President Biden: A Great President Who had a Bad Debate: Saturday Political Soap Box 297

 Those who follow my blog will know that my last blog story was about pre-date analysis, with an update with post-debate analysis.

Based on how debates are decided in America, which concentrates on optics, Joe Biden lost the debate. He needed to prove he wasn't old, and he failed to do that.

What a shocker. Biden is old. No duh.

We can only guess what went wrong. He had a cold, he was overrehearsed, and he was hoarse. My feeling is it was a combination of all three. He was trying to spew too many facts and policies in too short a period. It was also hard to pick out what to refute in Trump's avalanche of lies.

Before the debate, I had someone comment that they hoped the debate would concentrate on facts and policy. Then, after the debate, with Biden concentrating on facts and policy, the same person commented, "Well, was I right? Are we doomed?" They completely IGNORED that one of the candidates was trying to talk about the things he wanted them to talk about!

My conclusion on the debate had to do with how I saw debates judged in the past. Optics is King. Snotty one-liers are Queen. But that conclusion does not negate the fact that the President has been a great, successful President who has the ability and mental capacity to continue to lead us to a better future.

Incumbent Presidents have frequently underperformed in their first debates—Reagan, George HW Bush Sr, Bush Jr., Barack Obama, Trump, and now Biden struggled in their first debates.

The idea that Biden is too far gone to be President is balderdash. Our economy was wrecked, and he brought it back quicker than any post-pandemic economy on the planet. The inevitable post-pandemic inflation was reduced faster here than in other countries. He didn't just have a zillion Infrastructure Weeks; he actually passed it! He's revitalized manufacturing and brought the chips industry back. He passed the PACT Act to ensure that Vets got the health care they needed, and he's helped control drugs for Seniors AND for all of us. He's helped millions reduce Student Debt. He's led the support, marshaling an international alliance, to help Ukraine against Russian aggression. He's done more to help combat and mitigate global warming/climate change than ANYONE else on the PLANET.

He's compassionate and decent and cares about ALL Americans.

If there had been a competitive primary in the Democratic Party, I would've voted for him. And I am one of those far-left Progressives who'd love to see people like AOC and Jasmine Crockett become President. 

If something happens to Biden, I have confidence in Vice President Kamala Harris. She is a strong, confident, and competent leader, and I feel at ease if she is called upon. I know many of you don't feel that way, but you'll need to ask yourselves why. What is there about Harris that bothers you? Hmmm.  What could it be?

I'll keep my remarks short on the lying convict who is his opponent. He answered NO policy questions and lied with every word he spoke. He's a self-centered son of B and one of the few people I actually hate. Sorry, not sorry.

Here's an example of Trump in a recent post-debate rally - "All they know is electric, they want electric army tanks, they want electric planes. What happens if the sun isn't shining while you're up in the air?"

Seriously - do you want to vote for somebody that STUPID?

The immediate reaction from some Democratic officials was DEFCON 1 HAIR ON FIRE! How can we replace him?

Not gonna happen, folks. Nor should it happen.

Other than that, everything is going pretty well. After the debate, Biden gave a barn burner of a speech, lighting up a large crowd.

Some recent post-debate polls on who you would vote for show Biden going UP, not down!

Fundraising post-debate shows more money going to Biden than Trump!

Now that the initial shock is wearing off, many pundits and social media users are coming out strongly in support of him.

I'm not voting based on one bad debate. Issues and facts mean something to me. Competency and decency mean something to me. The future of Democracy and the planet mean everything to me. I want my grandchild to grow up in a better world, where global warming has been checked and mitigated, where people enjoy and thrive in great diversity, where the American Dream hasn't been choked off by the concentration of wealth, where - as my faith leads me to believe, LOVE is stronger than HATE.

So, mark me down—I don't care what happened in this debate or in the next debate. I know who can lead this country to a brighter future—PRESIDENT JOSEPH R. BIDEN!

I'M RIDIN' WITH BIDEN!!!

