Ms Soapbox has the flu and missed Thanksgiving dinner last night with her family and friends.
She stayed home and watched the second Presidential debate. It almost finished her off.
But even in her foggy state of mind Ms Soapbox couldn’t help but notice that Mr Trump is a peevish, unapologetic lout.
Sorry? Who me?
It took a nanosecond for the moderators to turn to Mr Trump’s vulgar comments about women. You know the ones I mean, the ones associated with Mr Trump’s droit du seigneur because he’s a TV star.
It quickly became apparent that Mr Trump was not going to apologise—he’d apologised on Facebook and made his wife say nice things about him so he was done.
Instead:
- He pointed the finger of shame at Bill Clinton. Would someone please tell Trump that “he did it too” is not an excuse used by grownups and Bill isn’t running for president, Trump is.
- He called it “locker room talk”. This doesn’t make it any more acceptable. What he described in his “locker room talk” is called “sexual assault” in a court room.
- He said he wasn’t “proud” of what he said (really?) and then pivoted to ISIS chopping off heads and drowning people in steel cages. Okay, I’ll give him that one: ISIS is worse than Donald Trump.
- He tossed in a gratuitous reference to other nations taking our jobs and our wealth…wait, what? Was that Trump’s version of yelling “squirrel”?
- He said he has “great respect” for women…while at the same time pacing around behind Clinton, crowding her space and looming over her. That’s not a sign of respect; it’s intimidation.
They’re picking on me
Trump wasn’t just ticked off with Clinton, he was annoyed with the moderators Martha Raddatz and Anderson Cooper as well.
While Raddatz and Cooper were pressing Clinton about the missing emails and what Bill Clinton meant when he said Obamacare was the craziest thing in the world, Trump was timing Hillary’s response. He wasted minutes of valuable air time complaining that the moderators let Clinton go past her alloted two minutes. At one point he was so disgusted with the moderators that he grumbled “It’s nice—it’s one (Trump) on three (Clinton, Raddatz and Anderson).” No doubt this is part of the “it’s rigged” rationale he’s going to roll out when he loses.
***
Ms Soapbox wasn’t really on her game last night, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Mr Trump is not fit for public office.
Not to worry. Trump has a Plan B. The Economist recently reported Trump is thinking about starting a “mini-media conglomerate”, a cross between Fox and Breitbart News.
Oh joy, something else to watch when you’re down with the flu.
Susan on the Soapbox 
Soooo sorry you’re sick! I hope you feel better soon, Susan.
Sick or well, you have the knack for telling it like it is.
I wasn’t seriously hoping for a thoughtful and civil debate but I would have been pleasantly surprised to have heard one.
Thanks for this blog, Susan, and get well soon.
Thanks Jill. I agree, none of us expected a thoughtful debate, but this one was so over the top it makes your head spin. Sarah Kendzior wrote an excellent piece for the Globe & Mail about it. She quoted Maya Angelou who said people will forget what you said but they won’t forget how you made them feel when you said it. Kendzior said Trump made everyone feel gross, and sad, and scared. She was right. Here’s the link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/it-doesnt-matter-who-won-the-debate-america-has-already-lost/article32314064/
Sorry you’re ill … Trump makes even well people ill.
Maybe there are some locker rooms where this kind of talk happens … in High School. But from someone with aspirations to live & work in the White House? Beyond the pale.
Jerrymacgp: The comparison to a high school locker room is very apt. I suspect we’ll see an even baser Trump now that he’s been disowned by Paul Ryan and other Republicans. John Ibbitson writing in the Globe & Mail said “for all intents and purposes, Mr Trump is no longer the Republican Party’s nominee, which appears to suit him just fine. He has become the candidate of the alt-right movement…” When Trump goes down he’ll take the GOP with him.
Jerrymacgp: The comparison to a high school locker room is very apt. I suspect we’ll see an even baser Trump now that he’s been disowned by Paul Ryan and other Republicans. John Ibbitson writing in the Globe & Mail said “for all intents and purposes, Mr Trump is no longer the Republican Party’s nominee, which appears to suit him just fine. He has become the candidate of the alt-right movement…” When Trump goes down he’ll take the GOP with him.
Sorry to hear you are ill! but are you sure you didn’t get nauseous and ill AFTER watching Trump?
I know that’s when I started to feel really queasy and found that I felt like tossing my cookies. Only by reassuring myself that, no, there’s no way this will really happen, and then taking many medications to calm down, did I start to feel better…..seriously, though, there was one American basketball player who tweeted that he’d been in locker rooms all his life but never heard talk like that. This TrumpMenace simply has to be stopped and your ability to capture the details and the mood even when you’re down is really awesome. Here’s hoping you are back on your feet very soon!!
Thanks Liane…if just watching Trump on TV makes us sick can you imagine what it’s like to be Hillary Clinton and to have to engage in a “debate” with that man. Shudder. I ran out of steam before I could comment about the other things Trump said, but his response to the Muslim woman really troubled me. She talked about Islamophobia and asked how he would “help people like me deal with the consequences of being labeled as a threat to the country after the election is over”. He turned the question around on her saying Muslims had to report problems or it would be a “very difficult situation for our country”. In other words he’d do nothing to protect Muslims from being labeled terrorists and if Muslims didn’t turn each other in there would be consequences…like what, moving all Muslims into a “gated community” for their own “safety”? He’s sickening.
