One thing Trump could do to guarantee his election

Before I get to that... Yesterday I churlishly remarked on the resemblance between the physiognomy of Tampon Tim Walz and that of Rugor Nass, the boss of the underwater kingdom of Otoh Gunga, in the first episode of Star Wars. But I failed to notice how much Senator J.D. Vance looks like a fomer Republican president.

Yes, campers, it's President U.S. Grant! Thanks to Bill O'Reilly for point this out. If you're running for the presidensity, it's good to look presidential, as does the man who would rise to the position if (God forbid!) anything should happen to President Trump.

Before Senile Joe was forced by the Obama cabal to step down, questions were being raised about whether the Donald was all that sharp and fit for office. He says he's in good physical and mental health, and his doctors say the same, but there are skeptics. And it cannot be denied that Mr Trump is getting up in years. He's nearly as old as Walt!

Agent 3 has put his legal mind to work and has come up with a surefire response to those who worry that the cheese might slip off President Trump's cracker sometime over the next 52 months. What he should do (3 says) is, at his next rally, read aloud the following pledge.

"I, Donald Jonathan Trump, being of sound mind and recognizing my human frailty, hereby pledge that, in the event of physical and/or mental infirmity rendering me, in the opinion of my Cabinet and advisors, unfit to carry out the duties of President of the United States of America, I will immediately resign and hand the Office of President over to Vice-President J.D. Vance. So help me God."

He should then sign the document with a flourish [not a pen? Ed.], hand it to Senator Vance, and post it publicly. That should shut reassure the doubtful and shut the naysayers up. Readers are welcome to foward this post to President Trump, with our best wishes.

Walt reviews the Great Veep Debate

Poor Len Canayen and I watched last night’s vice-presidential debate between Senator J.D. Vance and Governor Tim Walz, and I want you to know we gave up a pretty scrappy game between the Habs and the Ottawa Senators to do so. We were hoping for a good scrap between J.D. and Mr Awalz, but were surprised when it turned out to be a pretty good -- and reasonably cordial -- debate.

No knock-out punches were thrown. There wasn't even a little light sparring. In fact, issues and ideas were put forward, some concessions were made, and a certain level of agreement was reached on a couple of topics. My overall impression was that these candidates for the second-highest office in the Excited States of America looked and sounded far more worthy than the two we saw last month.

Some of you are going to hate me for this [As if you care. Ed.] but I want to start with appearances. Elections aren't supposed to be beauty contests, eh, but people do make judgments like "He looks like the kind of guy you could have a beer with" or "I just can't see him/her as [fill in office]."

Tampon Tim, with his jowls and wide mouth turned down at the corners, reminds me of Rugor Nass, the boss of the underwater kingdom of Otoh Gunga, in the first episode of Star Wars. Sorry. Senator Vance, with his square jaw, neatly trimmed beard and perfect-but-not-too-perfect hair, is straight out of Central Casting.

OK, forget about that. Once you stopped looking and started listening, the match became more even. The two men spent more time attacking the other's running mate than each other during 90-plus minutes. Governor Walz had a shaky start but hit his stride when talking about abortion and the so-called "Capitol riot". Overall, though, Senator Vance came off as the better-prepared and more polished public speaker. The consensus of even the lickspittle media is that he was the winner in a relatively clean and friendly contest.

Both candidates tried to portray themselves as down-home boys. (Arentcha sick and tired of "I was raised in a middle-class family."?) Mr Walz, with all his talk of "my farmers" and "we grow corn and soybeans", over-egged the custard. Mr Vance did better with his stories of the problems of his family and other real people that will be remembered from his book.

Senator Vance seemed much more comfortable. His answers were smooth, and relentlessly on-message, constantly reminding the audience that for all of Vice-President Harris's promises, Democrats have held the White House for the past three and a half years and have done next to nothing about the problems which the Cackler now says she has a plan to fix. "If Kamala Harris has such great plans for how to address middle class problems," he said, "then she ought to do them now."