The Winner is ... 5 O'clock Shadow : Updated With Comments On the Debate From Hell

 

For one glorious year, I was the debate coach at Cass City High School in Michigan. Way before the Internet, the only research tools we had were the books and magazines we could gather ourselves. Other schools with larger teams and budgets could out-research us, so we had to find a different way to win.

Debates were often about how many quotes or researched references a debater could squeeze in in the time allotted. It almost became a scorecard, so if they had 7 quotes supporting their side, you just had to rapid-fire 8 quotes to beat them. It often involved speaking fast and delivering the most quotes per minute. It didn't make for an interesting or even informative contest.

So, my debaters learned to be more communicative, colorful if you will, with their language. We concentrated on the non-verbal part and our rhetorical flourishes. I had some highly intellectual debaters who also knew how to give a good speech with a flourish. We didn't win the state, but we were good enough to finish third, the most successful finish the school had ever had to that date.

But we didn't lie to do it. We didn't make up facts. We stuck to the truth, and we supported our more flourishing rhetoric.

It was hard enough keeping academic debates on course. You can imagine what political ones are like. They're not scored based on facts and policy. I wish that was true, but it is not.

They are almost always judged by single moments. Maybe that's the most people can absorb.

It might be physical, like Nixon's 5 o'clock shadow. George HW Bush's distracted impatience in checking his watch,  Al Gore's sighing, Trump stalking behind Hilary as if he were the Frankenstein Monster.

It might be a verbal slip-up like Ford saying Poland wasn't under Soviet domination. Or Dukakis's cold-blooded answer to whether he'd want the death penalty for someone who murdered his wife.

Often it is a one-liner like Reagan's turning the age question on its head with Mondale, and the snippy little "There you go again" to Jimmy Carter.

What can't I show? Where debates were won on facts and policy.

So, what will happen tonight? In this extraordinarily early debate?

Most things favor the President of the United States over the convicted felon. Biden is intelligent and quick-witted. Yes, he's 81, but other than cheap fakes on Fox, he's shown little sign of cognitive decline. That said, the slightest slip-up will be amplified to the max by right-wing media. 

On the other hand, there is little dispute that Trump IS in serious cognitive decline. If you don't think so, you haven't listened to some of his most recent statements. The battery/shark story is just the tip of the disintegrating iceberg.

Trump has advantages. He can lie his ass off,  and he will get away with zero policy statements. He'll verbally attack Biden again and again. He can be as incoherent as he wants as long as he gets off a memorable one-liner.  

And, yes, I know the candidates will be muted if they go over their time or if it's not their turn. What I don't know is how well the other candidate can hear them when their opponent's mic is off. I fear that Biden will still hear him even if we can't clearly, and it will distract him while he tries to answer. The resulting confusion and irritation may come across, and people will not reason it out because Trump is a boorish pig who won't shut up, but that Biden is OLD.

Biden is the better debater, but that is no guarantee. And I am very worried because the election of Trump does mean the end of the Democratic experiment. Check out Project 2025.

Oh, the terror of the superficial decider.  

Most of you will see this after the debate, I reckon. My blog, when seen it all, seems to be delayed by Facebook.  

So, I will try to add an update to this.

If I can stomach it.

UPDATE:

No, I can't stomach the update, but some people are anticipating so...

PHYSICAL/OPTICS:  an unmitigated disaster for Joe Biden. Yes, he had a cold. Yes, he got stronger as the Debate went on. But Biden had one job to do - to prove that his age didn't matter, that he had age-defying stamina. He failed in that job - spectacularly.

VERBAL SLIP-UPS: I can't think of any. I'll have to hear more reviews. Biden tried to spit out too many facts, and he got lost in some of the numbers, but he said nothing fatally stupid. All Trump said were lies and nonsense, but I don't know one that stood out. I guess when you're spinning out verbal diarrhea, it's hard to pick out the one that stinks the most.

ONE-LINERS: They are few and far between. I liked Biden's line about Trump: He has the morals of an alleycat.

