Just for reference, Bill Maher is on hiatus until January 17 (not January 18, as HBO says in some ads) and John Oliver will be off until February 16. This past year, I've come to like Oliver more and Maher less, especially when Bill veers to the subject of medicine and health.
I'm still marveling at Mr. Oliver's bringdown of "coal baron" Bob Murray on the last Last Week Tonight seven days ago…and curious about something I would have thought would have been a major (if not the major) part of it. One of the main reasons Oliver was talking about Murray and his company in the first place was Mr. Murray's unrestrained support of Donald Trump as the guy who was going to revitalize and save the coal industry. Last week, Oliver accused Murray of starting World War I and defacing the Mona Lisa…but not a word was said about how spectacularly wrong he was to back a man who has been spectacularly unhelpful, even damaging to the coal industry.
Since Trump promised to "bring the industry back, bigger and better than it's ever been," revenue in that industry has plunged, plants have closed, companies (including Bob Murray's) have filed for bankruptcy, jobs have been lost, etc. If you want to know more about it, read this recent article in Forbes. You'd think John Oliver and his staff would have found a way to work that in.