Donald Trump

[Roger Bissell]

Less like ride the calendar out (!), more like ride the clock out.

Roger,

That might be true. Trump's goal is to win, not play games according to arbitrary rules of what this person or that thinks he should do.

It's like a football team up in points running out the clock in the fourth quarter.

I never see anyone insinuating this is cowardice or something to laugh about in football. Instead, they treat it as being savvy.

And don't forget, Trump once tried to get a new football league going (one of his few failures). He loves the game, football, that is. And he knows it inside and out. Notice that football is a competition where there can only be one winner in the final championship.

The election for president has that in common, so, where it works, why not play the election process like football games?

Michael

The last time I watched a football game, you didn't win by taking your football and going home. Not real savvy.

Perhaps Team Donald will receive a penalty (from the voters) for not having their player on the field that he agreed to play on - before he reneged.

REB

[EDIT] Perhaps also this is an indication of why his pro football venture didn't turn out so well. (Couldn't remember the rules, poor sportsmanship, etc.)

[Roger Bissell]

I'm posting the following WaPo article only because I like the headline.

I skimmed the article and it's boilerplate coverage, but that headline has a little something to it:

Republican debate: Seven candidates against the man who isn’t there

Michael

This is reminiscent (hope that isn't too jargony and intellectual for MSK) of the GOP convention in 2012, when Clint Eastwood used an empty chair as prop to mock Obama. I'm sure Trump will be where *he* wants to be - but what about the voters, especially the voters of Iowa?

Oh, I know, he'll be helping the Wounded Warriors et al. Very worthy - almost rises to the stature and credibility of Lindsay Perigo's stunt in 2006 in Orange, California. See this thread, initiated by our very own, self-described "intellectual garbage man."

http://www.objectivistliving.com/forums/?showtopic=658

Those were the days, my friends, we thought they'd never end - except now the big fish are doing it, too!

I hope they have a sign over the empty podium saying: "Brave, brave Sir Donald. (Not.)" Maybe they could even run the Monty Python clip intermittently during the debate.

REB

[Peter]

Roger wrote: This is reminiscent (hope that isn't too jargony and intellectual for MSK) of the GOP convention in 2012, when Clint Eastwood used an empty chair as prop to mock Obama.
end quote

For the debate tonight: How about a look alike from Saturday Night Live, or a dummy of Trump with a voice over? It would be hilarious but it would not be serious and somber like a real political debate without the clown, showman, name caller, and narcissist, we all . . . well not love and admire . . . but get a kick out of and would vote for as a last resort.

Well Mister Trump what would you do about excessive regulation?

Sock puppet Trump: Shut up, Megyn. You’re not supposed to be here.

Damn. I am getting riled up.
Peter

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

The last time I watched a football game, you didn't win by taking your football and going home. Not real savvy.

Roger,

That's the wrong part of the metaphor.

When a player runs out the clock, he stops playing. He just sits on the ball.

The playing field for Trump is not a single debate. (Believe me, Fox News does not own the stadium.) The playing field is the election. Trump isn't taking his marbles and walking out of the election. He's just refusing to run the ball for this play.

Actually, he is running the ball. He's doing his own event--a play nobody predicted.

Michael

[Roger Bissell]

The last time I watched a football game, you didn't win by taking your football and going home. Not real savvy.

Roger,

That's the wrong part of the metaphor.

When a player runs out the clock, he stops playing. He just sits on the ball.

The playing field for Trump is not a single debate. (Believe me, Fox News does not own the stadium.) The playing field is the election. Trump isn't taking his marbles and walking out of the election. He's just refusing to run the ball for this play.

Actually, he is running the ball. He's doing his own event--a play nobody predicted.

Michael

Maybe not, but we special people in O-Land certain *could* have expected something like this "ominous parallel":

2006: Barbara Branden vs Lindsay Perigo - Perigo boycotts TAS seminar and stages his own event to "show them"

2016: Megyn Kelly vs Donald Trump - Trump boycotts GOP debate and stages his own event to "show them"

Huge male egos involved there. Perigo crashed and burned. Trump? We'll see.

REB

[Jules Troy]

That is a really poor comparison and a complete non sequitur..

[Roger Bissell]

That is a really poor comparison and a complete non sequitur..

To you, maybe, sure. But one man's "really poor comparison" and "complete non sequitur" is another man's spot-on parallel and logical implication.

REB

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Maybe not, but we special people in O-Land certain *could* have expected something like this "ominous parallel":

2006: Barbara Branden vs Lindsay Perigo - Perigo boycotts TAS seminar and stages his own event to "show them"

2016: Megyn Kelly vs Donald Trump - Trump boycotts GOP debate and stages his own event to "show them"

Roger,

Dayamm!

