Debate 1 (29Sept):
This debate reminded me as to why I don't particularly want to vote for either of these guys. I sat there wondering why it feels like I have to choose between two old guys fighting over a parking spot at a Wal-Mart. Honestly, Biden did better than I thought he would. He (mostly) didn't let his emotions get the best of him, and he stayed out of angry personal insult-based exchanges with Trump. Biden kept it cool for almost the entire night, which surprised me. Even when Trump took that (disgusting) personal dig at Biden's son's past addiction, Biden kept it cool. I respected that. I also like that Biden made it a point to differentiate his climate plan from AOC's Green New Deal (which I think is beyond unrealistic, just in terms of what we can actually do given our current technology...nevermind the rest of it). One thing Biden needs to avoid is the smirking and laughing to himself when Trump is being...Trump. It comes off as "I'm so much better than this guy", which comes off as "I'm so much better than this buys base" to Trump's base. Hilary did the same thing, to an even larger/worse extent. Every time she did the head wobble thing with the snarky/sarcastic look on her face, I was like "It's still a reaction". And I think that kind of thing alienates people who already feel like liberals/Democrats can be kind of snobby and holier-than-thou. I get that it's hard NOT to laugh at some of the things that come out of Trump's mouth, but you just have to go for complete non-reaction. Trump lives for any kind of reaction. Give him a stone faced non-reaction 100% of the time, and he'll probably spontaneously combust.
As to the issues regarding race..... these are two 70+ year old white men. Sorry, not sorry. The fact is that neither of these two are exactly in tune with the modern racial climate, and neither seem to be aware of how to really approach the issue. The only difference, to me, between these two on this issue is that Trump has just embraced his racism while Biden is at least trying to attempt to understand. I guess that counts for something.
Just focusing on Trump for a (very) quick second... I feel he is who he is. You know exactly what he's going to say, and what he's planning on doing. He's an a-hole, a liar, and a cheat, and he embraces it. Some people find that... appealing?...and choose to vote for him. Trump isn't going to gain votes. He's hit his "appeal ceiling". His goal in this debate was obviously (to me) to get people to NOT vote for Biden by goading Biden into saying something that would/will alienate both on-the-fence voters and groups who will trend towards Biden, but might break off if Biden says the wrong thing (e.g.; Trump saying "You just lost the left" after Biden said his climate plan wasn't the same thing as the Green New Deal...obviously hoping that Biden would backtrack and express support of the Green New Deal, thus alienating on-the-fence moderates).
Basically, at the end of the debate, I felt how I've been feeling: I don't particularly like Biden, but I hate Trump and I hate what Trump's done to this country. So, unless some third candidate comes along, who appeals to me more than either of these two goons, and starts polling at 60% approval in every single major national poll I'm going to vote for Biden/Harris.
I'm tired of a president who prefers carnival-barker showmanship and causing emotional turbulence, on a societal level, over actual leadership. I feel gross. (in a "dammit...now I'm a hypocrite" kind of way) voting for Biden, but... we, as a country...all religions (or lack there-of), genders (or lack there-of), races, education levels, and on-and-on...we can't afford another 4 years of Trump.
Also: Yes, I found Trump's "Proud Boys...stand down and stand by" comment to be beyond disturbing. His statement shouldn't be ignored or swept under the rug. Groups like Proud Boys and Boogaloo Boys are hate groups, and this was basically a presidential endorsement of those groups, which makes me sick. To me, this was Trump basically saying "If I don't win, I'm going to use my extremist militia to start an uprising". That's not how democracy works. That's how totalitarianism works.
It's still beyond me how the party of limited government some how ended up electing a totalitarian who has no regard for democracy or states rights. It's beyond me how that same party continues to support that same totalitarian.
AlsoAlso: For what it's worth... I thought Chris Wallace did a fine job as moderator. I've seen a lot of criticism of the way he handled the debate, but I personally think he did the best he could, short of physically assaulting Trump. He was constantly admonishing Trump for speaking out of turn, and even went so far as to make some fairly funny, sharp comments towards Trump for Trump's inability to just STFU and let Biden speak. He even pointed out multiple times that Trump was breaking rules that Trump and his team had agreed to. I personally felt he let Trump dig his own grave. It seems like people criticizing Wallace are just mad he wasn't biased towards Biden.
