Worst Night for Ohio Dogs Since John Denver

What I see watching the Sept. 10, 2024 presidential debate.

The last time Ohio dogs got so much press was decades ago when singer John Denver rather rudely warbled about how bad his experience in Toledo, Ohio, was, ending his scathing tune with: “And here's to the dogs of Toledo, Ohio/Ladies, we bid you goodbye!”

Ouch. Mean and unfair on many levels. An odd, maybe even weird, insult, given that any town of any size, including Toledo, has a diverse range of women, none of whom deserve to be classified as canines by any shallow man.

And yet, the strange media universe was not yet done with weird men making peculiar mentions of Buckeye bowwows.

I watched the presidential debate Tuesday night. Yikes! What a difference contrasted to the first one. Then, the focus was on how confused and old Joe Biden seemed. To be honest, lost in the reaction to Biden’s poor performance was the fact that Donald Trump spent much of even that night spouting weird nonsense.

Well, how times have changed. In the wake of the first debate, President Biden decided to drop out of the presidential race, and the Democratic Party named Vice President Kamala Harris as its nominee.

And at debate two, delusional Don was back in full force with no slightly older man to hide behind and shield the crazy. Apparently, every country in the world is emptying its mental hospitals and prisons and dumping its criminal or confused people on Uncle Sam. As a result, crime worldwide is down, but dogs in Ohio are worried.

Sound plausible? Really?

ABC fact checked the dog claim—so, so surprising that this story seems to have little basis in the reality most of us inhabit on planet Earth, and yet some weird people, like GOP VP nominee JD (Just Doing the weird) Vance keep repeating the weird anecdote.

Post immigrant barbecue photo from Springfield, Ohio. Or skeleton image of Saint Bernard from a Brazilian vet college's collection, taken from Wikimedia Commons. Do your own research.

As Harris said during the debate, some of Trump’s remarks make a rational person question his ability to understand what is a fact and what isn’t.

Another example of the wacky, weird world of doddering Don: When Harris said foreign leaders don’t like him, Trump’s retort was that Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán thinks he is great. Now, I know that Viktor’s vigorous opposition to both immigration and the LGBTQ+ community have made him a bit of darling on the worst fringes of the right wing—but Orbán is an anti-democratic ruler, an authoritarian. Holding him up as your evidence that “world leaders” like you is, yup, weird.

June 2024, Giorgia Meloni, prime minister of Italy, speaks with Viktor Orbán, prime minister of Hungary. Is V the prominent world leader that would prove you have global popularity? Image from Wikimedia Commons by the European Union.

My wife doesn’t drink, but we had some large chocolate bars, and she decided we would play a non-alcoholic version of a drinking game during the debate. Instead of a shot, we would each break off and eat a small piece of chocolate every time we clearly heard Donald Trump say something inconsistent with reality. In others, one lie equals one munch.

I don’t think the chocolate lasted 20 minutes.

It’s an odd measure of our dysfunctional current politics and the disinformation age we live in, but it’s not likely Trump will lose much of his support despite his being the confused old man in the race. More than confused, Tuesday he was petulant, racist (his anti-immigrant extreme rants are racist dog whistles), even delusional.

Still, Trump’s support is rock solid. But the candidate, despite claiming he and JD are “solid” rather than “weird,” was clearly a bit shaky and unhinged Tuesday. He was unprepared to debate. He also seemed, to those who aren’t caught in his rather shockingly large, weird bubble of popularity, unprepared  and unqualified to be President.

Harris wasn’t perfect in her performance. Like many candidates in many debates, she preferred to deliver canned stump soundbites rather than actually answering the questions that were asked, a habit she started right off the bat with her first non-answer to the first question. Since starting her run, she has been correctly criticized for avoiding reporters and their nagging questions.

Still, she didn’t need to be perfect Tuesday night. The race is still close and Trump still has a clear path to victory, God helps us—but the night was a much better one for sane Kamala than crazy Donald.

