March 19, 2016
Scott Adams talks to Reason TV about the way Donald Trump is a "Master Wizard."
"Humans are essentially robots that are made of meat. In that world, emotion and influence and all the techniques that Trump uses are really the only things that explain what's happening in the world. Reason will never be a satisfying explanation of what you see," he says — funnily — to the journal that calls itself Reason.
Here's a Reason interview with Adams from last fall. And here's his book "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life."
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96 comments:
I like Trump because he throws sand in the media PC that has ruled the country.
It's a defeat of the rule of soap opera women.
In that world, emotion and influence and all the techniques that all politicians use are really the only things that explain what's happening in the world.
What Adams misses, because he is not very politically informed, is that the reason Trump's persuasion works so well is because it's basically founded on hard truths. He doesn't take the safe path. He thinks out loud, which makes it more difficult to lie and easier to make little mistakes, which others gleefully pounce on.
The rest of us see a genuine person.
So now can I also enter Althouse to shop via the Dilbert portal? Are my shopping dollars supporting Althouse, or Dilbert? What if I want to make a straight donation to the American Reform Party? Do I get Althouse Credits or Dilbert Points?
What Adams misses is that liberals would rather die than listen to someone they do not agree with.
Then you are free. That's what The Professor has been teaching Conservatives at evey teachable moment for years. So she is a Master too.
What is this obsession with a cartoonist?
Enough.
haha, silly me.. I didn't figure out who Scott Adams is sooner. Just thought some blogger and wondered why Althouse was showering so much attention on him. OK, now that I know who he is, I see the weight of the person behind the words. What he says in the video is also my analysis of why Trump works.
Scott Adams is the Most Interesting Man in the World lately.
What Adams misses is that liberals would rather die than listen to someone they do not agree with.
But that is irrelevant. He knows he is not going to get their votes. As to liberal media, he goes after them ferociously which makes him a hero in the eyes of the righty voters whose votes he wants.
Please, if you want to show support for this blog and are buying anything that's on Amazon, just type in the name of that thing in the search box at the top of the sidebar. It helps keep this blog going! I notice and really appreciate it, even though I don't put up posts reminding you of that.
I think Adams best observation is how voters act on emotion rather than reason and how effectively Trump taps into it. The other Republicans have been ignoring media bullying and sticking to reason expecting voters to come to them. It's failed. Trump's discovered some effective tools to counter punch and it's working. Adams overstates Trump's brilliance though. He's more like the leper with the most fingers, or something.
rehajm said...
"He's more like the leper with the most fingers..."
Did you hear about the Appalachian Leper?
He only had ten fingers.
I just made that up.
Reference.
I am Laslo.
Another thing working for Trump with the voters is that he is not taking money from donors to run his campaign, that he is spending his own fortune so far. That is also what drives his detractors apoplectic that they can't buy his influence. Yet another thing, the people who have come on TV on his behalf are some of the best. His spokeswoman is dynamite. I saw another guy labeled senior adviser, who was a Sessions aide now working on the campaign, on Megyn Kelly. She was all laughter and sarcastic and he made her look so lightweight. He was serious, squashed all her comments and the way he responded to her jubilant taunts was brilliant.
{Althouse, FYI -- I don't buy things on Amazon much, as in never but I will remember to use your site when I do}.
Unlike most people, Adams is consistently interesting.
That's what I think I am, and I am from my perspective, because I blog only what I find interesting.
But if you tell me you're bored at me because I'm finding Adams interesting, that seems to present a problem.
But not really because:
1. I'm sticking to my own perspective, not yours, and for years, people have instructed me not to be interested in X. In the first half year of the blog, I felt pushed back. I reacted by ending comments, because it was a distraction. Later, I opened comments up again (because of something Richard Posner wrote) and I just don't let pushback like that affect me.
2. Beldar loathes Trump, and this Scott Adams stuff has got to hurt. I think his comment is more of a cry of pain. I understand the pain. But not talking about it is no solution. I think this is all very emotional. That's what Adams is making us think confront. Confront the pain, Beldar.
@rehajam, we have a saying my native tongue -- the only guy left in a ruined village is its King.