I felt Wallace came off as 100% unbiased, and asked fair questions. As someone who watched the entire debate from start to finish, I can find no reason to criticize Wallace's performance as a moderator.
I do agree with the idea that, in future debates, maybe the moderator(s) should have a button to turn off a microphone if a candidate keeps interrupting while another candidate is speaking.
As an aside: Every election cycle, I'm reminded of exactly why I would never be a good politician. Watching politicians trying to make people like them kind of makes me sick. I'm not the type of person who wants to convince people to like me. We vibe or we don't. Maybe we're somewhere on the spectrum between those two extremes. But I'm not going to force people to like me more than they do. With politics, you're trying to make people like you by promising them things that you, by and large, can't hope to give them. I value honesty and sincerity far too much to compromise those values to try and make people like me. Especially not when I'm selling false promises concerning those peoples whole well-being. I couldn't let myself be that person who basically says, every few years, "I'm going to put food on your plate every day, starting tomorrow, if you like me" only to turn around and say "Wow, this is more of a process than I thought it was! Just keep being my friend and we'll get there in like...10 or 12 years? Maybe longer. Just be my friend until I'm ready to retire. Anyway, thanks for buying me that big house and the boat and a few months of vacation from not really doing anything for you! Enjoy that nasty-a$$ government peanut butter!" Couldn't be me.
UPDATE 2 Oct: Since Trump has apparently contracted COVID-19, obviously the debates are either getting cancelled, or the format will change. If Trump is healthy enough, and they decide to go through with debates in an alternate format, I kind of hope they do a Zoom format. I'd like to see how that would work, with one candidate muted while the other talks. After they make their individual cases, they can both be unmuted to back-and-forth a bit. Repeat that for each question, and it would be WAY more coherent than that first debate.
Also, I just want to say that while I don't like Trump at all... I don't wish ill health or death on anyone, no matter how fundamentally I disagree with them. I hope he and his wife (and possibly his other family members?) have a safe and speedy recovery. I recognize the potential for using this incident to take shots at Trump and his politics, especially in the form of derisive humour, but I hope people are/can be better than that.
(sub-update, 5 Oct.: I just saw that video of Trump returning to the White House and gasping for air and... ummm... I don't gasp that hard for air even on the steepest sections of the 10 mile (round trip), 2000+ foot elevation gain trail I like to hike for my cardio that I take at about a 5mph pace (ps-that's not a humble brag, I'm just trying to put some perspective on it. I breath heavy, but not like that. I'm just saying that after some pretty intense cardio, I'm definitely not gasping like I just got freed from having a plastic bag stuck over my whole head). He can NOT be doing good if he's having that much trouble breathing. I personally think he should have stayed in the hospital, but that's me. If he wants to be a martyr for the cause of... "owning the libs"?... then I guess that's his business. And I guess everyone around him knew what they were signing up for. But still, I think it's highly irresponsible for him to be out of the hospital. He did NOT look well, and he's still in the "highly contagious" phase.)
Update 21 Oct: So I already voted here in Oregon. I won't get into my whole ballot (yet), but I will say that I voted Biden/Harris for president/vp. I'm not enthusiastic about the choice, but I believe that's the ticket that will at least get us back to a point of balance. The current administration just isn't effective. We don't need a political reality show, we need actual leadership. My hope is that (as I've said before) we can right the ship to get to the point where, in 4 years or so, we can start revamping things to make some real POSITIVE changes in our society; where equality and equity are obtainable goals. I'll say it over and over, but I'm no Democrat and I'm no Republican. I'm always and forever Unaffiliated politically. So when I say this is my unbiased choice, believe that. Biden/Harris is my unbiased choice, and I encourage people to make what I view as the most sensible choice to get us out of this mess that has been the last 4 years.
