We’ve just learned that “After a chaotic and nearly unwatchable first presidential debate that devolved into interruptions and insults, mostly by Trump, the Commission on Presidential Debates said it would look into changing the format of the remaining debates.”
Okay! I say, put both of them in a box. A soundproof box where the moderator can regulate the microphones and what the contestants can hear.
If a television quiz show could do it, so can the Commission on Presidential Debates.
From the Washington Post, today:
The televised debates are supposed to be “for the benefit of the American electorate,” the commission said in a statement Wednesday, implying that Tuesday night’s unruly slugfest did not achieve that goal.
“Last night’s debate made clear that additional structure should be added to the format of the remaining debates to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues. The CPD will be carefully considering the changes that it will adopt and will announce those measures shortly,” the statement continued.
During the 98-minute debate, there was an interruption every minute, according to an analysis by The Fix’s Aaron Blake. Trump was responsible for 71 of them, Biden 22.
Twenty-One was an American game show originally hosted by Jack Barry that aired on NBC from 1956 to 1958. The two contestants competed against each other in separate isolation booths. According to wikipedia, “The program became notorious when it was found to be rigged as part of the 1950s quiz show scandals, which nearly caused the demise of the entire genre in the wake of United States Senate investigations. The 1994 movie Quiz Show is based on these events. A new version of the show aired on NBC in 2000 with Maury Povich as host.”
Whoa! Does that just throw out my whole argument?
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
Totally agree! Put both candidates in sound proof booths and we can hear whomever is supposed to talk.
From what few minutes I was able to stomach the show, you really only need one booth for t-rump. While it might be more fun to just wire him up to get a shock when he starts to interrupt, he might actually like it. One booth.
Geoff Page: That is Brilliant…One booth only is great but the electric shock could do wonders for Trunp’s hairdo.
Let’s start a petition! Clown in the box! Clown in the box! I’ll sign it!
I already wrote to cspan to I corporate the booths.add special effect lighting and a instant fact checker screen above each candidate that would light up and offer facts based on Trump’s claims.
I agree totally. This is unprecedented as has every other disrespectful immoral rude behavior this current president displays. When the character and personality does not want to follow rules of debate. The presidential debate commission has to control environment. A sound box is the best answer or perhaps someone to shut off microphones.
Actually at this point there is no purpose for future debates if there is not a way to stop the bullying.
Trump’s arguments against using the ‘clown in the box’ approach would be hysterically funny.
Ah, but he would be the greatest clown in the box in the history of this country, no other President would even come close. Obama couldn’t hold a candle to t-rump when it comes to being the very greatest clown in the box of all. Did I mention that he’d be the very greatest in all of history?
I totally Agree! That’s the only way to shut him up. But he won’t agree because he would loss Control.
I don’t think it would shut him up, he’s still be spewing his spittle around but locked in a soundproof clear-walled box the plexiglass would be just dripping I would think.
I don’t have TV so I didn’t have the thrill of watching such a serious and studious, calm conversation between the two neoliberal candidates, but from the excerpts I heard on Democracy Now I can tell yo, based on my experience as a Pre-Kindergarten teacher in the late 80s/early 90s, that I recognize the behavior….
And now we breathlessly await to find out just how many people Trump infected over the last week before he tested positive. IF he actually did as it could be just another ploy by the Liar-in-Chief and his evil minions! After 90 minutes of spewing at Biden from 10 feet away neither with a mask on…and all the in-person meetings with other politicians trying to push through the extremely unqualified rightwinger judge-from-hell they want to ram onto the Supreme Court (imagine being a jew going up for justice from a court loaded with Nazis!) I’m wondering just what the next two weeks are gonna look like when it comes to who is infected.
