The Harris-Trump Debate

Last night’s debate between Vice-President Kamala Harris and The Convicted Felon was a world apart from the first one with President Joe Biden. It was a clear victory for Harris and just as clear a loss for the Mango Mussolini. He’s never seemed more incoherent or filled with lies than last night.

Those nasty immigrants eating people’s pets in Peoria. Or wherever. It matters not what city it supposedly was — it’s an utter, complete, racist lie. On the sick theory that repeating a lie often enough, no matter how outrageous, can make it believed.

I found Harris’s opponent so hard to listen to that I started beering myself. After the debate, I (drunkenly) expressed myself on the Substack Notes feed. I had a good time venting and thought to share my “tweets” here. WARNING: Language! This is me unfiltered and off-the-cuff.

#0

What made the debate worth watching for me was the absurd hilarity of talking male manikin referring to what we’d all watched as an “historic event”. I couldn’t stop laughing (out loud despite being alone) for several minutes.

The chirpy “business as usual, don’t forget to watch our morning shows of grinning Stepford manikins” sign off at the end that was the icing on the cake.

Dear Putative God, I live in a world of actual philosopher’s zombies. Please deliver me from evil! (Or at least bring more beer.)

Apologies in advance for these a bit more than tipsy “tweets” about the painful two hours I just endured. Beer was required to get through it. But, damn, my head is exploding, and my heart is breaking, over what kind of reality I apparently exist in.

In short, I don’t understand how there’s a contest here. Even given all the foibles of humanity, how is it possible to take this belligerent gibbering monkey seriously?

Stay tuned. I ain’t done.

#1

Firstly, I thank whatever political Gods may be for delivering a candidate I can wholeheartedly — no, joyfully — vote for. Too many times it’s been a matter of voting against. Or of voting for the least worst. Obama was an exception, and now Harris/Walz. Tears of joy when I let that sink in.

They say lead with the good. “You’re a great employee, I hope you know that! You’re fired.” (It’s true. I’ve more or less lived this.) The Bad News is, as far as I’m concerned, American “journalism” can go fuck itself. How do “moderators” allow the logorrhea of gibberish unchecked? How do “journalists” allow the constant vomit of blatant lies? Edward R. Murrow is spinning so fast in his grave that he’s generating a fusion plasma that could power humanity indefinitely.

Every journalist should have permanently branded into their psyche the mantra, “What would ERM do?”

(And don’t get me started on Brian Williams.)

#2

Secondly (I’m numbering these so you can be sure to collect them all), that was a painful almost two hours of having to endure the maniacal ramblings of an idiot. Hence the beer. (And I just opened another one, so caveat lector.)

Sometimes you have to bear witness, though. To be a citizen in a democracy imposes upon us certain obligations. They say half of life is showing up, and this is critical in a democracy. I’ve known well-meaning progressives who think voting is pointless.

To quote a smarter man than I:

“A democratic society, an open society, places an extraordinary intellectual responsibility on ordinary men and women, because we are governed by what we think, we are governed by our opinions. So, the content of our opinions, and the quality of our opinions, and the quality of the formation of our opinions, basically determines the character of our society.” ~Leon Wieseltier on The Colbert Report, 2014

Please, everyone, let that sink in. We are governed by the quality of our opinions and by how we form those opinions. If, in the current circumstances, this doesn’t make you weep for our future.

Anyway, it was hard to bear witness tonight. I resorted to muting the sound several times. (Full disclosure, as a mostly deaf person, the Closed Caption is always on, but you can look away from that. That bloviating asshole… the audio was just too much. I take pains to avoid having to hear that mofu.)

#2a

Or can you just go ahead and say motherfucker on Substack? I’m not clear on the rules here (or in general anymore).

I can thank Russell Simmon’s Def Comedy Jam (awesome show) for making me quite comfortable with motherfucker. And when it comes to that motherfuckin’ GOP candidate, is there a better more disdainful motherfuckin’ word?

#3

Thirdly, Harris was awesome. Such a change from the last debate. A hands down winner.

That said — and this is personal taste — I found her slightly too on message. A number of repeated campaign beats where I would have liked her more in the moment responding the clearly insane ramblings of a wannabe Twitler. I suppose she feels she needs to be politically bland — and her message is about moving forward and leaving this sick bullshit behind — but I would have liked to see her reacting more strongly to the blabbering.

That said, I loved every one of her reactions. And I can see why her team wanted open mics. She would have beat the shit outta him. Maybe it’s just me again, but I would have coached her to use gestures — the canonical twirling finger at the temple, for instance.

#4

Fourthly (the number of beers I’ve had so far, and yet…), I had a fantasy during the debate that Harris had a handheld sign with the big bold word “LIE!” on it. And she held it up every time (wannabe in his dreams) Mango Mussolini lied.

Admittedly, it would have given her biceps a real workout. She would have to have held up the sign pretty much every time Cheeto Charlie opened his mouth.

And I fantasied the so-called “moderators” objected to which Harris responded, “Well, if you aren’t going to do your job, I will. As a Good President says, the buck stops here.”

Yeah, I know. In my dreams. I still wish The West Wing had a chance of being at least slightly the way politics actually worked. It makes me sad we can’t rise to the level of our fictions.

(Wait. I get that British and Americans have a whole thing with ‘z’ (or “zed”) versus ‘s’ but, dear spelling demons, why is it fantasied versus amazed in American?)

#5

Fifthly (also the number of beers; keep up), to continue with Harris being, despite her obvious authenticity (which I value highly), political and on message, the sole good thing you can say about the wannabe king is his in-the-moment-authenticity.

It’s the authenticity of a seriously fucked up human being, but, damn, he is authentic, and that is, or should be, attractive to anyone. It’s one of the things his supporters (rightly) love about him. If only he wasn’t human garbage.

And a key reason I refuse to align with Team D is their inability to recognize the value of true in-the-moment authenticity. They always keep up the fucking facade, and I, for one, am sick of it. It’s bullshit.

Clinton came close. Obama came closer. Hillary, bless her well-meaning heart and sheer capability, never had it. Biden came close, and so does Harris. But not one of them can ever drop that shield of being oh, so careful to never say the wrong thing, never say what they really think.

And people are smart about that. We know when we’re being bullshitted. We may put up with it in the name of love or country or whatever, but we know (if we but listen to ourselves).

#5a

BTW, my logic is that as long as I can, not just count but enumerate the whatever drinks I’ve had (Indeed Flavorwave IPA*, Stone IPA, Elysian Space Dust IPA (x2), and a Fat Tire), I’m doing fine.

Now give me my car keys. (J/K 😁)

*My current favorite IPA.

#6

Sixthly (and I think finally), once again I’m challenged to understand how we find ourselves here. How is it possible to listen to this pathetic excuse of a human being and not be repelled? How is it possible to be so “in the tank for trump” to overlook the sad reality of the man himself?

I can, barely, understand 2016 — the rage at globalization and the disdain of liberals (who, listen up, bear a huge share of the blame here — honestly, y’all started this culture war). But after enduring four years of no infrastructure and no other promises kept (other than to billionaires), it’s hard to comprehend the continued allegiance.

Conservative viewpoint, absofuckinlutely. But, damn, this is an extreme example of hitchin’ your wagon to the wrong fuckin’ star. How does any Christian support a clearly evil person? Let alone the blatant misogyny and racism.

#7

Seventhly, … no, I’m done now. (It’s getting really hard to type.) I just wanted to write “seventhly”.

It did feel awfully good to vent like that. Completely changed my mood from “WTF! Society is Doomed!” to something of a mike drop.

Stay tuned, my friends! Go forth and spread beauty and light.

∇