Following the debate, Taylor Swift noted on Instagram that she is endorsing Kamala. Swift has endorsed Democrats in the past, and her public pronouncement wasn’t a surprise—but it was partly prompted by Trump, who had posted fake AI-generated Swift endorsements of Trump.

Most famous Instagram post in the immediate post-debate time period. A swift Swift reaction to the crazy.

Passing on those lies, and Trump's poor performance in the debate, seems to have been too much for Miss Swift.

As for me: I’m not single. I’m not childless. I’m not a lady. I have no cats. Even though I think of myself as a bit of a Swiftie in that I enjoy her songs, any political statement from any pop singer, even an intelligent, accomplished woman like Taylor Swift, isn’t going to move my political needle much.

And I concede the reality that I was already firmly in the “never Trump” camp well before Tuesday night anyway.

Still, what the heck. Viktor O’s endorsement? Fake stories of Springfield, Ohio’s endangered animals? Calling Kamala a “Marxist?” Trump is the worst. And the weirdest. The debate Tuesday just made that reality obvious.

Honest Joe vs. Dishonest Abe

Trump speaks, Biden and America cringes.

Donald Trump says 2.2 million people were going to die. That only 210,000 have is thus a great success.

It’s a lie. A rather vile lie, since it traduces human lives. I know, Trump is not responsible for 210,000 deaths—many would have died had the country taken adequate action against COVID-19. But the death toll could have and should have been much lower, and the spike can be lowered now, with effective, science-based action that this president can’t wrap his head around.

It was a night of lies from Donald Trump. The final presidential debate of 2020 is over, and I have to admit I am relieved.

Trump did score some points. His contention that Biden’s environmental plan spell economic disaster is going to be the point pounded on again and again in attack ads for the next 12 days. Not that it’s true. As is much of what Trump said tonight, it’s a lie.

A lie delivered coldly and calmly by a president who dismisses severed families as the fault of coyotes, COVID-19 as the fault of China and economic meltdown as—well, I’m not sure who he is blaming. Trump claimed the economy would be a disaster if Biden is elected, but who the heck was president this year when the recession kicked in?

Typical Trump. "Don’t elect him or the chaos I have caused will continue." "Elect me so that I can put out the fire that I lit in the first place."

Sigh.

Some keys in tonight’s debate:

• Biden nailed Trump on his tax returns. Trump tries to paint Biden as corrupt, but one of Trump's consistent patterns is to project his own flaws onto his foes. I don’t think Joe is pure like the October snow—but on the corruption meter, Trump has pretty much everyone trumped, yet he says Biden is corrupt. And Biden is the one who has released his tax returns, not Trump. Tell me again how Trump is more honest?

• Trump made anybody with a brain sick to their stomach with his Lincoln lines. No, Trump, you are not the “least racist” person in the room. As Biden said, his dog whistles are fog horns. In one breath, you’re the least racist, in the next, your saying immigrants who show up for hearings have low IQs. You’re blaming China, coyotes and claiming not to be racist.

• COVID-19 should be the nail in the coffin for this president. Just consider this exchange: “People are learning to die with it,” Biden on the pandemic. “I take full responsibility. It’s not my fault.” Actual comeback quote from Trump.

I do think that Trump did better tonight than the first debate, although he set a rather low bar to lumber over. Trump was still spouting insults, lies and trite campaign lines.

Biden speaks during debate.

Trump needed to change the dynamics of the election tonight. I do not think he did. I think Biden held his own, which I hope is all he had to do. And what was that about pillows and sheets? Earth to Trump: What?

Image by Gage Skidmore from wikimedia commons. Kristen Welker of NBC in Arizona in 2018.

Kristen Welker of NBC News did pretty well, I thought. She had been insulted by Trump before the debate, but was praised by him during the debate. Despite that, I think the use of the enforced time limits was good. There was some cross shouting, but not the chaos of the first debate. Her questions were decent and she stayed calm.

