can have independence whenever they want but one man doesn't get to make that decision. The queen has no say in how their country is run & if they want independence than they vote for it. Australia had a vote a few years ago as the party in charge at the time wanted to be free of the queen but the people voted & even though it was close the majority wanted to stay part of the commonwealth. There are some benefits to being part of the commonwealth but I don't know enough to know what exactly.

Most people I know don't have a strong opinion about the queen but there are a lot that do both ways.

[paigow]

18 minutes ago, Welshman in Ca said:

There are some benefits to being part of the commonwealth but I don't know enough to know what exactly.

Mostly participating in the Commonwealth Games - boost national pride by winning some gold medals without those podium hogging American, Russian and Chinese athletes in the way...

[JustHereForFood]

2 hours ago, heatherchandler said:

I agree, and I will take it a step further... why should this group of people "reign over" anyone?  Do people in the UK like having a Queen, etc?

Haha, just check out the Royals topic on this forum.

[Victor the Crab]

I swear, Ollie and his crew like to dig thru Biden's past to see if there's something they can use against him in order to create a main topic for their show. It's become fucking pathetic on their part!

At least they didn't give us any "TOP OF THE MORNIN' TO YEE!" tropes from St. Patrick's Day on their And Now... segment!

[paigow]

9 minutes ago, Victor the Crab said:

At least they didn't give us any "TOP OF THE MORNIN' TO YEE!" tropes from St. Patrick's Day on their And Now... segment!

It will be May soon... so we will be subjected to lame ass Star Wars impressions... 

[xaxat]

15 hours ago, scarynikki12 said:

That don’t do drugs song was AMAZING.

What does it say about the LA Sheriff's office that they thought that would be an effective message to their constituents.

I am fascinated by the contraption Nenana uses to determine the exact time of ice melt. I bet it represents decades of evolution. I hope they are prepared to get swamped by viewers sending predictions.

[paigow]

8 minutes ago, xaxat said:

I am fascinated by the contraption Nenana uses to determine the exact time of ice melt. I bet it represents decades of evolution. I hope they are prepared to get swamped by viewers sending predictions.

This year should set a record for ticket sales / jackpot...

[scarynikki12]

32 minutes ago, xaxat said:

What does it say about the LA Sheriff's office that they thought that would be an effective message to their constituents.

The LA Sheriff used to be full of optimism?

[paigow]

1 hour ago, scarynikki12 said:

The LA Sheriff used to be full of optimism?

And had friends in the Grease wardrobe department

[kittykat]

During John's insane Rube Goldberg description did anyone else catch that pantless Robert DeNiro had a heart tattoo on his leg with Marty written in it.  That just broke me 😂😂😂

Agree with all the harm reduction measures.  It's so frustrating that the very people who want to reduce drug abuse vote against any actual solution to help.  Stop doing drugs is basically the abstinence only of drug education.  And those late 80s early 90s drug PSAs really we're something else.

[SnideAsides]

10 hours ago, Welshman in Ca said:

This group of people don't, the Queen does in name only & they can have independence whenever they want but one man doesn't get to make that decision. The queen has no say in how their country is run & if they want independence than they vote for it. Australia had a vote a few years ago as the party in charge at the time wanted to be free of the queen but the people voted & even though it was close the majority wanted to stay part of the commonwealth. There are some benefits to being part of the commonwealth but I don't know enough to know what exactly.

Most people I know don't have a strong opinion about the queen but there are a lot that do both ways.

It's basically a giant trade bloc similar to the EU these days (with an Olympics knockoff that seems to alternate between the UK and Australia now, because they can't even con Canada and NZ into hosting it any more and they're too big and wasteful for anyone else in the Commonwealth to justify paying for).

The Commonwealth is distinct from the Empire though, even if the Queen is the head of it. It's not quite open to any country - you basically have to be a former colony or a former colony of a former colony (eg, Sāmoa and Namibia are there because they declared independence from New Zealand and South Africa respectively) to get in - but only 15 of the 54 Commonwealth countries (a bunch of teeny-tiny island nations in the Caribbean and Pacific, plus Australia, NZ, Canada, PNG, Belize, and the UK itself) actually have the Queen as their head of state.

