March 14, 2016

Scott Adams takes responsibility for the Trump riots and therefore disavows himself.

Then he explains how the media are "priming the public to try to kill Trump, or at least create some photogenic mayhem at a public event."
Again, no one is sitting in a room plotting Trump’s death, but – let’s be honest – at least half of the media believes Trump is the next Hitler, and a Hitler assassination would be morally justified. Also great for ratings. The media would not be charged with any crime for triggering some nut to act. There would be no smoking gun. No guilt. No repercussions. Just better ratings and bonuses all around.
Adams bolsters his credibility with the accurate prediction he made in 1997 that the media would "kill famous people to generate news that people will care about." 3 months later paparazzi chased Princess Diana to her death.

Adams calls on the media to withdraw its assassination incitement and predicts the call will go unheeded because it is "not financially advantageous."

124 comments:

Limited blogger said...

I think a bunch of Ann's posters feel the same way.

mccullough said...

Law and order is one of Trump's campaign themes. The RFD hooligans MoveOn and its subsidiaries OWS and BLM send to Trump's events are just reinforcing his theme/. If Trump were Hitler and Ernst Rohm he'd be sending his supporters to Sanders and Hillary's rallies to crack some skulls. The national media are comically bad this election cycle. They are doing Trump's work for him.

rhhardin said...

Adams should also notice that the news is for soap opera women, also for financial reasons. They'll tune in every day, news or no news, so long as there is soap opera.

Diana was a woman event, as was JFK jr. Men were baffled.

NYT Diana's Death Resonates with Women in Therapy by Jane Gross, Sept 13, 1997

Mike Sylwester said...

About a week ago, I noticed that the Dilbert cartoons look like they are being drawn by another artist.

Supposdly, Scott Adams has published an innocent explanation.

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/140211504101/dilberts-changed-look-explained

However, I wonder if Adams has been secretly assassinated because of his pro-Trump articles.

rehajm said...

Don't flatter Trump. Half the media believes the next Hitler is whoever the Republicans put out there.

They've discovered their job isn't going to be as easy this time as it was with Romney.

Henry said...

I once had a bizarre conversation with a Black Helicopter conspiracist. In the middle of a rant about one world order he announced that the media and the government were in league. They were working together to defeat our morale by destroying our heroes. His example? O.J. Simpson.

I do think the combination of protest and Trump's belligerent response has radicalized both sides. Mobs are like that. The protesters are getting more aggressive. The Trump supporters are getting more hostile in response. I don't think a full blow riot or attack is out of the question.

Ann Althouse said...

"Diana was a woman event, as was JFK jr. Men were baffled."

So was Queen Elizabeth.

David said...

She loves her conspiracy theories.

Tank said...

What "Trump riots"?

traditionalguy said...

Scott is onto something. Jake Tapper, the CNN Star rational guy that is usually the balance for the mentally unstable bimbette reporters, suddenly morphed into an undertaker Saturday reporting the death of all hope in Stopping the rise of Fourth Reich.

It was method acting at its worse. Trump challenged him on it to no avail. CNN owns CNN.
CNN had been trying out the fair reports on Trump niche that Fox News disavowed several months ago.

And MSNBC just went back to all Progressive Propaganda all of the time. Somebody at Sea Island blew a loud whistle last week. One America News is the last of the Mohicans.

David Begley said...

Bold comment by Adams and I think he is correct. About a week ago Maddow was hyper-ventilating at the idea of violence at Trump rallies.

MisterBuddwing said...

Hitler - that socialist lefty?

Wince said...

What makes Trump opponents think this contrivance won't work in Trump's favor like all the previous ones?

Carol said...

I thought the left were being hysterical in 2009 when they kept predicting Obama would be assassinated..now I'm feeling the same way. It's just too "logical" at this point. I even had a nightmare the other night - Trumped killed, many relived but then there was chaos. I tried to yell in my sleep and my husband thankfully woke me up.

This shit isn't fair to Trump, but I guess this is why we should not pick charismatic leaders.

What about that Bush guy, whatever happened to him...

MayBee said...

The media has been building the narrative that angry Republicans are dangerous for quite a while.
McCain rallies, Palin rallies were both deemed very dangerous. "Terrorist!" "Kill Him!"-- remember the reporters saying they heard that? There was such a dangerous level of anger.
The Tea Party protests were labeled racist. Sitting Congressmen lied about being spit on, and hearing the N word hurled at them.
It was reported as fact.
And now, here we are again, hearing yet again about how dangerous angry conservatives are.

Yet....people were arrested before the 2008 elections for hoarding buckets of urine they were planning to pour on Republicans. GWB had oranges thrown at his limo in his first inauguration. Occupy wasn't peaceful, and it was worldwide. Wisconsin's capitol was overtaken for days.Ferguson wan't peaceful. BLM shuts down streets and stores. Baltimore burned down buildings. Young people here in Chicago are thrilled they were able to shut down a legitimate political rally.

I mean...it seems only one side is allowed to have "righteous" anger. And that, in turn, feeds the Trump phenomenon.

Big Mike said...

Adams calls on the media to withdraw its assassination incitement and predicts the call will go unheeded because it is "not financially advantageous."

And he's right, you know.

Limited blogger said...

trad-guy, I noticed the same shift in the reporting about Trump. Very abrupt, and now totally over the top reporting about how dangerous he is.

