His Midwestern drone, literally puts me to sleep.  And his continual thing about "imagining the day after Trump" didn't work for me at all. Except for making it clear why I wouldn't want another "on the job training" President.

But he excites segments of the donor base.  And other parts of the party. And that's always a good thing.

By midday, MSNBC had basically dropped all coverage of last night's debate.  

Previous debates only had limited effect on polling.

And, culturally, the impact has been close to zero. No real viral moments. A few blips on the radar. A couple of briefly effective memes. Not much more.

accusing Russia of grooming a current 2020 Democrat, specifically a woman, to launch a third party run for the White House - to ensure Donald Trump wins re-election.

Trump campaign fundraises off Mulvaney's disastrous tirade by selling `Get Over It' t-shirts

Mod: as the only billionaire here (snicker), what do you think of wealth inequality,

That answer to raising taxes on the middle class to support Medicare for All is obvious (total/shifting of coats v. benefits) but demanding quantitative impacts plays into the Republican meme of Democrats plans to increase taxes on the middle class.  Not to mention, the sound bites.  Senator Warren did not need Senator Klobuchar to imply that, unlike Bernie, she was not honest about her plan.  Senator Warren has, in my view, the potential to be the FDR for these times.

Bernie was more energized that I expected after his recent cardiac infarction. However, I was concerned for his well-being throughout the debate. I held my breath when Steyer agreed on bad billionaires.

This was Biden's best debate performance, to date. But, that is not to say that it was great. He tripped over his words, and, most worryingly, was his by-gone fantasy that things will not get done without Republican help, ignoring or forgetting, the Obama years, including ACA, or even Bill Clinton's tax increase without a single Republican vote.

It was surprising that Tulsi was not called on her "regime change war", rather than the conflict starting as a civil uprising harshly put down by Assad, right off the bat.

Beto was more reserved, but did not explain his weapon buy-back program very well.  Castro did not make the mistake of the last debate regarding Biden's mental acuity. That was left to the clumsy questioning of the moderator.

 Kamala Harris was OK, just OK, as was Booker.  A missed question of the moderators to Yang, was...why are you here? His dismissal of a wealth tax because of European experience is flawed.  As with European income tax, collection is difficult because of evasion. Hence, the sure-fire, but regressive VAT tax.

 Amy Klobuchar let us know, once again, that she is from the Midwest. And, she wins in Republican areas of Minnesota. She is Goldi-locks, not too right and not too left. Somewhere else--maybe where Biden is, should he drop out. A little charisma challenged, as well.

Steyer was pretty good, but a cause of wonderment. Ego? Patriot? Not sure, but if the latter, he could be more effective by funding good Democratic candidates.

"Regime change wars (click!) Regime change wars (click!) Regime change wars (click!) Regime change wars (click!) Regime change wars (click!) Regime change wars (click!) ..."

The debate started out here at 2:00 p.m. HST. I eventually changed the channel and instead watched "SpongeBob SquarePants" with my grandson.

Sounds like Warren took some hits and Biden continues to get a pass on his offensive crap.  So ready for the era of the Bidens to pass.

But I hope Dems learn a valuable lesson this cycle, you don't need a JFK, a Clinton, or an Obama to win.

The GOP has been nominating some of the worst candidates imaginable for generations. You could find better candidates by picking up random people from a drunk tank.  And they have won with such people.

All of these are better candidates than anyone the GOP has chosen this side of TR.  But, sure, they aren't amazing rock stars.

To which Nancy said, no, not really.  We will be done we we are done.  We will let you know.

I wonder if the plan might be to make sure this runs long enough that the trial will happen next year AFTER primary season.  Giving senators the opportunity to vote without worrying about a primary.

Event tv returns.

The opening 10 minutes of HBO's new Watchmen series -- not a straight adaptation of the acclaimed 1986 graphic novel but a companion to it -- are a statement of purpose rarely seen on TV: "Here is what this show is," they say. "If you'd rather not watch this kind of show, we wanted to let you know up front."

Watchmen is set in 2019, but these opening 10 minutes depict the Tulsa, Oklahoma, race massacre of 1921. The massacre was pure malevolent violence committed on Tulsa's "Black Wall Street," undertaken by white citizens who killed dozens and wounded even more (exact totals are unknown) while burning black property to the ground. It is widely considered one of the most shocking acts of racial violence in American history, and it's core to what Watchmen is saying about America today.

You might also wonder, if you're aware of who's on the show's creative team, whether a group that boasts lots of black voices but is headed up by a white showrunner (Damon Lindelof) and white director (Nicole Kassell) is the right one to tell this particular story, and whether the genre they're using to tell it is the best one. You might wonder why the first episode, at least, seems to take a cavalier approach to real-world stories about white supremacists' relationship with police forces in the US.

But even if you hold these concerns, I would say you should keep watching. Watchmen is a big and bold series, unlike any other TV show I've ever seen, and just when you think it's shown you all of its many faces, it reveals another one. It makes missteps here and there, but at its heart, it remains a story about examining the fraught state of the world today through the lens of superhero tropes, just as the original comic did.

Then again, I would say that. I'm extremely white, and to watch a show like this, on some level, is low-risk for me. I think Watchmen handles its racial elements well, but you might disagree. And if you do, the show wants to make sure you know exactly what it's doing from the first.

On MTP

Dear Premier Khrushchev,

Don't be a d*ck, ok? Get your missiles out of Cuba. Everybody will say `Yay! Khrushchev! You're the best!' But if you don't everybody will be like `what an assh*le' and call your garbage country `The Soviet Bunion.'

You're really busting my nuts here.

Give you a jingle later.

Hugs,

John Fitzgerald Kennedy