China, and Dealing With Her

 Nadene Goldfoot                                        

 China has a population of 1,439,323,776 people or 1.44 billion.  

USA has a population of  329,877,505 or 330 million people. 

China has a billion and another 100 thousand more people than we do.

The USA owes $1.1 trillion to China that we have borrowed.  

We're in the red.  The budget deficit will reach a record $3.3 trillion (16 percent of GDP) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 and total $13 trillion (5 percent of GDP) over the subsequent decade. The deficit will total $1.6 trillion (5.3 percent of GDP) in 2030 alone.

China owns about $1.1 trillion in U.S. debt, or a bit more than the amount Japan owns. Whether you're an American retiree or a Chinese bank, American debt is considered a sound investment. The Chinese yuan, like the currencies of many nations, is tied to the U.S. dollar.

The U.S. debt to China was $1.07 trillion in July 2020. That's more than 15% of the $7 trillion in Treasury bills, notes, and bonds held by foreign countries. The rest of the $27 trillion national debt is owned by either the American people or by the U.S. government itself.   China has the second-greatest amount of U.S. debt held by a foreign country. In July 2020, Japan topped the list, owning $1.29 trillion.

China is communist country and the USA is a Democratic country.  Since 2001 under the Bush and Obama administrations, the USA did not keep up  building a military that could challenge Communist China's aggression in the Pacific.  We actually did not continue supplying a modern navy we had developed to fight in WWII.  We stopped the construction of military installations on islands in the South China Sea and acquiesced in the export of much of the US manufacturing base to China and elsewhere.  

However, Since 2001, the base defense budget has soared from $287 billion to $530 billion — and that's before accounting for the primary costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.Jan 7, 2013

 The budget of the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps from fiscal years 2001 to 2021 shows that in 2001 the budget was for 12.6 billion US dollars. By 2009 it was for 34.32 billion.  

 In the fiscal year of 2021, the U.S. Navy has a budget of about 161.04 billion U.S. dollars, while the U.S. Marine Corps has about 46.04 billion U.S. dollars at their disposal, cut down from 2020's 47.47 billion. 

The annual debate over China’s trading status within the United States was ended when President Clinton decided to grant China permanent Normal Trade Relations (NTR, formerly MFN).  Trump has entered into an escalating trade war with China, applying tarrifs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods in several stages, drawing Chinese retaliation.  High-level trade talks, including directly between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, have been ongoing.  Trump has felt that China took advantage of the US and had been stealing plans and ideas.  

•  "COVID 19 virus began spreading in Wuhan in the fall of 2019 when the Chinese government closed down flights from Wuhan to the rest of China.  At the same time, it allowed flights from Wuhan to continue to go to Europe and to the US." 430,000 people have traveled from US to China since coronavirus surfaced in 2020.  "On Friday, January 31, President Trump signed a proclamation suspending entry into the United States of aliens who were physically present in the People’s Republic of China, excluding the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau, within the 14 days preceding entry or attempted entry into the United States.  The proclamation took effect Sunday, February 2.  This action followed the declaration of a public health emergency in the United States related to the novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China". 
• There were 1,300 direct flights to 17 cities before President Trump’s travel restrictions made on January 31, 2020. Since then, nearly 40,000 Americans and other authorized travelers have made the trip, some this past week and many with spotty screening.
• April 30, 2020-WASHINGTON—The U.S. intelligence community publicly confirmed it is trying to determine whether the coronavirus may have escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, the city where the pandemic began.
• In an unusual public statement, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, also said that U.S. intelligence agencies concur with the broad scientific consensus that “the Covid-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified.” But, China's ambassador to the United Nations said Wednesday that the country's government would not allow the international community to investigate the source of the novel coronavirus until after a "final victory" against the disease.

In the 70's my husband worked with a fellow from China who had to leave his wife and child there before he was allowed to leave China.  Chinese have had to adhere to their law of having only one child, and most hope for  boy.  They have been living under restrictions for a long time.  In 2019, my niece went to China with a friend and both got jobs teaching English.  Her contract wasn't renewed but her friends was as he had the right educational background.  They spent their weekends being tourists and seeing the country, which turned out to be picture-post card beautiful.  Another friend of mine was traveling to China buying and selling items several years ago.Whatever China has been doing, they had some wonderful sites to see.    

