Tuesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Tuesday, January 4, 2022
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52 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Mask up.
OK Ok, there is an upside to this brave new techno world.
Heh.
Yesterday, I asked if anyone still disagreed with my oft expressed view that Trump is, and always has been, a moron. Cracker had some interesting pushback, and I realized we may once again get into a discussion that was, at its core, just a debate about definitions. So I’m going to explain what I mean by “The most important thing to remember about Trump is that he is a moron”.
I lived in NYS from the late 70’s to the late 80’s, and have lived and worked in and around the greater NYC area roughly another dozen years, so I’m fairly familiar with Trump from his earliest days. One thing that became obvious even from the earliest is that Trump has never said anything that gives any evidence that he has more than the barest surface understanding of anything. Even when Trump was being interviewed by a business magazine, where you could expect at least a moderately technical discussion, his discussion of real estate or construction was at the very surface level. For instance, in the 80’s and 90’s you might hear an actual real estate magnate discuss (and I’m just making this up – I’m not a real estate magnate) the difficulties that arise because of the interior concrete and rebar construction of the post-war era make a re-furb more expensive when you have to run upgraded electric, put in networking cable and add fire suppression equipment. But with Trump it was all vague and surface, albeit over the top. This opportunity was “the greatest”. He only did “the best deals”. He knew the real estate and construction market better than anyone. Stuff like that, nothing specific. Listen to him talk about anything, anything at all, and there is no there, there. And, after four decades or more, I gotta believe that if I’ve never come across any instance of him expressing useful knowledge of, well, anything, then he probably doesn’t have any to express.
In fairness, I have vague recollections that in the early 80’s he talked a bit more in depth, but my impression was that he either spoke in the broadest generalizations (“There’s still a lot of opportunity on the west side”) or he just repeated something he had heard and then waited for the interviewer to react, (“A lot of people are saying interest rates are going to go up and that’s going to affect the re-mortgaging business”).
I think he gave up even trying to fake deep understanding after this disastrous interview.
@MarkedMan: I’m with you and always have been. He has an innate ability to sense what people react to, and either attack or appease based on his motivations of the moment, but behind it lies a void of ignorance that never rises above his immediate desires.
@MarkedMan: @OzarkHillbilly:
http://www.theweek.com/articles/915606/trumps-lethal-aversion-reading
That interview with Pat Buchanan was hilarious.
@CSK: Good link. From that article:
Trump is one of the more animalistic people I’ve come across. Appetites and impulses. Nothing more.
And another one bites the dust. OTB policy is to respect the departed, so I’ll only note that when she and any other victims of the TPUSA conference reach the Pearly Gates, they should be accounted suicides.
@MarkedMan:
Indeed. I’ve heard the phrase “creature of appetite” used to describe certain people, and it fits Trump to a t.
Axios:
The US has set a world record of the single largest covid case count in a day, of over a million Covid-19 cases yesterday. Highest daily record of any country, at any point in the pandemic.
Sigh.
I think the US is about to go through some things.
@MarkedMan:
I’ve defined him from day one as a ‘stupid psychopath.’ He’s not Blofeld, he’s an intellectually paper-thin fuckwit who turned a bunch of daddy’s money into less money than if he’d just stuck it all in mutual funds.
@MarkedMan:
I was having a discussion with my Father in Law over Christmas about real estate and I remarked something to the effect of “real estate developers are some of the dumbest people I know, they are almost all morons”. The look off offense he gave me was like I just told him his daughters were ugly. He was like, “But they have money!!!!!!” So what, all of them, even the smart ones were really good sales people and could work a loan officer as well as a buyer. Almost all of them crash and burn because they eventually burn through all of the banks and contractors by robbing Peter to pay Paul. Hell, I know two of them that didn’t know the basics of a real estate closing.
He finally patted me on the shoulder and knowingly chuckled, “we’re just going to have to disagree…” He’s a retired middle manager that was forced out of work because of age and I’m a real estate lawyer. But he’s a Republican so he knows more than me.
Our number of Covid admissions are at record levels. We matched the record on Friday and every day since it has increased by about 10% per day. Record numbers of people being held in our EDs. On the positive side the number of pts in the ICU with covid is still about 40% less than our peak but it is still a lot so ICU beds are tight. About 80%-85% are unvaccinated. Of those who have been vaccinated many are immunocompromised in some manner. Surrounding networks are shutting down some elective care and I think we are close to doing that also. It remains largely driven by our rural patients.
Steve
@Michael Reynolds:
And yet he always careful to remind us–constantly–that he went to one of the “top schools.”
