Kamala Harris had pleaded for unmuting the mic but Trump had his knees knocking. She was a prosecutor and wanted to have a face-to-face with him, an exchange, some pointed questions, unmask him and his money power, expose him before the American people. But that was not to be and we will not call it a debate. Only the moderator will ask questions!

Harris will be seen Tuesday night on the television on the viewers' right side as they sit in front of the set. Viewers tend to focus towards their right side and that in turn can provide a better impact on their voting behaviour. And from the stage's right podium, or the interviewer's stand, she will be in a commanding position vis-a-vis her rival.

WASHINGTON, Sept 9: It's all quiet on the American front. Everyone is waiting with bated breath for Tuesday night's greatest show. And the campaigns too are busy preparing and rehearsing for the first and last showdown, the great American presidential debate. Democratic candidate Vice-President Kamala Harris and Republican candidate ex-President Donald Trump will be on stage, alone.

It would truly have been a prosecutor vs. bully spectacle. But a muted mic bars the prosecutor from cross-examining the bully behind the lectern.

Kamala Harris will be constrained. Because the so-called debate is a show, not exactly a debate in reality with the candidates not being given an opportunity to question each other on issues at stake. They can only make statements in response to questions from the moderator. There will not be any face-to-face encounter or exchanges, a disadvantage for Harris as she won't be able to put to good use her experience as a prosecutor who interrupts witnesses' prepared statements helping to bring out the truth as they are forced to speak extempore. A muted mic bars any exchanges between the candidates.

Venue: Philadelphia's National Constitution Center

Time: 9 p.m. Tuesday ET (6:30 a.m. Wednesday IST)

Duration: 90 minutes

Rules & Guidelines:

• There is no live audience
• Won't feature live mics despite Harris' push for it
• Moderated by ABC 'World News Tonight' anchor and managing editor David Muir and ABC News Live 'Prime' anchor Linsey Davis
• There will be two commercial breaks
• Trump will make the closing statement at the end of the 90-minute show because he chose that as his preference after winning the coin toss. There are two preferences, they are not just options. The other (containing an option) then goes to the other candidate. That is about the podium position. Harris selected the "right side".
• Harris will be seen on the right side of the television screen (according to the media version that lacks clarity). For clarity, we will say she will be seen on the TV viewers' right side. On the podium position most reports say she will on the right side. To be correct and clear, we will say she will be on the stage's right side podium or a live audience's left side if it were there. (Consider the image above as the TV screen.) Biden was at the same podium, he had won the toss too. In 2020 also, Biden was at the same side.
• There are great advantages of being on the viewers' right side on TV and (that is) the stage's right side in the studio. The latter is a commanding position and one's right hand extends to the audience, if any, with ease to establish a rapport. As for the TV, the viewers' focus always falls on their right side. So Harris is on a strong wicket although she lost the coin toss.
• They will be alone on the stage (studio)
• The candidates will be allowed only water, a pen and pad of paper. No props or earlier drafted notes allowed
• There will not be any opening statements
• They will be given two minutes to answer questions posed by moderators. And one minute each will be given to respond and rebut. A red light will flash when only five seconds left. The mic will switch off at the end of time. Move over to next.
• Candidates won't be able to ask each other questions. No exchanges. Mic will go off.
• The microphone will only be on for the candidate whose turn it is to speak. Mics were muted when the candidates were not speaking in Biden debate also. (Unmuted mics allow for exchanges between the candidates). Harris campaign's senior advisor Brian Fallon had insisted on unmuted mic.
• Two minutes will be allowed for each candidate for closing statements.

Mic disabled, Harris won't be posing these questions

In contrast to President Biden's 'disastrous' performance, Republicans are waiting for a "fine" debate with Harris.

ABC announced the rules last Wednesday after both parties agreed. Mic was at dispute. Because Trump, although assertive in speech, is scared of counter-questioning from the prosecutor he is really scared of.

Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller said they agreed to an ABC debate on the same terms and rules as followed in the CNN debate between Trump and Biden in June, according to the Washington Post.

In the context of the AI generated social media campaign maligning Harris, ridiculing her, using unparliamentary words, the latter could easily question him about his dubious activities and the pending criminal cases, if felons can contest? But mic is banned and so no 'cross-examinations'.

Yet, could Harris raise a question, Biden (81) was forced to bow out due to his age and failing health but how younger is Trump (78) ?

Of dubious vibes, Trump is a guy not adept in the world of learning either. On April 23, 2020, at his daily covid briefings, he suggested considering injection of disinfectants like Lysol to kill the virus in the human body. Next. When Bill Bryan of Department of Homeland Security's science and technology division said "The virus dies quickest in sunlight," Trump was quick to expose his learning, saying "you could bring the light inside the body."

