Sunday, June 30, 2024

Walkabout Thoughts #93

Thoughts in Streams of Consciousness, Rough & Ready, and Lightly Edited from an Award-Winning Filmmaker/Author you’ve never heard of while walking off Reality and hopefully the last half-life vestiges of Long Covid while listening to podcasts.
Walking Day is Friday, June 28, 2024.


Weather for the day… nice day, starting out, 56° no wind, and overcast 60° back at home.

My podcast today is Pod Save America, episode A Brutally Honest Debate Recap

OK, this one is mostly all politics and...the presidential debate. Tomorrow will be more creator/arts-oriented. I thought that was was too much of that, but with this so much not of that...good to go!

This was a great podcast about the debate. I agree with them. We need to be honest and open about how it went. Look at reality and move forward. Biden may pull a positive change, so it's not just about getting someone else to run. But we cannot tell people freaking out that what happened did not actually happen. That's the MAGA mind, authoritarianism, Fascism. That's Trumpism. 

First up today as this is more important than a debate and I assume will be before State Supreme Courts and/or SCOTUS shortly. Not that I trust SCOTUS to make a valid decision much anymore, but...

Oklahoma Schools Are Now Required to Teach the Bible and Ten Commandments
"The Bible is an indispensable historical and cultural touchstone," said Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters, adding that he expects schools' "strict" adherence to the mandate.

Well, that tanked fast. 

And if that, then this...
As no one religion is above another in America... to guarantee freedom of religion (or none) for all as they see fit for themselves and their family:
Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national membership organization with State Representatives selected by members and a governing Executive Board of Directors selected by the State Representatives.

The debate moderators were dysfunctional, or lazy. On purpose.
NO, not their job to fact-check everything.
But it's their job to disallow delusion & obvious, massive lies told by either side:
Adam Parkhomenko @AdamParkhomenko
Jake Tapper and Dana Bash should watch this.

My university degree is in psychology. My personal studies since high school in considering a life in clandestine arts, were to a degree in international relations/world problems, but more so in espionage focusing on USSR, then as Russia, and their counters in the UK (MI5/MI6), and America (OSS/CIA).

I've been using the term "Mesmerizing" which I learned about at university and in our current national case regarding Trump and his "MAGA mind" of fascism and authoritarianism, for some years now. And for good reason...

"Mesmerizing" a crowd refers to captivating and holding the attention of an audience in such a way that they are fully engrossed and spellbound by the speaker or performer. This term derives from the name of Franz Mesmer, who believed he could induce a trance-like state in people, a concept that later contributed to the development of hypnosis. When someone is said to be mesmerizing a crowd, they are engaging the audience so effectively that people are almost hypnotized by the performance. Here's how this might be achieved:
Charismatic Presence: The speaker or performer exudes confidence and charisma, often through body language, eye contact, and a strong, clear voice.
Compelling Content: The material being presented is interesting, relevant, and emotionally engaging. Stories, anecdotes, and vivid imagery can be particularly powerful.
Dynamic Delivery: The use of varied intonation, pacing, and volume to maintain interest. The speaker might use pauses for dramatic effect and ensure their delivery is not monotonous.
Connection with the Audience: Establishing a personal connection by addressing the audience’s interests, asking rhetorical questions, and responding to their reactions. This might include acknowledging their responses, making them feel seen and heard.
Visual and Physical Engagement: The use of visual aids, gestures, and movements that complement the spoken words and help to illustrate points more vividly.
Emotional Appeal: Tapping into the emotions of the audience, whether through humor, passion, or empathy, to create a memorable and impactful experience.
When all these elements come together, the audience is often so captivated that they lose track of time and are fully absorbed in the moment, which is the essence of being mesmerized.


Moving on...
I watched the convicted felon exPOTUS Trump debating a sitting and real POTUS. What a debacle?

I said this online earlier, but I would vote for Joe Biden‘s dog Commander, or his coffin over Donald Trump. If Trump dies in office, we just get another authoritarian who kissed up to clown show prima donna Donald Trump. If Biden dies in office, we get VP Harris and finally a female president. If we have to sneak one in this way in our overly bigoted and too misogynistic country, then so be it.