It was all fun and games when no one believed Trump was for real.

He's for real, folks.

Karen of Texas said...

My husband and I sat over breakfast Sunday morning and discussed what we both think is a very real possibility - a nut job trying to take out Trump - a nut job awakened by the hysterical calls of the media and the left to the 'Hitler-ness' of Trump. This effort to me seems so much more than just throwing the label out there. Over the passed few years with the rise of OWS and BLM, confrontations have become much more physical and in-your-face.

And can I throw in Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco, and maybe Natalie Wood, to go with Princess Di, JFK, Jr, and Queen Elizabeth.

David Begley said...

The guy who rushed Trump in Dayton is a complete nut.

Hagar said...

The media are always up for a lynching. There is a whole series of stages to be written about, and all of them "bleed."

MayBee said...

David Begley- yes, he is. He's kind of scary because I don't think he thinks he's a nut, and I bet he has friends who think he makes perfect sense.
In another world, Bernie would have to answer for him.

Karen of Texas said...

As an aside, if a nut job does have a go at trying to take out Herr Trump, the Left are so going to want him to be toting a big, bad, "assault" gun. They will really hit the jackpot with that scenario.

MayBee said...

I don't think anyone is going to try to kill Trump.
But once again it is interesting to see who the left/media thinks has some hate coming (like American on 9/11) and who are the victims of hate (like poor Obama and the Republicans who always oppose him).

David Begley said...

MayBee

Powerline has a post on the nut. But as John Hinderaker wrote, "He's today's proto-typical liberal."

YoungHegelian said...

I was listening to BBC & NPR late last night & ear;y this morning. They spoke of Trump & Bernie supporters "clashing" in Chicago. Neither of them mentioned the clown who rushed the stage in Ohio, or that it may have an assassination attempt (the guy denies it, but, wouldn't you when that sort of a prison term is staring you in the face?). And, of course, no one mentioned that the "stage rusher" was an ardent Bernie-ite, either.

Titus said...

Hitler has one testicle-lol

Bob Boyd said...

These recent Trump protests are not spontaneous. They're the work of organised, trained agitators who'd be doing exactly the same thing to Jeb Bush or any other Republican candidate who was leading the race.

MayBee said...

David- that is a great summation! Yeah I saw him interviewed on CNN yesterday. He was talking about how Trump has everyone afraid of ISIS and afraid of everyone. He is such an angry muddle head.
Imagine, though, CNN giving a 1 on 1 interview to someone who had rushed the stage with Obama on it.

MayBee said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MayBee said...

Oh! My favorite thing about the CNN interview with the stage rusher was when he said "I have no known ties to ISIS".
Who says that about himself?
Hahahaha

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I find myself disappointed that the successful cartoonist Scott Adams is not succinct.

Laura said...

Hitler was nothing, nothing without Goebbels, Himmler, the SS, and the Furies, not to mention Woodrow Wilson, Neville Chamberlain and the accompanying cast of characters.

But Sean Connery "is" James Bond.

What do they serve journalism students for breakfast these days anyways? And where are the unions for journalists? Perhaps with better pay from those corporate magnates...

traditionalguy said...

The crazed loner that bum rushed the Secret Service guys is a dress up actor like a comic con guy that does an ISIS dress up for show off.

His family is connected to City of Atlanta black community insiders with a high salary pretend job To the victors go the spoils. He is so spoiled by spoils that he thinks life is a joke.

William said...

People like to claim that by killing Hitler the course of history would be changed for the better. I don't know if that's true. Hitler was an incompetent military leader. If you killed him during the course of the war or just prior to it, then the odds are he would have been replaced by someone with the same ideology but with shrewder judgement. Speer, for example, wanted to mass produce the V1 rocket but was overruled by Hitler.......A time traveller who killed Hitler might very well have assured the triumph off the Third Reich.

Lyssa said...

The most troubling thing that seems likely to me is that some other moron is going to rush the stage and wind up getting himself shot when the SS thinks they see a weapon. It will be all the "cops shoot unarmed person" stories on steroids. Can you imagine the chaos if the LIVs and SJWs out there start spouting that Trump's people are now killing protesters?

M Jordan said...

Adams plays a very peculiar game. He disavows Trump in order to avoid the "splatter" but can't seem to really disavow the man. He is addicted to Trump. And Adams is no right-winger. I think a lot a Trump's voters are of the Adams variety: they publicly can't admit to being for Trump but privately can't get enough of him.

gspencer said...

"No one is sitting in a room plotting Trump’s death"

I wouldn't stake my life savings on that statement.

Michael K said...

"I thought the left were being hysterical in 2009 when they kept predicting Obama would be assassinated."

Yes, they had to include that in the "racist Republican " theme.

Powell's wife said she opposed him running for president in 1996 because she feared an assassination. This is the theme of the radical racism shtick.

I have been worried about Trump for several months now. I think I have read that he wears a bullet proof vest in public.

"The guy who rushed Trump in Dayton is a complete nut."

Most assassins are. The guy who shot the Tucson Congresswoman was an obvious schizophrenic.

Chuck said...

I'd like to see Professor Althouse return to one of her favorite (and mine) subjects; the Drudge Report.

It used to be, that Drudge did nicely-edited links to stuff on the 'net that countered the MSM-narrative, or that broke stories faster than you'd get from even the real-time sources like NPR or cable news.

