The Houston Dem Presidential Primary Debate Final Qualifiers

As many of you political junkies are aware of, yesterday was the last day for the remaining 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidates to qualify for the September 12 debate in Houston

The standards were doubled to require that candidates seeking to be on that stage reach 2% in four DNC approved polls and draw 130,000 unique donors.   400 of those donors need to be from at least 20 different states. 

Ten people qualified to be in the H&PE Arena on the Texas Southern University campus in two weeks.

They are former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Rep Beto O"Rourke, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, Andrew Yang and Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

The rest failed to make the cut, meaning there will be only one night of debates in Houston.

The scramble is on for tickets to the event, with current TSU students, faculty and staff getting first shots at the tickets for the event in the 8100 seat venue starting at 12 noon CDT on Friday August 30.   

TSU is also planning to have a campus debate watch party in Sawyer Auditorium for students, faculty, staff and the general public
   

Looking forward to all the debate related candidate events that will be taking place in the 713 during that week 

Will Trans Rights Be A Debate Topic In The Second Democratic Presidential Debate?

The second set of Democratic presidential debates will kick off tonight and Wednesday night in Detroit's historic FOX Theater on CNN.  They will be moderated by CNN's Don Lemon, Dana Bash, and Jake Tapper.

A draw that CNN televised live on July 18 set the candidate lineups for both nights. 

The first of the three draws divided the bottom ten candidates  between both nights.   The second draw divided the middle six candidates, and the final draw the top four contenders for the Democratic nomination.

The ten candidates tangling with each other on July 30 are  Montana Gov Steve Bullock, South Bend, IN mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Maryland Rep John Delaney,  former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Sen Amy Klobuchar (MN), former Texas Rep Beto O'Rourke, Rep Tim Ryan (OH), Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT), Sen Elizabeth Warren (MA),  and author Marianne Williamson.

The ten candidates who will take the stage on July 31 will be Sen Michael Bennet (CO), former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Cory Booker (NJ), former HUD Secretary Julian Castro,  New York mayor Bill de Blasio,  Rep Tulsi Gabbard (HI), Sen Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), former Washington Gov Jay Inslee,  Sen Kamala Harris (CA)  and entrepreneur Andrew Yang

Now that we know which candidates will be debating each other on which night, the question now becomes what topics will are brought up for discussion by the CNN moderators?

Of concern to trans Americans is will trans Americans be discussed on either debate night in Detroit like we were by Sen Booker and Secretary Castro during the first debate in Miami.

We in Trans World certainly hope that what is happening to the trans community gets discussed again, but are cognizant of the fact that the topics that get discussed tonight and tomorrow night will depend in large part on the news cycle and what the moderators choose to focus on.

Either way, both nights are shaping up to be must see TV for political junkies like me and everyone interested in who will emerge from this crowded field to become the 2020 Democratic nominee.
     

TX US House District 29 Debate

TX Senator Sylvia Garcia is taking on the transphobic Phillip Aronoff in their US House 29 district race.  Sen, Garcia and Aronoff recently confronted each other during a September 25 debate at the University of Houston Downtown campus.

TX House District 29 is a predominately Latinx district in Houston that was created in 1990 specifically to produce a Latinx congressmember.  While it has been safely in Democratic hands since its creation, it has never had a Latinx person represent it. 

The TX-29 district has been since 1992 represented by Gene Green, and Rep Green announced that he is retiring.   That opened up a mad scramble for this seat on the Democratic side that grew to seven candidates. 

Sen. Sylvia Garcia handily won the Democratic nomination for the seat, taking 63% of the vote while doing so.  She narrowly missed in 1992 making it to the Democratic Party primary runoff for the seat when it was created,

But back to the debate, moderated by ABC13 anchor Mayra Moreno.    Many of the questions asked of the candidates were from UHD students.

 

The First Beto-Cruz Debate

As a TransGriot public service for all folks inside and outside of Texas who may not have gotten the chance to see the debate between incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz (R) and Rep. Beto O' Rourke (D), here's the video of their first encounter from the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas and hosted bu SMU, the Dallas Morning News and KXAS 5 TV.

The debate was held in front of a raucous crowd of supporters for both candidates .

This is the first of three debates.  The next two will take place on September 30 at the University of Houston and October 16 in San Antonio.

The debate, like the one scheduled for UH, will be focused on domestic policy.  The San Antonio one will be a mix of domestic and foreign policy   

Who won?   You can see for yourself.

