The Debate

It would be funny if it weren't so scary.

Tonight's debate won't affect the election whatsoever. The truth is there are very few undecideds and millions have already voted. BUT, Joe Biden finally looked presidential, even though it took him 18 months to get here. You could see his brain working, you didn't judge him for his stutter. His heart was in the right place. However I must admit he faded about an hour in, when he went on a mental hejira about his daughter the social worker when the question was about race. Then again, Biden regained his stride thereafter. Bottom line, I've got no doubt he can run the country. Donald Trump?

We've got a crisis in information in the United States. The Republicans even said there were "alternative facts." We've got no baseline, we've never been here before, and I'm fearful if Trump loses, his voters won't accept it, isn't that what he's been preparing them for?

I point to Brandy Zadrozny's NBC article:

"For Trump's 'rigged' election claims, an online megaphone awaits - A sizable online network built around the president is poised to amplify claims about a rigged election, adding reach and enthusiasm to otherwise evidence-free allegations.": https://nbcnews.to/2J13bb7

All Democrats should read this. I was optimistic on Sunday, for the first time in four years, it appeared the Democrats had this, that Joe would win, the tsunami was starting, and then...

Trump is not going to give up. And the only person who says he will is a Republican, Ross Douthat, in the "New York Times":

"There Will Be No Trump Coup - A final pre-election case for understanding the president a a noisy weakling, not a budding autocrat.": https://nyti.ms/3dNMH1h

Be afraid, be very afraid, especially when you become aware of Tucker Carlson's takedown of Brandy Zadrozny last night.

Read the following for explanation:

"NBC News says Fox News' Tucker Carlson 'dangerously and dishonestly targeted' its reporter: https://bit.ly/3ohR758

And in case you don't trust "USA Today," you should know this story was everywhere:

"NBC News, Colleagues Defend Reporter After Tucker Carlson Segment Attacking Her Work": https://bit.ly/3jolfYU

Mediaite is seen as neutral, but it all doesn't matter, because this story is not going to enter the right wing news bubble. That's right, there's a whole spectrum of Americans who are getting false news and are voting for Donald Trump.

Even worse is social media. Mark Zuckerberg is Donald Trump's biggest supporter. Sheryl Sandberg is complicit. We lionized the techies at the turn of the century, but that era is over, we need to shine a light on these billionaires and hold them responsible for their failure to act, the utilization of their platforms, oftentimes by outside agitators, i.e. Russia and Iran and China, to distort our elections. In 2008 we didn't put the perpetrators of the crisis, i.e. the bankers, in jail. As a result, the public lost faith in our government. Threaten Zuckerberg with jail and things will change. Kind of like the car companies, they bitched and moaned and lobbied against increased mileage rules, and then somehow they met them like magic. All that Zuckerberg says he can't do, he can, but he doesn't want to, because of the money involved.

Money. That was Trump's answer to the side effects of living near polluting plants. The people working in those areas get paid handsomely.

Money doesn't solve everything. And it can't be our number one priority. Biden got this right and Trump did not.

Until we realign our nation around truth, we're doomed. Come on, look at all the tech we depend upon, the net, our smartphones, our computers...do you think the engineers who create them have different views on the facts? Of course not, science and math delineate truth. Then again, we've got an administration that throws science overboard.

But the points don't matter, tonight was a demonstration of the right's agenda, working the refs.

Let me explain this. When you see a coach or a manager yell at an official, they don't expect the call to change, they just want to inhibit the official from ruling against them in the future. Kristen Welker was so afraid of crossing Trump, of getting blowback from his constituency, that she refused to ask the hard questions and make him respond. It's like she learned nothing from the initial debate. Savannah Guthrie pushed back and...we saw the real Trump, we got some truth. Same deal with Lesley Stahl. Of course they've been excoriated by the right, but if you're worried about blowback, get out of the arena, the right is not making nice, why should the left?

And at first Trump learned from the last debate, he held himself in check. But it couldn't' last, he slowly lost control. But the unfortunate thing about this is he ended up controlling the discussion, with more time, and by yelling and hammering the same points... It was Welker's job to stop this. She blew it.

And it was like a stump speech. About halfway through Trump didn't bother to answer the questions, he just hammered his talking points, about fracking, Biden's "finances," and the imminent doom if Biden wins.

That's what the right is professing, doom in the future. As if the future isn't going to arrive, as if we haven't learned over the last thirty years of tumult with tech that what is here today is oftentimes gone tomorrow. We can't jet back to the past, and it wasn't that good to begin with. And, AND, I was stunned that Joe threw the long ball, said yes, he was going to get rid of fossil fuels. Whew, in an election cycle where everybody is running away from anything that might be held against them, Joe's honesty was refreshing.