Drudge, for all of its critics' claims (it does tilt right), still prized accuracy. I certainly didn't mind the rightward tilt, and I went to Drudge a half-dozen times a day.

But Drudge is now just a propaganda arm for the Trump campaign.

An over-the-banner headline proclaims that Kasich "Now vows amnesty in 100 days if elected." Trump is usually careful enough to not editorialize too much on the stories it links. But that one is a complete fabrication. And it isn't even a new story. It is an interview I saw with my own eyes weeks ago on Fox News Sunday. Drudge is dredging it to move the needle in Ohio.

At the Drudge link, Kasich is on a Fox News video saying that his idea of immigration reform involves securing the border, and then the enactment of a guest worker program with no pathway to citizenship. (Democrats would be bitterly divided over such a program; most Dems want a pathway to citizenship, to get votes.) Assuredly under Kasich, lots of deportations would continue. Illegals with no work permits would still be illegal. That's not "amnesty," unless your view is that any policy which does not completely seal our borders equals amnesty.

And I used to be a fan of Drudge.

Trump; the man married to an H1B-woman.

Dan Hossley said...

Adams is right about the financial motivation of the news networks. They are in the business of selling stories to an audience. That's why the networks do so much polling. They want to know what people are thinking so they can tell "better" stories.

bleh said...

"rehajm said...

Don't flatter Trump. Half the media believes the next Hitler is whoever the Republicans put out there.

They've discovered their job isn't going to be as easy this time as it was with Romney."

What? You're saying the media had an easier time portraying Romney as Hitler? I must be misunderstanding because that can't be what you're saying. Right now there are many conservatives who are calling Trump a fascist, a demagogue, Mussolini lite, etc. What do you think the liberal media would be saying right now about Trump if he had already won the nomination?

rehajm said...

What? You're saying the media had an easier time portraying Romney as Hitler?

Yes, because Republican strategists and more voters failed to recognize the coordinated media attack for what it was. It's proving more difficult to recycle the old media memes against Trump. He's discovered effective countermeasures and more voters have caught on to the media game.

Nonapod said...

@Chuck: Drudge's blatant love affair with Trump is depressing, but it shouldn't be surprising. Drudge has always tilted to the right a bit (as you stated) and has his site has always thrived on sensationalism. As such Trump is Drudges ultimate dream candidate, someone who is ostensibly slightly to the right in addition to being a non-stop headline generator. Everything else (Trump's various position switches, inconsistencies, questionable policy proposals and avocations, his business history, ect. ect. ect.) is not only irrelevant to Drudge but may even be an asset.

At the end of the day Drudge is still basically a mainstream media guy, even though he doesn't like to believe he is. He loves entertainment, pizzazz, and charismatic figures like any other MSN flunky. It's just that he's now shilling for a candidate that most MSM people want to destroy.

Brando said...

"What? You're saying the media had an easier time portraying Romney as Hitler? I must be misunderstanding because that can't be what you're saying. Right now there are many conservatives who are calling Trump a fascist, a demagogue, Mussolini lite, etc. What do you think the liberal media would be saying right now about Trump if he had already won the nomination?"

Yeah I don't buy this--Romney was painted as an out of touch rich guy, a plutocrat, a sock puppet for the far right, and a shapeshifter who didn't believe anything he said but instead was beholden to polls. (And this from his fellow Republicans like Newt!). I don't recall him being painted as an authoritarian--at least there was no organized "theme" around this as it certainly wasn't a common narrative.

Trump on the other hand has been called an authoritarian, and he and his followers have made this easy by for crying out loud doing a Nazi salute, calling for roughing up protesters at rallies (and not just violent ones, who obviously should be taken away by security, but literally anyone who is being disruptive--and disruption is abhorrent but does not call for violence unless you are pro-thug), and his calls to force the military to commit war crimes (which after months of this he surprise surprise, disavowed recently), and his call to curb the first amendment at least as it applies to his critics, and his willful ignorance of constitutional limits on a president's power. Trump may not be a Nazi, but he is definitely the most authoritarian candidate this country has seen in recent times.

The media won't have to do much to smear this guy. He gives them all the ammunition they need.

Brando said...

"Trump; the man married to an H1B-woman."

Hey, some of these immigrants are willing to do the job Americans simply won't do. Like being married to Donald Trump.

Dude1394 said...

I have seen many leftists defend the actions in Chicago by saying "if only the public had risen up against Hitler".

That Cruz/Rubio/Kasich did not forcefully and unequivocally condemn the mob is disgusting and has made them ineligible to be elected in my opinion.

Brando said...

"People like to claim that by killing Hitler the course of history would be changed for the better. I don't know if that's true. Hitler was an incompetent military leader. If you killed him during the course of the war or just prior to it, then the odds are he would have been replaced by someone with the same ideology but with shrewder judgement. Speer, for example, wanted to mass produce the V1 rocket but was overruled by Hitler.......A time traveller who killed Hitler might very well have assured the triumph off the Third Reich."

Hitler certainly had his share of evil pals who might have succeeded where he failed. Imagine if he died right after France was conquered, and was succeeded by a leader who emphasized peace with Russia while focusing on starving Britain with U-boats, conquering the Suez and then the Mid-east for oil, and preventing any conflict with the U.S. from becoming formal.