Last Clinton-Trump Debate Tonight

Live from the University of Nevada Las Vegas campus later tonight, it's the final 2016 presidential debate between Sec. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

The 90 minute live debate will be once again broadcast with no commercial interruption on twelve broadcast and cable networks  

The first two debates at Hofstra and Washington University were resounding Clinton wins, and the unforced errors by Trump didn't hurt.

She goes into this one seeking to not only sweep the debates but in this battleground state throw the knockout punch in a critical presidential race that is increasingly trending in her favor and in which much of the country is already early voting in advance of November 8.

And I'll be doing so when early voting starts on October 24 in Texas, in which a Democrat has their best chance of winning this state since 1976 when Jimmy Carter carried the Lone Star State.

The debate is scheduled to cover in the six 15 minute segments Debt and Entitlements, Immigration, The economy, the Supreme Court, Foreign hot spots, and fitness to be president

What I'm skeptical about for this final debate is how much policy will be discussed.

What I am skeptical of is the moderator will be Chris Wallace from FOX Noise.  It will be the first time someone from FOX has been tapped to moderate a debate, and he raised some eyebrows when he said his job wasn't to fact check the candidates, then quickly recanted on that.

He also has a troubling history of making sexist comments and remarks himself.

And I disagree.  Part of your job as moderator when one candidate has a demonstrated history of non-stop lying is to call lies out, and lets see how well Wallace does in doing so and keeping things moving.

It will also be interesting to see later tonight what shenanigans Trump pulls this time in an attempt to psyche out Clinton/

They rumble, er debate starting at 8 PM CDT.
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Clinton Decisively Wins Second Presidential Debate

The second presidential debate turned out as expected with Donald Trump lying through his teeth once again in addition to having some WTF moments.

Trump at one point is standing uncomfortably close to Clinton during that debate after admitting to co-moderator Anderson Cooper that he doesn't understand what sexual assault is.

As usual, any time Trump was asked a direct question, he didn't answer it and deflected to attacking Clinton.   He also attacked a Clinton that last ran and won re-election presidency in 1996 in Bill.

But Bill isn't running, it's his wife.   What Bill Clinton did 20 years ago isn't for debate in 2016.  That was dealt with back in the 90's.   Donald is the one running for POTUS, and it's your character that is being evaluated.
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Despite the pathetic attempts of the conservative leaning pundits to attempt to call this a 'win' for Trump, it wasn't, especially when you make the jaw dropping statement that you're going to throw your political opponent in jail and you 'have the utmost respect' for women when it's been glaringly obvious in this campaign and throughout your life you don't .

While co-moderators Martha Raddatz of ABC and Anderson Cooper of CNN did yeoman's work in keeping this debate from spinning out of control and devolving into a WWE cage match, one of the things I didn't like is the fact that despite being less than 30 minutes from Ferguson, MO, not one question was asked during this 93 minute debate about police reform or #Black Lives Matter.

Neither were their any questions asked about LGBTQ rights or what either candidate would do to protect and defend the human rights of transgender Americans.

And with Chris Wallace of FOX News moderating the final debate in Las Vegas on October 19, I doubt any questions on those two subjects will be asked at that debate either.

But once again, a great night for Clinton, with another decisive debate win despite the appearance more combative but still facts free Trump.

Final debate on the UNLV campus will be interesting to see play out.

Critical First Presidential Debate Tonight In Denver

The highly anticipated first debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney happens at 8 PM CDT tonight at the Magness Arena on the University of Denver campus in Denver, CO.

While President Obama's campaign is pleased and cautiously optimistic about where they are at this juncture in the race, the Romney campaign finds itself in a desperate situation with 35 days to go. 

Romney is trailing nationally according to the polls in all nine critical battleground states and most ominously in Ohio and Florida thanks to the inept way they have handled their campaign (thank God) since they clinched the GOP nomination.. 

The GOP attempts to suppress non-white voters and others that made up President Obama's winning 2008 coalition have failed or are being rolled back in the courts.  With every investigative news report revealing the extent of the Jim Crow 2.0 efforts, the targets of those voter suppression efforts are pissed off, fired up and ready to vote out the GOP batturd wing at every level of government..

And these videos of Mitt and his running mate disparaging large percentages of working class voters only poured gasoline on the fire.  






VP Joe Biden will handle that in the vice presidential debate on October 11.

And I haven't even touched on how the GOP War On Women is also playing into why the Romney-Ryan not so dynamic duo is losing.

Republicans and the conservative movement are getting nervous with early voting starting to happen in some locales and their bold predictions of taking the Senate and holding their majority in the House looking quite shaky. 