History teaches that reason and politics are an unstable mixture. The first regime that embraced reason as a governing principle was revolutionary France. In the wake of the Third Estate declaring itself the National Assembly, legislators attacked a legion of social ills with what they deemed to be reasonable solutions: France is broke, therefore we'll seize Church property and use its value to underwrite a new currency. Internal commerce is crippled by conflicting systems of weights and measures, therefore we'll invent a new system and enforce it rigorously everywhere in France. Tithes are unfair foreign taxes that carry away a tenth of the national income, therefore we'll ban tithing and treat priests as salaried civil servants. Food prices are too high, therefore we'll impose price controls... Etc.
When these reasonable solutions failed to cure France's troubles, and even created new troubles, the reasonable men who came up with those reasonable solutions conclude that their reasonable laws were thwarted by treasonable interference by unreasonable aristocrats and their agents. The reasonable solution -- terror.
Beldar said...
"What is this obsession with a cartoonist?
Enough."
I have more faith in finding something interesting in the work of a Cartoonist than in the works of any of the Editorial Staffs of the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Successful cartoonists generally have a good grasp of how people think on a non-bullshit level: that is how they get them to laugh.
Self-Annointed Elites don't get the cartoons. Except for those in The New Yorker. Those are acceptable because they speak the Truth of the Elites. The Little People wouldn't understand.
I am Laslo.
I wonder if Scott Adams reads Althouse. Give us a sign, Adams!
Quaestor -- That's as good a summary of the French Revolution and its aftermath as I've seen. Well done.
Expecting only reason to count in politics, a human profession, is quite unreasonable.
The French revolutionaries had no idea what they didn't know.
Adams now has a vested interest in Trump winning.
The "cult of reason" was an interesting thing.
Ironically, it was given all sorts of mystical and mythological elements, and in places anyway was something of a cult. Reason worshiped unreasonably.
Somewhat like the cultish worship of the Kim dynasty by North Koreans, justified by Marx and Lenin.
OT - I came across two references to our hostess within a few minuts of each other:
JayMan
The Donald Trump Phenomenon: Part 2: Binary Thinking
"As I said, the fundamental thread is to deny biological group differences, particularly those that are inherited (the key exceptions being the doctrine that homosexuality is 100% genetic and inborn, despite the fact that it is neither of those things – and the Althouse rule for sex differences)."
EducaitonRealist:
"Ann Althouse predicts a cascade of smart, educated Trump supporters in the coming months. I am kinda sorta in the ballpark of smart and educated–for a teacher, anyway—and came out early for Trump."
The Slightly-Less-Than-Average-Intelligence Althouse Reader says:
I know you Smart People.
You know the Right People for me to listen to. You know what I should Read and Watch, and -- probably more Important -- what I Shouldn't Read or Watch.
By agreeing with you you don't develop Respect for me: now I can be Safely Ignored. When you can Safely Ignore the Right Number of People it is that much easier to Marginalize the Others.
But you have lost the Reptile Part of your Brain. Because you are Smarter than that.
When something threatens you, you get a Lawyer. Or a Journalist. Or a Politician.
When something threatens me I consider Violence as an Option. Maybe that is Not Reasonable, but it is How the Snake Thinks.
Because no Elite Fucker is going to Tell Me What I Should Think or How Low I must Bow.
So remember me when I work on the brakes of your car. You know, you shouldn't take Stopping as a Given. Things can happen.
And I figure you don't get it.
Because you're Smart.
I am Laslo.
re: Beldar -- He posted, on another lawyer's blog, a letter he had written to Sen. Cornyn in which he described Trump as a "monster". A monster. Beldar needs to stay away from sharp objects and small children for the next several months. Heaven forfend that DJT make it to the White House -- we could lose the poor guy!
In Trumpmania news: the OWS/Soros agitators have chained themselves to trucks and are blocking the freeway leading to Trump's rally in Arizona this afternoon. I hope that Sheriff Arpaio has these shitheads dressed in pink and living in tents for an extended period.
Trump ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 and 2012. He got no traction. He dropped out early. Am I the only one who remembers this?
Trump 2016 is more about the frustration of the American electorate than it is about Trump.
