Ron DeSantis: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

It's fascinating how a nation can be so obsessed with freedom and do everything to kill it at the same time.

"Donald Trump with a brain".
I don't think there could be a more terrifying concept. The only thing worse than a mad gorilla pushing buttons is a mad gorilla who knows what buttons to push.

He’s genuinely one of the most dangerous politicians to ever come through the US political system

"Florida is leading the nation. Decline is a choice." A more perfect pair of lines I've never seen.

I'm a Navy veteran, and the thought that DeSantis was a Navy lawyer - then ran for public office gives me the willies. They're not known for excellence.....

Using whether or not a girl corrects you on your mispronunciation of 'thai food' said as 'thigh food' on a first date as a litmus test has to be one of the most alarmingly psychotic attributes ive ever heard. That's so specific, it feels like it probably is true.

When you make peaceful protest illegal, you make violent protest inevitable.

Let's play a game: every time DeSantis says "woke," take a drink. We'll all be hammered by lunch time.

I'm glad this dude's worried about important things like swimming competitions and not our collapsing property insurance industry that will go belly up in the next hurricane

John your efforts to explain these political nightmares.. is appreciated. Of course your addition of humor. Is always a treat…

My favorite example of how unreasonable their standards for exposure to LGBTQ+ ideas really are is a show called Hey Arnold. It was by no means controversial, despite having a recurring plot element where a female classmate writes in a diary professing her ardent romantic attraction to the male lead with a plethora of innuendo and double entendre that flew well over the heads of the stated target audience of children ages 6+. Clearly, the concept of heterosexual romantic attraction is not being held to the same standard.

As a Floridian I’d like to say, I’m more scared of DeSantis than I am of terrorists….

Wanting a partner who won’t correct you is wanting a partner who will let you sound like an idiot.

just to cheer everyone up about the book ban, one parent in a Florida school district has challenged a book that Meatball Ron would hate to see go, the Bible, on the grounds of sodomy, infanticide, homicide, rape, and others I can't really recall, but it is currently in review and may be removed from Florida shelves!

It's obvious to me that DeSantis has never heard the old Arabic expression: "Because you have silenced a man does not mean that you have won him over."

Once again, a politician invents problems to avoid doing anything they were actually elected to do, like efficiently run the country.

DeSantis is a perfect example of a "Florida man".

Hearing Ron DeSantis speak aloud for the first time is a bit like hearing Jordan Peterson speak aloud for the first time: absolutely hillarious.

I’m very close to someone who was a social worker in a Florida elementary school. Over 85% of the children in her school qualified for free lunches because of the poverty they live in. Good job Ron. Keep congratulating yourselves on your wins while children in your state can’t even fucking eat.

You offer an amazing exposure of a difficult human being. Thank you for the wit and wisdom you offer. I am so glad I don't live in Florida; being "woke" I would be cancelled there!

John Oliver is brilliant. The world needs more of these reality checks...including the laughter. DeSantis is a very small man who needs to make himself big and Oh! how he must loath himself as a human being to behave the way he does.

Lemme get this straight, Ron DeSantis thinks Woke Culture is an injustice, and he’s enacted policies to try and fight it
So basically by his own definition Ron DeSantis follows woke culture

Reading the book Stifled Laughter: One Woman’s Story About Fighting Censorship takes place mostly in Florida and the author refers to that woman who admitted she didn’t read the full book. There’s also an example of a book being banned because a snowball fight was considered “too violent”
People love the first amendment when they’re using their free speech to be an asshole but they will be against the first amendment when it comes to their children getting educated….

I cannot imagine bragging about pissing off the UN. It's like claiming to be a pro NASCAR driver because you're driving backwards through multi-lane traffic.

Trust me, if your kids are gonna stumble across hardcore pornography, it won't be in a school library book.

