Re-elect President Trump

Pomposity alert: In this post, I give my reasons for having voted for President Trump, and will urge others to do the same. You have permission to stop reading right now, and say, "Who cares what some retired Foreign Service weenie has to say?" Go ahead, say it. I even will refund every cent you have spent on this blog . . .

As noted many times, I voted for Donald Trump in 2016, although I did not initially see him as my preferred GOP candidate. The more, however, I listened to him, and not to what others said about him or said that he had said, the more I realized that this New Yorker seemed exactly what the doctor had ordered for what ailed America and the West. I soon found that he was not a buffoon, not a racist, not a xenophobe, and certainly not into gaining the presidency to get money and fame. It, of course, helped my decision to vote for Trump that he ran against somebody, Hillary Clinton, of whom I had some direct knowledge thanks to my old job at State. While at Foggy Bottom, I came to realize that she was a total, let us say a compleat fraud and crook. Hillary Clinton ranked among the most insincere persons I ever encountered: a disgusting self-absorbed character out to make herself and her corrupt family rich and powerful at the public expense. 

Donald Trump, on the other hand seemed, as noted, to have no personal material incentive to become President--he already had plenty of wealth and fame. More important, his message of "America First," hit me as one I had argued for, ineffectively I might add, during my many years at State; the bureaucracy seemed more interested in having good relations with foreigners by giving them what they want, i.e., providing "deliverables." Above all the bureaucracy opposed change. I, for example, saw the State bureaucracy's resistance to Ronald Reagan's drive to bring down the USSR. So when Donald Trump spoke of the "Deep State Swamp," I knew exactly what he meant. It is a real thing which threatens democracy and the pursuit of American interests.

On domestic issues, I felt a frustration bordering on anger with the facile manner in which our political-bureaucratic-Wall Street class (Democrats and Republicans) casually shipped away America's manufacturing base, lecturing us all the while on "free trade," and how we all gain by buying products from China and Mexico instead of making them here. It never made sense to me; I kept saying, "In that case why don't we buy our military systems from China, too?" These same elites told us we would benefit from millions of poor, uneducated, and often violent Third World aliens pouring into our country because they not only brought new ways of doing things, but, above all, they brought "diversity" to our society, something hailed as good in and of itself--no further explanation needed. We were told that "Islam is a religion of peace," while jihadis rampaged through the streets of the world murdering and destroying. 

This same elite's obsession, fake of course, with "Climate Change" also always seemed to translate into suffering for America's middle class and blue collar workers--big promoters of this Man Made Climate Change nonsense such as Gore and Obama have become quite wealthy and have lavish homes on the coasts, the very coasts the rest of us must avoid because of "rising sea levels." In the atrocious Paris Climate Accord, we agreed to destroy our coal industry while allowing those of China and India to prosper. Made no sense to me why Chinese coal would prove better for Gaia than American coal. The efforts to stop the building of oil pipelines and refineries, destroy fracking and our energy independence, and to impose ever higher "gas guzzler" taxes and automobile MPG requirements, all meant more suffering for the middle class and those aspiring to enter it, and put our national security at risk.

There are endless examples of this sort of elite diktat, one more being of course the hypocritical stance on gun "control": the uber-rich have guards and walls, the rest have 9-1-1, you know, "When seconds count, help is minutes away."

Trump spoke openly about all this. The reaction from the elites proved fierce. We have discussed all that at some length in numerous prior posts, and won't repeat it here.

So I have stuck with Trump for 2020. Simply put, he is the most honest and effective major American political figure I have found in my lifetime. He, above all, seems genuinely to love this country and its people: that, of course, should serve as a basic requirement for anybody aspiring to high office, but, alas, it is not--and, yes, indeed, I do question the patriotism of people such as Obama, Biden, Kerry, Omar, Harris, Sanders, etc. 

President Trump does what he says he will do. 

