By Ray Rivers
June28th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
It was a sad exhibition – in fact disgraceful on all counts. Donald Trump was true to form. He had bragged earlier about not needing to prepare and that was because he just made everything up. He lied incessantly as if there were no consequences to lying – and when it comes to politics there doesn’t appear to be anymore. He is a showman and speaks with an almost credible slickness, his lies and non sequiturs notwithstanding. And he is such an animated performer it would be hard to guess his age.
Joe Biden: constantly searching his memory as he closed his eyes – as if to discover the place where he had lost the too many facts and figures he had been instructed to memorize.
That was in sharp contrast to the motionless and expressionless ghostly figure standing across the room from him. Joe Biden looked terrible last night. He was pale and uneasy, constantly searching his memory as he closed his eyes – as if to discover the place where he had lost the too many facts and figures he had been instructed to memorize. Blame his prep team for expecting an 80 year old, whose last political debate was almost four years ago, to memorize and recite all the trivia normally found in his briefing notes.
The question is why Biden even bothered trying to argue facts with Trump. He might have won the debate had he been able to lie as fluently, lucidly and articulately as his opponent. The bigger the lie the more people will believe it. And that is especially true today thanks to social media where more and more Americans, and Canadians, than ever get their news.
Over 70 million Americans watched this TV debate according to the Nielsen ratings, making it the third most watched debate in U.S. history. And nobody could miss how Joe Biden embarrassed himself and hurt the election chances of all the other democrats who had thrown their support behind him.
America lost as these two presidential candidates battled it out for 90 minutes.
There was a lot of pressure to perform and Biden’s nervousness throughout showed it. He actually appeared to freeze up at one point. The sterility of the debate format, amplified by the absence of a live audience, was something the Biden team had requested. It likely added to the tension in the air and was just another mistake on his part.
Former president Donald Trump wore a smirk much of the time when the camera was just on him.
As President, Biden has scored an impressive record of achievements on the economy and foreign relations. That he failed to get that across is a major set back for his campaign. And his failure to adequately defend his immigration record has become his Achilles heel, if indeed it is even defensible. So Trump made some points on immigration but just spread BS on everything else.
There is an almost unprecedented chorus of Democrat pundits calling, though mostly still respectfully, for Biden to go. And for the sake of the country and all the issues at stake in the upcoming election that would be the best thing that Biden could do for the country he cares so deeply about and has served so well over the years.
There comes a time when we all have to realize that is time to let it go – to let the next generation step in to do the heavy lifting. That sober advice applies to Mr. Trump equally.
Ray Rivers, a Gazette Contributing Editor, writes regularly applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was once a candidate for provincial office in Burlington. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Ray has a post graduate degree in economics that he earned at the University of Ottawa. Tweet @rayzrivers
Ok time to weigh in. I know quite a few people who are beyond their eighties who could skate cognitive circles around President Joe Biden with their hands tied behind their back and a gag in their mouth. Jill Biden is part of the problem having told Joe what a great job he did. Apparently she enjoys being first lady. Apparently Joe is also as stubborn as our Prime Minister. Not sure if this is arrogance or narcissism, neither choice helps the party they serve.
A further “weight” to add to the scale: that is dpharma, even likely just for prevention purposes. These were not explicitly mentioned, to my recollection, but in fact denied by the Biden Press Secretary.
Since we are talking about people 75 to 80 and getting older, and one and former President, it’s almost a sure bet, that at least for prevention purposes, they are on meds for cholesterol (statins), blood pressure, (many different possible), stroke and mini stroke SSRI and SNRI. These drugs all have possible side effects that mimic symptoms that Biden presents.
Biden clearly has all the risk factors of concern , and he presented several symptoms. Trump did not present any visible symptoms, but has the similar risk factors, the differing age the only one we exactly know publicly, but for prevention purposes his medication indication risk factors are likely similar.
If we could find out what the comparative risk factors status, beyond age, we could possibly assess the Biden performance, and see whose health is more of a risk. The formal medical Risk Factors set for stroke and heart, and other cardiovascular can be found online. There are large data sets that are used to calculate and compare such risk probabilities.
However, the actual data, the measured, “weight”, for each man is likely not available to compare to assess the evidence based relative risk probabilities.
For those that would like said data, it does exist, and there really is time to search out and find Biden versus Trump for all the risk factors that exist.
For example: probability of stroke in next 10 years as a function of age, cholesterol level and type (from blood work).
The future forecast time, can be changed, the use and effect of pills (eg, statins), excercise, and so on. I don’t know details.
