- The video discusses the Republican National Convention (RNC) and the events in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
- The RNC focused on denying objective reality and telling lies in front of flags.
- Speakers made false claims about Joe Biden and misrepresented Trump's actions and policies.
- The RNC attempted to portray racial harmony while also promoting racial panic.
- The video connects the RNC's rhetoric to the events in Kenosha, where Jacob Blake was shot by police and a vigilante killed two people.
- The video criticizes Tucker Carlson for justifying the actions of the vigilante and highlights the double standard in how police responded to Blake and the vigilante.

- The Kenosha police chief blamed the protesters who were shot and killed for violating the curfew.
- The Kenosha Sheriff expressed explicit views about putting certain people in jail and preventing them from having children.
- The events in Kenosha contradicted the RNC's message that America is not racist.
- NBA and WNBA players went on strike in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake.
- Jared Kushner made dismissive comments about the players' strike.
- The protests and strikes are a call for real change in a non-responsive system.
- Symbolic gestures of support, like painting Black Lives Matter on the court, are not enough.
- Voting in November is not sufficient for real change; progressive candidates are needed at all levels of government.
- The current situation is unacceptable, and the RNC's message is seen as a threat.

- The statement suggests that a promise made in the past is now being perceived as a threat.
- The context is the events and experiences of the past four years.
- The tone of the statement is strong and explicit.

The video discusses the Republican National Convention (RNC) and the events in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The RNC focused on denying reality and telling lies, while also promoting racial panic. The video criticizes Tucker Carlson and highlights the double standards in how police responded to the shooting of Jacob Blake and the actions of the vigilante. The Kenosha police chief blamed the protesters for the shooting. NBA and WNBA players went on strike in response to the shooting. The protests and strikes are a call for real change, as symbolic gestures are not enough. Voting in November is not sufficient for change, progressive candidates are needed. The RNC's message is seen as a threat in the context of the past four years. The tone of the statement is strong and explicit.

John Oliver discusses a week that saw the Republican National Convention, a horrific series of shootings in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and a strike in professional sports -- three stories that are really one story, about race in America.

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Think of it like the moon, in that it's frigid, colorless, and occasionally occupied by 1 very lonely, malnourished man who's definitely urinated in his suit.

And we're actually gonna dive straight in with our main story this week, which unusually for us, concerns the week that we've just had.

It's 1 of the rare times we're actually living up to our show's title, unlike what should probably be called 28 Minutes on the Corn Tax, or whatever the fuck, with John Oliver.

And the reason we're doing that is that this has been 1 hell of a week.

So tonight, we're gonna talk about 2 things in particular.

The Republican National Convention and the horrific events in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where Jacob Blake was repeatedly shot in the back by police and a vigilante killed 2 people.

And we'll talk more about Kenosha in a bit, but let's start with the RNC.

An event to celebrate the stewardship of Donald Trump.

A tough sell at the best of times, but something that felt particularly out of step this week, considering we have a pandemic on the rampage, an economic catastrophe unfolding, and wildfires and hurricanes battering the country.

All of which made it a little jarring that the Republicans' opening argument seemed to essentially be this.

Ladies and gentlemen, leaders and fighters for freedom and liberty and the American dream, The best is yet to come!

That's Kimberly Guilfoyle bringing energy to the RNC that can really only be described as, sorry, I thought doves were gonna shoot out of my hands.

And that very much set the tone for the week.

The main theme of the convention seemed to be telling lies in front of flags.

Because it was 4 days of a full-throated denial of objective reality.

For 1 thing, there was the misleading portrait they painted of Trump's opponents.

If Biden wins, he'll be controlled by the environmental extremists.

We'd be 1 step closer to government-run healthcare.

And he's even talking about taking the wall down.

Unfortunately, though, Biden has promised to do exactly none of those things.

Biden is a radical, environmentalist, police-defunding socialist, in the same way that I am history's greatest Zazu.

You can say I am all you want to, and honestly, I wish I were, but the fact is, It's not even close to being true.

And the lies told about Biden were just the beginning here.

Convention speakers also claimed that Trump never called white supremacists very fine people, which he did, that he passed the Veterans Choice Act, which he didn't, and that he's trying to protect patients with pre-existing conditions, which he very much is not.

I'm honestly surprised a speaker didn't at 1 point claim that Trump invented parakeets, or that he stopped the murder hornets by sucking them straight out of the air.

