I had planned to watch the debate last night with my 97 year old friend but she changed her mind after brief exposure to the pre-debate show, so we went back to watching midwives doing soft propaganda for war in space (more on that next time).
I'll watch the recording eventually I suppose, though the chance I'd vote for either of the lying warmongers that our corporate donors have selected for us is zero.
Prominent in this morning's coverage of the debate are two horrible lies told by the horrible candidates.
Which is more egregious -- Trump lying about crimes that Haitian immigrants in Ohio haven't committed, or Harris lying about crimes that Hamas resistance fighters didn't commit on October 7?
Lying about Black crime is dangerous to not only Haitian immigrants (many of whom were driven out of their home country by Kenyan death squads sent by the good old USA) but dangerous to all immigrants and all Black people. Telling such a ridiculous lie -- that household pets are being stolen and eaten -- is on brand for Trump. Stoking fear and laying the groundwork for racialized violence, also on brand.
Lying about rapes by repeating a thoroughly debunked claim about mass rapes on October 7 is on brand for Harris. In June, Harris hosted a screening at the White House of the documentary "Screams Before Silence" which promotes this particular lie.
Helping Israel spread lies about October 7 has a purpose, because those events -- which were immediately termed "Israel's 9/11" -- are being used as the pretext for the rapidly escalating genocide since. Other components of this web of lies includes the number of casualties ascribed to Hamas -- as we now know that Israel under the Hannibal Directive killed scores of its own soldiers and citizens that day. Also the beheaded babies that senile POTUS claimed to have seen pictures of and which his own staff chose to refute the next day.
But lies are effective and that's why talking heads for our imperial overlords employ them. As Mark Twain explained, "A lie can travel around the world and back again while the truth is lacing up its boots."
Today is the anniversary of the U.S.'s 9/11/01, an event that never passed the smell test but was used almost immediately to curtail civil liberties and to unleash wars on Afghanistan and then Iraq. There are indeed many similarities between Sep 11 and Oct 7: both appear to have been colossal, unbelievable failures of intelligence in that authorities knew what was being planned yet did not intervene. Both resulted in a surge of actual rape and other forms of torture in gulags for Muslims like Guantanamo and Sde Teiman. Both were the pretext for military responses that had been long planned.
Harris is married to a Zionist who is actively campaigning for her, but her track record on installing family members in key positions is unknown. Certainly her endorsement by forever wars architect and torture czar Dick Cheney does not bode well for her to rein in Israel's death dealing.
But in the end let's keep in mind that it's been a long time since a POTUS was the decider of anything. This debate was really an audition to see who will be selected as the celebrity spokesperson for the donor class.
Biden flunked out because he could no longer lie coherently or convincingly. Both Trump and Harris bent over backwards last night to assure their sponsors that yes, they can.