(Note: I only vote in Oregon. I don't vote, or live, in any other state. I have not left Oregon in 10 years, except to go to math conferences in Washington and California. I have not submitted a ballot in any other state during that time, and I have never knowingly given consent to another party to vote in my name (or to do anything else in my name, for that matter).)
Update (22 Oct.): Even though I voted already, I watched the second debate. Kind of. I had it on, but I was mostly doing Ordinary Differential Equations practice problems. I liked that there weren't as many interruptions for the most part. The muted mics were a nice touch. But honestly...it still felt like two out of touch old men arguing over who should get the last bowl of prunes from the dessert cart at a luxury retirement home. Both candidates did their "I'm selling you a dream" schtick, and their "The other guy says he'll sell you a dream, but it's really going to be a nightmare" schtick. Biden was at least somewhat more realistic. I agreed with his take on phasing out fossil fuel industries and replacing them with renewable energy industries, but his timeline was totally unrealistic. The technology just isn't there to phase the entire fossil fuel industry out in the next two or 3 decades. You can only do as much as technology allows. If he had said "We'll be investing more into renewable resource energy research and development to speed up the time line", I would have said "Ok, that tracks.". He wasn't as over-the-top unrealistic as, say, AOC, but...his timeline just isn't realistic.
I mostly agreed with Trump's take on minimum wage, but then he got into "states should set their own minimum wage" rhetoric, which doesn't make sense. You have to have a Federally set minimum wage, but it can't be $15/hr (almost double the current Federal minimum). Set the Federal minimum wage to like $9/hr. States that want a minimum wage that's higher can do what they're doing now and set their minimum wages higher. States that have lower minimum wages won't have their whole economies thrown out of whack by a minimum wag almost double what it is now.
I thought both sounded like they were trying to skirt actually addressing the issue of race and/or immigration whenever those issues came up, but between the two Biden was the.....sigh....lesser of two evils. I guess I prefer "out of touch" to "outright lying and outright evil".
Biden actually made sense with his COVID/healthcare stances while Trump just kind of blew hot air and lied. And he lied A LOT.
I dunno... 3 November is going to be whatever it's going to be. I really hope Biden wins because Trump just can't think beyond his petty emotions and rhetoric, and he keeps treating policy like it's a business deal (it's not). He has no diplomacy.. He lacks foresight. The only things he's sown in his time in office is mass fear, mass hatred, and mass hysteria.
We don't need 4 more years of someone who has already cemented their place as "worst president in history".
That's all. That's all I have to say about the election until it's over.
Vote responsibly, vote honestly, and please take this seriously. Don't write in mentally ill celebrities. There's already one on the ballot (and currently in office), if that's your taste.
I will add: I almost-ALMOST voted for Alek Skarlatos for Congress. I liked a lot of what he was saying, but then I checked out his website and he was....errrr...pole-jocking Trump a little too hard for my tastes. If he had kept his distance from Trump, and ran more of a "rogue Republican who won't be pushed around by the bully president" campaign, he would have had my vote. I honestly think, if he does well (win or lose) in this race, he'll rise in the Republican ranks really quick. I'll be genuinely shocked if DeFazio doesn't win, but if Skarlatos keeps the race within single digit percentage points... I wouldn't be surprised to see the GOP start floating his name as a potential 2024 VP candidate. He's got the hero thing going for him, he looks like the kind of guy who delivers meals to senior citizens after football practice, and all-in-all he's pretty moderate. Basically, he's the type of guy Middle America raises their kids to be. And he's very young. He's one to watch, IMO (I say that in an objective, observational way...not as an endorsement).
