Things I liked about the third Republican debate:

– drug addiction was recognized as a disease that deserves proper care. A big improvement from the ‘just say no’ years

– the US mental health crisis was mentioned (though its causes were not explained, basically living in a highly competitive cutthroat status seeking society where human connections are crumbling and prices are rising, see ‘Lost connections’ by Johann Hari or books by Gabor Maté, like the ‘Myth of normal’)

– Vivek mentioned the US should be giving other countries huge budgets for war – some attention for how destitute millions of Americans are, how they don’t have savings and how inflation is eroding their purchasing power – for the most part their behaviour was dignified. Only Nikki and Ron took it too far with their love of violent ‘solutions’ and trying to talk like characters in a failed spaghetti western

– I kinda liked that nobody on stage even came close to looking presidential because that means none of them is going to be president, they don’t have the required charisma. This doesn’t mean I want a democrat in the White House, because they are just as awful and lately they seem to be getting even worse than the Republicans…

– the only funny moment of the night was when Vivek called Nikki Haley ‘Dick Cheney in three inch heels’… so hilarious… so spot on….

Things I didn’t like:

– the usual meaningless platitudes about how the US should be a city on a hill blablabla… For most of its citizens it’s an impoverished hell hole with nuclear weapons – the unanimous and public declaration of war on China

– the ever more vocal support for Israel. A must if they want to keep filling their campaign coffers

– one of the more disgusting moments was when Chris Christie was asked to react to the fatal stabbing of a six year old Palestinian boy and he didn’t express any sadness over that, but just bragged about how he talked to a lot of muslims when he was governor…

– the near constant talk of killing, with expressions such as ‘stone cold dead’. It’s extremely telling and worrisome that US presidential candidates have to promise violence and fanatical toughness in order to get elected

– Vivek had some interesting ideas and some unusual tactics, such as directly attacking the moderators and suggesting that people like Elon Musk and other celebrities should be asked to moderate the debates, because way more people would watch the debates then

There were things I was sort of neutral to. For example, there was a whole bit on how America should ban Tik Tok cause it allows China to destroy the minds of American kids… Not really my topic. I think the unbelievable stress of making ends meet is making good parenting nearly impossible in the US. Nothing to do with Tik Tok.

PS These ‘debates’ are of course no debates, they are timed speaking rounds and here and there there is a bit of an exchange while the moderators yell that their time is up