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  1. I did not watch the debate. I was planning to, but The Other Half had had a ridiculously long day full of work stress so he went to bed. 
     
    I have yet to read the recaps, I’m kind of dreading them, but I awoke to a screaming headline/news alert on my phone: Biden to Trump: Shut Up! Sadly that was missing from the bingo card you posted but in retrospect should have been so obvious. Joe Biden: He Speaks For America.

  3. …I didn’t intend to watch…but I did for reasons that currently escape me?

    …it seemed like less of a debate than a spat to begin with but I think even the alleged president realized after the first section that his attempt to speak over literally every word his opponent uttered wasn’t making him look as good as he imagined it would?

    …telling the proud boys to “stand back & stand by” (explicitly NOT to stand down whatever any bullshit artists might be claiming today) when asked to denounce white supremacists & choosing to request that his supporters police the polling stations on the day when asked to call on his supporters not to kick off between polling day & a declared result were definitely examples of egregious bullshit that were to dog whistles what an avalanche is to a snowball fight

    …but all in all it’s hard to see how it did him any favors with anyone who wasn’t going to vote for him already…let alone anyone who wanted to know what he’d actually do if he got back in…besides hide from a raft of prosecutions, obviously

    …at one point he even tried to make out that his latest Supreme Court pick had nothing to do with Roe vs. Wade…which there was nothing being planned about…& that Joe couldn’t possibly know her position on the matter

    …honestly, I could buy that he’s dumb enough to not be able to have figured that shit out for himself because he sure as shit didn’t seem to know what the fuck he was talking about at any point…but when Biden called him a clown or said the childish display of petulance & inability to let anyone else speak was “so unpresidential” I admit it did actually come off as surprisingly endearing

    …& when the whole thing drew to an unceremonious conclusion & Biden broke into a massive grin while the suit full of flop sweat he’d been “debating” had a face like a smacked arse…it did feel like it’d be hard to claim Joe hadn’t “won” the thing?

    …so obviously pretty much instantly a bunch of people about as smart as Don Jr proceeded to claim exactly that

    …basically your man CleverNameHere may never have been more right than when he suggested not watching the thing

    …which is why I wasn’t planning to…so disappointed as I was with the debate…I think I’m more disappointed in myself for watching the thing?

      • …you did…& you made such a good case I swear I was going to follow your sage advice

        …but once I’d made the mistake of glancing at a feed (I swear I was looking to read something else & accidentally hit a live stream) it was morbidly compelling…like trying to look away from a car crash that took an hour an a half 

        …amidst it all there were a few telling moments, to be fair…but they seemed superfluous when literally everything the fast food “president” said & did was some variation of telling on himself…& now I feel a bit like this guy?

            • Someone in the thread noted that, apparently in the longer interview clip, the man says, “Same time tomorrow then?”
              😆😂🤣
              I REALLY hope everyone ended up ok, annnnd the SHIT that man has likely been through, to be that blasé about flying cars!😳😬…
              but the fact that there was *another one* MID-INTERVIEW is simply wild!🤣

    • Bless you for your service. I watched it for approximately 5 minutes. It was clear to me that Trump was massively wired up on Adderall. Apparently his debate preparation was purely pharmaceutical. He literally couldn’t shut his mouth — he was jagging from one “thought” to another and free-associating complete nonsense. 
       
      That said, his fans will say he “dominated” Biden, even though literally not one word made any sense at all. 

      • …actually that tracks pretty well…he got slower & sweatier as the thing ran on…& although he kept on running off at the mouth he really couldn’t keep up the unintelligible pace he kicked things off with

        …I’m hoping that someone better at such things than myself is out there compiling a montage of Biden’s dismissive asides, though

        “keep yapping, man”
        “it’s hard to get a word in with this clown”
        “it is what it is because you are who you are”
        “you’re the worst president America has ever had – you know that”

        …& so on & so forth…honestly, I lost count

      • Well one thing that made it worth watching and I don’t know how many people caught it was at the very end when Trump stepped around the podium swinging his right leg like he was sweeping the grass for frogs to sell to the bait shop.

        • …heh…I missed that…I think the feed I was looking at skipped straight to his dipshit son talking utter shite instead

          …while trying to claim his daddy actually said the proud boys should stand down & getting the actual quote shoved in his face he said “maybe that was a misspeak”

          …because the apple don’t fall far from the tree

  8. I did not watch it, but looking at the writeups I have a few thoughts.
     
    The press desperately wants a horserace and they are covering it like a bothsides disaster. They’re screwing it up possibly even worse than all of their “Trump law and order rebound” takes.
     
    What they are missing is that a significant majority of Americans are absolutely sick of Trump and the GOP. I don’t want to jinx anything and I will add the obligatory Trump can still win, especially by cheating or luck.
     
    But all Trump did last night was drive another nail in his coffin by reinforcing how bad he stinks. People are having a visceral reaction to him and the GOP that goes beyond positions and all of the things pundits fixate on. He only added to that feeling.
     