Update 26 Oct.: Somewhat related to the elections.... I'm really disappointed in the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Not only do I feel she's unqualified for the position, I feel that the nomination should have been held until after the election. In a weird way, I don't even blame the Republicans for taking advantage of the situation at hand. I kind of blame Ruth Bader Ginsburg. While I appreciated her voice on the court, I felt (and feel) like she should have stepped down while Obama was in office to ensure the Supreme Court was more balanced in it's political leanings. In 2009 she had her second cancer diagnosis and was in her early 80's. To me, that's when you start looking at retiring from such an important position. I feel like there was some ego/hubris at play there, and she preferred to gamble with the balance of the Supreme Court rather than ensure balance. I know that's an opinion that's not going to be very popular with the Cult of RBG, but.... let's be honest... objectively, you don't say "I'm in my 80's and I've had cancer twice... I'm pretty sure I'll definitely be able to hold a high-stress, high level job that affects the lives of hundreds of millions of people for at least 11 or 12 more years!". To me, that's when you say "Ok, it's time to think about a future after me, and what's best for the hundreds of millions of people that I serve". The USA is now stacked with conservative (if not ultra-conservative) judges, at every level, with a 6 to 3 conservative majority in its highest court. I don't know...I just personally feel that some (but not all) of that is on RBG and her unwillingness to step down when the perfect situation to retain balance was right there. If, say, Roe Vs. Wade gets overturned.... it's not going to mean much to say "But hey, at least RBG stuck it out 'til the very end, even though she could have stepped down earlier to ensure this didn't happen!".
Update 30 Oct.: Somewhat related to the above update, seeing what's happening in Poland, with the large scale protests of their outright ban of abortion, I think the US courts would be wise to keep their hands off of abortion. Imagine how much more intense the protesting would be here. Also, with the continued (and possibly intensifying) BLM protests, US judges should be looking to include racial justice in the Justice System. No matter who wins, these things should be priorities for the legal system at every level.
UPDATE 4 Nov: I'm still not commenting on the presidential election, since it's not decided yet. BUT... I will say a few things about decided races/ballot measures (mostly ballot measures). First, I was glad t see recreational marijuana laws get passed. Marijuana is more benign than alcohol, in terms of intoxicants. Making it recreational creates jobs, increases tax revenue, and it means we don't have to waste money and space locking people up for something that's not worth the trouble of enforcement in the first place. From what I understand, producing marijuana actually has lower impact on the environment that producing alcohol, too. So there's that. Related, I was glad to see Oregon decriminalize small amounts of all substances. A gram of dope or coke or whatever isn't worth the time of law enforcement. Anti-narcotic law enforcement should be focused on high level producers and traffickers only.
I'll be honest...I voted against the tobacco tax increase. It was my only "protest vote" of this election. It didn't have anything to do with the fact that I, myself, am a smoker. I was just disappointed because...it's just sort of a stupid thing to tax. People are smoking less and less year by year. And that was before the tax. In terms of revenue generated by this tax, the best case scenario is that revenue decreases slowly. More than likely, though, the tax generated revenue will decrease sharply enough where the revenue will have a negligible impact on state income. That's what I was protesting: the waste of time (and campaign money) on an essentially worthless tax. Considering this is Oregon, Land of Booze, a more effective tax would have been an increase in taxation for ALL legal vices (including alcohol). I get the line of thinking that this will get people to quit smoking (even though it won't), but that's not the point of taxes. Taxation is about funding the state, not manipulating peoples' behaviour. The manipulation of peoples' behaviour (for better or worse) is the business of religion and special interest groups, not the state.
I was glad to see medical psilocybin was legalized. I think there's a lot of good that can be obtained from psilocybin therapy. I make no attempt to hide the sexual, physical, psychological, and economic abuse I experienced for most of my life, as well as the resultant PTSD I have to live with because of those abuses. I'll also say that I've taken psilocybin twice. One time I took it and was thinking about things I was told about myself by the people who raised me (e.g.; that I was stupid, evil, lazy), and I stared at myself in the mirror for a long while and decided "I like myself. I'm a good person who tries to do the best I can for myself and for the people around me". It was a real breakthrough for me. In the future, when I was confronted by the people who raised me yelling stuff like "You hate yourself! You're evil!" to me, I would look back to that revelation I had when I was on psilocybin, and I was able to (at one point or another) say "No, they're wrong. I'm a good person. I like myself". Honestly, I haven't touched psilocybin since the last time I took it, which was about 15 or 16 years ago. I don't have the desire to take it again. But my experience with it was positive, in the sense that it had a long term positive impact on my mental health. I think proper regulation and proper medical/psychological guidance during use can help others obtain similar results to mine. Like anything, including religion, psilocybin can (and will) be abused. But I personally believe, via my personal experience, that the benefits of psilocybin therapy far outweigh the drawbacks.