We have many bones to pick over with China covering finances, trade, and human rights.  "To be sure, the Chinese government and Communist Party are not today’s only threats to human rights, as the Human Rights Watch World Report shows. In many armed conflicts, such as in Syria and Yemen, warring parties blatantly disregard the international rules designed to spare civilians the hazards of war, from the ban on chemical weapons to the prohibition against bombing hospitals".  There are hot spots in many places that a government has to deal with.  One has to be like an octopus with many people in charge of all the problems.  

Resource:

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/080615/china-owns-us-debt-how-much.asp#:~:text=China%20owns%20about%20%241.1%20trillion,tied%20to%20the%20U.S.%20dollar.

https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-debt-to-china-how-much-does-it-own-3306355

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/04/us/coronavirus-china-travel-restrictions.html

Imprints, Hillsdale College in Missouri, HILLSDALE.EDU., Brian T. Kennedy

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/the-facts-on-trumps-travel-restrictions/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-intelligence-agencies-say-coronavirus-originated-in-china-wasnt-man-madeor-genetically-modified-11588260228

https://thehill.com/policy/international/496340-china-wont-allow-access-to-investigate-source-of-coronavirus-until-final

https://history.state.gov/countries/issues/china-us-relations

How the USA Is Managing the COVID 19 Virus Compared to Other Countries

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

• 1. China has a population of 1,439,323,776 or 1.5 billion people. 

   Deaths from COVID 19= 4,634.  How can this be? 4.6 thousand? That's all they have reported.  

 "The virus shows little genetic diversity, indicating that the spillover event introducing SARS-CoV-2 to humans is likely to have occurred in late 2019. Epidemiological studies estimate each infection results in 1.4 to 3.9 new ones when no members of the community are immune and no preventive measures taken." "Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by a new coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Because it is a new virus, scientists are learning more each day. Although most people who have COVID-19 have mild symptoms, COVID-19 can also cause severe illness and even death. Some groups, including older adults and people who have certain underlying medical conditions, are at increased risk of severe illness" and death.

The Chinese government has faced criticism at home and abroad over its handling of the virus, especially in the early days of the outbreak. It was accused of silencing whistle-blowers and delaying in informing the public about the severity of the crisis. But it has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, brushing aside accusations of a deliberate coverup in the critical early stages.

                                                  

2. India has a population of 1,380,004,385 or 1.4 billion people. 

   Deaths from COVID 19=120,000.

                                              

     USA leads world in number of cases and deaths from coronavirus.

                                              

   Trump Rally on August 22, 2017. No need for masks then.  No COVID. 

3. USA has a population of 329,877,505 or 331 million people.  

   Deaths from COVID 19=226,000. 

                                          

 Russia registers world's 1st COVID 19 vaccine despite safety concerns.  

4. Russia has a population of 145,934,462 or 146 million people. 

   Deaths from COVID 19=26,589 or 26.6 thousand. 

• Russia confirmed 16,550 Covid-19 cases Tuesday, bringing its official number of cases to 1,547,774. A record 320 people have died in the past 24 hours..
•                                                                
  
• 5. United Kingdom has a population of 67,886,011 or 68 million people.
•   Deaths from COVID 19=45,365 or 45.3 thousand 
•                                            
  
         Teacher attack in France

• 6. France has a population of 65,273,511 or 65 million people.

     Deaths from COVID 19=35,541 or 35.5 thousand.

•                                        

  
                    US Embassy in Israel on 10/18/2020.
   7.  Israel has a population of 8,655,535 or 8.7 million people.  

•  Deaths from COVID 19= 2,452 or 2.5 thousand. 
•                          
  
                       There are 7.8 billion people in the world.  
• Worldwide, so far, there have been 1,155,553 or 1.16 million deaths from COVID 19.
• Put this in perspective.  The Nazis killed 6 million Jews in the Holocaust and many people today have never heard of the words, the Holocaust.    
• Resource:
• https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cdcresponse/about-COVID-19.html
• https://covid19.who.int/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwit_8BRCoARIsAIx3Rj64TLwpN69RiWMRT4ZJRCi43PLpQdS2ExaYLXz6htcFa4AgUisNx90aAkGVEALw_wcB
• https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/06/asia/coronavirus-china-wuhan-lab-origins-explainer-intl-hnk/index.html

. 