Wharton Professor of Marketing William T. Kelley on Trump: “The dumbest goddamn student I ever had.”
Where has that been written? If I didn’t respect them when they were alive, how the hell can I respect them when they’re dead?
@Beth:
I’m puzzled how money, a tool that changes hands so often it picks up every pathogen known and many unknown, became such a powerful sanitizing agent.
@CSK: This bit of reminiscing on Trump’s IQ has got me wondering…
I always assumed he could read because there are many anecdotes from the 80’s and 90’s of Trump calling up reporters to thank them for this article or that on him. The reason the reporters were bringing this up was that the articles were usually negative and disparaging. Their take away was that Trump believed that any publicity was good publicity. Bit what if that is wrong? What if he didn’t know the articles were negative because he hadn’t read them?
On a brighter note, Devin Nunes is finally officially out of Congress.
@HarvardLaw92: I’ll bet his cows are happy to have him home again.
On the intellect of Donald Trump.
I tend to think, kind of like a shark; not the smartest of fish, but with a keen nose for the main chance.
I’ve met one or two businessmen and local politicians, and for that matter musicians, a bit like that: really slick in their chosen field of operations, but effectively a dumb as a rock outside it.
Virtually no general curiosity, very little generalised empathy, except in self-serving way.
You can also see his pattern in “speeches”: he rambles through topics until one gets feedback from the audience, then he riffs on that, with little content but a good sense of how to play on emotional responses.
And also when some idea does get fixed in his noggin, whether how to negotiate with Kim Jong Un, or a pet covid therapy, or how tariffs work, doesn’t matter how often it turns out to be plainly wrong, he’ll circle back to it again.
Perhaps not so much plain stupidity, but incuriosity, short-termism, indifference to actualities and most other people, and being too lazy to bother thinking things through.
I finally got a PCR test, so the illness I’ve just gotten is neither COVID19 nor influenza.
@MarkedMan:
I think you’re onto something here. There are three possibilities. The first is that he had someone read them to him, and that individual censored the bad parts. The second is that he saw his name in the papers and was satisfied with that. The third is that he didn’t, back then, believe that there was any such thing as bad publicity.
@JohnSF:
Yep.
@CSK:
I think his reading skills extend to single Twits, no more. This would explain his Twit storms when he came across any negative comments about him.
Or he may be one of those who reads or hears what they expect or want, not what’s said or written. For instance, If I were to tell him “Benito, your’e the greatest failure ever,” he may reply “Thanks. I’ve always known I’m the greatest, many people say that.”
@Kathy:
Trump has all the symptoms of untreated ADHD, and an inability to focus on the written word is one of them.
@MarkedMan:
Molly Ivins had a story about calling some Texas pol a knuckle dragging Neanderthal or something equivalent, only to run into the guy a couple days later. She’s mentally cowering as the guy runs over, smiles, hugs her, and thanks her for putting his name in her paper. Gawd I wish Molly hadn’t died. We need her.
@gVOR08:
When asked about the relentless beating that the Manchester Union Leader was giving him in the 72 primary, George McGovern was quoted “as long as they spell my name right” George knew that the voters he wanted would view the UL coverage as a reason to vote for him.
Hmm. What do you want to bet that this individual wasn’t vaccinated, either?
I just can’t feel sorry for people who refuse to take sensible precautions.
Here’s another case, of a couple who are now stuck in Italy because of developing COVID. I can’t figure whether to class this under “First World people’s problems” or “you assumed the risk, no?”
I also note that the article carefully fails to mention if they’re vaccinated or not. Hmmm.
@grumpy realist:
Ernby was adamantly opposed to vaccine mandates, I know that much.
@grumpy realist:
The article did say they were vaxxed, but didn’t indicate if it was 2 shots plus booster.
Or to put it another way, a complete moron.
@OzarkHillbilly:
But a dangerous moron.
Am I the only person who’s wondering–with some trepidation–what he’s going to say and do at his Jan. 6 commemorative press conference this coming Thursday? Incite another riot?
@MarkedMan: Under that definition, yeah, FG would be a moron. I wasn’t thinking in that type of context when I replied. Again, I’ve worked with a lot of people over the years who had only the most shallow understanding of their fields (and life at large for that matter) and would only have called them morons as a pejorative. I don’t care enough about FG to spend the energy pejorizing him.
But please feel free to, if you do! 😉
@CSK: From the article: “White House trade adviser Peter Navarro wrote a memo in January warning of “a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil.” Trump said he didn’t see it because “Peter sends a lot of memos,” none of which he reads.