If Senator Vance was picked because he puts ideological meat on the bones of President Trump's conservative populism, on Tuesday night he put a polite, humble face on them, as well. One of his better lines was, "Something these guys do is they make a lot of claims about if Donald Trump becomes president, all of these terrible consequences are going to ensue. But in reality, Donald Trump was president. Inflation was low. Take-home pay was higher." 

It wasn't long before the CBS wimmin moderators violated their own rules and started in fact-checking Mr Vance. At one point, the microphones of both candidates were temporarily muted. But for the most part, the exchanges on stage were even-tempered. Indeed, there were several moments when the two men agreed on issues, if not on how the issues should be dealt with. Toward the end, Gov. Walz said, "There’s a lot of commonality here."

There was, however, an unpleasant moment when Timmy said the only reason Mike Pence was not at the podium occupied by Senator Vance was that he certified President Joe Biden’s victory, for which Republicans wanted to hang him!  Mr Vance missed a golden opportunity to reply that the only reason Mr Walz was the Democratic candidate is that Ms Harris didn't want a Jew as a running mate, for fear of blowing [Geddit? Ed.] the Arab-Muslim vote.

That said, Mr Walz showed some of the mid-western charm -- he knows which end of the straw to put in his mouth -- that the Dimocrats hope will counter the Cackler's California brass. He didn't do the Dems any harm. 

Senator Vance's strong showing is likely to convince a lot of those precious undecided voters, and boost Republicans polling numbers in the days ahead. Moreover, his polished and relatable performance may well convince members of the GOP that the junior senator from Ohio -- two decades younger than Timmy -- has a future in national conservative politics, no matter what happens on the Day of Reckoning. Ed. is already composing a headline on the theme of "Vance ascendant".

In conclusion, I'll repeat what I wrote about 24 hours ago. When you vote, you're electing not just a president, but the person who will succeed her/him in the event of his/her death. Which of these men would you trust to sit in the Oval Office, with his hands on the levers of power? Well???

MUSIC VIDEOS: By request from Governor Timmy Awalz

This is a very special day for Tampon Tim. He became familiar with this tune while teaching in the People's Republic of China in 1989. He apparently still has fond memories of those days, for he still supports Communist policies like unrestricted abortion and abolition of private gun ownership. If Timmy has his way, one day such progressive policies will be in force -- and I do mean force -- in the US of A.

I'm having trouble imagining the Star Spangled Banner played on Chinese instruments. However, Ed. has located this video of an American high school band -- not sure if they're in Minnesota or somewhere else -- learning to play the Chinese anthem.

 

Dear American readers, you'll get a chance to hear more about what Mr Awalz and the Cackler have in mind for your country tonight at 2100 EDT, when the No. 2 Democrat faces off against Senator J.D. Vance in the Great Veep Debate. 

As you listen, think about this. When you vote, you're electing not just a president, but the person who will succeed her/him in the event of his/her death. Which of these men would you trust to sit in the Oval Office, with his hands on the levers of power? Well???

Even-greater Debate upcoming: Pope Francis vs Jesus

"Pope Challenges Jesus To Debate On Whether All Religions Lead To God"

C'mon, you know it's gotta be from the Babylon Bee, right? The Bee is "your trusted source for Christian satire". 

Excerpt: "I heard Jesus said something bigoted about 'no one coming to the Father except through me', and ugh - that's just so exclusionary! So, I've challenged God Incarnate to a debate so I can teach Him a thing or two about how people come to God."

Serious note from Ed.: Those who don't get this are invited to read the Gospel of St. John, 14:6 - "Jesus saith to him: I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me." That's what Catholics believe.

Key moment from the Not-so-great Debate

Scraped from Patriot Post

VIDEO: Trump's excellent closing statement, analysis from Fox

The lickspittle media would have you believe that the Not-so-great Debate (reviewed by Walt on 11/9/24) was a disaster for President Trump. It's true he rose to just about every worm from the bucket of bait thrown out by the Cackler, assisted by her prompters at the mods desk. He allowing himself to be distracted to the point where his own message got lost in the rebuttals. 

