To repeat, that was neither Presidential nor a debate. Fortunately, even though the nation is going to Hell, at least we have "Saturday Night Live" to give us some humor, however painful, to help us get through this/these nightmare(s).
When Jim Carrey walks on as Biden, he has him down 100%, right off the bat. I immediately bust out laughing.
Our nation may be going to Hell but at least we have this. (Thanks, Mr. President! Thanks, Republicans!)
Again, folks.
Vote!
And VOTE BLUE!!
Let's get back to sanity. And reality. And intelligence.
I wasn't aware of this debate or film clip until last evening. I didn't know James Baldwin debated the very Right Wing, Conservative William F. Buckley at all, on any subject, let alone this one. And the topic was "Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?"
My response is that not only is and has the American Dream been at the expense of the American "Negro", the African-Americans, the Blacks, but it has been built on their backs, figuratively and literally.
Historic debate between James Baldwin v. William F. Buckley Jr. at Cambridge University.
Far too few Americans have seen this video or know of this debate. Far too will, I feel sure, sadly and unfortunately.
After last night's final presidential debate between Hillary "I Got This" Clinton and Donald "I'm Losing It" Trump, it's clear Mr. Trump's declaration that he may or may not accept the results of the election hurt him and badly. Check out just some of the headlines this morning.
Ladies and gentlemen, what you are witnessing, what we are all witnessing is the freefall of one Mr. Donald J. Trump, electorally and popularly, and what was formerly known as the Republican Party in America, let there be no doubt.
My only concern is the power vacuum it will create. We have to hope for who and what will replace it.
I will say this, this has been the most fascinating, bizarre, unpredictable and even dangerous election, all, and solely due to Mr. Trump, his candidacy and his pronouncements and reactions in it. The only explanation that seems to make sense about it all is that he put himself up to do this, to run and run in the campaign as far and long as possible, in order to destroy the Republican ticket, if not the entire political party. I'd heard that rumor. It's out there. But by doing this, he's hurt himself, his corporate brand and, yes, the political party.
It's the only thing that makes sense. What little sense it does make.
After these two debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Cliinton, what, now, is left to say? Okay, sure, they haven't really touched on climate change or equal rights for LGBTQ citizens or voter ID laws and no doubt a long list of other subjects but what, really, will be said or revealed in the next and final debate between these two?
Unless there's yet one--two? more?--horrific revelations about Trump that comes out between now and then, don't you expect we'll get more of the same from them in this last debate?
Mrs. Clinton will be facts and details with some history thrown in and he'll be the prancing, stalking, evading, emotional disaster he always is.
My question:
What will actually be revealed?
If people can still be behind the lying, bankrupting, shallow, racist, misogynistic, sexist, immature, irresponsible 70 year old that he is, given all that's been revealed on him, what hope is there anyone will change their minds?
And how could anyone be an undecided voter at this point?
"The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high to permit the customary passions of political debate. We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future. As Winston Churchill said on taking office some twenty years ago: if we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future."
Yes, he actually said that in the Republican presidential debates. Mitt Romney said federal assistance to Americans for emergencies is and would be "immoral."
"I remember naively supporting Obama in 2008 because I hoped he cared about civil liberties and thought for the future. What we saw tonight was a conservative Democrat who fights to preserve the economy of the 20th century, a bipartisan consensus in favor of a foreign policy that endangers the America we love, and a Republican who could criticize the President but can't seem to figure out a way forward."
And it was probably the quote of the night because, first, it was fun, and second, because someone from this administration finally, finally called out the Republican candidates for the highest office in the land for at least one of the misrepresentations of the truth (read: lies) that they've been telling.
Granted, there were other good to great quotes, too, and some of them really nailed inconsistencies in the opposing side but this was, as I said, both fun and sorely needed.
It's nearly unbelievable President Obama didn't come out fighting in the debate last evening in Denver.
At least twice, former Liberal Massachusetts Governor, now uber-conservative Republican Mitt Romney brought up his lie that this administration was going to take $716 billion from Medicare and put it on the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare").
It's a known, proven lie and the President let him get away with it at least two times. (For more on the $716 billion lie, see the 2nd link, below).
What is that about?
He needed to go after Romney and this point, at least briefly, and show it was not only untrue but that it will save the US many more millions in our health care spending.
The Obama campaign must now take on the theme Alice Cooper so eloquently put it, years ago:
If we learned anything this year, with the presidential campaign, we know that Mitt Romney is the "chameleon candidate." He's made it extremely clear that he has and will say virtually anything his immediate audience wants to hear, in order to be elected.
The lyrics of the song seem as though they come straight from Mittens himself:
"I'm a man without conviction..."
This, to me, is, by far, the most dangerous thing about Mitt Romney's campaign.
Think about it.