 The fact that we haven’t had a female president yet is humiliating. We do not need some toxic binary conservative female as president either. But come on, when did the UK have a female leader (1979)? Kind of a long time ago. We need to catch up to modern times and western democracies. Although granted, some of our Western democracies have gone autocratic, and our Christian nationalist MAGA Republican party is trying to go theocratic.

Weird times.

One thing, Trump bragging about his golf game? WTF? Biden had a good comeback but why, WHY didn't he say the one obvious repeatedly reported thing about Trump? 

"YOU CHEAT! So many who played with you say so. People play golf with you just so they have their own 'Trump cheated" story!"

But you do what you can.

Oh my evaluation on the debate Thursday night? No matter how bad Biden did, and we heard he had a cold, and two European trips during the week… why Trump couldn’t be the one who was under the weather, who was ill, as he’s actually mentally ill, is quite beyond me… but it’s like "only the good die young", kind of thing I suppose.

I would say no matter how bad Biden did he still won because Trump lied all the way through it. Someone should do a re-edit and silence any incorrect statements. Biden made a few gaffs, I'm betting they weren't lies. While Trump knew he was lying most of the time and may have not even known he was full of shit other times. Anyway, it would be a debate with Trump silent nearly the entire duration of the debate.

Therefore, if you take all the correct truth Biden told, and he did slip up a few times, and put those up against the nearly 100% of lies that Trump told, the way this works is the one who told the truth most wins. Which is an old story with Trump. He is seen to "win" debates by some, but lies all though it to get there.

I’m so disappointed in the moderators. Functional, but essentially useless. CNN did a fact check after the fact but that’s useless during the debate when people are watching, since most people won't see the info about Trump yet again lying all the way through something.

I found at least several times the moderators could’ve immediately come back on Trump because he'd lied so obviously they should’ve at least said, "Well. We know that’s an opinion and not a fact, Mr. Trump. Now President Biden...", and then moved on.

I’m sure they didn’t want to seem like they were inflaming Trump but since anything reality-based inflames Trump, well?

Regarding some of the verbal mistakes, Biden made, this is why I don’t like debates. Plenty of people could be excellent administrators and great presidents. But my not be good at debating or open discourse. While I have said I do like how the Brits do it, where their Prime Minister has to address the Commons once a week on Wednesdays for their "Question Time", a Q&A. It would be nice to have people with that level of ability being seen weekly. 

At the same time, we’ve also seen people who can do that job but are horrible administrators. Where they're good at being bullies like Trump, supporting things like Brexit, now seen as a huge fucking mistake in a very autocratic leaning campaign. Along with a lot of anti-democracy stuff that what? ISN'T somehow coming out of Russia?

I’m not generating conspiracy theories here. Russia has been trying to do this kind of thing for decades. So when it starts to happen? You have to wonder if something is going on behind the scenes. We know for a fact, they’re actively trying to do this kind of stuff. So when it happens, how are they involved and how not are they involved?

We also know, and the Russians have admitted it. That one of the things they do in our media and social media is to find our weak points and magnify them. Then sit back and let us hurt ourselves. We’re still lacking media savvy, especially social media. But we're slowly coming to terms. Europe being quite far ahead of us on that.

Partly because they are physically located much closer to the disinformation capital of the world, that being Russia. While the Internet has removed distances and borders, except maybe in China and some in Russia, certainly in North Korea, Europe has physically had to deal with the nonsense from Russia for a long, long time. During and before Nazi Germany. So Britain is far more exercised and knowledgeable about Russia, encountering subversive enemies much more than we've had to.

America needs to come to terms and get a grip to deal with this kind of thing. Bt it’s tough to do when you have an entire Republican Party infected with MAGA and authoritarianism to get anything proper done.

We’re up against the wall. And about a quarter of us are working, if not for the enemy, then along parallel lines. Which has happened before. See Rachel Maddow's podcast Ultra. Very good history lessons that draw some very dark parallels between Nazis from the past to today's MAGA. It's also just plain entertaining.

On the debate regarding Biden, to be honest, it wasn’t my worst nightmare, but it was the worst of my expectations. Apparently, Biden didn’t feel well and especially when you’re older that does take a toll. They should have announced he had been under the weather and beaten down from two European trips. But maybe you don't do that to look weak. Stupid, really. Not his advisors as much us us, as human beings. 

I’m still amazed at how physical things affect me at my age. I’ll be 69 in August. Things that I would’ve never noticed when I was younger can .now slow me down for a few days, or a week.