FACTS/POLICY: This was a landslide in favor of Biden. Biden at least tried to answer the questions asked, and I love what Biden has accomplished and the direction he wants to take the country. Trump answered NO POLICY QUESTIONS and instead made everything about him. He spent considerable time demonizing migrants with monstrous lies that would make Hitler and Goebbels blush with pride.

However, as this blog and other sources have made clear, policy is irrelevant in a debate. It's the most important part of the debate, but it's the least absorbed part of a debate. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is about optics.  

Getting Off At All the Wrong Places Part 1

Imagine you are on an island, surrounded by a river on all sides. Now, think of that river as time.

We are used to thinking of time as a linear river. But that's not what happens. There is a constant chance of us getting off at the wrong place and winding up worse off than before.

We tend to think otherwise. As the quote perfected by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. says,  "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." 

I pray that is true. In the long run, there may be great truth to it. But sometimes, it is hard to see in the abstract of our own lives.

I can imagine how those born at the turn of the 20th century must have felt. Great inventions that seemed to improve everyday lives arrived almost daily—planes, automobiles, radio, movies, and labor-saving household appliances. Politics was turning more progressive—antitrust legislation, labor laws, and regulations protecting our food and drug supply. Women gained the right to vote. The lives of people of color were not great, but there was at least the hint that things might turn around.

And then came the Great Depression, and the hopes and dreams of many Americans were destroyed - all but the very wealthy were affected. Then, the war started, and hopes for a peaceful world vanished. The fight against fascism was not how this generation thought would be what dominated their lives, but it was. 

My generation, the Boomer generation, saw a significant increase in civil and social rights in the 60s. We had finally turned the corner on civil rights with several important pieces of legislation that promised improvement in the lives of people of color, particularly African Americans. The Vietnam War was a great scar on our time, but it did not go unchallenged, generating significant civil protests which seemed to finally turn the tide on American interventionism.

We benefited from infrastructure improvements, like the Interstate Freeways. Wages rose, and the wealthy were taxed at a top rate ranging from 70% to 90%. College was very inexpensive. Housing was affordable. The family across the street from us lived in a nice home and lived comfortably, with Dad working as a department manager at Sears and Mom staying at home. Could you imagine that happening today?

But there is also a dark side to the Boomer Generation. The counterculture was not all positive. In addition to getting back to nature and making love, not war, there was a lot of ME quality to it. If it makes you feel good, do it! Take drugs, drop out, and do the things that make you happy.

The Boomers got more from their parents than most generations, and when they became adults, this sense of personal aggrandizement continued. They led the way to Reagan, and greed is good. They wanted the resources for themselves and resented the government taking any. They brought about the backlash that led to such figures as Rush Limbaugh and Pat Buchanan. They were especially angry over immigrants because they didn't want to SHARE. They were angry about advances made by people of color because they didn't want to SHARE.

Boomers had the opportunity to move forward in the river of time, but instead, they prioritized themselves, and got off in a place that slid us backward.

It took a long time for future generations to slowly straighten this out. Each successive generation has been a little bit more progressive than the last.

THIS IS PART 1. STAY TUNED TO THIS BLOG FOR MORE PARTS!

Special note:  Not all generations are monoliths. I'm a Boomer but don't comfortably fit the Boomer stereotype. Although I have been more conservative than I am now, I've always been on the side of social justice and democracy. And since the 90s, my major issue has been moving us to a single-payer, universal healthcare system. 

Reflections on Being a Father

 Have I been a good father?

I truly don't know. I have done the best I can, and I genuinely love my boys.

My own father was very special. No, I'm sure he wasn't perfect. We didn't have a lot of father/son bonding time. He didn't play sports with me, and he worked a lot. His fishing and gardening hobbies did not match my personality well. He tried to share them with me, but I had little interest. He read some fiction when he was very young (Tarzan and books about a dog called Kazan) and when he was very old (mostly Westerns). He liked going to the movies, and I remember seeing one or two where it was just him and me.

But where he really shined was in the ethical and moral example of his own life. I learned more about Christianity in how he conducted his own life than I have from any church or book. He taught me about caring and hard work. Any job worth doing was worth doing right. He was, in addition to being my father, my high school principal. I never felt self-conscious about that - he was an outstanding educator, supported by teachers, students, and parents.