Quaestor said, "The first regime that embraced reason as a governing principle was revolutionary France."
No. America won that race by a long shot. They teach otherwise in Europe. The French Revolution was the beginning of rule by the people, they teach.
Watching TV, Trump protesters have shut down a highway.. can they really do things like that in America? This is getting way too out of hand and who is behind these protesters?
"In that world, emotion and influence and all the techniques that Trump uses are really the only things that explain what's happening in the world. Reason will never be a satisfying explanation of what you see" Very subtle Trumpian self-refutation going on here: extreme rationalism in the form of two blanket generalizations, one a single-factor Theory of Everything, to explain why reason will never be a satisfying explanation of what you see. Of course, by the magic of Trumpian persuasion, it ends up affirming what it undermines: in a world that has such self-contradictory anti-rationalists in it, reason will never be a "satisfying" explanation of "what you see."
In Trumpmania news: the OWS/Soros agitators have chained themselves to trucks and are blocking the freeway leading to Trump's rally in Arizona this afternoon. I hope that Sheriff Arpaio has these shitheads dressed in pink and living in tents for an extended period.
Arpaio is apparently sending a bunch of vans to the site for just that reason. Apparently, the area where the protesters are tying up traffic, etc. is unincorporated Maricopa County, so his people are the ones providing law enforcement for that area. Expect that he will get a good haul for his jail - but keep in mind that apparently only those convicted of misdemeanors spend time in Tent City, with those awaiting trial being housed in typical cells. The pink underwear are factual though, and quite in demand outside his jails. The women even wear the pink stuff, which doesn't seem to me to have quite the same effect. The real reason though for the pink underwear apparently is for his people to quickly and immediately detect those being released from his jails from stealing the underwear.
The real reason though for the pink underwear apparently is for his people to quickly and immediately detect those being released from his jails from stealing the underwear.
"Apparently" is probably not the right word here. "Ostensibly" is maybe better. The ability of Arpaio's people to immediately identify their jail underwear is the official reason for it being pink. Realistically though, the real reason is the embarrassment that guys would presumably face if they spend time in his jail.
@pm317 -- It's the Soros Stooges behind this crap. I just saw that one of the paid morons in the blockade chained her neck to her door jamb. These are neither intelligent nor rational beings. They're also too damned stupid to understand that they're giving more free publicity to Trump and attracting more voters to his cause. Very few people in this country care for the antics of these losers and they are only shooting their cause in the foot.
More popcornz, pleaz.
Adams is incredibly interesting. He's found a non-partisan way to talk about Trump that appeals to everyone except the extremes. In a way, he's a great salesman - just like Trump.
Trump has a good product to sell. He's against illegal immigration, bad trade deals, and he wants what's best for the whole country - not just an elite few. He's lucky that after Dole, McCain, and Romney, most people in 2016 see the GOPe as losers and that nominating another establishment candidate will accomplish nothing.
@Fabi, there is a protest thing going on in NY. yeah, I am sure these are Soros and Moveon fuckers, the same crown that shut down the Chicago rally. And how much of this is encouraged by the GoP because they don't want Trump either? I don't think moderate people who care for law and order will or should tolerate these fools much longer.
Beldar objects to your expert witnesses. Beldar objects to other arguments being allowed made in the courtroom. Beldar awaits a Judges ruling on his objections. Beldar wants authority to narrow the evidence admitted and the issues allowed argued to an argument he wins.
I respect Beldar. But Trump has made him irrelevant.
n so many words, Pm317 sez,
'See me! I'm a Trump supporter, I'm going to curry favor with teacher and buy from her Amazon portal now, because I think she likes Trump too! Please forget that I once was a Clinton PUMA and I that I am still secretly in love with her. These anti Trump Soros funded protesters must be stopped, they are baaaaad people, we must punch them. Please don't pay attention to the fact that Soros donated $8 M thus far to Hillary Clinton.'
Quaestor left off the rest of the story of French Revlution. The feisty Corsican made France Great Again all over Europe.
Is Trump Corsican? We shall see. If he is then the North American Union may happen under his lead but be bigger than that.
To the person who stalks me, appreciate your interest but not interested. I will say this once: fuck off!