Bush, Clinton, Obama, Biden, Romney, et al, accepted, and profited from, the disappearance of American manufacturing. Obama, famously told us, no "magic wand" will bring back those jobs; McCain agreed, saying those jobs had gone forever. Trump did not agree, and acted to prove it. We have seen the rebirth of American manufacturing thanks to the actions undertaken by Trump in taking on the destructive "trade deals" of the past 30 or so years, his reform of our tax code, cutting crippling regulations, and in his insistence that America achieve energy independence, which has happened. That alone should earn Trump the vote of every American worker. 

Trump questioned, as noted in prior postings (here, for example), the assumptions that undergird American foreign policy since WWII. While at the same time confronting China, avoiding nuclear conflict with North Korea, destroying ISIS, and boxing in Iran, he has begun the process of disentangling us from pointless wars, and from seeking overly complex and unattainable solutions to long-standing problems. He has shown an ability to cut through the nonsense and focus on the real, e.g. in the Middle East. He has rebuilt the US military, suffering from severe neglect over the previous eight years.

Trump's opponent? Former VP Joe Biden, a semi-gaga crook of the old corruptocrat school, has been a fabulist, a fraud, and a hoaxer his whole political life; he now serves as the Trojan horse for a gaggle of leftists out to destroy America--AND YES, in fact, I do question his patriotism and that of his enablers. Biden and his family have become wealthy laundering money from China, Russia, Ukraine, etc. Biden is hopelessly compromised; his backers know it, and that includes the corrupt mass media running interference for him. They, of course, have no intention of letting him be the real President, as we have discussed many times before. 

Trump 2020.

2020: The Most important Election in US History?

Just for fun, let's see how many US history nerds reside out there among the five or six readers of this little blog. Aussies are welcome to chime in.

We hear from both sides in the current electoral campaign that the election next week will prove the most important in US history. Do we all agree? Any dissidents out there who want to risk getting shut down by the media moguls?

Allow me to lay out some thoughts on the topic. 

We do have a stark choice unlike any I have seen in my life (born in 1952). Yes, the elections of 1972 and 1980 also had some sharp distinctions between the two major candidates and between the party platforms, but nothing like what we see today. Agree or no? 

I see, therefore, the 2020 election as the most important in my lifetime, barely ahead of the 2016 election when we managed to avoid electing one of the most corrupt politicians around. That Hillary corruption, however, pales next to what we see coming out about the Biden Crime family. We have a doddering only semi-lucid presidential candidate in the pocket of the Chinese Communist party, AND beholden to a number of other foreign corruptocrats, as well. Really quite extraordinary. The only thing one can say in his "favor" is that if he wins, he won't hold office long. Little time will pass before either nature or the radical leftists who surround him, and want to turn America into a giant version of Venezuela, force him out. So, therefore, this election is DEFINITELY an important one.

Looking back over US history one can find other elections which were major inflection points.  

You might argue that the Andrew Jackson elections of 1828 and 1832 would qualify. If so, argue that! 

Certainly the elections of 1940 and 1944 proved historically very important. How would WWII have turned out if FDR were ousted? 

For my money, the two most important elections in our history, at least up to now, were those of 1860 and 1864--not sure which would be number one. The first, of course, saw the election of Lincoln to the White House and served to spark the Civil War. The second saw Lincoln re-elected in the midst of that war at a time when war fatigue was serious; the public had begun to doubt that the war was worth it or that the Union would prevail. His opponent, of course, wanted to reach a deal with the CSA, and end the war by splitting the USA into two countries. Arguably only word of major victories by Grant and Sherman in that year saved the Lincoln presidency by making victory look attainable, and saving the Union.

Let fly! Show no mercy!

At a Pence Rally & the Horrific Corruption of Joe Biden

Rally

The Diplowife convinced me to do it, to go to a political rally. I have been to dozens of political rallies while overseas, in places such as Spain, Guyana, Pakistan, India, Guatemala, Bolivia, Panama, Sri Lanka, Indonesia. I had never been to one in the USA. The Diplowife read that VP Pence was coming to little ol' Wilmington, and insisted that we register for it and go. So yesterday afternoon, we climbed into the ever-faithful Jeep Wrangler, put on our long-hidden red "Trump 2020" baseball caps, and headed for the rally's venue at Wilmington's small but very pretty airport. We were joined by a couple thousand very enthusiastic and good-natured Trumpers; quite ethnically diverse, by the way, giving the lie to much of the Dem narrative that Trumpers are white racist "chumps." Security was tight. Lots of very large police, sheriff's deputies, and uniformed Secret Service. I noticed sniper teams located on top of trailers. There was good rapport between the cops and the crowd, many of whom wore "Back the Blue" pins. 

