Shit Show

The Debate Commission should cancel the remaining presidential debates. President Trump obviously has no interest in an honorable and honest exchange of ideas that respects voters.

Share
Avatar photo

Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

128 thoughts on “Shit Show”

  1. I wish I could disagree with you Poobah but now I can’t. This was an utter shit show, and all it does is give dumbass a platform to spew his bullshit.

    Pardon any grammatical errors.

  2. When a hurricane is imminent, it’s negligence to not board up your windows.
     
    The Debate Commission is responsible for this mess.

  3. Just mute the mics.  Timed responses.  And, let a woman run show.  That ought to bring out the worst in tRUMP, if what we just saw wasn’t it. 
    Joe won.
     
    tRUMP came off as a lying, racist, imbecilic, unhinged monster. 
    “Stand by.”  He told his white supremacist base of troublemakers to “stand by.”   

  10. TT
    The proud boys are all over social media say that was a call to arms. So it already has happened.
    Jack

  11. I disagree that playing with mics or moderators helps. Trump thinks this is a WWE wrestling match. He disrespects the Debate Commission and the voters, and won’t change no matter what the format. He doesn’t deserve another debate stage. 

  14. CNN reports that the Proud Boys, neo-fascists, are rejoicing at “stand back & stand by”.  Here we go.  Or here they go.

  17. Bob’s comment is a bit like one of the never Trumpers about  Trumps covid news pressers. “Show them, everytime he get in front of a national audience he loses.”  Seems to be true so far. 
    Jack

  18. Poobah, I agree with Lawrence O’Donnell that the next moderator needs to confront Trump about taking a stand against white supremacists, or his failure to do so.

  21. From twitter

    in Frank Luntz’s focus group, Ruthie from PA (upper right corner) said she was undecided coming into tonight….. but now likes Biden b/c Trump was behaving like a “crackhead” and made the debate impossible to watch

  23. Talk about shit shows, Covid-19 is hitting rural Missouri. Marshall school district is in the exact center of the state, they have over 200 students and staff in quarantine. So they have had to send everybody home.
    BTW looking at the Johns/hopkins covid map Kansas City and surrounding Missouri side counties are looking damn good, our Mayor is looking smarter and smarter for his early leadership.
    Jack 

  24. …had six months to even make an effort to open schools safely and every second of that time was squandered 
     
    Walked into a store tonight, saw a kid without a mask, immediately turned around and left.

  25. Yes, the talking heads are saying that Wallace actually did a good job posing tough questions to trump… fair enough🤷‍♂️

  27. Okay, I read all of your comments. I am so glad that Sweetie and I decided to watch an old Cadfael ‘mystery.’ 
     
    I opposed the ‘debates’ because we already have more than 47 years of Biden’s mostly fine record of service, and 3.7 years (with 24,000 examples and 210,000 cadavers) of trump’s dis-service. Nothing of value can be added. 
     
    next time put 25 trump accusers in the front row w/michael cohen, General Mattis and rex tillerson.

  28. Hey, wait a minute!  tRUMP brought all of the crazy racist he could muster…and nobody is talking about his failed businesses and tax dodging.

  30. So far, I have only heard one Republican claim she isn’t voting this year.  She won’t vote Joe, though.   
    The Lincoln Project needs to put up their cowboy Christian ad, again.  The guy telling Christians they know deep down what tRUMP is and that they know better than to support him.

  31. The Republicans should be jumping ship and impeaching him and refusing his nominee a SCOTUS hearing.   There’s more focus on the loss of ACA with his dingbat nominee; that’s gonna lose ‘em votes, too.    FLIP THE SENATE!
     
     
    At this point, tRUMP is a Republican = white supremacist, therefore, Republicans = white supremacists.  It’s a syllogism.  

  33. Hearing it back i really like Joe’s:
     
    ”Yes, I’m for law and order with JUSTICE where people get treated fairly” -Joe Biden

  34. Know how he knew “Proud Boys”?  ‘Cuz he hears it everyday in intelligence reports designating them a threat and instigators of violence.

  37. “Scotty!  More power to the fact-checking machine!”
     
    “I’m givin’ ‘er all she’s goht, Cap’n!!!”

  42. Maybe Biden’s best moment was acknowledging his kid had a drug-problem: that humanized him.  We all have loved-ones with drug problems.

  45. The next debate is the town hall format.  I hope the moderator will have the guts to sit down and shut up when it isn’t his turn to answer an audience question.

     

  47. OM – Yes, I’ve been watching “The Vote” each week on PBS.  It should be required viewing.   I had no idea how horribly the suffragettes were treated and for how many generations.  God bless Alice Paul, Mrs. Catt, those men who stayed silent and then voted for the cause.    
    We could use a little intestinal fortitude in Congress to stop tRUMPsky’s sham nominee right now.    
    I guess we’ll just have to flip the Senate and let President Biden pack the courts with his own picks to fix it.   

  48. Good on the format for the next debate. Trump can lie directly to the voters asking him questions and fail to answer them rather than a moderator. 

  51. Two goals:
     1)Message to his base to create mayhem in the streets. 
    2) Stop folks from discussing his taxes.

  57. business insider via msn:

    Many supporters of President Donald Trump, including his children, did not wear masks while sat in the audience for his first debate with Democratic challenger Joe Biden, breaking guidelines for the event.
    Four of Trump’s children — Ivanka, Donald Trump Jr. Eric, and Tiffany — did not wear masks while sat in the front row of the venue. 
    First lady Melania Trump, who was seated with them, was pictured wearing one while sitting with them.
    But Tyler Pager, a Bloomberg News political reporter at the event, said that she removed her mask after she sat down.
    The Trump family members were videoed and photographed wearing the masks while approaching their seats, and removed them later.
    The seats were set far apart as part of social distancing rules.
    Nonetheless, guests were told to wear masks throughout the event, held at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
    NBC News reported that a Cleveland Clinic doctor tried to approach the Trump children over their lack of masks as they entered the venue. NBC said someone shook their head as she got close and she ultimately did not approach them.
    Pager, the Bloomberg reporter, said that a doctor at the event told him that unmasked audience members on Trump’s side of the room refused to take a mask when offered one.
    NBC News also reported that some members of the Trump administration who were present were not wearing masks.
    Peter Eyre, senior advisor for the Commission on Presidential Debates, said before the event: “There are things we’re doing differently this year that we haven’t done before because of COVID-19. That includes a variety of testing, social distancing, mask wearing and obviously reducing the total number of people who will be involved.”
    People there to support Biden were wearing masks while seated, The Daily Beast reported.
    [continues]

  60. I agree on cancelling.  Don’t know why, but it made me nervous to watch so I kept switching to TCM and turning back to see if the interruptions were continuing.  I may not like what someone is saying but I want to hear them out, and one at a time.  It pee’s me when there are interruptions and both of them were doing it and talking at the same time.  I doubt I would watch another one.

  64. Biden was forced to talk at the same time as trump, because with trump you either talk at the same time or you wind up standing there like a lump looking at an unpolished spot on the podium….

  65. Come on Pilar. You are a Trump voter why don’t you just come out and say it. Fly your flag proudly.
     
    Jack

  66. Agree, Sturg — There was no equivalency here. Trump began interrupting and insulting Joe at the first word, an obvious strategy to disrupt the event to avoid a meaningful discussion he knew he would lose. Biden eventually had no choice but to fight back for air time.

  67. ny post:

    Well, that didn’t take long.
    Joe Biden’s campaign is now hawking “Will You Shut Up, Man” T-shirts — after the Democratic nominee aimed the retort at President Trump during their first debate on Tuesday night.
    The black tops — bearing the phrase superimposed on a photo of a grumpy-looking Trump — went up for sale even as the showdown between the 2020 candidates was ongoing, according to The Hill.
    They’re being sold for $30-33 a pop.
    The graphic shirt enshrines one of several heated moments between the two men, who frequently talked over each other and traded jibes for much of the 90-minute slugfest.
    The outburst in question came during the opening 20 minutes of the event, as Biden brushed off Trump’s relentless questions about whether he supported a Democratic effort to pack the Supreme Court with left-leaning justices.
    “Will you shut up, man?” the former Vice President snapped.

    “This is so unpresidential.”

  68. I agree that trumpty should not be given another platform to give signals to his racist friends.  On the other hand…   if there is another debate….  just like a car crash…  I probably won’t be able to turn away.
     
    Gonna give Joe’s campaign a donation today.

  69. Ya know…  at one point Chris Wallace made an effort to control trump….  talked to him as if he was a 5 yr old.  The president…  being talked to from a pundit on national television as if he’s a child…  and I don’t think he even realized it.   Pathetic!

  74. newsweek about the above LP ad:

    Hours after a presidential debate in which the contenders traded barbs and insults, a new ad by The Lincoln Project shows a montage of President Donald Trump’s performance, describing him as a “loser” whose presidency had “collapsed in front of the whole world.”
    The one-minute video by the political action committee starts with a combination image of the president and Democratic contender Joe Biden, during Tuesday’s debate at Case Western University in Cleveland. It then cuts to Trump being asked by the moderator, Chris Wallace, whether he was willing to disavow white supremacists.
    “I’m willing to do anything, I want to see peace,” is Trump’s soundbite in the video, which is overlaid with the Fox anchor and Biden both urging him to condemn white supremacists. Meanwhile, a voice barely above a whisper, the female narrator intones: “It’s painful Donald, so weak. I mean, really bad.
    “Biden showed America you’re a loser,” she continues as a soundbite of Biden saying “the fact is this man doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” is overlaid.
    In response to Wallace’s question about condemning white supremacists, Trump said, “Proud Boys stand back and stand by,” in a comment went viral and was celebrated online by the Proud Boys and their supporters.
    In The Lincoln Project ad, a montage of the candidates then shows them interrupting each other with the narrator saying quietly, “Your performance was weak…you failed…you’re losing Donald.”

    “Your administration is falling apart. Your campaign is running out of cash and your personal finances? Ouch. Your presidency is nothing more than a house of cards Donald and it just collapsed in front of the whole world.”

    [continues]

  75. I have a somewhat different take on cancelling remaining debates.  Consider what’s not being talked about after last night’s shitshow. Trump taxes. Trump as a national security threat due to debt/money laundering. Trump’s failure on COVID-19. Economy in free fall. Additional debates will just be distractions from what matters.
     

  76. Ms Cariad, raving maniacs make bad policies. We don’t particularly need the evidence that the policies are crazy (or treasonous) when we have direct evidence, straight out of his mouth, that the perpident is off his rocker, around the corner, down the road, over the river, up a tree and out on a limb without a noose.

    Tidy the perp away into a nice tight cell and the bad policies will disappear.

  77. T00 much false equivalency from Mrs Greenspan.  Joe Biden did not cause any of the problems you stupid c–t and I do not use that word lightly 

  79. NYT instant polls from the debate.

    Instant Poll Surveys of Who Won the Debate

    CNN 
     
    60% Biden
    28% Trump

    CBS

     47% Biden
    40% Trump

    Data for Progress
     
    51% Biden
    39% Trump

    Solid instant results for Biden.CNN found that Mr. Biden decisively won the debate, 60 percent to 28 percent, while CBS News and an early cut from a Data for Progress poll found far closer seven- and 12-point leads for Mr. Biden.

    Looks a lot like what Bob posted last night.

  80. And further down the  page in the NYT piece above, 

    New Pennsylvania polls give Biden a significant lead.

    Exploring Electoral College outcomes

    Electoral votes counting only states where a candidate leads by 3 or more:

    279 Biden – 163 Trump

    Electoral votes if polling leads translate perfectly to results (they won’t):

    359 Biden – 179 Trump

    Electoral votes if state polls are as wrong as they were in 2016†:

    280 Biden – 258 Trump

    † Poll error in 2016 is calculated using averages of state polls conducted within three weeks of Election Day. Estimates as of Sept. 29, 2020.

    For the first time since we started our poll tracker several weeks ago, Joe Biden leads by enough to withstand a repeat of the polling error in 2016.

    I like what I’m seeing.  Let’s see what polls at the end of the week look like.

  82. What was that ? – Trevor Noah
     
    Probably a mix of amphetamine and valium – just enough valium to keep the guy from running around the room like a rabid dog. 

  83. The remaining debates should be held as scheduled. Appropriate notices to viewers at the start should advise them that the moderator will attempt to steer discussion but will not censor nor censure. Debaters’ presentations will likely reflect their demeanor should one or the other be elected as our President. God help us all.

  84. I have watched a few snippets of last nights pissing match. I am now too embarrassed to admit that I’m an earthling.

  87. You have to put dipshit in a cage if you’re going to have a town-hall debate, can’t let him bait Biden into slapping him, no joke.

  88. The Atkins School District near Russellville announced that Superintendent Jody Jenkins [age 57] died due to complications from COVID-19. Jenkins announced on Sept. 13 that he had tested positive for the virus and had been hospitalized for the past several days.

    Teacher deaths in other states have prompted alarms about the return to in-person classes. Classes resumed in Arkansas last month and the state said there are 717 active cases in public schools. The state is requiring schools to be open five days a week for in-person instruction, though they can also offer virtual or hybrid options.

    Several members of the Little Rock Education Association refused to teach in the classroom Monday, but said they were willing to teach online, because of safety concerns. Little Rock School District officials said those 69 teachers face potential disciplinary action.

    https://www.jonesborosun.com/news/state-hits-80-000-virus-cases/article_00b73ba9-cec7-51b2-9afd-c8df9a30b68d.html

     

  89. If you’re listening Team Biden:
     
    The response to “i [dipshit] shut down air-travel from China and Europe” is:
     
    He did it in a manner that incited panic among Americans traveling abroad at that time and created a mad-rush from packed airplanes through crammed airports that became likely super-spreader events, especially in NYC, despite his lie that he “played-down” the threat to PREVENT panic.

  90. Flatus and mortonie….   after reading a lot of the aftermath of the debate….  I have to admit there’s something to the point you are both making.  After all…  we are adults and should be able to make up our own minds.  And it seems that so far the majority of adult minds disliked what trump did (saw it as a meltdown) and sent lots of money to Biden as a result.  That can’t be a bad thing.
     
    I did read on CNBC that the debate commission will be changing some of the rules for the next one….  provided they can get both sides to agree.

  91. The self-admitted (by dipshit to Woodward) deception concerning the genuine degree of threat from COVID before he shutdown international air-travel, aside, he loves to remind people about that event, but it’s actually the beginning of the completely bungled federal non-response to COVID in the public consciousness.
     
    So, keep bringing it up, dipshit. 

  92. “I did read on CNBC that the debate commission will be changing some of the rules for the next one…“ -RR
     
    Oh, so they did order a cage.  Good job, debate commission👍

  101. I disagree with my nonetheless brilliant, well-beloved and energetic colleague, Mr Bink. The proper response to the alleged dipshit* is, “When his lips move, he’s lying; when his thumbs move, he’s lying.”
     
    *A gross insult to dipshits across our galaxy.

  102. trumpity acted the same way in the last election cycle with the cast of hundreds of repubes,  but it wasn’t quite as noticeable. It was VERY noticeable when he “debated” Hillary.  In fact, it was worse. In addition to his loud mouthed rudeness, he also stalked her.  He prowled around, menacingly behind her and beside her.

  103. My 2 cents; for all the app developers out there and folks who listen with stereo ear pieces:
    Please consider writing a small program specifically for the debates. Features should include audio with D’rump’s voice on the right and Biden’s on the left. A yuuge balance knob in the middle of the screen…

  104. Good to read you, Mx Hertz. Welcome to the Trail. Grab a hobby horse and saddle up. It’s going to be a long and bumptious ride.

  105. It’s good to see Ozzie Bill’s input again, although he’s welcome to share with us directly. 
     
    Many thanks for fwding Mr Bill to us, Ms Jamie. And, for everything else you do for us along the Trail.

  106. Mr. Woerlee has discovered the wonderful land of retirement and travels with the Mrs.  He mainly communicates with family and friends on WhatsApp (worth having as it is sort of the sane version of Facebook).  He knows the door is open when time and inclination meet.

     

  109. I’m dreaming of a Blue November,
    Just like the Roosevelts, you know.
    When the treetops glisten,
    And people listen,
    To Biden on the radio.

  111. tRUMP said last night was “fun.”  I guess that’s what a bully would think.   Changes will be made to the next debates!

  113. Ah-ha!  So that’s tRUMP’s game.  He’s afraid to debate, again, so he’s gonna fight the rule changes and try to blame no more debates on someone else.  He really is a one-trick pony.  Loser!

  114. That’s OK.  Just let Joe have town halls and folks will see he’s a smart, capable, decent human being.   Things that tRUMP is not and can’t even pretend to be. 

  116. Psst….the family is worried that Brad…..might start running off at the mouth. It’s what it is.

  119. DC Soap Opera of another more entertaining (?) kind.  Nutter Butter is a squirrel that lives in the lower reaches of the Arboretum Eagle Nest.  He comes up top to snatch a bit of food or nesting materials.  For several years, the danger has enticed viewers from around the globe.

     

  120. law & crime:

    Former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal says she has repented for her sins with Donald Trump and has “been forgiven by Jesus,” for what she says was a 10-month affair with the then-married Trump.
    In an interview on the Law&Crime Network program Brian Ross Investigates, McDougal says, “I knew it was wrong, it was a sin in God’s eyes, and yeah, I repented.”
    Asked whether she thinks Trump will also ask for God’s forgiveness, McDougal says, “I can’t say what he has and hasn’t done with his wife and his family, but I doubt it.”
    During the Presidential campaign, McDougal was paid $150,000 by the publisher of the National Enquirer not to talk about what she says was a 10-month affair with the then-married Trump in 2006-2007. The White House has denied any such affair ever took place.
    McDougal later successfully challenged the “catch and kill” contract and now says she wishes she had forgone the $150,000 and told her story to ABC News four years ago, as she had originally agreed to do.
    She agreed to answer questions for the Law&Crime Network, after new witnesses came forward with information about “religious items” she says Trump gave her as gifts, and served to corroborate her version of the relationship.
    “I just wish I had come clean in the beginning, let it out and kind of relaxed after that because it was a kind of nightmare for a while. In every sense of the word and from A to Z, it was a flat out nightmare,” she told the Law&Crime Network.
    The former playmate acknowledged her proposed interview with ABC News became “leverage” in her lawyer’s dealings with the National Enquirer publisher, American Media Inc, and then-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.
    She abruptly canceled the ABC News interview once she had signed the secret deal with AMI.
    AMI let McDougal out of her non-disclosure deal without having to repay the $150,000, says her lawyer Carol Heller, who called it a “great victory” for McDougal and America’s election process.
    […]
    Asked who she was voting for in this year’s election, McDougal said, “I think I’ll support the candidate that I feel best unifies us as a country.”
    McDougal and Heller have worked to restore McDougal’s reputation and successfully sued AMI to release McDougal from her promise of silence. But last week a judge dismissed their recent defamation lawsuit against Fox News, ruling that it was clear Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s remarks about McDougal were “rhetorical hyperbole” and “opinion commentary.”

    But the two women saw the ruling as a victory.

    “We have exposed both AMI & Fox as the fake news propaganda machines they are. Period. That’s our legacy. And I’m damn proud of it,” Heller told Brian Ross Investigates.

  121. and about those “religious items” she says Trump gave her as gifts, in the hi-lighted link above:

    When Donald Trump bought a Beverly Hills mansion in 2007, the seller, Richard Cavalli, says Trump insisted he include a metal crucifix and several other religious artifacts that had belonged to Cavalli’s elderly mother, a devout Catholic.
    “He told me it was really important to him,” Cavalli told the Law&Crime Network during an interview with Brian Ross Investigates. “Otherwise it’s a deal breaker,” he said Trump told him.
    “I thought, wow, this man is really quite a guy, he’s really religious.” said Cavalli, who vividly recalled the day Trump toured the home in advance of the sale and spotted the shrine in his mother’s bedroom.
    But it turns out what may have been really important to Trump was his alleged mistress: former Playboy Playmate of the Year, Karen McDougal. McDougal is now coming forward to confirm that Trump gave her the religious items as a gift in the middle of their affair.
    […]
    Cavalli, the man who sold the house to Trump, said he was “shocked and horrified” to learn what Trump had done with his mother’s religious artifacts. He said it was a betrayal that Trump created the false impression that he wanted a statue and crucifix because he was highly religious.

    “I feel betrayed,” Cavalli told the Law&Crime Network.

    McDougal said she was prepared to return the items to Cavalli.
    “What I thought was a beautiful gift in my eyes, as I’m learning, was actually a betrayal in somebody else’s eyes. And for that I feel bad,” she said.
    The Trump Organization sold the 809 N. Canon Dr. property in June 2019 for $13.5 million—almost twice the $7 million that was paid for it in 2007.

  122. Tim Scott isn’t going to be invited to the MLK Memorial dinner next year and will probably not be invited to the NAACP dinner either.

  123. wonder if ms mcD will return the gifts now that she knows from whence they came or will she need a promise of further dispensation before she does

  124. “Donald Trump is a master of indirection, but his game plan for an election he believes himself to be losing is clear: Overturn the game board. Scatter the pieces. Shred the scorecard.” – Brian Dickerson of The Detroit Free Press
    In other news, Joe Biden is coming to Grand Rapids, Mi. on Friday.

  126. Yep. He won’t agree to the new debate rules & blame it in everyone else.  He really wanted to debate because it was “fun” and said he got good reviews.  Right.  From whom? Poo-tin? Vlad has probably washed the orange offa his hands after last night’s meltdown.    
    Tim Scott may have cofeve if he can’t smell tRUMP’s white trash.

  127. Elizabeth Warren on MSNBC talking taxes and trumpity.
     
    My idea of cut the mics needs to change to having each of them in a sound proof booth! Biden will still be able to hear him screaming even if the mic’s cut. So it’s a sound proof booth like the old game shows. That’s appropriate since trumpity was a game show host.

Comments are closed.