Donald Trump

[Selene]

However the man is a political hack .....

My purpose is simply to see things as they are. Trump made a very stupid choice. It makes him look like the other candidates.

Mark, that was satire, not a Straw Man.

Trump is in an area where he needs hands on experience with the technical "hacks" that know Iowa.

Iowa is extremely important in terms of an image.

The caucus system, is unique to Iowa.

It is not a normal "primary."

Evita's people were completely clueless as to how to win in Iowa in 2008 and it cost her dearly.

If you remember, O'bama won Iowa by a very slim margin. Evita got out organized in their "weird" caucus system.

Rick Santorum was declared the winner a day or so after the actual event.

The "pig" remark was quite clever and was, an actual Straw Man.

So was the "war profiteer."

Trump hired someone who apparently knows Iowa.

Iowa ain't San Francisco.

You will be quite surprised who else was quietly hired over a month ago.

Trump approaches Iowa quite smartly.

A...

[Peter]

Adam wrote: Trump approaches Iowa quite smartly.
end quote

I will bow to your superior judgement in Iowa, but I would not call the Trump campaign smart. Winning isn’t everything and it isn’t the only thing, Coach Lombardi. I still worry that he is lowing his long term chances of winning the Presidency and if he is elected he is STILL lowering his chances at a successful first term in office. He is a ship with a rudder but the currents and waves are tossing him in the tempest.

I was deliberately crude and over the top in my last comic scenario of a loutish Donald at the convention, but seriously, what was Ann coulter thinking when she recently introduced Donald Trump? Was she trying to sabotage his campaign, with her comic bit about the Trump wall with a two drink minimum and people cheering as Mexicans are shot by drones? Will Trump have her or Dennis Miller introduce him at the convention? It turns the election process into a Roman Circus. When is he going to start sounding Presidential? If he becomes President but not presidential, his whimsical observations will affect world markets, how we are seen around the world, and how Americans view their own political process. I would prefer the silent Calvin Coolidge over a buffoon.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

The story:
 
Views You Can Use: Trump vs. Ramos
by Rachel Brody
Aug. 26, 2015
U.S. News & World Report
 
From the article:
 

On Tuesday evening, Donald Trump had security guards at his press conference in Dubuque, Iowa remove popular Unvision anchor Jorge Ramos from the room, accusing the reporter of stepping out of line. "Mr. Trump, I have a question," Ramos said, while another reporter was speaking. Trump responded, "Sit down. You weren't called. Sit down." Ramos tried to continue, but Trump motioned for a bodyguard to remove him.
 
Ramos was later allowed back into the room, after which he and Trump engaged in a tense tête-à-tête regarding The Donald's immigration policy.

 
Video of Trump's security removing the heckler:
 

 
Video of the heckler, now a more polite person, after being allowed back in:
 
 
 
The legend that goes into the cultural subconscious:
 

 

I love displays of competence.

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Ha!

Donald Trump and Fox’s Roger Ailes strike a truce, again

Michael

[Peter]

I will keep my opinion out of this letter and just post some snippets from Robert Tracinski’s column.
Peter

Tracinski wrote today: . . . . Which brings us to the minor candidates trying desperately to pull themselves up from the low single digits in the polls by hitching themselves to the Trump bandwagon. That includes Scott Walker, who has previously been much more moderate on immigration and can now kiss goodbye any remaining reputation he had as a guy who is willing to make brave political choices. Most preposterously of all, it includes Bobby Jindal, whose parents were not citizens when he was born in Louisiana. That means that he is now running for president by opposing the very policy that makes it possible for him to run for president. It just might be the first self-negating presidential campaign.

. . . . In his article who are the Trumpthers Robert quotes Ben Domenech: Ben argues that Trumpism would turn the Republicans from a "classically liberal right" to a European-style nationalist party that is "xenophobic, anti-capitalist, vaguely militarist, pro-state, and consistently anti-Semitic. If you criticize Donald Trump, it is exactly the sort of hate mail you should expect to receive."

And Ben calls Trumpism: "identity politics for white people."