To conclude this update, I do have two confessions to make regarding my ballot: 1) I forget what position it was for, but one of the local offices had no candidate listed and only offered a write-in choice, so I wrote in Louis Farrakhan* because the thought of Farrakhan working in the Philomath government was too funny to me, and 2) I wrote in Jamaican musical artists Sizzla Kalonji and Capleton for the city council. Other than those votes, I took this ballot very seriously. Anyway, I'll update more as the final tallies are reported.
Update 7 Nov: It looks like Biden won the presidential election. Which I'm (relatively) happy about. I'll write more on that later. But for now.... I just want to say this: STOP CELEBRATING IN THE STREETS IN LARGE CROWDS!!! There's still a whole pandemic going on. A lot of people (myself included) voted for Biden because of Trump's handling of this whole COVID mess, and now I'm seeing people all over the country (mostly in major metropolitan areas) crowding together to celebrate. These are the same people who spout "Believe science!". Ok. Believe science and celebrate in your fucking homes, not in the streets with thousands of other people in close proximity. Don't be stupid. America didn't gain herd-immunity by Biden becoming president-elect. If you voted for Biden because you wanted a responsible president, practice what you preach and be responsible yourself. Don't hold impromptu super-spreader events just days after you lambasted Trump for holding super-spreader events. JFC.....
Update, 7 Nov (later):
Ok… I’m ready to move past the blatant disregard of scientific-based “COVID common sense” by people who chose to let temporary euphoria cloud their judgement. If I need to discuss it any more, I’ll talk about it in the actual COVID post.
Anyway... I’ve processed the Biden/Harris win. I’m good with it. I did, in fact, vote for them, so obviously I’m good with it. I’m not particularly excited, but I’m happy. In my head, I’m still worried the outcome will be somehow overturned…but ALL the news sources are calling Biden “President-elect”, so I’m just going to assume he’s the next president.
I think the thing I’m happiest about is that there’s a woman in the White House. It’s ridiculous that it took so long, considering that women make up the majority (like, the ACTUAL >50% majority, not a plurality) of the country’s population. Representation matters, and it’s insane to think the majority of the population wasn’t being represented in at least one of the two top positions in our country. I still would have preferred to see Harris/Warren in the White House but…(shut up, Jonathan). I obviously can’t predict the future, so I don’t know how this administration will be remembered by history, but I believe that this one barrier-breaking achievement can’t be tarnished by any possible flaws or failures of the incoming administration.
I also think it’s obviously a good thing that Trump’s gone. He was a trash president. He never (remotely) grasped the fact that diplomacy isn’t the same thing as a business deal you’re trying to win. The best deal you can get internationally is “net zero”. That’s what keeps the peace. It’s not about defeating the competition in the modern, globalized world. It’s about co-operation towards mutual success for the sake of peace. For example, while it’s true that our country was spending more than other countries on the Paris Accord…. that’s what happens when you’re the richest country in the world: you expect to spend more in a collective effort to address a global-level problem. Sure, you can negotiate within reason, but you don’t just walk away from a global collective addressing an existential global crisis because you’re mad about the price tag. Especially when that global collective consists of every other country in the world. Actually, that move doesn’t make sense in either the “business deal” context or the “diplomacy” context. And we won’t even get into the mess he’s made of our Domestic situation.
