{"id":30876,"date":"2023-03-06T15:37:58","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T20:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=30876"},"modified":"2023-03-06T15:38:03","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T20:38:03","slug":"petty-autocrat-and-a-bully-john-oliver-on-last-week-tonight-looks-at-gov-desantis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/03\/06\/petty-autocrat-and-a-bully-john-oliver-on-last-week-tonight-looks-at-gov-desantis\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>&#8216;Petty autocrat and a bully&#8217;: John Oliver on &#8216;Last Week Tonight&#8217; looks at Gov. DeSantis<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Late-night&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LastWeekTonight\">talk show host John Oliver<\/a>&nbsp;took on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RonDeSantisFlorida\">Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a>&nbsp;during an episode of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=M81-GM0mTc4\">&#8220;Last Week Tonight.&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"341\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-3-3.png?resize=630%2C341&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-30877\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-3-3.png?w=630&amp;ssl=1 630w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-3-3.png?resize=300%2C162&amp;ssl=1 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shown on HBO, the show reviews what has happened in &#8220;news, politics and current events, all with a heavy dose of satire.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the show, Oliver poked fun at everything from DeSantis&#8217; new book and his war on wokeism to his policies and pronunciation of Thai.<\/p>\n\n\n        \n        <div class=\"embedpress-gutenberg-wrapper source-provider-Youtube aligncenter ep-clear   ep-content-protection-disabled inline\" id=\"\" data-embed-type=\"Youtube \">\n            <div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper \">\n                <div id=\"ep-gutenberg-content-\" class=\"ep-gutenberg-content\">\n                    <div >\n                        <div class=\"ep-embed-content-wraper preset-default insta-grid ep-google-photos-carousel\"\n                            style=\"max-width:600px;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto\"                                                                                                                >\n\n                            <div class=\"ose-youtube ose-uid-acc4d5d988163114f36c571a4c142006 ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:600px; max-width:100%; height: 100%; display:inline-block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" title=\"Ron DeSantis: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/M81-GM0mTc4?feature=oembed&#038;color=red&#038;rel=1&#038;controls=2&#038;start=true&#038;end=true&#038;fs=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"&lt;strong&gt;&#8216;Petty autocrat and a bully&#8217;: John Oliver on &#8216;Last Week Tonight&#8217; looks at Gov. DeSantis&lt;\/strong&gt;\"><\/iframe><\/div>                        <\/div>\n\n                                            <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    \n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Posted on YouTube, the show has gotten more than 900,000 views as of Monday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are some of the highlights of what Oliver had to say about &#8220;business Fred Flintstone&#8221;:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>DeSantis: &#8216;We the people are not destined for failure&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oliver&#8217;s highlighted three stories about Florida residents as a counterpoint to DeSantis&#8217; comments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A Florida man who&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/florida-man-accused-stealing-crossbow-stuffing-pants-rcna17479\">shoved a crossbow into his pants<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A Florida woman who crossed<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/05\/13\/floridas-janiya-douglas-says-getting-arrested-on-bucket-list\/\">&nbsp;&#8216;getting arrested&#8217; off her bucket list<\/a>&nbsp;after a police chase.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A Florida man charged with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcmiami.com\/news\/local\/man-charged-after-throwing-hot-dog-at-central-florida-police-officer\/2797924\/\">throwing a hot dog<\/a>&nbsp;at a police officer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We the people may not be destined for failure, but a lot of individuals down there sure do seem drawn to it,&#8221; Oliver said, poking fun at Floridians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Coordinated rollout for DeSantis presidential campaign?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While DeSantis hasn&#8217;t officially declared his candidacy, Oliver said the governor is the favorite among many conservatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After his landslide election as governor in November, a<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/11\/09\/ron-desantis-shows-hes-future-of-the-gop\/\">&nbsp;New York Post headline<\/a>&nbsp;called DeSantis &#8220;DeFuture,&#8221; something Oliver said was &#8220;depressing.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oliver had more explicit things to say about Kari Lake&#8217;s comments at a Turning Point Action Rally with DeSantis where she said the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theledger.com\/story\/opinion\/op-ed\/laurieroberts\/2022\/08\/15\/kari-lake-says-trump-desantis-bde\/10331395002\/\">&nbsp;governor has &#8220;got BDE&#8221;<\/a>&nbsp;and urged people who didn&#8217;t know what it means to ask their kids later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oliver pulled no punches in explaining BDE does not mean &#8220;Big DeSantis Energy,&#8221; but is associated with, um, energy below the waistband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Trump continues to work on nickname for DeSantis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What will Trump&#8217;s final nickname for DeSantis be? Hopefully something more than the embarrassingly weak first attempt &#8220;Ron DeSantimonious,&#8221; Oliver said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Meatball Ron&#8221; has a lot more punch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I hate to say it, but Trump&#8217;s still got it. (Meatball Ron) is perfectly stupid, childish and hurtful in a way that&#8217;s genuinely difficult to articulate. Also, it&#8217;s a pretty good name on its own.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>DeSantis remains a strong contender for the Republican nomination<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why do commentators continue to throw Trump up against DeSantis, describing the governor as Trump &#8220;with brains and without drama,&#8221; Oliver asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That just isn&#8217;t meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;That&#8217;s like saying that new restaurant is better than this chicken pot pie that fell on the sidewalk. Sure, it is, but you&#8217;re really not giving me much useful information.