I just saw the first debate. What Trump did was disgusting. Talking over Chris Wallace and overtly lying non stop. 72 HOUR PSYCHIATRIC HOLD MANDATORY

I saw all of the 90 minute debate. While Biden was hardly prefect, what Trump did with serial lying and repeated over talking , and ranting non stop during the debate should be an automatic disqualification for even being allowed to be on the ballot.

What Alexandra Chalupa stated is also fully endorsed by me, and this is my response to Trump being allowed on stage with Biden, as a criminal Treasonous Kremlin asset impostor. It is time to resist to the fullest of out ability even the faintest of legal formalisms which allows a known Kremlin Asset, Donald. J. Trump to be given the dignity of being a CANDIDATE for the highest office of this country, via a document Trump wishes to destroy being the US Constitution. AS STATED BY THOMAS JEFFORSON, IT IS TIME TO RESIST AND TO EJECT THIS MAN, TRUMP AS EVEN A CANDIDATE FOR POTUS NOW

The level of serial dishonesty and pathological gaslighting should be grounds for removal of D. J. Trump from the POTUS race

REFUSAL TO CONDEMN WHITE SUPREMACISM. AS TRUMP DID NOT ONCE BUT IN HIS SERIAL BACKING OF THE "PROUD BOYS" ORGANIZATION, A VIOLENT EXTREMIST GROUP SHOULD BE GROUNDS FOR TERMINATION OF TRUMP'S CANDIDACY FOR POTUS.

REFUSAL BY TRUMP TO RENOUNCE THE MURDER OF US MILITARY SERVICEMEN/SERVICE WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN SHOWS WHERE TRUMP'S LOYALTIES LIE.

BIDEN SUMMARIZED IT EXACTLY. TRUMP IS PUTIN'S PUPPET.

RESIST THE EVEN FAINTEST OF LEGALISTIC FRAMING OF TRUMP'S CANDIDACY AND GET THIS MONSTER INTO A 72 HOUR PSYCHIATRIC HOLD WITHIN THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS

THE ATLANTIC SUMMARIZED MY POSITION AS TO REPEAT DEBATES

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/cancel-debates/616544/

QUOTE

Cancel the Debates

Tonight brought the first debate of this presidential election, and if there is any sense left in this nation, it will be the last too.

SEPTEMBER 29, 2020

David A. Graham

Pity the poor closed-caption writers. Pity the poor ASL interpreters. But most of all, pity poor us, the American electorate.

Tonight was the first presidential debate of the 2020 election, and if there is any sense or mercy left in this nation, it will be the last too. The event was a shambolic shout fest, with scarcely a single morsel of substance to be found. President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, lied repeatedly, refused to condemn racist groups even after explicitly offering to do so, and sought to undermine trust in the election. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democrat, meandered through his positions, only occasionally finishing a sentence. Moderator Chris Wallace lost control within minutes and never regained it.

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Voters who tuned in hoping to learn something new about either man’s plans for the country, or about his character, must have realized early on that they were in the wrong place. The three septuagenarians onstage were speaking over one another within minutes. Trump interrupted Biden; Biden interrupted Trump; Wallace tried to interrupt both, with limited efficacy, especially against Trump, with whom he at one point offered to switch seats.

The president entered the debate most in need of a big night, given that he consistently trails in polls. There is no doubt that he dominated the stage, as was clearly his plan coming in. Whether that actually benefits him is another question. His most effective moment of the night came in a broadside against Biden on the issue of “law and order.” But several months of hard experience show that Americans are appalled by Trump’s handling of racial justice and protests. The president keeps coming back to the issue, hoping it will break through. Perhaps this is the night it will—but don’t place money on it.

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Trump Has Nothing Else up His Sleeve

A more shocking moment came later in the debate.

“Are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of the cities, as we saw in Kenosha and as we’ve seen in Portland?” Wallace asked Trump. Yes, the president said:

Donald Trump: Give me a name, give me a name.

Chris Wallace: White supremacists and white nationalists. White supremacists.

Biden: White supremacists, the Proud Boys.

Trump: Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what. Somebody has to do something about antifa and the left. Because this is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing, this is a left-wing problem.

On one hand, it was astonishing: All Trump had to do was condemn the Proud Boys, and he had said he’d condemn a group if given a name. On the other hand, it’s no surprise that Trump was unwilling to reject the appeal to racism that has powered his career for decades. There was nothing new here—just a vivid illustration of who Trump has always been.

As I have written, Trump is often incoherent, but he speaks vigorously, giving him an aura of strength. Biden was for the most part neither vigorous nor coherent. Although the Biden of the Democratic National Convention was cool and collected, tonight saw the return of the Biden who stumbled his way through debates in the Democratic primaries. Answers took left turns, then right turns, then U-turns, feinting in several directions and ending nowhere.

The Democrat produced his two best answers on COVID-19 and on racial equality, offering a contrast with Trump and presenting his own plan. These are two issues that work most to his advantage. But elsewhere, he allowed Trump (and Wallace) to interrupt his train of thought, or did so himself. He refused to answer a direct question on whether he supported ending the filibuster, and he offered a surprisingly timid response to a question about law enforcement and to attacks by Trump on his son Hunter Biden, both of which he had to have known were coming. Perhaps the most telling fact of the evening is that Biden’s most memorable moments were one-line insults—“Would you shut up, man?” “Keep yappin’, man.” “It’s hard to get a word in with this clown.”—and not tied to his policies or positions.

