Donald Trump

[Jjeorge]

David...

Shouldn't you consider a different gestalt to view him through?

A...

I'm ashamed to say that I have no idea what that means.

[Marc]

Is there a difference between Canadian crow and Canada crow?

Michael

Black Crows Lives Matter!!

Clever birds

love it !!!!!!

[Marc]

[Peter]

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

If some candidates drop out the net gain is negligible, because with so many candidates there is close to nothing to take away. The remaining candidates would split the vote of Perry 1.5, Santorum 1.5, Jindal 1.0, and Graham 0.8. Some predict the same ratio of votes would be held by Trump. He would still be leading.

I think the Iowa Caucus, and the New Hampshire primary will put another four or more out of business. Some candidates affiliated with the religious right may benefit disproportionately from another religious candidate dropping out. Those would be Carson, Huckabee, Santorum. Cruz might pick up some of those religious drop-out’s votes. Cruz was the first candidate to announce in May, and it was at Liberty University, the largest evangelical Christian university in the world.

I am thinking, what will we talk about until then? But with Trump, Cruz, Paul, Fiorina, Walker, Kasich, Bush, etc., still in the race the news will be refreshing and new. That's a joke. I think the real news will be the waltz going on in the Lemoncrat Party. Say it ain't so, Old Hickory Clinton!

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

In my Facebook feed, there are lots of Rand-oriented people who would never post on OL (for obvious reasons).

In the posts of some of them (which I will not quote since I want to discuss a trend, not pick a fight with this person or that), one of the oddest things I keep reading is their dislike of Trump for blowing his own horn. I can't help but notice the gap. The lack. The blank. The unsaid.

As they complain, do they mention Trump's magnificent preeminent buildings and achievements? After all, he built some of the most iconic human achievements on earth.

No. They don't praise of criticize Trump's achievements. It's as if Trump didn't achieve anything more than any professional politician. They don't think about it.

As Ayn Rand would say, "Blank-out."

Talk-wise, what the hell do they want, a kinder, gentler, humbler Trump?

Heh.

They seem to want the opposite of Rand's message--and they want it in talk. That's right. They don't like Trump's talk. He's too proud and conceited for them. I would say achievements, too, but the pairing of "achievement" and "Trump" never comes up with these people.

I fear, unless someone explains it to them in Randian jargon, they will not see--with their own eyes--what is right in front of their noses.

Michael

[Peter]

Michael wrote: They seem to want the opposite of Rand's message--and they want it in talk. That's right. They don't like Trump's talk. He's too proud and conceited for them. I would say achievements, too, but the pairing of "achievement" and "Trump" never comes up with these people.
end quote

Good thinking. Trump is doing what Ayn Rand would do in a lot of ways. And he is irascible like Ayn.

"To Whom It May Concern" by Donald Trump (Originally published in The Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2015. This is to inform my readers and supporters that Rand Paul and Jeb Bush are no longer associated me or with my political philosophy. I will no longer stand on a stage with those losers. I have permanently broken all personal, professional and business association with them, and those jerks who won’t televise the Miss America Pageant. I have withdrawn from them the permission to use my name to get headlines for themselves. I hereby withdraw my endorsement of them and of their future works and activities. I repudiate all of them, totally and permanently, as spokesmen for me or for Conservatism.
end phony Rand/Trump quote.

What would Rand or Trump do about ISIS?
REAL Snips from MSNBC. Donald Trump on ISIS: “I would knock the hell out of them,” and then “I'd take the oil for our country.” Speaking on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program, the billionaire businessman said it would take American soldiers to target the militant group, also known as ISIS or ISIL. "They have great money because they have oil," Trump said. "Every place where they have oil I would knock the hell out of them. "I would knock out the source of their wealth, the primary sources of their wealth, which is oil," he told MSNBC. "And in order to do that, you would have to put boots on the ground. I would knock the hell out of them, but I'd put a ring around it and I'd take the oil for our country." In addition to cutting off ISIS' oil income, Trump said, the militants' money in the banking system would also have to be targeted, though he did not offer any details.
end quotes

I won’t make a pirate joke about Long John Trump because I think this would be a good thing and a brilliant way to wound the terrorists. Smart reconnaissance and insider spying (it takes a lot of regular guys to move oil) would minimize the number of wounded or killed Americans. And why stop there? Privatize it. Put out bounties. You capture oil wells or stolen bank wealth, MacGyver, you will get air support and a posse to come to the rescue but you get to keep the bounty. Instead of teen agers defecting to Isis there would be young men going on a treasure hunt. Arrrrr!

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Some politicians kiss babies, others eat the local food.

