Roundup
There’s so much news today (much of it depressing, alas) that I’m just going to do something I don’t usually do, a roundup:
Romney on Trump and the future of the GOP.
Clinton operatives crow about how they scared off Chief Justice Roberts.
Big accord signed to limit a greenhouse gas—and it’s not about CO2, it’s about something we’ve heard relatively little about in comparison (hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs) and is regarded as a far more powerful determinant of global warming. It’s also ironic that HFCs were introduced in the 80s as a substitute for ozone-depleting gases.
Meanwhile, Obamacare continues its predictable (and predicted) slide.
How about a dance post?
Very disturbed that Neera Tandeen (a real low life) would be bragging like that.
I hope Roberts wises up. He should have kicked the ACA when he had the chance.
Ben David:
Don’t worry, more dance posts will be forthcoming. I have several drafts, but they need fine-tuning, and dance posts actually take a surprisingly long time to write, especially if they include a lot of videos (which they tend to involve).
However, even though it’s not a dance post, there’s this astounding cockpit battle.
I’m struck by Romney’s implication that all of this anger and resentment is due to unrealistic frustration with the GOP leadership and, with resentment toward those who are more successful.
To name just a few, not a word about the GOPe supporting “comprehensive” immigration reform, greatly increased foreign worker visas, TPP, Muslim migration, giving Obama MORE than he asked for in the Omnibus bill and ever larger government.
Not a word in support of the POV promulgated these many years by Congressmen Ted Cruz, Jeff Sessions and Mike Lee.
He’s apparently oblivious to the fact that a slower march down our current path still reaches the same destination.
Perhaps that’s why the pejorative, “RINO” got attached to him?
My brain reels. So many scandals, so much that was semi-mysterious being outed, so much more corruption than I had guessed. I used to have a feeling of being very lucky to live in an enlightened country whenever I was visiting a banana republic. Cannot feel that way anymore.
The 50s have been described as “Deadly, deadly boring with bad architecture and ugly furniture.” Sounds like Nirvana compared to today.
I enjoyed the Mitt Romney interview. If Romney were the Republican nominee, I would vote for him because, unlike Trump, Romney is an honorable, sane and intelligent.
J.J.,
It’s all for the greater good. Just ask them, they’ll be happy to confirm it. And that proverb… “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”? Superstitious nonsense.
Perhaps even more appalling than the corruption is the arrogance and fanatical certitude.
Spiral,
Personally honorable? Sure.
Sane and intelligent? Absolutely.
In denial that a slower march to the collective still reaches the same disastrous destination? Apparently.
GB:
Oh woe, so instead we have two vying for POTUS who have none of the four desirable characteristics: honorable, sane, intelligent, and committed to stopping the Gramsian march to the left.
OM wrote:
GB:
Oh woe, so instead we have two vying for POTUS who have none of the four desirable characteristics: honorable, sane, intelligent, and committed to stopping the Gramsian march to the left.
Yep. It’s too bad that both major party candidates support socialized medicine, entitlement expansion, trade protectionism and severe restrictions on freedom of speech.
It’s a choice between Hillary Clinton and her donor, Donald Trump.
I’m voting for Evan McMullin.
Andrew McCarthy at NRO: “Podesta Leaks: The Obama-Clinton E-mails ”
Set against PresidentPseudonym’s behavior this observation by James Madison, Federalist 10:
The greatest stink of corruption emanates from the very head. So, one day, we may expect to hear one such as James Comey explain that he was just following orders.
Spiral:
I agree that neither Stinky! nor Stinky!! are getting my vote. Evan McMullen is looking better every day. Going with the only “binary” choice gets you more of the same.
OM,
Just make sure you spell his name correctly (if you are writing his name in and correct spelling matters).
Evan McMullin.