After watching Trump on TV, an Arizona man ingested chloroquine phosphate and died. A top health official was sacked as he did not push the Trump treatment course.

To his 'credit' he also has a ring of 'MeToo's'. Only last week he was in the court of appeal pleading to overturn the verdict in a sexual abuse and defamation case and a plane episode involving one Jean Carroll even as the Stormy Daniels hush-money sentencing is pending.

Harris is also disabled from asking him what was his grandfather's job?

Well, large sections of sensible Republicans do not wish to vote for Trump the unpredictable. Will they make history by supporting a woman candidate to become the first woman President of the United States notwithstanding party line. If so, that will be a transformative action which will make America stronger.

When he was President he himself letting loose his goons to rampage Capitol (parliament). Members meeting in the House ran helter skelter. In live streaming of the episode, a goon was seen sitting on the Speaker's chair, his legs thrown over the table, while others broke windows and furniture.

The moot point is how Nancy Pelosi 'ran' to Pentagon to prevent the man gone crazy from pressing the nuclear button as the story goes.

Harris has been disabled by the rules of the debate from asking questions about any guarantee these happenings will not recur under Trump, the impulsive bully.

Live streaming: One can tune into ABC News Live, Disney+ and Fox News and other networks.

Voters will write the balance sheet on November 5.

Tailpiece: Trump the bully can be a hot subject for social psychology, on how they are straying into positions.

An anatomy of NEET 2024: From the start till finish NEET will stay put as a conundrum jinxed as it is. What if it was thought angels would come down from the heaven to conduct the entrance exam if done at the Centre and if in the States, they would be conducted by the corrupt mortals. So NEET was born... It's 'guaranteed' that no party will ever be able to do what is required to be done in the country. Because of their genetics. Frauds will only multiply. Is there anything worse? Yes. Shoot the messenger!

A video shows the terrifying scene of the chopper swirling and dropping nose down mid-air around the helipad. In fact, the rear rotor had gone for a toss and the pilot was performing autorotation for a crash-landing. He pulled it off! Congrats!

True or false, Savitri claimed her husband had told her to throw Vinod into the canal as all that he does is eat. "How much torture can my son endure?" She picked him up when he was asleep.

Marking a decisive stage in the ongoing tussle between Governors and the Governments in some States, the Governor of Bengal has thrown down the gauntlet to the State police, asking the Raj Bhavan staff to refuse any enquiry from the cops in the sexual harassment case filed by a woman employee against him.

COMMENT: In many a case complaints can be frivolous, made under certain circumstances. So it is more in the interest of the accused that there is an investigation to clear his name. Denial may only mean acceptance of the guilt. Besides, quoting Constitutional immunity in sexual harassment cases is nothing short of a vulgarity of the feudal landlord. Nobody is above the law.

While the universal apprentice scheme will enable the educated youth to stand up (literally) in a country where the people are trampled by wretched politicians, and look about for avenues to earn a living confidently, the provision of student credit cards of up to Rs 10 lakh will ensure each and every student of this country receives equal opportunities to fulfil their aspirations of higher education irrespective of their financial conditions. It will be a game changer. These are on the lines of what US Vice-President Kamala Harris visualised to be happening to the Third World when she hailed Ajay Banga as a transformative World Bank President.

Peter Higgs is the father of the mysterious Higgs boson, otherwise called 'God Particle', which gives mass to all elementary particles, and created our universe. His contribution helped other scientists understand how the Big Bang created something out of nothing 13.8 billion years ago. The equations of particle physicists which did not have a leg to stand on till then, the 'God Particle' came as a Godsend. The theories so far to describe the universe did not hold water.

It was only by 2012, after 50 years of the boson discovery, that scientists at CERN could make the big announcement that they had finally found a Higgs boson using the Large Hadron Collider.

Higgs instantly broke into tears, tears of profound satisfaction, in the lecture hall where the announcement was made.

LEGAL REMEDIES: Last year, on the directive of the Supreme Court, the Governor granted assent to one Bill, and referred seven Bills to the President. The petition against the President also challenges the Governor's action of referring the Bills to her.

The unprecedented step by the State may also establish that it always upholds the Constitution and the rule of law in order to pre-empt any eventuality of getting dismissed on flimsy grounds invoking provisions of the Constitution later on; and, also provide a thrust to an emerging platform of regional forces pitted against the ongoing centralisation of every subject and activity in the country under one umbrella where the States will ultimately 'wither' away (for some time).