Robert Tracinski breaks down the categories of Trump supporters:
1) "Low-information voters" who don't really know much about Trump or his policies, but hey, he's a celebrity, so they tell pollsters they're voting for him.
2) Actual conservatives who like Trump because he's a tough-talking "fighter" and a businessman who "gets things done."
3) Disgruntled non-ideological independents who normally don't vote because "it never makes any difference."
4) Single-issue anti-immigration fanatics.
5) Archie Bunker types who normally vote Republican because they see it as the party of "identity politics for white people," the ones who want the country to be run by and for "people like me." These are the folks on Twitter and in the comments fields of my articles who extol the virtue of "European" immigrants, without realizing that "Hispanic" derives from the word for Spain, and that Spain is in Europe.
6) Outright racists who don't normally vote because neither party has the guts to embrace White Power.
Obviously, if it's mostly 1) and 6), we can expect the Trump phenomenon to flame out quickly.

I think the same also goes for Group 2, the conservatives who want an uncompromising champion. The more his opponents hammer Trump about his ideological flip-flops and history of political cronyism, the more he mouths ill-informed and ungrammatical opinions, the more he becomes a cultural laughingstock, the more they are likely to decide that their ideological cause would be best served by a different standard-bearer. And it's not as if this presidential contest provides no other options. Maybe not Scott Walker, who flubbed the Trump test by offering three different opinions on birthright citizenship in the space of a week. But Ted Cruz and Rand Paul are not exactly establishment sellouts.

Pollster Civis's is quoted as writing: "[Trump's] support is not tethered to a single issue or sentiment: immigration, economic anxiety, or an anti-establishment mood. Tellingly, when asked to explain support for Mr. Trump in their own words, voters of varying backgrounds used much the same language, calling him 'ballsy' and saying they admired that he 'tells it like it is' and relished how he 'isn't politically correct.' Trumpism, the data and interviews suggest, is an attitude, not an ideology."

Robert ends by saying: Which is to say that perhaps the wise thing to do is to spend less time focusing on Trump and more time figuring which is the strongest, most principled, and most inspiring of the other nominees.

[Peter]

From the Tracinski article.
Ben Domenech: . . . argues that Trumpism would turn the Republicans from a "classically liberal right" to a European-style nationalist party that is "xenophobic, anti-capitalist, vaguely militarist, pro-state, and consistently anti-Semitic. If you criticize Donald Trump, it is exactly the sort of hate mail you should expect to receive."
end quote

I have had some of the same thoughts and worries. I hope that Donald lessens those worries as time goes by.
Today, I saw Donald mimicking “Japanese or Chinese” negotiators by saying that they come into a meeting and say, give me deal now, or something like that in pigeon English. Yet, I do not think wanting secure borders or restricted immigration means I or Trump are xenophobic. I don’t want Muslim terrorists coming to America. I don’t want stupid people coming to America, or criminals, or the uneducated.

The Nationalist, explicitly militaristic, pro-state idea is a worry I have about Trump. I do worry about him promoting Crony Capitalism too. But I will watch and wait to see what he says. I had not considered Trump anti-Semitic. Anybody have any clues about that?

Trumps parents were immigrants. His Mother was from Scotland and his Father was from Germany. My grandparents were from Scotland/England primarily on one side and Sweden (in 1906 they arrived in Ellis Island, I think) on the other with a lot of other genetic markers I found out about later in life.

Maybe I am sort of like Trump in his likes. I like shows about decent people no matter their race but my wife pointed out that a show we are binge watching on Net Flix, from the BBC channel called Doc Martin, has no black people in it at all. I did not miss them, and I think it intellectually elevates a show if it has an all white cast, (from a particular province in England in this case, called Cornwall.) Blacks living there would make no sense, like white rappers in Compton, or the movie with a black girl playing Snow White which I don’t get either.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Robert Tracinski breaks down the categories of Trump supporters:

1) "Low-information voters" who don't really know much about Trump or his policies, but hey, he's a celebrity, so they tell pollsters they're voting for him.

2) Actual conservatives who like Trump because he's a tough-talking "fighter" and a businessman who "gets things done."

3) Disgruntled non-ideological independents who normally don't vote because "it never makes any difference."

4) Single-issue anti-immigration fanatics.

5) Archie Bunker types who normally vote Republican because they see it as the party of "identity politics for white people," the ones who want the country to be run by and for "people like me." These are the folks on Twitter and in the comments fields of my articles who extol the virtue of "European" immigrants, without realizing that "Hispanic" derives from the word for Spain, and that Spain is in Europe.

6) Outright racists who don't normally vote because neither party has the guts to embrace White Power.

Obviously, if it's mostly 1) and 6), we can expect the Trump phenomenon to flame out quickly.