And Joe found a way out of the court-packing controversy, by kicking it to a commission. He said he would weigh in before the election, and you know Joe would stand by what he says, unlike the Republicans who wouldn't even consider Merrick Garland and McConnell refusing to even talk about helping out the American public with a relief bill before the election. The Republicans don't care about the rules, they're just a starting point, they stretch them and continue to do so unless they're called out on it, and if they get the votes they've got no problem breaking the conventions.

So, we've got a system that's unfair. That's right, the Dakotas each get two senators but Puerto Rico and D.C. can't become states.

As for the Supreme Court...

"Since 1969, Democratic presidents have appointed 4 Supreme Court justices, Republicans have appointed 15 (4 of them by presidents who lost the popular vote). https://bit.ly/3ktu7OA

Now the right is squirming. I'm not writing this for the right, their beliefs are set in stone. They hearken back to the Constitution except when it's not to their advantage. Come on, the world has changed in my lifetime, never mind 200+ years. Who could imagine gays getting married? Oh, that's right, the Pope says it's cool but the Republicans do not? Is your head spinning yet?

And the right said we could not talk about Amy Coney Barrett's religion when we weren't. The Democrats chose not to. BUT WHY NOT? I mean it affects us all. And no one can have it all. You can't have seven kids and be a Supreme Court Justice without something suffering.

As for those kids... That's another talking point on Fox, how we should be able to drive Suburbans and other gas-guzzlers to transport large families, just because we're Americans... WHAT ABOUT THE GREATER GOOD? WHAT ABOUT SACRIFICING FOR ALL?

You're on your own in America today. Except if you're in a red state where you get a disproportionate number of federal dollars.

But none of this gets traction, because it's never even talked about in the right wing bubble, no way.

The Democrats believe in a social safety net. The Republicans believe in tropes like the bogey men, if the government spends even a single dollar someone undeserving will get it and waste it... Like the subsidized oil companies? As for dollars, why do the hedge funders get taxed at capital gains rates? Why do so many huge corporations pay no taxes?

But we're constantly told that we have to be patient, that the wheels of change turn slowly. Meanwhile, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and the quality of life in these United States drops.

We're heading for riots in the street no matter who wins.

But the right isn't even analyzing the left's positions, it's just demonizing those on the other side.

So, Trump felt by bullying everybody tonight he could gain votes. But the truth is we've seen this movie before, and we still don't have the tax returns and we still don't have the health plan and so much of what he said he was gonna fix he did not.

But it's even worse. He's been looting the country for himself and his cronies. Not that anybody on the right cares about this, hey, ain't that the Republican philosophy, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, money is everything?

And the hopefully losing Lindsey Graham is complicit, as well as so many of the other two-faced Republican politicians who hated Donald Trump until they loved him.

Meanwhile, in California the Republicans put up their own ballot boxes, and when told, under the law, to take them down, they would not!

Yes, talk to me about election integrity.

These are the same weasels who got rid of the Voting Rights Act and then made it harder for people of color and other minorities to register, never mind vote. Come on, try and convince people it's worth seven hours in line to vote, that's not easy.

And don't bring up the flaws of the left, they exist, but enough with the false equivalencies. The left has got no Fox News, the left has got no Limbaugh or Breitbart, the left is not trying to kidnap and kill Gretchen Whitmer...

So, it becomes a contest of who can yell louder while falsehoods are spread willy-nilly.

Meanwhile, the quality of life for most Americans ain't so good, so they're susceptible to con men and pie in the sky fantasies.

So, even if the Democrats control the House, the Senate and the White House, we've still got a long way to go, we haven't had a semblance of economic equality since at least 1980, and that's forty years ago!

So, I'll make it very simple. Vote Biden. That's your assignment. No excuses. Don't tell people to vote, tell them to VOTE BIDEN! What, are you afraid of the blowback, you're just as bad as the politicians and the media, do not let people inhibit you, you've got to stand up for what is right.

And what we're standing up for here is Democracy, that's right, with a big "D."

It's very simple.

And our only hope of getting the Orange Menace to cave is to be winning from start to finish, from November 3rd until the end of the count. And even then, he still might not accept it.

It's no longer business as usual. If you're not paying attention, you're gonna lose out.

Time for the Democrats to get out front, to take this to the wire.

I can only hope and pray.

Ah, that's right, that's just b.s. It didn't stop Covid and it won't elect Biden. He's the best we've got, we've got a binary system, no excuses, you need to VOTE BIDEN!


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