And yet, even in the midst of a blizzard of lies, some still managed to stand out.

Like White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow referring to the coronavirus with an odd choice of verb tense.

But presidential leadership came swiftly and effectively with an extraordinary rescue for health and safety to successfully fight the COVID virus.

You can't talk about the coronavirus in the past tense when it is, in a very real sense, still raging.

If you're a character in a Saw movie, you don't say, -"Whew, that was a close one." while the bear trap is still on your head.

But maybe the biggest gulf between the RNC and objective reality concerned race.

Because again and again, RNC speakers were at pains to reassure viewers that racism in America is mostly a relic of the past, and whatever remains can be easily overcome.

Take Nikki Haley's speech, in which she flatly insisted America is not a racist country, and then told the inspirational story of how the Confederate flag at her state's capital was taken down in 2015 after the massacre at Mother Emanuelle Church.

After that horrific tragedy, we didn't turn against each other.

We came together, black and white, Democrat and Republican.

Together, we made the hard choices needed to heal, and removed a divisive symbol peacefully and respectfully.

It's a peaceful story of unity and hope, as long as you start that story immediately after a white supremacist killed 9 people at a historic black church.

Also, Haley's version of that story ignores the fact that the eventual removal of the Confederate flag was jump-started by artist and activist Bree Newsom Bass climbing the flagpole in front of the statehouse, like she was on an anti-racist version of American Ninja Warrior, and that she was then arrested, and that the flag was then re-raised 45 minutes later.

Haley also conveniently leaves out the part where the candidate she's endorsing has defended those who proudly fly the flag by saying it represents the South.

So, Haley turning what happened in South Carolina into a smooth, hopeful story of racial reconciliation is a bit like if someone asked her what the film Do the Right Thing is about, and she said, a Brooklyn neighborhood comes together to help redecorate a pizza place.

I mean, sure, Nikki, I guess that's technically true, but it feels like you're leaving out some pretty fucking important parts there.

And a lot of the RNC's messaging on race seemed intended not so much to win over black voters, as to reassure white people that they could vote Republican without being racist.

The audience they were talking to was pretty clear, even in small moments like this.

We don't have to choose between supporting law enforcement...

And standing with our African-American neighbors.

Because it seems like you're making a distinction between we, the American people, and our African-American neighbors, who I guess by extension, are somehow a different group entirely.

But I guess that sentiment shouldn't really be surprising coming from Mike Pence, a man who permanently looks like he should be living in Ken's white flight dream house.

And all of this overt talk of racial harmony was very much in conflict with the steady diet of barely disguised racial panic that viewers were also being fed.

Perhaps the most flagrant example of this came on Monday night, when the RNC chose to feature the St.

Louis couple who were charged with threatening Black Lives Matter protesters at gunpoint last month.

And the message that they were there to send was pretty clear.

It seems as if the Democrats no longer view the government's job as protecting honest citizens from criminals, but rather protecting criminals from honest citizens.

They're not satisfied with spreading the chaos and violence into our communities, they want to abolish the suburbs altogether by ending single-family home zoning.

This forestry zoning would bring crime, lawlessness, and low-quality apartments into now-thriving suburban neighborhoods.

So make no mistake, no matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats' America.

Okay, first C-SPAN, you really didn't need to put up the banner that says they're personal injury attorneys.

I very much got that from the everything.

But much more importantly, think about how incendiary that message is.

Violence and criminals are coming to your community in the form of low-quality apartments, and you must defend yourself, take it from us, the couple who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters.

And rhetoric like that, and the worldview it encompasses, has consequences.

Which actually brings us to the second part of our story this week.

What happened in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where, to reiterate, Jacob Blake was shot 7 times in the back by police, with 3 of his children in the car.

And then, in the protest that followed, Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old who traveled there from out of state and was illegally carrying a weapon, killed 2 people.

And look, I don't know if he saw the McCloskey speak the night before he chose to drive to a city he didn't live in to defend property he didn't own.

What I do know is that he was an avid Trump supporter, even sitting front row at a rally back in January.

And Trump and his media ecosystem have been delivering essentially the same message as the McCloskey's for years now.

Just look at how quickly Tucker Carlson moved to try and explain away Rittenhouse's actions as a natural response.

So we're really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder.

