I’m pretty sure I write the same thing every four years. What happened last night was not a debate. A debate is someone putting forth their ideas/opinions and allowing others to present counter arguments in a way that allows the audience to judge who has the better argument. Last night was a real housewives screech-fest, where the goal is to be the best at shouting over everyone and having the best cutting one-liner moment.

According to Twitter/X, whoever your candidate is was the winner. Every pundit has declared that candidate X DESTROYED candidate Y. So the end result is that whoever you supported going in… is still who you support today. What a pointless waste of oxygen.

Here are my takeaways from the little bit I watched last night, combined with reading the “news/analysis” this morning:

• Everyone except Vivek and DeSantis are Bush era neocon clones who will bumble us into WWIII.
• Vivek is a Trump clone desperately trying to capture the Trump base.
• DeSantis seemed the most “presidential”, but had a bad moment with the hand raising thing.
• Christy is an unlikable anti-trump plant who needs to give up and go back to the buffet.
• Pence loves the baby Jesus. Did I mention that he really really likes Jesus?
• Haley is Jeb! Bush reincarnated.
• I think there were two other guys there, who’s names I don’t know.
• Trump is still the nominee.

It’s a sad state of affairs. We are at the end stage of the republic, given our current trajectory. And what is the focus the GOP thinks we need to hear about? Some viral song, abortion, and loyalty pledges to Trump. It’s not a winning combination.

The republican house will continue writing sternly worded letters. The senate is already a complete uni-party. The GOP will put forth a nominee who has zero chance of winning. President Newsom will transform this country in eight years to something truly unrecognizable.

All empires eventually come to an end. Fingers crossed ours simply slowly fades away rather than a more violent undoing. I still have some travel plans and landscaping to finish.