Peter,

This is why I don't listen to Objectivists for forming my opinions of politics--or business for that matter. They suck at social analysis--and at business for that matter. Not all, though...

So... maybe Tracinski does have a point.

I was on the Trump bandwagon way before most. Just look at this thread.

I'm glad Tracinski explained it all so I now understand me.

Seeing as how I am a low-information voter who is dazzled by celebrities, a closet neocon who thrills to corporate bully businessmen of action, a disgruntled independent without a single intellectual idea in my head, so blinded by the immigration mess I can't see anything else, the very heart and soul of Archie Bunker and, most of all, an outright racist, how can I not help but support Trump?

Notice that there is no category in his breakdown for an intelligent person who likes high-end achievers. And that from a Randian!

Dayaamm!

In sum, for Tracinski, the underlying reason Trump supporters support Trump is because they are stupid, unlike him.

That makes him the same thing as MSNBC, but from an Objectivist religion--a fundamentally insecure person who believes the inner story that he is one of the chosen people, cherry-picking observations about the unwashed masses to validate how special he is as compared to those stupid folks.

God, how I hate snooty intellectualoids who's constant subtext is their own superiority over the lowly human cattle. How can I possibly take them seriously?

I'll take my own eyes and my own mind, thank you. And I'll always cast my lot with good productive Americans--like those who are currently supporting Trump. (And even those who don't.)

I am far better served.

Michael

[Peter]

Michael wrote: Notice that there is no category in his breakdown for an intelligent person who likes high-end achievers. And that from a Randian!
end quote

Don’t take your eyes off the road, Super Trooper. A person who strives for an ideal government can rebel in more than one way. The path to that goal may not always be the same road. If you are convinced that a Trump Presidency is the way to go, then be a radical. Changing the Culture the Randian way is a slow process. Trump would shake and bake the progressives and the RINO’s, as he dices the Government into a fine dish. Or so I hope. Here is a poem that reminds me of Donald and Ayn Rand.

1878–1967 Carl Sandburg
HOG Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I
have seen your painted women under the gas lamps
luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it
is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to
kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the
faces of women and children I have seen the marks
of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who
sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer
and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning
as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with
white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young
man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has
never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.
and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of
Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog
Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with
Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

[Mark]

All right, Selene satirized what I wrote. What I wrote is still correct even if the satire isn’t. The satire doesn’t work.

Clovis is a pretty bad egg and Trump made him national co-chairman of his whole campaign. Clovis isn’t confined to Iowa.

Trump couldn’t find a human being who knows Iowa? Do Iowans know Clovis?

Assuming another and better billionaire doesn’t show up, I hope Trump gets the nomination and wins the presidency even if he is carrying a parasite like Clovis.

Mark

ARIwatch.com

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Assuming another and better billionaire doesn’t show up, I hope Trump gets the nomination and wins the presidency even if he is carrying a parasite like Clovis.

Mark,

I wouldn't worry too much about Clovis.

Don't forget, Trump had Hillary at his wedding. But he was never a Clintonite.

I think he uses people like this, not because he signs on to their form of business and politics, but to get bigger garbage out of his way so he can get his projects done.

I might be wrong, but then again I might be right. And odds are I am right.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of

Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog

Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with

Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

Peter,

That was Chicago back during Sandburg's time.

Now there are no more farmer boys or meat packers.

Now we get this:

And don't forget Obama...

Talk about trashing a great city.

Where's the goddam O'Leary cow when we need it?

Michael

[Mikee]

Mark Cuban mentions Trump

[Can anyone interpret this?]

"

He said he agrees with Donald Trump’s views on hedge funds.

“I one hundred percent… I one thousand percent agree with him. A thousand percent. He is so right on the money that carried interest is not. It’s really just a vig, right? It’s like what the house takes at a casino."

[vig?]

[Mikee]

Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of

Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog

Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with

Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

Peter,

That was Chicago back during Sandburg's time.

Now there are no more farmer boys or meat packers.

Now we get this:

And don't forget Obama...

Talk about trashing a great city.

Where's the goddam O'Leary cow when we need it?

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Here's some food for thought for those on the fence.

Finally intellectual writers are beginning to take him seriously.

Why not Donald Trump?

by Noah Millman

The Week

August 27, 2015

(I'm Trumpin' stumpin'... )

Michael

[Selene]

All right, Selene satirized what I wrote. What I wrote is still correct even if the satire isn’t. The satire doesn’t work.