    And he shot himself in the foot by insisting that the only issue was saying Biden is a withered husk. People have proof Biden is able to stand up for himself and stand for something. And a big majority have given up on getting any relief from Trump and the GOP.
     
    The press can’t admit this. They literally cannot function if they admit what has happened with Trump and the GOP. They’re desperately scrambling to find a diner in Ohio where the smell hasn’t seeped in.

    • Yeah, this is very akin to my take: He has a record now and he can’t just wave his hands and take every side on everything and then insult a woman and people are like “Hmm, maybe.”

      Feels like most people are pretty worn out by his act, but he’s basically Gallagher screaming “OH YEAH?!” as he brings out two watermelons to get smashed.

  9. I actually watched the entire thing with my daughters.  I couldn’t have made it through without them but thought it was important to explain some of the points to them.  They mostly laughed at how bad Trump behaved and we all yelled “shut up” at the tv.  Biden should not debate him again unless a mute button is used.  Biden did okay but you could tell he was frustrated with Trump just shouting random insults and not letting him answer questions.  My youngest almost completed her bingo card but needed Biden to knock off Trumps toupee.   My oldest just followed along on social media reading off the best comments of other viewers her age.  Biggest takeaway, Trump is no longer trying to get voters, he just wants everyone to know the election is rigged and he has already won.

  10. Like an idiot, I watched the whole thing.
     
    I think the thing that strikes me is that Trump had one big shot to finally claw back some voters, and he just…didn’t. I really think he’s thinking they’re about to steal the election, and therefore trying to appear presidential is pointless.
     
    His whole strategy was to badger Biden into making some sort of dementia ridden gaffe, but Joe was…fine. And that’s the thing; there’s a lot of Americans willing to vote for fine. Biden didn’t really have to do anything. He got a pass for showing up and being mostly able to appear like a functional, non-crazed human being. Biden’s relative lack of charisma actually helped him look sedate compared to the rage driven rantings of a President who can feel the walls closing in.
     
    The other thing this was a reminder of is just how flat all the various Fox News and OAN talking points fall with people who aren’t Always Online. My wife just kept watching I’m bewilderment as Trump kept yelling about antifa and Hunter Biden (and one of Joe’s best moments was defending Hunter’s former drug problem) and “the far left”.
     
    Like, no one gives a shit about “the far left” except Republicans. Trump’s attacks were fruitless. He had his one shot, and if Biden pulled out of the other debates, I don’t think many people would blame him.

      • …I don’t know…I mean, I get the argument & I agree there seems little value in letting him froth at the mouth for another hour & a half

        …but as I understand it the next time the two of them are due to show up in front of the same crowd it’s a “town hall” deal…& if last night is anything to go by that leaves fuckface von clownstick (damn I miss jon stewart) either treating his immediate audience the same way he did those watching last night’s debate…which I gotta think would hurt him…or shit out of moves

        …while biden would get to demonstrate that he can talk to people like they’re people & actually engage with a question by delivering a relevant response

        …so I guess that seems like it might not be a complete waste of time…not sure about the third one, though…that seems more like a “let’s don’t & say we did” kind of a deal?

        • There’s also an argument to made that giving Trump and opportunity to re-compose himself and look almost sorta president wouldn’t help Biden.
           
          Trump’s biggest problem right now is his inability to get on a national platform and turn the page. Let the last image of Trump speaking to a national audience be him losing his goddamn mind and try to bully everyone. Trump (arguably) behaves better in front of a crowd. That doesn’t help Biden at all.
           
          Let Harris chokeslam Mike Pence in the VP debate, and then call the rest off. The last thing we need is Trump getting more airtime to spew more lies that might eventually stick.

          • …yeah…that was where I ended up on the fence, really

            …I do buy that being a sound argument…I just suspect that in the yet more terrifying reality where my opinion on the subject carried weight with the folks deciding that kind of stuff I’d be prepared to roll the dice on the town hall thing

            …I’d need some assurances that the crowd wasn’t wall-to-wall Qanon/MAGA lunatics & that only the person supposed to be responding would have their mic be live at any one time before I felt confident that it wasn’t the wrong call…but mainly it just seems to me like Biden had something left in the tank & his opponent is running on fumes…more or less literally

            …you may well have the right of it, though

          • You’re back! Glad to see you posting again. 
            Not that it means much in the grand scheme, but I have missed your infrequent rants trying to explain why everything sucks. Though given *gestures vaguely at everything* is a total disaster, I do not blame you for taking some time for self care. 

            • Got a new position at work that leaves me slightly less time to dick around on the internet, and shit is already mad stressful without *gestures at everything* all of this.
               
              I’m cooking a few idea to write about, though I don’t know when they’ll ultimately escape my brain and wind up on DeadSplinter.

  12. My wife watched 10 minutes of the debate and then gave up.
     
    I stayed in the garage, cranked the stereo (that I have in the garage!) drank a bottle of wine, and continued my bike building project. 
     
    I clearly won.

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