The worst loser of the night, however, may have been Wallace. He entered the night lauded as perhaps the most fearsome interviewer on national television and left as roadkill, having shown himself completely unable to control the candidates. But if even the stentorian Wallace was unable to maintain a little order, the other scheduled moderators, Steve Scully and Kristen Welker, are unlikely to fare better.

Presidential debates rarely make much difference in the race. Even the most infamous debate gaffe of them all, Gerald Ford’s 1976 insistence that there was “no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe,” had no real effect on the election. This is likely to be especially true this year, when the polls have remained surprisingly stable. Beyond that, tens of thousand of voters have already cast their ballots, and more are returned each day.

There may be some voters who were surprised to see that Trump is a blathering bully, or who were leaning toward Biden but were shaken by his lackadaisical performance. But any undecided voter who turned this debate on hoping to learn something productive must surely have been reaching for the remote control (and maybe a stiff drink) soon thereafter.

Although the primary debates are run by news outlets in coordination with the major political parties, the general-election debates are hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates, a nonpartisan, independent body. The group aims to support a lofty ideal: “The CPD’s primary mission is to ensure, for the benefit of the American electorate, that general election debates are held every four years between and among the leading candidates for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States. … The CPD was formed to ensure that the voting public has the opportunity to see the leading candidates debate during the general election campaign.”

If CPD really wishes to benefit the American electorate, it should cancel the rest of the debate season.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected].

END OF QUOTE

A. GET TRUMP IN A 72 HOUR PSYCHIATRIC HOLD EFFECTIVE TODAY

B. CANCEL FUTURE DEBATES, NOW

C. RESIST THE LEGALISTIC FRAMEWORK EVEN DIGNIFYING A KREMLIN ASSET, TRUMP FROM SHARING A BALLOT WITH BIDEN, AND GET HIM OFF THE BALLOT EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.

A FINAL UPDATE AS TO THE SHIT SHOW WE WITNESSED. ALSO FULLY ENDORSED BY ME

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/james-fallows-disgusting-night-democracy/616541/

QUOTE

DEAS

A Disgusting Night for Democracy

Donald Trump made it so, and Chris Wallace let him.

SEPTEMBER 29, 2020

James Fallows

Staff writer at The Atlantic

The 90-minute spectacle tonight calls into question the value of having any “debates” of this sort ever again. No one knows more about public life than he or she did before this disaster began; some people know less; and everyone feels and looks worse.

Start with the supposed moderator, Chris Wallace. It became obvious five minutes in that Donald Trump’s strategy was to interrupt, yell, insult, and disrupt as often as he could. This is a strategy that can work only if no one gets in the way of it, and Chris Wallace just let it go on. Maybe Wallace was caught by surprise by Trump’s bellicosity and primate-dominance. (But—c’mon.) Even so, two or three minutes of this should have been enough to adjust. He didn’t adjust. And he let Trump roll over him.

Maybe—I don’t know—the negotiated debate rules prevented Wallace from selectively cutting off the speakers’ mics. Even so, there are ways for the people supposedly in charge of an event to demonstrate that in fact they are in charge. Wallace made clear early on that he was not.

Trump’s instincts are taken from pro wrestling, as with his famous stunt of shaving Vince McMahon’s head. Thus Trump was unconstrained by norms or unenforced rules; Wallace did not enforce the rules, and the result, as it would be in a brawl or an unrefereed sporting match, was one person unconstrained by any of the norms of “allotted time” or “take your turn” or “respectful disagreement,” and another who was half the time constrained by those expectations, and the other half taking the bait in some way.

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I recorded a whole detailed minute-by-minute annotation of the debate as it unfolded, but I’m not going to dignify this disaster with any details. It was a giant mess. Did the spectacle change any votes? Who knows. Maybe some people were revved up for Trump by his assertiveness. Maybe other people—I’d guess a larger number, but it’s just a guess—were repelled by his bullying tactics.

Was Biden correctly playing the long game, by turning all topics from Trump’s favored terrain (It’s about me) to Biden’s theme (It’s about you) and addressing the camera rather than Wallace or Trump?

Will either side’s strategy pay off ? I can’t say. And—just for this second—I don’t care. I’ll think about that tomorrow.

But for tonight I’ll say this was a disgusting moment for democracy. Donald Trump made it so, and Chris Wallace let him. I hope there are no more debates before this election. If they happen, I won’t waste another minute of my life watching them.

The modern presidential debate was invented in 1960. We may have seen the end of its useful life this evening.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected].

JAMES FALLOWS is a staff writer at The Atlantic and has written for the magazine since the late 1970s. He has reported extensively from outside the United States and once worked as President Jimmy Carter's chief speechwriter. He and his wife, Deborah Fallows, are the authors of the 2018 book Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America, which was a national best seller and is the basis of a forthcoming HBO documentary.

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NO TEMPORIZING. GET TRUMP OFF THE BALLOT AND IN A PSYCHIATRIC WARD.

Andrew Beckwith, PhD