That's your ominous parallel?

That Donald Trump is like James Valliant and Lindsay Perigo?

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL...

Oh my God... the pain... the pain...

Make it stop...

Jesus you're funny...

Michael

[william.scherk]

Here's a tweet from Sarah: [..] And here's the text from her Facebook link:

Media: Here, Let Me Define For You a Genuine "Game Changer" [...]

Man, it just keeps getting better and better.

Oh yes, there are plenty of Trumpgasms to come. As I said to Marc, the best is yet to come. I predicted that the hoopla would intensify before any GOP ballot was scribbled upon. I was not thinking it would reach this crescendo today. I totally understand the strongman impulse in Mr Trump, that which caused him to express in a jocular tone that he wished he could have the dang election over and done with. Who doesn't want this circus to end? If wishes were horses, and if Trump ran an autocracy, sure. But there are checks and balances and scrutiny, thus circus, thus the Kelly bloodclot in Trump's mind, thus an unforeseen frenzy on the eve of Iowa.

Michael, thanks for the eye-opener. I didn't click the Facebook link inside Palin's tweet, but instead used the header of her piece as a Google search term. And that gave me the video below, which gave me the creeps and has me reconsidering the social utility of Palin Poetry. Ka-reepy. I didn't go to the Facebook link, because I fear Facebook,** but searched to make sure I knew which part of the text was Limbaugh and which was Palin.

But on an unrelated subject, Twitter -- I wish we could collaborate somehow on feeding a list of bonehead and meathead and trumphead material. I'll discuss that with you on Twitter, Michael, where I keep order in my twitterverse by reading 'lists' that I have curated. I imagine there are some 'must-be-seen' Trump stuff from both Hater and Lover wings of opinion.

-- I should also thank you once more for touting Evernote. Here below, for those who do not use it, is what it does with bits and scraps of -- in this instance -- web material subject Trump+Bad Explanations. Screenshot of my Evernote notebook Secrets of Politics at bottom. Click the pic to go to Evernote and have a look around. If you are already on Evernote, I am happy to share. Not everything, but. Fences make good neighbours. If I hand you a fat fish over the fence, I expect something in trade. Not immediately, but. Like a monkey I always remember loyalty and sharing. Like an elephant, I will never forget Donald Trump. He will be in my dreams because of this thread and the boredom of Canadian politics.

That's right. I blame Canada for Trump's brainworm having infested me. Now that I love Trump as only a convert can love, I am starting to hate my country a little bit, too. Frikkin' Hellhole. Worse than Brussells. Deserving of Mr Trumps wrath. Run by a buncha morons, you ask me.

-- that almost kills off Palin Poetry for me.

One other thing in passing. Who is interested in an Iowa election night live text chat? I think I know a way to do it, and it would be fun for me and at least three other regular readers of this thread topic. If you are interested let me know in PM and I will send you a link if I ever get it figured out in time. I will be having hot beverages and snacks and watching two screens. On this night, I don't think the Trump thread could contain all the dashed-off commentary of a chat.

One of my Trump supporter contacts in beautiful Lyon County has directed me to a couple of people who are streamcasting on the eve. I don't know if I could stand to watch someone I don't know watch returns come in. I will stick with my list of GOP folks who are preparing to live-blog and live-Tweet the spectacle.

I should add that Trump is beginning to enter the consciousness of my neighbours and chance encounters at market and errands. I have had three conversations today (brief) in which Trump came up. In each conversation there was a gesture made towards the border a couple miles away, as if to say, we have a wall, and it feels good.

This week I will update listmembers on my experience of my city's (Surrey, BC) welcome wagon for fleeing Syrians. Only about five hundred or so will be settled this year, but the community engagement continues to surprise me.

On that happy note, think of how much suffering will be avoided with a Trump in the White House.

Be thankful my doctor, the urbane Dr Johal, told me to post much less, exercise much more. That is me trudging up the hill listening to OL for the Blind. Those who hate WSS may dislike these large chunks of prose and misdirection and hooplay, but they can fuck completely off.

_________________________

** the fear is irrational and based on social metaphysics. Every last Tom, Dick and Sarah on earth who ever bought my records or saw my shows or bought a drawing or print thinks they can click and chat with me. That isn't disturbing. What is disturbing is that I feel bad ignoring them. Thus I ignore Facebook except for marketing my archive of ancient (and occasional new) artworks. Fear. Maybe that is what Mr Trump felt at the prospect of going up against the Bloodclot again. I don't blame him.

I will overcome, as will of course, Mr Trump. I have a trove of unviewed material to market, and Facebook is going to help me, despite social metaphysics. As ever, the wisdom of Trump supervenes and out-Rands Rand. Be your own man. Market your own wares. Never be put in a pit with an intelligent woman armed with sharp blades.