Wish Althouse had a "mute" button.
I would guess that the GOPe is enjoying the spectacle, pm317, and I doubt they'd have any interest in stopping it. I don't have anything to suggest that they're involved, but I can't completely dismiss the possibility. They're looking for every reason to say "Look, he's a bad man!" Too bad for them that many of the their voters don't agree. Heh.
To pm317,
You get some of my attention because you are an extreme hypocrite. Reading your hilarious concern over the Soros funded anti Trump protestors does tend to want me to point out your hypocrisy. For being such a Hillary Clinton supporter you speak out of both sides of your mouth, which I find a bit repulsive. Tell the folks here why you still support Clinton and then explain how you also support Trump. Clinton is the ultimate establishment candidate, Trump is the supposed quintessential anti establishment candidate. You are a duplicitous ass kisser and I find you annoying.
Google or any other entrepreneurs on this board lurking: here is an idea. In the age of all this personalized on the Web, how about personalizing the comment board. That is, add a button to filter out unwanted people/comments that I don't want to see. Disqus, are you listening? My husband tells me such a feature exists in online poker games where you can mute out a player. It will be a scalability issue with these comment streams. However, these companies harvest everything I do in the name of my profile. Add that little bit to my profile and give me what I want. Mute the fuckers out of my realm.
all *things personalized..
SOJO is on to something.
To me, Scott Adams sounds like he's trying to form his own cult of believers in some nutty "Theory of Trump's Sucess". I call bullshit. Trump does not have any more special powers of persuasion than the next manipulative jerk. He has name recognition, a fortune and enough people who are easily duped. That's all. It's not his special powers that got him to this point, it's a certain very sick segment of our society that props him up.
pm317 cries plaintively,
'Mute out all people who challenge me! Mute out the protestors!'
In this country we have something called The First Amendment.
you fucking fool.. you obviously do not understand technology.. I (capital I) am muting you out. Others will still see your comments. There is no first amendment thing here. You are harassing me on every comment stream without knowing what I stand for. You are a fucking bully and I don't want to engage with you. Most decent people here understand that. But of course, the cesspool that this social media has become has spawned stupid fuckers like you who don't understand decency. Get lost.
Met a real estate agent today who revealed his preference for Trump. News junkie. Retired from the shipyard the builds that Navy's carriers. Has a son who was active duty military, was riffed 6 months short of his pension to save the government money. There are tens of millions just like him.
@Amanda, mind if I borrow that First Amendment to tell you to fuck off?
Moneyrunnner, feel free, and a very jolly fuck off to you too!
Pm317,
I knew precisely what you meant. I hate to break it to you, but Althouse isn't going to go to a different blogging service because people challenge each other and want to mute out some particular commenter. You want a mute button? You won't find one on Blogger or one that is Blogger compatable lol. But take heart, maybe someone will hook you up with some App, who knows? And no I won't get lost, I suggest you grow a thicker skin.
What a stupid indecent fucker! she/he does not understand technology and she/he does not understand what I said. But of course she/he has to talk.
LOLing. 'Indecent! Scandalous! Mute that Amanda! Mute the protestors too, those indecent Americans! How dare they protest!'
This is the USA, like it or leave it.
Let the voices of dissent be heard! Ya don't like it? Too bad. Tell your hubby that the mean Amanda will continue to challenge you every single time you speak out of both sides of your mouth. Expect it.
Don't worry, Amanda. We all expect you to keep posting your silly ignorant lying comments here, and we're more and more convinced you're paid to do so, just as the Arizona 'demonstrators' are undoubtedly being paid to do criminal things that are not in fact demonstrations. No one here has suggested that they stop expressing their opinions: they're welcome to do so with signs and even (at appropriate times and places) bullhorns on the sidewalks. When they block traffic, or rush the stage to attack the speaker, they are no longer demonstrators, they are criminals as well as assholes, and need to be locked up. And no one here would have any objection to you posting your stupid opinions on your own blog: we're just tired of comment threads here on which you post 20% or more of the total comments, containing 2% or less of the actual intelligent thought. The ability to screen out certain commenters would be handy, you're not the only one I would screen, and neither you nor the others have any First-Amendment right to demand that we read your silly crap.