The trends look good for President Obama and the Democrats, but we still have a nerve racking 35 days to go, three debates and ballots that need to be cast and counted on November 6 before victory can be declared.  

Much is at stake when the two candidates face off in 90 minutes that will determine how the rest of this election shakes out.

The First 2012 Presidential Debate In One Week

On October 3 the first of three presidential debates will take place on the University of Denver's campus between President Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney 

The debate will focus on domestic policy and be divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each on topics to be selected by the moderator and announced several weeks before the debate.  The moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the topic.

This University of Denver debate will be moderated by Jim Lehrer (and I already vented along with the National Association Of Black Journalists and Univision about the lack of melanin in the Commission on Presidential Debates choices for those moderators and their weak azzed defense of it). 

Yeah, still pissed about the fact there are no POC moderators for these debates and there hasn't been one since Carole Simpson did so 20 years ago.   But even she has commented about how little things have changed in 20 years.

But the best part is that in this UD debate or the two remaining ones Mitt won't be able to lie unchallenged.  This debate will also be occurring on the 20th anniversary of the marriage of the POTUS and FLOTUS (how cool is that?)

Also looking forward to the vice presidential one on October 11 between Vice President Joe Biden and Paul Ryan.

Already stocking up on the popcorn because this is going to be a make or break moment for the floundering Romney-Ryan campaign.  Either he steps it up or the Obama team can start planning their second inauguration ceremony on January 20 after the national handles its electoral business on November 6 and puts Romney out of his political misery.

NABJ Comments On The Lack Of Debate Moderator Diversity

I had my say about the problematic lack of diversity when the presidential and vice presidential debate moderator selections were announced.  So did the NAACP and Univision's president on behalf of the Latino/a community. 

It was appalling that in an election year which will feature the most diverse electorate ever in American history and has an African-American president running for re-election, those October debates with have no African-American, Latino/a or Asian journalists posting questions to the 2012 presidential and vice presidential candidates. . 

In case you're wondering, the last African-American male journalist to serve as a presidential debate moderator was CNN's Bernard Shaw in 1988.

Former ABC News anchor Carole Simpson was the last African-American female to moderate a presidential debate, doing so in 1992. 

Gwen Ifill of PBS has moderated two vice presidential debates in 2004 and 2008.  

The National Association of Black Journalists are definitely not happy about the vanillacentric debate moderator selections whitewashed by the Commission on Presidential debates either, and here's what they had to say about it on August 17:

NABJ is disappointed that the journalists chosen to participate in the presidential debates don't reflect what has become the most diverse electorate in U.S. history. 

While we commend the selection of the first woman moderator in 20 years, we find it unacceptable that no journalists of color will be involved. The Commission on Presidential Debates, which announced the selections this week, blamed the omission on "debate arithmetic." Frankly, the math doesn't add up.

There is no absence of qualified journalists of color, or those with experience as debate moderators, such as NABJ Hall of Fame member Gwen Ifill, of PBS.

By excluding journalists of color, the commission failed to satisfy an important public interest given that racial and ethnic minorities will contribute roughly one quarter of the votes cast on Election Day. Any credible analysis has shown that their turnout, or lack thereof, will be a decisive factor in the presidential contest. This year, both presidential campaigns and their parties are devoting more resources than ever to reaching non-white voters.

Yet the commission has minimized the significance of our nation's changing identity, as well as the role of minority journalists in informing an increasingly diverse public. We believe the commission wasted an opportunity to use its unique platform in a manner that encourages more citizens to participate in the democratic process.

"The commission had a chance to embrace the racial kaleidoscope that the American electorate is fast becoming, and chose instead to remain blind to it," Sonya Ross, chair of NABJ’s Political Journalism Task Force, said. "It is time to end this cyclical charade of treating equally deserving, equally capable journalists of color as if they are invisible, unqualified, or both. I would like to invite the commission, along with leading entities in political media, to join the task force in making a concerted effort to ensure a truly diverse set of presidential debate moderators for 2016."

So why is this lack of debate moderator diversity a big fracking deal to POC's?   In addition to the fact there has never been an Asian or Latino presidential debate moderator of either gender, non-white voters will be the decisive voting blocs in several swing states.

We need to hear the presidential and vice presidential candidates answer debate questions that are geared toward our policy concerns and issues as people of color. 

As NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous stated, “The lack of diversity among this year’s debate moderators is representative of the overall lack of diversity in news media. Whether it’s as primetime news anchors, debate moderators, or commentators on the influential Sunday morning political talk shows, people of color — and African Americans specifically — are strikingly underrepresented.”

