I apologize to women for all the offensive things I’ve said in the past. I’m an equal-opportunity offender, but I understand the sensitivity when it crosses gender, and I apologize to women for that. No one respects women more than Donald Trump.... And I call on Hillary Clinton to do the same, and apologize for her mistreatment of the women her husband abused.I don't like the nonspecific, blanket apology. "All the offensive things"? Which ones? We'll need an enumeration or it will sound weak. It can't be: Oh, whatever it was that anyone was offended by. That spills into nonapology territory, the ultra-lame sorry to whoever was offended.
And the idea of switching immediately to a demand that someone else apologize for something — that's too self-interested. He won't be allowed to pivot that quickly. We're not going to experience it as a significant apology unless he submits to an ordeal of examining individual offenses and gives us some foundation for a belief that he's not going to do it again.
The most interesting part of Adams's idea is that Trump profess understanding of sensitivity to offenses that "cross gender" — which sounds distractingly odd and will require an explanation that's likely to come across as psycho-babble or (worse) sociology. I am not picturing Trump talking like that.
I don't even think he'd say "equal-opportunity offender." That's more like something someone else would say about Trump, someone with more of a cornball humor style. Ah, here, Raheel Raza, President of the Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow. She said (last month on "Real Time" with Bill Maher): "There are two things I want to say about Donald Trump. One, that he’s an equal opportunity offender. And, secondly, this is supposed to be the First World, the civilized world, but he is really fudging that line about civility."
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This isn't an impressive observation.
Sheldon Cooper made the same observation on Big Bang Theory Thursday.
I don't see Trump or Hillary ever apologizing.
Human nature is weird. Certainly some (most?) people seem more willing to quickly forgive a person with consistently bad behavior who apologizes than someone who is generally well behaved who makes a mistake once and apologizes. It's as if the more unrepentant you are the more some people want to save you.
I have an equally astute observation that Scott Adams will view everything done by Trump as three dimensional chess. He is to Trump what Andrew Sullivan was to Obama.
He can quote Henry Higgins from Pygmalion/My Fair Lady:
"The question is not whether I treat you rudely, but whether you ever heard me treat anyone else better."
This is from the marvelous exchange:
MRS. HIGGINS. However did you learn good manners with my son around?
ELIZA. It was very difficult. I should never have known how ladies and gentlemen behave if it hadn't been for Colonel Pickering. He always showed me that he felt and thought about me as if I was something better than a common flower girl. You see, Mrs Higgins, apart from the things one can pick up, the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she is treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins because he always treats me as a flower girl, and always will. But I know I shall always be lady to Colonel Pickering because he always treats me as a lady, and always will.
MRS. HIGGINS. Henry, don't grind your teeth.
THE PARLOUR-MAID. The Bishop is here, madam. Shall I show him into the garden?
MRS. HIGGINS. The Bishop and the Professor! Good heavens, no. I shall be excommunicated. I'll see him in the library. Eliza, if my son starts breaking up things, I give you full permission to have him evicted. Henry, dear, I suggest you stick to two subjects, the weather and your health.
HIGGINS. Well, you've had a bit of your own back, as you call it. Now, have you had enough and are you going to be reasonable or do you want any more?
ELIZA. You want me back only to pick up your slippers and put up with your tempers and fetch and carry for you.
HIGGINS. Now, I didn't say I wanted you back at all.
ELIZA. Oh, indeed! Then what are we talking about?
HIGGINS. Well, about you, not about me. If you come back you'll be treated as you've always been treated. I can't change my nature, and I don't intend to change my manners. My manners are exactly the same as Colonel Pickering!
ELIZA. That's not true, he treats a flower girl as if she were a duchess.
HIGGINS. Well, I treat a duchess as if she were a flower girl.
ELIZA. Oh, I see; the same to everybody.
HIGGINS. Just so. You see the great secret, Eliza, is not a question of good manners, or bad manners, or any particular sort of manner, but having the same manner for all human souls. The question is not whether I treat you rudely or whether you've ever heard me treat anyone else better.
ELIZA. I don't care how you treat me; I don't mind your swearing at me; I shouldn't mind a black eye, I've had one before this, but I won't be passed over!
HIGGINS. Then get out of my way for I won't stop for you. You talk about me as though I were a motorbus.
ELIZA. So you are a motorbus, all bounce and go and no consideration for anybody. But I can get along without you; don't you think I can't.
" He won't be allowed to pivot that quickly."
Ha! He often pivots back and forth faster than Pistol Pete. Not only is it allowed, it's deemed, smart, and even genius. I bet he could cheat on Melania and sleep with Rosie O'Donnell, and it would somehow prove he's "the man".
