Debatable

Every morning in my neighborhood there's a major accident. As it seems to happen at about the same time and in about the same place, it succeeds the major accident of the day before. 

Though I can't see the accident because I'm being protected by law enforcement and first reponders, I know there's a major accident because I can hear the sirens of the fire trucks and police cars as they hurry to the scene of the accident I can't see.

I accidentally watched the Democratic Debate last night on the Trump Television Network (TTN), and listened to the candidates speak through my new Transgender Equal Opportunity earbuds, sparing the loved one who shares the house with me the sound of things she needn't hear.

Initially, I was pleased to note that Federal election laws obligated TTN to give equal television time to former-President Barack Obama, whose physical absence was conspicuous but who played a major part in the proceedings nevertheless. 

(The Obama's by the way have signed a multiyear production deal with NEWTflix, and will produce "scripted series, unscripted series, docu-series, documentaries and features that will highlight issues and themes the president pursued during his eight years in office" according to the New York Times. NEWTflix did not disclose financial details, though similar deals between streaming services and hi-profile celebrites have been worth many tens of millions of dollars over several years).

Back to the debate.

Conversation among the candidates finally made its way to the military, as it always does among politicians in a country with such a profound history of war promotion. Should we get out of Afghanistan? What to do with Iran? Maduro in Venezuela? Kim Jong-Un? Putin? The guy in The Phillipines? Erdogan of Turkey who's even stronger that Donald Trump, vowing to fix his country's immigration problem by "opening the gates AND building a wall." All these Strongmen--there are so many of them now that more than half of them weren't even mentioned in the debate--and not a real leader among them, with the exception of John Bolton, a bona fide tough guy who will probably run for Mayor of Fox News now that he's no longer our National Security Advisor.

Audience participation was welcomed. I wanted to ask a question about Mike Pompeo, and phoned into the Trump Television Network during the debate as instructed: but the lines were jammed due to "the High Volume of Calls", just as they are when one tries to call The White House and Leave a Message for the President.

I watched for an hour or so, thinking that once again I'd been lied to: it wasn't a debate at all, it was a Q & A roundtable, not too dissimilar from Rotary Club presentation's I'd attended in my heyday when I was thinking of joining Rotary for business purposes, until I found out they met every Friday and would fine you if you didn't show up. I'm filing a complaint with the F.C.C., before it's shut down by the Trump Television Network!!

Some takeaways from the Q & A: 1) when will the Generals turn on Trump? That's the only way he's going down--coitus-interruptus 2) why not let the Sackler's pay for Universal Healthcare? 3) Bernie Sanders is the only serious man or woman among the candidates, and harks back to a time when leading a political life could be interpreted as worthwhile 4) the world exists to be criticized.

So, with no Bolton am I safe? I'll tune in tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.for the sound of the sirens.