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

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.

The way I feel after watching all of that is beyond any words I can muster. Saying that I’d do anything to stop his re-election is just trivia.

I’m just going to watch more youtube videos about cooking until I pass out. Otherwise I’d probably end up dead or in jail, and that’s no good, my daughter needs me.

I’m an angry person by default but that interview made me something else that doesn’t have a description

ppl, practice self-care

you too El T

Lord help us.
Yeah, this video is essential, in a way, to watch this clusterfuck of history as it's happening. "Good" to see it relatively unedited too

Even his sitting in a chair posture is goofy.

Wonder how QAnon is taking the bit about Ghislane

you'd never guess, but there's a way that this all fits into the theory, you see...

honest q: why did he agree to do that interview? he tends to stay in his protection zone of fox, oann, and tbn (lol). swan and axios did a pretty prominent interview with kushner just a few weeks ago that made him look like a total asshole. at least, it appeared that way to me. so why would he agree to do it?

that's not even the first time he's sat down with swan for a 1/1

holy shit this like some horrible black comedy

"i'm looking at the charts, we're lower in so many categories, we're lower than... the world"
"lower than the world?!"

I heard the St Louis lawyer couple got off scott free and even offered a pardon from the state governor.
So glad to see justice is colourblind.

boy, I'd dismissed Swan as milquetoast. I hope he chugged a quart of Wild Turkey before and after the interview.

His dad is Norman Swan, nationally beloved and respected physician-reporter for Aus Broadcasting Corp’s “The Health Report”. There’s no way Swan Jr would countenance a half second of Asshole’s spin and bullshit.

swan concluded he only had three more months to get leaks from trump, decided to cash it in on a golden opportunity to look like a Real Journalist

Swan senior is the hardest working national treasure in the rona times. Sad to hear his son is a prick.

I'm not familiar with the younger Swan's work, but it was slightly refreshing to see someone actually effectively check Trump on some of his bullshit in real time. The refreshment was outweighed by the fact I've been waiting aghast to see this happen since 2016, but Swan was very skilled at throwing out just few enough "that's bullshit"s and a few pretend-but-actually-content-free flatteries to keep the gibbering shitbag talking.

xxp I wonder if he was playing the long game? I guess people can grow and improve, even.

it's wild how trump dismisses rising cases by saying the US does more testing than anyone else - and less than a minute later says that 'deaths per cases' is the relevant statistic to look at. like, you have just said that cases are supposedly inflated due to all the testing the US does. that necessarily implies that your low number of deaths per case is a garbage stat. you can't have it both ways. i know i know, it's like shouting at a cat

But cats walk away after shouting at them.

he really is a master of the ‘i caught a fish this big — no, *this* big’ gesture

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