Blogpost # M.87 TELEVISED SPORTS

Since the realization that we had qualified as a member in good standing in the category of elderly citizens, our previously regular diurnal schedule appears to have undergone some alteration. Since such time, we have observed a regular schedule of 9 P.M. bedtime and an arousal at 4:30 A.M. Last evening at 9 P.M. we routinely complied with our usual bedtime, notwithstanding an overfull day of media speculative commentary on the subject of the Presidential debate to take place at such time. The underlying reason, for such a shame-free determination, comprises the salient theme of this short essay.

Over the many generous decades of our life, we have noted that in our essentially populist, American society, judgments, and decisions have appeared to often have been made, on superficial impressions or, popularly shared criteria; the same, which may not be founded upon empirical or logical reason. We have been disappointed and discouraged to note the absence of valid criteria for many significant action choices. The latter observation provides the personally determined impetus to regularly base our judgments and choices upon perceived valid, empirical, and logical criteria.

Our unabashed decision to accede to our regularly scheduled desire for sleep was thoughtfully and empirically made, despite the effusive media broadcasting of its purported, “crucial” and “historical” significance of imminent sophomoric entertainment implicit in the gladiator-like, Presidential debates. Our seemingly nuanced decision was based upon the pragmatic consideration that we were sleepy and, as well, mindful of the lack of need for further replication of the popular sophomoric taste and lack of maturity, all too prevalent in our population; as we will elucidate.

We could conceive of the rational utility of a debate between two lesser-known Presidential candidates on the cogent subject of their publicly unknown proposed policies and intended action if elected. In the present fact pattern, by unavoidable contrast, we are presented with a choice of two candidates whose character and capability have been fully and publically demonstrated in their respective four-year terms.

Donald Trump, who has shown that he espouses no National policy, has ignorantly mismanaged the pandemic directly causing hundreds of thousands of preventable mortalities, demonstrated his serial mendacity and inveterate, rejection of empirical truth, expressed his contempt for the established media, has committed a plethora of criminal acts, evidenced by no less than 91 indictments, of which he has, in one set of charges, already been adjudged guilty by a jury,  of 34 criminal charges, has declared  his  intention to set aside the provisions of the Constitution, has treasonously befriended America’s enemies, purloined National top secret documents, produced a violent insurrection the latter, founded in his unprecedented and anti-democratic election denial, caused the elimination of a woman’s right to abortion, imposed draconian policies regarding immigration, opposed salutary health and welfare regulations, has judicially been declared a tax fraud and election interferer, is an adulterer and a person addicted to brisk commerce with call girls, an adjudicated defamer, and other revelatory offenses, including major violations of the “Emolument Clause” and being shown to be a general grafter and snake oil salesman. To top the charts, Trump has opposed NATO and has earnestly declared that he will be a Putinesque dictator.

Biden, by comparison, during his present four-year term has accomplished the following: an end to the pandemic and the lowering of its augmented inflation, achieving record-exceeding creation of jobs and a decrease in unemployment, effecting the beneficial expansion of the Nation’s needed infrastructure, the strengthening of NATO, the support of Ukraine and Israel, support of civil rights and the reduction of encumbering lifetime tuition debt, has supported labor unions and the health and welfare of families, inclusive of salutary citizen health regulations, has promoted the enforcement of the civil rights of minorities and gender discriminated citizens and needed policies of health coverage.

Most significant, in our estimation, Biden satisfies the criteria for human decency and constant recognition of the societal moral compass; bright distinctions from the demonstrated amoral and egocentric Donald Trump, and, itself, the salient motivation for his choice as American President.

No game-show-type, populist contest has any potential degree of utility as a demonstration of empirical preference comparable to the Nation’s own objective experience. We see no acceptable reason to match up, for public evaluation, the decent persona of the mild-mannered humanistic Joseph Biden with the turret-syndromic uncontrolled aggressive style of uncontrolled falsehoods, natural to Trump and, doubtlessly, enjoyably entertained by his populist cult. We have declared in previous writings that in this nuanced election, the endurance of our Democratic Republic reveals the rare existential importance of voting against one of the candidates, as opposed to the usual criterion of voting for the perceived best

The media reports of the (irrelevant) entertainment–disappointing public performance of Biden are, to us, empirically unimportant but a confirmation of our wise decision to crawl under the covers at 9 P.M.

-p.