The whole debate was cringe-worthy. Watching Biden reminded me of my own father who suffered from dementia and Parkinsons in his later years. Blank stares, struggling for words, and faltering steps. Not a good look, and for those ambivalent about supporting the Democrats it didn’t inspire confidence.
Biden needs to drop out now. However, Kamala Harris is clearly not a viable candidate. She is feckless, weak and condescending. Time to turn the page.
Regardless of whether the Democrats recruit Gretchen Whitmer, the Governor of Massachusetts, or J.B. Pritzker, the Governor or lllinois, just about anyone would be better than maintaining the status quo, except perhaps for Gavin Nesome, the Governor of California who Trump would grind into dog food. The Democrats’ bench strength isn’t as robust as the Republicans, and their leadership in the House and Senate is old. A fresh face would put some distance between Biden’s mediocre Presidency, energize the Democrats’ base of support, and upset Trump’s game plan.
Many have said and I agree a vote for Joe Biden for President could very well end up being for Kamala Harris to become President. This would be disastrous.
Kamala Harris is very unpopular and has done nothing to indicate that she is the right person to hold this office.
It is a sad state of affairs that Biden and Trump are the best America has to offer to run for the presidency of the United States.
I feel the same way with regard to our Canadian Federal Government. Many Canadians will have a difficult time voting in the next election if our options are between Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre.
Others may say that there is the option of voting for the NDP, The Bloc and the Green Party. The reality is that at the present time these parties will never be voted into power.
If I had voted for the Liberal Party during the last election I would be extremely upset that the Liberal Government has tied itself to the NDP in order to have a majority.
I have to wonder how different things would have been done if this” unholy alliance” had not come to be.
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
I agree it is sad but it is reality. Biden could die before the November election.
I just don’t advise making a decision on this based on this assessment of risk of death.
Kamala Harris is a women and I think can confront Trump and call him to account.
The best chance of Biden winning is Biden running. The worst outcome for America I think is Trump winning. Just look today at the Supreme Court decision on him having some vague measure of “immunity”. Watch him go again.
With that decision, Trump was already declaring victory. He did say he would be a dictator.
As I have said, Trump must be called out for the danger he is. Remember, he said even Hitler had a good side.
Beware over-intellectualizing what is really in propaganda, and corruption, which Trump excels at.
Reread my comment below on the Gish Gallop he pulled off in the nothing debate.
He spent almost all his time lying and avoiding frank expressions of the truth of what he would do in policy.
The US, and the Canadian mainstream media propping up Bidden’s cognitive ability has now fallen to pieces, anyone with a sense could see the lies that have been propagated, the charade is over.
I’m a Canadian, and but have skin skin in this game (lots of US investments and a few fun side bets with buddies). I think I know American’s, my mother immigrated to Canada from the US, I have 40+ first cousins, worked for a very large US corporation, worked with many awesome American’s and had outstanding American’s as part of my team. We now spend 4 months in the US during the winter. Blue states are a mess, Red states much better, the math on a number of fronts tells the story.
Trump is a lot of things a hustler, a con man, a viper. For a guy in his 70’s hard to imagine having that much energy. Arguably, one of the most well know people in the world. He works all the time, you don’t get to the position he has without knowing how to read people and having a high level of intellect.
There are people that hate him in business, also those that love him, its not easy making a buck in the NY and Chicago commercial real-estate market – its hardball for sure, survival of the fittest.
In this debate Trump was far more restrained than in the past, perhaps one of his best debates. He could have ripped Bidden to pieces, but he chose not to – it would have been cruel. Bidden is old, his cognitive ability is in a state of decline and he was clearly pumped full of meds – what the Democratic party has done is cruel.
Reality, Trump was strong on immigration, the southern US boarder is now an absolute mess. This is not by accident, the Democrats want immigrants flooding Blue states as electoral districts are determined by population, not citizenship – follow the math.
Trump also helped to broker the Abraham Accords https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Accords … and many would argue Trump should have been on the list for a Nobel Peace Prize, the Democrats have done everything to sideline this. Many believe if this accord for driven to conclusion and other Arab countries became signatories we would not have the situation in the middle east and number of Iranian sponsored terrorist organizations running wild.
Again, the mainstream media likes to get everyone excited about Trump, Canada did ok under his presidency, even with our PM that was performative at best. Trump read Trudeau well ahead of many Canadians. Now the polls show Canadians have finally figured out Trudeau.
US GDP Growth per capita was actually quite good for Trump, and this is good for Canada. Republicans are less protectionist than Democrats, again, good for Canada.