 

Trump is a bit different:

 

Trump gives kids helicopter rides at Iowa State Fair

 

 

Here's the YouTube video if anyone wants to see it, but it's too long and about as exciting as watching people line up for a Disney attraction. 

 

 

Still, the kids must be thrilled. Their parents and neighbors, too.

 

I like the implied message: if we get this country back on track and you work smart, you can have a helicopter, too. Anyone can. Wealthy is good.

 

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Here's a video I've been meaning to put on OL for a couple of days, now. It shows how Donald Trump immediately blows silly gotcha BS out of the water.

 

I don't know what to call this technique because I haven't seen it formalized, but for now I'll call it "Stepping Into The Slam."

 

 

Chris Cuomo was trying to paint Trump as a "whiner" based on some article or other. He repeated the whine theme and kept saying Trump whined a lot.

 

Instead of denying it, or getting snarky, or countering with an insult, Trump merely said that he certainly was a whiner--that he whines about everything. Man does he whine. And he whines and whines and whines until he wins.

 

 

What can you say to that? Keep accusing him of whining? Trump stepped into the slam so there was no slam left.

 

 

Then he did the classic pivot that all politicians do, which means he went on to talk about the things he wanted to talk about.

 

But, to make sure that he totally defused that "whiner" meme, he went personal on Cuomo. He talked about Cuomo's brother, how their mothers went to the same beauty parlor, how much he loved Cuomo's mother because she was tough, and so on.

 

When the short interview finished, look what Trump managed to accomplish:

 

1. He detonated the "whiner" meme. Done. Blasted. Extinct. Look around you. Is anyone still talking about it?

 

2. He used the time to present his normal theme of how bad off America is right now and how he can fix it. He moved the spotlight from "whiner" to that.

 

3. He emotionally moved Cuomo from crusading attacker to charmed friend. When Trump finished with him, there was no fight left in him.

 

That might look like an accident, but it is not.

 

Let me go into sycophant mode for a moment.

 

What a master!

 

Trump is not considered one of the best negotiators alive for nothing.

 

Man, do I admire him!

 

OK, back to normal.

 

Vote for Trump!

 

(Oops...)

 

 

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

Michael, go to Scott Adams blog by Googling "Trump clown/genius"

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Michael, go to Scott Adams blog by Googling "Trump clown/genius"

Brant,

Very interesting blog post: Clown Genius.

Scott Adams is the creator of the Dilbert comic strip. He says he's also a trained hypnotist.

I am familiar with the techniques he wrote about because he uses NLP language. However, I had not considered using exaggeration as an anchor. What a great idea. Cool...

But I still like my analysis of the Cuomo interview better.

Also, when Adams talked about making people “think past the sale,” the terminology I learned for it is "double bind." When you ask someone if they prefer to meet Wednesday or Thursday night without having agreed to a meeting in the first place, you are giving them the illusion of choice. You are putting them in a "double bind"--they are bound to meet you regardless. Another way of describing this is speaking in presuppositions.

It works, too. As Adams pointed out, Trump does it a lot (while mixing it with anchoring exaggerations).

I like Adams's way of expressing persuasion ideas so much that I got his book: How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life. It's mostly about reframing failure, but, going from the Table of Contents and reader reviews, he delves pretty deeply into the psychology of persuasion.

Apropos, even though Adams entitled his blog post "Clown Genius" and even though lots of people call Trump a clown, it causes me a crapload of cognitive dissonance when I hear that and think about the sheer volume of Trump's money and achievements.

Then I think there's a reason he's the one doing and getting all the big preeminent stuff and the ones laughing are not.

Michael

[Peter]

I’d rather live with a good question than a bad answer. Aryeh Frimer

Michael wrote:
I am familiar with the techniques he wrote about because he uses NLP language. However, I had not considered using exaggeration as an anchor. What a great idea. Cool...
end quote

Exaggeration? How about Trump poker? It will be interesting to see what hand he has when TV ads kick in. Responding to Rosie’s “right back atcha” rant, he ended by saying, Heidi Klum is no longer a 10. Why would he say that? Sadly, it’s just mean. Is it time for Donald to hire Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgewick as his spokespersons?

From Fox just now. The latest Fox poll has Trump dropping from 26 to 25, and that one percent was women. But still his nearest competitor is Ben Carson with less than half that. The big news is that Jeb, in a head to head contest, is polling higher than Hillary. Trump won't spend more than 50 and 100 mill.

August 16, 2015. DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- The powerfully funded super PAC backing Republican Jeb Bush will spend at least $10 million on television time in the earliest voting presidential primary states, the first salvo in a massive TV ad campaign to support the former Florida governor's bid for the Republican nomination.