We arrived early and got seats close to the front; then we waited nearly three hours for the VP.  During those hours, we were "entertained" by extremely loud music blaring from giant speakers just a few feet away from where we sat. I don't like loud music, never have, and thought the selection kinda strange: patriotic country themed songs (good), some Chuck Berry (always welcome), and then some weirdness from Elton John and other odd-balls--I wonder if the people picking the music actually listened to the words of some of the songs. Oh well. Just an old guy complaining. As the VP's arrival grew imminent, we were led by a retired Navy Captain in the "Pledge of Allegiance"--the version with God included--and then a young lady sang a touching a cappella rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner"--gets me every time. We also heard from our local Congressman, an impressive fellow by the name of David Rouzer, and Senator Thom Tillis, who is in a tough re-election campaign against the ethically-challenged Cal Cunningham.

The arrival of Air Force 2 was greeted by a thunderous reception from the crowd, which had grown in size and noisiness. Look, I had never paid much attention to Pence, BUT, since his debate performance against the execrable Kamala Harris, I had begun to focus more on him. Although this was his third rally of the day, he ran, yes, ran, from the plane and jumped up on the stage. The guy's obviously in good shape. He is, in fact, also a very good speaker. He had a sense of humor, knew how to tailor his remarks to the local audience, and gave a very solid and uplifting defense of the Trump/Pence four years. He savaged the radical Dems, and got the crowd to its feet, and wildly cheering on several occasions. Cynical, old guy me was impressed. Pence would make a very good President. He spoke for about an hour and then dashed back to his waiting plane. The audience was pleased. More important, the Diplowife, too, was pleased; as we left the rally, she kept muttering "Trump has got to win."

We retrieved our Jeep from the muddy field where we had parked, and slowly inched our way out to the streets of Wilmington, and home to our waiting and by now quite hungry dogs. A successful venture into American politics. 

Joe's Corruption

We got home just in time to flip on the Tucker Carlson interview of Tony Bobulinski, the Biden family's old business partner. 

You have to watch it. See it before the media-industrial complex has the interview taken down. 

It is clear from the interview that Joe Biden, while Vice President of the United States, was DIRECTLY involved in the shady deals being made by his drug-addled, pedo son, Hunter. 

Mr. Bobulinski, a former Naval officer, called out the media and the Dems, especially the horrid little liar Adam Schiff, for trying to dismiss the scandal of Biden's corruption as just another "Russian disinformation" plot. He's got the goods on the Bidens: documents galore, and even a tape of Biden's representative trying to talk Bobulinski out of going public, "You're going to bury all of us." 

Bobulinski, for example, gave the exact date and place, Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel, where he met Joe Biden for the first time to discuss how the business with the Chinese would proceed. He made clear that Joe Biden was "the Big Guy" and the "Chairman" mentioned in some of Hunter's emails and texts. He challenged the Bidens to deny the meeting took place and to state openly that it's all a hoax. I was just saddened and appalled that we had such corruption at the top-most levels of our government. 

Watch the interview. Watch how the mainstream media is still trying to dismiss the growing pile of verified and easily verifiable evidence of Biden's massive corruption.

Trump's Foreign Policy

It seems we have two big topics that nobody cares about in this election cycle: deficit spending and foreign policy. 

In the past, those two topics would have featured highly in any electoral debate. 

Not now. 

