I have had the luxury of reading what others are saying about the debate. Steven Rosenfeld said that the debate was a condensed form of what has been playing out in the campaign. Amy Davidson said that came off as a bully who failed in his attempt at intimidation. Adele M. Stan said that Clinton managed to expose Trump’s “racism, sexism and venality” and compared it the Billy Jean King-Bobby Riggs encounter.
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I will not go into details on the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. There are many detailed analyses online with a transcript here, and Tessa Stuart provides transcripts of the main exchanges. But in my view, Clinton easily got the better of Trump. It was clear that she had resisted the suggestions that she try and show a warm, personal side in order to counter the perception that she is cold and not trustworthy. Instead she went with her strengths, which is policy wonkery presented in a calm and collected way and combined it with deft needling of Trump that got increasingly under his skin as the evening wore on. It was a masterful performance on her part.
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This question came to my mind in the most recent case where Donald Trump, trying to make the case that the media and the debates are rigged against him, said that tonight’s moderator NBC news anchor Lester Holt was a Democrat though in fact he is a registered Republican. When Trump’s manager Kellyanne Conway was asked why Trump lied about this, she replied, that Trump didn’t lie because “a lie would mean that he knew the man’s party registration” when in fact he didn’t know.
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(This is the text of the talk that I gave to the Sunday Assembly yesterday. These Assemblies are monthly gatherings of generally secular people who meet for fellowship and to engage in activities to further social good.)
When Mark passed on the invitation to me to be the speaker at this second anniversary of the Sunday Assembly, I was honored, just as I was to be asked to speak at the inaugural event. But I was also surprised that two years had passed by so fast! The Sunday Assembly has reached the toddler stage in just the blink of an eye and has reached the stage of throwing things around.
That sense of the growth and evolution of the Sunday Assembly is what made me think about what I would talk about and why I chose ‘the coming of age of the atheist movement’ as my theme for today’s (dare I say it?) sermon. As a former ordained lay minister in the Methodist church I am used to giving long sermons but don’t worry, I will not subject you to the half-hour or more diatribes that are common in that church.
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I have been following the reaction in the British media to the re-election of Jeremy Corbyn as the Labour Party leader and have been shocked at the way that result has been portrayed across the board. It has been described as the end of the Labour party because, according to these pundits, under Corbyn’s leadership the party will be unelectable. Mind you, this is despite the fact that Corbyn won with a huge majority, larger than before, by a vote from party members. The media pretty much said that these people had acted like idiots for not choosing the milquetoast Blairite Owen Smith.
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I have no idea if having celebrity support helps or hurts a candidate but this amusing ad tries to have it both ways, by encouraging people to register and vote against Donald Trump and at the same time mocking the whole idea that celebrities have any influence on what people do.
As a long time fan of Month Python, it was with great sadness that I read today that one of its members Terry Jones has been diagnosed with a rare form of dementia. Jones was one of the most versatile performers in the troupe, who had a broad range of interests, including even as a historian with a book on Chaucer.
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Jeremy Corbyn won a landslide victory in the election for Labour Party leader, defeating his opponent Owen Smith by a margin of 61.8% to 38.2%. This leadership contest was because of yet another effort by the Blairite neoliberal elements in the party that dominate its parliamentary membership to regain control. They passed a no-confidence motion against Corbyn following the Brexit vote.
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It is becoming increasingly clear that for a person who likes to boast so much about his wealth, Donald Trump is really cheap. He stiffs people to whom he owes money and uses his so-called charitable foundations to help himself, all the while boasting that he is a philanthropist but refusing to release his tax returns that would provide proof of his generosity.
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