Wallace, Biden Entered Trump’s Event Horizon. They Didn’t Make It Out
In the hours ahead of the first presidential debate on Tuesday evening in the US, Joe Biden released his tax returns in a bid to capitalize on The New York Times's revelation that Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017.
The Biden family, by contrast, paid around $300,000 in 2019, or 400 times more than Trump paid during his first two years as president, if you're keeping score at home.
As the Times not-so-gently wrote ahead of the debate, "what makes the tax story
Every country gets the government it elects. Not for three-and-a-half years, but for four years. This vis-a-vis the justification in nominating a SCOTUS justice.
The president has previously been alluded to as a charlatan on these pages, Prof. H, and now as a carney barker. Not inaccurate.And after tonights spectacle, hardly disrespectful.
Pardon me. Was not Obama still president when he chose garland? What exactly are you saying because your post sounds alcoholic.
Did trump’s left eye and left side of his mouth look like it was drooping in the last 16-30 mins? Something looked strange, different.
Maybe. But Biden seemed… old. Where as Trump did seem like TRUMP. I did like that Biden told Trump to shut up. Take the gloves off. Call it what it is.
No more debates?
Hold the next two. Tell him to shut up every time. Allow him the forum to rally his base? Perhaps. But shame the rest of the electorate with a public display on the world stage. And yes, if Trump wins, we deserve it.
No one is going to come out of a debate that includes Trump and look good if they play by the rules and are nice. All told, Biden and Wallace supporters, of which there is a majority in the U.S., at least for Biden, have to be pretty solid with the dirt and slinging. The Democratic contender is one of the few who can dish toe-to-toe with Trump and not come out looking weak. The guy dished. Kudos where kudos are deserved.
We know what we’re dealing with and what the choice is. Two more debates of this nature are unwarranted. Let’s hope the parties mutually agree to call them off.
Re countries get the government they deserve, I also like the corollary: countries get the architecture they deserve.
The cognitive dissonance of people watching that with their own two eyes, taking everything else going on around now, and simultaneously deciding to be long the system (short vol) in any sense is truly a remarkable thing to behold. There are thousands of rationalizations out there, but all of them struggle to pass a basic smell test.
I’m not sure why we haven’t figured it out by now, but there is no such thing as debating with fascism. There are no shared premises. There is no basis of reciprocity or respect, no social contract, no language for it. Language itself is intentionally abused, words are used incorrectly and contradictorily.
Democrats appear to still be in denial. They want to blame everything on one or a few bad actors, and refuse to accept any responsibility for where we find ourselves. They still haven’t posed the important question: how is something like tonight even remotely possible?
I’ve resisted mentioning this before as I know it isn’t a focus of this forum and I am not interested in evangelism, but nevertheless I consider it a PSA at the current moment: watching this debate, does one still need another reason to spend some time and understand what Bitcoin is all about?
Yes it is complicated and yes there are risks, but the risk/reward set up right now is very compelling, all the more so given the ‘uncompensated’ risks of being long the current system.
I clocked out at 15 minutes because life is too short for such chaotic nonsense. Through no fault of his own, Chris Wallace achieved his goal of invisibility.
Joe Biden should not waste time or energy on more such “debates.”
You end the post with the perfect sentence/thought. I kept thinking last night that we collectively failed as a nation, our parties, institutions, leaders and the citizens as a whole, there is no returning back to a civic and intelectual debate of ideas. American exceptionalism is defunct.
What is American exceptionalism? If you are born with a silver spoon in your mouth and you still have it when you are 30, are you exceptional.
I’ve heard a lot of “why don’t they just turn off their mics when it’s not their turn” today. The reason is two-fold. 1 – It wouldn’t make for very good TV and these broadcasters need to bring in those sweet, sweet advertising dollars. 2 – These chumps don’t actually have anything to say. Who among us really thinks either of these clowns could speak intelligently for 15 minutes about….anything? When they cut each other off neither has to say anything. I have no doubt in my mind that every reader of this site personally knows a dozen people who are more intelligent and well-reasoned than these schmucks. It’s embarrassing. I suggest that instead of watching the next debate everybody just does a YouTube search for Andrew Yang and listens to him be smart for a while.
I’d put the over/under a lot higher than a dozen 🙂
2 Fox print articles and 2 National Review articles first thing this morning told me it did not go well for Trump.
Even the N.Y. Post was unkind to him.
Who would want to defend/debate, a have and have not economy and a bungled Covid response.
Besides a tax cut for those that do not need it, aTrade War with no allies and an enforcement of anti-science world view what does 4 years have to show us?
He is a desperate man. His family, creditors and the Tax Man are something anyone would want at bay by any means possible.
He needs 4 years far more than the world does of him.
But I am from N.Y., every time I think I heard the last of that trust fund kid from the wrong side of the river he has a new act. Always an act, an angle, something bright and shiny. Roy Cohn died as the wolves were scratching through the door. He did not have to care. Donald was deprived of the full lesson. Or he becomes a despot. Now that would be something. I hope the young hot-heads do not ruin their own lives for this man. He evidently reached out to them.
I bailed after two minutes. It was so painful. Should have stuck it out. Happy to read you take. It is going to be a wild ride. I live in the heart of Trump country PA. There is nothing anyone can say to sway the true believers. I respect their option, but … I hope our country’s institutions can take the beating. If it gets tied up in the courts, then hello President Pelosi in January. Not that I want that either, but I would take it.