Anyone remember “ozone holes” from the 1980s? That was the first big scare about our atmosphere. All of the atmospheric scientists agreed (sound familiar?). Ozone absorbs solar UV irradiation, and UV over time can cause skin cancers. So “we” had to do something, quickly. Existing aerosol propellants were blamed, and were replaced by HydroFluoroCarbons (HFCs). These are very stable, long-lived molecules. Used also as the gases that make efficient refrigeration possible.
Quoting from the link Neo provided, the AP: “But their danger [causing global warming-Ed.] has grown as air conditioner and refrigerator sales have soared in emerging economies like China and India. HFCs are also found in inhalers and insulating foams.”
THEIR DANGER HAS GROWN ! SAVE THE PLANET! GLOBAL WARMING!
In other words, HFCs are a signal component of improvement in the human condition globally.
So, in a just concluded confab in Rwanda(!), the Kerrys of 200 nations have agreed (conspired) to get rid of HFCs. The small “vulnerable” nations like the Marshall Islands are said to have been the drivers of the deal. The West will once again go first, China and India later, and of course China’s word is its bond.
When HFCs became the gases in asthma nebulizers, the price of nebulizers went way up. Asthmatic children of the poor around the world frequently went without. Do you know what a struggle it is to breathe in an asthma attack? Some of these kids died. And they’re still dying. Pediatric death rates from asthma have steadily increased over the past 30 years and “no one” knows why.
I know why: the children are sacrifices to the secular God.
Cow farts are next, and then water vapor (greenhouse gasses). All about power and who has it, means are secondary.
From a registered democrat thats honest…
(Douglas Adams)
Presidential Temperament
Posted October 3rd, 2016 @ 8:59am in #Trump Clinton
Do you remember the time someone insulted Donald Trump and then Trump punched him in the nose?
Neither do I. Because nothing like that has ever happened.
Instead, people attack Donald Trump with words (often) and he attacks them back with words. See if the following pattern looks familiar:
1. Person A insults Trump with words. Trump insults back with words.
2. Person B mentions some sort of scandal about Trump. Trump mentions some sort of scandal about Person B.
3. Person C endorses Trump (even if they publicly feuded before) and Trump immediately says something nice about Person C. The feud is instantly over.
See the pattern?
Consider how many times you have seen the pattern repeat with Trump. It seems endless. And consistent. Trump replies to critics with proportional force. His reaction is as predictable as night following day.
The exceptions are his jokey comments about roughing up protesters at his rallies. The rally-goers recognize it as entertainment. I won’t defend his jokes at rallies except to say that it isn’t a temperament problem when you say something as a joke and people recognize it as such. (We see his rally joke-comments out of context on news coverage so they look worse.)
What we have in Trump is the world’s most consistent pattern of behavior. For starters, he only responds to the professional critics, such as the media and other politicians. When Trump responded to the Khan family and to Miss Universe’s attacks, they had entered the political arena. As far as I know, private citizens — even those critical of Trump — have never experienced a personal counter-attack. Trump limits his attacks to the folks in the cage fight with him.
And when Trump counter-attacks, he always responds with equal measure. Words are met with words and scandal mentions are met with scandal mentions. (And maybe a few words.) But always proportionate and immediate.
Does any of that sound dangerous?
What if Trump acted this way to our allies and our adversaries? What then?
Answer: Nothing
Our allies won’t insult Trump, and they won’t publicly mention any his alleged scandals. They will respect the office of the President of the United States no matter what they think of Trump. If Trump’s past behavior predicts his future, he will get along great with allies. Our allies have been fine with every president so far, and they haven’t all been perfect humans. The worst case scenario is that Trump calls some prime minister goofy. We’ll all be used to it by then, including the prime minister in question.
The Week I Became a Target
Posted October 3rd, 2016 @ 2:52pm in #Trump Clinton
This weekend I got “shadowbanned” on Twitter. It lasted until my followers noticed and protested. Shadowbanning prevents my followers from seeing my tweets and replies, but in a way that is not obvious until you do some digging.
Why did I get shadowbanned?
Beats me.