However, the once and future POTUS came on strong at the last moment. His closing statement drew an ah-mazing 17.6 million views on TikTok! In this video from Fox News, the "Outnumbered" panelists talk about why this short statement eclipsed in impact all that went before it.

Indeed. These few sentences from the Donald counteracted the liberal party line (read: party lie) that Hock Ptui "revealed her plan" to "turn the page and go forward." As President Trump said, "Why didn't she do it?!"

Normally, the candidate who supposedly won the debate could expect a bump in the polls of around 2 percent. Didn't happen! As Breitbart News revealed yesterday, Mr Trump saw his numbers in the battleground states by about 2 points. The polling memo obtained by BN shows him leading the former "Border Czar" (although she still denies that) by three points, 50%-47%, in a head-to-head ballot.

The fact that the Harris campaign is pushing for a rematch shows that they recognize that President Trump was the actual winner, no matter what the lickspittle media say. Isn't always the loser who requests the do-over? 

Why should DJT go back into the ring on the enemy's turf, alone against a team of three or more mouthpieces for the radical left? Walt says: 99% of voters (including the illegals who are going to stuff the mailboxes and ballot boxed with Dimocrat votes) have made up their minds. Enough Sturm und Drang. Could we just have some peace and quiet until the Day of Reckoning.

Footnote: Walt was glad to hear the reference, near the beginning of the video, to the victories of the AfD in Germany. Read "Good news from Occupied Germany", WWW 31/8/24.

Further reading: "Why the Debate May Not Matter at All" - Joel B. Pollak, Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News, reviews the Not-so-great Debate.

Walt reviews the Not-so-great Debate: SSDD

Yeah, I watched it -- all of it -- the made-for-TV event that the legacy media talking heads called, even before it started, "the first and probably the only" debate between President Trump and Vice-President Harris. They were that scared that the Cackler was going to crash and burn. She didn't.

[Is that it? We need at least 500 more words. Ed.] OK. Please understand that I'm doing this, deliberately, before reading or listening to any commentary from anywhere, not even Breitbart. My unvarnished, uninfluenced opinion is that the Great Debate was just Sturm und Drang -- full of sound and fury signifying nothing. In in other words: SSDD -- Same Shit Different Day.

We were told by the lickspittle media that the event would be a good chance for Ms Harris to let the public get to know her, and, more importantly, put forward some policy ideas, of which her campaign had been noticeably bereft. I heard exactly two.

For the first 20 minutes or so, she was visibly and audibly nervous, but she did manage to trot out two promises: a tax break or grant or something of $6000 for new families, and some kind of financial support for small business. She didn't say whether a start-up would have to pass the DEI test to get the help. But she made both promises twice, so maybe that counts as four. I don't know.

After that, Ms Harris got more comfortable, cackling only once, although to be fair it was more like a giggle. She defaulted to her role as prosecutor, determined to make hard the way of the Orange Transfressor.

She trotted out all the lies, all the canards, all the rumours, all the innuendo she could think of or was programmed to say. It was all there: J6 - born with a silver spoon - Charlottesville - Project 2025 - national abortion ban - responsible for wards in Afghanistan and Ukraine - and (of course) "convicted felon".

All untrue or partly true, but neither of ABC's totally biased moderators was going to fact-check her, as they tried to do with President Trump. But the strategy was clear: throw as much mud as you can at the Orange Man and make him scrape it off. 

And it worked. Mr Trump took the bait every time, and was so busy defending himself that he didn't land any heavy blows on his opponent. When he did come close, on the abortion issue for instance, the obviously biased moderators answered on the Cackler's behalf.

The first rebuttal came from Linsey Davis, the one wearing white-face makeup. After Mr Trump said some Democrats support executing babies after they are born, Ms Davis replied, "There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born," which is not what Mr Trump said, not at all. Ms Davis then quickly changed the subject, moving on to the next question.

