+
Sign up for
The Upworthiest
Our top stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
upworthy

election

Democracy

Jon Stewart perfectly shuts down  immigrant fearmongering in brilliant new video

He called out Democrats and Republicans alike.

The Office of Kirsten Gilibrand/ Wikimedia Commons and Dr. Phil/Wikimedia Commons

Jon Stewart talks about the border crisis; Dr. Phil.

Jon Stewart is known for using humor to skewer politicians on both sides of the aisle, cleverly exposing their more ridiculous claims and inconsistencies with deft satire and mock incredulity. To the delight of The Daily Show viewers, he’s returned to the program after nine long years where he’ll sit in the hosting chair on Mondays throughout this year’s presidential election cycle.

This week, he fixed his gimlet eye on the migrant crisis at the border. He had plenty of criticism to go around and he even managed to zing Dr. Phil.

In a clip that’s now gone viral, titled, “Stewart Unpacks the GOP's ‘Migrant Crime’ Narrative,” the host makes the case that Republicans are using the crisis for political gain while Democrats are turning their backs on their core values.

After showing a series of alarmist clips (“Illegal invaders invading America!” warns one Fox News host), Stewart says, “Every two to four years, we are reminded we have a Southern border. And it is porous.”

More clips play, ratcheting up the levels of fear over the types of people who might be flowing through the border.

“Criminals, rapists, murderers, predators and God knows who else,” we see Marjorie Taylor Greene proclaim. “God knows who else? Statistically, a couple of them at least have to be podcasters,” Stewart quips.

Stewart goes on to show commentators and politicians discussing the countries where the people crossing the border are coming from, including Dr. Phil on "The Joe Rogan Experience," talking about all the fit, military-age men from China coming through the border.

“While it’s clear hyperbole,” says Stewart, after showing a clip where Donald Trump says Hannibal Lecter is one of the people crossing the border, “there does seem to be bipartisan agreement now that the border is a problem. There were 300,000 crossings in December alone. That’s an all-time high, and that is not sustainable.

“But Republicans turned down the chance to pass a strong border bill because of how confident they are that fearmongering will be an effective election-year strategy. It’s really all about branding,” Stewart said.

Trump again: “I call it Biden migrant crime, but it’s too long… Let’s call it Bigrant… Oh that’s good. That’s smart, Bigrant crime.”

​“I’m not completely sold on Bigrant,” Stewart joked, stifling a laugh. It really just sounds like a migrant who’s open to crossing either border." Stewart then turned his attention to what he calls “a good old-fashioned border off,” where Trump and Biden both went to the Texas-Mexico border last week. Trump went to Eagle Pass, and Biden to Brownsville.

Biden suggests he and Trump should get together to pass a bipartisan border bill which Trump declines.

“When it comes to immigration, the Democrats hold to our country's cherished ideals, the eternal promise etched at the feet of lady liberty that speaks to our better angels," Stewart said. This is followed by a montage of clips showing politicians, including New York Mayor Eric Adams, speaking warmly about how our country is stronger because of immigrants.

“Unshakable bedrock American values of compassion and empathy and there is not a damn thing you can do to change that,” said Stewart. "And then busloads of migrants from Texas, seeking asylum in New York.“

Nice try, Texas, but you heard the mayor," Stewart continued. "We’re New York [bleeping] City!… You are never going to change our values because you’re afraid. So keep sending those busloads because we got plenty of room in our hearts and in this city.”

Adams again: “We have no more room in the city.”

Stewart stared at the camera in disbelief. “What about the yearnings and the tiredness and the tiredness of those who are doing the yearnings?”

Stewart then shows clips of Adams talking about the effect of 110,000 migrants coming to New York City. “This issue will destroy New York City,” he says.

“Yes, it turns out in the age old battle between values and fear, values never had a [bleeping] chance.


“So this is the terrible cycle America is caught in. Democrats whose high-minded values and principles did not survive a contact high with reality and Republicans whose desire to solve the problem isn’t nearly as strong as their desire to exploit it," Stewart concluded.