I’m still pretty fast mentally, certainly when I’m in “the zone “. If I were back in my IT work that I did for much of my life, I might not be as fast. Up against some younger coworkers, but I certainly can be better in seeing more of the history and experience of why some of their solutions would be short-term, or limited in consideration. Problem with that is Republicans are generally short-term thinkers, cheap, fast, now...so often costing the nation vast sums later, after they are in either no longer in office, or life. It's sleazy. It's toxic capitalism. 

The actual real life of a POTUS is not at the speed of a debate, and certainly not against someone who lies like Trump does. You can’t act functionally in an environment of unreality such as Trump spins, and the Republican Party, to be honest, has been spinning for decades to the point of breaking things and ever submerging themselves in lies.

The actual day-to-day of a POTUS is not in-the-second rapid fire. There’s time to think and consider things, 98% of the time during the slow times. The fast times, you have experts around you who either can take up the slack and/or follow your orders. The trouble with Trump is he chooses sycophants, and "yes men" who are not good at that at all. I my book having "yes men" around you is reason alone for you never to be POTUS. It's massively dangerous, to the entire planet in the case of America.

So we see Trump is as bad and in many cases worse than Biden, as far as age. Trump is also living in a fantasy world. He’s trying to force things into existence that shouldn’t exist. According to reports during the pandemic, the reason we heard him say such inane and stupid bullshit and offering dangerous advice was because he was trying to force into reality, the nonexistence of an actual and very scary pandemic.

That is not a national leader, but it is what I warned about in electing Donald Trump in 2016. As I said, if you elect him and something big goes wrong, some disaster, or worse international disaster (like a PANDEMIC!), he is NOT the man to have as president. And then we then had a pandemic and other bad things that he couldn’t handle.

It’s good that at that time he had good minds and people around him. But he was cutting them loose as they saw exactly what and who Trump is and they tried to force reality on him so he would deal with the American people and involve reality in the mix.

Now he’s caught a clue about that, how good people intervened against Trump as POTUS, insane (or just stupid) and he’s eliminated the good and brilliant minds who would turn on him for our protection. Those from his first term are gone and now refusing to endorse him. It’s not a good sign with any leader when they first claim they have good people and they obviously do, but then those people turn on them because they see what a fool he is. While he starts saying they were not good people.

So which is it? He’s either got the worst hiring judgment on people or he did select good people on purpose and then they decided to remain good people and stand with the US Constitution and the American people over a buffoon merely playing something functional on TV and then was trying to play that character for real in the White House. Only to discover when you're POTUS you have to really BE POTUS.

That’s a Plan for disaster. Now they want to elected him to do it all over again only worse.

I was for Bernie Sanders when he ran for president. We wouldn’t be in that situation had he been president. I’ll give you that. But I am impressed with what Biden has done in four years and he’s turned around the disaster America was in and that Trump handed him.

I think to be honest that Bernie would’ve run into problems trying to push too hard.In trying to do what he was elected for Republicans would likely have fought him tooth and nail. then again, Bernie's been in Congress a long time, like Biden, so I'm not counting him out. Apparently, we pushed too hard in having elected a black man into the White House and then doing it again a second time somehow sparking the innate southern slavers in the minds of many MAGA.

The spirit of the slavers in the South reared up inside those conservatives who hate Democrats and love Donald Trump. To be fair, we fell asleep at the wheel protecting democracy in being unable to counter Trump's massive lies and vociferous disinformation, by such a horrible personality and pathological narcissist Donald Trump stumped us.

I’ve dealt with mental health issues with people close to me in my life. My late mother having been one. Add into that her use of painkillers. And a touch of narcissism. That’s much like dealing with someone like Donald Trump (with massive narcissism). It’s dealing with insanity. It’s trying to explain to others that they have a seriously skewed reality...sadly when they talk to them, they can remain normal for a few minutes, and people can come away from them thinking they seem just fine.

When they are absolutely not.

I would go over to see my mother decades ago and listen to her for even 15 minutes, complaining and whining and playing the victim and my trying to be be compassionate empathetic, and trying to support her. But then I would walk out of there, get my car and drive away, and within 10 or 15 minutes realize most of what she said, I knew clearly wasn’t true, wasn't reality, and recognize that nearly all of her pain was based on fantasy and self-imposed. 