The immoderate moderator David Muir intervened more times than did Ms Davis. It was he, not Ms Harris, who pushed back on Trump’s claim that Haitian migrants are eating dogs in Springfield OH. [Aha! Now we know what that meme was about! Ed.] Mr Muir said ABC News had looked into the claim, and had been told by Springfield's City Manager that "there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community." 

That's what politicians, bureaucrats, and sports referees always say about inconvenient truths, "Well, we didn't see it." To which normal people reply, "Are you fucking blind?!" Mr Trump was more polite, saying only "I've seen people on television."

In another exchange, Mr Muir told President Trump, "The FBI says overall violent crime is actually coming down in this countr." Mr Trump said that claim was "fraud", just like the Democrats' inflated numbers of jobs created, and deflated numbers of illegal immigrants ruining the country. 

On that point... Walt's greatest disappointment was Mr Trump's failure -- he was too busy swatting away the moderator flies -- to ask the Cackler if, in her time as Border Czar, she ever once visited the border. I'd like to have heard her (or Mr Muir) answer that one.

Mr Muir also tackled President Trump's assertion that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Mr Muir offered a "clarification", saying that Mr Trump and his allies brought some 60 lawsuits and "many" judges said "there was no widespread [sic] fraud." So that's OK then.

On behalf of Ms Harris, Mr Muir also asked about a recent comment in which Mr Trump said he "lost by a whisker." President Trump replied that he made the comment "sarcastically, you know that." Mr Muir said he watched the videos and "I didn’t detect the sarcasm." Again, normal people might say otherwise.

But Mr Muir wouldn't give up. He passed the ball to the wide received, saying to Ms Harris, "You heard the President there tonight. He said he didn’t say that he lost by a whisker. So he still believes he did not lose the election that was won by President Biden and yourself." 

President Trump appeared to want to move. "We have so many facts and statistics, but you know what? That doesn’t matter, because we have to solve the problem that we have right now. That’s old news." And so it was. SSDD.

In summary, last night President Trump marched into the lions' den, the Dimocratic stronghold of Philthydelphia, to do battle with a well-coached opponent (fresh from a week in debate camp), whose only strategy (honed to perfection by the late Great Democrat LBJ) was to tear him apart. 

The Cackler was assisted by not one but two clearly biased moderators, who actually competed with her to see who could land the knock-out blow. Despite the 3-to-1 odds, President Trump emerged largely unscathed. The only damage done was to the principles of fair debate and free speech.

Further reading: "Trump debates ABC News", by Daniel Greenfield, Front Page Magazine, 11/9/24.

While we're waiting... Trump takes the lead

Walt is busily checking out his TV setup to make sure he'll be able to see tomorrow night's Clash of the Titan and the Titty on ABC-TV, the network once famous for Wide Wide World of Sports (how appropriate for a political debate), and now well known for being 100% trustworthy in all matters political. Depending, of course, on who's doing the trusting.

The ABC TV guide listing for the Great Debate says: "Convicted felon lies repeatedly defending himself against attack by champion of truth, justice and diversity. Hilarity ensures." 

While you're waiting for the barrel o' laughs to begin, you might get a chuckle out of this item: "Harris Campaign Admits Tim Walz Was The Only Candidate That Answered Their Craigslist Ad"... from our friends at the Babylon Bee, of course.

The Harris campaign team won't see the humour in that story, as they contemplate the latest results from the Daily Mail election prediction model. As they reported today, the latest polls have tilted in President Trump's direction, giving him a decisive lead over the Cackler the day before they go head to head on the debate stage.

The algorithms show the Donald with a 55% chance of being re-elected, a 4.5-point boost since last week. Today's result comes hard on the heels of a New York Times/Siena College poll giving Mr Trump a one-point lead at the weekend. Will the debate make any difference? We'll see. Is it likely to be entertaining. Absolutely!

Babylon Bee leaks questions from CNN Harris-Walz interview

Ed. here. This is just too good for us too excerpt, but we can't simply repost the whole article, so here... read it for yourself. 

And while we're at `er, here's a terrific "separated at birth?" picture scraped from Blazing Cat Fur.

And yeah... Walt admits that he's too tired today to write anything. He's still recovering from that trip to the West Coast.