And I would never be so foolish as to not expect that insects inhabit even the most pristine buildings in the right climate.
Tell your hubby that the mean Amanda will continue to challenge you every single time you speak out of both sides of your mouth.
No one here thinks you're mean, Amanda.
Can Amanda reply with intelligent arguments? She says we want to "mute" the Arizona protesters. I point out that we have no problem with them expressing their opinions as long as they don't block traffic or threaten violence. She replies - not at all. How about an argument, Amanda? Or why not just admit you're a hit-and-run troll whose job here is not to argue but to damage the comment section of this website?
Blog-comment threads differ from street fights. In street fights, crowds gather and encourage the fight. In blog-comment threads, the fight makes the thread boring, and whatever crowd there may have been before the fight began dissipates.
Oh, by the way, you're all Hitlers.
Quaestor:
No, Amanda is at least two standard deviations below the mean for this site, in intelligence and honesty. That is what you "mean", right?
Speaking as a Bonaparte I resent being lumped in with the Hitlers.
Weevil, did I say YOU wanted to "mute" the protesters? I was addressing PM317, not you, not the entire comments section. What, are you pm317's hubby? What I hear coming from you Weevil is nothing more than bzzzzzzzzz.
"Wish Althouse had a "mute" button."
Google "Blog Comment Killfile". Very useful extension for common browsers.
Don't read Althouse without it!
No, Amanda is at least two standard deviations below the mean for this site, in intelligence and honesty.
Shhhhh... Let Amanda continue to believe being at the top of the bell curve is a good thing.
TCom said...
What Adams misses, because he is not very politically informed, is that the reason Trump's persuasion works so well is because it's basically founded on hard truths. He doesn't take the safe path. He thinks out loud, which makes it more difficult to lie and easier to make little mistakes, which others gleefully pounce on.
The rest of us see a genuine person.
TCom, I'd say Adams is fairly politically informed. As are most of the folks who comment here. But when you say, "The rest of us," to whom are you referring? The rest of America? The Trumpkins? Those who read Adams' blog? Because I am in no way a part of this "rest of us" to whom you refer. I do not see a genuine person at all. I see Andy Griffin's Lonesome Rhodes of "A Face in the Crowd"--- a movie that should be in continuous rotation from now until election day.
Difficult to lie? Mr. Trump has no problem lying, as far as I can see. And he is brazen about it. Confront him with a quote from his own mouth or a piece of video showing him making some particular statement and he will calmly and with a straight face say, "I never said that." He will start rambling and say something the exact opposite of the previous statement. But you say that's not lying? Just "little mistakes" upon which we terrible people who are not Trump enthusiasts pounce? Well, your mileage may vary, because I don't see Trump as basing his appeal on "hard truths."
I think that some of Amanda's protesters are going to regret their protesting this evening. They were protesting on Sheriff Joe's turf, and he very likely has no interest in tolerating their antics. Which means pink underwear and food with names like "loaf" tonight for a lot of them. The food really is (intentionally) abysmal, high calorie, low taste, and filled with chemicals that reduce aggression in the inmates. Unfortunately for us, and fortunately for them, thanks to the season, they are unlikely to have to deal with the extremes of heat and cold seen in his jails. And, being Saturday, they won't be bailable for another 2 days, at the earliest. And, if they can't bail themselves out, they shouldn't expect non-attorney visitors for at least a couple of weeks.
ellamentary,
I agree with much of what you have to say. Do you think that more people on the right will recognize this? When I come here and read the comments so many of these folks write I seriously wonder if they are unable to see Trump as he is or they don't care. Do they prefer that this country get destroyed by someone of Trump's caliber? Do people here want to "burn it all down"? Is that the true motivating factor behind Trump's appeal? They think he will destroy what they hate about the government? A segment of society that is so angry they'd be OK with political arson?
