I watched the 'debate'

[Joe Guy]

This video shows Trump at his Trumpiest. It's difficult to choose the most stupid thing he said but the part at 2:40 when he talks about how great he did in the debate and the "various polls" he saw demonstrates how stupid he thinks you are and how he lives in his own little world inside that oversized lard infested blob that sits on top of his overloaded neck....

[Sue U]

Sorry, can't listen to Trump unless I'm seeing Sarah Cooper's lip sync.

[ex-khobar Andy]

You are missing one strong element of "he's for us so we will ignore his utter worthlessness" and that's on abortion. I believe these so-called Christians are willing to sell their souls to the devil if he just promises to save babies. And it may be more people than any of us realize.

An interesting piece in NYT on the subject of Roe v Wade and whether we liberals (and yes, I know that's not you Meade although you support the idea of a liberal democracy) have paid too much attention to it. It might be time to let it go and carry the fight to where it ought to be, in State legislatures. I'm not sure that I buy it, but it's an interesting pov.

[Econoline]

BTW, I early-voted, yesterday afternoon (after taking a drive-thru COVID19 test), at the DeKalb County Legislative Center over in Sycamore (the county seat).

So if I test positive, get sick, and die...well, at least I've got that taken care of...

[BoSoxGal]

[dales]

BTW, I early-voted, yesterday afternoon (after taking a drive-thru COVID19 test), at the DeKalb County Legislative Center over in Sycamore (the county seat).

DJT thanks you for your vote of confidence.

[Joe Guy]

Sorry, can't listen to Trump unless I'm seeing Sarah Cooper's lip sync.

The best I could come up with today is pre-debate....

[Joe Guy]

And here's a suggestion for a tool to use in the next debate.... or maybe every time Trump speaks......

[Econoline]

BTW, I early-voted, yesterday afternoon (after taking a drive-thru COVID19 test), at the DeKalb County Legislative Center over in Sycamore (the county seat).

DJT thanks you for your vote of confidence.

The COVID test was negative, and don't you think Sycamore is the perfect place to cast a vote against Trump?

[Bicycle Bill]

BTW, I early-voted, yesterday afternoon (after taking a drive-thru COVID19 test), at the DeKalb County Legislative Center over in Sycamore (the county seat).

DJT thanks you for your vote of confidence.

The COVID test was negative, and don't you think Sycamore is the perfect place to cast a vote against Trump?

ANY  place is a good place to cast a vote against Trump.

-"BB"-

[Gob]

I think the majority of Trump supporters simply don't care one way or the other that he's an asshole; they are okay with his complete lack of principle, morals and basic humanity because they believe they are getting what they want -- a judiciary stocked with right-wing ideologues, tax cuts for the super-rich and big corporations, rollbacks of health, safety and environmental protections, punishment for immigrants and elevation of "white" supremacists. And as I have said before, it seems that for a sizeable percentage, voting for Trump is not so much a policy choice as an act of violence against the idea of government itself.

You forgot "free reign for lunatic "Christian" zealotry"

[Gob]

This US presidential debate was watched all over the planet and couldn't have been a worse advertisement for the self-acclaimed greatest superpower.




Watching the two election candidates trade pathetic insults like squabbling schoolkids at such a critical time for the country and the world was an excruciating, shameful and humiliating debacle that demeaned everyone involved.

Joe Biden may have 'won', but by so foolishly choosing to lie down with rabid attack dog Trump, and play him at his own name-calling game, he sadly ensured we all got up with fleas.

[ex-khobar Andy]

And after many cycles of presidential debates, the first time climate change is raised, it's by a Fox 'News' person.

[BoSoxGal]

[Econoline]

The COVID test was negative, and don't you think Sycamore is the perfect place to cast a vote against Trump?

ANY  place is a good place to cast a vote against Trump.

Sycamore

/'sɪk əˌmɔr/

sik·uh·mor

sick o' more

[Sue U]

Also too I would like to know more about Trump's claim that "Bad things happen in in Philadelphia," because this year the worst thing has been the Phillies' bullpen.

ETA: Of course, being Philadelphia, the city has gleefully embraced the claim and made it a motto:

[BoSoxGal]

[ex-khobar Andy]

How Ray would have loved that!