Officials with Right to Rise USA say they will buy time in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina TV markets and on cable television in the three states. Ads are scheduled to begin in Iowa and New Hampshire on Sept. 15, in South Carolina a week later and then run continuously through the end of the year . . . .
end quote

Ed Rollins today on Fox. If Hillary had stayed a Senator from New York she would be doing so much better legally and in the polls for President.

[Brant Gaede]

After a while people will catch on to Trump underneath the Trump stump and evaluate him accordingly.

If he's worth 10 billion, even if 3 billion is "good will," he'll have enough money to even run as a third party candidate. If his real net worth is under a billion he'll need outside financing and likely won't get it.

I think he'll eventually just drop out, but flamboyantly. I suspect he doesn't have all that much cash on hand and real estate is hard to convert to cash without a generous dollop of time.

"Good will" is bullshit with no value except the ability of the bullshitter to sell bullshit. Of that Trump is the absolute master as a needed front man for his indebtedness to protect his creditors. (If you owe the bank $100 you have a problem. If you owe the bank 100 million dollars the bank has a problem--J. Paul Getty.)

--Brant

but he's a "builder"--yes and no: he rents out his name, but when he has a green light things get done--I think that's because of his ability to fire people and to know who and why and when--before much damage--to fire--and his employees know that so they work like hell

[Mikee]

"I don't think Donald Trump has a core set of beliefs other than Trumpism.": Is Trump a Supply Sider? (3:50)

"And, of course, Donald Trump’s entire career personifies crony capitalism.": Republicans and Crony Capitalism

Same article:

"And he regularly “partners” with local governments to receive special tax deals or other subsidies for his business projects. Taxpayers have had to pony up hundreds of millions of dollars to help make Trump rich."

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I think that's because of his ability to fire people and to know who and why and when--before much damage--to fire--and his employees know that so they work like hell

Brant,

You mean Donald Trump is like Kip Chalmers and that's his main talent?

(For any reader who hasn't read Atlas Shrugged, Kip Chalmers was a politician who knew how to fire people and keep them in fear of their jobs, so much so that he caused an enormous train accident that killed him and a lot of other people.)

If that's the secret to Trump's productivity, where are the train explosions, or in Trump's case, the falling skyscrapers?

Oh... here's an idea.

Do you think government regulations are the reason Trump's buildings are so magnificent and don't fall over?

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

"And, of course, Donald Trump’s entire career personifies crony capitalism.": Republicans and Crony Capitalism

Same article:

"And he regularly “partners” with local governments to receive special tax deals or other subsidies for his business projects. Taxpayers have had to pony up hundreds of millions of dollars to help make Trump rich."

Mike,

The National Review is accusing Trump of crony capitalism?

Dayaamm!

That would be like Bill Clinton complaining that Trump is immoral because he married several times.

Here's some small change Trumpian crony capitalism for ya'.

Not everybody is going to think the following question is important, but I ask it for readers who like to think about these things.

From Ayn Rand's characters, who would have built this, Peter Keating using his crony capitalism pull, or Howard Roark using a Peter Keating to get the government out of his way?

Or we could go real life crony capitalism. Does that building (in Baku, Azerbaijan, of all places) look like the work of a slum lord who pays off government officials?

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

When people call Trump a crony capitalist (putting him in the same category as nation builders, Solyndra and things like that), I always get reminded about an old Communist government argument that a person could only leave Russia after he paid the government back for all the money the government invested in him since birth. How was such a person to get the money? A government job, of course.

Trump built where there were government building codes, dilapidated government buildings, and so on. Does anyone know of any city on earth where that condition does not apply?

The reality is play the government's game or don't build. There is no third alternative. It doesn't exist. That's reality. Well, maybe in a work of fiction we can imagine some utopia...

Ideological purists say Trump should not have played the government to his own advantage, as if the government wasn't blocking the way to begin with. What's the alternative? Give more money and power to the government?

Heh.

I guess they prefer no one build any skyscrapers ever except the government...

God forbid someone should be successful at it, build some of the most preeminent buildings in the world and put his own name on them...

(Like Hank Rearden did with his steel mills. )

Michael

[Mikee]

Top 10 modern architecture marvels in Beijing

Trump is not a Howard Roark. He uses the government to get people out of his way, not people to get government out of his way. His connections and payoffs allow him to get away with it.