On the debt/deficit topic since nobody knows what to do, everybody ignores it, and just keeps spending--and I mean both Dems and Reps. Measures to deal with the budget deficit and the national debt have zero, and I do mean ZERO, political support. I don't even see much rhetorical support for restraining spending--an occasional bleat from the Pauls, father and son, but that's about it. The recent way over-the-top and destructive reaction to the ChiCom "pandemic," of course, has brought that out quite clearly. Both sides compete to produce the biggest possible "stimulus" package so that the government can "stimulate" the economy which it needlessly shut down in the first place. The government creates the problem; the government seeks to resolve that problem, and, thus, creates more problems.That's how it happens, here and in every other country. Some day, a future generation will face the day of reckoning. But, not now: so party on! That's the extent of my sage comments on this topic. You want fiscal and economic wisdom, go somewhere else; I am not giving away the solution for free, you know. And I ain't leaving it on my laptop in any repair shop, either . . .

The other topic? 

Trump's foreign policy has succeeded so much that it has dropped off the public radar. I can't remember an election in which foreign policy played such an insignificant role. The successes have proven more than impressive, and, in no particular order, some are: rebuilding and strengthening NATO over the objections of NATO; destroying ISIS; establishing a cooperative relationship with both Brazil and Mexico; checking China; checking Russia; checking Iran; checking North Korea; rebuilding the alliance with Israel and the Arabs; reaffirming our support for Taiwan and Japan; renegotiating the idiotic NAFTA; pulling out of the idiotic Paris Climate Accord; killing the idiotic TPP accord. There are others, too, which I am sure the six readers of this inconsequential blog can list.

I can't recall another administration with this many foreign policy successes in such a short time. Trump's approach to foreign policy runs counter to the advice of the "experts" in the Deep State. He insists on keeping it simple--something which my old colleagues at State refused to do. His policy is based on American strength, economic and military, on common sense, and a keen understanding of American interests. America First is a real thing. Successful foreign policy begins at home, e.g., making clear we are no  longer going to be the intellectual property rights and economic piggy bank for China, or a dumping ground for illegal aliens from Latin America and elsewhere. He has restored the United States as a popular place to invest, and has brought factories, long thought lost, back home. Remarkable.

For the first time since roughly WWII, the United States is not only energy independent but a net exporter of energy. Who among the smart classes would have predicted that--I mean aside from this blog, of course? This energy independence has freed us from worrying about what energy policies might be followed by OPEC, Venezuela, the Arabs, Russia, etc. Energy independence gives us remarkable freedom of action on foreign policy. Energy blackmail is no longer an option for our adversaries.

Trump has avoided the easy interventionist attitude of past administrations, while at the same time he has rebuilt the US military into a genuinely awesome machine with which no sane adversary would want to tangle. Trump has shown that, when necessary, he will pull the trigger: ask the 200 Russian mercenaries in Syria annihilated by the US Marines; ask al Baghdadi; ask Soleimani--I mean, that is, if you can find enough of them to ask. He made clear to Kim il-Sung's chubby grandson that whatever nuclear capabilities North Korea might have, we have a lot more, "my button is bigger and it works." North Korea would be on the losing side of any military exchange with the US; Kim Jung-un seems to understand that. Trump, however, will not get us involved in weird little endless wars over issues marginal to our core interests. 

In the Middle East, Trump's achievements have been exceptional. He not only put an end to the idiotic issue of Israel's capital, he marginalized the hopelessly corrupt and double-dealing Palestinian Authority. No more money for them. He adopted a version of a policy I long advocated when I worked at State--to no avail--of active inaction: take the position that we already have a two-state formula for Palestine called Israel and Jordan. If those two want to create a third state, that's a matter for them. Not us. Meanwhile, of course, put the embassy in Jerusalem, drive home to the Arabs that their enemy is Iran, not Israel or the US, and that we are independent of Arab oil. So up to them to make the next move. And that's what is happening: we see Arab countries end their state of war with Israel, and establish economic and diplomatic relations with Israel--to the chagrin of John Kerry, Iran, Ilhan Omar, and the Palestinian crooks.

China now knows that while Trump holds the White House, the nature of the relationship changes. No wonder the Chinese have invested so heavily in recruiting the Biden family. China faces serious push-back around the world. Even Sweden agrees with Trump, for example, that there should not be Chinese involvement in developing 5G in Sweden, and that Chinese companies should not have access to Sweden's telecom infrastructure. We see Australia, India, and Japan strengthening their cooperation to counter China. There is renewed interest from several quarters in strengthening relations with Taiwan.

The bad state of affairs between the US and Russia is a needless problem. In my view, we could and should have better relations with Moscow. Yes, we all know that Russia can be sneaky and--horrors!--Russia pursues a "Russia First!" policy. We can deal with that. Trump has been partially crippled in dealing with Russia by the insane Russia collusion hoax promoted by his domestic enemies. It is tough to talk to Putin with shouts of "Collusion!" echoing across the American political landscape. Total insanity. Despite that destructive insanity from the Democrats, Trump has managed to check Russia--as noted above--and perhaps in a second term establish a more productive, less confrontational relationship with Moscow.

None of this seems to matter for the elections. Too bad. Trump has made the world a safer place.

The Final Debate: A Lot of Ink Left in the Well . . .

I won't bore you all TOO much with my thoughts on the debate, both what was said and what coulda/shoulda been said. You saw the debate and don't need some inconsequential blogger to tell you about it . . . but of course, I am going to . . . 

OK, who won? 

In ALMOST every part of the debate, Trump dominated. Biden got rattled, confused, and dumped a big ol' word salad on the stage that won't convince anybody to vote for him. 

The moderator, although better than Chris Wallace, still interjected herself into the discussion too much; she repeatedly stepped on President Trump's line of argument, in particular on his asking Biden questions, e.g., about the "laptop" from hell, who actually built the immigrant "cages," etc. In addition, of course, the topics came out of left field--literally--and meant to play to Biden's "strengths," as seen by the progressive media-industrial complex. She asked no questions, for example, on the Supreme Court, on additional states entering the Union, on foreign policy, on veterans, on the Second Amendment, on law-and-order, or on the amazing rebuilding of our military. No. It was the usual tired prog agenda of race, "climate change," and the poor dear illegal undocumented aliens, with some legitimate issues such as health care. 

Despite having the format and questions rigged against him, Trump managed to flip the debate discussion onto Biden's crooked dealings, and his disastrous energy policy and Covid recommendations. Poor ol' befuddled Joe even took a page from Bush, pater, and anxiously looked at his watch: "When will this end? I am running out of gas." Trump skillfully introduced the topic of Biden's sleaze as documented by his drug-addled son's laptop, and poor old Joe had no response, except "Russia! Russia!" Joe didn't even realize that his character and honesty had been savaged in front of millions of viewers, and resorted to his obviously previously scripted closing address on, wait for it, CHARACTER and HONESTY. The old buzzard had just been painted accurately as a monumental crook, and he ends up arguing that this is an election about character and honesty. Yep. Agreed. And Joe is on the losing side of that . . . .

Trump's greatest victory came by forcing the "big guy" both to disavow and reaffirm some of the most radical proposals in "his" agenda. He flipped and he flopped, right there on stage, Trump nailed him on the fracking question--Joe blatantly lied--and got Joe to make the devastating confession that he, in essence, would eliminate the American oil and gas industry. Wonder how that went over in Pennsylvania, Texas, Oklahoma, etc.? Trump also showed the Paris Climate Accord to be a pro-Chinese fraud, one which Joe kept vowing to return us to despite its horrid effects on our coal industry. 

Trump also handled the potentially loaded race topic well. He nailed Joe as the incarceration chief who locked up tens-of-thousands of mostly black men for non-violent crimes and called them "predators," which Biden dishonestly denied doing.  Trump laid out a pretty impressive record of his work on behalf of the black community. Biden had nothing except empty words; too bad Trump didn't hit him on Biden's past associations with avowed racists.

To be fair, Joe did OK on healthcare by lying quite effectively about his "Biden Care" plan. He couldn't, however, explain his previous defense of Obama Care, and why it now needs replacing by Biden Care.  Trump did not have great answers on this topic, and needs to sharpen those up. Joe was shown to have no plan on Covid except some blather about locking things up again. He also lied, yet again, about his initial opposition to Trump's shutting down travel from China.

