"The August 2020 US Politics Thread is highly thought of, but nobody likes me. It can only be my personality. That's all."

President Trump slams Dr. Birx as “pathetic” for offering public health guidance that went against the official line on Covid. https://t.co/qdz9isCoQ4

— Vivian Salama (@vmsalama) August 3, 2020

I like the idea of "Dr." being a nickname insult akin to his others. Sleepy Joe! Crazy Nancy! Dr. Brix!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Brix_Smith.jpg

I always read 'Birx' as 'Brix', and I'm not really into The Fall.

Heh, I don't think I've ever noticed it's Birx and not Brix.

wait'll you take a closer look at Senator Berenstain

it bears inspection

Dying at Sen. Berenstain, kudos.

ok, it seems clear to me he's calling Pelosi and her criticisms pathetic, not Birx.

So they found a spine at last:

Democrats are warning Republicans not to fill a possible Supreme Court vacancy this year after denying President Barack Obama the chance in 2016, saying it would embolden a push on the left to add seats to the court whenever they regain power.

"We knew basically they were lying in 2016, when they said, 'Oh, we can't do this because it's an election year.' We knew they didn't want to do it because it was President Obama," Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said in an interview.

Kaine, the party's last vice presidential nominee and a lawmaker with a reputation as an institutionalist, said confirming a nominee of President Donald Trump this year could compel Democrats to consider adding seats to the high court.

"If they show that they're unwilling to respect precedent, rules and history, then they can't feign surprise when others talk about using a statutory option that we have that's fully constitutional in our availability," he said. "I don't want to do that. But if they act in such a way, they may push it to an inevitability. So they need to be careful about that."

The draft language, reviewed by NBC News and expected to be approved later this month, denounces Republicans as having "packed our federal courts with unqualified, partisan judges who consistently rule for corporations, the wealthy, and Republican interests" and for "blocking a Democratic president from appointing a justice to the Supreme Court."

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said she has been "talking with people who have different ideas about what we can do — including adding to the court, including having certain circuit court judges cycle in and other ideas" like term limits.

"I'm open to those kinds of suggestions," she said.

47 SCOTUS Justices, 41 of them Democrat.

a theoretical spine, in the distant future

The real point is that it's Tim Goddamn Kaine raising it.

He don't lie, he don't lie, he don't lie . . . Tim Kaine.

Kaine, raising?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-race-to-promote-mail-voting-as-trumps-attacks-discourage-his-own-supporters-from-embracing-the-practice/2020/08/03/9dd1d988-d1d9-11ea-9038-af089b63ac21_story.html

One recent Facebook sponsored post from the Johnston County, N.C., Republican Party exhorted voters not to dismiss a GOP mail piece coming their way: “ATTENTION!!! If you receive an ABSENTEE BALLOT MAILER like shown in this picture, please know that it is legitimate!!!”

“Please don’t confuse North Carolina’s absentee system with other states’ all-mail elections,” read the message from party chairman. “NCGOP and JoCo GOP agrees with the President that our current absentee ballot request system is safe and secure.”

The assurance was met with skepticism from many commenters. “Burned it! I will go in person to vote straight Republican,” wrote one.

I'm not sure why they couldn't see that coming from a mile away

He don't lie, he don't lie, he don't lie . . . Tim Kaine.

Straight guffaw from me over here on that one, kudos

Same, LOL.

Hurray for sternly worded letters and all but it's not like Democrats could stop them if the Senate GOP collectively decides that a 6-3 majority for a generation is worth going nuclear.

But would Biden and 53 Dem Senators add 4 new judges for a 7-6 majority

Could any president just decide on their own to do that?

A president and a Dem Senate majority could.

FDR tried and would've succeeded had not his own party turned on him.

Joe Biden and Joe Manchin aren't packing the court.

oh cool, well conversation settled then.

yup, thank god for killfile

http://youtu.be/zaaTZkqsaxY

^ that's a link to the video of axioss/jonathan swan interviewing trump, about 40 minutes long

honestly, it's essential viewing. if you showed a clip of this, say, minutes 12-16 or so, where they talk about the coronavirus stats, to someone in 2016, they would not believe you. it's like sci-fi

lol, the section at 23:00 on about mail-in voting is so hard to watch. it's the worst thanksgiving dinner wine conversation ever

I watched the entire thing in a state of constant tension.

what a babbling fucking idiot

I feel like I should watch this, but would probably regret it if I did

I was listening to a podcast today that used clips of Bush speaking around the 2004 election and they both give me a brain-breaking feeling. I understand how they appeal to 35-50% of the population but I can't grasp that it's real.