Social metaphysics, fuck that shit. Just soar over it all, baby. Yuge Trumpgasms to come.

Edited January 29, 2016 by william.scherk

[Peter]

I see Mikhail Huckabuck and Sanatarium are cashing in on the student rebellion and joining Thump at 9pm. Hick! I haven't heard if Carly will be there. At first I thought those two losers were also not attending the 7pm kiddy debate but no such luck.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

"@BradCross4: @Drudge_Report_ @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/Ur1qgG291Z"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

January 28, 2016

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

William,

This is getting some oddball traction.

Billionaire Saudi prince fires back after Donald Trump promotes fake photo of him and Megyn Kelly

I wonder what the real backstory to it is.

I know Trump knows it's a fake. I am sure he did it to piss off some people (especially Roger Ailes).

This is one hell of a goof, though. I dug a little and saw just how weird the goof was.

Trump retweeted this thing from a dude named Brad Cross (who also mentioned Drudge). I went to Brad Cross's Twitter feed, scrolled down and found that he had retweeted it from a dude name Jerry Brown. I went to his Twitter feed, scrolled down and he retweeted it from a dude named Cala. So I went to his Twitter feed and he retweeted it from Donald Trump!

It's a friggin' circle.

Michael

[william.scherk]

I can't help but pass along this Trump meme:

[Brant Gaede]

You don't seem to understand Rand, Trump or Goldwater. On a minor point, qua "architectural aesthetics," did you ever see, by drawings and photographs, the house Goldwater lived in in Scottsdale, Arizona? On another point, Goldwater had little career as any kind of businessman nor did he aspire to. As for Trump's virtue as a businessman, you'll never find his like in Galt's Gulch. Unfortunately, the kinds of distortions that obtain through time are simply going to get worse as these historical figures recede from memory and testimony and morph into grotesqueries much worse than anything we can even willfully come up with today. If it was all that important--it's not, really--I'd write a memoir. It just grates.

--Brant

Why would I want to understand Goldwater? He's your arbitrary

So your statements about him can at least be honest even if mistaken.

--Brant

I thought they were honest and still do--so how about confused?

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I just watched the Trump event instead of the debate. It just finished and, as of now, this event netted over $6 million for the wounded warriors.

So I tuned in to the Fox debate, which is still going on, to see if I could catch the end and, I swear, I can't watch it. After a few minutes of boilerplate political platitudes, I just can't. I'm outta there.

I'm still high from the goodness I just saw with Trump and the veterans and that boilerplate with phony sincerity started blowing my high.

Maybe I'm biased.



Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Here's some art from Rush Limbaugh's site.

It's in this transcript: Trump Won't Subordinate Himself.

It seems appropriate to post it after the event Trump just held instead of going to the debate.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

This just came in at Breitbart.

(batting eyes innocently) I wonder if it has anything to so with anything, hmmmmm?

Trump Campaign Manager Reveals Fox News Debate Chief Has Daughter Working for Rubio

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

It starts:

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">An unbelievable night in Iowa with our great Veterans! We raised $6,000,000.00 while the politicians talked! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GOPDebate?src=hash">#GOPDebate</a></p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="

29, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

 

Michael

[KorbenDallas]

So your statements about him can at least be honest even if mistaken.

--Brant

I thought they were honest and still do--so how about confused?

Na, not confused, disinterested. Your original argument, Rand->Goldwater->Trump, had zero transitivity to begin with. I replied to your arbitrary, but probably shouldn't have (you know, the whole reject arbitraries thing in Objectivism). And as for your final epithet, I reject the ad hominem.

[KorbenDallas]

I just watched the Trump event instead of the debate. It just finished and, as of now, this event netted over $6 million for the wounded warriors.

So I tuned in to the Fox debate, which is still going on, to see if I could catch the end and, I swear, I can't watch it. After a few minutes of boilerplate political platitudes, I just can't. I'm outta there.

I'm still high from the goodness I just saw with Trump and the veterans and that boilerplate with phony sincerity started blowing my high.

Maybe I'm biased.

Michael

I watched the Trump event, too, and switched over to the Foxnews broadcast and was struck by the contrast. I have to admit, the Trump event had me chanting U S A along with them a few times.

In one of his statements, he said he was "greedy" in making his money, but he wants to be "greedy" for our country, to bring back all that money to the USA, for everyone. And I believe him.