How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no 1 else would?

Well, you don't seem to be shocked, and that alone should actually be pretty fucking shocking.

Because let's be clear, a 17-year-old vigilante with a rifle cannot maintain order, because a 17-year-old vigilante with a rifle trying to maintain order is himself the definition of disorder.

Except, of course, if you're a regular viewer of Tucker Carlson, a show that exists to teach its viewers precisely 3 things.

Property damage is violence, Homicide is order, and pillows are for sale.

And the events in Kenosha really hammer home the flagrant double standard baked into American society.

Just look at the difference in how the police in Kenosha responded to Blake and how they responded to Rittenhouse.

Alleged gunman Kyle Rittenhouse walking away, gun in tow, as people screamed that he just shot protesters.

1 law enforcement officer seeming to ask Rittenhouse if anyone was hurt.

2 incidents, 2 videos, with some asking why 2 different responses.

I think the answer to that is pretty obvious.

It's the same reason why ahead of the shooting, there was video of the police trying to enforce a curfew against protesters, even as they offered water to Rittenhouse and the militia, saying, and I quote, And if you're looking for a better visual illustration of the differences between being black and white in America, I don't think you're gonna find 1, except maybe for seeing exactly who sits down and who stands up when Cotton Eye Joe comes on at a wedding.

And that disparity in treatment continued even after the shootings.

Just watch how the next day, the Kenosha police chief couldn't help but spread blame to the protesters who were shot at and killed.

Everybody involved was out after the curfew.

I'm not gonna make a great deal of that, but the point is, the curfew's in place to protect.

Had persons not been out involved in violation of that, perhaps the situation that unfolded would not have happened.

I mean, first of all, thanks so much for not making a great deal out of that.

The people who got murdered were up way past their government imposed bedtime, and you were nice enough not to even mention it, except to imply that maybe it was a reason they kind of had it coming.

And that is the kind of restraint that we've all now come to expect from the Kenosha Police Department.

And you might think, well, hold on, that's just 1 guy.

Surely not all law enforcement there thinks that way.

Although, I will point out to you that the guy standing next to him is the Kenosha Sheriff, who, just 2 years ago, gave a pretty striking press conference.

A group of 5 young black people had allegedly stolen some clothing from an outlet mall and had led police on a chase that ended in a minor car accident.

And in that press conference, he expressed some views that are pretty explicit.

Let's stop them from truly, at least some of these males going out and getting 10 other women pregnant and having small children.

At some point, we have to stop being politically correct.

Sorry, can I quickly interrupt you there?

Because calling for American citizens to be stopped from having small children isn't politically incorrect, so much as politically 1940s Germany.

He'd really thought through a whole plan.

And I know it is deeply unpleasant, but honestly, it is worth listening to just how detailed his solution was.

If there's a threshold that they cross, these people have to be warehoused.

We put them away and maybe what we got to do is build warehouses that after this generation is gone, they've perished in these buildings, we can turn them into something else.

Maybe it'd be malls, maybe Amazon will buy them as warehouses later.

But at some point, we have to get rid of this group of people.

I don't think I'm saying anything different than most people in society aren't thinking, but they're afraid to say it.

And I'm just to the point that I'm saying it.

If that is what most people in society are thinking, then we are, and this is true, a terrible society.

And I honestly cannot believe that that was an idea from a still-employed sheriff, and not a pitch from Shark Tank, Light's Genocide Edition.

The answer is, these concentration camps could easily be converted into Amazon warehouses.

Looks like I've got a bidding war on my hands.

And look, The events in Kenosha would be infuriating at any time, but it's somehow especially infuriating that they took place in the same week where the RNC was desperate to reassure the country that America isn't racist, while simultaneously fear-mongering about violent crime threatening law-abiding citizens.

It was a disconnect that was pretty well summed up by NBA coach Doc Rivers in an emotional post-game press conference on Tuesday.

What stands out to me is, just watching the Republican Convention and this feeling, this fear, right?

Like, all you hear Donald Trump and all of them talking about fear, we're the ones getting killed.

We're the ones that were denied to live in certain communities.

And all you do is keep hearing about fear.

Why we keep loving this country, and this country does not love us back.

Although, in a week of incredible darkness, there was actually a bright spot, because shortly after Doc Rivers spoke there, something genuinely extraordinary started to happen in his sport.