In conclusion, the current Caribbean tone of "fuck the monarchy, what's it ever done for US?" is spectacular. Good points well made.

[Welshman in Ca]

8 hours ago, SnideAsides said:

In conclusion, the current Caribbean tone of "fuck the monarchy, what's it ever done for US?" is spectacular. Good points well made.

 

A bit like the Monty Pythons Life Of Brian part where they're complaining about "what did the Romans ever do for us?". Worth a watch just for that if you've never seen it.

[swanpride]

On 3/28/2022 at 5:46 AM, Annber03 said:

If Kavanaugh can get away with having a total meltdown, after all...

He is a white guy. She is a black woman. Sadly there are different rules for women, especially black ones. If they show any feeling, they are "too emotional". 

[swanpride]

21 hours ago, peeayebee said:

Call me naive or stupid, but why doesn't Great Britain just allow the Caribbean nations to be independent?

It's mostly pride. The Brits are so f... prideful of their damned commonwealth in which "the sun never goes down". Though, for the record, I don't think that this is a question of "allowance" (because honestly, if one of them just declares itself independent there is little the Queen can do and even less she would do), and more a question of them trying to convince everyone that the status quo is fine, so why change it. 

[paigow]

Personally, despite its flaws, the Commonwealth Parliamentary System is preferable to the insane Electoral College process that the show rails against...  

Edited March 30, 2022 by paigow

[Annber03]

4 hours ago, swanpride said:

He is a white guy. She is a black woman. Sadly there are different rules for women, especially black ones. If they show any feeling, they are "too emotional". 

Oh, I know. Which really sucks for a whole host of reasons. Just wish she were able to be allowed to do such a thing, is all. 

But so long as white men's fragile, pwecious feelings aren't hurt, that's the most important thing, apparently :/. 

[Lantern7]

The lady talking about “heroin shooting galleries”? That’s my representative in Congress. I’m sorry. I’d go over the particulars, but that would be off-topic for this forum.

Heh . . . John’s thermostat is set to “Dainty Boy.”

Great piece with Nenana and Marshmallow. After learning about Harm Reduction, that bit was worth the extra TV time. Also, would it ruin the magic if we ever found out what happens to those mascot costumes when they’re not in use? Are they in storage? In a warehouse? Perhaps John’s closet?

I noticed Ted Cruz broke out a children's book when he was . . . talking to Ms. Brown. It’s like he wants John to break out his inner Dr. Seuss.

I didn’t think of the lack of St. Patrick’s Day segments until I came here. Nice that I lost a year of wondering why no one says “bottom of the mornin’.”

Shit.

Edited March 30, 2022 by Lantern7

[paigow]

47 minutes ago, Lantern7 said:

I noticed Ted Cruz broke out a children's book when he was . . . talking to Ms. Brown. It’s like he wants John to break out his inner Dr. Seuss.

You mean Horton Hears A Racist Baby ????

[SnideAsides]

2 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Also, would it ruin the magic if we ever found out what happens to those mascot costumes when they’re not in use? Are they in storage? In a warehouse? Perhaps John’s closet?

The Void is a furry.

[Lantern7]

10 minutes ago, SnideAsides said:

The Void is a furry.

That's an interesting thought . . . .if you are a seemingly infinite space and you hold a seemingly infinite amount of mascot costumes, does that make you a furry?

Thinking about that PSA . .. . I don't think I saw it when it was airing. I would've remembered some schmuck getting coke blown back into his face.

Edited March 30, 2022 by Lantern7

[Brandi Maxxxx]

7 hours ago, paigow said:

You mean Horton Hears A Racist Baby ????

I think we all heard one in that clip.

[xaxat]

From yesterday. (3/29)

 

 

[xaxat]

So, I guess we don't have any winners in the Nenana Ice Classic. The winning date was May 22, 6:47 PM.