Well, that phase of the campaign is over. Five-thirty-eight is starting to write about a possible blue wave that could take the Senate, keep the House and win the presidency. Trump’s fantasy about taking the House rang very hollow, and I don’t think Trump built much of a flood wall against the coming blue wave.

Maybe The Fly Is All That Makes Sense

 

Fly on Pence. I watched most of the debate on MSNBC, but a bti on ABC, too. I think this was ripped off from ABC.

I feel some sympathy for Mike Pence.

In the middle of a nationally televised debate, a fly landed on his head and became the enduring symbol of the 2020 vice presidential debate. It’s odd how asides become “the thing” in media—a candidate’s ride in a tank, a yowl to an Iowa crowd, one remark about a bucket of deplorables.

But sometimes the asides resonate because they are consistent with some larger reality. That’s reading too much into the fly, which didn’t mean a thing despite all the memes about what flies are attracted too and what that means about Mike Pence. Because, honestly, it doesn’t mean anything except that’s where a mindless fly happened to land.

I wrote a reaction to the presidential debate, which was another level of shit show all its own. And the fire-hose of crazy that is our deranged, drug-addled Dear Leader has made the VP debate last night seem like a month ago. Perhaps this was the last debate of 2020, because if someone else controls the megaphone, our loudmouthed lout of a leader can’t lower himself to participate.

Such is 2020, but I’ll carry on and comment a bit on the Kamala show, even though it probably doesn’t mean a thing.

Vice Presidential Debates: The Xander of politics. Everyone loves them but they don’t mean that much.

I’m betting that if you liked Donald, you liked Mike Pence even more. I don’t’ know for sure, because if you like Donald, the twisted avenues of logic in your addled brain aren’t routes I can follow.

The man Pence succeeded in not being a totally deranged moron, which in Trumpland makes him a genius. Like he’s been to “read the book” school, although in Penceland I’m sure it’s “read the Book school” because there’s only one.

But if you like Donald at this point, it’s probably that “read the book school” in your past didn’t make enough of an impression. OK—I’m sure some good people like Trump for various reasons I can’t possibly imagine, and I’ll try not to be too insulting or snarky because it does nothing for discourse. Honestly, thought. We’re way past the time when it makes any sense. He unmasks while he is infectious, rage tweets on steroids and is clearly making a mess of himself.

So, back to the Kamala Harris Show. The debate. Remember that? She didn’t always answer the question (will they pack the court or not?)—but she was “there” and responsive compared to the male animatronic that was Mike Pence. She had a few slips of the tongue—clearly misspoke some numbers, for instance. But she was smart, insightful.

Kamala Harris watched Mike Pence mansplain. I'm afraid I've been guilty of this sometimes, but men, we do not want to make a woman make that look. And no, it was not disrespectful--Pence was a time hog, a chorono-bully. Totally manly. In all the wrong ways. Clearly I was watching MSNBC early in the debate.

And female. Not just a woman, but a woman who is used to misogynist men who mansplain too much. Which was Pence, fly or no fly.

I don’t know how often the host had to try to reign Pence it, but the boring talking robot had some prerecorded messages to dump on the audience and was not to be deterred by any silly rules.

Kamala had a bit more impact in shutting him up. Kamala—it was no contest. In substance, she was closer to fact land, even if she did sometimes spin. Pence, as a Trump spokesperson must be, spun like a tornado. Kamala was a derecho, straight on and relentless.

Senate image. My chosen dinner guest.

So, the winner? There was no contest, really. Sen. Chuck Grassley tweeted that Pence won the debate because people would want to invite him for dinner, which makes me wonder how boring dinners are at Chuck's house because I thought the conversation would be far more interesting with Kamala as the guest.

Trump and his campaign have violently imploded. Which doesn’t mean for sure that he will lose the election—never forget 2016 and the disaster that was caused by the Electoral College, that 18^th century twist on democracy that is still with us—but Trump has taken some self-inflicted hits and keeps plowing right back into that iceberg. He’s a titanic mess.

