I don’t watch or read MSNBC…if it’s truly 100% about calling out manufactured crises and whining about them, that is awful. I do find it hard to believe that it is, though.

(Edit: I looked, 11 top headlines for “today’s news”, 3 about Trump…of the 21 latest headlines (bottom of page) only one about Trump, none about Hunter or Giuliani.)
I think you’re confusing supplemental articles covered under one topic as “headlines”…I count 7 top of page headlines, 2 about Trump’s legal cases, 1 about Trump’s lawyers talking shit about him, 1 about the failing Hunter investigation. Too much Trump, yes, but plenty of real news too. Their format is gawd awful….tabloid at the top, news at the bottom.

Granted, Trump’s constantly expanding legal issues are the lead story everywhere. That’s hardly a pure distraction when he’s 1) an ex president facing hundreds of felonies for actions he took while in office and 2) he’s the Republican front runner facing hundreds of felonies including sedition and espionage. Giuliani is a part of that same story. I don’t see that as a manufactured story/crisis. (But it does get too much attention by far).
EDIT: That said, the disgraced ex president and rapist was indicted minutes ago on four felony counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States "by using dishonesty, fraud and deceit to obstruct the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election"; conspiracy to impede the Jan. 6 congressional proceeding; a conspiracy against the right to vote and to have that vote counted; and obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct and impede, the certification of the electoral vote. That’s insanely big news.


It’s also not a pure distraction to mention Hunter when the entire house is doing nothing more than “investigating” him, and his long touted public legal case just went to court for a failed plea agreement. That’s newsworthy because one party makes it so, but barely.

It is a terrible state if that’s ALL they mention, agreed. There’s lots more going on to address.

Oops this turned into a semi rant. But I am legitimately open to discussion here, and am curious to get your thoughts on a few points Bob. That is, IF you're willing to actually think about them beyond the level of repeating talking points.

I find it interesting how divergent the two overall "sides" are in this country, in terms of where they focus. None of the issues brought up in this video are really on the radar of most progressives, beyond being aware some on the right are talking about them. And I'm guessing a lot of the concerns progressives discuss rarely come up in your chosen media landscape. A lot of the issues in the video are largely off of my radar, and I have to wonder how you feel they should be addressed - like, actual proposed solutions rather than just complaining about / worrying about them.

We only dedicate one day to remember our fallen soldiers

How many should there be? Arguably we have more than one already: there's Memorial Day and Veterans Day, and it seems that Sept 11th is often used for the purpose as well.

I'd argue we should spend more time acknowledging and understanding the principals behind WHY our soldiers died in the various conflicts which caused them to fall in the first place. Let's make sure our citizenry appreciates what we collectively rejected in the Revolutionary war. Why it was important that we kept the country together rather than allowing the south to split off in the mid-1800s. Why we chose to honor our diplomatic agreements and support our allies in WW1. Why we fought against the countries and governments we did in WW2. What our goals were in Korea and Vietnam, and what lessons we learned from those conflicts and from the Cold War in general. Commemorating and remembering those we've lost absolutely matters, but if we're ONLY doing that while forgetting why they fought OR ignoring what we learned then we're doing them an equal or greater disservice. Remember that America was built on the idea of forming "a more perfect union" - not a perfect one, a MORE perfect one - a work in progress. We're striving towards an ideal, not assuming we're already there. Learning from our past successes, failures, and our struggles around both outcomes is vital. If our self-analysis is no deeper than hero worship we'll never make real progress towards that theoretical perfect union.

The only mask that's gonna save us is duct tape on their mouths

Yeah, sound medical advice and evidence-based science is terrifying. Better to shut up those whose words we dislike, because we're reactionary authoritarian babymen. I truly do not understand being more afraid of reasonable safety measures than of a virus which has been shown to cause serious harm in the short and long terms. The only reason this "masks = liberal / maskless = conservative" crap came about is because politics has devolved to the level of team sports in the US, and one party has chosen "the opposite of whatever our political opponents say" as their entire governing philosophy. (And yes, ONE party - research and understand the GOP's 2020 platform if you want to argue the point.) This video even seems to reach a reasonable conclusion at the end, while coming up just short of that final logical leap to "maybe I should question what the public faces of MY side have been claiming in this Us vs Them madness." Seriously - keep going friend, you're almost there! George Washington was 100% right in wanting to avoid political parties being a force in the US, and it makes me immensely sad that his fears came true.