From Your Site Articles
jon stewart
Democracy

Expert on tyranny explains the Trump 'Big Lie' you've been hearing so much about lately

Reuters/Twitter, Timothy Snyder/Twitter

In October, the Washington Post shared an updated count of the lies or misleading claims President Trump has made since he was elected. The count, as of August 27, was 22,247 claims in 1,316 days. Why did the count only go through August? Because the president's pace had accelerated to more than 50 lies or misleading claims per day, and the fact-checking team couldn't keep up.

And it's not just the Washington Post. Fact checkers across the media landscape have repeatedly lamented that it's impossible to keep up.

All politicians stretch the truth sometimes, some more often or egregiously than others. But the frequency, nature, and shamelessness of President Trump's lying is in an entirely separate category than most politicians. This is not an opinion or even a judgment; it's an axiomatic fact.

The problem is, a shocking number of people overlook his lies, believe his lies, or in some cases, even love his lies. Opportunistic politicians and idealogues have seen him rise to power through lies, have seen the adulation he receives from his base for his lies, and have decided it's worth it to hitch their wagon to his lies. That's largely how we've ended up here, in a broken government and political culture where the president's supporters rally behind the lie that he won the election with a not-insignificant number of them willing to die or kill to defend that lie.

Yale historian Timothy Snyder calls the claim that Trump won the election a "Big Lie." Snyder, who specializes in the history of Central Europe and the Holocaust and has written books on tyranny, explained what that means in a Twitter thread.


Snyder wrote:

"The claim that Trump won the election is a Big Lie.

A Big Lie changes reality. To believe it, people must disbelieve their senses, distrust their fellow citizens, and live in a world of faith.

A Big Lie demands conspiracy thinking, since all who doubt it are seen as traitors.

A Big Lie undoes a society, since it divides citizens into believers and unbelievers.

A Big Lie destroys democracy, since people who are convinced that nothing is true but the utterances of their leader ignore voting and its results.

A Big Lie must bring violence, as it has.

A Big Lie can never be told just by one person. Trump is the originator of this Big Lie, but it could never have flourished without his allies on Capitol Hill.

Political futures now depend on this Big Lie. Senators Hawley and Cruz are running for president on the basis of this Big Lie.

There is a cure for the Big Lie. Our elected representatives should tell the truth, without dissimulation, about the results of the 2020 election.

Politicians who do not tell the simple truth perpetuate the Big Lie, further an alternative reality, support conspiracy theories, weaken democracy, and foment violence far worse than that of January 6, 2021."

Everyone who lives in objective reality understands that Trump did not win this election. There was no widespread fraud, and not enough small instances of fraud (which have occurred on both sides in every single election throughout history) to even come close to changing the outcome of the election. The election officials charged with carrying out the elections in every state, both Republican and Democrat, have said so. International election observers that Trump invited to witness our elections have said so. The federal agency charged with election security under Trump's own administration has said so.

Investigations into allegations have borne no fruit, and nearly all of the affidavits and "testimonies" (notably, not given under oath) we've seen have been from people describing normal voting and tallying processes that they don't fully understand. Voting machine companies have now launched billion-dollar defamation lawsuits against Trump allies who pushed conspiracy theory-laded lies about voting machines. The courts have been decisive in their rulings against the president and his allies, who are now 1 and 64 in lawsuits attempting to prove both fraud and unconstitutionality in some states' election processes.

The facts are not in question; it's only what people believe or want to believe that is in question.

Psychologists have explained that the president will never concede because his narcissistic nature and pathology will not allow it. He will double down on the Big Lie for the rest of his life. That's a problem—but it's not the only one.

A Big Lie can't succeed without support. Those in power who have gone along with this lie have breathed life into it, which also fuels the anger and resolve of those who believe the lie. Every person who has supported and disseminated this lie since election day bears responsibility for the attack on our U.S. Capitol and for how close we came to witnessing a massacre of our lawmakers last week. Every single one.