Was Your State High, Low or Average in COVID 19 Deaths According to the State Population?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           

 The world population will have reached 10 billion at the end of 2020.  At this moment it is at 7,729,708,307 and growing.  The Corona virus hasn't slowed it down very much.  We Jews make up 0.02% of the world population.  Israel, like many other countries, has been hit pretty hard by this deadly virus causing another shut down  of its population.  COVID 19 deaths worldwide are 1,160,681 or 1.15 million people.    

What % of our USA population has died from COVIS 19 so far?  How does this compare with other countries?  It's the % per population that tells us how we are doing more than the number of deaths itself.  The United States has 331,002,651 people.  This is 4.25% of the World population.  To date, 225,000 Americans have died from COVID 19.  We have a density of 94 people per square mile.  Our land 's size is 3,531,837 sq. mi.   82% of our people are urban people.  That means they live in cities.  The median age of our population is young, 38.3 years old.  Half of them have never heard of the word, Holocaust.  That doesn't say much for their schooling unless these are all small children.  

                                                     

     Burial of COVID 19 victims: Workers wearing personal protective equipment bury bodies in a trench on Hart Island in the Bronx, NY. 

New Jersey seems to have the highest deaths per capita with 16,285 out of a state with a population of 8,791,978 or 8.882 million. The median age is 39.8.  

I live in Oregon. Oregon's population is 4,283,747 or 4.28 million.  It's the USA's 9th largest state and lies on the West Coast.  We have a fantastic coastline with great beaches and mountains for skiing. Oregon has had 654 deaths from Covid.  The median age is 39.2.  

Oregon	42,101	362		10,874	654

Total cases, new cases  cases per 1 million people, and 654 deaths.  

Texas has had 18,042 deaths from COVID 19.  Their population is 29.90 million.  Their median age is 34.4.

New York City has had 23,967 deaths.  Their population is 18,804,000.  This city's population has seen a decline of 0.01% from 2019.  Their median age is 36.5.                                       

Health-care workers wheel the bodies of deceased people from the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center during the coronavirus outbreak in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, on April 4, 2020. #

Andrew Kelly / Reuters

New York itself has had 33,059 deaths.  Her population is 19.4 million. This state has had a decline since 2015 when it was the most populated.  Obama was president then.   Their median age was 36.5 as of 2018. 

California has had  17,358 deaths out of a population of 39.96 million in January which has now shrunk to 39.78 million in July.  Their median age is 36.3.     

Washington has had  2,396 deaths out of a population of  7.6 million.  Their median age is 37.6. 

Vermont has the lowest amount of cases per capita.  They've only had 58 deaths out of a state with 623,989 people as of July's population.  Their median age is 42.9.  Vermont has only 9 incorporated cities, and only three of them have a population of more than 10,000.

"At least 337 new coronavirus deaths and 59,624 new cases were reported in the United States on Oct. 25. Over the past week, there have been an average of 69,804 cases per day, an increase of 32 %percent from the average two weeks earlier.

As of Monday morning, more than 8,702,500 people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus and at least 225,100 have died, according to a New York Times database".  That would be 39% of those infected have died. 

The update on the virus now is  that in a one-week span, the US reports the highest number of cases since the pandemic began.  The states are struggling to contain the COVID spread.  Their environment has been one of containment since March and they are tired of it. It's been a stressful 8 months.   They have been breaking out and are now paying for their mistake.  

                                                      

We are living through unchartered waters.  No one wants to embrace this.  It's not life as usual; financially or enjoyment.  We must be grateful for what we are left with and the fact that we are alive to face it and deal with it.  No immediate press a button and make the nasty go away.  We just felt the thorns on the roses in our garden.  The flu we knew was nothing compared to this virus strain of COVID 19.  We were safe with a vaccination for a whole year.  Now we find that just the act of breathing by being alive is dangerous. 

                                                   
 We come from people who were daring and very brave.  Let's man-up and face the music.  Our goal is to find joy in the act of living no matter what the circumstance is.  We are adaptable.  Use masks.  