New info about the spread zone of Covid in case nobody read it. Now it seriously applies:
The 6-foot rule is ‘outdated’: Researchers devise chart to gauge COVID risk
https://www.sfgate.com/science/article/The-6-foot-rule-is-outdated-Researchers-devise-15520286.php
ALL CHARTS AT LINK
Scientists now believe that droplets and aerosols containing SARS-CoV-2 pathogens can be expelled at least 8 meters (26 feet) by coughing, sneezing, shouting and singing. Because of this, British researchers say the 6-foot rule of physical distancing is outdated and oversimplified. They have proposed a new model for assessing the risk of infection under a wide range of conditions.
more at link
sealintheSelkirks
Just had to drop it in again, eh seal, “I don’t have a TV…” You could have just said you did not see the debate on TV. But, we know you do have a computer and a radio, I assume, so you could have partaken.
I watched for about a minute, t-rump was acting like every bully I ever ran into, as the Texans say “All hat and no cattle.” I would love to be on the stage with the guy so the American public could watch him piss his pants without raising a finger.
Hmmm, this really seems to bother you, Geoff. I’m sure you must know many many people who don’t have televisions in their homes and don’t participate in viewing idiocy every night believing they are being ‘entertained.’
So why don’t you just ignore my horrible reference to not having one? Wouldn’t that be easier than getting your knickers in a knot?
As for the ‘you do have a computer and a radio,’ I can’t participate viewing that way, either, since I’m on dial-up. Going to youtube or doing that streaming thing or pretty much anything that will turn my computer into a tv just won’t work. At 45.2 kbps, and my operating system is still XP (but I have a newer one with Vista, too), my two computers just freeze up when I’ve tried. But at $19.95 a month it is eminently cheap internet with no time limit so it works for me in these mountains and income. I tend to like reading and don’t mind waiting for text to load onto the screen while I’m reading something else in another window.
Radio…listening to their stupid crap? I’d rather see the words on a transcript because then I can get a much better grasp of meanings that aren’t apparent. When I read this kind of stuff, I find that it allows my brain to process the content a hell of a lot better. After all, it’s why con men such as Trump never stop talking, they overwhelm the cognitive processes with bullshit!
Funny that three decades after taking a math class called ‘Deductive Logic’ at Utah State I still find myself applying those formulas. Can’t remember quadratic equations or how to use a radical expression, but this never faded away with the years. You can take a speech by any politician and break it down to what they explicitly say or don’t say line by line, comparing the parts to the whole, and it’s just hilarious how many times in the last thirty years I’ve done that to only end up with a 30 minute speech that said…exactly NOTHING. Or exactly the opposite of what people thought they heard said. Well, maybe not so hilarious because when you point it out…
But you did notice that I did reference hearing a few excerpts on DemocracyNow? Yep, KYRS community radio out of Spokane gets into these mountains so, unlike your minute of actually seeing the bloated Frat Boy face bloviating his nonsense spewing spit across the stage, I didn’t have to suffer seeing that in my dreams the other night. Though Amy Goodman put more than your minute on the air (what bizarre radio it was, too!) so I heard pieces of it as I went in and out the door doing chores. At least I didn’t have to actually see the clenched jowls quaking and the beady eyes glaring. Small favors but I’ll take ’em because that’s a nightmare face my dreams don’t need!
As for being on stage with Trump, no, you don’t want to do that. You’d be like I’m sure Biden is at the moment, paranoid thinking WTF did I just catch this disease from that jerk? One doesn’t always test positive after being infected for a while…
Besides, remember that he is so fond of threatening to ‘just want to punch this or that person in the face’ at all those rallies…wants to ‘smash those Portland protesters’…etc etc. Wouldn’t you be quaking in your boots from such a fearsome threat of the Incredible Trump (hats off to This Modern World cartoonist for that visual!) when, I mean, just him tripping and falling down on you could squash you like a bug under that obese mass of putrefying flesh…and imagine it, your head stuck between his…oh my hell NO! A fate worse than death!
But hey, we could tag team him by dazzling him with our bullshit. Whadda ya think, are we up for it?
sealintheSelkirks
What tires me, seal, as I recounted in an earlier post, is this obsessive need of people who don’t watch TV to always say it as if it is some kind of proud pronouncement supposedly as a badge of intelligence. So you don’t have a TV, you don’t watch TV, you think TV is evil. We got it, so give it a rest.
