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  1. #1651
    I hate the word "cuck," because so many people who use it are cucked for Donald (even cucked for Ivanka). But good goddamn, hell freezes over the day more people aren't cucked for Hillary.
    Last edited by wufwugy; 07-29-2016 at 03:07 AM.
  2. #1652
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    http://i.imgur.com/EdxY3p9.gifv

    LMFAO

    edit fleg, gifv tags not working
    Last edited by a500lbgorilla; 07-30-2016 at 04:11 AM.
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  3. #1653
    what would happen if a guy changed his name to " none of the above" and stood as an independent , whats his chances of winning the election ?
  4. #1654
    a500lbgorilla's Avatar
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    Even if no one voted, Hilary would still win by 3 million votes.
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  5. #1655
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    Quote Originally Posted by spoonitnow View Post
    lol every one the gop establishment chose is bottom tier opposition, he straight up 187'd like a dozen people hand-picked by the gop and the media and shillary can't beat ONE fucking socialist in the united states of america rofl

    no chance in hell


    Told you so.
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  6. #1656
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    The party of Sarah Palin, the party of Donald Trump - when will it finally fold?
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  7. #1657
    where my trumpkins at
  8. #1658
    did something happen?
  9. #1659
    Quote Originally Posted by wufwugy View Post
    Trump's speech will go down in history as one of the best in all politics. He's gonna win in a landslide. 55% minimum. Scott Adams may not be far off with his ludicrous 65% prediction. Clinton may not even be able to pull 200 electoral votes.
    would you like to revise this prediction?
  10. #1660
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    If this was a sporting even, I'd say this is a fixed game for sure. Nobody drops the ball this hard that many times.

    New conspiracy theory: Trump is a Democrat puppet to secure Hillary's victory.
    Last edited by oskar; 08-12-2016 at 08:37 PM.
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  11. #1661
    Quote Originally Posted by oskar View Post
    If this was a sporting even, I'd say this is a fixed game for sure. Nobody drops the ball this hard that many times.

    New conspiracy theory: Trump is a Democrat puppet to secure Hillary's victory.
    If that's true do the american right get angry or do they realise that they want someone that badass running the country.
  12. #1662
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    The Producers irl.
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  13. #1663
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    How Trump won over Cruz and Rubio is still completely incomprehensible to me.
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  14. #1664
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  15. #1665
    Quote Originally Posted by Deanglow View Post
    would you like to revise this prediction?
    I think she'll get over 200 EVs. She'll lose FL OH PA NH NV IA VA CO and maybe MI.

    The polls are tremendously skewed, probably because the Democrats need to justify their coming election fraud. Nobody watches CNN and nobody goes to Clinton rallies. If she comes out of the debates well, though, that would be a problem.
  16. #1666
    Gotta put your werewolf hat on. The pollsters finding Trump near losing in his strongest states doesn't show Trump weak but shows the pollsters fucking up on the job. Let's go with the least ridiculous explanation.
  17. #1667
    Things like his top notch speech will only be given credit after 2038 or something.
  18. #1668
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    Quote Originally Posted by wufwugy View Post
    The polls are tremendously skewed, probably because the Democrats need to justify their coming election fraud. Nobody watches CNN and nobody goes to Clinton rallies. If she comes out of the debates well, though, that would be a problem.
    That won't matter because she doesn't need pro-Hillary votes if she can get all the pls-no-Trump votes.
    Last edited by oskar; 08-13-2016 at 01:31 PM.
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  19. #1669
    Quote Originally Posted by oskar View Post
    That won't matter because she doesn't need pro-Hillary votes if she can get all the pls-no-Trump votes.
    The pls no Trump votes seem greatly exaggerated to me. There may even be a greater number of pls no Hillary votes.

    People are simply not sure on Trump, yet when it comes to pulling the lever, they'll do it. People are very sure on Hillary. Her base is the robot Democrat vote and nothing else. I would argue that she's weaker than Romney in that nobody is enthusiastic about her, yet, unlike Romney, she will probably lose the "moderate" vote too because the crooked label is too true.

