Hasta La Gadget!

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On the surface, the 2016 presidential election may seem like a choice between “Grandma Nixon and the fifth horseman of the apocalypse.” However, after Donald Trump’s request that Russia hack American computers to find Hillary Clinton’s missing 33,000 emails, Trevor Noah said he now believes the difference between the two candidates was even more stark.

“With Hillary Clinton, [the] worst case scenario is you have a bad president for four years,” Noah said on “The Daily Show” Wednesday night. “America’s had bad presidents before. You’ll get through it.”

By comparison, Noah said Trump was the type of leader that America had never seen: a man who promised to be a law and order leader while inviting “foreign hackers to steal files that he himself said contained American national security data.” 

Noah pointed out that Trump was “lovingly endorsed by North Korea dictator Kim Jong.” Trump also said he admired former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

“These are [Trump’s] role models,” Noah said. “You have to understand when [people like this] are in power, they don’t go away. You don’t get a chance to vote them in four years.

“Their rule ends when the country ends.”

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

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We are in the midst of a clash of civilizations. Not in the Samuel Huntington sense, of East vs. West, or Muslim vs. Christian, but in the basic political philosophical sense of constitutional democracy vs. fascist authoritarianism. November 8th stands as a potential extinction-level event.

Just writing that bit of alarmist prose is an out-of-body experience. Yes, every election since 2000 has been “the most important election of our lifetime,” and because of the failure of the process in 2000 we ended up with the Iraq catastrophe which has given us the Islamic State, but this is different.

I’m sitting in the arena on Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention, a convention which in many ways feels no different than the previous two of the Obama years. A highly diverse crowd, of delegates, activists and guests, looks like America, maybe a little more so than 2008. The LGBT contingent has risen to 11.5%, and the number of trans delegates has doubled since 2012. The response of most people to such statistics is, “Yawn.” A room full of Latino and African Americans. Yawn. A room full of women. Yawn. The mirror of America, normal America.

That sense of normalcy is worth celebrating. It is what the struggle for civil rights is about – the opportunity to live one’s life to the fullest. But today there is no time to celebrate. The sense of normalcy within is threatened by the barbarians at the gate.

I’ve lived my adult life in an America that was struggling with the change from the progressive 60’s, manifesting with conservative takeovers of school boards, city and state legislatures, and for many years, the federal government. It wasn’t pleasant, but it was representative democracy. The people, of either ideology, could organize and take control for a time, with the other side always aware that its time might come with hard work and a little luck. Which it did.

That America, which for decades did not often represent me or my interests, was still a nation where freedom was real, equality was a goal that could be steadily approached, and opportunity was available for most who were able to take advantage of the possibilities.

The America that stands across the abyss this coming November 8th is not a land of freedom. It is not a land where equality is cherished. It is not a land of opportunity for the vast majority of the population. It is not the land promised by the Declaration nor protected by the Constitution.

It is a land that is the hellscape of Donald Trump’s fevered imagination, the land he describes to his raging, bloodthirsty supporters as the America of today, but in reality is not but would be the land of Trump’s America. It is a land where the lives of most Americans, difficult as they may be today, would become radically different. The land of “the divided crime scene,” not “the shining city on the hill.”

Trump’s America would be a land run by the bullies which civil society manages to control. A land of rudeness, cruelty, and, inevitably, violence. This is not a speculation. Human history is replete with the exploits of strongmen and their legacy of destruction. Anyone conversant with just the history of the last century, knows of the development of concentration camps in Boer-run South Africa, of the slaughterhouses in the trenches of World War One and the charnel houses of the black earth of Nazi-occupied Europe. These are not exceptions in human history; these are the rule.

America has been blessed by geographic isolation but not an isolation of compassion, willing on multiple occasions to go to the rescue and support of people abroad who share our love of freedom. But that isolation has also limited our imagination, as we’ve been protected from an awareness of the worst that humans have been able to do to one another around the globe. Without an assertive education in world history, East as well as West, Americans are dangerously naïve of the threat that is at our door.

It has often been said that “It can’t happen here.” Yes, it can.

Speaking of education and people who should know better – American Jews, those who lived through the era of the Holocaust or whose parents and grandparents did, have lived for the past fifty years chanting, “Never again.” While it’s understandable that some Jews, particularly the more fundamentalist, would be generally conservative and these days support the Republican party because of its mindlessly unbending support of Israel, there is absolutely no excuse for any Jewish man or women to support Trump. Jews who lived under fascist demagogues in Europe and the Middle East did not thrive. Anti-Semitism has never been far from the mind of bigots who might today be anti-Latino or anti-Muslim, so there is no justification to support a man with no ethical core, a history of business criminality, and who has enabled American bigots of all stripes, including anti-Semites. This is not open to dispute.

This is an era of anti-politics, and era where American bigots are no longer afraid to speak their minds and, on growing occasions, act on their feelings.

