#debates

[gamechangershow]

Nothing brings more joy than elections 🗳️

👉Watch the full Game Changer episode on @dropoutdottv:

[curiositysavesthecat]

Do not use this poll as an excuse to be homophobic or transphobic, you’ll be blocked if we see you being hateful.

From the submitter, they are trans and queer and this is something they’re genuinely curious about.

*This poll was submitted to us and we simply posted it so people could vote and discuss their opinions on the matter. If you’d like for us to ask the internet a question for you, feel free to drop the poll of your choice in our inbox and we’ll post them anonymously (for more info, please check our pinned post).

[telemarketing101]

Hey guys, greek mythology had been here long before pjo and Epic the musical. It has influenced art, literature, language, and even religion for centuries. It's also part of school curriculum because of how much it affects the modern-day world, so it's BEEN "popular."

Hope this helps!

[cauqhtz]

I love talking with people about one piece. Whether its an argument. Debate. Or a simple convo. It’s all the same and it gets me excited either way!

Dont worry about hurting my feelings and we’ll definitely piss eachother off LMFAOAOAO but its better that way. We can be honest about our ideals and theories as long as we dont hit below the belt and keep it about one piece.

Just dont take it too far and i’ll follow your lead!

One piece is the greatest story in fucking history. It deserves to be talked about dammit!

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The dates have been set for the party leaders’ debates in the upcoming federal election. The Leaders’ Debates Commission said Monday the French-language debate will be held on April 16 at 9 p.m. eastern time, followed by the English-language debate on April 17 at 7 p.m. Both debates will be held at the Maison de Radio-Canada in Montreal and televised across the country, the independent commission said.

Continue reading

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 10, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Sep 11, 2024

Former president Trump has always approached debates as professional wrestling events in which the key is not to explain policies or answer questions, but rather to demonstrate dominance over your opponent. In 2016 the Democratic nominee, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, had a hard time countering this strategy effectively because of the many expectations of what was appropriate behavior for a female presidential candidate. In 2020 and then again in the June 2024 “debate,” Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s stutter made it difficult to counter Trump’s scattershot attacks.

The question for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris in tonight’s presidential debate was not how to answer policy questions, but how to counter Trump’s dominance displays while also appealing to the American people.  

She and her team figured it out, and today they played the former president brilliantly. He took the bait, and tonight he self-destructed. In a live debate, on national television. 

The Harris campaign began the day trolling Trump with a new campaign ad featuring the pieces of former president Barack Obama’s speech at the August Democratic National Convention that concerned Trump. “Here’s a 78-year-old billionaire”—the ad cuts to a photo of Trump in a golf cart—“who has not stopped whining about his problems.” Then a clip of Trump shows him complaining about Harris’s crowds, before Obama notes Trump’s “weird obsession with crowd sizes,” complete with Obama’s hand motion suggesting Trump’s sizes were small. “It just goes on, and on, and on,” Obama says, before the ad shows empty seats and people yawning at Trump’s rallies.

“America’s ready for a new chapter,” Obama says to the overflow crowd cheering at Chicago’s United Center during the Democratic National Convention. “We are ready for a President Kamala Harris!” At the end, even Harris’s standard statement, “I’m Kamala Harris and I approved this message,” sounds like a challenge.

This morning, the Harris campaign began running the ad on the Fox News Channel. 

At the same time, they began running Philadelphia-themed ads across the city on billboards, in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and on food trucks and taxi cabs, sidewalk art, and digital projections making fun of Trump’s fascination with crowd sizes. They showed, for example, a full-sized Philadelphia pretzel labeled “Harris” alongside a piece of one that looked like an upside down U labeled “Trump.”

The taunting might have been behind Trump’s demand for loyalty from Republican lawmakers this afternoon, telling them to shut down the government if he doesn’t get his way on the inclusion of a voter suppression measure in the bill to fund the government. The right has often relied on threats of government shutdowns to try to get their way, but such shutdowns are never popular, and even moderate Republicans are leery of launching one just before an election.

Nonetheless, Trump tried to lock them into such a shutdown, reiterating in a post this afternoon the lie that undocumented immigrants are voting in presidential elections. “If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security, THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET. THE DEMOCRATS ARE TRYING TO ‘STUFF’ VOTER REGISTRATIONS WITH ILLEGAL ALIENS. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN—CLOSE IT DOWN.” 

Throughout the day, the Harris campaign placed posts on social media showing Harris looking crisp and presidential and Trump looking old and unkempt. And then, for ten minutes in the hour before the debate, the Harris campaign held a drone show over the Philadelphia Museum of Art showing campaign slogans and then turning the words “MADAM VICE PRESIDENT” into “MADAM PRESIDENT.” 

