A presidential candidates' debate to inspire hope for the future of the nation!
     I watched about an hour and a half of the program before realizing my brain was turning to mush.  I drank enough bottles of Guinness to feel a welcome barrier between my reactive brain and the words and personalities of the hopefuls and hopelesses on stage.
     The proceedings began awkwardly, with the three moderators, Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly, and Chris Wallace, not seeming to know how to commence introductions of the candidates.  Before they stepped out there was a pause, as if we were all waiting for a beloved comedian to come from the wings, but instead of laughs we got an ill-timed parade of familiar faces, hairdos, and bodies.  Each raised his hand for a greeting as he was introduced, while Christie, at the far left (the number ten spot), raised his hand when another candidate was introduced.
     The first question involved a show of hands.  Which of you will not now pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee and will not now rule out an independent run if you don't get the nomination?  Obviously, the question was a set-up for the one man who raised his hand: Donald Trump.  He thus immediately got applause and recognition well out of proportion to any merits he brings to potentially winning a job as so-called leader of the free world.  Senator Rand Paul (Republican/Libertarian--Kentucky, his campaign manager revealed recently as a skimmer of contributions), shouted his outrage at Trump, referencing the latter's connections to the Clintons.  An idea getting thrown around in the news media lately has Trump, who talked with Bill Clinton on the telephone before announcing his presidential run, acting as a ringer to taint the Republican Party (as if it's not already a wreck), and then run as an independent, drawing votes from the Republican nominee and thus helping Hillary Clinton win in 2016.  To that, I say, Maybe?
     Trump, characterized by many as smart, does not strike me as the kind of long-term strategist who could succeed at acting as someone's else agent.  Does he really want to do such a favor for the Clintons?  Incidentally, he remarked a few days ago that he donated money to Hillary Clinton in the past to "get her to come to my wedding."  That sounds plausible, given that he bribed hundreds of extras in New York to act as fervent Trump supporters at his presidential run announcement.
     An exchange, getting a lot of attention the morning after the debate, showed Trump at his most belligerent, and gross, last night.  Megyn Kelly asked him about how he's called women names, like "pigs," and how he said to one of the contestants on Celebrity Apprentice that she'd "look good on her knees."  Kelly mentioned other insulting terms he's used against women, while Trump held up a phallic finger, clarifying, "I only said those things about Rosie O'Donnell." 
     Laughter and applause broke out in the auditorium.  Gosh, it's so funny when a billionaire macho fuck who avoided the draft during the Vietnam War calls a woman a pig.  Megyn Kelly was clearly unamused when she pointed out, "For the record, Rosie O'Donnell hasn't been the only woman you've talked about this way."  He didn't argue that, because he knew such a statement on her part is so easy to prove.  He did get testy with Kelly, though, showing his cool heating up a bit at the gall of a woman criticizing him for saying insensitive things about, and to, women.  He said, "The big problem with this country is political correctness."  He said he doesn't have time for political correctness.  He didn't say how political correctness replaced illegal immigration or U.S. dealings with China as "the big problem," and none of the moderators asked him to clarify, not that I expect precision of language from Trump, or cable news journalists.
     The other candidates, when they spoke seriously, sounded like they'd prepared their statements, and somehow their attempts at bringing the tone to serious matters seemed boring, or maybe I was too buzzed from the alcohol after about a half hour had crept by.  I did notice that when the questions turned to foreign policy, the candidates sounded insane.  It was as if computer-generated muscles began to bulge on their limbs as their intolerant and hate-filled words for Iran and other enemies of America, like Obama, poured out with no evidence of prior rehearsal.  At their stupidest, politicians of either party can speak unfiltered nonsense like anyone else.
     A moderator's question, "On day one of your presidency, would you tear up the Iran nuclear deal?" ignores the impossibility of a president's doing so without immediately becoming a dictator; yet, the question was taken seriously by the candidates, as if they wouldn't, on day one, be attending their own inauguration, watching a very long parade, and going to expensive balls.
     "Excuse me, sweetheart," the new Republican president whispers to his wife during a dance on the evening of January 20, 2017, "I have to go to the Oval Office, tear up the many pages of the nuclear deal with Iran, using my bare hands and not a paper shredder, and prepare the armed forces for war."
     I didn't do a good job of watching the debate, and missed the earlier Happy Hour debate entirely.  My mind wandered, I drank beer, I looked at Megyn Kelly when she was onscreen (she's nice to look at), I looked at Trump (he's not nice to look at) as I, like millions of others, waited for the next bold and megalomaniacal declaration to come from his anus-like mouth.  The debate wasn't spectacular, or even something I would let my children, if I had any, under the age of twelve watch, but it was an excuse to get drunk, and that could be a harbinger of what's coming if one of these people gets elected president: altered states of consciousness will be preferable to regarding any of their administrations with sober eyes that will become tormented by the doom their bleak minds embrace.

                                                                               Vic Neptune