After cataloguing the ways in which the oil industry boom has taken advantage of polite North Dakotans, John Oliver announced on Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight” that he had bought a billboard in North Dakota urging the state’s residents to “Be Angry. (Please.)”
“North Dakota had gotten used to be ignored,” Oliver said, about the time before the shale oil boom happened in the state.
But “like Channing Tatum, North Dakota suddenly turned out to be much more interesting covered in oil,” the HBO show host joked.
“For all the good the oil industry has done for the state, it has not been without cost,” he said.
There are few federal workplace compliance officers working across the vast state, leading to dangerous conditions for workers, the show reported. Additionally, campaign contributions (from oil companies or otherwise) don’t even have to be used for a campaign; it can be put in the politician’s own account at the end of the campaign, the HBO show reported. And it’s unlikely things will change, Oliver argued, because North Dakota doesn’t have an ethics commission.
“Which is pretty much guaranteeing FIFA just found its location for its new international headquarters. They’re coming, North Dakota, they’re coming,” Oliver said.
Watch the clip and see the billboard below, courtesy of HBO:
