the Abject Obscenity of ‘Debate’ 2020

‘Hell’, hieronymous bosch

I’d only managed to watch for twenty minutes or so, but Trump would not STFU, constantly interrupting not only Biden, but moderator Chris Wallace himself, creating Joe memes such as ‘Shut up, man’, ‘Can’t you quiet this clown’, ‘Why can’t Wallace control Trump?’, etc.  Yes, it was chaos, but apparently these two capitalist duopoly candidates were the best this Empire in its last throes could field. 

At one point Biden had proclaimed that ‘Roe v. Wade is on the ballot’.  Trump: ‘Now I have to debate the moderator on my medical plan?’

Two men’s editorials follow.  I’ll know you’ll say what you saw and/or perceived.  ; )

First: ‘Trump uses debate to incite fascist violence’, Joseph Kishore—SEP candidate for US president, 30 September 2020, wsws.org  w/ permission, I’ll paste in most of it)

“US President Donald Trump used the platform provided by Tuesday night’s debate with Democratic candidate Joe Biden to incite fascist violence against voters and make clear that he would not accept the outcome of the election, now just over one month away.

Asked by Chris Wallace of Fox News whether he was willing “to condemn white supremacists and groups” who have instigated violence, Trump responded with a hysterical denunciation of socialism and left-wing politics and an open call for the extra-constitutional mobilization of paramilitary organizations. “Almost everything I see is from the left-wing,” he proclaimed. “Not from the right-wing.”

“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” Trump said, referring to a fascistic, racist and anti-Semitic organization that has terrorized protests against police violence throughout the country with armed patrols. “I’ll tell you what,” Trump added, “Somebody has to do something about Antifa and the left. This is not a right-wing problem. This is left-wing.”

Trump concluded the debate by renewing his call for supporters—that is, right-wing vigilante organizations—to monitor polling places and not accept the results of the election. “If I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can’t go along with that,” he stated.

As polls show he is heading for a massive defeat in the popular vote, Trump is not guided by any sort of conventional electoral strategy. He is inciting as much havoc as possible, using it to lay the foundations for a violent repudiation of the election results.

In the course of the debate, Trump repeated his declaration that the election would be characterized by “fraud like you’ve never seen” and that ballots were being throw into rivers and destroyed. He added that he was “counting” on the Supreme Court to “look at the ballots” in the election, that is, that he sees the court as central in legitimizing a coup d’état.

This is the language of civil war. Trump is an out-and-out fascist who is conspiring to erect a presidential dictatorship. He is inciting violent reprisals against all those who would oppose him. If the debate made one thing clear, it is that he will not accept the outcome of the election.

The response of Biden epitomized the breakdown of the entire political system. He attempted to parry Trump’s hysterics with conventional responses whose effect was to downplay the obvious seriousness of Trump’s threats.

The Democrats have selected as their representative an aged reactionary who is unable to speak truthfully about anything. Biden’s only response to Trump’s threats of violence was to urge his supporters to vote, ignoring the fact that Trump is planning on repudiating the results. In response to the attempt by Trump to ram through the appointment to the Supreme Court of Amy Coney Barrett in an effort to pack the court ahead of a contested election, Biden declared, “I’m not opposed to the justice. She seems like a very fine person.”

The Democrats have already given up any effort to block Senate confirmation of Barrett. Biden did not even note that Barrett played a central role in the Supreme Court’s intervention in the 2000 election, which handed the presidency to George W. Bush.

In the face of Trump’s open declaration he would not accept the results of the election and calls for violence, Biden was anxious to express his commitment to accept the outcome of the ballot. “I will accept it,” Biden said, “and [Trump] will too… If it is me, in fact fine. If it is not me, I’ll support the outcome. And I will be a president not just for the Democrats; I’ll be a president for Democrats and Republicans too.”

Toward the end of the debate, when asked why voters should choose him over Trump, Biden seized on the opportunity to attack Trump for being weak on Russia, the central theme of the Democrats’ opposition to Trump for the past four years: “I’ve gone head to head with Putin and made clear we aren’t going to take any of his stuff,” Biden said. “He’s Putin’s puppy.” […]

“What happened Tuesday night was not so much a debate. It was a portrait of political degeneration. What is playing out in real time is the collapse of American democracy under all the putrefaction and filth of American capitalism.

Trump’s diatribes set the tone for an event whose degrading character shocked even the media.”

As in: “It wasn’t even a debate. It was a disgrace“, “a complete disaster on all fronts”.

Next: ‘Trump-Biden ‘debate’ full of hoaxes & emotional manipulation shows the press has failed as guardians of the American Republic’, Nebojsa Malic, Sept. 30, RT.com (several other takes are on the sidebars) sees things a bit differently and adds a bit re: Hunter Biden:

“The ninety or so minutes on Tuesday evening in Cleveland, Ohio just cannot charitably be described as civilized. There was Biden, who addressed Trump only when he wanted to insult him, but otherwise reciting prepared talking points or turning to the camera to talk to the audience directly.

There was Trump, frequently interrupting both Biden and the moderator rather than wait his turn. And there was Chris Wallace of Fox News, bending over backwards to practically squire for Biden and load questions for Trump with some of the nastiest innuendo imaginable.

To name just one example, Biden has repeatedly treated as fact the calumny that Trump called neo-Nazis “very fine people” when asked about the tragic events in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. He did say those words – right before he condemned racists, white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the KKK in the strongest of terms. Yet Biden repeated the claim tonight and Wallace did the same. Little wonder Trump was livid. Wouldn’t you be?

That wasn’t even the lowest point of the night. As Trump repeatedly brought up a Senate report accusing Biden’s son Hunter of receiving multi-million dollar payments from Ukraine, China and Russia, Biden kept repeating that’s not true. Then he did a switcheroo, claiming Trump had instead insulted honor of his dead son Beau by calling US soldiers “losers and suckers.” […]

“Trump did not behave the way Americans have been taught a sitting president should. Instead, he acted like a journalist, peppering Biden with tough questions he never gets from the

And how could he, when the Democrat has spent the past week calling a “lid” on the press first thing in the morning? When Biden does talk to the press, they ask him what he thinks of Trump’s (supposedly rotten) soul.

It is precisely because the press has been totally derelict in its duty that Biden can assert Trump is “Putin’s puppy” (thanks, Russiagate!) or the above-mentioned Charlottesville lie, or treat the debunked stories about “Russian bounties” and Trump’s alleged disdain for US troops as proven facts, while declaring any criticism of his record or his family’s business dealings as “discredited.” The mainstream media saying so doesn’t make it so.”

(cross-posted at caucus99percent.com)