VIDEO: Harris vs Harris: The Great Debate

In this official Trump campaign ad, the Cackler is shown debating herself on issues involving the economy and "Bidenomics". Additional commentary was compiled by Sky News Australia.

   

Walt's comment (explaining previous post): "Joy to the World" is a Christmas carol, not a plan for saving our sock society from the mess created by liberal wokesters in Washington, London, Ottawa etc etc.

VIDEO: This is not a "cheap fake"; this is real!

Ad released by the Trump campaign a couple of hours after the so-called debate ended.

   

Even the White House's DEI press secretary abandoned the "cheap fake" defence before the evening was over. 

This is real. If you vote for Senile Joe -- you wouldn't really do that, would you? -- this is who you'll put in charge of America's future for the next four years... or possibly less. Don't say you weren't warned.

VIDEOS: Dems in damage control after debate disaster

It wasn't a good night for Sleepy Joe Biden. In spite of having everything set up to give him an advantage -- unfriendly network and hosts, no audience, only one live mic at a time, etc -- he has been revealed as not just "sleepy", but suffering from senile dementia. Millions of people must be saying "I didn't realize it was that bad."

Before we get to the videos, a comment about the debate as a whole. The strictures imposed by the Democrats and the format notwithstanding, it wasn't as bad as I anticipated. The anchors refrained from arguing with the candidates, and only pointed out that they weren't answering the questions a couple of times.

The anchors needed some coaching on the rules of order. In a proper debate of this kind, you put a question or a proposition to one party, let him answer, then let the other party reply. The first party might get a rebuttal, and that closes the topic. What you don't do -- as was done to President Trump twice -- is to pose a different question instead of letting him challenge the first speaker's answer.

Not a big deal, really, because the candidates stopped answering questions (or even pretending to do so) almost from the get-go. They had talking points they wanted to get out -- President Brandon even told us the number, "1 - 2 - 3" several times -- and said what they wanted, no matter what question was asked. After a while, the moderators didn't even bother to ask questions at times.

The "debate" -- quote marks are appropriate here -- wasn't really about the issues anyway. It was about image, about which one had the alertness, confidence and mental acuity required of someone who aspires to be the leader of the free world.  

That, dear readers, is where Joe Biden let himself and his party down. And badly! President Trump repeatedly attacked President Biden on the economy and his foreign policy record, while the latter took aim at his rival's criminal conviction and alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election. 

The candidates accused each other of lying, and both were right. But the Donald was in "rally mode" -- as if addressing a friendly audience -- whereas Senile Joe gave a performance which can be called stumbling, at best. Democrats expressed concern at the President's weakness, with party insiders saying his early answers triggered panic. His supporters told the BBC his campaign team overworked the president -- a week of rest at Camp David is tough, eh -- and senior White House officials said they are meeting to discuss options. 

OK, let's go to some video. You've probably already seen this first one. President Biden opened the debate with a raspy voice and disjointed, rambling answers, reigniting Democratic concerns about his age and cognitive ability. Many of his answers were hard to follow. At one point, seemingly losing his train of thought, Brandon says, "we finally beat Medicare," -- his own policy on earned benefits. 

 

In text messages with Politico, Democrats expressed confusion and concern as they watched the first minutes of the event. One former Biden White House and campaign aide called it "terrible", adding that they have had to ask themselves over and over "What did he just say? This is crazy." 

But wait (as Vince Offer used to day), there's more! Here are some highlights [or lowlights? Ed.] from Sky News Australia.

   

And, from the same source, here's what you didn't see....

   

Cue the Warner Bros cartoon finish: Th-the-th-the-th-the... that's all folks! As in, the election is over. Joe Biden lost, right there. Walt's lifetime pct .987.

Further reading: 

"NYT editorial board calls on Biden to drop out". By Lauren Irwin, on The Hill, 28/6/24. Thanks to BCF.

And from the Babylon Bee: "Trump Indicted For Murdering Elderly Man On CNN", 27/6/24. Hilarious!

