Just a Few Things to Say on the VP Debate

Go Margaret and Nora fact-checking, defying the CBS promise to  Trump and Vance no fact-checking - simply because it's the right thing to do - get it ladies, you're awesome! 😂

Walz is doing a GREAT job debating - much better than predicted.

JD can make things sound plausible, but they're actually still based on complete nonsense that he pulled out of his backside 😏

Still, I have less to say on this one, because they remained civil and respectful of each other - so bravo to both men for that - and no one said anything TOO cuckoo like dogs and cats being eaten by Haitians immigrants. 😂

However, I do want to say that I don't understand Vance OR Trump getting upset about being fact-checked. 

If my candidate got so upset about being fact-checked, that would  be the end of that, I wouldn't vote for them after all - sorry.  

Worse, if my candidate said people were eating dogs and cats, and they weren't, not only would I not vote for them now, but I would question not only the sanity of the candidate, but anyone who would still vote for them or believe another word they said. 

Call me crazy ethical like that 😂

If the "overload" situation is as dire as you say, you shouldn't need to "create stories to get attention to it." 

The fact that you felt you needed to make up a story has the opposite effect to sane, smart people - it instead leads us to believe the "overload" situation is NOT that dire - and, in fact, it isn't. 

No wonder Dude wants to allow misinformation to continue to run rampant and incite violence unchecked, and considers disallowing it a platform a bigger threat to democracy than misinformation itself under Trump has been 😂

I also want to address some of the more disturbing untruths that came out of shady JD Shady's mouth - besides just blaming Harris' economic policies, though she literally has nothing to do with that, as VP, other than breaking ties on bills in Congress.

 

1)  Implying that the pharmaceutical companies are all foreign "enemies" and that we need to bring pharmaceutical manufacturing back here to the U.S, but after previously saying his mother was a former opioid addict.   

 

Now, this is subject I know a little something about, considering one of my contracts is transcribing the interviews between Big Pharma and insurance companies and key-opinion leaders for test-marketing before new products are launched. 

 

Erm - OxyContin. the most addictive opioid pain medication ever manufactured  - which your mother was addicted to, JD Shady - was manufactured right here in the U.S. at Purdue Pharma, which is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. 

Purdue Pharma - and their largest shareholders, the Sackler family - were successfully sued in 2007 for proven foreknowledge of the addictive potential of the opioid drug, Oxycontin, but hiding data on the addiction potential, as well as unethical rebating and promotion practices for the drug (and there have been subsequent cases since).  

Also, American pharmacies Walmart, Kroger, CVS, and Walgreens had to pay settlements for not monitoring the drug and their dispensing practices, as well as receiving rebates on sales of the drug. 

Also, American wholesaling pharmaceutical distributor companies, McKesson and Cardinal, paid settlements for the same reasons as the pharmacies above.

Now - after having my job outsourced 4 times during the Bush era, I am the last person to support outsourcing overseas. 

If you want to demonize certain Big Pharma companies, I'm with you - but demonizing anything foreign isn't the answer. 

Pretending that it's not been our own greedy American pharmaceutical corporations - operating virtually unchecked, with more tax shelters than ever under Trump -  that screwed over our own people - including your mother - is a bold-faced lie that I'm ashamed you told FOR you, because you apparently aren't.  

 

Also, FYI, Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid - meaning although it does have a component of thebaine from the poppy plant, the rest of the drug must be manufactured at a manufacturing facility, by a pharmaceutical company, because of the drug's complexity.  

You cannot just cook some up in your kitchen like meth. 

What you are referring to that is being brought from Mexico is the illegal, counterfeit form of fentanyl - and it's manufactured in China, not in Mexico - and yes, it's illegally transferred across the border. 

However, we are also partially guilty, ourselves.

Because legal Fentanyl - which is also sold on the street - was also previously manufactured by Purdue Pharma, and is currently manufactured by US companies like Pfizer in different forms. 

 

2)  He - and Trump - keep saying that Harris as the VP can stop immigration now, when they know dang well she does not have the power.  The president doesn't even have the power.  

As the moderator and Walz said - and I said in my Prez debate post - their only power is to sign an immigration bill, and there WAS a bill, sponsored by Republicans, that Trump asked to be killed until the election was over.  

In response to this, JD Shady said they could call the national guard then, and Walz responded "Then why didn't Trump do it himself?  Why did he not pass a bill himself?  Why did he only build 2% of a wall? Why did Mexico not pay a dime for it, like he said?" 

 

3) I'm glad to see they both agreed on outsourcing being a failure - which was a bipartisan push - first, Clinton with NAFTA and then the "Bush Push" in the mid-2000s -  but what Shady fails to address is that the reason it failed is the greed by these corporations that never "trickled down" back on us, which was the theory on cheaper labor overseas - that corporations would do better and "trickle down" on us despite the loss of U.S. jobs. 

This Republican fantasy of "trickle-down" has never once worked at a corporate level and it never will work, because it ignores the basic human-nature flaw of greed. 

Trickle down DOES work locally with locally-owned business, but is has NEVER once worked at a national or corporate level. 

 

4)  As for the pharmaceutical prices and Trump, Shady's just straight up lying.  

Trump complained about it, but did nothing.  

Biden authored and signed the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) into law, which was passed two years ago, and will go into full effect in 2025.  The gist is, Medicare will renegotiate the price of drugs that has never come down, despite several competitors being on the market.  Also, patients on Medicare will never pay more than $50 a month for a copay for their medications.    

 

5) Saying that "censorship" of misinformation is a bigger threat to democracy than the misinformation itself from Trump himself.  

Hahaha! 

Oh, he was serious.  

 Also, the pretending Trump peacefully transitioned power is just more gaslighting BS of things we saw with our own eyes, so much so, that I left the room due to gastrointestinal distress. 😂 I have a very strong reaction to gaslighting for personal reasons.

6) I think he's saying said that Trump didn't try to repeal Obamacare. Uhhh ... he most certainly did. The  fact that he's on board with provision of public healthcare now doesn't change the fact that he was on board with repealing it.

 

7) His point on alternative energy sources and manufacturing here in America, "where it's cleaner" than overseas made zero sense.  

What was his point - that we should dirty up America, too?   

I think his point was supposed to be focusing on making solar panels here in America (which is already done) and finding new sources of energy here. 

Great, I agree - so why don't you talk to your Republican coal-company and car-company buddies about that, and see how much they'll let that fly? Neither has the greatest track record - they like to squash any other new energy sources  than oil or coal (or any competitors, for that matter).

 

As predicted, Vance kept blaming "Harris' policies" - erm - she's the VP, who had virtually no power to implement any policies, just break ties in the Senate and/or Congress on bills. 

In fact, if you'll notice, Vance - much like Trump - likes to blame all of the world's ills on foreigners and Democrats.   

I really wish that someone would just say to JD Vance: "Listen, Jethro - Eastern Kentucky, where you came from - and whom you dissed in your book - has been exclusively Republican for the past 70 years. Not to mention, it's 96% white, Christian, natural-born citizens - but is just as drug-addled and violent as any inner city in America. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for white, Christian, Republican natural-born U.S. citizens, is it?"   😄

Otherwise, I gotta say, I was troubled by both of their economic plans costing us over $5 trillion dollars!

However, the same, tired "trickle-down" policies from Republicans about less taxes for rich people and corporations, don't work - and they have never worked - so we need to at least try something new!