Clovis is a pretty bad egg and Trump made him national co-chairman of his whole campaign. Clovis isn’t confined to Iowa.

Trump couldn’t find a human being who knows Iowa? Do Iowans know Clovis?

Assuming another and better billionaire doesn’t show up, I hope Trump gets the nomination and wins the presidency even if he is carrying a parasite like Clovis.

Mark

ARIwatch.com

Marc:

I understand precisely how you feel about a person like Clovis.

However, I have been in serious politics for a long time.

A personal choice and it is an area that is capable of honor, as Allan Drury explained.

That involvement has brought me into contact with a wide range of people folks.

Some of these folks were almost saintly and some of them that I would not leave my children with while my lady and I went to dinner.

We are on the same page on most other items.

A...

[Mark]

I wouldn't worry too much about Clovis.

...

I think he uses people like this, not because he signs on to their form of business and politics, but to get bigger garbage out of his way so he can get his projects done.

...

That thought had occurred to me too. You’re probably right.

About Trancinski, he’s in sync with a long article in the latest issue of The New Yorker. Trump is “expanding the discourse of hate” and those who support him are “drifting deeper into unreality.” The author approvingly quotes someone else about Trump’s supporters being “paranoid,” etc.

Rand spoke of the disconnect between the intellectuals and the people. The disconnect has never been more obvious than over Trump’s campaign.

[Selene]

Here is a simple act of amusement when something like this occurs...

Trump is a descendant of John of Gaunt, a 14th century royal. Gaunt, who was the 1st Duke of Lancaster, was the son of King Edward III.

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

[Peter]

I got mugged by a magician. It’s not funny: he took my wallet, my watch, and every silver dollar I had behind my ear. Craig Baldo

Bond. James Bond. And Trump is a descendant of Gaunt, John Gaunt. Are you sure he didn't say Gault? That is funny.

Mark wrote: Rand spoke of the disconnect between the intellectuals and the people. The disconnect has never been more obvious than over Trump’s campaign.
end quote

I heard a bit of Rush Limbo today. He was wondering who can reverse and repair the course of eight years of Progressivism, the creep of totalitarianism and Statism? I thinkkk Rush has made up his mind. He also said he has a secret he is kkkeeping but like a good sales person he is not going to tell you what he does to get you to buy his message.

Pick up any subliminal messages yet? Oh. Those weren’t subliminal at all to you smarty pant’s? I have seen several articles like Michael mentioned in the liberal and RINO press suggesting 25 percent of Trump supporters are white supremacists, and covert members of the KKK. If Trump would just sound like a candidate for a free market, he would have the Tea Party vote.
Peter

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Now for the big important issue. despite the contrary being reported on the first page of the New York Times, Donald Trump's hair is real!

 

He does not use a toupée.

 

Isn't that exciting?

 

 

Trump does use a baseball cap when it's windy, though. That's because the wind makes his hair stand up and results in weird pictures his enemies like to use.

 

Whew!

 

I'm glad we settled that.

 

After all, we have to vet fundamentals in our candidates.

 

 

Michael

[Peter]

Ayn Rand wrote in “What Is Capitalism?” Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, page 19:
The right to agree with others is not a problem in any society; it is the right to disagree that is crucial. It is the institution of private property that protects and implements the right to disagree—and thus keeps the road open to man’s most valuable attribute (valuable personally, socially, and objectively): the creative mind.
end quote

From The Intellectual Activist September 30, 2010, The Objectivist Movement Commits Suicide by Robert Tracinski:
The McCaskey debacle, and particularly the e-mail from Peikoff, reveals in stark form everything that has been wrong with the Objectivist movement for decades and which I have personally struggled with for about the past ten years. This scandal is to Objectivism what the Climategate e-mails were to climate science. They are the public revelation of what some of us had seen privately and many had merely suspected: the corruption of a field of rational inquiry by authoritarianism and conformity. Call it Anthemgate.
end quote

Now from me: A less than pure candidate sanctioned by YOU, the Objectivist. If our society and political system were to begin the transition to becoming completely free and we were to begin privatizing all government programs, then the program administering the cuts would necessarily be one of the last programs cut. A government is still the best and the only practical way to guarantee individual rights for people living in a society. A government is best for defending our borders even once all property is nearly or completely privatized. A "slightly modified" United States Constitution would be our best bet, for a long, prosperous life. The government would be best for fighting retaliatory wars, building intercontinental highways and for pooling money to fund huge projects like putting a man on the moon. When a private way can be found to do it better, then we can withdraw tax dollars from the program.

