You're Getting Screwed by a Governmental Entity You Barely Even Know Exists

By Emily Cutler | Last Week Tonight | March 7, 2016 |

By Emily Cutler | Last Week Tonight | March 7, 2016 |

It’s been a long and odd relationship, but I think John Oliver and I are finally past the point of pretense. Last week I suggested that Oliver had been reading Pajiba pretty carefully. This week, I’m sure of it.

In Tuesday’s post about Full Frontal’s coverage of the election, I very eloquently suggested that people start paying more attention to local government.

I understand that the presidential campaign is the show, and that who we pick as president does set a political tone for the rest of the country. And I understand that Donald Drumpf is an infected cyst on the taint of society who needs to be lanced. But if you’re not interested in watching any more segments on how various local governmental bodies are trying to take away a woman’s access to abortions, maybe we need to stop obsessing about delegates and start researching who our goddamn state rep is.

Oh, and I called Donald Trump an infected taint cyst. All in a day’s work. So after clearly reading that post and taking it to heart, what did the team at Last Week Tonight decide to cover this week? The smallest of small governments: special districts.

I’m not sure how we ever came to the idea that small governments would be immune to the corrupting factors that larger governments face, but anytime anyone says anything about “small town” values I want you to remember the fire chief trying to convince everyone that he was smoking a cigar. He might have a small town job, but that is some big government level bullshitting.