"Trump has repeatedly relied on governments’ using their power of eminent domain to seize private property and turn it over to him for development. As he put it in a 2005 interview with Neil Cavuto, “If you have a person living in an area that’s not even necessarily a good area, and government, whether it’s local or whatever, government wants to build a tremendous economic development, where a lot of people are going to be put to work and make [that] area that’s not good into a good area, and move the person that’s living there into a better place — now, I know it might not be their choice — but move the person to a better place and yet create thousands upon thousands of jobs and beautification and lots of other things, I think it happens to be good.” So much for property rights and personal choice."

Same source 'Republicans and Crony Capitalism'. Do you dispute the facts in this article?

[Brant Gaede]

I think that's because of his ability to fire people and to know who and why and when--before much damage--to fire--and his employees know that so they work like hell

Brant,

You mean Donald Trump is like Kip Chalmers and that's his main talent?

(For any reader who hasn't read Atlas Shrugged, Kip Chalmers was a politician who knew how to fire people and keep them in fear of their jobs, so much so that he caused an enormous train accident that killed him and a lot of other people.)

If that's the secret to Trump's productivity, where are the train explosions, or in Trump's case, the falling skyscrapers?

Oh... here's an idea.

Do you think government regulations are the reason Trump's buildings are so magnificent and don't fall over?

Michael

No. It was a complement from me, not a diss. However, I think that watermelon structure is atrocious. Maybe if I saw it up front in person I'd have a different opinion. Trump is someone who hires architects. He's not one.

--Brant

you better keep smiling or the wrath of Brant will descend on OL

Edited August 16, 2015 by Brant Gaede

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Same source 'Republicans and Crony Capitalism'. Do you dispute the facts in this article?

Mike,

I didn't even read the article, but from what I have been seeing so far, if there are indisputable fact in it, not even Trump disputes them. In fact, he's the one telling people he bought politicians. This isn't coming from an exposé. Do0 you think the National Review turned into a purist defender of laissez-faire all of a sudden? Just because they seem to say so sometimes?

Try endless war and protectionism for big crony corporations. That is their true economic plan.

My problem is with people who think the government owns human competence, whether by openly advocating this position or accepting it by default through blanking out all discussion of it.

There is a fundamental difference between a person like Donald Trump and the Solyndra people. Rand pointed this out over and over and over in her books. I see it about as clear as sunlight. Putting Trump in the same category with crony capitalists like the Solyndra folks is to look on the surface and not see the essence.

I don't seek ideological purity in Trump. Nor do his supporters in general. I seek his essence as a doer.

I seek a person with enough common sense, competence and will to stop the train wrecks we are headed toward (nuclear terrorism, economic meltdown, etc.). I seek someone who will take apart the mess these last few presidents have made and make things work again.

I'll worry about ideological purity in a candidate after the emergency passes. We are at the edge right now.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Trump is someone who hires architects. He's not one.

Brant,

He sure as hell seems to pick good architects over and over.

Must be because he's corrupt, huh?

(Ooops, I smiled... er.. oops... er... )

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Trump is not a Howard Roark. He uses the government to get people out of his way, not people to get government out of his way. His connections and payoffs allow him to get away with it.

Mike,

There's a premise that needs to be checked here.

Your argument presupposes that the government was not in Trump's way, that other people were.

Was the pre-Trump government to you a meek, fair and honest observer and encourager of human productivity, and de-facto protector of individual rights, until it got corrupted by the big bad Trump?

I thought Randian people didn't like the government. I know I don't. And when I look at the places Trump built on before he built on them, I just don't see a government-less laissez-faire utopia. Nor do I see a corruption-less government wisely and honestly investing taxpayer money in the public good and making the world a better place for all.

Not a single place.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

However, I think that watermelon structure is atrocious.

Brant,

Come on, man. It's pretty. Like wind in a sail.

Or a rocket trajectory with the Trump name being the rocket.

(Oops, I smiled again... Sorry, I can't help it... You make me smile... )

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

Trump is someone who hires architects. He's not one.

Brant,

He sure as hell seems to pick good architects over and over.

Must be because he's corrupt, huh?

(Ooops, I smiled... er.. oops... er... )

Michael

Of course he's corrupt, but he's kept his innocence.

--Brant

in his own head

[Brant Gaede]

However, I think that watermelon structure is atrocious.

Brant,

Come on, man. It's pretty. Like wind in a sail.

Or a rocket trajectory with the Trump name being the rocket.

(Oops, I smiled again... Sorry, I can't help it... You make me smile... )

Michael

I crossed that out. Can't you read?

--Brant

getting pissed

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Trump's full interview with Chuck Todd this morning.

 

 

Let people listen and judge for themselves. Todd is certainly no Trump fan.

 

Michael