I see those same behaviors in Donald Trump. Recognized them almost immediately.

Starting my 2nd mile…

It does appear that the advice Biden is getting from his political experts, is not going well. Having a debate this early was a good idea, maybe, and so far as having a better debate later, then work out into something much better, then any mistakes made now can be forgotten by then. Though as I'll note later on, below, apparently Biden's advisers are giving him good advise, he's just not taking it sometimes.

Unless Trump decides this is the only debate he’s going to do. He's not going to get better than this debate. 

I was at a party once at college at an architect's house, out on his property in the woods. He had been like an Olympic skeet shooter. I went outside with him and a friend of his, and shot some skeet. On the first round the other guy missed, the architect just barely clipped his clay pigeon (we'd had a few beers), and I blasted mine into dust. That was the first time I ever shot a shotgun. I'd shot many handguns and rifles in my life. I'd been on the high school rifle team for three years, a private kid's gun club in junior high.

I handed it back and said, "Thanks!" He asked if I wanted to go again but I said, "No. Consider that I just beat one shorter and the other who is a former Olympic shooter. I can now  for the rest of my life say I outshot an Olympic skeet shooter!" He seemed a bit dismayed, his pride perhaps tinged a bit. I was teasing them both. But then, I didn’t take another shot. And what I said, is still true today. I outshot an Olympic skeet shooter. Funny. Not a big deal though. Obviously. I just find humor in things in life like that.

That could be Trump with the debate. It’s just a massive bad social media clip extravaganza for him and against Biden. Biden couldn’t seem to control the looks on his face and he had to know better. I knew what those looks were. Trump would lie and Biden would look at him in shock because it’s hard to tell such blatant lies for most normal, mentally healthy individuals. 

That's been my worry with Biden and Trump. Trump is so far outside of normal it's shocking. But you can't let him or anyone see it affects you. You have to counter it, break the back of his technique of lies and butchering reality.

This is what I have believed for decades is what true evil is. I first noticed it with my mother skewing reality in her need to be a victim. People who skew reality, and twist it to their desires, either out of mental illness or criminality is truly evil to all who experience it.

I had hoped his debate preppers would’ve prepared him for that. Expect everything that Trump said to be an unbelievably ridiculous lie.

What I’ll never understand is why the moderators didn’t counter at least the most blatant lies and just say, "Well that’s not true," and maybe throw something up on the screen to prove it. They let America down because of brand fears and laziness. 

If MAGA supporters claim that the debate is rigged, it doesn’t matter what they say if the debate is firmly based in reality.

You know, this is something that never gets addressed. Considering all the good Joe Biden has done since he took office, for anyone, especially a former president and especially a convicted felon such as Trump, to be disrespectful, to outright lie about Biden's achievements, has nothing at all whatsoever to do with supporting America, the UC Constitution or the office of president. It's presidential. Whiel MAGA salavates over it. It's a new turn in the direction of American citizens, offering themselves as our "ugliest of Americans".

You just don’t do that. The fact that he has started a consortium of breaking decorum in the worst ways possible has done nothing but damage America, tarnished our reputation, and skewed our self-respect to the point of being a truly miserable people and conspiracy theorists of the worst kind, inflated self-respect. When they should just feel guilty, selfish, and criminal.One can't see it as other than mental and social, psychosocial ill health.

Remember the rule we need to enforce. In politics opinion and spin are mostly acceptable. Lies are not. Disinformation absolutely is not, because it has a destructive agenda (for all but the one(s) abusing it) that you can learn about in George Orwell’s book “1984 “.

The problem in the debate Thursday night in Joe Biden's demeanor. He is essentially a very nice guy. Trump’s a bully whose whole life existence is geared toward easily recognizing someone's weak points and then attacking them and attacking the reality of their's and anyone viewing that. To be clear and honest, it’s how Hitler rose to power.

Titillating those who were angry. Satiating their worst desires and impulses. Giving them enemies to hate for their perceived discomforts. Spinning a reality that didn’t exist through lies, disinformation, and propaganda and evoking the worst in people.

The reality of the presidency. The president is fed information. He assimilates, digests, understands, and regurgitates it, then with input from his advisors, develops a plan of action that is carried out by others hopefully with as little mission creep as possible.