The bombardment of thousands of lies over the past four years have wounded and weakened our body politic. But the Big Lie slashed an artery and our democracy is bleeding out. Every single enabler of this lie needs to stand up and say "It wasn't true. We were wrong," as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. Not just the politicians, but the media personalities who know the truth but supported the "Stop the Steal" message anyway. The only immediate remedy is to decisively end the lie, to clamp down on it hard and fast. Damage has been done and will need to be assessed, but right now the goal is survival.

That requires putting the truth and the country before any and all political or popular ambition, which some have proven time and again they will not do. But if there's ever been a time to swallow your pride and do the right thing, it's right now.

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
democracy
Democracy

GOP Congressman Adam Kinzinger calls for President Trump's removal via the 25th amendment

Adam Kinzinger/Twitter

Yesterday was a dark day for the United States of America. As members of Congress met to officially count the 2020 presidential election votes from the Electoral College, a pro-Trump mob of insurrectionists broke into the Capitol building and stormed both chambers of Congress, forcing Senators and Representatives into hiding, and leaving a path of destruction in their wake.

The threat was, and is, real. United States lawmakers were temporarily prevented from performing their constitutional duty to count the certified election results—a duty that is necessary to ensure the orderly transition of power—by people who had just built gallows outside of the Capitol building and who carried guns and zip ties into Congress chambers. The storming of the Capitol was not a peaceful protest, but an act of terror by people who believe President Trump's delusional rhetoric that he actually won the 2020 election in a landslide.

Unsurprisingly, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Shumer has called for President Trump to be removed from office, either via impeachment or the 25th amendment. Also unsurprisingly, other Democratic leaders have voiced support for the idea.

However, it's not just Democrats who are now calling for such measures.

This morning, Republican representative Adam Kinzinger of the 16th district in Illinois took the bold step of calling for Trump to be removed from office via the 25th amendment.

In a video statement, Kinzinger said:

"Yesterday was a sad day, as we all know. It was the day where fires stoked by the president and other leaders finally leapt out of the pit, and it lit the trees. Thankfully, the strength of our Constitution and democracy help, and we emerge today a little battered, but resolved.

What happened yesterday is a wake-up call to many, but it's a call to accountability for others. In the past few presidencies, the administrations have been so concerned about even a moment of weakness that the 25th Amendment was invoked during minor surgeries, passing the duties to the vice president while the president was under anesthesia, because even for that moment to have the captain of the ship absent could cause a major catastrophe.

Sadly, yesterday it became evident that not only has the president abdicated his duty to protect the American people and the people's house, he invoked and inflamed passions that only gave fuel to the insurrection that we saw here. When pressed to move and denounce the violence, he barely did so, while of course, victimizing himself and seeming to give a wink and a nod to those doing it. All indications that the president has become unmoored, not just from his duty or even his oath, but from reality itself. It is for this reason that I call for the vice president and members of the Cabinet to ensure the next few weeks are safe for the American people and that we have a sane captain of the ship.

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment allows a majority of the Cabinet and the vice president to assume the duties of the office of presidency until the president is able to himself. It's time to invoke the 25th Amendment and to end this nightmare. We will rise from this, but we cannot forget what led us here. The liars and the conspiracy authors are already at it again this morning with false narratives about yesterday's disaster.

Here's the truth — the president caused this. The president is unfit and the president is unwell, and the president must now relinquish control of the executive branch voluntarily or involuntarily. God bless you, and God bless our enduring democracy."

What a time to be an American, when members of a president's own party are calling for his removal two weeks before he's going to lose power anyway. In a truly dark time for our nation, seeing glimmers of truth and reason peeking through offer glimpses of hope for the future of the U.S.

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
democracy
Democracy

Republican election official in Georgia publicly debunks President Trump's fraud claims

NBC News/YouTube

By now most Americans have heard, or at least heard about, President Trump's hour-long phone call with Georgia's Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, in which the sitting president attempted to convince the official in charge of Georgia's election to "recalculate" and "find" him enough votes to overturn the state's results in his favor.

