It was fun watching this interview. Fun to see an expert bullsh*tter questioned. Fun to see a journalist ask follow-up questions (with the exception, as you’ll see below, of challenging our President on his characterization of the protests as full of “Antifa” and terrorists), and transcend this quote, often attributed to Mark Twain:

“Never argue with a fool. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

Fun, as an interviewer myself, see a journalist hang in there with the obfuscations and lies and distractions, and expose the emperor, naked.

​But none of this is fun, really. Like eating ice cream, the sickly sweet aftertaste ain’t sweet, it’s bitter. It’s bitter knowing that science, doctors and millions of employees and 100s of 1000s of businesses are going down because we’d rather shout “fake news!” than wear a simple piece of cloth to protect our fellow citizens, or keep 6 feet distance. It’s sad, and infuriating, that too many of us are callous that 100s of 1000s will die, most unnecessarily, when we’ve mourned individual losses of life far harder in the past when it didn’t inconvenience our political team.

This ain’t football. Vote. Care for others. Let’s get through this, already. In that spirit, here’s…

Bonus: This is how Trump talks to accomplished women.

7 quotes that perfectly describe President Trump’s hourlong interview with Axios.

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ~ Isaac Asimov

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” ~ Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

“Arguing with an idiot is like playing Chess with a pigeon. You can be the most skilled Chess player ever, but all the pigeon’s going to do is knock over the pieces, shit on the board, & strut around like it won.”

”No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffus’d and Virtue is preserv’d. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauch’d in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.” ~ Samuel Adams

“A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” ~ James Madison

“I consider knowledge to be the soul of a republic, and as the weak and the wicked are generally in alliance, as much care should be taken to diminish the number of the former as of the latter. ” ~ John Jay

~

“The Founding Fathers could see the problem ignorance and low education could pose to this country, centuries ago. I swear, it sometimes feels like I’m watching the decline of the Roman Empire in real time.” ~ reddit comment 

Watch this. Then, register to vote today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaaTZkqsaxY&app=desktop

On the return of Axios on HBO, Axios National Political Correspondent, Jonathan Swan, speaks with President Donald Trump about multiple topics including the coronavirus crisis, the Black Lives Matter movement, the November election, and U.S. Foreign Policy in Afghanistan, China, and Russia. Axios On HBO airs Mondays at 11pm. #HBO #AxiosOnHBO

Bonus:

Remember when that Irish journalist actually asked President Bush some real questions?