... But Don't Stand Down.

 

 (By American Zen's Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari.)

 Proud Boys, stand back and stand by."

     Those words, hopefully, will come back to bite Donald Trump in his fat ass come election day. That now-infamous moment came toward the end of the first presidential debate at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio last night. Taking too many words and interrupting Trump too many times, debate moderator Chris Wallace set up a layup that no sane politician would ever deliberately muff: Will you tell your supporters to stand down on election night?

     Trump, feigning ignorance, wanted a name. Biden fed him another assist: "Proud Boys." "Proud Boys? Stand back and stand by!" he said. It was the predictable nadir of a debate performance that, on Trump's end, seemed poised to alienate the left wing base, scare the vast pool of undecided moderates and independents and feed red meat to his real base. It was, also on Trump's end, a master class in rudeness, boorishness, crassness and sociopathy. Trump's conduct during the 100 minute-long debate was so universally panned, the Commission on Presidential Debates swiftly issued a press release announcing that, "additional structure should be added" to the remaining two debates.

    Because, as child rearing experts constantly say, problem children need structure.

   Hands slapped over faces in Republican circles, even among his insiders. Peter Navarro was spinning the bullshit 180 degrees, as usual. By this morning, Republican senators either went into the Witness Protection Program (I'd be surprised if Lindsey Graham wasn't now going under the name of Mizz Lillian Grant). Fox Business' Stuart Varney, who probably owns Trump pajamas, today told Kayleigh McEnany that Biden won the debate. The Lincoln Project, predictably, had a field day with it. Chris Wallace is panning his own performance, stating he naively never thought Trump would act like that, despite him acting the same exact way in his debates with Hillary Clinton four years ago. "A missed opportunity", a shell-shocked Wallace told the New York Times today.

   But the debate featured an even more infamous "missed opportunity" and that was, again, when Wallace served up a softball to Trump by asking him if he would tell his base to stand down on election night. Trump whiffed. Because that's what Nazis do and Nazis gotta fascist (see Frog, and the Scorpion).

    There were enough examples of degradation and shocking behavior to pick over. Trump was sloppy, ill-prepared if prepared at all and thought his Twitter tough guy persona was a viable debate strategy. It's not an exaggeration to say Vice President Biden was either smiling or laughing at least a quarter of the time because Trump was, as Wallace should have expected, rude, uncouth and just flat out mendacious.

     If that was a party debate and Biden was matched up against whatever few true progressives that were in the hunt until last winter/spring, Biden would've come off looking like the stereotypical, cranky old right wing uncle. But compared to Trump and his constant disrespectful interruptions, Biden looked like a flaming liberal, a hapless victim of an out of control rage monster. Biden is no friend to black voters or liberals but he was handed an easy debate win by default simply because Trump forgot to bring what passes for his brain to the debate stage.

     Meanwhile, proving that even rabid dogs can hear dog whistles, the Proud Boys heard and they obeyed Trump's not so subtle order to "stand by," as their latest merch shows.

   "I Don't Know Beau."

Donald Trump greatly diminished himself by attacking Vice President Biden's sons, Beau and Hunter. But the one Trump fixated on was Hunter, as he had several times last night. Speaking of Hunters, the late Hunter S. Thompson once described Joe Biden as a "rabid weasel on speed" and the surest way to bring that out was to attack both of Biden's sons. It's a pretty good bet that Trump didn't even know that Beau Biden died of brain cancer years ago.

     But the guy who shouldn't be mentioning Moscow and nepotism too much these days went there by advancing time and again a long-discredited conspiracy theory about the late Mayor of Moscow giving Hunter Biden $3.5 million. He mentioned Burisma, he threw in everything but the kitchen sink. He broke all the most sacred rules of debating- Wait your turn, don't interrupt and don't make it personal.

     That includes bringing in family, especially dead relatives.

     But nothing's sacred to Donald Trump except for his corporate brand.

     Not even the truth. Especially the truth.

    He lied about getting the endorsement of the Portland Sheriff, Mike Reese, who had to take to Twitter to remind people he did not endorse Trump and never would. The Marine Corps Times had to do a fact check and push back against Trump's lie that Biden got hundreds of thousands of soldiers killed. A former Neo Nazi went on Democracy Now! to denounce Trump's refusal to tell right wing extremists to stand down instead of standing by. And Joe Biden himself had to constantly fact check Trump in real time about the Green New Deal, which Biden does not endorse.

     And despite Fredo's moist and manic interviews on three networks last night just prior to the debate, Trump even thought it was a good idea to bring up Hunter's long since conquered substance abuse problem. Again, this debate was a master class put on by Trump in crassness, rudeness, boorishness and, now we can include with the shit showmanship, projection.

     It was an easy default win for Biden, who looked less like a Democratic presidential nominee and more like a victim of elder abuse. When he should have been addressing the undecided voters or Joe Biden, Trump spent half his time pleading his case directly to Chris Wallace for the simple reason that the right wing Wallace was seen by Trump as an ally.

     And all Trump did in his mendacious, crude, bleacher bum style of debating was to alienate even more voters, for the Commission on Presidential Debates to vow for tighter rules, make Joe Biden actually look appealing by conspicuous relief and make the 2016 Donald Trump look like the 1960 John F. Kennedy.

     Hours after the debate, a far right wing terrorist was arrested for pointing his gun at peaceful protesters, thereby balefully promising it would be mere prelude to what will happen on Election Night.