“I’d rather see the words on a transcript because then I can get a much better grasp of meanings that aren’t apparent.” That works for you but I get much more watching a person’s face because words coming out a person’s mouth and what their face shows are often very different.
As for t-rump throwing a punch, that is laughable. Bullies don’t actually throw punches, if the words don’t work, they turn tail and run. COVID or not, I would love to be on stage with that idiot.
Hello Geoff, I’ve been busy with harvest and haven’t had time to reply. But here it is since I finished that work yesterday evening.
Hmmmm. I’m sure you must get really tired of non-tobacco people waving their hands around in front of their faces trying to get rid of the cigarette smoke and their constant ‘you should quit because I did’ remarks they say to smokers. After all, that’s pretty obsessive behavior, too, wouldn’t you say or are you okay with being in a room full of smokers puffing in your face? Non-smokers are SO full of themselves with the health thing, yes?
And then there are all these damned mask wearers telling people they should have one on because of Covid-19! Boy THOSE folks must be really annoy you with their obsessive behavior because they are everywhere. You and I went around about the Pandemic back a few months ago; remember the ‘going surfing at the Cliffs because it is safe in the ocean’ argument? That of course was before more research on this new disease showed that it becomes an aerosol and is primarily transmitted by breathing in an infected person (LIKE TRUMP) exhalation. And just normal speech blows it a hell of a lot farther than 6 feet, and singing or shouting and exercising (like paddling hard) throws it 24 feet as a plume in the air as a link I provided recently showed. So have the mask-wearer types become tiresome also?
As for your rather snarling put-down ‘badge of intelligence’ remark, no, that’s not it, dude. It’s like an ex-smoker telling an addict (and TV IS an addiction according to studies), that they too can quit because I did. And they’ll be better for it once they get through the withdrawal. I’m not going to mention the university studies showing a drop in IQ with heavy tv watching along with physical deterioration of sitting on your ass with your mouth open as your brain falls into Alpha Wave patterns…oh wait I just did.
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Your 2nd paragraph says you get much more from watching a person’s face. ON TV? Give me a break! My birth mother was a Shakespearean actor, years at the Old Globe and the San Diego Playhouse, summer stock up and down the California coast, was a rising star on the stage in San Diego newspapers back then, and she could make you believe she was the character by what her face showed. You don’t think these television politicians are being trained by experts how to control and manipulate their face just as they are with their voices and words??? I’ll stick with reading what they said and tearing the text apart and comparing it to known reality… Remember Reagan was a screen actor and not a very good one but he got how many people to believe his crap?
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Last but not least, your third paragraph is utterly ridiculous. You are trying to tell this three decades+ self-defense instructor that bullies don’t HIT PEOPLE? Are you kidding? Bullies LOVE to hit people, get right up in their victim’s face, stomp on people’s heads whenever possible, break their stuff, steal their lunch money and bicycle and skateboard and smash their surfboard on the rocks. And from the pictures of Trump when he was young and lean and mean, and a 6’2″ drunk at the Frat House with his buddies, I’m pretty sure I’ve had run-ins with his doppelganger over the years.
I’m guessing you never got jumped by some bully that was a lot bigger than you? Bullies absolutely smash people otherwise why would anyone be afraid or care what a bully says you have to do? It’s not just the threat, it’s the implicit violence that you KNOW they will use on you that gets them what they want. Drop the Hollywood television myth of the bully that runs away when confronted, it ain’t real until they get their asses handed to them. I’ve stepped in between defenseless people and bullies numerous times and flat had to drop them. They’ll whine about it later, though, to their friends how unfair it all was…which does sound like Trump.
sealintheSelkirks
Well, I’m glad you opened with “I’ve been busy with harvest and haven’t had time to reply” because that sure explained what followed. seal. Personally, I find it best to reread what I’ve written after the “harvest” to bring it back down to earth.