Trump is a man infected with coronavirus who didn’t learn anything from the experience. An N of one who is convinced his experience enlarges to everyone.

He didn’t die (yet) and is convinced that a disease that robbed America of 210,000 souls and counting, and more than a million globally, is not a big deal. Time to ride around in a closed limo with your guards to waive at your mindless minions so that you can stoke your evil ego—abusing guards who have sworn to take a bullet for you but who should not have to needlessly face a bat virus. Mock your opponents for wearing life-saving masks. Tell us all that we've already entered the light when we can plainly see the darkness.

It's beyond serious, America. Democracy and lives are at stake. Vote as if your whole future depended on it because, in this pivotal year, we need leaders who don't ignore science or global warming or pandemics--we need to be so over blowhards whose only skill is to make a bunch of pointless public noise.

The neutral image that would be the main one in normal times. But 2020 is not normal times. Start of the debate, they look different ways and see very different worlds--but most of us live in the one that Kamala sees.

Hmm. the debate? Kamala won, fly or no fly. I sure hope Biden does, too. In a giant blue wave. Make ’em squeal and send Joni Ernst back home, too.

Yet, a blue wave will not instantly fix things. I said Kamala was a derecho, and she was in the debate, but in governing, Trump is the relentless, destructive storm who won’t stop blowing. It will take years to recover from his damage. His shit will be around for quite a while.

It's too much for one fly to handle.

Trump: I’ll Burn Down This House Before I’ll Give It Up

View of candidates on MSNBC before debate begins. From the back side, Biden looks to be in way better physical shape.

The quote came late in the debate, when the candidates were discussing urban violence and the BLM movement.

“He does not want to calm things down,” said Joe Biden of Donald Trump. “He pours gasoline on the fire.”

And right after that, moderator Chris Wallace asked Donald Trump to condemn white supremacist groups—whom his own government has identified as the main domestic terrorism threat.

Trump’s answer was incoherent. His message to the Proud Boys was “stand down, but stand by.” And then he referred to Antifa as it if were a thing.

“Antifa is an idea, not an organization,” Biden correctly countered.

 

Biden speaks. Trump is not happy listening.

I don’t think Joe Biden debated all that well, to be honest. He had his moments, but he did not always track the questions well and sometimes did lose count of his own points as he was answering.

But Trump. Holey orange crazy! What a hot mess. A family member observed on WhatsApp during the debate that it seemed like Trump became more orange as the night went on. Trump got into disputes with the moderator and seemed to be debating him rather than Biden. Trump repeated slogans like “law and order, law and order” but didn’t note any policy that leads to that.

Biden noted Trump’s pathetic response to protests so that he could clear a street for a photo opp, and Trump just responded with anecdotes about urban violence. But the uptick in violence is happening after more than three years of Trump as president. Warning us things will fall apart in Biden’s America because they are falling apart now seems like a really weird case to try and make.

 

And as Biden noted, the real threats to suburbs aren't BLM and Antifa. It's coronavirus and climate change that may wipe them (and the rest of us) out.

Sure, I know Trump claims violence is a problem because Democrats run cities—but as Chris Wallace noted, Republican cities are not peaceful, either.

And then there was the election. I don’t think our election system is perfect, but Trump suggests in advance that it’s fraudulent because he senses he will lose, and if you can’t win the game, you try to yell at the refs, I suppose.

Well, I saw on Facebook that some friends had tuned out. Honestly, after 45 minutes I was ready to do the same. I did not—I felt like I had to observe the whole thing. But it was tough to watch. A dumpster fire.

Like Trump’s America.

Put these yard signs up tonight. Nothing tonight changed my mind at all.

Give a Cheer for the Dos Exquis Here

From Wikipedia--Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 Nevada debate. Or at least how I picture her, with Mike Bloomberg in the background.