Bear with me here...what if POTUS is not up to par for a question asked, VPOTUS is brought in to respond. When Joe stumbled, have VP Harris kick in. Maybe involve the advisors. This would have to be an edited show to show the world later. The problem with that is allowing Trump to do the same thing by bringing in his advisors like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller and whatever other sorry advisors he’s gotten into his stable of fools now.

The problem with that is, Trump's people aren't even "Spin Doctors" they’re disinformation propagators, and Bannon said his entire agenda going forward is to bring authoritarianism to the world.

My point being that Biden and VP and advisors are based in reality and offering realistic solutions. In that scenario, Biden would come back with competent answers, solutions and responses. 

Trump and advisors (remember he doesn’t have a VP… Yet… And his FVPOTS refuses to endorse him because let’s face it. Trump tried to have Pence killed on January 6 during a Trump insurrection which he's been indicted for. And Trump is a convicted felon who will be sentenced next month), but when you bring in Trump and his people, who are not basing much in reality, just whatever feels good to their base and whatever makes them sound good, but only in that moment (Biden has to say things that will last going forward and be based in history going rearward), it’s the same old thing with criminals v government… criminals have an easier time than the government and going up against each other the government has to follow rules laws and regulations. Criminals like Trump and friends are free to do just about anything they want. Say anything they want. They’re also breaking the law or confusing things enough where in they can’t be held accountable.

We’re in a bad place right now and it’s only gonna get better if we eviscerate Donald Trump and his MAGA mindset and turn his MAGALoons against him.

Just remembering Trump’s comments about Biden's reasons for running for POTUS, in  his claiming they were not for the actual reasons Biden claims were his reasons, that no one could debunk, Trump claimed they had been debunked. No one can debunk the motivations that you felt, internally. 

Trump trying to claim that Biden ran for the presidency out of pure self-interest rather than patriotism is typical of how narcissists think. They project their own motivations onto others, assuming everyone acts out of self-interest because that's what they would do.

Trump then tried to claim he had no self-interest in running for POTUS, rather it was out of pure patriotism. When he’s obviously running to save his ass to be able to eliminate the indictments against him once POTUS again. That’s not even a questionable argument. It’s a fact. And it’s the same thing Putin’s been doing. It’s the same thing that Yeltsin before him was doing and why he handed the presidency to Putin in 1999. To protect Yeltsin and his family so they wouldn’t end up in prison for their crimes.

Yelton was an alcoholic. That may have been to the benefit of the Russian people. As with Trump, who is a pathological, narcissist and a liar and a career criminal. If you put in someone who is like Trump, but weirdly mentally more healthy, what he could do to us then would be terrifying. A clear and stable mind doing evil is more dangerous than an unstable mind doing it for reasons of instability and psychosocial illness.

Put another way, a clear and stable mind committing evil is more dangerous than an unstable mind doing so due to instability and psychosocial illness.

Trump’s dysfunctional and he’s still tearing America apart and pitting Americans against one another. He wants a Civil War. He wants to end the Department of Education because he loves the uneducated who he sees as more easily manipulated.

He wants to tear down the EPA. He stumbled into the Republican Party at a time when it’s very anti-institution and very pro-toxic capitalism. It is professing a form of conservatism that has long been subverted from its origins and is itself quite toxic as well anymore.

Here’s the thing about Biden. Should he step down and someone replace him to run for POTUS? Possibly. But who do we have that could beat Trump because the only thing that matters as they just said on the podcast, the most important thing is, that Biden has to do right now, is to beat Trump. To beat the Republican nominee for POTUS.

The Republican party is doing this to us. 

We have things that should be far more important than our knowledge that if we don’t beat the Republican candidate for POTUS, we'll be into an existential crisis that could bring America down. The world is nervous about America and the world thinks Trump is going to win because you tend to believe the worst things will happen if it’s gonna be bad for you and you have no control over it.

All my life I’ve been warned about a "1984" type world to come about and well? Here we are.

Starting mile three…

You know just struck me funny… it’s quite obvious Trump wants a second term as POTUS and while he cannot have a third term he wants to dissolve the whole issue of terms and end elections so he will be POTUS until he dies. Then he can select the asshole to replace him. This is all so much about wealth and power, legacy and control. But within that control, damage.

So in that fantasy world of his, sadly I don’t know the way things could possibly turn out. There is potential for success in the way Trump’s gone about things and how inept we’ve been in countering him. Here's a fun fantasy...