So, your reason for regularly reminding people that you don’t watch TV, don’t have a TV, can’t be in the room with a TV, and have disowned friends and relatives who have TVs is to preach like a non-smoker does? You’re trying to educate us on an evil habit? Didn’t see that coming.
Yea, I remember “the ‘going surfing at the Cliffs because it is safe in the ocean’ argument?” So far, in all of my reading, I’ve yet to hear of a COVID hot spot being at a surf break. But, it you have some stats about that and I missed it, send ‘em on.
The effects of the “harvest” were very apparent when you wrote “As for your rather snarling put-down ‘badge of intelligence’ remark.” I don’t think many readers, looking at how I wrote what I did, would agree with your “snarling put down” characterization.
Then, back to your altruistic quest to save all of us TV watchers from what you believe is a hellish addiction.
But, the “harvest” really came out with the, what to call it, lecture or diatribe, on reading faces. You informed me, if informing someone of things they already know can be called informing, that people can be trained to manipulate their facial expressions. Gee, that’s a new one on me. But, you contradicted yourself, seal.
You said “You don’t think these television politicians are being trained by experts how to control and manipulate their face just as they are with their voices and words??? I’ll stick with reading what they said and tearing the text apart and comparing it to known reality…”
You also said, in your previous comment, that “I’d rather see the words on a transcript because then I can get a much better grasp of meanings that aren’t apparent.”
So, you have a skill at deciphering manipulated words to get at, what? But, you don’t see any value in watching a person’s face, body language, and listening to their voices?
It is far easier to keep up lies with the written word than it is to do that with the face and body and voice. Reading t-rump’s gibberish produces a reaction. Watching him spew gibberish produces a far greater reaction.
Thanks for reminding me that “Reagan was a screen actor and not a very good one.” You know, the memory fades as the years go by. Yea, “he got how many people to believe his crap” because he was a good orator. But, do you really think those same people would have formed a different opinion of him by reading what he said? No way.
Then, we had to hear about your martial arts exploits again, and a lecture about bullies. There are bullies, seal, and then there are bullies. Those that bully with words are usually cowards. Those that bully physically are a different matter. T-rump is the former, not the latter. Oh, he tries to use his bulk to intimidate but it only intimidates those who allow it. Even when he was “young and lean and mean,” as you put it, he was a milquetoast. Never heard any stories about him fighting and he ain’t the least bit athletic, never has been.
I do love this last sentence, “I’ve stepped in between defenseless people and bullies numerous times and flat had to drop them.” Oddly enough, I’ve done the same during my lifetime and I was able to do it without having to flat drop them. But, I don’t brag about it.
Haha, Gentlemen! Back to your corners! The topic here is that we’d ALL like to see Trump in a box! One about 6.5′ X 3′, studded with nails. Our national rage and despair, and our anxiety fatigue, have shortened our fuses and brought out our lesser sides! Hell, I’d do more than punch Trump in the throat given half a chance!
I say nix the remaining debates, who needs them at this point? And for those who did catch a visual on the VP debate’s plexiglass separators? A joke, couldn’t wrap a piece of chicken with that token! :-)
Aww, we’re just having some fun, retired! And I agree with everything you said.
Well bow an additional suggestion for our Orange Clown in the box , the booth should also be Hermedically Sealed …and for Pense he should get 2 thank you Mr Presidents at most and then a big AIR HORN goes off..as he keeps trying to talk past his time.
The superspreader is not done yet . . . he’s going to do a campaign event on the White House lawn tomorrow:
The New York Times reports that President Trump will welcome supporters to the South Lawn at the White House on Saturday, where he will address them from a balcony.
“The president was expected to make remarks from one of the balconies at the White House to the crowd, which was expected to include people attending an event elsewhere in Washington staged by a Trump supporter, Candace Owens,” The Times reported, citing unnamed people connected to the event.
The paper reports that “hundreds” are expected to attend.