Sheriff Joe has one of the largest jail systems in the country, and they have long studied how to handle the number of inmates they see there. (And, yes, in unicorporated Maricopa county, including where the protests were taking place, they are also the primary law enforcement available). I don't remember some of the other names for the meals, besides "loaf", but they are all disgusting, but nutritional. I think that it is saltpeter, or something like that which is added to reduce violence. Plus, a well fed inmate is a non-violent inmate. Ditto, for fat inmates. So, they get plenty of calories, but in an unappetizing mixture. The idea, I think, is that they shouldn't enjoy jail, and so shouldn't hurry back.
As I indicated earlier, there are really two jail systems, one for those awaiting trial, and those convicted of misdemeanors. You can tell them apart by what is printed on the top of the back of their black and white uniforms. Tent City, for the convicted, is really not that much worse than prison. But, the pre-trial incarceration (like the protesters are going to see tonight) really is. Convicts on a rotation plan (rotating through civilian, jail, prison, then rinse and repeat) tend to want to get through the pre-trial jail as fast as they can.
Poor stupid Amanda claims that pm317 wants to "mute" the "protestors" (who have gone far beyond mere protest into criminality). Evidence that pm317 wants to do that? The only hint I can find is the words Amanda puts in quotation marks in her 1:48pm comment: 'Mute out all people who challenge me! Mute out the protestors!' Too bad no one here wrote anything like that. Putting words in quotation marks (single or double) that the other person did not in fact write is deeply dishonest and utterly contemptible.
Evidence that Amanda was addressing pm317, not the rest of us, in her 2:16pm comment? Zero. It was not addressed to pm317, and the last line certainly reads as if it's addressed to the entire USA, or the more conservative half thereof. Conclusion: Amanda lies again.
It's also interesting that when Amanda reads an actual rational argument she just hears a buzzing in her head (3:00pm). She should maybe see a doctor - or an exorcist.
I somehow found all of that far more interesting than the blog snippets of Adams I've seen linked. Reason does a great job of putting it all together.
But as interesting as it is, it can be distilled to this: Trump is highly skilled at emotional manipulation. Maybe Adams is also saying that what Trump really stands for and what he'll do with more power is close to unknowable.
What is hard for me to understand is why Adams is so obviously delighted by it all. I've drawn more or less the same conclusions as Adams, but I find it rather concerning.
Smart and well-intended Trump admirers like Adams may assume that there must be high intelligence behind such skillful manipulation and further assume that intelligence is highly correlated with good. Ergo, all of this is actually evidence that Trump is both smart and good. Not to worry. If that is the cause for his comfort, I fear both assumptions could be flawed. It's entirely possible that Trump's manipulation is the result of learned behavior. A guy highly sensitive to criticism and highly desirous of praise who also has lots of money may have developed these behavioral techniques as a means of getting his way. Secondly, the idea that intelligence is equivalent to good is naive. In fact, lots of Trump's history suggests that a desire to do good is not his chief motivation - maybe not in the top 10.
Of course, maybe the sheer delight Adams displayed has nothing to do with what Trump may or may not do. Maybe he is delighting because he thinks he sees something almost no one else does. If that's the case, Adams grin is at the expense of two groups of people: the "High IQ" people who fail to recognize Trump's talents and therefore show themselves not to be so smart, and the "low IQ" people who fall prey to Trump's manipulations.
If you think about the subject of many Dilbert cartoons, which is the frustration of being smarter than the guy who is nevertheless your boss, you can maybe understand his joy.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-primaries/273645-arpaio-excited-to-provide-security-for-trump-rally
Controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his deputies will provide security at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s rally in Arizona on Saturday.
Arpaio, well known for his “tent cities,” an extension of the jail where he keeps inmates,said he would also participate in the rally
“Here I’m gonna be kinda wearing two hats — in charge of the security there in the town and also participating, I would imagine, with Trump in the rally, so it makes it interesting,” Arpaio told Politico, adding that it “is going to be a lot of fun taking care of business there.”
He has also been accused of racial profiling and discrimination.
Trump has said he’s proud of the endorsement."
The Sheriff will be providing the security for the Trump rally AND "participating" in it? Hmmmmm...
Of course, many people here really don't see Trump for what he is. Article today suggesting that a lot of people see a lot of glamour in him, and have long associated him with the glamorous life. He has been selling the sizzle for a long time.