When Trump and Biden meet to debate

Ed. here. Now that Walt has his garden in, he will have more time to spend on WWW. Today, however, his sole message is: If you're thinking of planting sunchokes... DON'T.

Further reading: "Will the Biden-Trump Debates Even Matter?", by Matthew Confinetti, in  The Patriot Post, 18/5/24.

VIDEO: Canadian Election: The Great Non-Debate - Part 3

Further to Walt's two earlier posts, here's a discussion of last night's debate farce. Lauren Chen talks with David Freiheit, creator of the Viva PPC YouTube channel, and Maxime Bernier, leader of the People's Party of Canada.

 

Max was lucky, IMHO, to have been excluded from this week's gong show. And now he's doubly lucky to have this opportunity to answer, without interruption, the arguments, calumnies and outright lies of the lickspittle media. Thanks to all those involved.

UPDATED: Emergency debate on holding another election

A week ago, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked the Supreme Court to hear an emergency appeal challenging the election results in Pennsylvania, contending that hearing the appeal "would be an important step in helping rebuild confidence in the integrity of our democratic system." 

"Today, an emergency appeal was filed in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the election results in Pennsylvania," said Sen. Cruz. "This appeal raises serious legal issues, and I believe the Court should hear the case on an expedited basis." On Monday, he volunteered to argue the case for the appellants, if they wished. 

Not waiting to see if SCOTUS would "grant cert" (certiorari) in that case, the State of Texas last night filed a lawsuit directly with the Supreme Court challenging the election procedures in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on the grounds that they violate the Constitution. 

Texas argues that these states violated the Electors Clause of the Constitution because they made changes to voting rules and procedures through the courts or through executive actions, but not through the state legislatures.

Additionally, Texas argues that there were differences in voting rules and procedures in different counties within the states, violating the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. 

Finally, Texas argues that, as a result of the illegal changes to voting procedures, there were "voting irregularities" -- putting it mildly -- in those states. 

So it would seem that, one way or another, the Supreme Court is going to have to examine the results of the deeply flawed 2020 election, whether the Democrats and their sycophants in the controlled media like it or not. 

The prospect of a redo looms sufficiently large to provoke a debate at an emergency meeting of the Mudge Country Current Affairs and Historical Society, of which Walt happens to be Recording Secretary. Here are the minutes of last night's meeting, held in the Naughty Pine Room of the Paris Hilton. [The Paris in America, not the French one. Ed.]

The special general meeting of the MCCAHS was convened on December 7th, 2020 (the 79th anniversary of Pearl Harbour), with Ms Cordelia Weatherbee in the chair. 

Mr Whiteman read the minutes of the previous meeting at which it was decided that the situation created by the recent elections demanded that every citizen bend his thoughts to the question of how the parties should conduct themselves in the next critical few months, after which coffee and sandwiches were served. 

Moved by Mrs Chodinecki, seconded by Dr McInerney, that the minutes be accepted as read. Carried. Mrs Chodinecki said she would also like to say a special word of thanks to the ladies of the CWL (of which she is President) for the coffee and sandwiches. Carried. 

Wilson Huang moved, seconded by our local Rep. Algonquin J. Calhoun, that a telegram be sent to Joe Biden urging him to take all precautions, between now and January 20th, to avoid tripping over his dog again or otherwise imminentizing his demise, which would lead to a constitutional crisis over whether a Vice-President could be sworn in to replace a President who had not been sworn in.

As President of the VU (Vizmins United) of Mudge County, Mr Huang said he felt sure the people weren't psychologically or financially ready for another election. In his own case, Mr Huang continued, he had been called upon during the recent electoral activity by the representatives of both parties and (looking at Mr Calhoun) one Independent, for donations of fortune cookies to be served at coffee parties (of not more than 10). As a result, he expected his fortune-cookie account to be in a deficit position for at least six months.

Johnny Crapaud rose -- just barely -- on a point of order, calling the motion gratuitous, ill-considered, insulting, inflammatory, irrelevant, immaterial and ridiculous, not to mention uncalled for an unnecessary. That being the case, he said, copies should be sent to both Mr Biden and President Trump. Mr Crapaud was ruled out of order, as indeed he was, in all respects.