Resource: 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109011/coronavirus-covid19-death-rates-us-by-state/

https://www.prb.org/u-s-house-seats-are-shifting-south-and-west-based-on-population-changes/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/10/26/covid-news-mexico-death-toll-mike-pence-democrats-europe/6034201002/

http://www.populationu.com/us/oregon-population#:~:text=Oregon%20population%20in%202020%20is,state%20in%20the%20United%20States.

ttps://info.populationmedia.org/what-is-the-population-of?utm_campaign=AdWords%20Campaign%20-%20Population%20Counter&utm_source=ppc&utm_medium=Environmental&utm_term=Adwords&gclid=Cj0KCQjw59n8BRD2ARIsAAmgPmI93NzvOEpW

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk03GpmBOGV8MYMTIAOvK9gNQPeVobQ%3A1603716502253&ei=lsWWX8-BD4vr-wSvuqK4Dw&q=How+many+deaths+from+covid+19+in+New+York%3F&oq=How+many+deaths+from+covid+19+in+

http://www.populationu.com/us/new-york-population#:~:text=New%20York%20State%20population%20in,most%20populous%20state%20in%20US.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?utm_campaign=homeAdvegas1?

To Vote or Not to Vote For a Liar: Is This Ethical?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

                                                     President Donald Trump

To answer  John Arlon's opinion in a CNN article  about Trump when he wrote, "Let me say it more plainly: it is not biased to describe Trump as a liar. It is a matter of objective and demonstrable fact. The Washington Post has catalogued more than 22,000 false or misleading claims over the course of his time in office -- and those are just the ones that he's uttered in public." 

The Washington Post happens to be a very biased Democratic  newspaper. It is owned by : Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos and is a Nash Holdings. . The Washington Post has a Lean Left media bias. AllSides rates The Washington Post bias as Lean Left with high confidence. Here they are running false statements together with misleading claims in their count of saying 22,000 of what?  He's writing about the act of lying.   They are insinuating that these were all lies.  Talk about exaggeration!  They have a tremendous circulation.  Circulation: 356,768 (Daily, 2015); 838,014 (Sunday, 2013); 1,000,000 (Digital, 2018). Everything they write should be taken with a grain of salt as well.  They are of opposing opinions and their job is to defend their party lines when writing about Trump.  

John wrote, "A core component of President Donald Trump's coalition is evangelical Christians -- people who have righteously railed against a lack of character and ethics in the White House in the past and advocated for a return to family values. This presumably does not include lying." Doesn't this depend on each category's % of the US population? 

 This is why they voted for Trump, being he was not a politician, only a businessman.)  Politicians were seen to lie all the time, promising things and never coming through.  For instance, presidents have all been promising to make Jerusalem the site for the US Embassy but it hadn't been moved there till Trump became president who said he would and did.  

The Pew Center takes the opinion from their research that White Evangelical Protestants will vote for Trump anywhere from 53% to 78% and Biden from 17% to 43%.  Black Protestants will vote the opposite way, from 9% for Trump to 90% for Biden.  White Catholics will vote for Biden anywhere from 52% to 44%.  11% of Atheists will vote for Trump and 90% will vote for Biden. 27% of  Jews will vote for Trump and 70% for Biden.   It doesn't look good for Trump gaining a 2nd Term.                                             

                          Trump married to immigrant Melania, former model

White Christians are a key segment of the electorate because they make up roughly 44% of  U.S. registered voters. Roughly 7% of registered voters are Black Protestants, 5% are Hispanic Catholics, 2% are Jewish and 28% are religiously unaffiliated.   Blacks make up 13.4% of our US population.  If they all voted, it would make a change in the statistics. We are already seeing a surge in voters voting early.  

As of May 2020, Gallup polling found that 31% of Americans identified as Democrats, 25% identified as Republican, and 40% as Independent.  

Additionally, polling showed that 50% are either "Democrats or Democratic leaners" and 38% are either "Republicans or Republican leaners" when Independents are asked "do you lean more to the Democratic Party or the Republican Party?"

And while the new survey did not ask respondents to rate Trump’s handling of his job as president, past polls show that approval of Trump’s performance has generally hovered within a fairly narrow range among most religious groups.

Usually we Americans are concerned about how a president handled his job in his first term and use that as a guide for the 2nd term.  If he was successful, he usually gets a pass.  Ronald Reagan was in for 2 terms.  So were George Walker Bush and Obama.  Clinton was in from 1993 to 2001 and up on charges of not being honest about having sex with a young gal working at the White House.  My mother was so disappointed, saying that he had handled our money so well, finally being in the black and not in the red. She felt that what he did with the girl wasn't as important as how he handled our money!   