The precedent his election would set for this nation and for political campaigns in the future could be huge.
We're all familiar with the fact that Jimmy Carter's campaign set for all future campaigns was that people would have to start early, at least 2 years bfore the campaign.
Now, with Romney, even though we have video of him from years back, as well as more recently, saying he's both for and against various policies, time and again, repeatedly, people are still taking him seriously as a viable candidate.
Is this really the kind of candidates and campaigns we want to lead our states or the nation?
Surely not.
The big thing for the nation is that he--Romney--is still a successful, viable presidential candidate that could, possibly, win the White House this Fall, even with his shape-shifting and chameleon-like abilities.
Seriously, that is scary. It's crazy.
In the past, expressing different opinions, for and against the same issues would be enough to kill a campaign, Amazingly, frustratingly, nearly inconceivably, it hasn't destroyed Romney's campaign yet. Quite the opposite, it's still working.
The big, over-arching message, should Romney win, given his campaign, is that this squishiness of his, this shape-shifting on issues, day to day, works and that other candidates should use it.
This guy just cannot, cannot possibly win the White House.
There's going to be yet ANOTHER Republican presidential candidate debate this Wednesday!! AAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!! To make matters even worse--and come on, we didn't think it could get worse, right?---it'll be in Arizona! You know what that means. They'll be trying to further outdo one another by going even farther Right Wing, but especially on immigration. Yikes. This is one sad state of affairs (no pun intended).
The good news? Rick Perry dropped out of the Republican pursuit for the presidency.
More good news--he endorsed Newt Gingrich in his concession speech, God love him. The bad news? There are still officially four candidates in the hunt. No, wait. That's still good news. The longer they tear each other down, the better. It just gives yet more fodder for the candidate on the "other side." Link: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/perry-to-end-bid-for-presidency/
Fortunately, not only does/did House Representative Anthony Weiner get the jist of the whole Republicans vs. NPR issue, but he's eloquent and funny, too:
Crisis averted, ladies and gentlemen. What a relief. What a relief. I'm glad we got the economy back going, I'm glad we've secured our nuclear power plants, I'm so glad the Americans are back to work. We finally found out our problem. We discovered a target that we can all agree upon.
It's these guys. This is the problem, it's Click & Clack, the Tappet Brothers. We're finally getting rid of them. Thank God we solved this problem for the country. Now let's look at them. Let's look at the record here.
For one, they talk in that Boston accent. Cah tawk? It's a car. It's a car, ladies and gentlemen. I need to call Congresswoman Capuano whenever they're on the air.
Secondly, they talk about master cylinders and slave cylinders. It's kinky! And so I am glad my Republican friends are finally getting to the bottom of this.
And then with all the giggling and snorting they do every week on their show, it's got to be some kind of a code. They're clearly talking to the Russians or the Chinese or something with all that giggling and snorting.
It is why I'm so relieved that we had this emergency session that we waived the rules of the House to require 72 hours so we finally get these guys off my radio. Click & Clack the Tappet Brothers on Car Talk. I know it. Because these guys clearly are political. Well, I don't know if they're political, they make no sense about most of what they say. But you know, I'm glad we're finally not going to have to listen to them. I'm glad the Republican party finally said enough of Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers.
That clearly was what the American people said in campaign 2010, clearly it's in their Contract with America or something, right? Get rid of Click and Clack? It's about time. I have to tell you something, because the last thing we want is informative solutions to how we fix our cars and the Car Talk puzzler. And think about the people we're finally going to put out of work. You know, their customer care rep, Heywouldjoobuzzoff? (I'll tell you how to spell that later, I say to the stenographer) And the director of ethics, Youlyinsack. All of these guys that are finally going to be taken off the public payroll.
The Republican Party. No one can say they're not in touch. They get it. They understand where the American people are. The American people are not concerned about jobs and the economy, what's going on around the world.
They're staring at their radio, saying get rid of Click and Clack. Finally my Republican friends are doing it. Kudos to you.
With the KCMO School District getting on a "national standards" program, thanks to our new Superintendent, it's worth pointing out that, right now, there is an excellent evaluation of this idea and program at The New York Times, "pro" and "con". You can find it here:
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/07/21/who-will-benefit-from-national-education-standards?hp
It seems that PBS is one of the last bastions of what I describe above--calm, lucid and intelligent--truly "fair and ballanced"--reporting and information.
And with health care reform being prposed right now and debated nearly ad infinitum, it also seems true the we, as Americans, need good information sources on what's happening and being proposed.
With that in mind, I feel it important to get word out that the local PBS station, KCPT, is broadcasting a formal "Special Report on Health Care" this Thursday evening at 8:30 pm.
We all need to know what's going on, as I said.
I don't even think the average American knows how bad our current health care system is, really. This should be able to help.
Posts
