Last Night's Democratic Debate

My previous posting was rather negative about the chances of any Democrat becoming president this year.  It seems Shannon agrees with me.  She is a little conservative anyhow but she ran down the list and found something wrong with each and every one of them.  Budajudge is gay and that is unacceptable in "America's Heartland" as it is called, without Donald Trump having to say a single word.  Bloomberg has pretty much dug his grave with Blacks.  I was impressed with Biden myself last night.  Maybe he can finally shake the age issue.   Elizabeth and Amy are women and some say the country may not be ready for a woman yet.

Not knowing which if any TV station had the debate I toured the dial after five thirty and came across the NBC network news.  I thought the debate was at six and not five, but I wasn’t even really sure of that.  There were six and not seven candidates up on stage.  Gone were Yang and that Stires guy.   Mike Bloomberg was there but he delivered a horrible performance.  For one thing he was so mild-mannered in the midst of a bunch of shouters and screamers.   For another thing the other contestants all ganged up on him.  Elizabeth Warren hit him hard on the sexual harassment issue as Stephanie and Shannon both pointed out.  The issue was the NDA or non disclosure agreement they all had to sign.  I have a personal bias against non disclosure agreements and selling your soul like that to get a pay-off isn’t my cup of tea.  The way Stephanie tells it, “Elizabeth ripped both his arms off and swatted him with them”.  Then there were the issues of red-lining and the stop and frisk police policies that Trump had formerly praised, till he ran against him as president.  Biden was much mentally sharper today, though he said less than any other candidate and almost nothing early in the debate.  He wanted to be sure and get his two cents in even if he was a little off topic.  I would have done the same thing.  Amy Clovichar made the fatal error of not knowing the name of the President of Mexico.  Then she said “You’re not calling me dumb, are you?”   But then Elizabeth stepped in and defended Amy, which made me think it might be some kind of a woman thing.  Bernie Sanders’ strongest point was when he said the rich “Made a grotesque amount of money”.   Back during those ten years when I was as poor as a church mouse,  ANY amount of money seemed like a grotesque amount of money.  Joe Biden was the only candidate who seemed concerned about mounting deficits and had figures for reducing the deficit is capital gain and other taxes were raised.  Mike Bloomberg took a swipe at Bernie saying he’s a millionaire that owns three homes.  Bernie defended single payer health care as saving billions of dollars in the long run, and I’m inclined to agree with him.   Budajudge wasn’t that impressive.  Me memorized all of the right lines to say to pick at others.  His chief selling point was “You shouldn’t have to choose a billionaire ex republican and a socialist who isn’t even a democrat”.    Nobody dared bring up the gay issue.  Foreign policy was never discussed to the best of my knowledge.  But they did talk a lot about relations with Blacks and Latinos.  Everyone got on the global warming band-wagon and China trade was discussed a little.   According to Shannon Elizabeth Warren won the debate merely because she attacked everyone else’s’ plans on health care without coming out and saying what her plan was.  She talked about “working with the unions” and seemed like the king of compromise on health care.  Gary and Shannon spoke of the grooming habits of the candidates.  They all made closing statements that ended a few minutes after eight.  Most of these closing statements were weak.  Bernie Sanders is the only one who wouldn’t agree to abide by the Convention rules next year letting the super delegates kick in with their vote in case there was a log jam and they had to go to a second ballot.  Many people think that without these special delegates kicking in their two cents that Bernie will have it won after Super Tuesday.  After this I went out for a smoke and came in and I watched Chicago Med but even dozed off in that a little.  I had gotten my medication during one of the breaks, that grew more frequent as it approached eight.    

Yesterday April asked me what time I wanted to be picked up to go to the dentist’s.  I said ten after nine.  I was back there smoking at ten after nine.  We went to the van and we went right there.  I was actually called in early and Dr Bui got started at 9:28.  But it turned out to be a turbulent visit.  The anesthetic didn’t work.  That alarmed me.  They also told me that in addition to the root canal I’d be having that tooth extraction today.   Previously they had told me that they would wait on that tooth extraction for final approval of a crown.  They had one of those automatic blood pressure decides that always makes that rumbling sound and tightens up really tight and is slow to let go.  I thought the guy said my blood pressure was 159.  I figured that would be too high for an extraction.  I was wrong.  I asked Dr Bui why it took so much Novocain for me to get numb and said “I had a lot of coffee today”.  She said it was the coffee and it affects the chemical receptors.  I went to the bathroom early in the visit and also later on during a break point.  The root canal took longer than usual and I told Dr Bui that.  She just said I had a bad memory but I don’t from last time.  It was ten after eleven and she said she was almost done and I was planning to announce when they were through with the root canal that I was leaving and not going to have the extraction today.  That didn’t happen.  Before I knew it they were yanking and pressing.  The tooth was falling apart.  There were complications, as I feared there would be.  Then I heard something break off.  “Are you doing the extraction now?” I asked.  They said they were but just be cool and relax.  They brought the X ray equipment out several times.  At one point I started to talk and was spitting blood all over their equipment and on the radiation shield thing.  It was a two and a quarter hour visit and I was done just past a quarter to twelve.  They called April but it didn’t take any time at all for her to get here.  I tried to smoke a cigarette but gave it up.  The next thing you know she was here.  I’m glad there wasn’t a wait.  Of course I had missed lunch.  I got home about five after twelve and now I went out for a cigarette.  After this I hurried on to the resident’s council meeting.  

I arrived in the room about twelve after noon.  This was a pretty through meeting and they read all the reports of old business of problems and whether action was taken.  A lot of the stuff involved Millie, who is not here anymore.   Then it was new business.  Now they are saying you can have coffee at dinner if you request it, but they don’t want to have it for just anybody but only if it’s OK with your doctor to be awake at night, or something.  At any rate we did not have coffee last night.  Patty complained about people going up to the carts with milk and juice or whatever and coughing and giving us all the flu bug.  Patty was also annoyed about the loud talking that goes on with shouting across tables and often yelling at people.  There was talk about the varying temperature of the food.  I left at some point around one.  But I dropped the prescription sheet containing both my pain medication and my anti-biotic.  I can get Adville but I can’t get an antibiotic.  I retraced my steps and couldn’t find it.   There was no talk at the meeting about organized activities.  Denise got praise for the laundry service.  I watched the rest of the Days of our Lives episode.  If you’re wondering Ben has been caught now.  He had just convinced Sierra that he and her needed to separate when Raphael was at the door.   I decided it was too soon for snacks.  But April had said she’s talk to Rico about getting me some yogurt to eat.  That didn’t happen.  The teeth were at maximum pain about five thirty before I got my evening Adville.  Right now the root canal tooth hurts more than the extraction area.