We may be feeling the first part of the title this morning. ‘Callous’ is a great word. At the root, it means ‘ hard,’ like the thick skin that builds up on a working finger. We used to work, so we understand a bit about that aspect. But of course it also can mean insensitive, or indifferent, especially to the suffering of others. That is shameful, and we are opposed to that, unless lawfully ordered to set something up to inflict it in the most humane way possible.

We are pleased to be retired from it. We took a poll, and are done with the Debate discussion. It was not the defining moment that changed everything after the last one of these things. Our consensus is that the VP won by not losing, and admire the clever way it was stage-managed.

It is fun to see the tricks of the trade. This morning had more to the depth of the professionalism that went into a successful performance. The moderators had shared the order and content of the questions, of course, so that helped set the stage. ABC’s preferred candidate was allowed to “answer” the questions by saying they would get to that important matter after a rehearsed vignette about something else.

It was well done and generally effective enough to enable the larger campaign that there is a young, vibrant candidate squared off against an old cranky one.

Fair enough. Call us calloused, but the repetitive messaging on our audio sensors has gotten them a little hard. The meme streams this morning that the enormous earrings worn by one candidate were also audio receivers. There is more to that story that demonstrates the depth and excitement associated with the campaign. The fight this morning was about a New York Post claim about the Nova H-1 ear-piece one candidate was wearing. According to the company, the earring has audio transmission capabilities and can act as a discreet earpiece.

External assistance was not to be permitted under the published ground-rules, and large pearls have not traditionally been one of the campaign issues. The accusation got some ground, like the feline carnivore issue in Ohio, and was promptly denied this morning by “fact checkers,” who pointed out that there is a minor difference in the product shown on the Web and the one in the video of the Debate.

We took a poll and we think we agree, if we could get the tuning right on our hearing aids.

You can see the importance to it all. The ABC News coverage of the show was the most-watched network debate in 16 years, so people were interested. The messaging about the messaging shows the depth of concern about who will manage the assorted problems.

One of the most curious strings of information included the other emotion about yesterday and the 9/11 Memorial ceremony in Manhattan. President Biden and Trump shook hands, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg brokered a handshake between Harris and Trump, but there was no commentary on the size of pearls.

So, the Debate is now just a trail-marker on the way to the Big Show in November. Next event will be the fight over shutting down the Government with the conclusion of Fiscal Year 2024. That is in less than three weeks, so the volume and intensity of the messaging on that issue is only being moved to center stage so the shiny sides glitter to the cameras.

We are not sure which pearls to wear, but we guarantee they will be large enough to carry any message required!

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra

www.vicsocotra.com