It was Trump's night. 

Impact on the election? I don't know. So many people already have voted that the potential audience of converts is shrinking rapidly. That said, anybody truly undecided, or only weakly for one or the other candidate, might have been swayed to join the Trump Train.

Off to walk the dogs.

Biden: Democrat Party's "Cleanest Dirty Shirt"?

These are not good days for our Constitution and democracy. 

We now know with almost 100% certainty that Joe Biden, while Vice President of the United States, gave foreigners access to him via large payments to his drug-addled son and other members of his family. That access gained these foreigners the changes they apparently sought in US foreign policy. Along with SecState Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden probably ran the greatest pay-for-play scheme in our government's history. This Obama administration corruption took place on an historic scale. 

We know, for example, that Hillary Clinton, the Democrat candidate for President in 2016, cooked up the Trump-Putin collusion story, paid foreign operatives to produce a fake dossier outlining that "collusion," and then, with the support of the DNC-mass media complex, important corrupt Congressmen such as Adam Schiff, key DOJ personnel, the FBI and even a Special Prosecutor got the government to spend years "investigating" the fake story in an attempt to take down a legitimately elected President of the United States. 

We also know that the Clinton Foundation was a "pay for play" scheme, along with Bill Clinton's huge speech fees, which served to launder bribe money for the Clintons in exchange for access and lucrative contracts, e.g. mobile phone service in Haiti. The Clintons are proven masters at laundering bribes--look at the old Whitewater scandal, for example. I, my very own self, recall how we State Department types got dragged into "raising money for Haiti" following a major earthquake. Over at the OAS, we hosted a big meeting with wealthy Haitian-Americans--they do quite well as immigrants--and put the squeeze on them to pledge huge sums of money. None of us ever heard what happened with that and other moneys pledged for Haiti. I remember that State had a number of dueling offices ostensibly in charge of Haitian relief. Total confusion; nobody knew who had control, how much money existed or where it sat. All this ended with an announcement that Hillary's long-time aide and lawyer, Cheryl Mills, would take charge of Haitian relief. What happened next? Silence. Total mystery. 

It seems certain that Obama knew about this corruption by Biden and Clinton, and either kept silent or actively abetted it. Biden also played a role in the Russia collusion scandal by promoting the idea that incoming NSC head General Flynn should face prosecution and persecution for "contacts" with the Russian Ambassador. It, of course, proved a giant fraud, one that to this day continues to ripple through the media with continued references to the thoroughly debunked Trump-Russia collusion tale.

What now has become ever clearer is the massive scale of the corruption by the Biden family. Let us not forget that Biden, a life-long "public servant," has become a multi-millionaire. The info thus far released from the Hunter Biden laptop--which the FBI has had since at least last December--provides a look into how the scheme worked. Joe Biden was the Capo, while his brother and Hunter were the collectors. They took in huge sums from China, Ukraine, Romania, and elsewhere, maybe even from little Costa Rica. In exchange for large sums, they, for example, hooked up corrupt oligarchs with the VP. We know that Joe used his power as the point man on Ukraine to get the cash-strapped Ukrainian government to fire a pesky prosecutor looking into the corrupt Burisma energy company on whose board Hunter served for a huge salary. Joe has bragged openly about how he bullied the Ukrainians into firing the prosecutor. It also seems from preliminary information that members of the John Kerry and the Mitt Romney clans took part in the great cash grab. Silence from the hopelessly corrupt FBI.

Rumors exist, and they might well prove true--I'll bet they are--that the laptop contains highly pornographic pictures and video of drug-freak Hunter Biden in action, including with underage girls, apparently while in China. If true, the Chinese intel services have this stuff, and the PRC has no reservations about using it to blackmail Hunter and Joe. This might help explain Obama's reluctance to push too hard for Biden's nomination, and his warning to Joe about running, "You don't have to do this."