Trump isn't being offensive in the first place.
It's normal banter, from back when people were normal, meaning women weren't in charge of the narrative.
Women were a voice in the narrative, not a voice on the narrative.
Likewise, I don't think any exposure of Clinton's wrong doing will change many votes. The supporters on both sides have their trenches dug and are dedicated to staying there. The no-man zone in between is full of the rest of us who don't see like-minded people in either direction. The election is all about which way we turn, or if we move at all, but it's the Trump side who seem to be shooting at us out here.
Brando said...I have an equally astute observation that Scott Adams will view everything done by Trump as three dimensional chess. He is to Trump what Andrew Sullivan was to Obama.
I pointed out the "meep meep!" similarity a couple-a days ago, Brando.
Although Obama did win election twice...
"Everybody, did you catch this? Dilbert Dude is trying to get me to apologize. Listen: "I apologize to women for all the offensive things I’ve said in the past." Look, Cubicle Carbuncle, I didn't offend anybody. if anyone out there is offended, they should be apologizing to me. I am the most pro-woman candidate that has run for president evah. I love women. Love 'm. And listen to this crap from Dilbert Dullard. "I’m an equal-opportunity offender, but I understand the sensitivity when it crosses gender, and I apologize to women for that." Look, the only people crossing gender are the drag queens down in Greenwich Village, and I never go there. But I would never offend them. I'd get along with drag queens, if I knew any. Just like I get along with the Republicans. I love drag queens! I love Republicans!"
Once you start apologizing you can never stop.
"You apologized to women, why won't you apologize for this? It's so much worse!"
Don't apologize, Donald.
Adams is wrong on this on several levels. The most important part he is wrong about is that part draw to Trump is not that he doesn't apologize because he has nothing to apologize for. Fake apologies and constantly demanding contrition of political opponents to progressivism are in and of themselves degrading to this country.
On another level when he goes after individual women he is not attacking all women. He doesn't generalize about women like that. This is a key part of the PC wall that must be broken down for Women's sake as much as all of our sake. Rosie Odonell is fat, stupid, and lame. But Trump clearly values strong intelligent women as he employs a lot of them. The women in his life clearly support and admire him.
Trump is doing us all a huge service by destroying this part of leviathan and we should cheer him for it. All of us. Someone asked what could Trump do to get me to stop supporting him? He could start apologizing to all of these fat, lazy, mediocre parasites who make a living tearing us down.
As Adams pointed out the press and the media LOVE apologies. Apologies, disavowing, and pinning someone down on an absolute for the sound bite.
Funny how they rarely make any apologies, and how they bury corrections.
Adams has been interesting this entire cycle. Much more accurate that say Bill Kristol or Stephen Hayes who now have to try and sabotage Trump to back-up their lack of ability to see, understand, or predict his rise. Or even fake like they give a shit abut the message sent by lifetime GOP voters.
Their forever resistance isn't based on being 'principled conservatives'; Trump made them both look like fools who work at the Weakly Standard.
The press may want the big apology, but is this want women want; some good old fashioned groveling? Then, one he lets one apology out of the bag, what would stop the incessant nagging for another?
On second thought, I've issued up plenty of sober and drunken apologies to my wife in the hopes of a good round of make-up sex. It worked a lot.
Maybe a broad based apology to all American women for perceived offenses in return for some "make-up votes" wouldn't be that far out of the question in terms of strategy.
Which begs the question, is it more challenging to get a woman to sleep with you or to vote for you?
bagoh20 said...I don't think any exposure of Clinton's wrong doing will change many votes
That's hard to tell. Clinton was impeached 20 years ago. Do today's youth that feel the Bern know what Clinton did? Do they know how feminists like Hillary rallied to protect him?
Do they know that George Stephanopoulos was a main Clinton operative? (now referred to on Twitter as a #clintonfluffer)
Everyone is moving quickly past Bernie to focus on Clinton v. Trump. That might be the most insulting thing you can do to the Bernie supporters. Pretend he never mattered.
He doesn't need to apologize, and I hope he doesn't.
A little, tiny reveal about the realities beneath all this stuff about the rhetoric used in this campaign. There are things nobody is talking about that make all this look foolish. And, frankly, the whole thing is turning me into a very paranoid conspiracist, about the "uniparty".
Lets take the matter of private pensions.
Lets consider some riders on a bill, voted for by a Republican Congress (Republicans 224-14, Paul Ryan voted Yea), a Democratic Senate, and signed by Obama, more or less uncontroversially. Concerning the (private) pensions issue.