The criminal implications inherent in the asking aside, the phone call was filled with baseless allegations that the president has "heard" and that "Trump media" has been sharing. It's the constant drumbeat of the past two months—the counts are wrong, the machines were rigged, the votes were flipped, the ballots were counted multiple times, fake ballots were brought in, signatures weren't checked, the recount was wrong, the audit was corrupt, and so on and so on and so on. The breadth and depth of fraud allegations is stunning, which is exactly the point. One or two allegations are easily checked and either verified or debunked. Flooding media with every allegation in the book makes it 1) impossible to debunk due to the sheer volume, and 2) more likely that some of the allegations will be believed, regardless of actual evidence.

It's Steve Bannon's "flood the zone with sh*t" approach to handling the media, and unfortunately, it works.

However, at some point, people need to realize that the real experts on elections are the actual experts on elections. That's not the president of the United States. That's not random poll observers. That's not any of the Newsmax or OAN reporters. That's not any of the so-called "data scientists" (some of whom hilariously turn out to be Sean Hannity's producer) who make claims in non-binding hearings but not in court.

In the U.S., the people elected and appointed to serve as state election officials are the final authority on whether or not an election was run properly. (Unless a lawsuit leads to a court deciding that something went awry, of course. As of now, Trump's legal team and allies are 1 and 61 in court for election cases. The one case they won just allowed poll watchers to stand a few feet closer to the poll workers.)

One of those election officials, Republican Gabriel Sterling who serves as the Voting Systems Manager for the Secretary of State office in Georgia, spoke at a press conference today to set the record straight on the continued allegations.

"We've seen nothing in our investigations of any of these data claims that shows there are nearly enough ballots to change the outcome. And the secretary and I at this podium have said, since November 3rd, there is illegal voting in every single election in the history of mankind because there are human beings involved in the process. It's going to happen. So the question is limiting it and putting as many safeguards as you can in place to make sure that it doesn't happen."

Sterling mentioned the hand tally and the allegation that Dominion machines used "fractional voting" or flipped votes. "Again, by doing the hand tally, it shows none of that is true," he said. "Not a whit."

He also addressed the overall claims about the Dominion voting systems, pointing out that in the counties in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that used Dominion voting machines, Trump actually won a majority of the vote. Then he debunked the idea that 900,000 votes had been deleted, as that would have meant a mathematically impossible turnout to begin with.

"Again, this is all easily, provably false," he said. "Yet the president persists."

Regarding Trump's allegation that some part of the Dominion machines were being switched out, Sterling said, "This one I don't fully understand. No one is changing parts or pieces out of Dominion voting machines. That's not -- I don't even know what that means. That's not a real thing. That's not happening. The president mentioned it on the call...from two days ago. That's, again, not real. I don't even know how exactly to explain that."

Visual aids are always helpful, so there was also a CLAIM vs. FACT poster displayed next to Sterling as he spoke that gave specific responses to specific numbers claims. Why people just believe numbers they see online instead of going to the source—again, the actual election officials—to see the actual, verified numbers is a bit baffling, yet here we are. Here's a close-up of the poster:

Again, Sterling is a Republican (as is Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, as Georgia's governor Brian Kemp, all of whom stand by Georgia's election result). He wanted Trump to win. He mentioned that Trump's allegations might be discouraging people from turning out to vote—especially Republicans who might be convinced that the election system is so flawed that there's no point in participating in it.

"Everybody's vote is going to count," Sterling said. "Everybody's vote did count."

Sterling referred to his press conference as yet another "Whack-a-mole" event, alluding to the fact that he has had to debunk these allegations over and over again, one at a time, for two months since the election. At one point he said he had screamed at his computer when he heard an allegation that's been debunked many, many times. So many of the "suspicious" allegations of fraud we've heard in testimonies and read in affidavits are just normal vote collecting and tallying processes that lay observers simply don't know are normal.

The poor guy sounded like an exasperated parent who's having to lecture their teenager about something they already should know for the hundredth time. Can't really blame him. It's exhausting to constantly battle a flood of misinformation and disinformation, especially when it's coming from the president himself.

You can watch the entire press conference here:

Georgia Secretary Of State's Office Holds Press Conference | NBC Newswww.youtube.com

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
election
Trending Stories