                                                  

                       He chose Judge Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court

It looks like all our basic TV stations are have been biased against Trump ever since Hillary Clinton lost her race to Trump.  He really upset all their plans.  Only Fox came through sharing his views.  No one man is perfect.  I don't agree with Trump on his health views in handling the COVID 19 virus.  However, he is the first president to be backing Israel, and that happens to be our first in 2,000 years of any backing, and a first for the USA, being in the same category as Truman who voted for Israel when she became a state in 48.  I've had to wait for the past 72 years to find another backer of Israel!

Of course I don't abide lying in any man, even my president.  In this case, I also have ethics to think about.  I know and feel that Trump has been wrongly persecuted by the party I was disgusted with;  while frantically worrying over Israel's position in the world which included their entire population's life.  I lived there for over 5 years and know how little Americans know about what it's like and the strain the people have been living under along with their joy. I have to weigh in what's the most important to me; his character of "lying", be it true or just false accusations politically motivated,  or the doing the most for Israel's existence.  We've waited over 2,000 years to have our state again.  Was I going to blow that fact away and side with Iranian power who have been threatening Israel's  life like I thought possible under a Democrat president?  

 Trump talks too much.  He blurts out. I know.   It reminds me of ADHD behavior.  He does not have a photographic memory and so exaggerates, and many other things making up his unique person. As a businessman, I was shocked with how much knowledge he did display in the last debate, lies or not-it sounded pretty good, a 100% improvement over his first one.   With me he gets B+ in Middle East Relations and an F in science.  The Herd mentality may be an opinion but it isn't good science.  It's the thinking of a man trying to keep our economy going and ignoring that too many of us can die from it.  Others see his point, but dead bodies can be counted.  

Donald Trump came to our media attention by saying he didn't think Barack Obama was an American citizen because thought he was born out of the USA in Africa because of having an African father, and set about to find the truth.  Well, he was wrong.  He was born in Hawaii, which became a state on August 21, 1959, being a Territory before that.  He was born August 4, 1961 when the state was only 2 years old. Aha! 

                                                  

                          He was sent to a military academy. 

 

 Trump was born June 14, 1946 in New York City, and is 13 years older than Obama.  He opted to leave his Democratic politics and ran on a Republican ticket, not making some Republicans very happy.  As soon as he took office, the Democrats were trying to impeach him.  This ire has gone on for all 4 years, and I think finally is affecting Trump.  

                                                      

All the good things he has done are being ignored, like appointing Nikki Haley as our US Ambassador to the UN.  She's been the best!  It's the first time someone gave "heck" to the UN about Israel and being tough with them, and she's neither Jewish nor a male.  He let Jared Kushner, who happens to be an orthodox Jew and his son-in-law, run the show with Israel and the Palestinians and he has come up with 3 Arab countries making peace with Israel;  UAE, Bahrain, and now Sudan. 

My country or at least half of it were out to get Trump  from day 1.  They used every dirty trick in the book in my opinion without getting in any trouble for it.  Was that enough to claim everything he said was a lie compared to what he did for Israel?  Even with his lack of understanding science, and allowing the USA to have more deaths from the virus than other countries, what am I to do?  It's an ethical question.  We'll find out how the country handles their voting in 9 more days or so.  

Voting reminds me of Yom Kippur when our names are to go into the Book of Life to see who gets to live another year, and our merits and sins are weighed on a scale.  That's what we are doing in making our decisions.  

Resource:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/opinion-why-evangelicals-should-care-about-trumps-lies-and-other-sins/ar-BB1amJa7?ocid=se

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/13/white-christians-continue-to-favor-trump-over-biden-but-support-has-slipped/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2020/09/16/trump-says-with-a-herd-mentality-covid-19-coronavirus-will-go-away/#7fbcd4aa1dde

https://www.biography.com/political-figure/nikki-haley

How the Lincoln-Douglas Debates Caused the Custom of Presidential Debates

Nadene Goldfoot                                            

Who started presidential elections with debates? " Lincoln. In 1858, running against incumbent Stephen A. Douglas for Senator of Illinois, Lincoln challenged Douglas “for you and myself to divide time, and address the same audiences.” Why he did this, and what came of their seven debates, is the story told Between the Lines here.

Remember, there was no radio or TV or tapes to allow people other than those who came to the debate to hear or watch.  They depended on newspapers.  

The incumbent was rich, powerful, and charismatic; the challenger awkward, unsung, and worked for a living. But when Stephen A. Douglas, nicknamed by his national following the “Little Giant”, faced off in the 1858 Illinois’ senatorial race against a Springfield lawyer and one-term ex-Congressman named Abraham Lincoln, history was about to be upended – although how, exactly, wouldn’t be obvious until two years later.     