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What has DeSantis done to and for the 20 million people in Florida?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n        \n        <div class=\"embedpress-gutenberg-wrapper source-provider-Youtube aligncenter ep-clear   ep-content-protection-disabled inline\" id=\"\" data-embed-type=\"Youtube \">\n            <div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper \">\n                <div id=\"ep-gutenberg-content-\" class=\"ep-gutenberg-content\">\n                    <div >\n                        <div class=\"ep-embed-content-wraper preset-default insta-grid ep-google-photos-carousel\"\n                            style=\"max-width:600px;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto\"                                                                                                                >\n\n                            <div class=\"ose-youtube ose-uid-d456ff75c0e3c2c353277aaa0f364853 ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:600px; max-width:100%; height: 100%; display:inline-block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" title=\"Top Gov Ron DeSantis\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/epwnsVTM-YA?feature=oembed&#038;color=red&#038;rel=1&#038;controls=2&#038;start=true&#038;end=true&#038;fs=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"&lt;strong&gt;&#8216;Petty autocrat and a bully&#8217;: John Oliver on &#8216;Last Week Tonight&#8217; looks at Gov. DeSantis&lt;\/strong&gt;\"><\/iframe><\/div>                        <\/div>\n\n                                            <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    \n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oliver cited accounts that said DeSantis would walk out on a date if his intentional pronunciation of Thai as &#8220;thigh&#8221; was corrected. He supposedly also walked around with earbuds in after he was elected to Congress to keep people away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;If you&#8217;re picking up on a theme of Ron DeSantis doesn&#8217;t like hearing anyone&#8217;s voice but his own, you&#8217;re on to something,&#8221; Oliver said. &#8220;Since becoming Florida&#8217;s governor, he has made shutting down dissenting voices something of a feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;DeSantis is constantly complaining that the media is taking him out of context,&#8221; Oliver said. There is one notable exception: Fox News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The network asked DeSantis to appear on its airwaves 113 times, or nearly once a day, Oliver said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;That&#8217;s just pathetic,&#8221; Oliver said. &#8220;If Fox News ever went on a date with Ron DeSantis, they definitely wouldn&#8217;t correct him when he called it thigh food.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>DeSantis proclaims Florida resident the &#8216;rightful winner&#8217; of an NCAA championship<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theledger.com\/story\/sports\/2021\/08\/18\/olympic-silver-medalist-emma-weyant-returns-her-alma-mater\/8174195002\/\">Emma Weyant<\/a>&nbsp;of Sarasota came in second during an NCAA 500-meter women&#8217;s freestyle championship event behind Lia Thomas, a transgender opponent. DeSantis issued a proclamation&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theledger.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2022\/03\/22\/florida-gov-desantis-declares-swimmer-emma-weyant-winner-vs-transgender-opponent\/7129333001\/\">declaring Weyant&nbsp;to be the \u201crightful winner\u201d of the race<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Emma is the best female swimmer in the 500-meter freestyle because she earned that,&#8221; DeSantis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;DeSantis doesn&#8217;t have the power to declare or disqualify winners in college sports,&#8221; Oliver said, calling the proclamation &#8220;completely pointless.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;But since men in suits seem to be using their platforms to invalidate past athletic achievements out of pure spite, I hearby declare that by signing this, Ron DeSantis&#8217; Little League team, the swimming meatballs, did not in fact ever make the Little League world series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Instead, his team&#8217;s place will be taken by the season 6 cast of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mtv.com\/shows\/rupauls-drag-race\">RuPaul&#8217;s Drag Race.<\/a>&nbsp;I declare it; it is done.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>DeSantis sells himself as a man with a proven track record<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DeSantis has done some &#8220;terrible stuff,&#8221; Oliver said, mentioning:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Florida banning transgender health care for treatment of minors<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Signing Florida 15-week abortion ban into law<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While other Republican governors have done similar things, what makes DeSantis extra popular on the right is his willingness to wage big, symbolic culture wars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Wokeism is a form of cultural Marxism,&#8221; DeSantis said in 2021 in Volusia County. &#8220;Florida is where woke goes to die.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Florida is where &#8220;wealthy, upper East Side New Yorkers go to die,&#8221; Oliver quipped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;It begins to feel like the freest state in America is only free to the extent that anyone wants to behave exactly the way that Ron DeSantis thinks they should,&#8221; Oliver said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;In the months to come, you are going to hear a lot of DeSantis vs Trump comparisons, and the truth is, he&#8217;ll probably come out well in a lot of them. &#8230; it is important to consider DeSantis in his own right. If Donald Trump never existed, and let&#8217;s just pause and enjoy that hypothetical for a second, and we were forced to learn about Ron DeSantis from scratch with no basis for comparison, what you would see would justifiably horrify you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;You would be discovering a petty autocrat and a bully, a man with no interest in hearing dissent, questions, or indeed, the correct pronunciation of Thai food. And all in all, a man who is, and I do not use this term lightly, just a f***ing meatball.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Editorial note:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Freedom is reading whatever books you\u2019d like. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Freedom is being able to save your life from a pregnancy that might kill you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Freedom is choosing to have the government out of your doctor&#8217;s office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Freedom is having a period and not having to report it to this guy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Late-night&nbsp;talk show host John Oliver&nbsp;took on&nbsp;Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis&nbsp;during an episode of&nbsp;&#8220;Last Week Tonight.&#8221; Shown on HBO, the show reviews what has happened in &#8220;news, politics and current events, all&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}