Hugo Lowell of The Guardian reported today that Trump’s advisors were concerned ahead of the debate about whether they would get “happy Trump” or “angry Trump,” worrying that a frustrated Trump would engage in the vicious personal attacks that turn voters off. They expressed relief that having the microphones muted when it was not a candidate’s turn to speak would prevent Harris from irritating him with fact checks and snark of her own. Conservative lawyer George Conway noted that it was “[i]nteresting how one campaign is extremely concerned about the emotional stability of its candidate, and how the other is not.”

Harris’s attacks on Trump, including her campaign’s subtle digs at his masculinity, appeared to have accomplished what they set out to. When the two came out on stage, he went straight to his podium, while she strode across the stage, moved into his space, held out her hand, introduced herself and wished him well: “Kamala Harris. Have a good debate.” He muttered in response, “Nice to see you.” Then she took her own spot at the podium. When the debate opened, it was clear that Harris was the dominant figure and that her opponent was “angry Trump.” He would not look at her during the debate.

In her first answer, Harris tried to set out both her own story as a child of the middle class and how she intended to build an opportunity economy for others, lowering food and housing costs and opening the way for more small businesses. It was a lot, quickly, and she looked a little nervous.

Then Trump spoke and it was clear he was going off the rails. His first comment was to suggest Harris was lying, and then to insist that his proposed tariffs will solve everything, although he has the way tariffs work entirely backward: they are paid by the consumer, not by foreign countries. As he followed with a long list of his rally lies, Harris started to smile.  

From then on, he continued to produce rally stories full of wild exaggerations and attack Harris with lies in what CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale called “a staggeringly dishonest debate performance from former president Trump.” "No major presidential candidate before Donald Trump has ever lied with this kind of frequency,” Dale said. “A remarkably large chunk of what he said tonight was just not true. This wasn't little exaggerations, political spin. A lot of his false claims were untethered to reality." As Harris spoke directly to the American people, growing stronger and stronger, Trump got wilder and angrier and told more and more crazy stories. 

And then, about ten minutes into the debate, Harris baited him. She invited the American people to go to one of his rallies, where “he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter, he will talk about ‘windmills cause cancer.’ And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.” 

Trump lost it. He defended his rallies, said Harris couldn’t get anyone to attend hers and has to bus in attendees (in reality, her rallies are packed and he is the one who reportedly hires attendees), and then, in his fury, repeated the lie about immigrants eating pets. When a moderator fact-checked that story, he fought back, saying he heard it on television.

And from then on, Harris kept baiting him while explaining her own policies directly to the camera, and he took the bait every single time. He ran down every rabbit hole and appeared unable to finish a thought. Notably, he refused to say he would not sign a national abortion ban and admitted that after nine years of promising one, he had no health care plan (he has, he said, “concepts of a plan,” and if they pan out, he’ll let us know in the “not too distant future”). 

He threatened World War III and repeated that the U.S. is “a failing nation.” He told a long story about threatening “Abdul,” the leader of the Taliban; in fact, the leader of the Taliban since 2016 is Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada. In response to Harris’s statement that foreign leaders thought he was a disgrace, Trump answered that Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, who destroyed his country’s democracy and replaced it with a dictatorship, says he’s a good leader. New York Times columnist David French wrote: “It's like she's debating MAGA Twitter come to life.”

The debate moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis of ABC, asked solid questions and corrected the most egregious of Trump’s lies. But as he continued to interrupt and yell at Harris, they increasingly gave him leeway to do so. This meant he spoke more often and for more time than Harris; MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle reported that he spoke 39 times for a total of 41.9 minutes, to her 23 times for a total of 37.1 minutes. But the extra time did him no favors.

By the end of the evening, Harris had delivered a clear message about her hopes to move the country forward beyond years of using race to divide people who have far more in common than they have differences. She promised to develop an economy that will build small businesses and support a growing middle class, while protecting rights, including the right to make reproductive decisions without the intrusion of the state. And she showed the nation that Trump can be baited, that he lies freely and incoherently, and—perhaps crucially—that he is no longer the dominant politician in America.  

Immediately after the debate, the Harris campaign continued their demonstration of dominance. Harris-Walz campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon released a statement recapping Harris’s strength and Trump’s angry incoherence. She concluded: “Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?”

Then things got even worse for Trump. 

Music phenomenon Taylor Swift endorsed Harris, telling her 283 million Instagram followers that she felt she had to because of Trump’s earlier reposting of an AI image of her seeming to endorse him. That, she said, “brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth. I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election.”

After explaining why she was supporting Harris and Walz and urging her fans to do their own research, Swift signed off: “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[akrasianwords]

tried to have a very unfruitful debate with someone about dazai. checked their profile once they started mischaracterizing him and lo and behold, i had made the grave mistake of conversing with a 'chuuya is such a short smol bean femboy teehee' person. needless to say, i've completely given up. 💀

[fuentesclips]

Nick Fuentes vs. Dean Withers | 03/10/24

this clip makes me giggle so much God “to be at the receiving end” 😭😭 absolute cinema this era was so peak

[deadpresidents]

I personally am looking forward to Kamala Harris harnessing her prosecutor experience and wiping the floor with Trump in the debates.