If we had Barack Obama run for a third term. Yeah, that’s not allowed in the Constitution. But so what? Tthe other side in this double standard is doing all kinds of stuff and they don’t want the Constitution. Oh, they’ll bow and salute it. But you give them the power and the opportunity? They will either end the Constitution or rewrite it so that they are never out of power again.

In case you haven’t noticed, that’s what the hell has been going on with them for decades.

Conservative minority rule.

With people who don’t like history, who want to create a Revisionist American History where they look good and they feel good all the time. The perfect little criminal nationalists who wish everyone to believe one day that either slavery didn’t exist or it was just on-the-job training for slaves who had great lives.

I don’t care how good your life is, if somebody owns you? Your life suck!

And there it is. They wanna own us.

While it might be better to choose someone else than Biden for president, who? Normally, we would put up the VPOTUS, Kamala Harris in this scenario. But too many people don’t like her. It’s the same Hillary thing all over again: "I don’t know, a woman who is knowledgeable and assertive? Well. She has to be a witch, burn her burn her!"

I’m sorry, I don’t care how bad Harris is compared to Trump. She’s a godsend compared to the blotus exPOTUS.

Let me just mention again that Phoenix, AZ focus group of Republicans, who every one of them said very little about Biden, but we’re pissed off about Trump and all his lies he was telling and avoiding answering questions, even after repeated several times, re-offering the same question by the moderator.

That isn’t nothing. Democrats are freaking out over Biden’s performance. While many Republicans are furious with Trump's.

I mean, we may have a chance. I don’t have a problem with Biden being president again. I have a problem with his performance and potential for getting elected. I don’t want the man to die. I don’t want anybody to die. Some people should die. Donald Trump should have died at birth. And there we are back at the reasonable Hitler reference again.

I think possibly the best thing that could happen in this scenario were Biden to die and I mean, and Biden‘s gonna die, we all do... up to now anyway. However, in science, there is a potential that I may never die. But if he dies a year after leaving office, I think I’d prefer his having died in office. Man, it's gotta suck Biden knowing people are so worried about when he'll die. I look forward to this about Trump with this MAGA.

America has needed a female president for decades. I do think we would have less problems with Putin had Hillary become president. I suspect similar issues with Harris becoming POTUS, especially with Hillary as advisor. if not in her administration, just somewhere out in the world as a friend and advisor.

Well, so may freak out over that... grow up and learn something. study some history and some world problems. Because most of the people that didn’t like Hillary, so often didn't really know what they were talking about. I've quizzed a few and many times they were talking about Russian disinformation as to why they didn't like her to the point they would eventually just stop and say, "Well I just don't like her." That's not a reason. That's Russian (and let's be honest, Republican) disinformation success!

I’m not saying she’s all wonderful and perfect, but she’s a hard worker by all accounts, and knows her job. especially internationally.

OK, there’s a bunch of pundits and Democrats spewing things about: "Should we go public about Biden?" "Should we get rid of Biden." Etc. etc.

First of all calm the fuck down.

You never make decisions when you’re emotional. You’re thinking of Donald Trump.

And here’s another consideration about Biden‘s poor performance Thursday night (should have seen him Friday, he was fired up and I wonder, did he just get a good night's sleep? If ever you've been exhausted, it's Tough to act energetic). 

If you’ve ever seen a live stageplay, you can be unlucky and show up on a bad performance night. Shit happens. It’s one event, one iteration. Go back and see it on another night and maybe choose a better evening for it. Did you choose the worst night of the week to go see it? One of the lead actors lose a loved one, or something?

That’s why I think it was a mistake to have only two debates. Should have another one in a couple of weeks and then the last one when they’re gonna in September.

The performance is kind of insane.

The trouble is, evil always seems to perform well somehow. It must be easier. I mean, I can get on stage and be a complete asshole no matter how I feel. But if I’m trying to have some decorum, and act presidential, and regurgitate data and policy issues rather than what Trump did in just spewing any bullshit he wants to make up in the moment, yeah evil has an easier time of it.

Well, I don’t like that term never did “axis of evil “which I believe when Bush used it caused us some issues with the people he was referring to that we didn’t need. And much if it was for domestic use, which is always a consideration in transliterating what a national leader is trying to convey and to whom, domestic consumption or international?