But, what is that any different with Hillary? Anyone who considers her a feminist ignores that her success, up until recently has been the result of marrying one of the best natural politicians of his generation. And, she helped his rise to power by destroying any woman with the effrontery to claim that he had sexually assaulted or raped them. What ever happened to believing any women making this sort of claim? Not when it comes to Hillary's husband apparently.
Moreover, she is the most corrupt politician this close to a nomination for probably at least the last century. At a minimum, during any of lifetimes. Starting with her work on the Watergate committee, it has been pretty consistent for the last 40 or so years. Much of it was to make a bit extra money, above and beyond the money she made by selling her access to the Arkansas state AG and governor through her Rose Law Firm partnership. Bribes from Tysons in the form of cattle futures, land sales designed to quickly redeem and resell in Whitewater Land, etc. Illegal FBI files and trying to put friends in the WH travel office while her husband was President, then stealing the silver on the way out, after he had bought her a Senate seat with his last minute pardons. And, for anyone who claims that she has the right experience for the job, ask them what experience are they talking about? How to grift hundreds of millions of dollars in trade for American foreign policy? How to avoid FOIA through illegal usage of a private email system, which instead of making her emails available through a government process, made them available to our greatest enemies (Russia, China, etc) through hacking. Mostly, I think that the reason for using her own email server was to protect her against being convicted of using her office to greatly enrich herself, and her family and their foundation.
This is what Amanda ignores when she rants about Trump.
So Scott Adams thinks that all businesses are in some phase of failing but gives Trump "attaboys" for his business background, despite four bankruptcies and eight or ten Trump start-up failures.
Adams likes Donald's ability to persuade, but the casino man has higher negatives, according to the polls, than any candidate in recent history.
His theory of testing does not work among politicians because government programs once started never stop.
I am unsure exactly why a philosophical man such as Mr. Adams cannot see the dangers of a politician with a severe personality disorder other than perhaps the nature of his job of drawing cartoons is bereft of any feedback. Of course he does say he embraces irrationality.
No I don't ignore it Bruce. It is not I who is the Clinton sycophant here on this thread, that would be the pm317, not I. The ONLY reason I would vote for Hillary is if Trump is the Republican nominee. If you folks on the right would've made Kasich your nominee I would've voted for him over Hillary.
The Sheriff will be providing the security for the Trump rally AND "participating" in it? Hmmmmm...
I frankly don't see the problem here. He probably has more LEOs available to throw at the security problem than anyone else in AZ. And, if the rally had been at any other locale in the Phoenix, he probably would have provided as many, if not more, deputies as the other jurisdiction supplied police officers (since his deputies backup the areas with police protection in his county). So, his people were going to be there, in adequate numbers to protect the peace. That leaves him speaking - and that, of course, is protected by the 1st Amdt.
Classic case of someone who screams about the law, when they don't have the fact, screams about the facts when they don't have the law, and just screams when they have neither.
Adams is a pessimist, and ultimately a nihilist. His cartoon is pretty much of people in hell, hopeless in the middle of an ongoing disaster.
I don't see the subject of his stuff as mainly the frustration of being smarter than the boss, of course there's some of that; the problem though is that they are all trapped in there together in the pit. That the boss is clueless, or (in occasional flashes) the boss reveals he is just reacting to perverse incentives is just a consequence. Dilbert can't win, not against the boss, not against his own social cluelessness, and not against the progressive decadence of everything around him. Adams has the same attitude about American society, or modern society. He is the illustrator of Schumpeter. Decline and disaster are inevitable. The entropic death through bureaucratization will get us all in the end.
I think he finds Trump fun as he is a reaction against the inevitable entropy, but he is (I think) certain that Trump will ultimately fail, even as he makes a fight of it.
Amanda said...
"Let the voices of dissent be heard! Ya don't like it? Too bad. Tell your hubby that the mean Amanda will continue to challenge you every single time you speak out of both sides of your mouth. Expect it."
This is coming from a woman that supports a rapist enabler.
Zero self awareness. Even less skill in critical thinking. If she was being paid to do what she is doing it would make more sense than to think someone who was halfway literate would come up with it.
Bruce Hayden said...