Big oil runs the world / the only wars to get fought are with the countries who have natural resources they want

Solid point here, no sarcasm. The US military has long been a tool of our profit-driven form of "free market" imperialism. A really great way to combat this, specifically with an eye to ending Big Oil's goddamn death grip on our foreign policy goals, would be an aggressive implementation of renewable energy projects. Remember the space race? America can be an absolute beast at clever engineering solutions when we dedicate ourselves to it. Fuck the petrostates, we have the available land and resources to absolutely kick ass in the realms of solar and wind power, and be leaders in the the post-hydrocarbon reality. We can certainly agree on that, right Bob? Left / Right nonsense fully aside, I think any reasonable American can agree on at least two points: let's stop sending heaps of cash to buy oil off of the Saudis (etc), and Fuck Cancer.

But if a white man acts too white he's white trash / he's a racist he's a bigot he's a monster

What the fuck is this horseshit? What does "acting too white" even fucking look like? Watching NASCAR on a sailboat while listening to polka? Typically when I see racism from white people it's in the form of denying that brown-hued people deal with any additional difficulties in life due to their skin tone, or denying that there have been structural obstacles for them through history, or lamenting that their white children are being burdened with a broader lens on culture or with (gasp! shock!) an accurate accounting of actual US history, including the ugly bits that we shouldn't be proud of (but MUST learn from). I'm progressive / lefty as fuck and there is no aspect of "white culture" or "acting white" which upsets me in the slightest. UNLESS one counts "denying racism exists / has ever existed" as a fundamental value of being white. Which... why would anyone want to claim that nonsense? If you want to listen to classic country music in a rusty pickup truck while driving to an evangelical church, then discuss hockey over Buds after 18 holes with the rest of your tractor pull team, then absolutely go nuts my fellow caucusoid! Just recognize and understand that your life experiences may not be the same as those of others. Further, if we care about trying to avoid unnecessary, avoidable unfairness in life (recognizing that life will never truly be fair, for anyone), then it might be reasonable for some governmental / legal / structural recognition in furtherance of that notion. There is absolutely room for legitimate policy disagreement here without being accused of racism. It's denial of others' reality which tends to garner the label of racist (sexist etc) - steer clear of denying the lived experiences of other people, allow for the possibility they may have encountered difficulties you haven't / won't, and we've room for further discussion.

Edit / final point: I voted the video back up to 0 from the -1 where I found it. Because while I disagree with a lot of the positions taken by the performer, they may have reached them through no fault of their own and with no true malice. Misinformation / disinformation is a devious shit of a motherfucker, and the rot it causes can run deep. It is painful to abandon deeply-held beliefs, on a fundamental level. If nothing else, the video gives us room to discuss some specific viewpoints held by people who think of themselves as good, but which can lead to harm.

Such an idiotic, ignorant, and just dumb response. Teaching kids about options is the opposite of harm, especially when you teach them the pitfalls of their choices. Just like “just say no” was an utter failure and led to a massive drug epidemic, hiding the facts about homosexuality and transgender people can only lead to the same kind of abject failure. Keeping people ignorant, stupid, scared, and angry over things and people they don’t understand is what the right calls good, and it’s just dumb and evil. Your poor children.

Republicans directly killed >1 million Americans in 2020 and tried to double that by completely ignoring covid….actually said grandma and grandpa want to die to get pops back to work a few weeks earlier…., caused destruction costing $500000000 in one day based on pure obvious lies and nearly destroyed democracy (and are still trying hard to get rid of democracy), and every one is an actual street walking hooker (Bohbert), child molester (Trump, Gaetz, judge Roy), wannabe daughter fucker (Trump), transsexual hating transsexual (Greene), tries to buy their friend’s wives for sex (Trump), are so desperate they pay $130k to raw dog porn stars while their pregnant wife sits at home (Trump), vitriolic anti homosexual homosexual (every single anti homosexual Republican ever), best friend to Epstein (Trump), child trafficker (Gaetz), etc. there’s no end to the death, destruction, or debauchery of your party top to bottom….not one bit of it made up like 100% of your accusations against Democrats are.