Stephen A. Douglas, Senator
 

 What happened, that late summer and early fall of 1858, was a debate – or rather, seven of them, between Lincoln and Douglas, over three months, in which Lincoln and Douglas, sharing a platform, took turns delivering one-hour opening addresses, one and a half hour  replies, and half-hour rejoinders. That this epic series came to take place at all, however, is largely owing to this brief Lincoln letter about a campaign stop.

Douglas decided that the  first debate to be held on August 21, and the last, on October 15.  It was not until the publication, in 1860, of The Political Debates between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas that the legend of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates truly began.

Lincoln was given a hundred copies of the Debates – by the Republican publisher Follet, Foster and Company – to distribute to friends.  Only 4 copies, however, are signed in ink.

Lincoln's remarks in Springfield depict the danger of slavery-based disunion, and it rallied Republicans across the North. Along with the Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address, the speech became one of the best-known of his career. It begins with the following words, which became the best-known passage of the speech:

"A house divided against itself, cannot stand."

I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or all the other.

Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South." 

Lincoln's goals were to differentiate himself from Douglas — the incumbent — and to voice a prophecy publicly. Douglas had long advocated popular sovereignty, under which the settlers in each new territory would decide their own status as a slave or free state; he had repeatedly asserted that the proper application of popular sovereignty would prevent slavery-induced conflict and would allow Northern and Southern states to resume their peaceful coexistence. Lincoln, however, responded that the Dred Scott decision had closed the door on Douglas's preferred option, leaving the Union with only two remaining outcomes: the country would inevitably become either all slave or all free. Now that the North and the South had come to hold distinct opinions in the question of slavery, and now the issue had come to permeate every other political question, the Union would soon no longer be able to function.

What happened, that late summer and early fall of 1858, was a debate – or rather, seven of them, between Lincoln and Douglas, over three months, in which Lincoln and Douglas, sharing a platform, took turns delivering one-hour opening addresses, one and a half hour replies, and half-hour rejoinders. That this epic series came to take place at all, however, is largely owing to this brief Lincoln letter about a campaign stop. 

Debating in various forms has a long history and can be traced back to the philosophical and political debates of Ancient Greece, such as Athenian democracy, and Shastrartha in Ancient India. Modern forms of debating and the establishment of debating societies occurred during the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century.

The presidential debates were initially moderated in 1976(Ford), 1980(Carter), and 1984(Reagan) by the League of Women Voters, but the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) was established in 1987 by the Republican and Democratic parties. 

After studying the election process in 1985, the bipartisan National Commission on Elections recommended "[t]urning over the sponsorship of presidential debates to the two major parties." My opinion is that this was a bad move.  I say put it in the hands of as non-political debating society.                                  

The presidential debate's primary purpose is to sponsor and produce debates for the United States presidential and vice presidential candidates and to undertake research and educational activities relating to the debates.The organization, which is a nonprofit, nonpartisan corporation, sponsored all of the presidential debates in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020.

In schools and colleges, competitive debating often takes the form of a contest with explicit rules. It may be presided over by one or more judges or adjudicators. Both sides seek to win against the other while following the rules. One side is typically in favor of (also known as "for", "Affirmative", or "Pro") or opposed to (also known as "against", "Negative", "Con") a statement, proposition, moot or Resolution. The "for" side must state points that will support the proposition; the "against" side must refute these arguments sufficiently to falsify the other side. The "against" side is not required to propose an alternative but it must substantiate its own negation if no other position is possible.                

For instance, let x be a boolean. If the "for" side says x = true, the "against" side must say x = false. The "against" side cannot simply say "I am not convinced that x = true" if they both want a debate. Both sides are required to embrace and defend their own positions. Otherwise, it is not a debate but simply a discussion of a controversy where one side solely attempts to convince the other side or the other listeners to its position."

Resource:

www.debates.org

https://www.shapell.org/historical-perspectives/between-the-lines/lincoln-douglas-debates/?gclid=CjwKCAjwlbr8BRA0EiwAnt4MToDbsvl9So6jUmMDky4qWTrgZjsDXIwHtl1j34Lo7g5wDzAW50_L4hoCyHwQAvD_BwE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%27s_House_Divided_Speech

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debate