Michael wrote: After all, we have to vet fundamentals in our candidates.
end quote

I am not endorsing any particular candidate though I am posting this in a specific spot, to the thread of the candidate who has a tremendous lead in the polls. My message is for the Objectivists who want a purer, ideological candidate. Rush asked an interesting question today. Considering the entirety of their attributes, which candidates would take us a step in the wrong direction, the right direction, or the same direction?
Peter

[Mikee]

Now for the big important issue. despite the contrary being reported on the first page of the New York Times, Donald Trump's hair is real!

He does not use a toupée.

Isn't that exciting?

<script height="216px" width="384px" src="http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#pbid=b171980b65ae4996bffea4da902c7846&ec=owc2Q4dzp5_dD3DlJ-giYeQmP-HSuDkM"></script>

Trump does use a baseball cap when it's windy, though. That's because the wind makes his hair stand up and results in weird pictures his enemies like to use.

Whew!

I'm glad we settled that.

After all, we have to vet fundamentals in our candidates.

Michael

Looks real...

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

For those who want to see Trump's evolution as a candidate, the Bloomsberg interview of Aug. 26:

 

 

Today's commentary from one of the interviewers, Halperin, on Morning Joe:

 

 

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

Now for the big important issue. despite the contrary being reported on the first page of the New York Times, Donald Trump's hair is real!

He does not use a toupée.

Isn't that exciting?

<script height="216px" width="384px" src="http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#pbid=b171980b65ae4996bffea4da902c7846&ec=owc2Q4dzp5_dD3DlJ-giYeQmP-HSuDkM"></script>

Trump does use a baseball cap when it's windy, though. That's because the wind makes his hair stand up and results in weird pictures his enemies like to use.

Whew!

I'm glad we settled that.

After all, we have to vet fundamentals in our candidates.

Michael

Looks real...

Looks like a ski slope.

--Brant

he must have a hair person in constant attendance

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Michael wrote: After all, we have to vet fundamentals in our candidates.

end quote

Peter,

I have to polish my writing style.

I meant that as a quip, but I can see where you didn't understand it that way.

(Fortunately, I know how to fix it. It's a framing issue, the setup. I just needed to strengthen the hair frame. Er... Why doesn't that sound right? )

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

About Trancinski, he’s in sync with a long article in the latest issue of The New Yorker. Trump is “expanding the discourse of hate” and those who support him are “drifting deeper into unreality.” The author approvingly quotes someone else about Trump’s supporters being “paranoid,” etc.

Rand spoke of the disconnect between the intellectuals and the people. The disconnect has never been more obvious than over Trump’s campaign.

Mark,

One of the things that burns me the most about this tribal Objectivist behavior (where it exists) is that Rand--in both fiction and nonfiction--promoted a worldview she borrowed from Nietzsche where the individual promotes his own good, especially if gifted and hardworking, and the mob tries to destroy the best within him. (Or her.)

In this view, the individual has a moral authority that the group does not have and can never acquire. Also, heroism comes from the individual standing against the crowd to honor and enforce his moral authority.

That's almost the definition of the plot of a Randian novel.

What these Objectivist knuckleheads have done is turn this worldview into WE OBJECTIVISTS are superior to the rest of mankind and my individuality stems from my membership in this collective. I am superior to others because my tribe is superior to them.

No wonder they don't resonate with Trump. He is an individual who has always stood up to the collective--and stood alone (except for those he has employed or made a deal with). And he has won using his mind. He doesn't even do IPO's for his companies (if there is an exception, I am unaware of it). I read this somewhere. He said he prefers to own his own stuff.

It's like a slap in the face.

And the knuckleheads, trying to parse Rand's words so they can deduce reality from them, try to show their tribe they are hard-hitting intellectuals by calling evil the very people who implement the values Rand wrote about.

One of Trump's favorite words keeps coming to mind when I think about this. I want to be respectful, I really do. I like a lot of the people in our subculture I criticize. But when a person keeps lumping me in with his blank-out fantasies because he doesn't know what the hell he is talking about, the word comes unbidden.

The word is "moron."

My advice to them is to wake up and use their own goddam minds. Forget about the Objectivist tribe for a while and just observe and think.

Michael