I’m going to use this new thread to repeat a point that Adam Gopnik makes brilliantly in the New Yorker: Trump’s problem, in debates, interviews, rallies or whatever forum he appears on, isn’t that he isn’t sufficiently prepared or that he’s technically deficient: it’s that he’s hateful, stupid, and fraudulent. As Gopnik puts it: This debate was not a bad performance. This is a bad man.
I think I’ll pass.
Let me know if he talks about “the cyber” again. What a dope.
Well, yeah. The only thing is, with a person whose public persona is the only part of them you’re ever likely to see, the performance can tell you quite a bit. I was reading a James Fallows piece the other day about how people perceive Cruz as “creepy” in large part because when he tries to look empathetic he uses a fake expression because he’s not a skillful enough actor to imitate a genuine one. With Trump, his beliefs are noxious, of course. He’s an extremely bad man. He is indeed hateful, stupid, and fraudulent. But his poor performances help us realize, among other things, that his badness includes laziness, disregard for the demands of the presidency, ignorance, inattentiveness, inability to concentrate, inarticulateness, simplistic thinking, disorganized thinking, poor impulse control—well, I could go on but you get the idea. He can be judged on other aspects of his life, certainly, but the poor performance isn’t irrelevant IMHO. I would think Gopnik is arguing with certain superficial media figures, not so much with us here, and I’m not arguing with him or you so much. But I think part of the challenge of living in a media-saturated culture is to judge people from a distance. Clearly we need to get better at it, is my main point I guess. : )
I wonder if Trump is going to call them all “Stupid” again?
Even though, as he said: “I love stupid people!”
Some of us are already pretty good at it. Or maybe it’s just that we’ve seen the rise and fall of so many of them and learned that they’re all quite human with good and bad qualities.
As for Trump, I’m not sure what his good qualities are.
Alleluia!
Josh’s latest:
John Harwood
@JohnJHarwood
source close to Trump tells @KatyTurNBC candidate’s children unhappy w/Bannon/Conway/Bossie leadership, think campaign is hurting business
3:34 PM - 28 Sep 2016 · Manhattan, NY, United
Hahaha! It’s fall and the money tree is dropping dollars and dying.
For some reason whenever I see the words “Trump holds rally” I always think of this video. Apologies in advance, btw. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_6gzk4wUUU
When he was talking about cyber, I kept waiting for:
It’s about time they get out of the house and have their own bankruptcies.
Just curious - did anyone watch? Did HO say anything noteworthy? Or is it still wall-to-wall “Crooked Hillary” and maligning every breath she takes while he and only he can MAGA?
I hit my max on HO viewing during the debate. Am going to try a new drug to see if I can build up my tolerance for the next two. Tequila sounds about right…
She’ll be okay. The other ones can always get in on conservative grft, but they’ll probably have to move out of NYC by the time this is over.
The Trump brand is damaged, and we’re just seeing the beginning of the fallout.
Ya know, not drinking will work. He’s not going to perform.
I’d been saving my forced-to-watch-HO chits for pretty much the whole campaign, I mean, you watch him for a couple of minutes and you really don’t need to see him again - reading what comes out of the pie whole is bad enough. And paws up for the Tequila.
Kinda OT because it’s only about squirrels. Walking today around a lake in SF’s Golden Gate Park, at least three squirrels came very close to us on the path, stopped and looked up at us and if to say, and I’m projecting: “Feed me!” They probably do get fed by all the humans walking around the lake and have become very bold. My late Zoe the golden retriever would have known what to do about them, namely chase them away.
I hope we’ll never have to hear from him again after November 8th. He’ll find out then what his brand is worth.
Not totally off topic. Squirrels are often times very orange. On the other hand, their attention spans tend to be much better than Trump’s.
Your instinct is correct. It takes a ton of peanuts for them to be acclimated that way, so they were clearly pros.
To be fair to HO it’s not that big of a difference.
It would be really nice if Michelle Obama’s speech this morning would get some coverage. CNN started out covering it but after 10 minutes of a really rousing speech she was cut off and they went to a breathless John King blabbering about trump and Monday’s debate debacle.
It would be nice if a Hillary rally got some air time.
I know trump geneates clicks but give the other side its due for a change.