U S A

[william.scherk]

Any journalist that annoyed me like Megyn Kelly annoys Trump would already have shot themselves several times. #GOPDebate

— Vladimir Putin (@DarthPutinKGB)

January 29, 2016

[Roger Bissell]

Any journalist that annoyed me like Megyn Kelly annoys Trump would already have shot themselves several times. #GOPDebate

— Vladimir Putin (@DarthPutinKGB)

January 29, 2016

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

William, you're Putin us on with this, right?

REB

[william.scherk]

OVER $570,000 RAISED TODAY

Trump: 'Unbelievable night in Iowa with our great Veterans! We raised $6,000,000.00'

Website: 'OVER $570,000 RAISED TODAY'

www.donaldtrumpforvets.com

 

Edited January 29, 2016 by william.scherk

[Roger Bissell]

OVER $570,000 RAISED TODAY

Trump: 'Unbelievable night in Iowa with our great Veterans! We raised $6,000,000.00'

Website: 'OVER $570,000 RAISED TODAY'

www.donaldtrumpforvets.com

Am I reading this correctly - during the day, they raised over $570,000, while in the evening, they raised $6 million?

Or are you saying that they're both talking about the entire day's fundraising total, and the left hand doesn't know what the right hand gathered in? If so, then Trump is exaggerating (as is one of his established tactics) by a factor of 10 or so. Pretty impressive!

REB

[Roger Bissell]

I just watched the Trump event instead of the debate. It just finished and, as of now, this event netted over $6 million for the wounded warriors.

So I tuned in to the Fox debate, which is still going on, to see if I could catch the end and, I swear, I can't watch it. After a few minutes of boilerplate political platitudes, I just can't. I'm outta there.

I'm still high from the goodness I just saw with Trump and the veterans and that boilerplate with phony sincerity started blowing my high.

Maybe I'm biased.

Michael

I watched the Trump event, too, and switched over to the Foxnews broadcast and was struck by the contrast. I have to admit, the Trump event had me chanting U S A along with them a few times.

In one of his statements, he said he was "greedy" in making his money, but he wants to be "greedy" for our country, to bring back all that money to the USA, for everyone. And I believe him.

U S A

The money that *some* people are making overseas, he wants to "bring back" to the USA "for everyone"?? Um....isn't that...stealing? (aka redistribution of wealth)

How is being "greedy" for the country better in any way than being "greedy" for yourself? Does getting money somehow become moral if you're taking it from Peter in order to give to Paul?

Hell, why not just vote for Bernie Sanders?

REB

[william.scherk]

Or are you saying that they're both talking about the entire day's fundraising total, and the left hand doesn't know what the right hand gathered in? If so, then Trump is exaggerating (as is one of his established tactics) by a factor of 10 or so. Pretty impressive!

Well, I checked in with someone who should almost know, and she said that there are several revenue streams all leading into the Trump Foundation tank, all earmarked for the charity. This means, and I confirmed this with one wonk only, that there are phone-banks, cash-drops, office-drops, electronic-charge-transfers (this is the 570,000 smackers total) and so on. It is a kind of distributed intake that will take a while to be officially tabulated in financial reports. So, I figure the total sums will have been transmitted provisionally and will show in a website total of all revenue streams, and will be totalled when all the cheques clear. If that total does not approach six million ... I'd say that was probably whispered in Mr Trump's ear as a ballpark estimate.

I think there was a barrage of small and large sums in all manner of forms pledged, handed over and promised. I imagine the boss in charge of each intake valve reports higher up the chain, and the top banana tells the Boss of Bosses. We will get hard figures, if that matters.

I brought it up only because I had been at the Trump Foundation charge-it dedicated website when the link first appeared in a Trump tweet above. I notched that 500+k number in my mind, so when Trump later boasted of raising six gajillion ... I first and rather cynically thought, 'sure, he just added five point three million from his own pot.'

Then I put on my Ayn Rand hat and started thinking harder and more systematically. That's when I thought to post the two non-commensurable numbers as a headsup to the Bonesetter. There will be a small amount of progressivishtic hoopla over the difference between the two numbers tomorrow, despite the very prosaic reasons behind the difference. It won't surprise me if Trump Haters get this in their teeth and toss it about.

I watched some snippets of the Trump hoopla with veterans. Some of it was moving. I didn't quite grok what Trump was getting at ... since his remarks were anodyne ... but I could feel the crowd wanted to get something going.

Anyway, a great cause. Shoes for the shoeless veterans, feet for the footless, food for the foodless, shelter for the homeless. Candy for the cameras -- and sweet cash salve for altruistic Xtian souls.

Give till Megyn bleeds.

You guys treat veterans worse than illegal immigrants, they say (well, except for the families in detention, but hey). About time they got a hand-out. I can't wait for the Trump gravy train to leave the station for real.

Edited January 29, 2016 by william.scherk