Yes, I have misgivings. But when I look at my three sons, it is hard not to be pleased with how they turned out.  

My oldest son, Greg, now 42, is a successful film editor in Los Angeles, working for Apple + TV. He travels to onsite locations, particularly the sports division. His prior job was as a brilliant film colorist, working on such shows as For All Mankind, The Outlanders, and Kevin Can Go Blank Himself. He lives far from me, and I wish I could see him more, but I love him very much.

My middle son, Doug, now 40, is a highly qualified environmental scientist, living in the Catskill Mountains and working for the City of New York, assisting with the water system that serves millions of people. He is married to the beautiful Paige, and they have one daughter, Retta (named after their mother). We had the honor and pleasure of seeing them for over a week in late May/early June, and I'm thrilled to report that my granddaughter took to us right away. I wish I could see them more, and I love them very much.

My youngest son, Benjamin, now 23, graduated on May 23 from Georgia College in Milledgeville in Computer Science and is currently a programmer with Warner Robins Air Force Base. We saw him just this last Saturday, spending the day with him in Warner Robins. I love him very much.

All three share some of my hobbies and interests. They all like comics and fantasy/sci-fi to one degree or another. None of them followed up in Community Theater, although all three were in one more play with me. Like my own Dad, we enjoyed going to the movies and have seen many together. Greg lives that love of movies and films in his work. Benjamin loves role-playing games and is a consummate Dungeon Master.

That is all good, but that is not what I am most proud of my boys for. They are all first-rate people who treat others with kindness and respect. They are polite and friendly with everyone. I don't want to upset my conservative friends, but the fact is they are all Progressives and vote for people who genuinely want to help other people.

How much of it can be credited to me? I'm not really sure. My two older boys had to go through the dissolution of my marriage to their mother. I tried to do that as right as I could, but no matter how careful you are, there is no perfect way to do that. I am sorry and feel very guilty for any scars that were left. 

I give much credit to their mother for her significant contributions in raising them and making them the incredible men they are today. I also give credit to Alison for her love and support of Benjamin and how she welcomed Greg and Doug. All three were always brothers—no one used the term half-brothers. So, yes, Doug and Greg also contributed to Benjamin's growth.

I know I made mistakes. A psychologist could have a field day with my mistakes. But thanks in large part to the contributions of those helping me, I think the boys are all right!

Well, more than all right.

They are FANTASTIC!!!

What is the State of the American Economy?

 

At a recent church meeting, we discussed how best to support the homeless in our area. This raised concerns that the problem was growing and why that was the case.

Someone stated that homelessness was rising because the economy was so bad.

Ex-squeeze me? Are you sure about that?

All the normal macroeconomic indicators are very positive.

Unemployment has been 4% or lower for many months now. The total jobs gained has been overwhelmingly positive, including significant gains in the manufacturing sector.

The stock market is at record heights, with the S&P 500 setting a new all-time high just yesterday. 

The GDP was up 5.38% from the previous year in the first quarter (ycharts.com). That translates to gangbusters!

The Consumer Confidence Index is improving.

Many infrastructure projects will kick in, adding to employment, improving how we can access goods, improving our overall safety, and improving how we handle and survive climate change.  

Inflation has been a trouble spot. But the US has handled it better and controlled it more swiftly than any other national economy. Seriously, is there anyone out there who didn't understand that the end of the pandemic would result in inflation, with pent-up spending and interference with supply chains?

The issues continuing around inflation center mostly now around corporate greed. Their profits are growing and better than ever, as they use general inflation as an excuse to continue raising prices. They may have begun to understand they have pushed too far, as major retailers, such as Target, Walmart, and Amazon Fresh, are announcing price reductions to re-attract customers. Even gas is coming down.

Wages overall in this country are finally rising. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the year-to-date rise in private industry workers was 4.3%. Many people endlessly complain about the rise in fast-food workers' wages, as if not everyone is entitled to a living wage.

