My opinion is Pence "won" the debate simply because the debate happened, and it shouldn't have. Pence was allowed the trappings of normalcy when he should have been in quarantine. He was given a platform that the sort of liar he has proved himself to be should never be afforded.
If Pence doesn't have to be in quarantine, if Trump gets to act like he's not infected, then Senators returning to confirm a justice ahead of the election will also be afforded similar wavers, then thousands or millions of other people so infected will think they can be, too.
The medium is the message. The questions and answers are window dressing. They can be true, they can be lies; it doesn't matter, they'll be hashed over as if they're equal value anyway. Pence knows that, so he uses lies—because lies are what he prefers.
He just wanted the stage.
There should be no debates for the Trump gang, nor any other trapping of normalcy, either.
No more platforming liars. No more elevating them inappropriately.
And no more helping them pretend they aren't in the middle of a pandemic infection brought on by their own stupid pride.
I'm encouraged by early polls showing Harris won the debate on merits. That's a nice outcome, but the event itself was always going to be a win for the Trump gang. It lets them act like they're actually a presidential administration instead of a bunch dumb mean thugs and liars.
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In the months after the 2016 election, still reeling from the permanent demolition of the reality I'd known, I wrote an essay called Sky. It was my lament. armoxon.com/2017/01/sky.ht…
Near the end of the first year, I posted Bubbles, about a nation I’d failed to see, the terrible lies it has been founded upon, the spiritual desire of such terrible lies, and what I perceive as our role, which is to live as good stories, as works of art. armoxon.com/2017/08/bubble…
Anyone who's followed me for any amount of time knows that I answer right-wing trolls with a non sequitur "America is a democracy," to demonstrate their reflexive response that we aren't.
I've done it to illustrate exactly how anti-democracy the American fascist party is.
I'm not sure I'm going to use the word "Republican" anymore, given the party is fully committed to ending our Republic—our *democratic* Republic—which is a democracy.
They aren't Republicans worth the name. They're fascists. I believe I'll call them that.
The Fascist Party.
It doesn't have to be done angrily or aggressively. In fact it should be matter-of-fact. It's naming what they are by what they've done and what they're trying to do.
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT is, in my opinion, good. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
At first I was distracted by the premise, which seemed to me ludicrous* and the sheer bulk of the rom-com tropes (tropes which yes, this movie basically invented), but before long Gable and Colbert’s chemistry and comic chops brought my walls of Jericho down.
One strange bit: I have nothing against Capra at all but this feels nothing like a Capra and I sort of mean it (though I’m not sure how or why) as a compliment. If you’d shown this to me blind I’d have guessed Sturges.
I hope people aren’t forgetting how remorselessly Pence employs his method of giving that slow sad shake of his head as the damning truth is spoken about him, until it’s his turn, at which point he politely lies his dick off and nobody corrects him.
He is every bit a creature of this media age as Trump, perfectly suited to a world optimized for shameless bullshit.
I’m not saying Harris won’t make better or more substantive points, because of course she will— she’ll be the only one making any.
But modern presidential debates aren’t about that. They’re about creating an event allowing pundits to talk about who bullshitted best.
This isn't over until no Republicans hold office anywhere: national, state or local; appointed or elected.
Purging a fascist party from power entirely is a normalizing act and a necessary step for any nation that actually wants a healthy democracy and a sustainable stable state.
Make it illegal for anyone who was a Republican 2015 or after to hold office.
Have all the replacements ready. Approve the appointees en masse.
This sounds radical because radical sickness requires radical treatment, if you are serious about health.
Look, as a man I think being a man is a wonderful and sacred thing. I *relish* my role as a man, husband and father. I simply recognize that men lack a woman's emotional maturity and wisdom, and require the guidance of a woman, to whom the larger questions should be submitted.
Self-hating "manninists" want to make these strategic decisions themselves, subverting God's perfect plan for men as maintenance workers and practical managers, and the results are plain to see: injuries, deaths in war, heart attacks, angry lashing out—all prevalent in men.