Yes, I admit it. For the second time in probably 20 years, I watched the "debate" Monday morning (we're way ahead over here). I am admittedly motivated by morbid curiosity. I want to see people's guts get splattered all over the cameras...and I wasn't disappointed.
My first comment is, who changed the job description of a "moderator?" And are they really necessary in a situation where their only function is to help one side attack the other? I was in the debate club in school. I have watched some great debates in my time (just dial up Christopher Hitchens on YouTube). I have never seen "moderators" behave like they have in the past two "debates." Nuff said.
The next issue to address is probably the "Trump Tapes." By now, even the shiest hermit troglodyte knows about the Trump Tapes. In fact, I understand that a live webcam in Missouri caught two Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) discussing the story just Saturday morning. If what Trump said was so shocking or unusual, then why didn't Billy Bush faint dead away? And what about similar comments Obama has made on the golf course? Is it OK for him since he is (bow your heads in reverence) a minority? By the way, you have to use alternate search engines to find these clips, since every Google search points to Trump.
Frankly, I would be shocked if a rich, powerful man didn't brag about the way women throw themselves at him. Sorry girls, but having a number of very close friendships with women, I know how y'all talk off-camera, and it would make Trump blush. I gotta laugh, folks. The same culture that bought millions of copies of 50 Shades of Gray, made Ann Rice's Beauty series an underground hit, and flocked to the film Indecent Proposal is incapable of being truly shocked by the comments on the Trump Tapes. Fact of life. Face it. I know just about every woman in America at this point has closely examined the size of Trump's hands, and probably his feet, too (big feet, big...well, you know).
To put it quite plainly, Trump showed up to a press conference with three women that have for years accused Bill Clinton of all-out rape and abuse, and who have been further abused by Hillary Clinton - in public and on the record - which made rather conspicuous the complete lack of women lining up to accuse Trump of similar abuse.
Does this excuse Trump's words? No. However, so far it is just a couple of boys bragging with no one stepping forward to say they were wrongly treated. On the other side, Bill Clinton finally admitted that he abused his power and position with Monica Lewinsky, and was impeached and disbarred for lying about it under oath, and thee women have been dogging him (Jones, Willey, Broadderick) for decades about real abuse that Hillary has obviously condoned with her defense of her husband and the fact that she has pressed him into campaigning for her. Clearly, abuse of women is not an issue that Hillary cares much about, at least off stage.
As for the rest of the event, what can I say? It was a game of Battleship with both sides landing punches. One thing I do like about Trump is that he doesn't mince words, he calls things like he sees them. He doesn't use the passive voice and talk around things. One thing I deeply despise about politicians is the way they talk in third-person passive and use un-words like un-truth and lots of weasel qualifiers. I can respect people, even when I truly dislike them, when they have the moxy to speak directly and clearly.
All that being said, there was nothing in this or the previous "debate" that inspired me. I am more convinced that ever that I will not vote (again). I left the US nine years ago because I could no longer be a part of a system that killed and destroyed with impunity, and I haven't seen anything in the two approved candidates that encourages me to think that things will change. You can have chocolate or vanilla, but in the end, the only choice is ice cream. Hmmm...maybe that is too delicious a metaphor. The more apt metaphor would probably be solid or liquid, it's still shit. I'll let the dear reader choose who is which - and I did note the big fly that landed on Clinton.
What I have taken away from not only this "debate," but the entire election cycle, is that the US is FUBAR.
When I get lambasted by the Clintonites for mysogeny, hate and abuse (honestly...), I have to wonder what it must be like to live inside their brains. Can anyone truly ignore the reams of evidence pointing to decades of criminal activity and just sheer hatred of people? Are they so indoctrinated into party politics that they would elect Charles Manson is the DNC selected him? In my humble opinion, the only difference between Hillary and Manson is that she hasn't been convicted (yet).
On the other hand, the Trumpians castigate me for my lack of patriotism and tell me how he is the last best hope for America. My only thought is, has it really come to this? Can someone with so obvious a lack of education and diplomacy truly be the last great hope of a country like the US? If I found myself thinking that, I would forsake all hope and immediately begin working on secession (which I did, by the way, nearly 30 years ago), or just leave the whole mess behind (which I did 9 years ago).
Either one of these people alone would be an indictment of the moral and ethical decay in America, but both together as the primary choices for president in 2016, is proof-positive that the US has gone completely around the bend. Had Ron Paul even been nominated, much less elected president, I might have held out hope for the System and the people subservient to it. But honestly, that Trump and Clinton are the two best choices the System can offer is a clear sign that the US is somewhere between Caligula and Claudius in the Rome Collapse-O-Meter.
We are currently replaying the scene where HAL-9000 convinces Poole and Bowman to replace the AE-35 unit and let it fail to see where the fault it. In the end, the System will win the election at the cost of its own existence, and perhaps in the Big Picture, that is what the world needs. I dearly love my home, my family and my friends, but every now and then, you gotta clean the gutters. Many of my friends realize this, but many more do not, because...well, gosh, it's easy to read about history, but damn difficult to live it.
At this point, it is well worth the time to watch Being There again, or better yet, READ the book. Jerzy Kosinski lived through the collapse of a country and saw the same signals in American culture, and as I have said often, once a system derails, it is virtually impossible to right it again and it must completely collapse in order to make way for fresh ideas.
The founding concepts behind the US, and the Enlightenment philosophy behind them, have already changed the world. But the country has gone so far off course that perhaps its usefulness has faded into history now, as demonstrated by the two people standing for the country's highest office.
Sad? Yes. Painful? Very much so. Necessary? What does one do with a gangrenous limb? Nothing lasts forever, nor should it. Nature, in its infinite wisdom, has seen to it that all things die so that new life can take hold.
The one abiding thought that I had as I watched the debate is that when someone we dearly love passes on, we must bury the body, but take the fond memories with us as we move forward, and celebrate the good things they did to change the world.
Regardless of the outcome of this election, I bid a fond farewell to America and celebrate the good it has done for all humans. It is time, though, to remove the life support and accept that the genius that was America is but a fond memory now and it is time to quickly bury the corpse.
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