In 2016, a disaster of an election year that yielded the most incompetent, damaging president in U.S. history, it’s important to note that Hillary Clinton not only was almost elected, but did win the popular vote.

True, we don’t elect presidents by popular vote. Maybe we should, but we do not. Trump did not win the trumped-up landslide that he constantly brags about and dreams up—being delusional and constantly lying is one of the new “normals" of this historically awful president—but he did win, by the anachronistic and un-democratic federal rules we have, in 2016.

And he needs, he desperately needs, to not only be defeated in 2020, but crushed. The whole Trumpism movement needs to get a severe brush-back pitch. He’s crowding our freedoms at the plate. Let’s bean him and all of his Joni Ernst enablers.

Anyway, I had several impressions of the Nevada democratic debate. As many observed, the knives were out for Mayor Bloomberg, and I think he was pretty effectively sliced and diced. Mr. Mayor, I appreciate that you’re spending your own money to get rid of Trump. Drop out and spend to elect other Democrats, please.

The other impression I have is that, to me, the two most best candidates are still the ones I toyed most with supporting when they ran in Iowa.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is still my number-one choice, because she represents a moderate approach that I agree with, because she is electable and because I think she would be a decent president.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, on the other hand, is definitely to my left. And I definitely like her. In terms of imaging a candidate who can handle Trump in a debate, Lizzie seems like she’s the Xena of the pack, the female warrior who is ready for battle.

Amy is a great debater, too, but I think she had an off night Wednesday.

Senator Klobuchar, queen of the north. Image from wikimedia commons by Lorie Shaull.

My favorite moment of the debate was when a reporter asked Amy about not knowing the President of Mexico’s name. Amy was a bit flustered, and it showed. Xena swooped in, sword drawn, and leapt to her defense.

Way to go, dos equis mafia. I’m not into identity politics—yet I think it would be a healthy, cool thing if the United States elected a woman, especially if that woman would send hyper toxic male Tangerine Hitler, wounded and hurt, back to Mar-A-Lago.

Still, I thought it was a good night for my two favorite Democrats who happen to be double X’s named Amy and Elizabeth. I also liked Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and so kudos to the kid from Indiana.

Thursday night's champ, Xena, Warrior Princess. Image from wikimedia commons by Gage Skidmore.

Unlike some of my Facebook friends who state that they would leave the party if Bloomberg is nominated, I recognize that any Democrat running in 2020 will not be Donald Trump, and not being Donald Trump makes almost any random human being more fit for office than he is. I refuse to say I would take my marbles and go home if I don’t get my way—that’s the road to defeat and Democrats cannot afford to invoke their party’s history and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

So, to paraphrase Senator Warren—I’ll vote for the person that the Democrats choose. But I hope they choose Amy or Elizabeth or maybe Pete. I don’t hate Bernie, but I see serious flaws in him as both a candidate and a president—but if the party goes a bit crazy in 2020 in the opposite direction of the crazy that infected the Republicans in 2016, then yes, I would vote for the socialist. At least he’s not a fascist.

Hell, I would vote for Rep. Tusli Gabbard, who seems like a basket of crazy in this campaign. Even a basket of crazy is not as crazy as the mountain of orange insanity that we have now.

Sound and Fury, Signifying Something

Some observers don’t like political debates because we’re not electing a chief debater, we are electing a president.

Bah, humbug, I say. I found two nights with 10 candidates a bit exhausting, yet still worthwhile. The anti-debate argument is the same that was used in the 19th century when it was considered unseemly for men (back then it was always men) to campaign at all—the thinking being then that a head of state was not a campaigner, and it somehow tarnished the “royalty” of a president to have him do something gauche like ask for votes.

I do not think my vote for president should be solely, or mainly, based on debate performance—but, on the other hand, I think these spectacles are useful because they do give other voters and me a chance to do quick side-by-side comparisons and to “meet” many candidates. Before debates, campaigns were often contests of political advertising, so I appreciate that these events counterbalance that a bit.