I'd be surprised if Trump actually debates Kamala Harris. He's already trying to weasel his way out of the September debate that the Trump and Biden campaigns had agreed on -- suggesting that it should be held on Fox News instead of ABC, as planned. Honestly, the smart political move for Trump would be to not debate her and just keep throwing up roadblocks and demanding changes until the plans fall through. Trump gains absolutely nothing by debating Harris, and she is such a formidable debater that it would be a huge gamble for him to face her.

On the other hand, if I was running the Harris campaign, I'd accept any debate that the Trump campaign presented, even if it means scrapping the already agreed-upon ABC debate and allowing Fox News to moderate it. Even if Fox hosted the debate, it's not like they would have Hannity moderate it. They do have a handful of genuine journalists that work there and that's most likely who would actually moderate it. Fox News hosted Presidential debates during the 2016 and 2020 general elections and Chris Wallace did as good of a job as anybody who has tried to moderate debates featuring Donald Trump.

[mayaruinstheinternet]

I'm in the mood to have an intense debate with someone who has different political views, and I've come to the right place. Everyone here has very strong views. And I can fight every single one of them. (I'm both conservative and liberal) FIGHT ME NOW PLEASE, I'M SO BORED.

[curiositysavesthecat]

Trigger warning: mention of Nazi

According to the submitter, they have this set of emojis "⚡⚡" (double lightning strikes) in their display name without knowing anything about what it could represent until someone tells them that their choice of using the lightning strike emoji twice in a row is "questionable" and that it could represent SS / Hitler / Nazi. They are completely against Hitler and Nazi, and are wondering if this set of emojis in and of itself really is associated with Nazi.

*This poll was submitted to us and we simply posted it so people could vote and discuss their opinions on the matter. If you’d like for us to ask the internet a question for you, feel free to drop the poll of your choice in our inbox and we’ll post them anonymously (for more info, please check our pinned post).

[lettertoholly]

since Instagram doesn't let me, here's the beautiful Gabriella Papadakis' article on beliefs about same-sex skating pairs. i absolutely love this, she is so true with what she writes. (substack article under the images)

[socialjusticefail]

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A post shared by Hen Mazzig 🎗️ (@henmazzig)

This reel is of two people having a debate about Jews being indigenous to Israel.

[thepersonalwords]

Naive people tend to generalize people as—-good, bad, kind, or evil based on their actions. However, even the smartest person in the world is not the wisest or the most spiritual, in all matters. We are all flawed. Maybe, you didn’t know a few of these things about Einstein, but it puts the notion of perfection to rest. Perfection doesn’t exist in anyone. Nor, does a person’s mistakes make them less valuable to the world. 1. He divorced the mother of his children, which caused Mileva, his wife, to have a break down and be hospitalized.2.He was a ladies man and was known to have had several affairs; infidelity was listed as a reason for his divorce.3.He married his cousin.4.He had an estranged relationship with his son.5. He had his first child out of wedlock.6. He urged the FDR to build the Atom bomb, which killed thousands of people.7. He was Jewish, yet he made many arguments for the possibility of God. Yet, hypocritically he did not believe in the Jewish God or Christianity. He stated, “I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the harmony of all that exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.

Shannon L. Alder

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Convicted Felon

* * * *

Once again people are mistaking their feelings for facts. Last night made them feel bad; they've converted that into faux factual analysis that Biden/the Democrats/everything is doomed. And running around doing their best to make that bad feeling into reality. It's like no one doing this has ever felt bad before, then found out that in a week or two you don't feel as bad, because the incident that made you feel bad doesn't loom as large.

To be honest, I don't give a damn that Biden had a cold and did a lousy job; as someone who has to get up on stages more than most of you, I know it's hard and there are off nights. Being sparkly and charismatic onstage has nothing to do with the job of president. If you want to judge his performance as president look at his presidency (and most people actually have no idea of what's been accomplished beyond a few very high-visibility things; the thousands of ways the administration has acted on, for example, climate are invisible partly because the shitty mainstream media don't really cover it, and because most people are not really paying attention anyway, which is what gives entertainment bullshit like this debate the outsized weight it shouldn't have).

And getting him elected is not just his job; it's the job of everyone who recognizes the choice at hand: the alternative is armageddon with a smirk, an end to democracy in America, a sabotage of our chance of doing anything about climate. Elections are made by widespread participation--as grassroots organizers, donors, and voters--not by one person. And your participation is not a gift to that one person; it's your work to shape the world you live in, on behalf of all of us.

[Rebecca Solnit]