C-i-C Forum Sept 6

I just finished watching the Commander-in-Thief (ooops - ) Commander-in-Chief forum on NBC - delayed live streaming. How appropriate as my commemoration to the day - 9/11:

Security - as represented by the United States Military forces and the national government to which it responds - is really a colonizing, imperial force. Anything that I say here represents my suspension of belief that we (as the US American) people will be able to do anything to change this in the near future. Therefore, as I continue to suspend my belief, how do I regard either of the two male-stream candidates in their abilities to be Commander-in-Chief.

Hillary Clinton: has done EVERYTHING in her power to make her the most highly qualified candidate to become the next Commander-in-Chief. She has even made the mistakes, and had the failures necessary, to give her the experience that only men, and most specifically generals carry into their campaigns for the office of C-i-C. She is kick-ass, bad-ass, well informed, will defend the United States of America, will continue the imperial policies of the Obama administration including Drone warfare and other unpleasant subjects we would rather NOT discuss openly and simply leave on the back pages of our "unclassified" discussions. I trust Hillary, sometimes I even like her. She did not do badly in the forum. She is well qualified, as the representative of her party, the Democrats, to become the next Commander-in-Chief.

#donthecon : continues unabated as the liar and con-man that he is. There is no comparison with Clinton because he is playing a TOTALLY different game, "believe me". #donthecon is appealing to the visceral / emotional testosterone waving super hero believing reality tv watching voter who does NOT want to be informed on facts, statistics or policy. The supporter is the guy (or in some instances 'the gal') who wants American exceptionalism, the great American superpower / policeman of the Coldwar - when America was "great" and we only had to worry about the 'other' superpower USSR, and possibly a rising China and/or our allies Germany and Japan and our trade deficits. His Bromance with Putin, and worship of other dictators evinces this reaction from me. Unfortunately, I was born into the cold war and react viscerally when a US wannabe Prez starts playing footisie with a former KGB head and vicious murderer. I think this is also why a large part of our NSA and other behind-the-scenes warriors would rather trust Hillary, the known quantity over the con-man who thinks his bluster and scorn passes as "negotiation."

We have already outsourced a great deal of our military to private contractors - do we really want to outsource the whole government to this "manager" - #donthecon? I will save my rants on outsourcing for another day, but if you want your government further dominated and run as a corporation, good / bad / or indifferent, #donthecon is your man.

Matt Lauer: did an indifferent job as the moderator, but what do you expect from the male-stream media ? I don't think he was harder or easier on either candidate and this IS all about "performance" - right - Communication scholars ?

I actually enjoyed the Forum as a far better format=process for evaluation than 'standard' debates controlled by whoever is now kowtowing to the DNC and RNC. I also enjoyed the fact that it represented some diverse and INTELLIGENT service members of both parties, as well as independents. Good questions, even if everything is highly stylized and vetted by NBC/MSNBC. I will write more about my relationship to the military and service on another page.