POLITICS: what have you done for us lately?

[Benn Roe]

He has money. He pays lawyers and accountants to figure out loopholes and hide his assets, just like every other rich asshole. He doesn't know how to do any of that shit on his own. What was it about his real estate deals in NY that gave you the impression he was savvy? For starters, it's really easy to make money when you have a lot of it already, and somehow he repeatedly invested in projects that were obviously destined to fail. Not to mention, most of his actual monetary gains came from leveraging his name, which he could do because he was famous, and he was famous because he was rich enough to just choose to be famous. He also started with enough money to pay others to figure out how to turn that money around and make more money, and he still repeatedly botched it.

He's able to sway voters, sure, because he follows the applause, and when his actions or words garner less applause he denies he did or said them. That's not playing any sort of game; it's animalistic instinct, reacting to praise. He blundered into a demographic nobody else was willing to touch because of the toxic shit they believe, and because he was in the right place at the right time an entire political party reluctantly fell in line behind him. Sure, you could interpret that as genius, because conventional wisdom stopped everyone else from doing it, but it just isn't accurate. He has an insatiable ego and no standards of decency, which invigorated a race of subhumans nobody else had been willing to entertain, and a lot of other people jumped on board out of desperation or opportunism because there's a lot wrong with our culture and not a lot of politicians addressing it.

I don't think you're complimenting him. It sounds like you're rationalizing because it's difficult for the human brain to accept that someone so dim-witted could succeed so often. And that's reasonable, but I promise there's nothing to underestimate. The risk is in attributing strategy to chaos, and overestimating the intention behind his actions.

[Chankgeez]

Trump may be smart enough to get himself (re)elected, but he's certainly not smart enough to govern effectively:

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -as-stupid

[Blackened Soul]

No.

Trump is there because democrats are dumb, spineless prices of moderate, semantic obsessed, middle of the road shit that allowed gerrymandering to get out of hand and not be able to actually stand for anything together or come to terms with the dichotomy of being for left ideals AND still wallow in that nice corporate money, that's how we got trump, that's how we got bush, both won by the electoral collage over the popular vote. All trump and bush needed was to be loud and a asshole that appealed to all the red leaning assholes and here we are.

[dubkitty]

PREACH!

[Chankgeez]

prices of moderate

What exactly is the price of a moderate? (Asking for a friend.)

[Jwar]

Trump may be smart enough to get himself (re)elected, but he's certainly not smart enough to govern effectively:

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -as-stupid

So, here's the thing. I know he doesn't know exactly what he's doing and should not be President. That clearly doesn't matter to a ton of the people in the USA (for some reason).

You don't make deals like he did without having some level of intelligence and some level of manipulation. Trump got the New York to grant him tax abatements on not just one deal but three major deals. That's a HUGE thing and he basically tricked them into it or pressured them. That takes some knowhow and also some drive, which is not something a lot of stupid people have. They have aimless drive. His drive is clear and decisive. He only does what he thinks (key word here, thinks) people want. He is a shill but at the same time, he knows it (I believe) and is manipulating folks along the way. Why do you think he basically never stop campaigning? He's trying to sway voters and it fucking works for him. He has that power to make you feel like he's correct even when he's not. Now, obviously there are people who see through this. It doesn't take away from his intelligence, it takes away from the voters intelligence. Trump is not stupid. The voters are fucking stupid. I mean, come on guys. Yes his casino lost money. Do you even know why? He pumped WAAAAAYYYY too much money into it and it was an all around bad deal. However, he was able to bail on most of the debt, if not ALL of it. He never paid the GC's or subs (that I know of) for the Taj Mahal (or however the fuck you spell that), he sold stocks in excessive of a billion dollars to pay the debts for it and he basically walked away. How did that hurt him? Failures are a part of any business. I see that as a speed bump. Nothing more.

