STOP! Hammer of Truth Time!

Birch Barlow: Sideshow Bob, Councilman Les Wynan says that you're not experienced enough to be mayor. Sir, what do you have to say about that? 

Sideshow Bob:  I'd say that Les Wynan ought to do more thinking and less whining.
Lisa Simpson: There's no Councilman Les Wynan.
Bart Simpson: Good line, though.

---Sideshow Bob Roberts, The Simpsons, Season 6

Tonight: Presidential Debate
Tomorrow: Mexican Pot Luck 

“The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media!” 
---Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), 10/28/2015, 3rd Republican Presidential Debate. 

Here's why the American people trust politicians even less. 

Sen. Cruz continues: "“You look at the questions: ‘Donald Trump, are you a comic-book villain?’"

Donald Trump was asked how he would fulfill his promises to “build a wall and make another country pay for it” (Mexico), “send 11 million people out of the country” (undocumented immigrants), and “cut taxes $10 trillion without increasing the deficit.” 

What was NOT said at all:  ‘Donald Trump, are you a comic-book villain?'

Sen. Cruz continues: "‘Ben Carson, can you do math?’"

Ben Carson was asked how he would close the $1 trillion gap between current federal spending and the revenue projected from Carson’s 15 percent flat tax.

What was NOT said at all:  Ben Carson, can you do math?

Sen. Cruz continues: "‘John Kasich, will you insult two people over here?’"

John Kasich of his own volition described Trump’s and Carson’s promises as impractical and incoherent. 

What was NOT said at all:   ‘John Kasich, will you insult two people over here?’

So what question was posed to Sen. Cruz that launched this tirade about the lack of substantive questions during the debate? 

He was asked explain why he opposed this week’s agreement to raise the debt limit. A rather substantive question to give Sen. Cruz an opportunity to expound upon his views of government spending and its impact on the American economy. Instead, he used time to complain about a lack of substantive questions while failing to answer the substantive question posed to him. 

Of course, as his time ran out, Sen. Cruz complained about not having time to answer the question. 

Donald Trump got in on the fun when denied that he had called Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) “Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator” for promoting immigrant tech-worker visas. Trump went as far as suggesting CNBC's Becky Quick made that up. By the way, where did Quick get this information? From Trump’s own website! She was reading it from his website! And as I write this, it's still there! 

Marco Rubio got into the blame the liberal media game as he accused the media of ignoring Hillary Clinton’s lies about Benghazi after “she spent over a week telling the families of those victims and the American people that [the attack] was because of a video." 

Yeah, this is one of those bullet points that GOP talking heads trot out every other day. Except there is no evidence that Clinton made any such statement 
attributing the violence in Benghazi to a video during that time frame.* 

*For more on the Republican's war with the press, click here which provided significant support for the preceding portion of this blog.   

 The thing is...the really, really, really scary thing is that none of this matters to these candidates. They can say whatever they want with zero concern with if anything they say is actually true. It only has to sound true; Fox News and talk radio will take it from there. And the party faithful, their brains deep fried by angry, hateful, ignorant rhetoric, will take it all in and not question any of it. Because, to them, it's all true. 

And this debate shows this process steeping to its lowest level. We're not talking about Ted Cruz refuting facts from last year or last week. We're talking about refuting facts that happened within the last half hour. Donald Trump denied a fact that was verifiable at the precise moment he was denying; when confronted with it, Trump blew it off. He didn't care. It may not be true that Marco Rubio is Mark Zuckerberg's personal senator.  

But, to quote Bart Simpson, "Good line, though."  

____________________________________________

Before I wrap this up, some blog stuff:

Tomorrow is the first of two (Count 'em, baby! TWO!) Doctor Who posts. 

Saturday, I look back over the first half of Series 9 and see how it all stacks up so far. Also in the post, I'll ponder some other stuff like who's getting a movie, which Doctor is coming back for new adventures and what does the future hold of Doctor Who. 

Sunday, I'll do my recap/review thing for Saturday's episode, "The Zygon Invasion". 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another.