Fabi said...

If Trump is assassinated I hope that Chuck will have enough character not to come by here and "spike the ball".

grackle said...

Trump is opposed by all, with the exception of the voters. The pundits have stopped trying to conceal their bias, which has morphed slowly from ridicule to hysteria. It’s full knock-down drag out mode because if Trump wins Ohio and Florida the nomination is practically locked up by Trump. What’s more they are realizing, though they will never say it outright, that Trump would destroy the Democrat in the general election, and that Trump will likely become POTUS, not just the GOP nominee, whom they’ve previously had an easy time beating in the general.

For some sane and realistic talk about Trump check out the YouTube video at the link below:

http://tinyurl.com/jetx483

YoungHegelian said...

@Michael,

The guy who rushed Trump in Dayton is a complete nut."

Most assassins are. The guy who shot the Tucson Congresswoman was an obvious schizophrenic.


Oh, like either "complete huts" or "schizophrenics" are going to stick out as unusual in a university Speech & Drama Department!

Michael K said...

"But Drudge is now just a propaganda arm for the Trump campaign."

Does this suggest anything to you ?

Even after saying that Drudge leans right ?

Maybe Drudge doesn't believe your rants about him being a Democrat in disguise.

Michael K said...

The Tucson shooter was even out there beyond Speech & Drama. However, I take your point.

The guy who rushed the stage in Dayton is now being feted by the media. That is exceedingly dangerous.

These potential assassins, like the guy in Dayton, are seeking publicity and approval if possible. The Dayton nut is getting approval.

Drago said...

chuck: "And I used to be a fan of Drudge."

LOL

YoungHegelian said...

@Michael K,

The guy who rushed the stage in Dayton is now being feted by the media. That is exceedingly dangerous.

Yes, this is absolutely horrible & irresponsible. They are giving what may be an at worst a would-be assassin, at best a criminal, a platform. There's no doubt about it now: the press is seeking to have Trump killed.

If I was Trump's Secret Service detail I would make sure that Trump is always surrounded by a phalanx of reporters, so that when the shooting starts at least one of them takes a bullet.

Cruel words, yes, but to give some like DiMassimo a platform & a bullhorn like a national press interview --- simply outrageous!

Gusty Winds said...

The left-wing colligate actor/agitator, son of left wing parents, Tom DiMassimo, gets interviewed by CNN and has and article in the DailyMail.

So all you have to do now is rush the stage and CNN will interview you and give you the platform you were looking for.

Scary, because I don't see much difference between Tom DiMassimo and Sirhan Sirhan.

Adams is right. There will be more of this to come. Soros will pay for it, the left will applaud it, and it will somehow get blamed on Trump.


Brando said...

This "assassination" talk is irresponsible, as there's already a growing narrative about Trump being the rise of Nazism (I've seen plenty of memes floating around social media about "what would you have done in 1933?"). It's not hard to imagine someone thinking killing Trump would make them a hero.

Trump is spectacularly unfit to be president and his instincts are authoritarian, but this country has checks and balances and his failures won't be enough to ruin this country or democracy as we know it. We need to take a step back from this "1933 all over again" talk which has snowballed since the days of "Bushitler" and "Adolfbama".

If you want to protest, protest--do it legally and don't disrupt someone's rally, even if you find that rally repugnant. More repugnant is stifling speech.

And if someone is being disruptive, have them removed by security. Beating them down is thug behavior. Only strike in self defense.

If this mess escalates, it'll be a bloodbath by November with armed gangs attacking one another at the polls.

Gusty Winds said...

If Trump stays healthy and more of this stuff occurs, the visuals play to his advantage.

We watched Ferguson burn, and the media told us the protestors were peaceful. Most people are smart enough to know its all bs.

traditionalguy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
traditionalguy said...

Bando...The Street Thug Brownshirts are real. They are sponsored by an evil European Nazi, a real one, named Soros who bought the Dem party's name for cash cheap from Reid, Clinton and Pelosi so he could shut it down and reopen as a Nazi Party complete with bloody shirts fom demonstrators to waive and street barricades by paid rioters for beating and shooting at police officers.



Michael K said...

"Trump is spectacularly unfit to be president and his instincts are authoritarian"

Obama has pretty well eliminated this as a consideration.

I agree that Trump has some similarities to Mussolini and his appeal resembles William Jennings Bryan but this is a time we have not seen in this country in a century. Roosevelt fooled people into thinking he was solving the problem and some things, like the WPA and CCC, were actually helpful but the Depression was ended by the war and "the safety net" of Social Security has been abused until it will soon fail.

Brando said...

"I agree that Trump has some similarities to Mussolini and his appeal resembles William Jennings Bryan but this is a time we have not seen in this country in a century. Roosevelt fooled people into thinking he was solving the problem and some things, like the WPA and CCC, were actually helpful but the Depression was ended by the war and "the safety net" of Social Security has been abused until it will soon fail."

FDR was probably our most authoritarian president of the last century, actually putting large numbers of Americans in camps (with no due process, natch) simply because of their ancestry. (People often point out that he also put Germans and Italians in camps, but these were in much smaller numbers, and these were not American citizens put there simply because of their ancestry--if he were to do that, he'd have needed to encamp far greater numbers as those are two of the country's largest ethnicities). His other executive power grabs were all a part of creating the imperial presidency (which the Left didn't really decide to dislike until Republicans started sitting in the White House again).

