POST-MORTEM ON THE FIRST DEBATE

     So the first presidential debate of 2016 is now history. What we learned from it is what most of us suspected: that both candidates are personally corrupt and neither has any idea what to do about solving our national problems. There was some mudslinging, some soundbites thrown around; and the American moved on to Monday Night Football.

       Probably the best commentary on the debate came last weekend from Syrian President Dr. Bashir Assad. When AP reporter asked him which candidate he favored, Assad replied: "We never pay attention to US presidential elections. What the candidates say during campaigns is always different than what they do once they're elected." Having Assad in the debate would have made it much more interesting.

       What most Americans fail to grasp is that presidents these days are not actually leaders. They are followers of party machines and vested interests. Trump is somewhat unique in that he's a vested interest and a political machine of his own; but the principle still holds true. What too many Americans really want is somebody to do their thinking and acting for them, while avoiding any responsibility. Hence, we have two candidates who do exactly that.

       Lester Holt, who earns a $4.5 million salary from NBC hosted the debate. NBC is a subsidiary of Comcast. From those two facts, it would be predictable that the questions raised would be fairly generic ones, and certain issues would be swept under the rugs. For example Holt asked Trump about his tax returns while not asking about the near $28 million that Comcast has spent so far in campaign contributions, PAC contributions and lobbying during the current election cycle was problematic. Hilary Clinton has received $125,000 from Comcast.

      Trump would not have mentioned this however, since the Republican Senatorial and Congressional Election Committees have received around $337,000 from Comcast, combined.

       Comcast also has 112 paid lobbyists---94 of whom formerly held government positions; including 4 ex-Congressmen. Not surprisingly, Comcast is a major government contractor---so much so that the corporation even has a separate division for government contracts and affairs. Under Obama, Comcast was awarded the contract for the General Accounting Office's internet---which was hacked by the Chinese earlier this year.

      Holt did ask a question about cybersecurity---discreetly of course omitting reference to the GAO attack, which put personal data on every federal government employee into the hands of Chinese Intelligence. Both candidates agreed that it was a problem, without specifying what they would do to address it however.

       The Corporate Media will be spending all week arguing over who won the debate. The winner of the debate was Wall Street and Big Government, as usual.