It’s a yucky Busy day here in the CatBox. All that dye I had to drink for the CAT Scan gave me a severe case of Republicosis, and I spent half the night or more on the throne. Nerveless, the pizza was so fine and I’m having more. WWWendy will be here soon. Have a great weekend.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:21 (average 5:10). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Monologue (no CC) – “From Russia with Yuck” pretty well covers it.
Ben Sheehan OMG WTF – A scholar on the narrow field of what the Constitution says about elections – and the much wider subject of states’ election laws.
Matthew McConaughey (no CC) – Interesting conversation – I wouldn’t call it deep.
New Rule – “American Ninja Warrior” – We could have used some of this honesty long before now. Bill is not as fast a learner as he thinks he is. This, granted, is point for point on the money.
New Words – from overtime – and very funny
I tried to enable CC wherever it existed. Hope it works.
You probably noticed that I left out the word “Fun” from my usual intro. It wasn’t a typo – it was purposeful. But that’s not because this is a sad tale. In fact, it’s a story about Joe Biden that most of you are familiar with. But I wanted to flesh it out a bit by sharing a couple of items you might have missed.
Perhaps the two most frequent words used to describe Vice-President Joe Biden are “decent” and “empathy”. Not only are they well-deserved appellations, but those two words are totally foreign to Trump.
Most, if not all, of us are familiar with the backstory of the tragedies that Joe Biden has endured with exemplary grace and dignity. He lived through the unimaginable tragedy of losing his first wife and 13-month-old-daughter, Naomi, in a car crash in 1972, just a few months after being elected to the U.S. Senate. His sons Beau and Hunter, 3 and 2 at the time, were in the back seat, seriously injured and hospitalized for days. Sen. Joe Biden had just turned 30.
From that tragedy, Biden nurtured his innate ability to connect with other people and show compassion for their thoughts, emotions and feelings. It was Pres. Obama who said while endorsing Biden’s run: “When Joe talks to families who’ve lost a hero, we hear another parent of an American veteran; a kindred spirit; somebody whose faith has endured the hardest loss there is.”
It was that ability so clearly demonstrated in this candid talk in 2012 to military families and friends who had lost a loved one, speaking openly of the anger, questions of faith and wounds that really don’t ever fully heal.
That speech made me realize what kind of man Joe Biden is. While long, the entire talk is worth watching, partly because you see him struggle to put into words his thoughts and emotions.
For me, the most moving, yet comforting, moment occurs at about the 16:10 mark:
“There will come a day, I promise you and your parents, as well, when the thought of your son or daughter or your husband or wife brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. It will happen. My prayer for you is that day will come sooner or later…. But the only thing I have more experience than you in is this: I’m telling you it will come.”
As most of us have come to learn, Biden endured hardships while growing up from a serious stutter affliction. It’s one of the reasons he gives his phone number to any child he encounters who stutters (a tribulation that affects 70 million people worldwide), telling them they belong to the same club.
You might recently remember one such child, Brayden Harrington, that Joe first met on a rope line:
You also might well remember seeing Brayden give Biden a must-watch endorsement at the DNC Convention.
But I really want to share a recent video of Brayden showing the impact Biden’s empathy has had on him while giving Joe a “pep talk”. The kid is amazing!
To close, I want to share a very brief video from two years ago of Biden meeting and comforting Parkland families who lost loved one in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting. It was recently re-posted by the videographer because he wants to be sure that Biden is elected, and rightfully believes his empathy is one of his strongest assets.
The clip ends with Biden shaking hands with Debra Hixon, who explains she’s the widow of Chris Hixon, the heroic coach who died trying to save students in the shooting.
But after this exchange while Biden is walking away, Hixon’s son, Corey – a special-needs boy, runs after him for a hug. And Joe Biden’s reaction is just what we’d expect from a man with such boundless empathy.
While he wasn’t my first or second choice, I can honestly said we can be proud and are blessed to have him as our candidate …
I'm one of those who frets that the election will be much closer than the polls indicate. That in a world where non-voters are never targeted by Dems, huge turnout could contain multitudes. So I'm dropping some old footage of Joe Biden here: pic.twitter.com/74UROClgbh
TomCat is busy with personal business today and tomorrow so I thought I would, in his absence, bring you the final presidential debate of 2020 and some commentary.
I must have been demented at the time, but I managed to sit through the 90 plus minutes of the second (some say the third, but the originally scheduled second debate was cancelled because of Trump’s dance with COVID-19) presidential debate. If you have not already seen it, here it is in its entirety.
I have to admit that for the first 30 minutes or so, either the mute button worked wonders or Trump restrained himself. I think it was the former. Trump has no understanding of restraining himself. After that point, the gloves came off, albeit he was not the raving lunatic pugilist that I saw in the first debate. NBC’s Kristen Welker did a great job moderating but I think at times it was a challenge.
