"People are getting killed figuratively and literally across the board. Folks, look, in spite of all of this, I’ve never, Rich, been more optimistic than I am today."

"It’s the confluence of the COVID crisis, a phenomenally negative impact on the economy and the systemic racism have added up and taking the blinders off of millions and millions of Americans saying, Oh my God, I didn’t realize the reason I could stay home safely is because of that person breaking their neck, risking their lives and some losing their lives. I didn’t realize that there are people in operating rooms and nurses that in the very beginning had to put on plastic garbage bags because they couldn’t find protective gear they needed. I didn’t realize. I now realize and know what you all have done for the country and they’re ready to step up. We don’t have to punish anybody, just make sure everybody pays their fair share and everybody gets their fair shot. I can end with when my dad... had to move from Scranton when there was no work down to Wilmington, Delaware and finally we moved in with my grandpa... I remember him coming up the stairs saying, honey, we can’t live in this apartment anymore. We’re going to, and you can’t go to school. You can’t play on that little league team. You’re going to go home and live with grandpa. And it must’ve been hard for my dad to walk into my grandpop’s pantry, a man with four sons and lost one in World War II and a daughter and saying, Ambrose, can I leave the kids with you? It’s only going to be, take me about a year, but I’ll come home every weekend. It’s only 157 miles. A lot of people have made that longest walk up a short flight of stairs to tell their kids that they can’t stay in the same school, can’t play in the same club. They’re going to have to move. When my dad moved, he got a job cleaning boilers in Wilmington, and we moved into an apartment complex. And we finally, after five years, four years able to buy a small home, which is we’re happy. Nice middle class home, three bedroom home, four kids and a grandpop. And we were happy. I sometimes look back and wonder how my parents did it with those very thin walls. But my point is this, we did fine."

From "Joe Biden AFL-CIO Virtual Event Transcript September 7" (Rev).

You know, you think only Trump can do stream of consciousness, but Biden can do it too. He's funny too. He's 77 and still puzzling over how his parents had sex without his hearing it. He's still optimistic as hell even though people are getting killed — figuratively and literally — across the board.