So Now the Rest of History Begins

Watching MSNBC Saturday night. After rousing intro by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden jogs out to give his speech. He's older than Trump, but I struggle to imagine Trump having the moves like Biden.

Joe Biden jogged to the lectern Saturday night. He spoke clearly, well, and powerfully. At 77, he seemed fit, aware and presidential.

It was a fine end to a beautiful day. I was surprised this morning when suddenly the news came. The first hint was a family message on WhatsApp, which is my headline news service, I suppose. I turned on the TV, and Morning Joe on MSNBC was telling me, a Joe, of the triumph of another Joe. I had not realized how on edge I have been for the past few days when suddenly the weight of this long count was lifted. The land of P!nk and also of Elizabeth Cochrane (a.k.a Pink, but a famous 19th century journalist writing as Nellie Bly, not a 21st century singer) had spoken. The boy from Scranton, Pennsylvania, will reside on Pennsylvania Avenue.

And before Biden spoke, we got to hear from the vice president-elect, Kamala Harris. She was rhetorically powerful, not just a wonderful warmup act, but a woman who is ready to lead the nation, should the need arise.

Kamala! In suffragette white she spoke, noting 100 years since the 19th Amendment, promising that she’s the first woman in her position—but she surely won’t be the last.

I think it turned out that old Joe chose well. Kamala delivers as VP-elect. Again, I'm watching MSNBC.

It’s to Joe Biden’s credit, as others have noted, that he picked one of his most effective opponents in the primary race to be his running mate, and tonight she delivered a speech that shows what a great choice that was.

I like Joe Biden even though he was never my first choice as a candidate this year, and honestly age was a factor in that. I would like a new generation of leaders to emerge. Well, inevitably they will, and seeing Joe speak so well tonight gives me some comfort. He seems to have the makings of a decent president, and I hope that's enough, because the problems loom larger than a tribble-headed orange autocrat.

An American president in the first quarter of the 21st century has to be effective in use of media. They have to be a TV personality, but also come across well on social media: YouTube, Twitter, etc. President Trump, for all my loathing of that loathsome human being, certainly was a media star in his own right.

And Trump came fairly close to winning a second term. The popular vote margin is not all that larger in 2020 and in 2016, and Biden’s campaign succeeded partly because it did not take the old “blue wall” states for granted this year.

Joe on my screen as I watch speech on MSNBC.

So, now the hard work begins. This country is deeply divided, and many in the Trump camp are convinced an election was stolen from them, mostly because it’s a lie their Dear Leader repeats over and over. A greater man and better president than Trump would calm the waters and offer transition help to the next president—but that’s not in Trump’s nature.

He’s a fighter, not a thinker. He does have some skill in media manipulation, in drawing attention, in firing up his base with incendiary rhetorical fire bombs. Sadly, he has shown no skill at governing. He claimed in 2016 that it was easy to act presidential, but has not tried to since. Damaging democracy is not even a thing he worries about, although I wish he did.

And Trump is wounded but still dangerous because he wields enormous power. I can’t help but think the raucous, wrong-headed protests at sites where election workers have quietly tried to carry on the task of making democracy work is due to Trump’s ill-advised, divisive rhetoric. Despite my happiness today, I can’t help but think that until Jan. 20, we’re living in a powder keg and giving off sparks.

Still, Trump the communicator is clearly not always skilled. Contrast the rambling, angry, incoherent and factually challenged address the Donald gave Thursday night with Joe’s performance tonight. One man was presidential, the other an angry, crazy old uncle, and the crazy one is the actual president today.

To most of the world, there’s no contest. America picked the right horse. See how Ireland's largest TV network covered the rise of Pennsylvania's most famous person of Irish ancestry:

US president-elect @JoeBiden reads the words of Irish poet Seamus Heaney pic.twitter.com/kWADRBFstw

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) November 7, 2020

But that's not the reality in Trumpland, which is close to half of America. I’m deeply disappointed that my state, Iowa, was on the wrong side of history in 2020. There is lots of anger and resentment in the red lands, and while Biden vows to be president of the whole United States, not just blue states, it remains to be seen if he can make it happen. Four years ago it was liberals who vowed "not my president," an equally toxic reaction on the right is already bubbling away. I hope Joe's conciliatory words helps heal that divide, a little, but it's been brewing for years, and I don't think one nice speech will quell this storm.
 

Yet, the media show tonight was great. Joe and Kamala were both compelling speakers. Let’s hope that the reality that follows the TV show will also turn out well, but I'm sure it will take some time.

MSNBC shot of crowd. Perhaps I watch "Firefly" too much. In my head, I hear a guitar chord followed by a man singing: "Jooooe! The man they call Jooooe!" In my estimation, any man who has had a statue been made of him is one kind of son of a bitch or another, to paraphrase the wisdom of Mal Reynolds. Still, tonight was a good night for Joes. May it be a sign of better days ahead.

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.

The Dueling Town Halls In Different Universes

Trump (above) and Biden (below) with voter questioners. Both are talking about COVID-19.