Pension Provisions in H.R. 4348 – Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) Act - signed into law 7/6/2012
What this does is it permits private pensions to use a 25-year average of interest rates as an assumption in forecasting future assets, and hence calculating their current pension contributions in order to keep these pension plans funded. Previous law required a two-year average of interest rates. A small thing? No, not really.
Recent interest rates, and return on assets, since 2008, have been historically terrible. They are still terrible. What happened in 2008-2009 is that (almost) every single private pension fund was in the red, as far as "fundedness", both because of the drop in asset value, and the fall in interest rates/return on assets. Using a 25-year average permits the use of 1990's-2000's values to hike the forecast of future asset values. The effect is striking - these days a fund that is only 80% funded on the 2-year assumption is typically 100% funded on the 25-year assumption.
Note that private pension funds are on average only about 82-83% "funded", right now under the 25-year rule.
Thats a hell of a lot of money, in the hundreds of billions, missing from pension funds.
Who benefits from this?
- Large employers. They can avoid funding pensions. If the funds are short come the day they are off the hook, they complied. And they paid into the government Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. Also good for profit reporting and stock prices.
- The government - Pension funding is an expense, and not taxable. If it doesn't happen, more corporate income is taxable.
Who loses?
- Pensioners, workers, the commons, taxpayers, all the rest of us, at some point, unless economic growth improves greatly, real soon.
This is a Uuuge deal, but totally under the radar. And its a completely bipartisan bit of chicanery.
Dig some more and the populist cause becomes difficult to deny. There is a conspiracy against all of us, hidden in large part by ideological theorizing and obsessing over what words so and so used. There's nobody in NRO mentioning this.
Anybody worrying about what, and more important, how Trump said this or that should be hit over the head until sense returns.
I think the recent endorsement by rapper Azealia Banks, who doesn't apologize for things either, would be an interesting topic tangential to this one. For example Banks essentially called Cosby's alleged victims gold diggers.
Some people are trying to get off the plantation it seems. Banks also tweeted "black people have been voting for democrats for 70 and we don't have shit to show for it" and "Hillary talks to black people as if we're children or pets. i can't stand herrrrrrr." as well as "Trump just wants the U.S to be lavish.... for all of us. I can fuck with that."
This election is going to be really really fun. Can you imagine being able to actually say things again? And if you want a long story about someone who got a rough start in life read Bank's wiki.
buwaya said...
"A little, tiny reveal about the realities beneath all this stuff about the rhetoric used in this campaign. There are things nobody is talking about that make all this look foolish. And, frankly, the whole thing is turning me into a very paranoid conspiracist, about the "uniparty"."
The more we learn about DC the more it is clear who is at fault for Trump being nominated. But what also becomes clear is one way or another the uniparty is going to be removed. These people are selling us out every day. We are awake now.
I wonder how hard they will fight their inevitable removal.
"the populist cause becomes difficult to deny. There is a conspiracy against all of us" If that were the motivation behind the "populist cause," yes. But no Trumpkin has thought seriously about pensions, nor has Trump. The white working class supposedly supporting him just wants theirs: they'd protest any cut in pensions or income to increase funding rates, and any move to abolish private defined-benefit plans altogether. Sure, some beneficiaries will get hurt down the line, but the people on the hook will be the minority of income-tax paying Americans. It's not a conspiracy against "all" of us. Populism is not the path to responsible public finance.
buwaya said...Lets consider some riders on a bill, voted for by a Republican Congress (Republicans 224-14, Paul Ryan voted Yea)...
The effect is striking - these days a fund that is only 80% funded on the 2-year assumption is typically 100% funded on the 25-year assumption.
That's some scary shit. How could this possibly be? Paul Ryan is a principled fiscal conservative, and could not possibly vote for something that would short pensioners and future tax payers. He's made videos lecturing on how important all of this is to him.
He cares about children dammit! He works out in the House gym every day!
And he's from Wisconsin. Everyone here is honest, civil, and forthright even when we're drinking.
Sebastian said...Populism is not the path to responsible public finance.
Looks like Paul Ryan isn't the path either. You'd think maybe he'd pitch a bitch and a minimum.
In any case, the key principle in selling is honesty. Once you know how to fake that, you’ve got it made.
~"The American Idea of Success," 1971
"And, secondly, this is supposed to be the First World, the civilized world, but he is really fudging that line about civility"
Maybe if, instead of insulting people, he just suggested they be beheaded.
buwaya:
There is no conspiracy required, where a consensus can be reached through overlapping and convergent interests. While this alternative theory does not preclude a conspiracy, it does offer a plausible explanation for what may appear to be a "uniparty". Of course, we cannot discount the oligarchs, domestic and foreign, and other high placed individuals, to exhibit a disparate and overwhelming influence on political, economic, and social processes.