Just like he “learned” from impeachment, he learned from getting the disease . . . he “get(s) it now”
But, what he really gets, he has always wanted more than anything but previous protocol had nothing like it. He gets to stand on a balcony, with his adoring subjects below looking up at him, and then speak to the masses. I bet even t-rump would say if he croaked at that moment he wouldn’t care because life was complete. Those pictures of him standing stoically erect, alone, with floodlights shining up, saluting, amazing, saluting, that’s the stuff for the donald.
How many dictators have we seen through history do exactly this? They love being high above and they love being isolated from the masses. But, in his case, it looks absolutely pathetic. The self-image in his head towers over the clown standing there alone. But, I bet that picture will make its way onto t-rump’s wall one day.
They don’t let you put big pictures up in your cell.
This just in:
As if everything else isn’t enough, now Trump is going on some show to have an on-air medical!
Lord, can it get any less Presidential?! How humiliating for the country. I guess we’re just this side of Jerry Springer now. Next he’ll be be on Dr Phil taking his man/woman/camera/TV genius test for a live audience….
I’m taking to my bed. wake me when this is all over! Or just call the Wolverine boys to come finish me off…
Gee, I might have been able to miss that one, retired, thanks for the imagery! He does have a few months left in the White House, time enough for a reality show on living in the White House. Imagine following him around with a camera all day? If they broadcast such a thing, it would be a Steven King horror show as the heads of progressives and moderates, and some conservatives, began exploding all over the country. What would be left would be Idiocracy.
SNL Debate
Funny stuff https://youtu.be/Wsije1KetVw
i said this 2 days ago…guess my age is showing b/c I watched this show which triggered the idea. No excuses now guys…any audio engineer can set up a wi-fi system for mics and speakers, even if someone can build a wooden structure with a plexi door so viewers can see the debaters. It doesn’t have to be a totally airtight structure, just sealed enough to keep aerosoles away and booths can be a safe distance apart. Let the debates begin please.
Geoff, you have to lighten up and drop some of your stereotypes.
Saying I was busy with my harvest obviously really twisted your knickers again! But it’s a LOT of work playing at being a ‘farmer.’ I finished all the outside work today finally which is Friday. Now I have a chance to reply again. And, as retired botanist said, let’s get back to the madness of Trump which causes people to crawl under their covers and hide some days…after this reply.
So, if you think harvest “explained what followed” and that is just another obvious put down like I wrote about previously. Does this mean you have something against buttersquash, zukes, tomatoes, bell peppers, snap peas, Honeydew and cantelopes and a weird French variety that grows hair?
Though I will agree that being barefoot with both hands in the garden’s raised beds grounds oneself quite well, and that growing some of the food I eat does keep one mindful of being just another tiny part of this earth.
For your information, just to clear this misconception of yours up, I’ve got weather coming in this weekend with a very cold rain expected. And probably at my elevation a pretty hard frost in the early mornings. We may even get some snow. Late again this year, I’m usually done by now. I haven’t even picked the apples yet because they need a hard frost but these longer growing seasons that have been happening the last few years allows things ripen really well. Not that an increasingly chaotic climate is a good thing.
Geoff, you obviously have a real problem with cannabis and probably the re-legalization movement by your comments. You must have actually believed those silly satire movies of Cheech & Chong. They were jokes, dude, a parody of the stereotype of the racist Harry Anslinger mindset this country was propagandized into believing. Direct contradictions to the US government film ‘Reefer Madness’ and the police state.
Besides, since you mentioned it, that harvest isn’t ready yet. I sew up fabric pots for them so they can go in under lights and outside depending on the weather. About two more weeks I think and I’ll be in another harvest. As I said, this is all hard work, food or bud then making CBD paste for people.
“can’t be in a room with TV…disowned friends and relatives who have TVs”… Well I guess you do have a sense of humor after all because the “like a non-smoker does” fits perfectly since maybe 90% of the older-than-me relatives died from cancer but none from watching TV, and they all smoked and watched TV. But I will say my Granny K (the OB granny not the PB granny) never missed Days of our Lives. She was completely addicted to the soaps!