When former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been, first and foremost an entrepreneur, but politically a Republican, Democrat and independent, says at a Democratic convention,

Let’s elect a sane, competent person. Trump says he wants to run the nation like he’s run his business. God help us.

we know we’re in a universe parallel to the one which we’ve inhabited all our lives.

The President, when he first mentioned the name Trump, generated boos in the arena. and his response was, “Don’t boo. Vote.” I fear that voting for their “self-described savior” will be the response of the bigots, and not those who can’t believe that bigots exist, and are a threat to our constitutional democracy.

Obama said that “democracy is not a spectator sport,” and our founding documents use the plural “we” – “We hold these truths to be self-evident . . .,” and “We, the people. . . ” Not “I am your voice.”

If a majority of Americans in swing states do not understand the difference between “I” and “we,” we will bring upon ourselves and our democracy an extinction-level event. The fate of America is in our hands.

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“America is already great,” President Barack Obama proclaimed to delegates at the Democratic Convention is his speech that highlighted his accomplishments in office, attacked Donald Trump, and enthusiastically endorsed Hillary Clinton to be his successor. The president’s speech was brilliantly written and masterfully delivered.

Delegates welcomed the president with thunderous applause, the man who first appeared before them 12 years earlier as an Illinois State Senator. It will be the last time that he addresses delegates as president, and this may have been his best speech. “I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as president, to tell you I am even more optimistic about the future of America,” he told delegates.

The president highlighted his achievements in office, including guiding the country out of the worst recession in 80 years, saving the auto industry, creating 15 million new jobs, enacting the Affordable Care Act, which expanded health insurance coverage to millions, the growth of clean energy, a global climate agreement, a nuclear agreement with Iran, the opening of relations with Cuba, and the death of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. He also highlighted his actions on immigration, student loans, consumer protection and marriage equality. “By so many measures, our country is stronger and more prosperous than it was when we started,” the president asserted.

“I am here to tell you yes, we have more work to do,” the president continued. He pointed to those still in need of jobs or a raise, paid leave, a decent retirement, and to children in poverty, and called for safer streets and a fairer criminal justice system. “That work involves a big choice this November,” he said. “This is a more fundamental choice about who we are as a people.”

President Obama then said, “But what we heard in Cleveland last week wasn’t particularly Republican — and it sure wasn’t conservative. What we heard was a very pessimistic vision of a country where we turn against each other, and turn from the rest of the world.” He continued, “There were no serious solutions to pressing problems — just the fanning of resentment, and blame, and anger, and hate. And that’s not the America I know.”

The president then made a strong case for Hillary Clinton, describing her as a leader with plans to break down barriers, blast through glass ceilings, and to give opportunity to more Americans. “That’s the Hillary I know. That’s the Hillary I’ve come to admire. And that is why I can say with confidence there has never been a man or woman, not me, not Bill (Clinton), nobody more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the United States of America.”

President Obama then harshly attacked Trump. “He’s not really a plans guy. Not really a facts guy either,” he said. “Does anyone really believe that a guy who’s spent his 70 years on the earth showing no regard for working people is suddenly going to be your champion?” President Obama then criticized Trump for calling America’s military a disaster, for suggesting America is weak, for cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, for praising Iraq’s late dictator Saddam Hussein, and telling NATO allies they will have to pay for U.S. protection.

Saying that Trump just offers slogans and fear, he countered that, “America is already strong. And I promise you, our strength, our greatness, does not depend on Donald Trump.” Later, he added, “Our power doesn’t come from some self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order. We don’t look to be ruled.”

President Obama then returned to the spirit, values and character of the American people, “The American Dream is something no wall will ever contain.” He said that America is about what we can achieve together, “not about what one person says he’ll do for us.” Then, acknowledging the “vocal and persistent” supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, he urged delegates to vote for Democrats up and down the ticket.

Calling Hillary Clinton a fighter, a stateswoman, a patriot, he said, “That’s the America she is fighting for.” He concluded his speech by saying, “I am asking you to join me–to reject cynicism, to reject fear, to summon what’s best in us; to elect Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States, and show the world we still believe in the promise of this great nation.”

Presidential historian Michael Beschloss described Obama’s speech on MSNBC as the best endorsement ever given in convention history by an incumbent president for his party’s nominee. The president’s speech spoke to independent voters and Republicans who are uneasy with Trump. Obama was poised, confident, warm and presidential in his delivery. His speech was a rich tapestry of words and American ideals meant to unite the delegates behind their party’s candidate.

All in all, Wednesday was a fabulous day for Democrats, and it may well be an important pivot point for their convention. President Obama now has handed the baton to Hillary Clinton, who joined him on stage following his speech. Clinton will give her acceptance speech Thursday evening, and it very well may will the most important speech of her political career.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Historically, Remedy Entertainment has only worked on one project at a time, releasing only a handful of games since 2001’s Max Payne. The company recently announced it was moving away from that fan-frustrating workflow and was becoming a studio that…