I feel like Biden’s familiarity with most of the world leaders will be good for mending fences on the international level. I’m not so sure he’ll be as effective with our Domestic situation. I think the actual handling of the Domestic situation will be where Harris will be effective. I think she’ll go all-in on the big issues. And with her legal background, I kind of expect her to take a more long-term approach to issues she faces down. For example, I would see her as addressing the vetting process for police as opposed to focusing on the more street-level issues regarding racially-biased policing. Basically, I think she’ll be remembered as someone who laid down the ground work for a lot of social progress that will be achieved more tangibly in a generation or two. I also think, in the more-near future, she might not be held in so high regard by some because laying the ground work for progress doesn’t look the same to the people who are on the ground while the works being done. To the people who experience racism at the hands of racist police…. I don’t think they’ll feel like any problems are being solved, much les addressed. That’s just the sad truth of how large of an overhaul our justice/law enforcement system needs.
All in all, I don’t expect much from this administration beyond righting our ship in the International waters and to lay some ground work for future progress on the domestic front. Just to do that…to get us back to Pre-Trump normalcy… it’s going to take 4 years, if not 8. And it’s not going to look like much in terms of day-to-day problems. To us “every day, normal people”, we’re still going to see a lot of the same intolerance/discrimination issues, health care issues, economic disparity issues, etc. that we’ve been seeing since…well, since what we call civilized society first began.
For now, I feel we should let ourselves be content with that…. but I also feel that this definitely isn’t the time to confuse contentment with complacency. For example, with racial justice issues, this is the time to step up even harder. A lot of people are going to jump off the BLM bandwagon now that Trump’s gone, because they have short memories and erroneously believe that we were post-racial under Obama. The familiarity of a face from “the good ol’ days” will make them content, and it will be enough to comfort them into complacency. But while the BLM movement is going to have less voices, it also has an administration that will (hopefully) be more receptive, and also more willing to put in the actual work. So right now is the time to start adjusting the methods to include a more aggressive push from the legal/political sector. The protests in the streets are still going to happen, but they’re going to lose some size and volume. (Honestly, I’m really interested to see how much longer the Portland protest will keep the same energy and size. To me, a lot of the protests around the country were starting to feel more “Anti-Trump” than “Pro-Black Lives”. I hope I’m wrong, but I think watching public interest in Pro-Black Lives protests flame out time and time again has made me the “jaded skeptic” stereotype.) I also hope the #MeToo movement (which also kind of flamed out recently) can get its legs back. Harvey Weinstein's guilty verdict wasn't the end of sexual abuse. That's still a very real crisis.
Anyway, I’m trying to be positive. I hope everyone keeps fighting for equality and justice. Peace.
*I think this would be a good time to reiterate that, by and large, I don't agree with Farrakhan. I think he's occasionally correct on issues of race relations, and I think his forcefulness on those issues is necessary in the face of opposing forceful figures. By and large, I just don't get behind the NOI philosophy. I know I claim a certain amount of loyalty to the NGE/5%er philosophy, which has significant overlap with the NOI philosophy, but even there...I kind of pick and choose my truths. That's why I usually point out that I'm not technically a 5%er, but I hold to a lot of the beliefs. For instance, I certainly don't believe in the literal interpretation of the Yakub myth. But I do think, taken as a metaphor/parable, it works as a meditation on the fact that racism isn't a natural phenomenon. Racism has to be taught/learned. To me, the myth, taken as a parable/metaphor, basically says "As people moved to the corners of the Earth, and their phenotypical features changed, people forgot that we were all from Africa and we all shared a common ancestor. At some point, certain people started teaching others that their phenotypical adaptations actually made them superiour to other people.". That's all I take away from the Yakub myth.
As to Farrakhan himself... I think it's wise to remember the era he came up in (he IS almost 90 years old, after all). To me, anyway, it's obvious that he comes from the "theatrical preacher" school of...well, preaching. I feel like he says things to push buttons because it gets attention. It's a classic case of "get people's attention with the wild stuff, and while you have their attention you introduce them to the more reasonable stuff". To me, though, it sometimes feels like Farrakhan is kind of restricting himself to the wild stuff at the expense of the more reasonable elements of the NOI philosophy (which were, at least originally, health, education, and freedom from oppression). Anyway, I've written more about my feelings on the NOI and Farrakhan in other posts on this website. I just thought it was worth giving the Cliff's Notes version of my feelings here..