But it was probably because I asked people to tweet me examples of Clinton supporters being violent against peaceful Trump supporters in public. I got a lot of them. It was chilling.
Late last week my Twitter feed was invaded by an army of Clinton trolls (it’s a real thing) leaving sarcastic insults and not much else on my feed. There was an obvious similarity to them, meaning it was organized.
At around the same time, a bottom-feeder at Slate wrote a hit piece on me that had nothing to do with anything. Except obviously it was politically motivated. It was so lame that I retweeted it myself. The timing of the hit piece might be a coincidence, but I stopped believing in coincidences this year.
All things considered, I had a great week. I didn’t realize I was having enough impact to get on the Clinton enemies list. I don’t think I’m supposed to be happy about any of this, but that’s not how I’m wired.
Mmm, critics. Delicious 🙂
–
P.S. The one and only speaking gig I had on my calendar for the coming year cancelled yesterday because they decided to “go in a different direction.” I estimate my opportunity cost from speaking events alone to be around $1 million. That’s based on how the rate of offers went from several per month (for decades) to zero this year. Blogging about Trump is expensive.
But it is also a system, not a goal. I wrote a book about that.
–
Update: Then they started leaving fake book reviews on Amazon to go after my book sales.
Blowing Your Mind — as Promised
About a year ago I told you that Donald Trump would change far more than politics. I predicted that he would change your understanding of the human condition and your role in reality.
Back then, I couldn’t explain what I meant. You didn’t have the mental framework to hold this new idea — unless you were a trained hypnotist or a cognitive scientist. The ideas were too radical.
Until now.
I saw this situation developing last year. The Master Persuader opened a crack in the universe so we mortals could — for the first time — understand the nature of reality. At the end of this short blog post I will link to an article that will blow your mind.
But first I will describe the mental framework you need to accept this new vision of reality. The framework goes like this:
1. Smart, well-informed people disagree on nearly all major issues. So being smart and well-informed doesn’t help you grasp reality as much as you would hope. If it did, all of the smart, well-informed people would agree. They don’t.
2. Trump says lots of things that don’t pass the fact-checkers’ tests. His supporters don’t care because facts don’t influence decisions. Humans decide first, then rationalize their irrational choices with cherry-picked data. You see this all the time with the people who disagree with your brilliance. Just remember that they see the same irrationality in you that you see in them.
3. So-called “news” outlets are literally inventing news and peddling it as truth.
4. We learned that voters don’t actually pick the Democratic candidate. The party picks the candidate. Democracy in the United States is largely an illusion.
5. Every candidate looks good until we learn more about that person’s past. Then every candidate looks terrible. But is it possible that only terrible people run for president and get to the final rounds?
6. We all noticed — this year more than ever — that political polls are skewed by bias.
7. You watched as I used the Master Persuader filter to accurately predict the outcome of the presidential election up to this point. In so doing, I ignored forecasts from all the “experts.” I also ignored policies, experience, and facts. None of those things help you predict the future.
8. Many of you have started reading from my Persuasion Reading List, and by now you understand that humans are not rational creatures. We are creatures who believe we are rational.
Now you are ready.
Read this to forever alter your understanding of reality.
Welcome to the third dimension. The Master Persuader has been waiting for you.
What If Evolution Bred Reality Out Of Us?
http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/09/06/492779594/what-if-evolution-bred-reality-out-of-us
For the record, when i was younger i worked designing magic tricks as a teen ager, and i learned hypnosis techniques as well as the game of “the honest con man”, which is what a magician is… it also helped me see the manipulators in our local world a lot easier… the whole of magic, and somewhat of art, and advertising, and cons, is the same… understanding people in a way that they dont understand themselves, would argue against, would even fight your wrong (to which its easier to give up than to discuss it)…
The Italians (or their forebears) are pleased to have named not one, but two caves “Grotto della Maga” — the homes, they claim: one for winter, the other for summer — of the sorceress [Maga] Circe. We recall: men transformed into swine.