Yes, you’ve said it before, and you were just as wrong then as you are now. If one party has a lock on death, destruction, and debauchery it’s absolutely 100% yours. You are such an ignorant fool of a tool, and a huge amazingly gullible sucker.

Now, how about that dead treasonous bitch Ashley Babbitt? Good riddance, eh?

Thanks for being consistent if not sane or rational…consistently inconsistent.
You say that invariably when it’s a non white victim, but consistently defend the citizen if it’s a right wing white person violently attacking the cops like on Jan 6 or the Bundys….consistently inconsistent.

You consistently justify this hyper escalation to murder for any color except white MAGA color. When you guys murder cops, permanently disable cops, and try to overthrow democracy, you think there should be absolutely zero consequences. Not for stabbing them, beating them, pepper spraying them, trampling them, nothing is bad enough to require prosecution of your group, nothing minor enough that deadly force isn’t required for others. Consistently.

Again, we’ve seen hundreds of innocent victims and bystanders shot in the back, some while sleeping in their own homes, but there’s nothing you won’t excuse deadly force for….unless it’s against a Maggot. Recently police fired dozens of shots into a crowd of unsuspecting victims trying to shoot one man who was unaware of their presence and not fighting or being a danger to anyone, and they shot at least 5 innocent victims. Calling 100% bullshit on “ Don't fuck around with cops and you wont get shot.”, many many victims are shot not fucking around….just last week a kid was shot with a full clip for moving when a cop asked for his ID, a white kid in his parent’s car, not a car thief the cop just assumed he was. This is not abnormal, it happens almost daily. The ex-cop is facing attempted murder and a dozen more charges.

Jan 6 was heavily armed, with bombs, Molotov cocktails, tons of guns (from pistols to AKs, verified by secret service before the coup), knives, spears, gas, pepper spray, fire extinguishers, and literally truckloads more guns staged nearby, some of which was intercepted, the rest blocked from deployment by DC police. You really are intentionally ignorant as fuck, bob. This is proven public knowledge admitted to in court by Trump’s racist militias (proud boys etc).
It was poorly planned by MAGA morons who think themselves great tacticians but are really total incompetents…thank Jebus.

Jan 6 was an attack on democracy by the ex president in an effort to take control of America by force. It cannot be overhyped, and has not been.

Democrats want Trump to run in 24, because it would be a lock for Democrats across the board. He’s a loser, bigly, and would be a loser again. He has no independent votes, and no Bernie boy vote, and the Republican Party has shrunk significantly. Also, he’s clearly committed multiple crimes that invalidates him as a candidate, and will likely be in prison and court for the rest of his life….you can’t lead from solitary.

Trump is a bad joke, a feeble old con man that decimated America, destroyed the robust economy, deferred any infrastructure maintenance, is responsible for over 1 million American deaths by negligence, destroyed any faith in law or validity of the courts, and created a rift between Americans so wide that one party now includes dissolving the American Union as part of their official platform (your party). I know you would vote for him in 24….twice….and still lose….again.
Yes, I would absolutely would vote for Dank Brandon again if the choice is him vS Trump or a Trumpster which is any Republican left. I would much prefer Buttigieg given my druthers.

Now, let’s hear you answer @bcglorf, coward. Hypocrite. Liar. I know what you said for months after she was shot in self defense. I expect you will just slink away again and ignore your own blatant hypocrisy, like normal….but get ready to be asked again and again until you admit your racist hypocrisy.

Mark McCloskey, remember him? The terrified snowflake that pulled out guns and threatened peaceful marchers in the street walking past his house? Now running for senator, guess which party. Only one party thinks menacing peaceful protesters with death is something to applaud.
Well, he’s in trouble for claiming to be endorsed by Vanilla Ice and Yang Yang Twins (because of course he isn’t).

This you guy? This yor best? Thuggish violent liars prepared to say or do anything for power. It’s all the right has left.

