The Banter Brief: "You’re a bunch of dopes and babies"
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Banter Brief!
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Banter Brief, our round up of the most important events of the week published every Friday!
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1. Most Important Story Of The Week
Donald Trump’s impeachment trial has officially begun in the Senate. The president’s reaction was to double down on his ludicrous statement that his attempted extortion of the Ukrainian government was “a perfect phone call”:
Trump is of course betting that his supporters haven’t actually read the transcript of the call (which wasn’t actually a transcript, but a heavily redacted “summary”), because the available evidence demonstrates Trump was explicitly trying to extort Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“I would like you to do us a favor, though,” Trump told Zelensky when the Ukrainian President mentioned wanting to purchase antitank missiles from the United States.
“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son,” Trump went on. “A lot of people want to find out about that, so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great.”
Despite this being about as clear an example of a quid pro quo as you could possibly find, the Trump administration wants you to believe what you are reading is not in fact, what you are reading. Trump won the popular vote against Hillary Clinton despite losing it, his inauguration was the biggest in history, despite photo evidence proving it wasn’t, and there was no quid pro quo with Ukraine despite there being a quid pro quo with Ukraine.
(image via Etsy)
2. Poll Analysis
Trump: Stuck at roughly 42% and not budging. FiveThirtyEight also believes Trump might be more unpopular than polling is showing:
“The president appears even more unpopular than previously thought, and more disliked than the standard presidential approval question is able to reveal. Although the electoral implications of Trump’s unpopularity and impeachment remain to be seen, the data we do have isn’t promising for Trump.”
Democrats: Bernie Sanders is gaining on Joe Biden in a big way, and is now tied nationally in some polls with the former VP. Sanders is equal to Biden in Iowa, and beating him in New Hampshire.
Impeachment: The country is still equally divided, but a slight majority want Trump impeached and removed. Will the Senate trial change this? Perhaps, as new evidence of Trump’s wrongdoing emerges.
3. Quote Of The Week
“You’re all losers. You don’t know how to win anymore…..I wouldn’t go to war with you people. You’re a bunch of dopes and babies.”
- Donald Trump talking to military generals, July 20, 2017
4. What to Watch
Giri/Haji
This Netflix crime thriller set in Tokyo and London is a truly global TV show that does a fantastic job of introducing viewers to two completely different cultures, and weaving a complex plot between them. Originally broadcast on BBC Two, Giri/Haji (which roughly translates to “Duty/Shame”) follows Japanese policeman Kenzo Miro’s escapades in London after a violent murder of a Yakuza member threatens to spark off a vicious turf war back in Tokyo. The problem is, the murderer just might be Kenzo’s Yakuza brother Yuto, who everyone believed had died a year before.
Kenzo must befriend people in the London underworld in order to find his brother while keeping the British authorities unaware of his activities — a task made harder by the Yakuza’s threats to bring his own family deeper into the conflict. Kenzo exists in the shadows and must use all of his experience to navigate a complicated case in a completely foreign country.
Giri/Haji is atmospheric, well shot and features excellent acting from both the Japanese and British casts. The plot is also engrossing and the insight into Japanese culture a good enough reason to make time to watch it.
5. Good News
We like to highlight good environmental news in this section, mostly because the news is often so dire and depressing.
It seems corporate America really is beginning to step up to the plate, with Microsoft pledging to become “carbon negative” by 2030. What does “carbon negative” mean? Basically, the tech giant won’t just stop pumping CO2 into the atmosphere, it will actively remove it by “by expanding its internal carbon fee – a fee the company has charged to its business groups to account for their carbon emissions,” and “the creation of a climate innovation fund, which will invest $1bn over the next four years to speed up the development of carbon removal technology.”
This new trend of trying to actually regenerate the environment rather than just stopping polluting it is an extremely positive step in the right direction.
See you next week!
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"<I>the data we do have isn’t promising for Trump.</i>"
Didn't 538 also say that four years ago?
"Bernie Sanders is gaining on Joe Biden in a big way, and is now tied nationally in 'some' polls with the former VP."
While other polls have Biden in a commanding lead over Sanders and the rest.
Need I keep reminding people here. You won't win the Democratic nomination without the support of the African American community. Biden has that, Sanders does not.