Maybe Georgia is economically depressed despite the rest of the nation. The last unemployment rate for Georgia was 3.1%, while the nation as a whole was 3.9%.

And yet... homelessness is not abating and may be increasing.

Why?

There are other concerns, including mental health and the diminishment of the extended family, but the primary driver is the lack of affordable housing. This includes rentals. Waycross does better than most areas in the country, but it can still be prohibitive, averaging $975 (multiple-bedroom rentals would be significantly more). For those who want fast-food workers to only make minimum wage, that average would be 78% of a full-time worker's pay. Does that sound reasonable to you?

The market does not center itself around low-income housing. I remember when Alison and I looked, very few homes were in the middle-class price range. Most homes we saw promoted would take a six-figure income to buy. How many of you have that?  

As the income gap between the rich and the working class continues to grow, housing is going to become more and more difficult. The market is flooded with private equity speculators (including foreign buyers) that drive the market upwards.  

It's not so much that the macro-economy is bad as that so many basics are out of whack—housing, college education, medical expenses, to name a few. Most of these markets are driven up by private interests—buying hospitals, controlling health insurance companies, and lending student loans with usurious interest. 

These are problems that are difficult to solve, even by Democrats. But they certainly won't be managed by Republicans, who have virtually zero interest in helping the working class and economically disadvantaged get any kind of support over the interests of the wealthy and large corporations.

Gutting the tax rates of corporations and billionaires is not gonna restore any kind of balance in the housing market.

Yes, there are other factors leading to the problem of homelessness, but this is the most important, and I hope to discuss other concerns in future posts.

As people of good faith, we need to extend our help, including food, basic supplies, and shelter. Even if we can't directly solve the overall causes of the problems, that doesn't mean we should do nothing.

But it is not going to go away until we address the economic, social, and political problems that undergird it.

Beauty in the Catskills!

 

It has been a while since I've blogged. We were on a trip to the Catskill Mountains in New York State. 

Why? To visit with my middle son, Doug, his wife, Paige, and my one and only grandchild, Retta Lockett Strait!

We were told she might not take to us right away - she could be a little shy around strangers (further proving the genetic link between us). She had seen us on Facetime calls, but it had been at least nine months since we'd last seen her in person.

We were wrong to be concerned. She took to us almost right away. She came up to Alison and play-tickled her. But the party only really got started once she tickled me, and I finally figured out what fifty-plus years of community theatre was getting me prepared for.  To be the silly Grandpa. She loved my reaction and was soon sneaking up to tickle me every minute.

We went outside, and she began to gather flowers, which Alison helped her do. But when it came time to give away her bouquet, who did she give it to? ME!

At two years and two months, she was talking profusely and in complete sentences. We sometimes needed Doug to help translate, but that was fine. When Doug was a toddler, he also spoke complete sentences, and I helped translate what he said to others.

She called Alison Meme (pronounced Mee-Maw), but mine was a little trickier. She was not quite ready for the G sound in Grandpa, so I became Hanpa or Hampa (Ham fitting with my community theatre persona).

After a few days, we were set to babysit Retta. Doug and us were concerned about how she would handle being separated from her father, as there were some tears and clinging over trying to be at a daycare playtime with many adults and other kids around. Doug told us she might be upset when he first left but that she would get over it in time (he hoped).

But when he left, she transitioned to us right away without any tears or fuss. She loved spending time with us and playing different games, including hide-and-seek.

Retta is very much an outdoor cat. She loved being outside, walking, playing, or helping with many of the family's animals—goats, chickens, and the family dog, Barco. When we went on a really nice community path, she was highly observant, noticing a wide variety of insects, birds, and even a snake.

The Catskills are a perfect place for this extra special outdoor child.

The temperature never really rose much above 72. There was some rain here and there, but overall, it was so much more beautiful and comfortable than sweltering South Georgia.

Someday, we dream that we can move farther north and be closer, experience better weather, and, frankly, a better political environment. Most people are nice here, but it does get difficult with the extremism that surrounds us.

It was a lovely trip, and now we're back.

Already planning for the next trip!