On the newest Final Week Tonight, John Oliver ripped into these praising the “civility” of final week’s vice-presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz. “Etiquette is form of inappropriate” when the stakes embody immigrant rights and ladies’s bodily autonomy, he contended.
“It’s like studying a ransom word and going, ‘This cursive is simply so beautiful. Take a look at the capital Y in ‘You’ve got 24 hours earlier than he dies.’ There are nonetheless some individuals who had been raised proper,’” he quipped.
Oliver tore into Vance’s refusal to say, when requested instantly, that Donald Trump misplaced the 2020 election. In what Walz known as “a damning non-answer”, Vance deflected with: “I’m centered on the longer term.”
“‘I’m centered on the longer term’ is among the most generic store-brand fuckboy deflections there may be,” Oliver fumed. “It’s no surprise Tim Walz broke the fourth wall there like he was in Abbott Elementary. As a result of ‘I’m centered on the longer term’ is what you say whenever you need to change the topic. If not, you simply reply the query.”
Oliver additionally touched on particular counsel Jack Smith’s 165-page report detailing the methods Trump and his cohort tried to overturn the 2020 election, “reminding us but once more of the ridiculous steps he took to keep away from leaving workplace”. In accordance with the doc, Trump allegedly advised individuals within the White Home he knew he had misplaced however that he would “battle like hell” anyway.
“But it surely tremendous issues if you happen to misplaced,” Oliver countered. “It’s form of the primary factor that issues. That’s the most unsettling factor you would probably overhear if you happen to work on the White Home.”
The report additionally notes that Trump muted his lawyer Sidney Powell throughout a telephone name “when she was outlining her bogus fraud claims” and known as her concepts loopy.
“If I ever discovered that I lied so badly that Donald Trump muted the decision to say that is some loopy shit, you’ll by no means see me once more,” Oliver laughed. “I’d stroll instantly into the ocean.”
Jokes apart, Oliver reminded: “None of that is theoretical. If he loses subsequent month, there may be each motive to consider Trump will dispute the outcomes once more and Vance has made it clear he’s acquired no drawback with that. And that alone must be disqualifying.
“For all of the discuss this week about his civility on the debate, let’s not overlook: deep down [Vance] is similar colossal dipshit who spews rightwing hate with distressing ease and continues to defend the ‘huge lie’ that the final election was stolen,” he continued. “It’s all tremendously bleak, which is why – to borrow a phrase I heard not too long ago – I’m centered on the longer term, particularly one wherein in 4 weeks’ time, Trump hopefully loses this fucking election.”
In his most important section, Oliver appeared into how a routine site visitors cease for “non-safety violations” can change into a terror, with legislation enforcement disproportionately focusing on individuals of coloration. Site visitors stops are “the commonest legislation enforcement interplay in America”, with police pulling over a mean of fifty,000 individuals in a day within the US.
These interactions can flip lethal: since 2017, armed police have killed no less than 813 individuals in routine site visitors stops, the overwhelming majority of them Black. “We’ve all seen the movies of high-profile killings,” stated Oliver, referring to the police shootings of Philando Castile, Daunte Wright and others, recorded by bystanders or police body-cams. “The horror of these movies must be seared into our collective consciouses by now.”
Due to this sample, for Black motorists, “driving comes with a continuing undercurrent of worry”, stated Oliver.
He famous that there are reliable security causes to tug over some drivers – somebody driving too quick or recklessly, as an illustration, however no driver ought to fear a few site visitors cease and “even have to fret about being harassed or probably killed”.
Such dangers will not be the product of some dangerous apples in legislation enforcement, stated Oliver; it’s “the inevitable results of deliberate selections which have turned site visitors stops right into a systemic challenge”.
Oliver ticked by means of documentation of how police departments incentivize site visitors stops as a way of funding, and encourage officers to use deeply subjective standards to pulling individuals over. Such “pretextual stops” principally equate to “shaking individuals right down to see what crimes fall out”, he stated.
As an apart, he performed an previous PSA that includes characters from the musical Cats encouraging individuals to drive safely, lest their youngsters change into nothing however “recollections”. “Let me simply say this,” stated Oliver. “That musical is an abomination. If there may be ever a day that Andrew Lloyd Webber has no haters, that signifies that I’m useless and so, by the best way, is Patti LuPone.”
On a extra severe word, Oliver inspired a full-stop finish to pretextual stops and eliminating non-safety-related site visitors stops. Such measures have already been adopted on the native degree in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Philadelphia – the place, after eight months, site visitors stops had been minimize in half, which means 12,000 fewer Black drivers had been pulled over. He additionally advocated for decriminalizing minor site visitors offenses (similar to damaged tail lights) and making knowledge on site visitors stops public, together with the race of these pulled over – “frankly fucking unbelievable that it’s not already taking place”, he famous.
Whereas a few of these measures could also be politically tough, in the case of non-safety-related site visitors stops, “doing fewer of them for bullshit causes must be a fairly simple promote”.
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