The shameful attempt at a media blackout on the story is failing. With only two weeks left until the election, Biden has disappeared from the campaign trail. He does not plan to reappear until the Thursday debate, where, presumably, President Trump will press him on the scandal--leftist debate moderator not withstanding.

Think about it: Joe Biden was the best candidate the Dems had. To steal a line from Kris Kristofferson's "Sunday Morning Coming Down," Biden was the Dems' "cleanest dirty shirt." That tells you what kind of closet they had.

Sad times for the Great Republic.

At the Voting Booth & Censorship

I oppose the enormous expansion in early voting that has taken place in recent elections. That stated, however, if you offer it, I will take advantage. In that spirit, the Diplowife and I went yesterday afternoon to vote in Wilmington--the good one in North Carolina, not the home of the Biden bunker in Delaware. We stood in line, socially distant, masks on like good little servants of the state, for about 45 minutes. We had with us a good-natured crowd. I find surprising that local law allows campaigning so close to the polling station: lots of signs, banners, and activists for local, state, and national candidates within close proximity. No problems, however, and we all voted without incident.  

Need I say it? Nah, but I will. I voted straight Republican; any spot where only a Dem candidate stood, I left blank. Republicans have to get their act together at the local level; a surprising number of key jobs had no Republican candidate. 

That evening, visiting Diploson 2, Diplowife, Diplodaughter-in-law, and I watched on two TVs the pathetic and competing "Town Halls" that ran on ABC (Biden) and NBC (Trump). I also live texted with my sister in Texas who flipped channels between the two. Diploson, et al, could not stand either of them; I joined in that sentiment. 

The Biden "town hall," of course, wasn't one at all. ABC held it in what looked like a set from the creepy Twilight Zone "The Obsolete Man" episode: dark, foreboding, dimly-lit, with carefully selected questioners staring down from on high into the pit where sat a fumbling Joe Biden and a fawning "moderator," George Stephanopoulos, a life-long Democrat operative. All save one of the questions were absurd. The only decent challenge came from a young black man who asked Biden about his "you ain't black" comment. Biden gave an incomprehensible answer which left the questioner unsatisfied. At another point, Biden had to pull out a cheat sheet from his pocket so that he could read it and still ramble incoherently about how raising taxes would not really raise taxes but that raising them would create jobs . . . yeah, yeah, yeah . . . for tax collectors, maybe. A totally fake black "Republican" woman asked a convoluted question, which somebody clearly had written for her--she didn't seem to know what she was reading--about pollution and poisoned water in a part of Pennsylvania. Biden gave a weird non-answer about how he's not against fracking but only in accord with the law--as though that's not the case now, eh, Joe? Then he launched into something goofy about giving 120,000 workers in the gas/oil industry "jobs" capping old wells in Pennsylvania . . . yeah, that's a career path. Nonsense. The whole shtick with the mother of a "transgender" eight-year-old went beyond insane: child protective services needed calling.

 Just in case you wondered, NOT ONE QUESTION came re the Hunter Biden emails and the ongoing censorship of that story by Twitter and Facebook. Not one: not from the audience; not from GS. Who could have predicted that?

The NBC "Town Hall" also proved infuriating. A lively and energized Trump sat champing at the bit ready to go; the moderator, a Democrat operative from NBC, however, took it upon herself to debate and interrupt the President repeatedly. She hogged so much air time that only a few questions came from the audience. She went on about Trump taxes, "white supremacy," mask wearing, peaceful transfer of power . . . the usual BS we have come to expect from the Rad Dems. God forbid, of course, she never mentioned the Biden corruption story, a story her network has almost entirely ignored. At least the well-lit Miami setting looked far superior to the drab Biden meet, with an audience present and visible. The sound was horrible. Trump handled it well; I continue to admire his willingness to go into what he knows will prove hostile and rigged settings. The man in the arena . . . to cite Teddy Roosevelt.

I didn't get the point of these events. 

If they could be held, why couldn't the originally scheduled debate between Trump and Biden take place? Nobody seemed to be in mortal danger. The corrupt liberal moderators would have been there, too.