“After failing to read about the coronavirus, Trump failed to respond to it. It’s not a stretch to say that if the president read, thousands of lives might have been saved.” [emphasis added]
I would still hold that it is a stretch because I have no compelling reason to believe that simply reading something would have prompted action
@gVOR08: “On Dec 4, she [Kelly Ernby] spoke against vaccination mandates at a Turning Point USA rally. She subsequently became ill.”
Hm… What a strange coincidence.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
No, it wouldn’t. Trump believes what he wants to believe.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ha!
Got me. 🙂
But it’s a bit like there is a spectrum, and Trump is near one extreme of it, from”high functioning fool”; a.k.a. willfully stupid, to “political savvy sociopath” who can be successful democratic politicians.
(As opposed to autocrats/dictators, which is different skill set, and usually played for much higher stakes)
A true, full-time, natural born moron would not have Trump’s periodic capability for successful manipulations of crowd psychology, exploitation of the the political vulnerabilities of rivals, slippery ambiguity of speech, exploitation of legal loopholes, and above all, the ability to sniff a grift a mile off.
Mostly instictive, but nonetheless effective: Mr Shark
Johnson has some similarities in terms of laziness, disorganisation, low boredom threshold, rejection of imposed limits and conventions, dishonourable, indifferent to truth.
OTOH Johnson is (when he chooses to be) cleverer by a long way, more persuasive in person, less gratuitously nasty, less the embodiment of trolling.
Orban probaly belongs around the mid of this line also.
More your vulture type, maybe?
Berlusconi closer to the “savvy sociopath” end of the line. A bigger crook and better businessman than either Trump or Johnson, but more inclined to self-discipline when required, and far more capable at strategic rather than purely tactical politics.
About the fox or weasel level. 🙂
Yet another reason for me to not relocate to Alabama-stan:
If I’m understanding his position correctly, requiring you to get a permit to carry concealed is a violation of your 2nd Amendment right to carry whatever the fquk you wanna carry, whenever and however you want to pack it. Oh ferf**ksake!
Any word on the GQP covidiots who thought they have anthrax? Have they hit the 20 to 80% mortality rate yet?
@grumpy realist: From paragraph 3:
“Now the North Texas couple, who are fully vaccinated, are waiting in a cramped hotel room in the mountain city of Montecatini Terme for word from the Italian government or U.S. Embassy officials about what happens next.”
[emphasis added]
This request from the Jan 6th investigation to Sean Hannity’s for his txts to the White House includes some txt’s gained from Meadows that demonstrate how much Hannity was a shadow advisor to the President. Of course Fox News won’t do anything about it it.
Also, noteworthy is who those txts suggest that Hannity was concerned about Trump’s mental state in the last few days of his administration. I expect, after Trump shuffles off this mortal coil, that Hannity will write a tell-all memoir that casts himself as a hero helping to keep the Trump presidency together in its final days.
https://january6th.house.gov/sites/democrats.january6th.house.gov/files/2022-1-4.BGT%20and%20LC%20Letter%20to%20Hannity_Redacted.pdf
@flat earth luddite: Sweet Home Alabama, indeed.
@Kathy: Last I heard, one of the organizers was on a ventilator, haven’t heard if he’s shuffled off this mortal coil yet.
@Jax:
Hopefully he’s not taking it from someone who really needs it.
@Mister Bluster:
I think that translates as “no one from the legitimate press is showing up for this clown show.”
@Kathy: I can guarantee he is. I haven’t been on the Herman Cain Awards reddit for a few days, guess I’ll go look. I know he was nominated. 😛
This is not the same guy, but goddamn it, people like JKB and Ron DeFuckFace and Greg (triple-boosted before everybody else could be)Abbott, the entire “conservative” mediasphere (also mostly vaccinated and boosted), and every other COVID denier/anti-vaxxer piss me off. These people are dying because of the misinformation they are fed.
There really ought to be a law. 😐 You shouldn’t be able to kill people and call it Freedom of Speech.
@Mister Bluster:
I plugged that into Google Translate on detect language setting and got
I hope that’s correct, but Google Translate does not always hit it on the first try.
@Jax: Eventually, the fact that his death was completely unnecessary is going to start gnawing at her.
And she’s still not going to take the shot–what would be the point now?
God moves in mysterious ways. One of the less mysterious ones is the laws of microbiology.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: But, you know, her friend had a friend who got COVID and it was totally cured by Ivermectin. (eyeroll)
So many lives (cough cough, living, breathing taxpayers) wasted.