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.
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.
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 18th 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.
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.
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.
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?
I gave two of the best Trump family speakers two hours of my life Thursday, and it left me a little scared.
Because I’ll state something that might surprise you.
President Donald Trump did a pretty good job at his acceptance speech Thursday night. Oh sure, he was not as energetic as he is when he’s ranting at a huge crowd. It was “teleprompter” Trump, who is always less engaged than unplanned, rant Trump. But for Teleprompter Trump, he was pretty good.
As a speaker, he did OK—and like a dog singing “Happy Birthday,” OK was better than anybody could have expected of him. Of course, the content of his long, long speech was full of deceit and exaggerations and fear mongering. It was, after all, a lie fest from the liar-in-chief.
Anyway, after Ivanka Trump gave the best speech of the awful tribe named “Trump” at the convention, the president’s pretty much just OK speech left me a bit depressed. Because he might pull it off. Between voter suppression, riling up his base and all kinds of semi-legal shenanigans, this con man might pull off the scam one more time. In case you have more than a hour to kill or need a cure for insomnia, here it is:
So, I went to bed without writing up my summary of the RNC, sleeping on it to see how I felt in the morning. And I feel better today. His ratings were lower than Joe Biden's which must hurt. And on second look, Trump's speech does not grow on me.
Still, Trump hit the right, right-wing notes, calling to his base on crime, patriotism, abortion, socialism and, Heaven help us, even God, which really made me nauseous.
So, as a wrap-up on the freak show that was the sad reality TV scare fest from what was once an American political party, my wrap-up of the RNC, focusing mostly on the long speech by President Trump.
First the setting. What can I say? It was a horrible desecration of the people’s house. Trump called it a “home,” but it’s the nation’s home and a president merely borrows the White House for four years. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, had a great tweet Thursday night that sums up how I felt:
Trump, the "law-and-order" candidate, can’t be bothered to understand or follow the law.
True, a president is personally exempt, but he’s used the full machinery of government—and lots of government employees—as political props and settings. What a jerk. The low moment of his speech was his smirky reference to the setting (quote is accurate, used a transcript from NPR):
“The fact is I’m here -- what’s the name of that building? (Gestures behind him to cheers from the gathered doomed gladiators) “But I’ll say it differently. The fact is we’re here and they’re not. To me one of the most beautiful buildings anywhere in the world, it’s not a building, it’s a home, as far as I’m concerned. It’s not even a house, it’s a home. It’s a wonderful place, with an incredible history.”
A history, you jerk, that you are ignorant of. Another low point—technically after the speech, but part of the Trump awfulness: Fireworks on the National Mall (a federal public park that includes, among other things, the Vietnam National Memorial with the names of heroes who didn’t claim bone spurs to stay home) that spelled out “Trump” and “2020.”
If that didn’t turn your stomach, see a doctor to see if you have a stomach.
The other main point of the flawed optics of the evening where the odd crowd. The fact that there were Trump MAGA-A acolytes from all over, crowded together, largely not masked during a pandemic that this horrid president has infamously not managed well. It was a Sturgis-style super spreader event, and shows that this president is so cold, so indifferent to fellow humans, that some of them may die, yet it’s a price he’ll happily pay.
We’re closing in on 200,000 dead, and this president and his followers brag about making respirators and banning travel. Well, hooray, those are two things you did right, but you completely squandered any time you bought by not listening to science, pushing quack cures and claiming the virus would disappear like “magic.”
And Trump holds an in-person party with people from all over, unmasked and undistanced.
If your ego demands accolades from a crowd so badly that you’ll force federal employees to violate federal law and potentially expose over a thousand of your misled fans to a deadly virus during a pandemic, you’re not, as our former secretary of state called you, a fucking moron.
You’re a fucking monster.
So, Trump spoke well. And displayed his full evil in full view. He and Joe Biden have both stated that this will be a campaign for the soul of America.
Not that there was any doubt before Thursday, but Thursday proved, if anybody needed proof, that one of those candidates sure doesn’t give a rat’s patootie for his own or anybody else’s soul.
His speech was preceded by Ivanka Trump. She’s a good speaker, but is part of the dark tribe trying to promote the orange demon on us. And it was odd, how “co-presidential” she seemed. Ivanka, nobody elected you to anything.