The Milwaukee Bucks had a playoff game, but didn't take the court with rumors starting to fly around that they were about to refuse to play.

Then, WNBA players, who incidentally have led from the start on the Black Lives Matter movement, also refused to play after arriving at a scheduled game with Church with 7 bullet holes drawn on their back.

And eventually, Wildcat strikes spread throughout both leagues in an unprecedented and genuinely inspiring show of collective action.

And they did this without union approval.

So they were putting a lot on the line here.

Their income and maybe even their careers.

Which is what makes it so infuriating that when Jared Kushner was asked for his response to the strike, this is what fell out of his mouth.

Look, I think that the NBA players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they're able to take a night off from work without having to have the consequences to themselves financially.

So they have that luxury, which is great.

Okay, first, get fucked, Jared, you welcome to Marwen reject.

Because for a start, they're not taking a night off from work.

The emotional toll of being Black in America, combined with the pressure to perform at an elite level during a global pandemic is, I'm guessing, pretty taxing.

So by not playing, they're not exactly taking a spa day.

And if NBA players are too rich to take meaningful action, then who exactly is in the right tax bracket to have their protest approved by America's most laminated prince?

Because we've seen time and time again that wealth and fame absolutely do not protect you as a black athlete.

It didn't protect Sterling Brown from getting tased by the police after being stopped for a parking violation in Milwaukee.

And it didn't protect Tarbo Cephalosha from having his leg broken by NYPD officers in an incident that forced him to miss the 2015 playoffs and put his whole career in jeopardy.

And you might want to strap in, Jared, because this probably isn't the last disruptive action like this that we're going to see going forward, nor should it be, because people are sick of waiting.

Just listen to Jacob Blake's sister, Letitia Wideman, making that very clear.

I have been watching police murder people that look like me for years.

That is why there is no section in greeting card stores labeled, centuries of oppression.

This isn't about what white people feel or say.

This has to be about creating real change in a system that has been built to be non-responsive.

Because history has repeatedly shown us, the system does not respond until it is forced to.

So it's easy for RNC speakers to insist that the only appropriate action is peaceful and unobtrusive.

But the fact is, that's just not how it works.

Thousands of people marched in the wake of George Floyd's death, and have continued marching, even as media coverage has steadily drifted away.

Meanwhile, the NBA has made a lot of symbolic gestures of support for the movement, like painting Black Lives Matter on the court, and allowing players to wear a social justice message on their jerseys, selected, by the way, from a list of 29 agreed-upon options.

But to underscore just how limiting that kind of pre-approved protest can be, Say Her Name was on the list, but Breonna Taylor was not.

And I guess the only positive thing there is that if players wanted to protest that particular restriction, the NBA had a jersey ready made for them.

The problem with purely symbolic protest is that it's far too easy to co-opt.

And there might actually be no more visceral example of that than the fact that Kenosha sheriff and human warehousing innovator got positive attention earlier this year when he kneeled for 9 minutes in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

So, is it any wonder that basketball players felt they had to escalate their protest by not just wearing a jersey, but by striking.

And in doing so, putting team owners' money at jeopardy because real discomfort is the only thing that's gonna bring about real change here.

And it's worth noting that already the strike has had some effect.

Not only did it spread to other sports and other athletes, but the NBA players now have a promise from owners to convert as many of their arenas as possible into polling places this November, which is great.

Although, It also brings us to the fact that simply voting this November is clearly not gonna be nearly enough.

Because as much as I or the RNC would like to believe that Joe Biden will be an agent of radical change, there's just no reason to believe that.

To the extent that real change is possible through the ballot box this year, it will only be if Biden is elected alongside progressive candidates all the way down the ballot, from the Senate to state legislatures, to city councils, to sheriffs.

And even that will be very much a beginning and not an end.

None of this is easy, but it has to begin and now.

Because our current situation is completely unacceptable.

And the RNC this week actually ended up being a pretty good reminder that where we still might end up going is genuinely terrifying.

Because if it showed us 1 thing this week, it's the danger in continuing to be governed by an administration that encourages the ugliest forces in American society, that lionizes threats of violence against peaceful protest, that tells us there is no conflict between supporting law enforcement and our African-American neighbors, and that insists that the best is yet to come.

Which, given everything that we've seen in the last 4 years, is sounding less like a promise and more like a fucking threat.

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