Besides, while it’s true a president does not have to debate anyone directly, they do have to publicly articulate ideas and lead by what they say. They do have to make a case and counter ideas and persons that they oppose. And when they fail in that, well, consider the legitimate distress caused by the obvious communication incompetence of the clearly worst president in our nation’s history, Donald the Tweeter Twit Trump.

Anyway, I watched both debates this week. It was a bit easier for me Tuesday night—I found the Wednesday debate a bit harder to follow, a bit wonkier and a lot less positive.

Yet, I’m glad I watched.

The CNN moderators practically displaced their shoulders patting themselves on the back after the first night. I didn’t agree. They were not horrible, but their questions were often deliberately designed to pit candidate vs. candidate, which adds to the drama of the event but doesn’t do enough to show me the substance—that is, rather than provoke a fight between these people, prod them on how their ideas work or don’t work.

A few candidates did stand out to me as doing well in the two debates this week. Here is my list of debate winners, and why I liked their performances (images from Wikimedia commons or Wikipedia):

 Sen. Elizabeth Warren: She was calm, spoke well, and didn’t go after her chief rival for the progressive wing of the party, Sen. Bernie Sanders. She seems a force to be reckoned with, and I admit I would find it delicious to see her debate Donald Trump.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar: Increasingly, my girl. If I had to caucus today, I would be in team Amy. On Tuesday night, she kept more attention on the Don, and contrasting herself with Trump, than many other candidates did. I appreciate a relatively moderate Democrat with a bit of feistiness, and I like the way she emphasized the integrity card. Amy, you’re no Donald Trump. I am not declaring that I am on team Amy today—there are months before the caucus and I’m still shopping around—just that if I had to pick today, Senator Klobuchar’s Tuesday performance would seal the deal for me.

Sen. Cory Booker: I found the Kool-Aid line confusing—I doubt anybody ever knows the flavor because that odd, artificial drink rarely has a distinct flavor. But Cory stood out in being bright, witty and, above all, happy to be there. I like a warrior who relishes the battle—politics should have some sense of joy, and it looked like Senator Booker was having some fun in the fight. He also made positive appeals. “We know in this country our fates are united.” Nice reminder, sir, and on a lackluster second debate night, you spoke well. I like the idea of a Klobuchar-Booker ticket.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard: I had not given her much thought before, she seemed like an obscure, second tier candidate. I am not on team Tulsi yet—as I noted before I’m a bit more of an Amy fan, but the congresswoman from Hawaii seemed like a woman of substance and passion. I wish, like Corey, that she had a bit more fun, too, but Tulsi seemed to have more depth than I expected.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: Her explanation of white privilege was a little odd because the context was how to appeal to white voters, not now to put them in their place, but still—damn, girl. You were totally, and startlingly, right on target.

A good debate night is not a whole campaign. I’m fond of several other candidates who did not stand out on debate night. Julián Castro is still high on my list of maybe, for example. And Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana needs to do more than point out he won a governor’s race in a Trump state—but he spoke well Tuesday night, and I like the idea of a moderate governor as a candidate.

There were many who did poorly, too. I don’t understand that attraction of Marianne Williamson, nor why some commentators thought she had a good night Tuesday. I found her to be the crazy snake oil lady who prattles on about “causes” and love—not exactly spouting nonsense, but in that neighborhood. And that voice. Who would voluntarily want to be spoken to by the stern hippie nun of the candidates? Marianne, if we need a revolution, I want Pete to lead it, please.

And then there is Pete Buttigieg. I had heard him use his zinger—the Republicans will call us socialists anyway—line before. For me, he had an off night, although he also still seems quite intelligent. I continue to list him among my maybes.

The same week we had the Democrats debate, we had continuing rants form our dumpster fire of a president. Somehow, it surprised no one that the debate moderator he singled out for criticism was the one African-American on the panel. No, Donald Trump, Don Lemon is not the dumbest person on TV. You’re still there.

Anyway, who did you like in the debates, and why?