The real reason though for the pink underwear apparently is for his people to quickly and immediately detect those being released from his jails from stealing the underwear.
"Apparently" is probably not the right word here. "Ostensibly" is maybe better. The ability of Arpaio's people to immediately identify their jail underwear is the official reason for it being pink. Realistically though, the real reason is the embarrassment that guys would presumably face if they spend time in his jail.
What Arpaio has always said was that the local gang bangers were stealing the old white MCJ underwear and wearing it as a badge of honor. He decided to dye it pink because he knew that no gang banger would be caught dead wearing something that color.
FWIW: Today's protest was up in Fountain Hills. It was a bit more than just a jurisdictional thing as Arpaio lives there.
No Achilles, that would be pm317, not I. As I've said numerous times, I'm a Sanders supporter and the ONLY reason I would vote for Hillary is if Trump gets the Republican nomination. She is the lesser of two evils.
So Amanda will vote for Cruz if it's a Clinton v. Cruz general election. Welcome aboard!
Amanda, I am myself basically "of the right"--- well, center right, but all for limited government, etc. Registered Republican, voted Republican all my adult life (to my parents' consternation). And I think most Republicans/conservatives/right-leaning folk see right through Mr. Trump. (Note that for all the big talk about him bringing in voters, he has not gotten over 50% of the vote in ANY primary or caucus.) Look at the National Review and their much-maligned but, to my mind, very well-done issue devoted to laying out the case against a Trump nomination. I think Cruz was onto something when he said that many of the Trump fans are "low-information voters."
Ellamentary,
I've read many of the anti Trump pieces that the NR has published, as well as Red State, and the Federalist. I somehow don't think that they are merely low information voters. I think it may be more accurate to say there are some highly angry people who either are too uninformed to see thorough Trump, or know full well what he is all about and that is precisely what they like because they think he will as President act upon his and a segment of the nation's bigotry in a meaningful way. Mass deportations, the "Wall", registration of Muslims, "opening up the libel laws" to silence people, and more.
ellamentary shouldn't harp about low information voters when Trump received 73% of the vote in the Northern Mariana Islands. That contest is certainly included in the list of "ANY".
Paco Wove', installed it.. Thanks!
Ohhhhh thank goodness! Now I can talk about PM317s hypocrisy and weird Clinton worship all I want without her telling her hubby on me.
OH, my;, Favi, you're really going to label me as a "low information voter" because I failed to take into account the Northern Mariana Islands' vote total. where he did indeed get 73% of the caucus votes from the big crowd of 471 who voted, after having obtained the endorsement of the territory's governor? Well, okay then. I stand corrected.
But I am confident that we have different ideas of what a "low information voter" is. And in m;y neck of the woods, there are a lot of true "low information voters." And no, I do not mean unintelligent voters--- many have advanced degrees and/or professional positions. But the degree to which they do not follow politics is amazing. The ancient Greeks would have been flabbergasted.
No, ellamentary, I didn't "label" you as low information -- it was a precautionary assessment. Once again, you're the one who found it necessary to express "ANY" in a dramatic all-cap fashion, not me. Quibbling about endorsements doesn't mitigate your erroneous assertion. Your desire to play the victim of your own mistake is not a trait I associate with a lifelong Republican, as you've so frequently found the impetus to declare.
My take on the Low Information Voter. Government should NOT be a Dutch Oven. Ever.
I am Laslo.
Wish Althouse had a "mute" button.
Get Chrome and the Blog KillFile extension. Allows the user to block commenters or hide individual comments.
It's the free market version of comment moderation.
"A segment of society that is so angry they'd be OK with political arson?"
Yes. What's been done in the name of governance to this country by both parties over the past 40 years (accelerated that past 16 or so) is fraud, theft, deceit, and racketeering. if what is commonly done in Washington D.C. were done in every boardroom in this world, the results would be mind-boggling.
19 Trillion in debt and no one in the Capitol District really gives a shit.
Frankly, arson might be too good for the political class.
Protesters should be allowed to protest all they want, as long as they don't do it in the road and frighten the horses.
Amanda said...
"Pm317,
I knew precisely what you meant."
Then why did you post as if you didn't?
[forgot to click the email followup thingy].
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