Obama and Bush have pushed us a little farther down that road, but where we need someone to push back in favor of the rule of law and limited government, Trump seems to want to double down on that. A Trump/Clinton choice offers nothing for libertarianism or constitutionalism.

Bay Area Guy said...

I would say that Scott Adams is much more interesting than those fuddy-duddies at the New Yorker and NYT -- good for Althouse!

It has never occurred to me to show up at a rally for a candidate, whom I oppose, to boo him/her or try to disrupt it.

The Left, however, thinks it's a good idea to shout down Conservative speakers on college campus, or disrupt Governor Walker's speeches or when they are feeling real saucy, to go to Trump rallies and try to disrupt them, under the Orwellian banner of "free speech."

So, the tensions are flaring up a bit, and yet we keep voting, and life will go on, and after Tues, we will probably know whether Trump and/or Hillary will be the respective nominees.

To fight Leftists and Leftism, I would respectfully submit, one must vote against Hillary in the General, which necessarily means voting for Trump or Cruz.

Hagar said...

Hitler was a totalitarian, not an authoritarian. He also was a pathological case of seething anger and hatred; pure evil, besides being a one string banjo on the subject of revenge for WWI, perhaps especially for himself being gassed.

In 1932 Roosevelt ran on a platform of balancing the budget and reducing the size of the government - as did the Kennedys in 1960.
(And the Kennedys even actually tried to put through a 10% RIF in government employment, but shortly had to beat a full retreat and pretend it never happened.)

mccullough said...

Tradguy,

Ernst Stavros Soros' minions aren't SA. They are RFB. There is no SA in this country. The SA, like the RFB, disrupted their political opponents meetings and rallies. Trump's supporters are just teaching the RFB troopers some manners. They will learn, or MoveOn's worker's compensation premiums and payroll will bankrupt it.

Oso Negro said...

I have thought for some time that Trump would maximize his political value to the republic were he to be assassinated by an illegal Mexican.

dreams said...

The media would love something like this, the ratings and enhanced careers.Just think of all the books that would be written and sold.


http://www.hueylong.com/life-times/assassination.php

Rick said...

the days of "Bushitler" and "Adolfbama".

One of these was actually a thing.

Rick said...

I don't see much difference between Tom DiMassimo and Sirhan Sirhan

Assassinating someone would seem a material difference.

buwaya said...

"but this is a time we have not seen in this country in a century. "

Well, certainly not in about 79 years.

http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12300000

Worst fall in population-employment ratio since this BLS data series started in 1948. Its a certainty that the last comparable fall was back in 1930-32.
This ratio seems the best indicator, not as an absolute level, as over the long term cultural (working women) and demographic factors (population age distribution) have their effect.

dreams said...

Its not good when assassinating Trump is trending in the politically correct direction.

cubanbob said...

A bunch of organized commie thugs crash a few Trump rally's and get their heads smashed.
Most of America cheers. Keep it up guys, you're guaranteeing Trump the nomination and the Presidency. What these militant morons don't get if they really think Trump is that evil just imagine what he will do as president when it comes to payback. I fully expect to see the FBI investigating every lefty group associated with Soros and MoveOn with indictments and prosecutions galore. So keep it up and get the man elected.

Brando said...

"One of these was actually a thing."

I'm not even sure which one of these you think was not a thing, as it is beyond argument that both Hitler and Obama were compared to Nazis by their frothiest detractors. The "go to" plan of smearing your political enemy these days is to go with the Hitler comparisons.

Excessive executive power and ignoring the rule of law should always be opposed, but we are not on the verge of going full Nazi.

Gk1 said...

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Michael K said...

"And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. "

Quite a few GOP donors are gazing into the abyss.

Fernandinande said...

Unknown said...
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.


Watch for the Four Wolfmen of the Apocalypse, coming soon to a mall near you.

Quaestor said...

Trump is charismatic and appeals to our prejudices.

Our prejudices. Not the prejudices of Scott Adams. No sir, Scott Adams is too intelligent to have prejudices. Here's a little truth that the genius Scott Adams has overlooked: the hallmark of the bigot is the conviction that the considered opinions of others are nothing but prejudices.

Trump approves of violence against people he thinks deserve it.

So Obama disapproves of drone strikes but does them anyway?

Trump blames “others” for the nation’s problems.

I have never heard of a candidate address a stadium full of his supports with the words "You people are responsible for the mess we're in." Every politician defends his record by saying Problems? We don't have no stinking' problems.... Every candidate seeking offices attacks the other -- usually the officeholder in power -- for problems he proposes to solve.

Trump has an authoritarian vibe.

Vibe? Who but a burnt-out sixties flower child uses that barnacle-encrusted word? Vibes are like beauty, they reside in the beholder.

And saving the best for last, I apologize... for the nuclear annihilation that is likely ahead of us after Trump wins the presidency in a landslide. That blog post is obstensibly intended to circumvent the assassination of Donald Trump which he claims with justification the Media are inciting, and then inflames the crazies himself.

buwaya said...

" address a stadium full of his supports with the words"You people are responsible for the mess we're in." "

I have dreamed of doing this, often.
Which probably explains why I'm not rich and not a politician.

Quaestor said...