For the ‘in a room’ part of that sentence, here’s a fun experiment. Seriously, try this because it trips people out. Then switch places. Sit with your back to a TV and try to hold a conversation with someone that is in front of you facing it. Make sure it’s far enough away so they can see the screen well but can hear it clearly. Then start talking back and forth and see how long the one facing the screen keeps their eyes and concentration on you but be sure to talk about things that require concentration. I had a prof in an ECE class pull this and nobody could keep their eyes 100% on the person they were talking with. TV captures you. Weird!
As for surfing and Covid infections, you did read the link I posted about the latest research about the distance a live viral plume travels, right? And please enlighten me as to how surfers can be contact-traced when one comes down with Covid-19 up to two weeks after exposure when you don’t even know most of the people crowding on a peak ten days earlier. Or blowing by you on a wave breathing hard. This is on top of the fact that contact tracing in this country under Trump is a joke… Asking for stats on that is another humorous comment, right? If not you’ve got to be kidding.
But hey, even professional lifeguards who want to catch waves can be pretty stupid as this article shows. I wonder if she lost her job, too? Would you have fired her dumb ass for this? I wonder how many people caught it from her this day out in the water? Sorry that is isn’t exactly the stat you asked for but hey, like Trump says, the more they test the worse the numbers get.
https://www.theinertia.com/surf/spanish-lifeguard-arrested-for-surfing-after-testing-positive-for-covid-19/
Your fourth paragraph…effects of the harvest. Already took care of your mistaken assumption on that. But if you think nobody else would notice that your first paragraph of the Oct. 5 reply about what tires you was a complete put-down, you must have a low opinion of people’s reading comprehension skills. How you wrote it was sort of nipping sarcasm, but anybody who had a decent high school English teacher would have caught on to the underlying meaning. But that so many people are listening to Trump could mean your possibly low opinion is a correct one since look how many voted for him! I guess you don’t need me to point out the key words in your sentence and describe each part and how they create an emotional impact when combined in that particular sequence? So okay, I’ll accept that maybe I should have used ‘subtle’ instead of ‘snarling?’ I could go along with that.
But I wasn’t even replying to you in the first place. The comment was to Ken Lowe so why did you have to even say anything off topic?
About Reagan, no he was not a good orator he was a B grade screen actor who read other people’s words. Remember the quote “Trees cause air pollution?” A-hahahahahaha!
As for my supposed bragging of martial arts prowess, again no. And the last time I stepped in (about 5-6 years ago) it was because a woman was screaming for help one night in the Spokane Valley Costco parking lot in between a row of cars. When I got there a drunk guy was leaning over brutally beating another woman on the ground. He stood up and turned on me when I walked up, I saw the punch coming but didn’t see the screwdriver in his left hand coming around from behind his back. I’m such a hot fighter that I got stabbed with a screwdriver? So much for bragging rights I guess. I was NEVER one of UKF’s hot young fighters because I was 28 freaking years old when I started there. An old man!
Look up United Karate Federation of OB, Grand Master Reynaldo Leal’s website at: http://hungahungas.tripod.com/album.htm. I’m on pg 2 twice, pg 4 once. But after almost 40 years it is part of my life so of course I will talk about it. Do people talk about things that aren’t part of their lives to you?
Last thing; I have a photo of Trump taken when he was a young college Frat boy at an obvious celebration. He looks quite athletic with his shirt off.
I glad I could help clear up some misconceptions.
On that note, let’s continue to follow retired botanist’s recommendation. How about tomorrow’s little Trump Event? I can’t wait to see how it gets spun…
Weekend for Trump, Who Has Covid-19, Now Includes On-Air ‘Sham Medical Exam’ Friday and In-Person White House Event Saturday
“No proof he’s not contagious yet,” said epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding. “Dangerous.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/09/weekend-trump-who-has-covid-19-now-includes-air-sham-medical-exam-friday-and-person
sealintheSelkirks
Way, way too long seal. Can’t you shorten your responses some how? Break them up, maybe a day at a time; they’re a very intimidating read – oh, it’s just you and Geoff.
Yea, I agree Frank, I had to roll a second joint just to get through it.