Well, I watched most of both town halls Oct. 15, and I kind of regret it. I’ve voted already, and I had trouble summoning the energy to watch. I also didn’t see all of Trump's because my DVR wasn’t totally functioning—satellite TV has been a bit wonky since the derecho storm Aug. 10, which feels like yesterday and three years ago at the same time.

Anyway, I missed the thing I’ve seen lots of tweets about—the voter who told Trump he was handsome when he smiles. I am glad I missed that. I ate a lot of pizza tonight and I would rather that it proceeds through my body without making any return journeys. Eyesight, apparently, is the next coming crisis in America.

But I saw enough—more than enough. I watched Joe Biden live. His was scheduled first, and I thought it was a courtesy to let him go first. I thought he was rather subdued and I was not thrilled at his performance.

Joe Biden. Quieter, calmer, and, in a sane universe, way more presidential.

 

On the other hand, he was responsive. He was polite to questioners. He asked if he had answered the questions. He admitted he has made mistakes, and noted that if he loses, it could be because “I was a lousy candidate,” a refreshing openness to the possibility of human flaws that one would never hear from President Trump.

And old Joe suddenly looked a lot better after I viewed my recorded sample of Trump. Quiet reserve gave way to angry, crazy shouting.

Would he denounce QAnon? That famous selective Trump amnesia suddenly kicked in. QAnon? Never heard of them.

What about a retweet that alleges a fresh, new democratic murder conspiracy (totally normal). “That was a retweet,” the president said. Like that’s a defense? I use Twitter, too, and I don’t retweet something that I don’t believe in. Saying something is a retweet, coming from the president, was a very odd nondefense defense. If it was batshit bullshit (which it clearly was), why is tangerine Mussolini (thank you, niece, for that linguistic flair that I stole from you) retweeting it? And then disavowing any knowledge of it?

Trump with another voter

Mr. President, your tweets are, like it or not, communications from the most powerful head of state to the world. “It was a retweet” means that you don’t care about the truth of what BS you spread from your bully pulpit. You made the bully pulpit the bullshit pulpit, and we’re a coarser, more ignorant country thanks to your terrible presidency.

Yikes.

As TV spectacles go, both town halls lacked something. It was the other candidate. Without any response from the “other side,” the town halls lacked a lot.

Trump, I suppose, was more watchable, in the sense that a plane crashing and burning on landing is more compelling to watch than a plane safely landing.

Yet, it makes you appreciate safe landings a bit more, too. Old Joe. He didn’t set the world on fire. And that’s a small blessing.

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.

Students Begin New Blog Adventures

On Sept. 11, a student in my writing class works on a blog post draft.

I am teaching a writing class in this odd fall semester of 2020, and students in that class will be sharing their perspectives via personal blogs. I’m writing this on Sept. 11, 2020—a somber anniversary, but many students are choosing to write about the global pandemic. They are in a writing lab, drafting their first posts that should be published next week.

I always like this blog assignment—it’s one I often use in almost every media writing class. For one thing, it means students are gaining experience actually managing their own personal web sites. It also means that their writing is what professional writing should be—public. We get used, in school, to writing for each other and not writing for the world at large—but for my media students, the world at large is meant to be their audience.

A student in the school uniform of 2020. Masked, and focused on writing.

I have told students before about Jenny Valliere, the program manager of Z102.9 radio station here in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Jenny has told me that having her own blog was helpful to her in launching her radio career because she was able to show a prospective employer that she’s already active online and creating original content. Her blog.

Lindsay Leahy, another former student, writes a very interesting blog about how faith has helped her overcome adversity. She graduated long enough ago that I don’t think I required her to write a blog, but I did have a hand in helping her become a better writer, I hope—most of all, she was managing editor of the “Mount Mercy Times,” and although I thinking this blogging exercise is valid, student media experience is gold. Her blog.

Anyway, once students have started their blogs, I will share some links. In the meantime, it’s nice to see students at work, creating something new. That’s the power of writing—we writers get to be creators.

The power of blogging is that we then get to share those creations so easily with the world.

Saturday on the Video Channel

You Tube! Love it and hate it. Like most social media, it can be a conduit for hate and misinformation.

But it provides an old man who honestly is of the TV generation with an addictive and pleasurable screen experience.

I grew up on TV. I hate to admit it, and I know my young life would have been better spent with less TV. Television is not called the “boob tube” for nothing. I was lucky, in a way, that I grew up in a bookish family, so at least I did start reading young, and although I’m a slow reader, I do enjoy it and still do it. Art Cullen, I’m working my way through your book “Storm Lake,” and I’m sure it’s doing me a lot more good than anything on TV or YouTube ever did.

But maybe “working my way” is an implication that reading is cognitively more complicated than the experience of having pictures flash before your eyes and hearing sounds that are pleasurable, for some reason.

Anyway, back to YouTube. Part of the issue with TV is that, even in longer programs, it’s flashes of quick images. While it’s possible to follow a longer plot and some complicated thought through the tread of a TV story, for the most part, I think, my brain is not that engaged by most videos. I tend to consume YouTube at times of rest—at night after completing a task (like tonight, for instance) or while eating lunch.