Here's the real reason why he's smart. He has been thinking about running for President for a LONG time and toyed with it in the late 90's and early 2000's. He waited until there was an opportunity to snipe it away. He knew it was going to happen, he just had to wait. The dude has always talked about being President too and he got it. How many among us can say the same or even say we have any inkling of what it takes to manipulate your way to the top? That's cunning, sneaking, back handed....etc. business that got him there. That does not mean he's stupid. It means that regardless of who is around him, the man has a brain in his head and he may not look like he's using it right but everything he does seems to serve a purpose that directly benefits him or his buddies. I don't buy the "he's a moron" thing on any level and never will. He acts like a moron but he is not. He's a cold calculated bastard who knows what evils he's enforcing and the consequence but doesn't care. That's different than being stupid. That's being a sociopath, which I honestly think he may be. He seems to lack real human compassion and empathy, so it would make sense. Like he doesn't know how to be loving at all but he can smile when he's told to.




The DNC needs to find someone better than Biden. There's way too many things I dislike about Obama and Hillary and I think Biden will be just like them. However...I guess given the choice, I'd vote for Biden over Trump.

[Benn Roe]

He paid people to get him those tax abatements. Money, not smarts. And from all accounts and evidence, he was just as surprised as the rest of us when he won the presidency. He didn't even have a transition team together. What you're doing is ascribing calculation to chaos, which is a dangerous mischaracterization of his actions. It's the same reason pundits keep failing to predict what he's going to do. He's not out-smarting everyone; he's just acting on impulse. Toddlers are difficult for the same reason, and are actually kind of the perfect analogue here. Look, I know it's hard to reconcile. He keeps winning, and it's really hard to accept that he's doing so in spite of himself, but it's the truth. Everyone who has walked away from his administration, or leaked information from within it, has had the same story: the man's a flailing idiot, succeeding through a combination of hand-holding, dumb luck, and a willingness to openly do just about anything. All of his actions indicate that he's barely conscious of the world around him, and all of his successes are easily explained by factors that have nothing to do with his cunning manipulation of circumstance. Sorry. You're just wrong here.

[Benn Roe]

Oh, and I should clarify something I said earlier. You're right that people underestimate his tenacity and his desperation, but that's not the same as underestimating his intelligence. In fact, it's overestimation of his intelligence that often leads people to underestimate him. He's winning the game by not playing (whish is, not coincidentally, the only way to win Monopoly). I really think a news network needs to trade all their political pundits for child psychologists and see what happens.

[Jwar]

So, do you think everything he is doing is on impulse because that would mean he probably has a mental disorder that is untreated, which still does not mean idiot. I think we are going to have to just disagree and tha'ts ok. Neither one of us really like the guy, so no sense and continuing. I'm thinking things are far more sinister than they are alluded to and that they are calculated. Perhaps not by him.


Soooo...Terminator 2020?

[Benn Roe]

I'd vote for Skynet in a fucking heartbeat. Humanity's had plenty of chances.

And yeah, I'm sure he has untreated mental disabilities, which definitely don't make him an idiot, but they also don't preclude it.

[friendship]

So, do you think everything he is doing is on impulse because that would mean he probably has a mental disorder that is untreated

ding ding ding ding

You're right, his mental illness does not make him an idiot. A sheltered life that protected him from ever having to learn or grow, in tandem with (or perhaps as a consequence of) an unassailable belief that he's already a perfect brain genius makes him an idiot.

[Blackened Soul]

prices of moderate

What exactly is the price of a moderate? (Asking for a friend.)

Tell you're friend I am sorry but I don't do requests for Nazis

OT:
I think that proof of what Trumps actual intelligence vs your own is based on how much time you all spent thinking and talking and discussing it

[Jwar]

I've actual read a lot about him and have for a long time, way before his Presidency. So, I guess he intrigues me in a way? Like I want to study him in a lab. haha

[Chankgeez]

Dear, Democrats,

this is not fucking funny:

[friendship]

get it because barr is a chicken lol

pokemon go to the polls