With the right leadership there is opportunity to be leveraged. So, aside from the noise, not sure why all this hysteria is with Trump.
Many thanks, Ray for the balanced and insightful analysis. As you probably know, in formal debating there is an established tactic (I have forgotten the name of it – I’m 81 years old) by which one floods one’s opponent with misstatements, lies, claims, and nonsense to the point where the opponent does not know which or what to address next, leading to the freeze ups we saw that night.
But one issue I have not yet seen addressed was: Trump repeatedly characterized immigrants as released from mental asylums, prisons, rapists, murderers, and drug mules. Then he criticized Biden’s immigration policy as allowing these immigrants to “take Black jobs”. Wait a minute! What does that say about Black Americans? Is he not saying Blacks only qualify for certain jobs because they are mental patients, parolees, rapists, murderers, or drug mules?
No one in the media has so far picked up on what should have been a fatal mistake committed by Trump.
Good point – I Googled it
the Gish gallop (/ˈɡɪʃ ˈɡæləp/) is a rhetorical technique in which a person in a debate attempts to overwhelm their opponent by providing an excessive number of arguments with no regard for the accuracy or strength of those arguments. Gish galloping prioritizes the quantity of the galloper’s arguments at the expense of their quality. The term was coined in 1994 by anthropologist Eugenie Scott, who named it after American creationist Duane Gish and argued that Gish used the technique frequently when challenging the scientific fact of evolution.[1]
Strategy
During a Gish gallop, a debater confronts an opponent with a rapid series of specious arguments, half-truths, misrepresentations, and outright lies in a short space of time, which makes it impossible for the opponent to refute all of them within the format of a formal debate.[2] Each point raised by the Gish galloper takes considerably more time to refute or fact-check than it did to state in the first place, which is known online as Brandolini’s law.[3] The technique wastes an opponent’s time and may cast doubt on the opponent’s debating ability for an audience unfamiliar with the technique, especially if no independent fact-checking is involved or if the audience has limited knowledge of the topics.[4]
Countering the Gish gallop
Generally, it is more difficult to use the Gish gallop in a structured debate than a free-form one.[5] If a debater is familiar with an opponent who is known to use the Gish gallop, the technique may be countered by pre-empting and refuting the opponent’s commonly used arguments before the opponent has an opportunity to launch into a Gish gallop.[6]
British journalist Mehdi Hasan suggests using these three steps to beat the Gish gallop:[7]
Because there are too many falsehoods to address, it is wise to choose one as an example. Choose the weakest, dumbest, most ludicrous argument that your opponent has presented and tear this argument to shreds (also known as the weak point rebuttal).
Do not budge from the issue. Don’t move on until you have decisively destroyed the nonsense and clearly made your point.
Call it out: name the strategy. “This is a strategy called the ‘Gish Gallop’. Do not be fooled by the flood of nonsense you have just heard.”
See also
Ad hominem attack – Attacking the person rather than the argument
Brandolini’s law – Difficulty of refuting false or misleading information
Filibuster – Political stalling tactic
Firehose of falsehood – Propaganda technique
Proof by intimidation – Marking an argument as obvious or trivial
Sealioning – Type of trolling or harassment
Signal-to-noise ratio – Ratio of the desired signal to the background noise
Spreading – Competitive debate tactic
References
Scott 2004, p. 23; Scott 1994.
Logan 2000, p. 4; Sonleitner 2004.
Hayward 2015, p. 67.
Grant 2011, p. 74.
Johnson 2017, pp. 14–15.
Grant 2015, p. 55.
Hasan, Mehdi (16 March 2023). “Stay Tuned with Preet, Debating 101” (Podcast).
General and cited sources
Grant, John (2011). Denying Science: Conspiracy Theories, Media Distortions, and the War Against Reality. Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-61614-400-5.
Grant, John (2015). Debunk it: How to Stay Sane in a World of Misinformation. San Francisco: Zest Books. ISBN 978-1-936976-68-3.
Hayward, C. J. S. (2015). The Seraphinians: “Blessed Seraphim Rose” and His Axe-Wielding Western Converts. The Collected Works of C.J.S. Hayward. San Francisco: Zest Books. ISBN 9781517068134.
Johnson, Amy (2017). Gasser, Urs (ed.). “The Multiple Harms of Sea Lions” (PDF). Perspectives on Harmful Speech Online. Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. p. 14.
Logan, Paul (25 February 2000). “Scientists Offer Creationist Defense”. West Side Journal. Albuquerque Journal. Vol. 120, no. 56. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
Sonleitner, Frank J. (November–December 2004). “Winning the Creation Debate”. Reports. 24 (6). National Center for Science Education: 36–38.