What have I been dipping into while editing images and preparing world-famous blog posts? A mix, which is what YouTube tends to provide. It’s quick snacks, which can be satisfying if not always mentally as stimulating as a book about Northwest Iowa can be (I’m ¾ of the way through “Storm Lake,” and I do recommend it).

So here is just a rather random look at what I’ve been mindlessly hanging with on a Saturday night:

Tunes—I use Pandora on several computers, but sometimes let YouTube play DJ for me. A small smattering of my Saturday playlist:

1-Taylor Swift, “You Need to Calm Down.” This 2019 song is probably not that musically sophisticated—pop songs usually aren’t, I suppose, but I’m not really a music person. I just enjoy the music I enjoy, and for whatever reason Ms. Swift hits my buttons with this one. It’s an “I need to smile, let’s play some Tay-Tay” song for me:

2-Garbage, “Empty.” A 2016 video from these 1990s rockers. Not exactly as bright and playful as Taylor, but still this song often sums up my mood when I’m frustrated (as who isn’t in 2020) and makes me feel better:

3-4-"Bailo En Mi Cuarto" by Anne Reburn, Dubax, HarryU and Debi Gutierrez; and "Bored" by Tessa Violet and MisterWives. OK, I do like male singers, too. I’ve played a few Red Hot Chili Peppers tracks in my Saturday jam, too. But I do have an appreciation of the female voice, for some reason. Anne Reburn does many entertaining covers and her own original music, too. Tessa Violet is the same, in a way, in that she has done many covers, although she’s further in her career and does more of her own original music. Anyway, both of these talented women teamed up with others on two songs that are both resonate with my life in 2020. Come Monday, when classes start, I may be a bit less isolated than I want to be—but 2020 has featured lots of alone time, and these two artists teamed up with other singers and with fans to collaborate on social musical videos about 2020. Maybe YouTube does have something to offer:

Music is, of course, personal as well as social. You like what you like and it may or may not appeal to me. I will credit YouTube partly with expanding my musical horizons a bit. I think we all have a special relationship with the music that was popular in our formative years, and I feel that YouTube playlists both can bring me back that music whenever I want (Simon and Garfunkel have some great videos), but also bring me new music.

And YouTube bring me video blogs. As a blogger, I particularly appreciate the Vlog Brothers. So:

5-Hank Green, Vlog Brothers, “Go Play!” The next book in my reading cue, right behind “Storm Lake,” is the second novel by this bright writer, who is also a YouTuber, along with his brother John. And I just really like this video. It made me think of my son Ben, who has a PhD in Math from ISU. I’m curious about what he thinks about the joy of math:

I use YouTube to watch some news content, now and then. But I do like some quirky content that isn’t available elsewhere. I read “The Gazette” for news, listen to NPR and let Rachel Maddow explain the world to me a few nights a week. I have CNN and Reuters on my phone. So YouTube is for “news” that’s a bit more, well, different.

For example, what do you know about bird penises? Don’t think Joe is about to get weird on you—I love a YouTube channel called “SciShow” and they give me information on all kinds of topics, including updates on COVID-19.

6-SciShow “Why Did the Rooster Lose Its Penis?” Besides posing a clickbait question, the video is interesting to me because it basically does not answer the question. The true answer is that science doesn’t know why—but evidence shows ancestors of most birds probably did have external male genitals, so somewhere along the line many birds lost theirs. I think it’s just fun to listen to the SciShow people explain interesting, quirky topics like this (and Hank Green, by the way, is one of the driving forces behind this channel and hosts may SciShow videos, but not this one):

I like several informative YouTube channels. Dr. Emily Zarka on “Monstrum” is a favorite. I watch most videos on PBS Eons, too.

So that’s it, my Saturday six. It’s not a complete list of my YouTube habits, and one of the dangers of the internet site is that its addictive nature challenges a viewer to not over do it. I didn’t get into “The History Guy,” for example, or Jim Gaffigan or Taylor Tomlinson, two of the several comedians I like to enjoy on YouTube. I often sample videos from the late night talks shows—I miss your “Colbert Report,” Stephen, but still enjoy your stuff.

I’m not trying to cover all of my liked videos. I just decided to post a bit on what I happened to be enjoying tonight while thinking about the nature of this hugely important internet site. Like all social media, an issue with YouTube is that it is, in a way, user constructed—what I watch tends to lead to what I’m fed. That means that rather than an open world where I might see anything, I’m actually seeing a rather narrow neighborhood crafted from my personal preferences.

I don’t hate that. But I do need to be aware of it, to, and actively break out, now and then, of my own neighborhood. So besides trying to ensure I don’t spend too much time on YouTube, I also am interested in suggestions that don’t come from the internet algorithms.

Consider this post, to some extent, a few suggestions for you if you too are taking a break this Saturday night. And based on what you see here or what you may know about me, what would you suggest I sample next?