She was among the best speakers during the whole RNC, I thought, but the bar was pretty low so she didn’t have to work hard to clear that low bar. The most amusing line in her speech, to me, was this (quote from ABC news transcript):
“My father has strong convictions. He knows what he believes, and says what he thinks. Whether you agree with him or not, you always know where he stands. I recognize that my dad's communication style is not to everyone's taste. And I know his tweets can feel a bit -- unfiltered. But the results speak for themselves.”
“Unfiltered?” His tweets are the all-caps yowling of a mad man who, sadly, is president of the U.S.
For now. Shame on America if we prolong this nightmare for four more years.
And I don’t care about Joe Biden’s obvious shortcomings at this point. Get me out of here!
Other observations on Trump’s speech:
It was full of ridiculous exaggerations and distortions. For example, Trump on his record on race relations: “And I say very modestly that I have done more for the African-American community than any president since Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican president. And I have done more in three years for the Black community than Joe Biden has done in 47 years.”
Donald Trump has never in his life said anything in modesty. He’s a narcissist of the first order.
Another point that Trump bragged about was cutting regulations, thus approving oil pipelines and removing the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement. He promised to cut regulations more in order to promote jobs, and made this claim about Joe Biden: “Biden has promised to abolish the production of American oil, coal, shale and natural gas, laying waste to the economies of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico, destroying those states. Absolutely destroying those states, and others.”
One of the dirty little secrets of life is that any extraction economy is doomed in the long run. The wells will run dry, the vein will be played out, the drillers and miners will make money now, but not generations from now. And Biden won’t open federal lands to drilling like Trump will, but has not pledged to end production of American fossil fuels. Instead, he has called on us to transition to a sustainable green economy, which will create jobs.
Making the planet uninhabitable by just drilling and burning and devil-may-care is the road to hell.
Trump is not our ecological savior. He is the Satan of the environment.
OK, I admit I’m getting carried away. That’s the mood swings induced by the RNC. And I do have a favorite, no-shit-Sherlock chyron that I saw on MSNBC: “Fourth Night Filled with more false statements” Yes, it was. Surprise, surprise.
So now the fall campaign begins. Here is our lineup (images from Wikimedia commons, most by Gage Skidmore, except Mike Pence image which is a White House photo):
President Donald J. Trump. Check whatever he says. This man will gladly get you killed if it means he wins. Not an exaggeration. Image by Gage Skidmore.
"Sleepy" Joe Biden. I'll take sleepy over evil, any day. And why does Trump always list as flaws in others attributes that he has? Trump leaned on the lectern Thursday like a sleepy old man. Takes one to know one, I guess. Image by Gage Skidmore.
Vice President Mike Pence. In some ways, worse than Trump, because he'll spill his venom in a friendly, folksy, neighborhood preacher sort of tone. It's also not easy to find this man's image--of all four figures here, this is the oldest image, the one that is an official White House image because he doesn't get out much or draw attention when he does, and it's cropped to show Mike. Unlike the orange-skinned one, this guy has the pale skin of someone who avoids the limelight. And the sunlight. Mike Pence, mild mannered vampire? White House image (from visit by Greek officials, hence the flags).
California Sen. Kamala Harris. She's equipped to be president, probably the best of this bunch of candidates. The woman stands out as the best human for the job. Image by Gage Skidmore.
Voting for a “Joe” is going to be easy for this Joe. Well, maybe not as easy as I wanted since a judge tossed out ballot requests in my county. But I’ll crawl over hot coals to vote against the current occupant. You know that building, behind you, Don? I hope soon that it's the house where you used to live.
Final note: This is a reflection of the times we live in. Here is much of section A of The Gazette this morning. I don’t think you can read the stories, just look at the headlines. Trump is on the bottom of page 4. The county I live in setting new virus records is on page 6. And I don’t think The Gazette got it all that wrong. Many of the headlines are on the aftermath of the Aug. 10 derecho that blew this city apart, so I will concede much of the end-of-the-world tone of these pages is due to Mother Nature and not Monster Trump.
Still, the Republicans have said repeatedly this week that you should be scared to live in Biden’s America. They’ve got it wrong. The real nightmare is now, here are headlines from Trump’s America:
