Democratic Debate #1 Stream of Conciousness

The rules will be the same as last time. I'll see things, I'll say things. This time, I'll occasionally throw in time stamps, in the hopes that this will be readable this time. Also, unless this gets too long, I believe I'll just do the whole thing in one post.

The Pregame

CNN in Espanol? I hope they don't pander in Spanish as well... well, at least then I won't have to understand it!
8;05 PM: Anderson Cooper admits Democrats are boorish.
8:08 PM; "They've all come prepared." Good, then this will hopefully be better than the Republicans...
8:10 PM: A half-hour pregame? Politics really are just football for nerds.
8:13 PM: "We are just minutes away" 16 minutes is not equal to "minutes away."
8:16 PM: "The candidates are going to try to move to the left." If Bernie Sanders were any more to the left, he'd be in Nascar...
8:23 PM: "Only a few minutes away" 7 minutes is not "a few"

America Universalis IV

Unfortunately, it is, for some unknown reason, utterly impossible to embed Fox News video onto Blogger. As such, you're just going to have to click over to view this video the old fashioned way.
Luckily that means when you vomit, it won't be all over my blog.

If you didn't click over, I'll sum it up. Senator Marco Rubio, one of the many GOP candidates for president is unhappy about Russia's intervention in Syria. It seems that Senator Rubio would rather that it were American lives being wasted in the great Middle Eastern quagmire, And why is Senator Rubio so incensed about Russia's intervention in a war thousands of miles away from America's borders?

"It diminishes America's importance!"

Debate #2: Winners and Losers

As promised, and as done with the first debate, below are the ranked performances of the GOP contenders in the second main stage debate. I promise you, you likely won't believe who came out on top...

GOP Main Stage Debate #2 Stream of Consciousness Final Block

BLAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!

Women on Money
The Virgin Mary. Queen Isabel of Spain.
Best pick to Jeb: Thatcher is a decent pick.
This "nation" is shit because every woman has the right to live the life she chooses, erase the lives she doesn't, and manipulate the lives she wants.
Codenames
Son Goku
Jeb just wants Trump's approval. Hopefully when Trump gets the nomination, he'll let Bush hang out with him.

GOP Main Stage Debate #2 Stream of Consciousness Block #4

Getting bored now, but I'll hold strong!

WEED!!!
More "rule of law" bullshit. The other side won't hold to it, why should we?
The ends don't matter, so long as the means are ok.
Weed isn't just like smoking a beer, you don't get alcohol poisoning from weed.
Also, what Fiorina doesn't mention, is that her child died with drug laws in place!
Guns
And Jeb stands up for something. I'm shocked, but maybe there is a thin veneer to his conservative claim after all.
And Cruz learned to keep talking.
"Climate Change"
Phew! None of them are giving in! Whoohoo!

GOP Main Stage Debate #2 Stream of Consciousness Block #3

If you haven't figured it out by now from the two consecutive posts of babble, I'm publishing my stream of consciousness responses to the main stage GOP debate as it happens. More traditional posts will follow, but I wanted to respond to this one as it happens.

Random Middle Eastern Brigands
A good Trivial Pursuit score is not a strong country. Point Trump.
They don't recruit "Americans" Rubio, they recruit Muslims. Know the difference. (Hint, it starts at Tours.)
Spending is not equal to strength. America really does worship money.
Bush on Bush
Dude can't even lead this debate, how will he lead the world?
Trump knows the word "dais." Not so much the word "militaristic."
Low blow Trump.
I don't think Bush kept all those guys he sent to the sandbox safe.
"Haha, Walker agrees with me! Eat that Trump!" "And that matters, Jeb?"

GOP Main Stage Debate #2 Stream of Consciousness Block #2

And we're back for block #2!

Immigration
"We don't have a country" Excellent point.
The Germans could deport that many people, Christie... They could do it 70 years ago. They didn't need any fancy technology.
Dr. Carson decided it's story-time..
...Reasonable though. Do something that works.
Man, Trump sure insulted Jeb's wife by calling her a Mexican. Who in the world would want to be called that?
"We have been talking about it for 25 years" And doing what Carly?
Defending our country isn't worth hundreds of millions of dollars. - Jeb Bush
Why shouldn't the kid show you respect, Mr. Bush and ask the question in English? Oh wait, he'd have to respect you...

GOP Main Stage Debate #2 Stream of Consciousness Block #1

Walkout, Trump looks tired, Cruz personable.
Introductions
Paul seems angry in his intro. Chill bro, chill.
Huckabee, nice intro. Disarms opponents. Don't know why he doesn't poll higher.
Rubio pulling the Reagan worshippers early. Good call.
"Think of the children!" - Dr. Carson.
Conservative doesn't mean what you think it does, Mr. Bush.
Sorry Mr. Walker, Rubio beat you to the punch on Reagan. It has no power now.
Kasich, you're only the third one on this wagon. Is this the canonization of Ronald Reagan? Is Pope Francis int he audience?
Nice and punchy, well done Mr. Christie.

Trump Capituates Again

Eugene Robinson:

"Let me ask you about that Kentucky court clerk [...] now what do you think, she's refusing to grant same-sex marriage licences. She'd been ordered by a court to do it - now she's been ordered to jail. Some of your opponents are standing with her and saying she's got a right to do this. What do you think?"

...And ¡Jeb! Has Just Won the Nomination

From  MJ Lee and Chris Moody of CNN, the details of the Donald's concession of the race:

"Donald Trump has signed the pledge. The Republican presidential front-runner met privately with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus Thursday afternoon, and soon after, came out to the lobby of Trump Tower to declare that he has signed a loyalty pledge. This means Trump has promised to support the party's eventual nominee -- whoever that may be -- and that he will not run as a third-party candidate."

Trump justified this move on the rationale that "the Republican Party in recent months has been 'extremely fair' to him." Unfortunately Mr. Trump fails to realize is that it is irrelevant that the RNC is "extremely fair" now. Just ask Ron Paul.

Looks like this election is going to be a snooze after all.

Pravda on Primetime: GOP Debate Part 4

See my dissection of the first GOP debate at Parts One (Primetime) and Two (Happy Hour) of this series. See also my answers to the Happy Hour debate questions in Part Three.

In this last of Pravda Zvíťazí's four part series on the first Republican debate, I will face off against the questions posed the top tier candidates in the Primetime debate. The rules will be the same as last time:

• No time limit.
• No research.
• Words fall as they may: Spelling and omitted articles may be fixed, but what's said is said.
• Two paragraph maximum.
• Questions in quotes, my answers in bold.

That said, let's begin!

GOP Debate Part 3: Pravda's Plan for America

See my dissection of the first GOP debate at Parts One (Primetime) and Two (Happy Hour) of this series. See also my answers to the Primetime debate questions in Part Four.

As promised, and delayed, for the edification of my readership, I have decided to answer each of the questions (insofar as it makes sense for me to do so) raised in the first Republican debate. My answers will be in bold. My ground rules are as follows:

• Given that it takes much longer to type than talk, I won't be timing my answers. However, to simulate the time constraints laid upon the candidates, I will limit them to one, or at most, two paragraphs.
• The debaters spoke without the benefit of notes. So will I. There will be no links within this text. Any citations made to any sources whatsoever will thus bear an equal chance to those cited in the actual debate of being wrong, and you are perfectly welcome to tear me apart for this.
• Answers will be off the cuff. There will be no extensive editing of these paragraphs, sorting of sentences, or the like. Sufficient evidence of the above will be given by how much less polished I will sound. I'm man enough to face this.
• You do not talk about Fight Club
• Yes, I looked that last one up... rules begin now.

Happy Hour

See my dissection of the rest of the GOP debate at Part One (Primetime) of this series. See also my answers to the Happy Hour debate questions in Part Three, and the Primetime questions in Part Four.

Unlike the later debate, the format of the Happy Hour debate was much more traditional, giving each candidate a minute, rather than thirty seconds, to reply to each question, and asking more of your standard policy fare. In short, it was somewhat boring, as you can see yourself from the transcript, or any video that Fox has copyrighted down yet.

The traditional debate, like many things in our society, is a throwback to Ancient Greece. If we actually wanted to judge the comparative merits of a candidates' plans, we'd let them communicate in writing, with recourse to citations. The whole idea of debating is a leftover from an earlier time when paper was expensive and literacy rare. As such this, like many debates, suffers from being a rhetorical contest that somehow bamboozles trained politicians into thinking its dialectical.

As a result of this, I can't rank the early crowd in the same way I ranked the 9:00 debate. Everyone spoke in the same wooden political fashion that they have since the truly talented American orators went to face off with their Athenian forebears in Limbo. Any logical statements made were couched in the buried assumptions that politicians so love, and thus will only be appreciated by those who share those biases. Yours may be completely different than mine, and thus you may find my list to be ridiculous. That's fine.

As nobody stood stylistically above or below the rest, I really have no recourse but to evaluate these candidates primarily on the issues. As I stand firmly miles away from the Overton window of American politics, can hardly be seen as in away representative of the opinions of the American voter. I'll try to restrict myself to the things that really ticked me off.

Post-Debate Wrap-up

See my continued dissection of the first GOP debate at Part Two (Happy Hour) of this series. See also my answers to the Happy Hour debate questions in Part Three  Part Four.

All in all, this was a very entertaining debate. While, at times, I wondered if I had managed to pick up the Israeli Prime Minster's debate instead, and it's never fun to see that the consensus position on the Middle East is that we need to face off against ISIS and Iran AT THE SAME TIME (because strategy is unworthy of 'Murica) there were still some reasons to hope. A full ranking and discussion of the candidates follows the jump.

An Even Better Reason to Vote for Donald Trump

The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza quotes Senator John McCain:

“This performance with our friend out in Phoenix is very hurtful to me,” McCain said. “Because what he did was he fired up the crazies.”

 You, American, who want to preserve your culture, your way of life: according to Senator McCain, and the ruling class he represents, you are just plain crazy. Only nutcases like the Israelis and Hungarians would want to do something as nutzo as that!

Special Bonus: Border Fences often double as art galleries! Make up for all the cultural enrichment you're keeping out!

Always take note of what makes your enemies sweat, and then do as much of it as you can. The Queensbury rules won't cut it any more.

A Sufficient Reason to Vote for Trump...

...is that Pitbull won't. I've never understood Pitbull's market. All of his songs are about how he is awesome and travels the world picking up women. Are there really enough international playboys out there to make up a demand for his music? I just don't see it.

Nonetheless, I fail to see the moral reason why one should respect a culture that doesn't respect ones' own. Or why someone should sit passively in the face of reconquista. Respect is earned, not given.

For the moment, Donald Trump has refused to back down where everyone else has. He has shown the respect for the American lives marred by immigrant rape and murder that other politicans and Mr. Worldwide have not.