The Debate #300
By Hank Silverberg
Commentary
The debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, coming up Tuesday night, could make or break the presidential race for either one of them. Or it can have no real impact at all.
The last debate ended Joe Biden's chances for another term, mainly because it pointed out his age and his ineffective communication abilities, which sadly seem to have slowed down substantially in the last four years.
So, in MY OPINION, and that's all it is, the opinion of a reporter who has covered many election campaigns, there are a few things that could damage each candidate enough to lose the election.
Trump will probably use his "weave" as he calls it, where he bounces from one topic to another, with incomplete thoughts and bad pop culture references. But in a debate format that could be his downfall when serious topics like the wars in Gaza and Ukraine or abortion come up, which they likely will.
Trump has little meat in any of his answers to the media and despite his denial, Project 2025, produced by his supporters, is looming out there with dreadful solutions to problems which in many cases, don't even exist.
For Harris, the challenge is to look presidential. She needs to give detailed answers to those serious issues and at all costs, avoid her tendency to laugh and sound light headed at times. Anyone paying attention knows the VP has the backbone to do the job she is running for, but parts of her personality rub some voters the wrong way. She also needs to separate herself from the left-wing of her party, which at times has hindered Biden's mostly moderate agenda.
Remember, they are not debating to reach the MAGAs or the Democratic base. The debate is going after independent voters who usually wait until the last minute to commit to a candidate. They also must reach the disenchanted voters who don't really like either one of the candidates who now are looking for a reason to go to the polls at all.
My prediction is: Trump will repeat many of his lies and falsehoods and "weave" his way to confusion for many people.
Harris will stumble at least once, maybe more, because of lighthearted or no firm responses to Trump's nonsense.
End result: another very close election where we may have to wait days or weeks after election day to find out who actually won.
One thing is certain, though. If Harris wins, Trump will be screaming fraud, will head right to the courts, and when that doesn't work--well, I don't really want to think of what comes next.
News You May Have Missed!
More than 28 million acres of public land in Alaska will continue to be protected from development. The Bureau of Land Management is retaining protection on the land at the urging of 78 Indigenous tribes who live there.
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| (Map courtesy Nation's Online Project) |
The BLM says the regions include the Kobuk- Seward, Bering Sea Western Interior, Bay, East Alaska and Ring of Fire. According to the BLM, all together they contain important hunting and fishing grounds that provide food for 100 Indigenous Alaska communities, and have done so for generations.
The BLM says the land includes "critical watersheds with salmon streams, caribou calving grounds, tundra landscapes, coastal estuaries, moose habitat and marshes that protect migratory birds."
Pink, Orange and Blue Lobsters?
Lobsters are brown, right? Well, maybe a rare blue one gets caught every now and then. Actually, they have also found orange, calico, two-toned and cotton-candy colored lobsters in recent years. Until recently, odd colored lobsters were calculated at about 1 in 100 million. But some folks who are studying lobsters at the University of Maine (where else?) are now skeptical about that estimate. The lead scientist at the Lobster Settlement Index at U of M told the Associated Press the difference in color in the arthropods can be genetic or dietary, though they are not really sure. And they really don't know how rare different colored lobster are.
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| (Courtesy lobsterinstitute@maine.edu) |
Those same scientists say the color apparently doesn't affect the taste, which is the same as your average brown lobster.
The scientists are breeding some of the off-color lobsters and so far, just over half of the baby lobsters that survived are the regular color.
One thing this discovery is going to do is shake up the lobster market. Some restaurants and lobstermen have charged as much as $500 or more for the lobsters of a different color, even though the taste and quality is the same.
https://apnews.com/article/rare-colorful-lobsters-science-ae7e1c98d4eebb9658eea1e3e4cb6e31
Dumbest Quote of The Week!
This week's dumbest quote comes from Republican Vice Presidential candidate, J.D. Vance.
He was asked by conservative commentator Charlie Kirk what the solution to the shortage of child care is. Read this one carefully if you can keep from laughing through it.
"So one of the ways that you might be able to relieve a little bit of pressure on people who are paying so much for day care is…maybe grandma and grandpa [want] to help out a little bit more, or maybe there’s an aunt or uncle that wants to help out a little bit more. If that happens, you relieve some of the pressure on all the resources that we’re spending on day care."
Well, gee, J.D. My wife and I love our grandkids and we see them often and babysit every now and then. But guess what? We have our own lives to live. We too are still working.
And millions of other parents don't have that option because their children's grandparents don't live close enough, the grandparents have jobs of their own or they have health issues.
But Vance gets worse in his analysis of this big issue.
“ We’ve got a lot of people who love kids, who would love to take care of kids but they can’t, either because they don’t have access to the education that they need or, maybe more importantly, because the state government says you’re not allowed to take care of children unless you have some ridiculous certification that has…nothing to do with taking care of kids. So empower people to get the skills they need. Don’t force every early-childcare specialist to go and get a six-year college degree where they’ve got a whole lot of debt and Americans are much poorer because they’re paying out the wazoo for day care."
Apparently Mr. Vance has never been to a daycare center. The folks who work there care about what they are doing, but many have minimal training and more importantly, they get paid poorly, sometimes at minimum wage. So of course people are not drawn to childcare as a long-term career.
In most cases, state governments will license a daycare center as long as it's clean, the owner and staff have no criminal record, and there's a good ratio of adults to kids. You don't need a college degree to get that kind of work if you can afford to live on that terrible pay.
Mr. Vance needs an education himself.
(Your comments and suggestions are welcome)
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