"My prediction: Trump will be decent for the first half hour or so. But then, as the debate goes on, he'll run out of actual things to say and will be reduced to what he does best—bragging about himself and insulting other people. I don't think either is going to play well."

Yeah, he was pretty hard on Trump, and I have to say, although I've long been aware that he's no supporter of DT, I was surprised — and delighted — when I heard him utter the phrase "babbling incoherence." LOL.

Oh, yeah …. John Podesta, who participated in the panel discussion on MSNBC, tonight, said exactly that: There's a real question as to whether or not DT will show up for the next two debates. And a couple of the other panelists agreed with him, that Trump's continuing participation is now open to question.

One encouraging development happened a month or so back, when a number of federal courts threw out the restrictive, punitive, discriminatory voting regulations passed by some of the more regressive state legislatures. This is particularly important in states such as North Carolina, where there's a large number of…

Hell, even Republican Steve Schmidt — current regular contributor on MSNBC, and former senior campaign strategist for John McCain, in 2008 — opined that the debate was bordering on disastrous for Trump, that Clinton looked and sounded terrific, but that Trump appeared clearly unprepared, and exhausted, which quickly…

Kelly Anne Conway looked bordering on despondent in a brief interview she did with Matthews earlier tonight. As I mentioned to Cali a little while ago, one of the last things Conway said to Matthews was, "He [Trump] prepared plenty." Oof. I almost — almost — felt sorry for her. Her appearance in that interview left…

I couldn't watch. I did record it, however, and, now that I know that DT imploded, I'll watch it later on. I'm just feeling such relief right now. Whew! The pressure's off, at least for tonight.

LOL. Yeah, I don't feel hate for him the way I feel hate for DT, or Chris Christie, or Rudy Giuliani, but I'd far prefer he be spending his time somewhere other than MSNBC.

Back during the 2008 presidential election campaigns, Sam Harris wrote a terrific piece, for Newsweek, about Sarah Palin, and made an observation that was very similar to the one you just made here:

Ew.

"It's incredible how it no longer matters."

Yeah, you know, I don't actually hate Brian Williams, as a person; I just don't think he's a good fit at MSNBC. No matter how hard he tries, he always seems so awkward, and it's frequently painful to watch. Not to mention, his presence on the panels steals time away from Rachel and from my favorite contributors, like…

Oh, reason schmeason, Patrick. Since when has anyone given a shit about reason? ;)

Are there any who aren't idiotic? Recommendations?

I'm terrified, too. And I'm also terrified to watch the debate. Are you going to watch? Is anyone, or everyone, going to watch? I think if I do, it'll be like when I watch a horror movie …. I'll be peeking through the slits between my fingers, as I cover my eyes with my hands, too afraid to look. Sheesh.

I agree with everything you said here. When it comes to religious control of human beings, it's hard not to notice that the vast majority of the rules are written for women, circumscribing what they can and cannot do. Seldom is there such a zeal to write a bunch of restrictive rules for men.

Holy shit! What a story!

Wish I could upvote this a thousand times.