Mr Calhoun said he craved the indulgence of the chair to say a few words in behalf of the proposition to which he, along with Mr Huang, the distinguished restauranteur, had lent their names and for which they were desirous of the widest expression of support. (Not for nothing is Mr Calhoun known as "the golden-voiced tribune of the prairie".) 

Mr Calhoun said that he, as a responsible statesman, was keen to see the electoral impasse cleared away so that a great nation might not be impeded in any way in its inexorable march toward the sunny uplands of a brighter tomorrow. Nevertheless, he recognized it as his bounden duty, having offered himself for yet another two years, not to stop one day short of the contract period.

Irving Greenslade, speaking for the Downtown Businesspersons Association, said that no man or woman or other was more desirous than he of seeing the nation achieve the sunny uplands of a brighter tomorrow -- in fact he already had in stock a number of fine summer-weight fabrics which the well-dressed gentleman would wear when we got there -- but that he believed the situation needed to be resolved decisively at the earliest possible moment.

Consequently, Mr Greenslade suggested, a petition should be sent to both President Trump and "President-elect" Biden calling on them to take office together, in a Government of National Unity (GNU), turning the White House into a condominium and occupying the Oval Office on alternate days. That would result in a virtual deadlock, which would have the salubrious effect of preventing the federal government from doing anything more to for the nation in this time of crisis. 

Dr McInerney said that as far as he was concerned, no GNUs is good GNUs, and he therefore moved that preceding motions and suggestions be tabled, for further consideration at a date to be fixed by the President (of the MCCAHS). Carried. God save the United States of America!

UPDATE ADDED AT 1830. Seven (count `em, 7) states -- Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, and South Dakota -- have now joined Texas lawsuit, arguing that the Equal Protection Clause has been violated in this election. 

This is important, because this case is not about voter fraud -- not to say that there hasn't been any! -- but about the constitutionality of decisions taken in Pennsylvania, Georgia and other states to allow mail-in ballots and/or extend the time in which ballots could be received. That's the issue that could well upset the Democrats' cart of poisoned apples!

Latest from the Babylon Bee + Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Click here to read the article, in your trusted source for Christian new satire.

Walt is reliably informed (thanks, Agent 2!) that tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Some Canucks are so smug (Hello, Just In Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland!) that they're probably giving thanks that they are not as other men/women are (St. Luke 18:11). But to all the rest, Walt, Poor Len Canayen [and Ed.! Ed.] send best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving!

Note from Ed.: Aren't you going to repeat the old joke about why Canadians celebrate in October rather than November?

Reply from Walt: No.

Rex Murphy says if Pence was "mansplaining", that means he won

Ed. has been pressing me for just over two days to say something about the snoozefest that passed for a debate between Vice-President Mike Pence and Vice-President-Wannabe Kamala Harris. Dear readers, I just haven't got anything. Nothing. Rien. Nada... So I hope the good folks at Canada's National Post, the only major Canuck medium whose owners still let Rex Murphy talk [write. Ed.] won't mind my recommending "'Mike Pence was mansplaining,' and other things said by sore losers", published yesterday.

Mr Murphy is a lovable old curmudgeon -- much like my goodself -- and a stickler for proper usage of the Queen's English -- ditto. He also refuses to drink the fashionable progressive koolaid, which makes him a pretty good judge of what passes for political discourse in the Excited States of America. Here are a few snippets from his review of the alleged debate.

As soon as it had ended, various commentators, the Twitter horde, the blogs and the panoply of our present-day communications services, were going on, in severely disparaging terms, about the gentlemanly Vice-President Mike Pence’s “mansplaining.” They clearly were not pleased with Pence’s decorous performance, and just as clearly thought that accusing him of “mansplaining” was a real winner of a rebuke.