Gen MacChrystal, who was fired by Obama for, among other things, allowing dissing of Biden, has said he will vote for Biden. It's worth reading [urlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/01/us/politics/ ... st-popular]the NYT piece [/url]so I shall quote it below.

WASHINGTON — On the day it was published in the summer of 2010, the Rolling Stone article electrified Washington in a way that almost seems quaint by today’s news standards: The commander of American troops in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, and his aides were quoted privately mocking several government officials. One McChrystal aide referred to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. using the phrase “bite me.”

An angry President Barack Obama promptly fired the general, putting an end to a storied career that had included running the military’s most secretive Special Operations missions and the American-led war effort in Afghanistan.

On Thursday, General McChrystal added a coda to the story: He endorsed Mr. Biden, now the Democratic presidential candidate, not President Trump, to be the country’s next commander in chief.

“I worked most closely with President Obama and Vice President Biden when I commanded in Afghanistan,” the general told Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

"They didn’t see everything the way I did,” he added. “But in every instance, they listened. In every instance, they took in my view. In every instance, I felt that they were trying to make the best decision based on all the information they had, and based on a bedrock of values.”

The Biden campaign immediately embraced General McChrystal’s statement.

“Vice President Biden is honored by General McChrystal’s endorsement,” said Andrew Bates, the campaign’s spokesman. “And he couldn’t agree more that the next commander in chief must ‘respect people who serve and have served’ and be ‘someone that you can trust’ — which would be a decisive break from Donald Trump, the most dishonest president in American history and the only one to have utterly disgraced himself by calling veterans and the fallen ‘losers and ‘suckers.’”

Mr. Trump has disputed a report in The Atlantic that he privately used those words in referring to American soldiers killed in combat.

To say that Mr. Biden and General McChrystal had policy differences is like saying that oil and water occasionally did not mix.

In 2009, General McChrystal and the Pentagon leadership, then backed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, fiercely battled Mr. Biden over whether to ramp up the Afghanistan war effort and send tens of thousands more American troops to engage in a counterinsurgency strategy meant to rout the Taliban and create conditions they said were necessary for the Afghan government to stabilize the country.

Mr. Biden, for his part, expressed skepticism that the effort was worth that much more American blood and treasure. He pushed for a more streamlined counterterrorism strategy that would have seen fewer troops going to Afghanistan.

General McChrystal won the debate, and Mr. Obama in late 2009 approved speeding 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to reverse Taliban gains in the country, to better protect the Afghan people and to increase the pressure on Afghanistan to build its own military capacity and a more effective government.

But not long after, the general lost his part in the war after he allowed a Rolling Stone magazine writer to accompany him to Paris. The resulting article painted scenes of the general’s aides drunk at the Irish bar Kitty O’Shea’s and, along with their boss, mocking Mr. Biden, among other administration officials. The article did not directly quote the general as saying anything overtly insubordinate.Two days after the article was published, General McChrystal was out.

On Thursday, General McChrystal said disagreements between people who respect each other are healthy for a democracy — and, in any case, he said that Mr. Biden would be better for the country than Mr. Trump.

“You have to believe your commander in chief, at the end of the day, is someone you can trust,” General McChrystal said. “And I can trust Joe Biden.”

[Big RR]

FWIW, I think Biden has to work harder at trying to not be taken in by Trump; Biden's not an asshole and is uncomfortable at trying to be one. He looked very uncomfortable calling Trump a "clown" (I'dmpretty sure this was suggested by some staffer as something to work into the discussion) and while I think "Why don't you just shut up" was more exasperation than a script, he didn't look all that comfortable after saying it. It's hard to fight by the rules when you're in a street fight, but Biden has drawn the line and should be aware of it.

As for his staff; keep him away from making comments about being "smart"--it just opens the old chestnut again when he lied about his class rank, and leads to his claims of attending Delaware state. Politicians do this all the time (Gore excelled at it), but in a time when facts can be easily checked, you have to really watch what you say (and realize it never goes away). You can't embarrass Trump, but Biden can clearly embarrass himself.

I won't argue Biden did a better job in the debate and generally tried not to let Trump control it, but he has to do more to distance himself from the asshole that is Trump.

[Burning Petard]

Maybe the presidential debate this Thursday will actually be informative, in some manner.

The rules committee has announced there will be a mute button used to stifle talking over the other guy.

I watched a little of the first debate, None of the dueling town halls last week. But I am gonna catch this one.

snailgate