I will never say “no” to talking about my dream boyfriend/husband/best friend John Oliver. Last Week Tonight returns this Sunday, and Oliver has been doing a lot of press this week. He’s on the cover of Rolling Stone, he appeared on The Late Show, he did media availability with pretty much every newspaper and trade paper. What I love is that outlets like Politico cover John Oliver now, because the show is so smart and politically savvy. Anyway, there were two things I wanted to talk about. One, please enjoy this amusing interview Oliver did with Entertainment Weekly – go here to read. They asked him stupid questions (on purpose), like whether he would try to book Frederick Douglass for the show (Oliver has heard good things about him!).

Second thing: John Oliver appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Colbert and Oliver really like each other, and Oliver makes appearances on The Late Show quite often these days. This interview is both men at their best:

Oliver jokes that the biggest things that have happened over the past few months are mostly “cosmetic differences,” meaning “flames and the fact America is in it.” Here’s more:

Until Inauguration Day, Oliver described his general feeling as one of “being tied to a train track, watching the train coming.” And then, Trump getting sworn in was “the train hitting you and you’re thinking, ‘Yup, that felt pretty much how I thought it was going to feel.’”

On Steve Bannon, the “real president” of the United States, Oliver said, “he’s a terrifying individual.” As for Betsy DeVos, who was confirmed as education secretary earlier in the day, he joked, “I actually think she might and should serve as an inspiration to school kids in America, because she shows that they could be secretary of education one day. In fact, not just one day, now. They could do it now. They’re about as well qualified now as she is. They’ve spent arguably longer in a public school.”

During his final show of last year, Oliver called on Americans not to accept Trump as the “new normal.” Three months later, he said he thinks people are still “feeling viscerally repelled” by the president’s actions. But at the same time, he added, “It’s exhausting. It feels like his Inauguration Day was 114 years ago.” When Colbert reminded him that it’s been just over two weeks, Oliver said, “We have a long way to go.” When the host said we have at least four years to look forward to, he asked, “Why not 12? Words don’t mean anything anymore, why would numbers?”

Finally, Colbert asked Oliver to share his thoughts on Trump’s travel ban, given that he himself is a green-card holder and his wife served as a U.S. Army medic in Iraq.

“I am slightly concerned. I have an American wife and an American son now, but who knows what’s enough?” Oliver asked. “Having a green card used to be enough, and yet what we saw with that executive order on immigration, that debacle, things are not what they were supposed to be. We held up translators, Afghan and Iraqi translators at the border who have bled for a country they’ve never visited, have sacrificed family members for this country. This president has done neither of those things, so it’s a little hard to swallow him telling people whether they should be a benefit to America or not.”

[From The Daily Beast]

The green card thing is still chilling to me. As in, it says a lot about the real goals of Emperor Baby Fists’ “Muslim Ban.” It’s not about refusing entry to just certain people from certain countries – although that’s deplorable enough on its own – it’s about empowering police/immigration/security officials/customs officials to discriminate against, harass and detain all foreigners and all brown people. There are brown American citizens being detained and harassed and being asked to “prove” their citizenship. Ugh. As for everything else John Oliver says… yes. I’m glad he’s back.

Photos courtesy of WENN/CBS.