How you liking Cruz showing off how anti military the right is by celebrating withholding earned medical benefits out of pure spite on the senate floor? Their “excuse” is utter nonsense lies, claiming that the bill was once discretionary spending (meaning at the whim of the current president) and has been CHANGED to mandatory spending. It’s a lie, not one word changed since they voted FOR it in June.
https://videosift.com/video/Jon-8482-s-Response-To-Ted-Cruz-8482-s-PACT-Act-Lies

How about Trump chumming up to the Saudi Royal family, now saying no one knows if they were involved in 9/11 (he had no doubts in 2016 whatsoever, but now they’ve invested hundreds of millions into Trump companies). He was outraged Obama didn’t release the classified 9/11 report, then when he had the secret report detailing their involvement Trump kept it secret (for favors and investments), Biden released it and Trump now pretends he’s never heard of it, doesn’t know if the Saudis are involved, protects them when they murder Americans, and is more than apply to help them try to destroy an American sports league miles from where the towers once stood. Must make you so proud as a patriot.

Fascism, theocracy, and anti Americanism has actually become the Republican Party platform. Only the TrueType totally insane could possibly see their actions, support them, and still think themselves as American patriots. History will judge you harshly, your families will too. Your legacy is treason.

Just to rub it in how much more competent Biden is, today ended the reign of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri with no civilian casualties, something Trump promised and completely failed to do…so badly he gave up and agreed to surrender Afghanistan unconditionally.

Just to show how anti American and pro terrorist the right is, your talking heads like Carlson are trying to spin the killing of the mastermind of 9/11 as a bad thing that somehow makes us less safe, and are trying to blame Biden for Russia attacking Crimea and Ukraine.

Trump hosts the sponsors of 9/11 while Biden eliminates the perpetrators. Thanks Biden.

Meaningless fiction.
In the post Trump era, it’s more likely that aliens will land and offer free telepathic abortions on demand than it is Democrats and Republicans will agree on anything enough for a 2/3 majority. When one party’s entire platform is “obstruct the other party”, constitutional evolution is dead.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness….that makes abortion a right on all 3 counts, since pregnancy can threaten life, denies liberty, and who could be happy forced to be a life support system for another? Also, the logical extension of that obligation means healthy people forced to donate kidneys, transfuse their blood, repeatedly donate partial livers, etc. …anything that other person needs to live should be the obligation of anyone who can supply it. Same as forced pregnancy. That makes it a constitutional issue, the denial of life, liberty, and property without due process, conviction, or even a crime is addressed in the constitution, and applies here.

Yes, duh Bob.
Trump polling at 36% was worse, so you just claimed fake polls. He inherited a strong robust economy, a system to protect from epidemics, far less debt and deficit, and no pandemic…no crisis. I don’t argue Biden’s popular, like you do Trump despite reality, I only argue he’s a vast improvement, the best that could be hoped for under the disastrous circumstances one Trump term put the nation in.

The people coming, largely Haitians, almost all say they’re coming because they saw American politicians say the American borders are open and accepting everyone. Those are Republicans saying that, lying to get their base riled up, but the Haitians living in South America don’t know that, they think they are being invited by the Republicans. Look into it, you’ll see that’s true if you do. Biden sent many back to Haiti, Trump liked to dump them back in Guatemala to try again.
This energy independence myth, just quit. We were not. There was a world wide oil glut in 2020 because the pandemic lowered demand so much suppliers actually gave it away at one point….that was not some genius Trump energy plan bearing fruit, it was the economy and industry collapsing thanks to an avoidable pandemic. As the economy recovers, so does demand but not production. You seem to want to blame Biden for basic economics.
My gas is the same as 2019+-$.25….you want to compare to 2020 because gas was cheap thanks to Covid. Yours might be more for some political reasons, like your unprotected pipeline got hacked by Russians, but you need to prove it, then prove Biden’s failure caused it, not just say it, and not by cutting and pasting some talking head’s opinion. My assessment is he’s improved security on infrastructure but I’m open to evidence to the contrary.

Lowering corporate tax rates didn’t lower unemployment significantly, it raised upper management compensation and corporate profits. Investing in infrastructure will.