Diana was a woman event, as was JFK jr. Men were baffled.

There's a difference here. Few paid much attention to Junior in life, he was rightly seen as the vapid scion of a mostly vapid sex-obsessed president who had greatness thrust upon him in the form of an assassins bullet. By the time he came of age the bloom was off the Kennedy rose but good, thanks in no small measure to the fatal peccadilloes of Uncle Ted. While the Kennedys could still wield a magic wand among the Irish of Massachusetts (a demographic known more for whiskey consumption than brainpower) he had no hope of national prominence in the political sphere, ergo George, a slick current affairs monthly read by no one except Crow T. Robot. When John-John managed to off himself with an unhealthy dose of pilot error the sudden apotheosis baffled more than just men.

Diana, on the other hand was iconic from the outset, a real-life Barbie doll in a tiara vicariously living out the puerile fantasies of every little princess in the Anglo-sphere (How is it that American girls, who ought to be raised as uncompromising republicans, can fantasize themselves as useless aristocrats?) never mind that she was almost as brainless as her bridegroom.

mikeski said...

"One of [Bushitler,Adolfbama] was actually a thing."

Brando said...
I'm not even sure which one of these you think was not a thing


For real? Google them.

"Bushitler" is page upon page of attacks on GWB.

"Adolfbama" is full of "hits" on spelling/punctuation mistakes, and things in foreign languages, and things that don't actually contain that "word".

(And Google suggests that the latter is an erroneous input on my part, while it's quite sure what the former is.)

buwaya said...

"How is it that American girls, who ought to be raised as uncompromising republicans, can fantasize themselves as useless aristocrats?"

Disney.
When we went to Disneyland the first time my (then) little girl insisted on getting autographs from all the Disney "princesses" at their public appearances. This is (or was, at the time) a Disney thing.

Quaestor said...

Adolfbama is definitely NOT A THING. Obama's critics are much more clever than that, whereas Bushitler is about as sophisticated as the leftwing mind can ascend.

James Pawlak said...

"As the speech of an idiot, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing"---And, a good reason to NOT read his book.

Gusty Winds said...

Bay Area Guy said....

It has never occurred to me to show up at a rally for a candidate, whom I oppose, to boo him/her or try to disrupt it.

I'm assuming it hasn't occurred to you because you are not and asshole and are too busy working.

These professional protestors have a lot of time on their hands.

Gusty Winds said...

Quaestor said...Our prejudices. Not the prejudices of Scott Adams. No sir, Scott Adams is too intelligent to have prejudices.

Scott Adams analysis and sarcasm are very interesting through this process and I'm glad Professor Althouse introduced me to what he has been saying.

But I agree, his handwringing is getting old, and he clearly does have a prejudice that applies to all people.

He assumes (perhaps correctly) that all humans make decisions based on emotion and not rational.

gadfly said...

Donald Trump wears a chip on his shoulder that escapes in most of his stream of consciousness speeches.

- He suggested that a Black Lives Matter "should have been roughed up."
- "Knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. OK? Just knock the hell -- I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise, I promise," Trump said.
- Trump said he personally wanted to punch a protester "in the face" during a rally in February.
- "I don’t know if I’ll do the fighting myself or if other people will." Trump made this comment about the women who took the mic from The Bern.

I sure that there are more because Trump loves to hear himself talk and he goes with today and today's question. For me, I cannot stand to listen to him.

As for Scott Adams, he should stick to drawing Dilbert - something that he does competently.

Has no one considered that Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina did not draw protesters? So we know that it is not sweet stuff that attracts protester flies.

Michael K said...

"Few paid much attention to Junior in life"

JFK Sr was also a women event. My wife watched the whole funeral while I went pheasant hunting.

It was the opening weekend of pheasant season.

We were driving from one field to another when I heard Oswald shot on the radio.

Michael K said...

"So we know that it is not sweet stuff that attracts protester flies."

No, it is Moveon and Soros money.

dmoelling said...

Scott Adams never stopped being Dilbert. When Dilbert first took off he kept is day cubicle job. He's the classic 'prima-donna' engineer/programmer/etc who thinks he is held back by his boss, the HR department, QA etc.

As an engineer who left cubicle land to start my own business 25 years ago, I see his type all the time. Big on dissing his boss, but ignorant of much of the business details. Trump appeals naturally since he looks like a successful boss (not really) who doesn't bother with the details.

buwaya said...

"Big on dissing his boss, but ignorant of much of the business details. "

When Dilbert took off in the 90's, his biggest fans IMHO were middle management and project management types, not necessarily the programmers or engineers. It was the people dealing directly with the management-bureaucratic BS - i.e., it was actually the "pointy haired boss" who saw his point.

buwaya said...

Biggest Dilbert fan I ever knew was a guy who put in pretty much all the foundational IT systems at a major engineering company. It was a pretty amazing story of how his small team did so much with so little. The subsequent years brought bureaucracy and paralysis and organizational bloat. We got him a full set of "Dilbert" books when he retired.

Michael K said...

"Big on dissing his boss, but ignorant of much of the business details."

Actually, I believe he left his Pac Bell job years ago and has been on his own for years. I used to read his cartoons in the mid-90s.

buwaya said...

Bureaucracy, paralysis and organizational bloat is the common theme of US private business over the last couple of decades, as well as government.
This is Schumpeters prophecy in action, and Dilbert its documentary.

jg said...