Scott, Eugenie (2004). Confronting Creationism. Reports of National Center for Science Education. Vol. 24/6. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
Scott, Eugenie (1994). “Debates and the Globetrotters”. Talk Origins Archive. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
Hasan, Medhi (2023). “How to Beat Trump in a Debate”. The Atlantic. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
vte
Propaganda techniques
Accusation in a mirror Ad hominem Appeal to fear Appeal to emotion Atrocity propaganda Bandwagon effect Beautiful people Big lie Black propaganda Blood libel Buzzword Cartographic propaganda Censorship Cherry picking Cult of personality Demonizing the enemy Disinformation Dog whistle Doublespeak Exaggeration False accusation False balance False dilemma Fake news Fear, uncertainty, and doubt Firehose of falsehood Flag-waving Framing Gish gallop Glittering generality Half-truth Historical negationism Ideograph Indoctrination Lawfare Loaded language Newspeak Managing the news Minimisation Monumental propaganda New generation warfare Obscurantism Overcomplication Oversimplification Plain folks Psychological warfare Propaganda of the deed Public relations Rally ’round the flag effect Scapegoating Senbu Shooting and crying Slogan Spin Weasel word Whataboutism White propaganda
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This page was last edited on 28 June 202
If Biden steps down at this late stage, who steps up? Do Democrats hold an old style convention? Might be interesting. Unfortunately the whole US electoral process has been gradually modified to ensure elimination of any candidates of merit and replace them with a battle of sound bites and fundraising campaigns to pay for them. Governance is left in the hands of unelected political operatives, loyal only to the leader and focussed on remaining in power. And we are heading for the same trap in Canada.
My wife and I watched it all. We saw what Ray saw, and he very well described it. So adding details on Trump totally lacking any character or suitability at all related to the Office would be redundant. We would be mimicking him, and that is the basis of one point we have not seen reported as part of the outcome.
After some thought, we did come away with a possible silver lining in Biden’s performance. We believe that Biden may have sacrificed the heart in himself to elicit and reveal the Satan in Trump to temptation, and he got Trump to show his Evil, with almost every word and action to the irresistible Satan in Trump, responding in spades.
So our point is, that for certain, with no doubt, what Trump’s encounter with Biden causally and instantly delivered live, every second, every gesture, every lie, every slander/defamation, in every media, every word, every lie, facial expression tin what will be every language to the entire Earth for recorded history, forever.
That may have been perfectly predictable. It was Biden, and he said he ran because of Trump. In this circumstances, Trump, and his lying and will do anything for himself character, just could not stop himself – he is an Evil, lying man by nature and reputation and criminally. Just look at the fact checks that have been done and his felony convictions, that he denies of course.
This was not a debate at all – Trump didn’t answer debate questions that were the real stuff the President would need to deal with, and instead just lied almost constantly, away and jabbered viciously about what he wanted to say. He wanted to keep himself free from any public statement on record about policy.
So saying that someone won or lost the debate, when there really was nothing at all like even a try by Trump, is a fool’s errand.
A debate involves providing “what will I do” discussions about policy questions put to you, and then back and forth “debate”. When the questions asked are not answered or not spoken to and addressed, and this is allowed by the rules, this is no debate.
Look at it as you will about America Lost. That may be, but if the explosion of Evil in what Trump actually said for all to hear and see and record for posterior; and the incompetence and threats of continued future Evil; is spread far and wide, it makes no sense that Trump for sure has been unscathed and all is lost.
It is clear that Trump will not Debate or campaign seriously, so I would give him a big dose and campaign theme truck full of back to today reminders of what he did the night of June 27 2024.
He needs a large campaign dose of his own medicine. Take the gloves off. He deserves no trust and certainly no RESPECT. Take Biden’s example – no handshake – and Biden knows the danger of the man – he is the President remember.
Take his example, so his sacrifice is not wasted, then America will really have lost.
I am fearful of the man as I believe for sure that his persona threatens WW3 – the end.
Seeing Biden stumble tells me he should not be President of anything let alone the most powerful Country on earth.
Trump will win !
God help the next Canadian government.
Thank you for your insightful article Ray. I agree that the time has come for the Democrats to redraw their Ticket. Perhaps one approach to consider would be to keep the basic format of the Ticket the same but just switch round the order of the Running Mates. I’m sure Persident Kamala Harris, and the American people, would benefit greatly from the sage advice of Vice President Joe Biden standing behind her.
Good analysis Ray. I will leave it there for now. Happy Canada Day