Typically, when we’re dealing with people, evil is a concept. It’s a construct. A judgment in hindsight. In countries like Russia and Iran, you have people who wouldn't agree with their leaders but may not (or ever) know it because they’ve been deluded, propagandized and disinformed and in the case of some countries like North Korea, been fed a generationally imbued delusional (dis)understanding of reality and their leadership.

It’s the old saying of hate the sin, not the sinner.

But when you come across somebody like Donald Trump, when you’re dealing with either drug addiction or mental illness, or both, it’s more the evil he does and the evil he fetishizes that is at issue.

There’s no need to hate the man, but there’s an existential necessity to get the man help and never give him power over others.

I’m not quite sure what Republicans', Independents', or especially Democrats' problems are with electing someone they think isn’t quite 100% competent as long as he’s not a criminal like Donald Trump. In this case Biden isn't a criminal (have to state that for the ignorant MAGA among us) and vastly more competent than his detractors wish to beleive.

Consider those who regarded Reagan as the patron saint of conservatism. The Republican party now, many of whom think that's Donald Trump. Those who praised Reagan all through his two terms and for decades after, by many reports he was senile, and Nancy was running a lot of things towards the end of his second term. You know about her astrologers, right? Though they claim they weren't used for officials purposes. 

So if they could get through two terms, I think Joe Biden could do it. And I’m not seeing any signs of dementia. I’m seeing an old guy slowing down, which is fine. There have actually been many governments run by very old people until they died, all throughout human history who did a good job. People tend to focus on the mistakes and the bad ones, and forget that history is written by "the winners".

God help us if Republicans write our history going forward. They’re already trying to eliminate the fact that we had slaves.

As vapid as some people are about their reasons to not want somebody to be president, thinking here about Robert Kennedy Jr. I do not want him as POTUS and have to listen to that voice. I mean nothing bad toward him, other than we need a voice we can listen to and be inspired by. Joe’s voice could’ve been better at the debate or ever, in having s speech problem, but it's workable to listen to. He has been and can be inspirational. 

But I really can’t stand listening to Trump’s petulant little manchild voice. The voice of a narcissist who’s saying something self-serving that's usually pretty easy to see behind in how it’s self-serving.

It’s true according to the podcast that Barack Obama’s first debate against Mitt Romney was horrible. And he didn’t know it until he was told. That’s the way it is with many in that situation. But then he went out and fixed it.

So we need to give Joe time to fix this. He may come up with something. There’s not much time left. The next day he gave a speech at a rally and got everyone really fired up. An entirely different Joe. Maybe the poor man just needed a good night's sleep. I know exhaustion and jat lag can leave you feeling like your dying, which he was doing in that debate.

It may have been a problem in the debate that many tuned out and turned off the TV after the first 15 minutes. Joe did better after he warmed up, but then it was still problematic. I would argue if you’re in for something, stay to the end. It was painful to watch, suer. I really wanted to have a drink, but I don’t do well-having alcohol in the evening anymore. It’s funny how they say don’t be a day drinker or drink alone. But if I’m gonna drink at all anymore, it’s lunchtime. That gives me the rest of the day and evening to hydrate before bedtime and life is good.

Donald Trump is facing 88 felony counts? What a loser. That’s not a president.

The main thing I wanted to have done in the debate was for Donald Trump to be shown to be unacceptable and what I saw was MAGA walked away not having their talking points shattered.

And that was unacceptable.

While Trump was relentlessly on his pathetic message, and the moderators had said they weren’t there to fact check… but excuse me? I don’t have a problem with them not checking every little thing.

But there were three or five things Trump said that were so against reality, they should have put him on the spot because they knew better. It’s things everybody should know.

If he were to say, "the sky is always red", they’d have let that slide? Because it used to be you could let something slide and common sense would win out. But MAGA is not involved in common sense. They’re delusional. At least they believe in Trump’s delusions, and if he says "the sky is always red"? They’re going to figure out how they can accept that or rationalize it as true in some way.

But if the moderator say, "No, I’m sorry it’s a fact the sky is not red', and then just move on to Biden. They're not doing their job as I see it. They really weren’t doing their job regardless what they claimed they were there to do.

OK. On that note, I’ll bid you adieu…and leave you with that. It’s noon and time for lunch.

Cheers! Sláinte!

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