Quaestor slimes that whatever individual comes forth to speak in support of Trump's prospects must be 'prejudiced'. This is exactly why I now support Trump. That now-tedious and always-dialogue-destroying tactic must be routed.

Anonymous said...

A note about George Soros funding Kasich. http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/03/14/report-soros-money-funding-john-kasichs-presidential-bid/

The media seems to like to ignore that these protesters are organized and paid for. Like Trump says, they don't like America.

Fabi said...

@gadfly: Have you ever considered that Carson, Fiorina, and Cruz have never been the front runners? If Trump dropped out tomorrow do you not think that the rent-a-mob wouldn't alight on Cruz?

jg said...

Remote-psychoanalysis "I know his type" genius dmoelling urges intellectual humility on uppity Adams, apparently unironically.

jg said...

gadfly thinks organized D-protestors only go after hitlers. we eagerly await his next insight.

jg said...

The only reason to legitimately fear Trump assassination more than Obama assassination is if Trump makes the mistake of not choosing Sarah Palin for his running mate. [seriously though, there *are* more unbalanced personalities in the left's base. psych studies indicate a slight difference, at least, in disordered minds. homeless crazy tinfoil types lean left]

Beldar said...

The only thing I'm confused about is why a cartoonist with kookie political views gets this kind of attention from a chaired professor of constitutional law at a well-respected national law school.

buwaya said...

"a cartoonist with kookie political views"

Scott Adams is the greatest management theorist since Peter Drucker.

wildswan said...

The establishment tactics slid right off Trump. Now we'll see what happens with anti-establishment rent-a-mob tactics. It's entirely possible that these tactics will elect him. "The times they are a'changing."

The truth is that 93,000,000 million people have been driven from the job market but the political class will not consider any ideas or acknowledge any problems that bubble up from below. Everything must be foundation/political class vetted and the foundation/political class has no idea about the people out of work except to disregard them. And this disregard is being copied and sent back where it came from by Trump's supporters though the foundation/political class does not recognize their own product when they see it. In short the right can play the left's game, insults, contempt, rent-a-mob etc., and everyone should remember that as they work for a political solution.

SeanF said...

Brando: I'm not even sure which one of these you think was not a thing, as it is beyond argument that both Hitler and Obama were compared to Nazis by their frothiest detractors.

"[B]oth Hitler and Obama". Now that's a Freudian slip.

David said...

Convince enough people that somebody is Hitler reincarnated, what do you think will happen? Remember the flurry when celebs were being asked if they would kill Baby Hitler given a time traveler's chance? Many said yes. Trump is a full grown adult. Calling someone a Hitler is about as hate speechy as you can get. And it will mean action to enough people that the risk is elevated.

buwaya said...

Its more like 9,000,000 people are out of the labor market as seen in the 3% decline in labor force participation since 2006, not 93,000,000

9,000,000 is enough to more than double the official unemployment rate, if these are indeed people who would be working under better economic circumstances, and there are excellent reasons to think this is the case.

Anonymous said...

http://bipartisanreport.com/2016/03/14/image-trump-supporters-at-illinois-rally-damage-at-least-a-dozen-gravesites/

"Supporters for Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally in Bloomington, Illinois, decided it would be a cool idea to damage gravesites by parking over them.

The damage prompted local firefighters and Normal teamed with other volunteers to repair gravesites and the grounds at East Lawn Memorial Gardens in Bloomington which were damaged, WJBC reports.

Attendees turned the cemetery into a makeshift parking lot for the Donald Trump rally. Just like that. Without regard for the living or the deceased."

While they probably didn't do this deliberately, they were just desperate to see Trump.

cubanbob said...

Blogger Fabi said...
@gadfly: Have you ever considered that Carson, Fiorina, and Cruz have never been the front runners? If Trump dropped out tomorrow do you not think that the rent-a-mob wouldn't alight on Cruz?

3/14/16, 3:25 PM

If the Republican convention were to be brokered and the party elders chose a resurrected Abraham Lincoln to be the candidate, then Left wing rent-a-mob would be on Old Abe like white on rice. All the left is doing is signalling who they believe will be the Republican candidate and for once they might be right on something.

Michael K said...

""a cartoonist with kookie political views"

Scott Adams is the greatest management theorist since Peter Drucker."

Agreed. I've been following him since 1994. Beldar not so long.

Beldar said...

@ buwaya (3/14/16, 3:55 PM), who wrote: "Scott Adams is the greatest management theorist since Peter Drucker."

Then why does he make his living as a cartoonist, huh?

buwaya said...

"Then why does he make his living as a cartoonist, huh?"

There's more money in cartoons.
And more influence. And more liberty.

And, frankly, his critique of modern management "science" is unwelcome among the priesthood.
He's saying about the same as Peters and Waterman before him, but Peters and Waterman said it nicely - too nicely, and with a positive spin. Adams doesn't let niceness interfere, and gets at the guts of the trouble. He's also free to say there's no solution - like Schumpeter did.

I recall one Bay Area Fortune 500 back in the 90's had an edict banning "Dilbert" posts on cube walls - they were "bad for morale".

buwaya said...