Holy moly: the anti-dote — remember? As well — and not incidentally as it happens — the singular, the first mention of “physis” [nature] now extant in the literature of the West.
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Joyce, on the other hand, associates Circe with Nighttown; with midnight druggings and hallucinations in the brothels of Dublin. In which solid sober Bloom comes to the rescue.
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And to whom will people (looking back) attribute the character of that sober, plodding Poldy Bloom when years from today many will reflect on our times and recognize in the campaign of 2016 (and surely its aftermath) the reeling symptoms of political hallucinations which too few among us seem to see as we go, so enfeebled is our grasp of our own situation?
In the midst of these swirling hallucinations I doubt that we can say, else we’d already be that Bloom.
“when i was younger i worked designing magic tricks as a teen ager, and i learned hypnosis techniques as well as the game of “the honest con man”, which is what a magician is… it also helped me see the manipulators in our local world a lot easier… the whole of magic, and somewhat of art, and advertising, and cons, is the same… understanding people in a way that they dont understand themselves, would argue against, would even fight your wrong” – Art
scott adams’ “master persuader to meat puppets” concept, presumes that somehow (unexplained) the “explainers” themselves are above the rest and are immune to the “master persuader’s” charm (at least enough to have clarity, from being a meat puppet, in divining this “knowledge”).
And that is where dilbert’s theory falls into the cr@p hole.
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“As far as I know, private citizens — even those critical of Trump — have never experienced a personal counter-attack.”
A true statement (that neither you nor I know for sure), but it is still a supposition to be proved positive, and one that attempts a misdirection or to excuse his behavior.
“Trump replies to critics with proportional force.”
More misdirection and excuses.
Your argument sums up to saying something like…
“Wow! trump could really be nasty to those women accusers of his, but it is refreshing he is responding merely “proportionately” and it is only “personal” because their accusations are now public!”.
Rather twisted.
“Our allies won’t insult Trump, and they won’t publicly mention any his alleged scandals. They will respect the office of the President of the United States no matter what they think of Trump.” – Art
AND, it is not an argument that we can bet holds up wrt foreign leaders and how they will behave around trump and how he will respond to them.
Artfldgr:
One thing I have learned this election cycle is how smart Scott Adams thinks he is, and how little I’m impressed by anything he writes, although there are certainly plenty of people who would disagree with me and who consider him brilliant.
Well, he’s certainly brilliant at getting readers, I will absolutely grant him that.
But all the things he says that are true seem already obvious to me. And he also says many things that I disagree with. I haven’t spent a lot of time trying to refute him because he’s just not an interest of mine. If I wanted to take the time, I could offer a lengthy critique of points 4, 5, and 6 (and others) from that list. But to be brief, I’ll just state in response to #4 that no informed person ever should have thought that the US was a democracy—it is a republic—nor are political parties democracies; in response to #5, no, we didn’t learn that, and in fact there are plenty of non-terrible candidates about whom the more I have learned, the more I admire them, although of course they are not perfect (and there are not merely two categories of candidate, “perfect” and “terrible,” there are many gradations in between); and in response to #6, no, I didn’t notice that, I noticed that polls were more often right than wrong, and although some certainly have been wrong (as one might expect), Adams has no idea whether that was a result of bias or of something else, and “bias” is just his own bias speaking.
Art, when your pride and knowledge comes from reading people, you should take better care in who you’re reading. It’s one thing to consider yourself the Equal of Sun Tzu, after reading the Art of War, or the equal of Clausewitz because only you have read or understood On War, but quite another thing to pick some political hacks and sub average humans as your totem pole of excellence. By that logic and progress, Art, your IQ will go down the more you read them, not up. You won’t be “special” either, because everybody else will have already read them, and they did that first before you ever knew of it, which is not something your pride or ego should be capable of withstanding in normal times.
From a registered democrat thats honest…
(Douglas Adams)
Might as well call that “a feminist Art thinks is honest”. It makes about as much sense.