That’s good you don’t want to debate more Covid deaths, because there’s more than enough blame for both sides even if you don’t look at 2020 that was all Republican stoked (anti mask, anti social distance, anti contact tracing). Keep in mind, since Jan, >90% of all cases are in the intentionally unvaccinated population, almost 100% of deaths, and remember who they are and who they follow…not Biden. Covid deaths this year are nearly 100% caused by political division and misinformation created and spread by one political side. Guess which. That’s not to say Biden’s perfect, he should have implemented vaccine mandates Jan 21, no exemptions without permanent quarantine, what was needed to stop more deaths by stupidity, but he doesn’t have the balls for dictating. You should be so grateful for that.

Blaming the Chinese without proof, or even evidence they are to blame, just supposition, is outrageously dangerous and provocative. Accusing them of creating and releasing it on purpose….against themselves….is simply asinine and proof you aren’t thinking for yourself or at all.

Mid terms always go to those not in power, so yes, 2022 will likely return congress to partial Republican control, which you will call a massive mandate against Biden unlike when it happened in 2018 and you just whined that it’s unfair.

>26% of Americans are Republicans. The rest are what you call socialist communists because you don’t know what those words mean. Your party does not represent your (alleged) country….and is shrinking. Democrats aren’t even my party, they are just the only achievable adversaries to the madness of the right at this point in time. Given a better option, I would jump….you can’t say the same. You’re deep in the death cult of personality the Right has become…a true believer.

Biden got money no president in my lifetime has to invest in America. Bridges, Roads, Airports, New water systems, Digital communication improvements, Overall improvements and long deferred maintenance of rail, New funding to fight increasing wildfires (Brandon)…all the things absolutely necessary for the nation to function as a first world nation. He’s already a big winner, and if we aren’t speaking Mandarin in 3 years he still will be. The fruits of his legacy will be enjoyed for decades to come, Trump’s legacy is economic failure, failure to protect from a preventable epidemic, massive unemployment, an administration so corrupt that the convictions of people in his administration or campaign almost certainly outnumber the prosecutions of members of all previous administrations combined while the severity of their crimes outweighs the combined national injury caused by all previous political crimes, and a division so strong one party actually tried to destroy democracy and install a dictator.

History is the judge of any administration, not the midterm, and history will look kindly on Biden, no so for Trump, mired in constant criminal scandal and failures to this day. The only president in our history to not peacefully transfer power, to be impeached twice, who clearly put his own interests above those of the nation at every opportunity. Death and division are his legacy.

Merry Mithra’s season.

This is what Republicans think is patriotism. Biden is your president....of your country.

Funny they forgot who handed Afghanistan back to the Taliban....it wasn't Biden, it was the guy who negotiated our surrender and retreat, and the handover of control, without involving the Afghan government in those negotiations.

The same guy who released >5000 Taliban combatants from prison last year with no preconditions.

Funny the right forgot they want a theocratic government here, often insisting we already have one. Funny the right forgets that they have at least 2 certified terrorist organizations spearheading their party and thousands of members prosecuted for domestic terrorism (although many were allowed to plead to just trespassing for some unexplained reason). Funny the right forgets they are in a battle to remove self autonomy from women, stripping their rights to control their bodies. Does anyone think, if they're successful, that they're going to stop at outlawing abortion? They're pretty vocal about ending women's (and minority) suffrage too, and ending anything that helps women advance in the workplace. Once they strip that power, look the fuck out, any other rights will be gone in weeks once they can't vote.

There's one party in America that resembles the Taliban, and it's not the Democrats, Bob.

Just duh, @bobknight33. You're so far out of your ankle deep depth here....just like on that other thread where you can't explain how you have the facts absolutely backwards about the very machines you claim are your career and area of expertise.

Trump made the Taliban great again. Absolutely zero question among those who can remember last year. Sadly that apparently leaves Bob and most of the right wing out.

Learning about Trump is ok. Demanding he was legitimate is wrong.

Only one party is calling for dissolution of the union because they lost an election, and only one party wants another violence filled, nation destroying, murderous civil war. Which party was that again? Oh yeah, the one who claimed to be pro police and pro military but turns on the police and military at the drop of a hat if they dare to contradict your infantile lies and insanity.
The right is insanely more dangerous, terroristic, violent, dishonest, and caused more damage and deaths in the last 2 years than the left by any measure.