Peters & Watermans fault was in fact the lack of pessimism.
The "excellent" companies were in fact just at the cusp of takeover by the "pointy headed bosses".
NCR, Xerox, Wang were just at the point that they were being taken over by precisely the wrong people in management - so from entrepreneurial dynamism they crashed into bureaucracy and paralysis. The only companies that can survive the "pointy headed boss" are those with effective monopolies, if only through economies of scale or bureaucratic-regulatory protection.
Hence the appeal of corporatism and the state of US politics in the 21st century.
All that in a comic strip. Quite an achievement really.

buwaya said...

Apple nearly suffered the fate of the above (it was too late for Peters & Waterman), as it obtained the "benefit" of professional management, but through sheer good fortune and force of personality Jobs saved it.
It seems to be headed to its foreordained demise now, though it may take a while given its bequeathed cash position and market share.

Sebastian said...

"Then why does he make his living as a cartoonist, huh?" Because "management theory" is a joke?

buwaya said...

The path of popularity of "Dilbert" is also interesting -
He was most popular (and influential) back during the state of transition of the Bay Area economy from the extreme dynamism of the 1950's-90's into the closing down of the wild "creative destruction" in the 2000's. What we have now is NOT a dynamic economy, nor are these dynamic enterprises. This place is dominated, like it wasn't, by cash-rich winners, effective monopolists, of the creative destruction era. All management textbooks tell you that you have won when you can achieve some sort of monopoly, and outfits like Oracle and Google and Microsoft have done that, hence extreme cash balances. But the "pointy headed boss" is now actually running them. Larry Ellison is playing Shogun in his palace, the Google boys are enjoying their money, etc. This is now a land of great aristocrats living off their estates, which are managed by overseers, who hire narrow serfs. "Dilbert" doesn't play well anymore because the modern audience doesn't remember a better time. No more "Dilbert" on the cube walls.

Michael K said...

Dilbert was very true then and a lot of IT people thought it was true and funny. He said that after he left PacBell, at the invitation of management I believe, he got material for his cartoons from former colleagues and admirers.

"No more "Dilbert" on the cube walls."

I wonder if they are afraid to post them?

buwaya said...

"I wonder if they are afraid to post them?"

Yes, partly. A lot of other things have changed too.

1. A lot of these people have no "home" - they work out of bullpens or shared cubes - especially the Indian H1bs. These are impersonal and sterile places. Or people work remotely from home. I have walked the halls in a few office complexes down San Mateo and the place looks like its going out of business, or the body snatchers have done a very neat job.

2. The early internet fun and games era of nerf gun fights and foozball is done. Over. Doesn't fly anymore. To a degree the individualist is out. Yes, it could be fear that prevents personalization, but moreso its just not done, in cubicle world, except by some senior types.

3. There is a lot of social anxiety, which in the internet era is professional anxiety. Yes there's fear. Someone, probably female, is likely to complain.

4. The modern kids just don't understand Dilbert. Dilbert is obsolete, in their context. They are used to the new world, which is not used to innovation and rapid technological change. Most don't know any real "Dilberts" anymore. They may be extremely capable technically, but lack initiative and self confidence of the classic sort.

5. Dilbert is online, and newspapers are obsolete, and paper is obsolete. Nobody has a newspaper to clip Dilbert from, and there may not be a printer anywhere nearby.

Beldar said...

@ bulwaya: Your favorite cartoonist is perhaps more capable of speaking about Trump than other candidates precisely because Trump himself is a cartoon.

However, your idea that there's more money to be made publishing cartoons than there would be as a great genius in corporate management is the stupidest, most counter-factual thing I've read on the internet today.

If Adams were what you say he is, he'd be as rich as Trump claims he is.

But you all clearly deserve and love each other.

buwaya said...

Beldar,
Adams sold more copies of his books than any management guru out there, besides being syndicated in, at one time I guess when newspapers mattered, thousands of newspapers.
He is a wealthy man, and I suspect considerably more so than, say, Tom Peters, or Peter Drucker in his day. Management gurus don't make the kind of money you think.
I really wonder also about your hostile tone. This is unnecessary.

eLocke said...

Dmoelling - Scott Adams is not Dilbert. He has said as much. My opinion, he's Wally.

mccullough said...

Beldar,

Do you ever consider that your worldview is really narrow and that while you pat yourself on the back constantly that you really don't know or understand much about anything?

Michael K said...

"However, your idea that there's more money to be made publishing cartoons than there would be as a great genius in corporate management is the stupidest, most counter-factual thing I've read on the internet today."

Wow ! Lots of hostility from the lawyer while law schools are reducing faculty and cutting budgets.

Dilbert was drawn for the mid-level tech people. Why so angry ?

Michael K said...

"while you pat yourself on the back constantly that you really don't know or understand much about anything?"


Oooooh Noooo ! That could not possibly be it.

Michael K said...

"Peter Drucker in his day. Management gurus don't make the kind of money you think. "

I dunno about Drucker. I tried to get him to come to the county medical association back in the 80s when we were trying to deal with managed care. His fee was $10,000 a day, or for an hour.

I would love to have seen what he had to tell us. I read all his books, even his autobiography.

Laslo Spatula said...

Beldar understands those that Shit in the Caviar.

I am Laslo.

Brando said...

""[B]oth Hitler and Obama". Now that's a Freudian slip."

Ha, whoops! I actually voted for Bush twice so not sure where that came from.