OPINION: Made to happen as it does just weeks ahead of the general elections, the arrest may signal, if not the cause of, far-reaching consequences in the course of Indian politics. The Opposition charges that the ruling party at the Centre has unleashed the police to catch a leader every other day for corruption allegedly indulged in in the present or the remote past in order to incapacitate any concerted opposition to the ruling dispensation.

The “My way or the highway" man, Trump has predicted 'apocalypse' for Americans if he is not elected the President in the upcoming election. He sounds “extremism, affection for violence." As always, he is also seeing what others don't, and repetitively using words like "(2020) election was stolen"! And that's a symptom! Delivering a no-holds-barred speech at a rally in Ohio, he also predicted the US won't see another election if he did not win the November battle against the incumbent President. With his savage push against the God-fearing Catholic, and the heap of criminal cases pending in the courts, the unpredictable Trump's nomination exposes a season of drought of leadership of calibre in the United States.

The much-touted 'one-nation, one-election' argument was purportedly to prevent wasteful expenditure of the people's money, manpower and deceleration of development, but the committee report when implemented will end up paving the way for holding more elections than currently being held. Because of the logistics and democratic limitations involved, the committee was not expected by commonsense to be out of a loose end either! Those who are alive at that time, and further for ten more years thereafter, can count the rounds and compare with the present numbers. Therefore, either the agenda is different or the 8-volume presentation is faulty/made-up!!!

The manager has defended himself saying that dry ice got mixed with mouth freshener by the negligence of the staff...After taking the mouth freshener the customers felt a burning sensation and started vomiting blood. Five of them were hospitalised. Two are in critical condition.

Harmful effects of dry ice: Ingested, dry ice can burn your mouth, esophagus and stomach as it sublimates on contact with the moisture of the organs and turns into CO2, apart from other damaging physical and chemical changes it induces. The pressure building up in the stomach due to sublimation can also rupture the stomach muscles. It turns lethal. In normal direct handling it leads to frostbite due to the cold temperature.

One of them is seen in CCTV being shot at close range. The motive is suspected to be personal enmity.

TAILPIECE: Almost every other day we hear of shootings in one place or other in the country. India will very soon replace the US as the world's No 1 in the incidence of mass shooting. It will eclipse terrorism as a source of concern. Who can help? At least, has it occurred to anyone's mind?

'This Moment' of Shakti fusion won the Best Global Music Album at the Grammys. Zakir Hussain has won two other awards too. In a great victory for Indians, five of them have won the Grammys this time. In other sections, Taylor Swift got her fourth Album of the Year award and Miley Cyrus got an award for the first time.

The Government scheme provides ₹ 51,000 per wedding of which ₹ 35,000 goes to the girl, ₹ 10,000 for wedding materials and ₹ 6,000 towards expenses for the ceremony.

“Two activists from the environmental movement ‘Riposte Alimentaire’ sprayed pumpkin soup on the armoured glass protecting the Mona Lisa, this Sunday, January 28, 2024, around 10 am (4aET),” a statement from the museum said.

It is not understood how undesirable elements are allowed to get so close to her and play havoc with the artwork. Several times over this has happened in the past, deranged minds masquerading as tourists and cultists venting their frustration.

A Spicejet passenger had a harrowing experience inside a tiny claustrophobic lavatory aboard a Mumbai-Bengaluru flight when he found to his bewilderment that the door was not opening.

Two days earlier, in a similar incident in the area, a domestic help was bitten by a pet dog in the lift when she was going for work.

Tailpiece: Sometimes appearing to outnumnber men and women on the streets, the stray dogs are turning more and more daring with sections of anti-social elements out there to feed and protect them in order to find a window for their unfulfilled love! There is an all-pervading feeling of lack of authority.

Ankit Tiwari had told the employee that “instructions had been received from the Prime Minister’s Office to conduct an enquiry” and reopen the “already disposed of” case and asked him to appear before the ED office at Madurai on October 30, DVAC said. The doctor was allegedly threatened with arrest and told to pay a bribe of Rs 3 cr to avoid the ED probe, which was later negotiated down to Rs 50 lakh.

Tailpiece: We are made to believe RBI, CBI, ED, Judiciary as sacrosanct and all others like railways, transport, revenue, education, PWD departments are composed of us the mortals, absolutely corrupt! As if in the sacrosanct places the angels descend from the heavens to work in the night and fly away before day-break! Let's be true to ourselves, we are all cut from the same cloth.

Apart from cash, Gill had also taken three planes as bribe and two of them were leased out to Redbird Aviation Academy. With the result, flying schools compromised on safety requirements and trainers met with accidents several times.

Five people were arrested from a banquet hall in Sector 51 Noida on Thursday where they were called to hold a rave party in a trap laid by the animal rights group, PFA. They named Yadav but he was not present.