The right is far more dangerous than the right, they're terrorists complete with Molotovs, bombs, manifestos, death threats, and enemies lists. 1/2 the violence you accuse BLM of perpetrating was right wing false flag operations according to Trump's DOJ....and 100% of attempted government overthrows, and 100% of armed capitol building takeovers, not JUST the one on Jan 6. Also, the right has a monopoly on attempted kidnapping of elected officials, again, not JUST the attempts on Jan 6.

Oh....so now that it's clear even to you that Antifa didn't lead the failed coup, now that every person identified is a Trumptard, you deny Jan 6 happened. It went from Jan 5 - Jan 7 this year in your head. You've been listening to crackheads too much.

Edit: When are you going to toss out the new conspiracy theory, that the FBI faked it all, everyone there was a fake Trumptard just pretending to follow Trump's every word, all done just to make Trump look bad, and Damn are they good. They're so good they have been planning it since Trump announced his candidacy and constantly since, leaving records online for 5 years to throw you off the track, and continuing the charade in courts and prisons. Apparently they also have a time machine so they knew in summer 2016 that Trump would lose in 2020 and claim fraud, because the plan to paint the right as treasonous, the plan that had to start as the biggest, longest undercover off the books operation ever starting pre 2016, required that.

Such disgraceful idiocy, Bobby. Abandoning reality because it's just too hard.

Cry us another river of little girl tears, they're so yummy, you guys!

Where you start greatly impacts where you end up.

One party wants to offer 4 more years of public education, and your party is dead set against it.

Yes, there are plenty of poor white people, but far more poor blacks per capita by race.

The fix is multi fold with many unknowns, but an equal justice system where black defendants aren't 10 times more likely to go to prison based on the same evidence and circumstances would be a great start. Many fathers are MIA because they're in prison for minor drug offences while white defendants of similar charges usually get probation.

Pay better attention, the issue now is people don't want those low paying jobs and companies can't fill them, not a lack of them.

Lack of roads and bridges and electricity and an educated work force kill jobs and GDP. There are more than enough infrastructure jobs to do to jot only keep the entire construction industry busy for decades, there are constantly more as infrastructure ages. They may be part time projects, they are full time permanent jobs.

Look at GDP last year, fool. Under those tax cuts we had the largest drop in GDP ever. Holy fuck! The total rise in GDP under Trump is barely 1% in 4 years, disastrous, not flourishing.

Your dad didn't go to prison for fitting the description.

Just like not all those white kids had all those head starts, not all black kids have none. They needed to work harder and overcome more in almost all cases to be successful, and had to defend their right to success repeatedly, just ask one. Sports superstars are under what, 2000 people, not all of which make millions. Exceptions often prove the rule.....Remember his question about going to school on a non athletic scholarship? Relegating people to one or two professions they are allowed to be successful in based on race is definitely racist.

Edit: Studies show professional whites make about 1/3 more than blacks and even more compared to Hispanics even as lawyers, and whites make up over 85% of lawyers and 60% of the population while blacks are about 5% of lawyers and over 18% of population.
https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/a_law_degree_provides_a_larger_earnings_boost_to_whites_than_minorities_res
https://www.mycase.com/blog/aba-2019-report-lawyer-demographics-earnings-tech-choices-and-more/
The head starts never end.

The people working minimum wage hated it enough that they aren't going back and businesses can't find low wage employees....so.....

Wow, we agree on your last point. Your party, and definitely Trump absolutely disagree 100%. Their agenda is to ensure that is never the case but instead (successfully) argue that affluenza should excuse even murder and should definitely shield them from any lesser charge.