All the financial instruments are at risk, but tangible assets are also exposed to domestic and foreign intrigue.
So, they play with their ball of yarns, each adding a string in their turn. I wonder if anyone knows how to unwind it without causing a catastrophic anthropogenic global reset.
That said, now what? We are all trapped. It seems that people think that Trump, especially after surviving an unprecedented volley of visceral attacks, may be a political Patton who will effect a managed unraveling -- ideally unwinding -- of the ball and begin a period of restructuring ("Make America Great Again"). It is D-Day and PC is fortifying the front lines.
"Maybe if, instead of insulting people, he just suggested they be beheaded."
This also works.
In my country it seems Rodrigo Duterte is about to win.
Yeah, Achilles; it is always interesting when blacks are attracted to Republican causes.
But for my tastes, I prefer Thomas Sowell and Jason Riley to any rappers. Neither of whom has been gulled by Trump.
But of course Trump has had the influential backing of Dennis Rodman all along. Which is just incredible. A yuuge, fantastic endorsement.
Duterte wins -
"Nearly complete unofficial vote counting shows tough-talking Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has won the presidential election in the Philippines, defeating his four main rivals by a large margin.
Election officials estimated a turnout of 41 million out of 55 million eligible voters in Monday's election. With 37 million votes counted by early Tuesday, Duterte had secured 14.4 million votes.
His nearest rival, former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, had 8.6 million votes. About 4 million votes were yet to be counted. Even if Roxas were to win all of those votes, he would not beat Duterte.
A third rival, Sen. Grace Poe, had 8.1 million votes, and has already conceded defeat."
Chuck prefers his blacks to behave like a well mannered house boy. What a fucking pussy: "for my taste, I prefer house-boy cock" That gangsta shit is way too salty.
Apologies from either Trump or Clinton are as elusive as Bigfoot. Just when you think you are going to see one a tsunami of qualifiers rolls over you and you are left wondering what the hell just hit you. Judging their sincerity or evaluating their position on an issue is like measuring wind direction in a tornado. It's time for us all to slip into a medically induced coma...
"But for my tastes, I prefer Thomas Sowell and Jason Riley to any rappers. Neither of whom has been gulled by Trump."
How many black votes are those endorsements worth, Chuck?
No wonder you and Simon always lose. You have no idea how to win. You'd rather be 'perfect' in your own minds so you feel better. It's funny that you TruCons place so much emphasis on converting hispanics and blacks when you're a total failure at both.
As said by Big John W. in one of his best movies "Never apologize, it's a sign of weakness."
IF Trump ever apologizes, it will never end. The press and Dems. will be after him every minute of every day to apologize for something. But they will never ever apologize themselves.
The very liberal young people Sanders appeals to are over time going to play a more and more significant role in both the Democratic Party and general elections, if for no other reason than that over time they will vote more. In that sense, "the movement" isn't dying, it is just beginning. And it will long outlast both Sanders and Clinton.
As someone born a year after the baby boom ended, I often feel I am trailing the circus parade, cleaning up after the elephants. By the time the world see the benefits of the Boomers dying off, I'll be just about dead myself. From my experience, I wouldn't encourage the youth of today to hold their breath waiting for any help from their elders.
A faked apology for doing and saying the right things is the opposite of a true humbling of oneself. Therefore, we will never get to see Trump try that. Instead he will just stay silent or say something pleasant.
Chuck said...
"Yeah, Achilles; it is always interesting when blacks are attracted to Republican causes."
Damn straight. One of those things that has to happen in order to win elections. But it almost seems like that isn't your goal.
As the nuns taught me decades ago, an apology is meaningless without a firm commitment to avoid future "sins and near occasions of sin," one of my favorite phrases from my Catholic childhood.
I suspect that just as Hillary will continue to be a lying, self-serving, corrupt, traitorous harpy/shrew if elected, Trump will continue to have people demanding he apologize. I suspect Trump will have an easier time becoming less offensive than Hillary, as her entire existence is based upon vengeance against everyone for her lifetime of public humiliation by Bill.
When Paul Ryan meets Trump later this week, Trump should say in a stentorian British accent:
KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!
"I pointed out the "meep meep!" similarity a couple-a days ago, Brando."
Great minds and all that! Maybe Adams and Sullivan could have a debate--who is our one true god, Trump or Obama?
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