That is what we POC Americas are complaining about, the lack of representation.

A debate setting is one of those times Republican candidates, who avoid non-white media outlets on a routine basis because they don't want to answer those tough questions from POC journalists, have to do precisely that, especially if the moderator is a person of color. 

Some of those issues and policy concerns (let's be real here) white journalists aren't culturally fluent in or it wouldn't immediately occur to them to ask those types of questions from our non-white points of view because we do live in two vastly different American realities.      

If you are going to run for president of the United States, then you have to be president for ALL Americans, not just a vanillacentric 63% slice of th population.   If you are setting up debates to ask the people running for the highest political offices in the land questions, the journalists asking those questions also need to reflect the diversity of our nation.

 

Univision President Decries Lack Of Debate Moderator Diversity

Looks like I wasn't the only person along with the National Association of Black Journalists that noticed the lack of debate moderator diversity in the upcoming October presidential and vice presidential debates.

Univision President Randy Falco wrote a letter that put the Commission on Presidential Debates on blast for their vanillacentric and major network centric selections of debate moderators.

"This November more than 20 million Hispanics could play a critical role in electing the new President of the United States and it is important that they make an informed decision," Falco wrote. "The debates announced yesterday presented an ideal opportunity to tap one of the two best journalists in the business who have a broad understanding of the domestic and international issues facing this country, understand the Hispanic community better than anyone else and are fully bilingual: Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas."

The other Latino journalists whose names were rumored to have been considered for moderator slots were CNN's Soledad O'Brien and Telemundo's Jose Diaz-Balart.  

As the fastest growing minority group that will make up by 2050 a third of the population of the United States, the 2012 presidential candidates should have to answer questions posed by Latino journalists in a debate setting just as they needed to answer questions from African-American journalists.

The importance of having POC journalists is magnified when one of the presidential candidates has been routinely ducking non-white journalists on a regular basis.

Falco also offered in his letter to the Commission to create a Latino forum for both presidential candidates to participate in.

"Since you have already made your decision on moderators for the debates and have neglected to have someone speak credibly to the concerns of Hispanics in America, Univision would be willing to create a forum for the presidential candidates to address this sector of our society."

Janet Brown, the Debate Commission's executive director tried to deflect the justified criticism coming their way about the glaring omission of journalists of color.   In addition to stating the Commission was not creating the requested forum,  she wrote this in response to Falco.

"We recognize that there are many organizations and individuals who wish they had been included in our moderator selection. Debate arithmetic means that it is impossible to accommodate all of them. However, we strongly believe that the four journalists we have named see their assignment as representing all Americans in their choice of topics and questions. The general election debates have always focused on issues of national interest that affect all citizens, including Univision’s audience.  We have met with Univision about joint efforts to get the largest number of people possible engaged in discussing and learning from the debates, and remain interested in working with you toward that goal."

Yeah, right.  This is a cop-out statement and a recognition the Commission fracked up by not adding journalists of color for these debates.  It also doesn't address the valid point that Falco made that the four journalists chosen as moderators don't have experience or cultural fluency with the issues the Latino community faces. 

It's also arrogant and insulting of Ms. Brown or the commission to presume that non-white journalists aren't capable of asking debate questions that would appeal to all American citizens, since it has been effortlessly done by Carole Simpson in the 1992 presidential debate and Gwen Ifill most recently in the 2004 and 2008 vice presidential ones. .

Debate Commission leadership, it's past time for you to recognize the reality that the 'all citizens' part of that statement Ms. Brown crafted also includes non-white Americans.    
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Where's The Diversity In The Presidential Debate Moderator Lineup?

The presidential debates between President Obama and Mitt Romney and the vice presidential debates between Vice President Biden and Paul Ryan will occur in October.  

The schedule and debate subjects have already been determined along with the locations for the four scheduled debates, but the moderators were just announced yesterday..

First Presidential Debate

October 3, University of Denver, Denver, CO

Moderator: Jim Lehrer, PBS

Vice Presidential Debate

October 11, Centre College, Danville, KY

Moderator: Martha Raddatz, ABC

Second Presidential Debate (town hall -meeting format)

October 16, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

Moderator: Candy Crowley, CNN

Third Presidential Debate

October 22, Lynn University, Boca Raton, FL
Moderator: Bob Schieffer, CBS

The first presidential debate will focus on domestic policy and be divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each on topics to be selected by the moderator and announced several weeks before the debate. The moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond.  The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the topic.