["Mansplaining" is] what I'd call a "combat" word, whose purposes is not to describe an exchange, but to put down one of the parties to it. The definition for this application of the word is as follows:

Mansplaining. (n.) a derogatory term called up by feminist ideologues to vainly rebut the actual facts of any matter that, in those rare circumstances where a more intelligent man is debating a less intelligent woman, the man has indubitably presented the better argument. Or, any incontestably superior male response to any inferior female argument.

I hope I have demystified...mansplaining and shown that it is a verbalism of last resort used by sore losers and inadequate debaters. If any should be so mischievous as to colour this column as itself a model of mansplaining, I will simply offer prayers for her recovery.

Walt is asleep

 Ed. here. I haven't been able to wake Walt since about 1930 yesterday. Stand by...

"I went to the fights the other night and a hockey game broke out!"

That's an old Henny Youngman one-liner. I couldn't help but think of it about 20 minutes into last night's so-called "debate" between Still-President Trump and Sleepy Joe Biden. Not that I expected the kind of civilized debate you would hear in Not-so-great Britain or Canuckistan, but not the shouting match presided over last night by Nox News' Chris Wallace, who did a good part of the shouting himself. What did I think of it?

It didn't take Old Joe but ten minutes to start slagging off the President. In the remaining 90 minutes he called Mr Trump a "liar" (several times), a "racist", and a "clown". Those are examples of what members of Westminster parliaments call "unparliamentary language". Those who utter such words during debate can be forced to withdraw and apologize, and if they don't they can be tossed out of the House. But Mr Biden got away with it. I wonder who crafted his ad libs? Perhaps that great writer Ed Hominem? 

To his credit, Still-President Trump did not use personal insults of that kind, nor did he say anything about Mr Biden's physical or mental health problems. What the President did, though, was to interrupt and talk over both Mr Biden and the moderator, in his best bully-boy style. He would have been well-advised to keep cool and try to appear statesmanlike, but that's not really his style, unfortunately.

What about policy? What would either candidate do to address the issues important to me and all Americans, as listed in "What is the main issue in the 2020 election?", WWW 28/9/20. We didn't hear much about those things, although Mr Trump did succeed in forcing Mr Biden to take a position on the radical leftist New Green Deal. Mr Biden said he was for it... I think... even if it cost 100 trillion dollars.

When it came to law and order, President Trump accused Mr Biden of being unable to utter the phrase for fear of alienating his pro-Antifa radical left supporters. Mr Biden replied by trotting out the hoary old line about Mr Trump's allegedly saying there were "very fine people" amongst the pro-America demonstrators at Charlottesville VA. What the President said was that there were "very fine people on both sides". 

The only time Mr Biden handed Mr Trump a stick to beat him with was, I thought, near the end, when the former Vice-President repeated the lie that President Trump had called American soldiers "losers". Mr Biden seguéd into a remark that his son had served in the military and he was proud of him, proud of the military, yada yada yada. 

"Which son was that?", asked the President, "Beau or Hunter?", to which Mr Biden had to reply that it was Beau, and that Hunter had addiction problems which he worked his way through, yada yada yada, prompting Mr Trump to question (again) the Bidens' "business" dealings in Russia and Ukraine.

Chris Wallace, for his part, appeared eager to distance himself from the perceived pro-Trump bias of his employer, Fox News, going so far as to enter into the debate on Mr Biden's side. Rooting for the underdog, I guess.

A hundred minutes of trash-talking. That's what the first of the presidential debates was. President Trump's supporters will be happy, having heard what they wanted to hear. Mr Biden's supporters will be happy that he didn't have a nervous breakdown or even a pronounced "senior moment" during the clash. 

98% of voters have already made up their minds anyway, so the debate was pointless. Worse, it wasn't even good television.

But who won? The funny folks at the Babylon Bee put this up yesterday.

Footnote: Walt gives former V-P Biden credit for having the better tailor. President Trump looked kind of rumpled. 

Further reading: "Debate Recap: Trump Wins, Biden Doesn't Faint, Chris Wallace Goes Down Hard", PJMedia, 29/9/20.

Waiting for the debate

Got yer popcorn made yet?