I went to New College of Florida and I really hope that there's an episode on what he's doing to higher education. He's using NCF as a blueprint for taking over larger schools and we are just the smallest and most vulnerable

I am a native born Floridian and have always loved being one. Now, I hesitate to identify myself as a Floridian because we are becoming the laughing stock of the nation. I've actually considered moving because I am so sick and tired of DeSantis. The only reason I don't move is I refuse to give my state over to these morons. I will stay and fight!

MR OLIVER, YOU HAVE A GREAT WAY OF PROVIDING US WITH THE FACTS. DONT EVER STOP DOING WHAT YOU DO!

I've tried to move to Florida twice, never was able to get accustomed with the weather. I also had a hell of a time when I lost my job and needed any kind of state assistance. With meatball Ron, I don't even want to visit Florida, what shit show that state has become.

Great program. The facts are the facts. Hopefully people can understand what’s happening with another way of seeing things. Nicely done!

Okay, but can we talk about how for the whole "anti-woke" bill, they had to legally define what "woke" means, and what they came up with boils down to "progressive activism".... so... they want to make activism illegal? Interesting.

I love John Oliver he always cuts right to the meat of the situation yes pun intended.

Oddly enough, we pronounce it 'thigh' food in India. DeSantis would have loved it here because nobody would have corrected him.😂

Some updates.
Desantis has had: Parts of his election laws blocked by a Florida Judge, The drag show law has been blocked, Has striken down Medicaid ban on gender care, Florida's ban on gender-affirming care blocked.

As someone who has read at least half the books on the banned list in FL (really?! Catcher in the Rye? Harry Potter?! LOL) I believe parents should be made to actually READ the books before they are put on a “banned” list. Our local south FL public library actually has a display of “banned” books for anyone to read because of school libraries being purged.

I’d just like to say that John gave the little league win to the best cast of Drag Race and that makes me endlessly happy.

As a teacher in Escambia county, where we banned the penguin book, I'm disappointed at how our constituents act. I'm disappointed that ignorant parents and, mostly, ONE old white woman (I have read the pull requests, her name is on 95% of them) are holding such power over teachers here. We are underpaid and overworked, yet parents are demanding more and more from us, all while removing their own accountability for their children from the equation. I think you should consider doing a special on education in general to promote awareness and hopefully spur a renewed interest in the profession. It's not an easy job but having an impact on young people is one of the most rewarding things people can do for one another and we are seeing a decline in the desire to teach - look at all the teacher shortages.

Meatball Desantis needs to become a mega church pastor to take the elderly's social security.

Imagine them talking about keeping kids safe but everyday advertising for gun sale and not opposing gun law

The writing on this show is insanely good 👌

Righteous Ron needs to understand that forcing a woman to carry an unwanted pregnancy is about force, qua force; it’s not about “potential babies.”

And 100% of school libraries do NOT have "hard core" porn. I would speculate that close to 100% of PUBLIC libraries do not have hard core porn, by definition. As a former public library director, we represent our community as a whole, not the narrow views of an autocrat.

Please, let's not underestimate DeSantis. No one, not even Trump, believed that Trump would win in 2016. But we're still cleaning up that four year train wreck.

He truly is the Florida of politicians.

Every day Ron wakes up and asks himself: how can I be more like Viktor Orban?

It says a lot about Ron, and how awesome Mr. Oliver is, that the whole Disney poopshow didn't even feature. Hate is a global problem. We're all in this together. Keep your stick on the ice y'all.

In a nation that has finally come around on gay marriage and gay rights in general it is both amusing and somewhat scary someone out there would get worked up about two male penguins who love each other. PENGUINS, people. It's just weird: for a man who obsesses over freedom, my governor sure likes telling people what they can and cannot do, say, and read.

I wonder if the writer's strike will actually harm Ron DeSantis because with no new episodes, people are rewatching this one.

I am a Floridian and I wish our leaders would focus on the growing number of seniors experiencing homelessness instead of trans athletes or woke math books. Our politicians never focus on the issues that actually improve quality of life. Sad.