Right now we are in that position, but it's the minority that benefits unequally. Under Republican rule, how many bills were killed by democrats threatening a filibuster? Certainly less than under Democratic rule, republicans love to kill bills so much McConnell is known as the grim reaper for killing legislation as both the majority and minority leader.
When one party, a party that has millions fewer votes for their representatives btw, has the power to stop all legislation as the majority or minority and abuses that power in a partisan way to the detriment of the nation, it makes sense to rewrite the rule changes that put us in that position.
McConnell has threatened exactly that, scorched earth, destroying the legislative process if he can't call all the shots as the minority leader.
As you mentioned, there are ways around it if the leaders are underhanded and purely partisan....democrats have not shown the spine to do that in recent memory, I hope they do now if they don't regulate filibustering.
Time for the nuclear option, whatever that is so long as it stops obstructionist republicans from controlling as the minority. Republicans use it whenever it's convenient, Democrats don't seem to do that, but it's fine to stop them from starting...but requires a rule change to make it unnecessary. Obstructionism has harmed the nation badly, and is the mantra of Republicans....has been all century.

I also have a thin hope that at least two of Trump's appointees to the supreme court can be removed for perjuring themselves at their confirmation hearings, fbi reports declassified since Trump left prove Kavanaugh and Comey did.

How about listening to both sides (or several for that matter) and try to make sense of it all? Read the data and reach for your own opinion. Is that too hard? Is that not more worthwhile than always vote for one party or believe in "your" side?

But no liberal leaders supported the summer riots...often sparked by right wingers committing arson, shooting into crowds, shooting police, repeatedly trying to set bombs where they would kill, and even by police caught on camera directing vandalism and letting white arsonists and murderers walk away, liberal leadership immediately condemned all violence and looting.

Conversely, the leader of the right called for this march on congress and the “combat” that followed. Other Republican representatives have excused it, explained it away, and now are already denying it, claiming those were all ANTIFA dressed as Trumpsters, with white power tattoos, full MAGA regalia, guns, bombs, Molotov cocktails, etc shouting “stop the steal” as they violently attacked police and congress in Trump’s name and at his instruction.

The hypocrisy is overwhelming, but only from one party. Democrats are consistent in condemning mob violence, republicans love it when it suits them.

Aaaaahahaha...."HEARING"?!? They mean press event. You don't have hearings out of session outside the capitol building with only one party attending, having zero power to do a thing. This is the utter nonsense the Trump party has reduced American politics to. What a farce @bobknight33. A nonsensical, fact free, lie fest and political farce designed only to prove to Don the con that they back him so he doesn't ruin their reelection chances. Pennsylvania certified already. There's not a thing this could accomplish.

No, I'm not going to watch it. I expect Bob didn't either.

Technically correct: the Constitution does not provide specific details of how Supreme Court appointments are to be made. The fine details have been left up to the Senate and Executive (to a lesser degree, I believe). The executive branch has the right to nominate someone to the court, the Senate then has a duty to serve as a check on that. Technically there's nothing in the Constitution stating you're not allowed to advance a SC nominee weeks before an election.

It IS however, a naked partisan power grab. In 2016 one party argued, 8-9 months prior to the election, that their political opponents should not be able to have their SC nominee even get a hearing prior to the election. There was no actual precedent for this, but they insisted that the will of the electorate must be respected, and that we therefore must await the results of the election. So we did. Now 4 years later, the same party that insisted on respecting the will of the electorate in 2016 is taking precisely the opposite stance. Because last time they could potentially gain from the delay, and this time they almost certainly won't.

The CNN guy was correct: it is NOT unconstitutional to ram through a SC appointment. The authors of the Constitution didn't see fit to include that level of granularity in how the process would work. There is a process to clear this all up though: let's amend the Constitution! That's a super American thing to do! Let's establish, once and for all, the specific rules of the process. Then there won't be any back-and-forth like this about when a nominee can move ahead and when they can't. Nice and tidy.

The question then becomes: at what point in a President's term do they no longer get to nominate a replacement to the Supreme Court, when an election is pending? Should there in fact be no limit (like prior precedent, or lack thereof), and you believe that Merrick Garland should have been allowed hearings, and by extension the Amy Barrett hearings now are legit? Personally, I say we establish a cut-off to spare the political arguments in the future. Let's make it 100 days prior to the election: it's nice round number, bit over 3 months (so time for meaningful hearings and background checks), and should be after or at the end of primary season most cycles. That would of course invalidate both the 2016 and 2020 schemes by the Republicans, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

What's your take, Bob? How should this be handled? You posted the video, so I assume you have a stance on the issue?