The vice presidential debate will cover both foreign and domestic topics and be divided into nine time segments of approximately 10 minutes each. The moderator will ask an opening question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the question.

The second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which citizens will ask questions of the candidates on foreign and domestic issues. Candidates each will have two minutes to respond, and an additional minute for the moderator to facilitate a discussion. The town meeting participants will be undecided voters selected by the Gallup Organization.

The format for the third presidential debate will be identical to the first presidential debate and will focus on foreign policy.

The question I and every non-white American is asking ourselves right now is where's the diversity in the moderator lineup?

Granted, CNN's Candy Crowley will be the first woman in over 20 years to moderate a presidential debate.  But you couldn't ask Gwen Ifill, who has moderated the 2004 and 2008 vice presidential debates to do so?   You mean to tell me Presidential Debate Commission you couldn't find a single non-white journalist to moderate at least one of these debates?

Here's the short list of people of color journalists I came up with in addition to Gwen Ifill that could easily moderate these debates: Martin Bashir, Tamron Hall, Roland Martin, Alina Cho, Suzanne Malveaux, TJ Holmes, Ed Gordon, Soledad O'Brien.....  

Or is it you didn't look hard enough?

The 2012 Presidential Debate Schedule

While we're still waiting for the Republifools to sort out who their presidential nominee will be in their knockdown dragged our primary fight, thanks to the  Commission on Presidential Debates we already know the dates of the 2012 Presidential and Vice Presidential debates and where they will take place.
 
The first will happen on October 3 in Denver, CO. President Obama will take on the GOP presidential nominee on the University of Denver campus.

On October 11 in Danville, KY Vice President Joe Biden will take on the GOP vice presidental nominee in the only vice presidential debate on the beautiful campus of Centre College.

October 16 will see the second presidential debate happen on the campus of Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY between the POTUS and his GOP opponent.

The final presidential debate will occur on October 22 between President Obama and his Republican opponent on the campus of Lynn University in Boca Raton, FL.

The formats, moderators and times are still to be determined. 

Contentious Strategy Arguments In A Marginalized Community Ain't Nothing New

One of the things that amuses me at times in trans community circles is when I hear people start wringing their hands about the contentious arguments that rage online or behind closed doors at our conferences and events when we discuss labels, strategy and tactics. 

You'll hear the buzzwords 'horizontal hostility', 'eating our own' or whatever buzzword du jour deployed to decry the sometimes contentious discussions and undergirding impassioned pleas for confrontational free unity..

Umm, not gonna happen. As long as a marginalized group is fighting for its human dignity and for laws to protect their human rights against an oppressor, there will be disagreements between factions in that marginalized community as to the best way to accomplish those tasks.

You need look no farther than to the history of my people in terms of those contentious discussions.

After Emancipation the African American community of the late 19th century was split between factions of people led by Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBois.

Washington (to the right in the photo) and his supporters advocated education, racial solidarity, self help and not confronting the discrimination versus W.E.B DuBois and his supporters advocating education of the 'Talented Tenth', racial solidarity and vigorously confronting discrimination with political advocacy. 

That early debate led to both approaches being tried and incorporated in the overall consciousness of the African-American community on one level or another.  Those old battles are also still prevalent and contested on various levels in the Black community over a hundred years later.

There was the battle between W.E.B. DuBois and Marcus Garvey in the 20's.  The Rev Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. vs Rev J.H. Jackson during the early years of the post Montgomery Bus Boycott civil rights movement.  Malcolm X vs Dr. King.  Dr King vs SNCC leaders like Stokely Carmichael   And now in the late 90's-early 21st century we have conservative Blacks vs liberal-progressive ones.

And you want to talk about arguing over labels?   We've had contentious labels battles since emancipation as well.   Colored vs. Negro.  Negro vs. Black in the 60's.   Black vs African-American in the late 80's-early 90's with people in both camps making passioned and reasoned arguments for both. 

Note I said reasoned .   That's the difference between me and other transpeople who advocate for an expansive, inclusive definition of transgender and our WWBT separatist opponents.  

When Side A presents reasoned arguments and Side B responds with personal attacks, negativity, disinformation and vitriol to cover up the fact they don't have logic and reason based arguments to buttress their position and attempt to shut down debate, then it's a problem that needs to be justifiably called out in the strongest possible terms.

The point remains there is nothing new about contentious arguing over in a marginalized community.  Spirited, reasoned discussions of contrasting viewpoints symbolizes healthy dissent in this community, not dysfunction and we transfolks need to stop looking at it that way.