Absolutely brilliant writing (IMO).

Had to watch this again because it is so clear what is happening in our world of politics! DeSantis and his party of authoritarians are insane.

DeSantis writing about Freedom is like Robert E. Lee writing about equity or Hitler writing about peace

Too many adults that think the kids aren't thinking about sex until they're like 10 or 12 or some ridiculous advanced age instead of much much younger which is the reality of humanity.
People think that if they don't mention sexuality to their kids then their kids don't have questions or knowledge of the subject and that somehow makes kids safer to keep them very limited intellectually.
Do you not remember which were the kids that got pregnant in high school and which were the kids that were less likely to get pregnant or get someone pregnant in high school?

Excellent!! Wonderful commentary on a very frightening man!

Describing Ron DeSantis as "Donald Trump with a brain" is like describing Ted Bundy as "Jeffrey Dahmer with a personality."

Anyone else immediately go buy ‘Tango Makes Three’ for their child after watching this, because it absolutely should be a book that everyone reads?

John is spot on. Brilliant, sarcastic, funny and educational.

Even after all the terrible things we saw him say, the one that still hits me the most is "does not satisfy Florida standards"

If we're talking DeSantis, "BDE" stands for Big Dickhead Energy. For reference it's like the guy in the BMW who runs every red light, especially if there are pedestrians in the crosswalk, or the Karen who wants to see your manager because she thinks it's not fair she got what she paid for but she didn't like your attitude, or your uncle who gets drunk at your birthday party and starts shouting racial slurs.

This is why I view it because I knew that one day you would "hit one right on the head"...great job John

Hearing that Ron intentionally married a woman who will not correct him even when she knows he's wrong speaks...well it actually just checks the fuck out.

Oh THANK GOD FOR JOHN OLIVER! I count on him to bring levity to an otherwise tragic political situation

If I was running a school, I'd come up with this huge document with everything our school teaches and have the kids take it home and their parents would have to read and initial every single thing yes or no. Your kid can't come back to school till it's completely filled out. Then when you teach certain things, you send the no kids to the library (no problem there, there's no books).

I didn't understand how someone like Ron could get elected to that high of an office. Then I remembered that most of floridas voters are bigoted boomers that moved there to retire.

wow... how is John Oliver a thing on this wretched planet?!
great show, i can't even imagine the team working there but i love them all and they should just go become the next president of the u.s.

Books meant so much to me as a child; there would be no sympathy for losing them for any length of time. Childhood is short. I would hate him for life if he took my books.

That “thigh food” tactic is REAL. I had a date walk out on me for saying the word “ostensibly”, saying he couldn’t have a girlfriend who “used language like that”. Turns out he just didn’t know what it means.
edit: I still dated him for the worst 4 months of my life. Never again.

Its not a small deal to inject "compassion and empathy" into a math explanation

Lol this is a great episode I love it 😂

We learned in college that to interrupt others makes the interrupter look less credible and in my opinion, ignorant...it makes me sick to see Desantis and Trump and those like them shut down reporters in this way. Politicians should be REQUIRED to answer reporters' questions. But then again, politicians can outright lie legally in campaigns, so what the hell, it's an Effed up free for all. Here comes 2024! God help us

Ron Desantis reminds my whole family of a comic book villain my brother made up when he was 8.

DeSantis fits right in with the current Republican belief that freedom means the freedom to take away freedom from others.

I love your perfect mind, John! Never change! 😂

Welp, I never thought the day would come when I would think, "If I _had_ to choose, I would rather have Trump over this other person", but here we are.

He did instill fear in people wanting to vote!

The Thai food test has to be the most hilarious thing I ever heard. Then Meatball Ron… even funnier. Oh I love how everything thing is falling apart it is genuinely hilarious. Biden’s can’t even function properly, and everyone else is a damn clown. It is HILARIOUS. Your wasting your time Johnny.