I have no words for that shit show

it feels like what would make this a better world is a continuous trickle of unedited interviews with the babbling fucking idiot to clarify that he is a babbling fucking idiot

But do his fans ever even see this stuff?

jeeeeeeeeezus, i just finished

is this real life? wtf

honestly it was like watching an out of touch old man get intensely and continuously burned by a 10-year-old

For the 40% left in his camp, having their noses rubbed in it/him will just make them more defensive and dedicated to him.

sucks for them

oh man i got to the part where he asked if he thought he was doing better than LBJ and it's clear that he has no idea what LBJ's politics are

his answer to "is john lewis impressive?" was "nobody's done more for black people than i have"!
his answer to "is john lewis impressive?" was "nobody's done more for black people than i have"!
his answer to "is john lewis impressive?" was "nobody's done more for black people than i have"!
his answer to "is john lewis impressive?" was "nobody's done more for black people than i have"!
his answer to "is john lewis impressive?" was "nobody's done more for black people than i have"!
his answer to "is john lewis impressive?" was "nobody's done more for black people than i have"!

Yeah, the ending is just brutal

Watching all of that without any skipping around felt brutal. I knew how stupid and hateful he was, I’ve always known, but watching him be stupid and hateful on video is so much worse. I’ve avoided his blathering for years but had to rubberneck at that one.

Lol brutal on brutal. The whole thing is brutal! There’s not a single topic he doesn’t make you feel like shit about, especially if you know people who believe in his dumbass takes

.@jonathanvswan: "How do you think history will remember John Lewis?"

President Trump to #AxiosOnHBO: "I don't know...I don't know John Lewis. He chose not to come to my inauguration." pic.twitter.com/LDv76rrIFc

— Axios (@axios) August 4, 2020

Wonder how QAnon is taking the bit about Ghislane

They mostly didn't melt down when he wished her well last week. It's all part of the 12D chess.

almost posted this in the worst tech company thread, but:

Didn't have time to list it, but I pulled some data for this segment:

August FB interactions
CNN: 21 million
NYT: 8M
Ben Shapiro: 55M

August FB video views
CNN: 73M
NYT: 12M
The Hodgetwins: 84M

August FB shares:
CNN: 2.2M
NYT: 800K
Dan Bongino: 5.6M https://t.co/Ij6hkuTdte

— Kevin Roose (@kevinroose) August 30, 2020

it amazes me that out there is a massively influential guy named Dan Bongino. i have never even heard of him

His first name used to be Oingo

He is a serious piece of human trash. Don't familiarize yourself with him

That tweet otm

FB is trash

TBF wont a lot of the Shapiro shares be for lulz because of wet ass P-gate?

Pretty sure that those numbers for at least Ben are juked.

Yes and no.

Some background here

—@CaseyNewton reports that @kevinroose's tweets showing the top content on Facebook — most often from right-wing pages — have "been driving people at Facebook absolutely crazy." https://t.co/FLc92TLKMV

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 22, 2020

Nick Saban is leading the march for social justice from the Alabama football complex to Foster Auditorium. pic.twitter.com/ssNCRbNxDr

— Michael Casagrande (@ByCasagrande) August 31, 2020

Perhaps too raw, but...

Trump on Portland and the Trump caravan: "I understand they (had) large numbers of people that were supporters, but it was a peaceful protest and paint is a defensive mechanism. Paint is not bullets."

— Christopher Cadelago (@ccadelago) August 31, 2020

"Paint is a defense mechanism" for September title.

I mean, what the actual fuck.

"Defensive"

The President claims people in the dark shadows who control the streets are really controlling Biden. He goes on to talk about a plane full of people wearing black uniforms but then says he can’t reveal anymore because it’s under investigation pic.twitter.com/AAk5GX0eWu

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) September 1, 2020

"We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend, and in the plane it was almost completely loaded with thugs, wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms, with gear and this and that. They're on a plane."

Trump says this is "under investigation right now." pic.twitter.com/UjBBvsBaU3

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) September 1, 2020

Trump: You know a choker they choke. Shooting a guy in the back many times couldn’t you have done something different... in the meantime he might have been going for a weapon... but they choke just like in a golf tournament they miss a 3 foot putt.... pic.twitter.com/HkzEX9ghZj

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) September 1, 2020

really trying to chip away at that 14% African American approval

She tried saved him there even

he's been doing this shit nonstop since the central park five

Joining together ilx’s two favorite topics, it sounds like Trump saw Dark Knight Rises and thought it was a documentary

the real documentary, was the movie Idiocracy, which a lot of people think was a comedy,

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2020/09/01/russian-hackers-leak-personal-data-of-nearly-every-voter-in-michigan-plus-a-million-more-voters-in-four-other-states

cool

People that you've never heard of, people that are in the dark shadows -- US Politics September 2020