John Oliver used the Sunday July 20 edition of HBO’s Last Week Tonight as a platform to condemn the privatization of the American prison system. Rather than describing both sides of the issue, Oliver told horror stories from prisons that outsource healthcare and food provision without mentioning similar stories from publicly run prisons. According to Oliver, the verdict is straightforward: “private prisons are bad.”

The British comedian spent 18 of his 30 minute show decrying the “drug laws that do seem to be a little draconian, and a lot racist,” as well as the “dismantling of our mental health system” that lead to America having “more prisoners at the moment than China.” Of course, he failed to mention that the Chinese government usually chooses the death penalty over imprisonment, and according to CNN, “executed more people than any other country last year.” [See video below. Click here for MP3 audio]

In an extended screed against the horrors of income inequality, HBO’s John Oliver ripped into his adopted home country for its inaction on this supposedly devastating issue. The British-born Last Week Tonight host showed clip after clip dedicated to furthering his point, stating with sarcasm that the “roaring 20s were famously the party that never ended,” in reference to the looming depression that followed.

Oliver accused the rich of “running up the score. If our economy was a little league game, someone would have called it by now.” The former Daily Show contributor continued by claiming that the United States has introduced “policies that disproportionately favor the wealthy,” as if broad-based tax cuts benefit only the 1%, or something. In trying to identify why America is so intent on advocating such policies, Oliver found his culprit: [MP3 audio here; video below]

Thursday’s Washington Post promoted the forthcoming HBO news-satire show starring “The Daily Show” correspondent John Oliver, run by a former head writer for “The Daily Show.” But reporter Paul Farhi passes along claims that it won’t be like “The Daily Show.” Right. By story's end, it's clear he doesn't believe that, either.

But in classic Comedy Central fashion Oliver’s team previewed their tilt by releasing two YouTube videos mocking the Republican National Committee’s “latest outreach ad to young voters.” It suggests that young Republicans wear stupid clothes (too-small leather jackets), ride tricycles,  and engage in “non-vaginal intercourse with girls they met at Christian summer camp" (video below):

CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria appeared on the Daily Show, Thursday, to knock the idea that Barack Obama is an isolationist and hint about an "imperialist" U.S. government. 

In a web only section of the interview, Zakaria argued, "We've moved into Asia more significantly. We're building a new military base in Australia. We spend more on our defenses than the next 20 countries put together, 15 of which are treaty allies of the United States." Zakaria joked, "If this is isolationism, you know, I mean, what would imperialism look like?" Fill-in host John Oliver offered a expletive-laced question to set up Zakaria.

As NewsBusters reported, Vice President Joe Biden made a stupendously stupid comment on Sunday's Meet the Press about the NBC sitcom Will and Grace doing "more to educate the American public [about homosexuality] than almost anything anybody’s ever done."

The Daily Show marvelously lampooned this issue as well as the President's "evolving" position on same-sex marriage Tuesday with John Oliver making the accurate media comment, "TV has never been gayer" (video follows with transcript and commentary):