Glad to see you’re not too sick to climb up on that soapbox Susan. The above Trump photo says it all–goes well with that piggy pout of his that’s enough to make anyone nauseous, not to mention his blatant bullying and simple-minded stupidity. If I were American and had to summarize, in three words, why I’d never vote for Trump I’d say TRUMP HATES WOMEN. My heart goes out to those millions of Americans who fear for their country.
Hope you’re better today!
Judy, well put. We don’t need to go back 11 years to get a fix on what Trump really thinks of women. Last September he slammed Carly Fiorina by saying: “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president? I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not s’posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?” Last April he tweeted: “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America #MakeAmericaGreatAgain.” (he took down the post but thanks to the beauty of social media we have all this stuff on record).
It is a mystery to me why any woman in her right mind would continue to support him.
Apparently a month ago Susan Sarandon was more scared of Ms.Clinton than Mr.Drumpf… I wonder if that has changed since.
Seriously though, it seems to me that the laundry list of nefarious things Ms.Clinton has allegedly been involved with ought to disqualify her for the position of POTUS every bit as much as the puerile behaviors of Mr.Trump.
It seems likely to me that the reason these two were offered up as candidates in the first place is because while the ‘establishment’ really want Ms.Clinton (she is already deep in their pockets) for their puppet, they figured that they can easily handle Mr.Drumpf since he speaks the language of ‘Money Talks’; Bernie Sanders was merely a means for ‘them’ to get clearer pictures of exactly who ‘they’ are up against. Worked like a charm too, at first. The problem ‘they’ have run into with this cunning plan is that now it is beginning to dawn on ‘them’ that Mr.Drumpf is, to be blunt, bat guano crazy, so ‘they’ aren’t so sure anymore that ‘they’ can rein in such a loonie narcissist.
Where does that leave the poor USean voter?
Election 2016, the year of the Write-In!
GoinFwar: that’s an interesting solution to a difficult problem, the write-in candidate. Seems to me things are going to get a whole lot worse in the US before they get any better. One commentator suggested that if Hillary wins she should put some Republicans into key government posts. All that would do is confirm the public’s sense that it really doesn’t matter who is in charge; at the end of the day, they all take care of their corporate sponsors. I’m hoping that the fact Bernie Sanders got as far as he did wakes Americans up to the fact that a so-called socialist candidate would be a good thing for them and the country.
Susan, hope you are fighting fit soon!
Carol
Thanks Carol!
Most of the crimes HRC is being accused of have been manufactured by the Republicans. With Trump, on the other hand, you can’t make that stuff up. This election is great reality entertainment TV but is playing directly into the hands of every authoritarian right-wing party in Europe. Democracy is a joke at best and chaos at worst.
An absolutist’s democracy might be worth a scary clown chuckle, but in the real world the ideology has provided/provides the basis for some of the most successful, decent societies ever to have existed. Surely you’re not implying that the current political farce taking place in the US is the only representative of it?
Anyway, in lieu of a constitutionally mitigated social democracy, what system would you suggest is better?
I also hold out hope for democracy because it has never been tried. What we have is a voting system.
Well put Carlos. What should we call the American system? After Trump’s comment last night in the debate about keeping everyone in suspense about whether he’ll accept the election results I’m at a loss for words.
Well put Carlos. What should we call the American system? After Trump’s comment last night in the debate about keeping everyone in suspense about whether he’ll accept the election results I’m at a loss for words.
I am sorry Susan. As usual I talked and talked but did not reply to your question. It is called political passion!! 🙂 Yes I have been declared Insane.
What do I call the American System? A badly managed circus. It reminds me of the old Democratic Republic of Germany – they have the control of the elites and they have their Stasi. The difference is a business like attitude of allowing elections which the East Germans did not have the brains to do because they were mentored by the very politically savvy Russians 🙂 🙂
Based on this presidential election I’d have to agree with Blog Fodder, but I continue to hold out hope for democracy.
Susan,
I am one hundred percent ears for anyone who has a better idea
Truly,
GoinFawr
Well Susan I believe I have said many times in this blog that it is naïve to think that we are forever stable. You can ask many people in the world, including myself, what it takes to go from where we are in Canada to instability or even war? Not much unfortunately. It seems impossible but even Canada had a touch of it during the Quebec uprising.
Syria for years and years in the 70s infiltrated Lebanon and was the major contributor to the Lebanese civil war in 1975. Now they have the same in return. The US has been creating havoc around the world since the Second World War under false pretenses. I am not surprised that their internal situation is deteriorating. One just has to know History to figure out how these events happen.
I have no doubts that Trump and for that matter everyone in the extreme right wing, is capable of creating problems for the US. The only good thing about him is that he does not seem of a strong character to sustain his beliefs. He goes where it smells of money and there are enough of those in the Republican party to shut him up with a good donation. The US has all the expertise in this subject.
I personally do not like either one of them. I hope I am wrong and Hillary Clinton does a great job, but I would not bet a cent on it. The descent will continue. Hard to stop the fall of another Empire, especially when a person like Putin is watching on the sidelines. The Russians are experts on the last stab in the back. 🙂
Carlos, just to pick up on your point about how quickly a country can slide into instability and war, I’m reading Team of Rivals at the moment. It covers Lincoln’s political career. I didn’t realize this but it only took about four or five months for the US to slide into the Civil War. Lincoln was elected President in Nov 1860 and by the time he was inaugurated in Mar 1861 seven slave states seceded from the Union. When Trump says he’s going to think about whether he’ll accept the results of the election and his lunatic supporters say if Hillary is elected she needs to be “taken out” and they justify that by saying they are being “patriots”, it’s absolutely terrifying.
As you said, we could be sitting here with front row seats at the fall of another Empire.