Following is a fact check of the debate by Canadian journalist Daniel Dale who now works for CNN. I just had to get that “Canadian plug” in! As Dale said, from a fact checker’s point of view there was a lot more fact checking required than in the first debate, and mostly of Trump but Biden did make some errors.
Basically, what we got in a calmer debate was a collision of visions. Trump sees a business-dominant America, even in a pandemic, with fewer federal programs and individual responsibility to take care of oneself—except for areas where he has an interest like abortion. Biden embraces bigger government services, healthcare, environment and caring for the vulnerable. …
Trump likely did not persuade new voters. Biden may have done so, but certainly did not lose any.
The hard part was sitting still while they went at it, trying to remember that Hunter Biden isn’t running against Xi Jinping for U.S. president. At some points, you wondered whether they could agree on what color the stage was.
The “funniest” line came from Trump and it just shows how addled he is: from TPM(read the whole article if you can)
“I take full responsibility,” Trump said, before quickly adding: “It’s not my fault it came here. It’s China’s fault.”
An inukshuk (what some refer to as a pile of rocks) has more brains than Trump! An inukshuk has great meaning and use. Trump does not!
The late John Turner, the 17th Prime Minister of Canada and a Liberal, who died two weeks ago at age 91 said “Democracy does not happen by accident. Become involved! Get out there! Give something back!” That is the only way Trump and Republicans will be defeated.
Vote like your life depends on it, because it does!
I know I was not up to watching last night’s debate, and I doubt TC was either (unless that was why he overslept – probably not, it airs earlier the farther west one lives.) So I’m grateful The Conversation came to my rescue (to the rescue of us all) with this article.
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden met on Oct. 22 for the final debate in the 2020 election and, like the first debate, it was unusual.
COVID-19 forced social distancing and largely took the studio audience, with their laughter, cheering and booing out of the equation.
What’s more, with norm-breaking interruptions and stealing of speaking time an inherent part of Donald Trump’s debate strategy, the contentious crosstalk between the two candidates and the moderator made long sections of the candidates’ first debate nearly impossible to hear or follow. The threat of having the microphone cut off effectively muted this aggression.
But is what they say as important as we think?
Although news coverage generally focuses on what the candidates say, as a political psychologist who studies nonverbal behavior, I focus less on the rehearsed answers and more on the space between talking points. These moments, when candidates nonverbally – and largely involuntarily – respond to their opposition can be enormously revealing.
In other words, how people listen and react may speak louder than what they say.
During this debate Joe Biden reacted as the emotionally expressive politician he has been throughout his career.
Even when directly dealing with attacks from Trump, whether aimed at his family or his record, Biden often smiled, laughed and shook his head while closing his eyes. That made him appear bemused, if not jovial.
Laughter when under attack likely signals that Biden feels positive enough to be playful and that he is subtly taking control of the conversation.
Trump
A signature Trump expression known as the ‘lip funneler.’ C-SPAN
Trump presented a much less aggressive and more thoughtful face to the American public during this second debate, especially when compared to the first one.
Instead of directly attacking Biden when his assertions were questioned, Trump responded with what may best be termed a controlled-posed smile, in which his lower lip is pressed up while his lip corners were pulled up in a smile. This type of smile is often used to mask negative emotions or to signal positive emotions when they are not felt.
Perhaps Trump’s signature facial display is his protruding funneled lips. This lip funneler – as it is referred to by facial display researchers – can often be seen while Trump is listening and preparing to interrupt or respond to Biden. The research that exists about this behavior in humans suggests it is a primal display often occurring during intense emotional situations and is associated with anger and threats while engaging in dominance-seeking behavior.
Much can be learned about each candidate with the noise turned down and the attention placed squarely on their distinct nonverbal behavior styles.
This is especially the case when focusing on how the candidates respond to their opposition’s assertions and attacks. Public figures can often control how they act. However, they often do not have as much control over how they react in the heat of the moment.
It’s a crazy day here in the CatBox. CAT Scan day is NOT the day to oversleep! ARGH! Tomorrow is a WWWendy day, so please expect no more than a Personal Update. TGIF!! Color me gone!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:25 (average 5:47). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Sound and Fury – “He Reminds me of my Ex-Husband” sounds funny … but it’s not.
The Lincoln Project – Two today on YouTube, probably more on Twitter
A guitar for Jimmy
Beau on the 500 children Keith spoke about yesterday
Keith
SCOTUS update – Amy Wild Hare Barrett has been sent to the full Senate for a vote. There may be more petitions, especially to Senators not on the Committee. But I don’t have any right now.
(what some refer to as a pile of rocks) has more brains than Trump! An inukshuk has great meaning and use. Trump does not!