It’s incredible to me that meatball just 5 months ago was seen as such a threat to Trump for the nomination that he needed his own John Oliver episode just for him to become the next Jeb Bush. Now trump might get the nomination and go to jail and it’s the funniest thing I have ever seen

OK, let's touch on the "hardcore pornography" in the library. IF such a thing existed, there would be two sure-fire ways to figure it out. #1 all of the teenage boys would be in the corner giggling about it, or #2 the book would be perpetually checked out and unavailable.
My guess is if there is any such book in FL libraries, it's probably called "Thigh Food."

Several school districts have outright banned any books with black protagonists, calling them woke. NPR did an interview with one of the authors who attested that the book had no objectionable content. It was about a black kid going to school, having a happy time, and going back to his happy home and loving family. The author wanted positive, happy books for a black audience and that not every book with black heroes had to be about struggle or historical trauma. The NPR interviewer and the author came to the conclusion that the book was banned for being "woke" simply by having a black protagonist.
That same story is repeated for other heroes of different ethnicity, religions, and LGBT characters. We are facing academic erasure.

If somebody left the date because they don't want somebody who corrects them, and they continue to say "thigh food"...you dodged a bullet.

Excellent. You are not free in Florida, unless you agree with his BS.

Yeah, in all strict fairness to Meatball, there's a kind of artful bullying any public speaker has to undergo any time the press swarms to them. This is especially true for politicians and influencers, on whose every word the media hovers like starving fruit flies.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, woke means, "aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice). Thus DeSantis is the spokesperson for far right version of woke. He recently changed superintendent of schools from a hired position determined by a school board into an elected official. He changed school curriculum into his own distorted version of history that leaves out the history of minorities. He challenged the biggest employer in Florida (Disney) and affected it business because it disagreed with his policies.

1:43 “Ask your kids about BDE” is a heck of a line for a party that loses its mind every time that a kid’s book mentions LGBT issues.

DeSantis isn't shutting down descenting voices. He strengthening descenting voices who are making unreal demands of 99% of the population

As a Canadian I find it frightening that we let Americans make laws on their own.

Ron doesn't want a girlfriend who would correct him, because he would prefer to remain confidently wrong.

"decline is a choice and florida is leading the nation" is such an accurate description of republican politics in the US right now...

I wish I could get my red friends to watch just one episode. Appreciate ya, John...

DeSantis: “I feel honored to be criticized by the United Nation of violating freedom of speech”
Also DeSantis: “Look at China’s human right issues!”

The Thai food story is so great. I hope that some former dates come forward to verify this!

Absolutely no surprise that the banned book list is headed by 'A Wrinkle in Time' Since Ron is hell-bent on making Florida the first established Earth colony of Camazotz.

Florida is such a screw up that my local radio station devoted a daily comedy news bit to the wacky things that can only manifest in Florida. Things you can't imagine are even real, but they happened in Florida. And I suspect the reason for this is that the education system there is severely lacking.

He doesn’t want his date to correct him even when he knows he’s wrong. Wow.

The man objecting to the penguin book also raises an interesting point. It hints heavily at how unconstitutional the law is.
"Jesus said go and sin no more so this is against the law."
Except something going against your religion is not basis for being against the law.
If it is, then the law allows you to enforce your religion on others, so it is most definitely unconstitutional.

That book ban had me reeling. Most of those books were set books I had to choose from in high school English class.

This video is an instant classic. DeSantis is the new flavor, but it'll go stale pretty quick. His craftiness in fooling the media will backfire soon enough. I'm not a DeSantis fan, but I also don't want Florida turned into another Oregon or California.

Living in Florida you definitely have the Big Dick part right .Highest inflation rate in the country. Cost of living is leading the rest of the Country this is not a good thing .Ron Diaster is insane.😮

Fantastic! Great episode.

This has been one of the best of your shows. LMAO😂