    People bitch and moan because that's what people do. They'll complain about him nonstop until they finally vote for him.
  20. #1670
    Lots of virtue signalling. People aren't "allowed" to not bitch about Trump. But that goes away in the private voting booth. I suspect that more people will vote for him than otherwise because they're "not supposed to."
  21. #1671
    I'm predicting 20% probability of Trump winning close to 356 EVs. I say "close" because the exact number includes winning New Mexico, Maine, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, which are very aggressive predictions. Along with this is that he wins >20% of the black vote and >50% of the Hispanic vote -- and that men make up >50% of the electorate.

    If you follow 538, you've seen the seldom occasion of Nate Copper and buddies stating that polling is in trouble yet defending why it's not in existential crisis. I think this election will unveil the existential crisis. Indeed, I think polling will appear to be far, far worse than it actually is, simply because I think the Trump phenomenon will yield the extreme end of bad polling results.

    At the least, I have to believe this because I believe in humanity. Perhaps Hillary winning would be the best thing to happen to me because it would probably propel me to reject my automatic fantasy that humankind is something better than the rest.
    Last edited by wufwugy; 08-15-2016 at 07:19 PM.
  22. #1672
    I'm starting to think your the expert troll, not spoon.
  23. #1673
    My prediction is conservative. Trump is gonna blow past 15% of the black vote. Accelerating.
  24. #1674
    yeah what have they got to lose
  25. #1675
    True. Since it is that the Democrats installed the urban plantations, what have urbans got to lose by not voting Democrat?
  26. #1676
    Calling it the urban plantation isn't fair. Slavery didn't kill the black family. The legacy of slavery didn't kill black culture. Democrats did, with propaganda. They turned a robust, thriving economy of black Americans from the post-war period into a gangland shoot-out that pauses only so it can burn down black-owned shops when a black cop kills a black criminal engaging in fatal violence into a race war that would make Lenin think he should have tried that tactic instead of class war. And what supposedly causes this? White racism. There's no other cause. Let's go vandalize a house with a Trump sign in the lawn just to prove how much all our problems are caused by white racism.
  27. #1677
    You wanna know why Trump will crush? I typed up a post on the lunacy and wrongness of the accusations of racism that our society has been putting up with for decades, yet I deleted it because I'm still too afraid of being accused of being racist. There are a huge number of people like me, and all of us are voting for Trump. We're tired of being sold a bill of goods that speaking sense makes us racist bigots, and we're tired of being told that black criminals engaging in fatal violence is legacy of slavery and that if we don't clasp our ankles we're a part of the problem. Black Lives Matter is sending Trump to a landslide victory. Feminism too, for that matter. Women are waking up and realizing that unlike the feminists tell them, they're not happy pretending to be men.
  28. #1678
    Quote Originally Posted by wufwugy View Post
    You wanna know why Trump will crush? I typed up a post on the lunacy and wrongness of the accusations of racism that our society has been putting up with for decades, yet I deleted it because I'm still too afraid of being accused of being racist. There are a huge number of people like me, and all of us are voting for Trump. We're tired of being sold a bill of goods that speaking sense makes us racist bigots, and we're tired of being told that black criminals engaging in fatal violence is legacy of slavery and that if we don't clasp our ankles we're a part of the problem. Black Lives Matter is sending Trump to a landslide victory. Feminism too, for that matter. Women are waking up and realizing that unlike the feminists tell them, they're not happy pretending to be men.
    But you weren't voting for trump.
  29. #1679
    The guy I voted for in the primaries holds the same values on this. Trump was better at getting people galvanized on the issue and won in a large way because of it.
  30. #1680
    I love how this election has turned into the battle between the top talent of persuasion in academics (Robert Cialdini) vs the top talent of persuasion in practice (Trump). The practitioner is crushing, as should be expected.
  31. #1681
    What I like best about reading your posts about Trump is how you don't realise the vast amount of survivor bias in play.
  32. #1682
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    LOL@NPR trying to make this election a rebuke of the alt-right (aka 4chan). They had an interview with some internet psychologist who believed that if women had designed the internet, we wouldn't be having these problems because "women are naturally more protective" or some noise along those lines.

    Now they're debating solutions for online harassment like the Leslie Jones nude leaks (whenever those happened) and they're suggesting registered life-long internet usernames.

    This election is amazing.
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  33. #1683
    Quote Originally Posted by ImSavy View Post
    What I like best about reading your posts about Trump is how you don't realise the vast amount of survivor bias in play.
    Can you explain what you mean?
  34. #1684
    Quote Originally Posted by wufwugy View Post
    Can you explain what you mean?
    Lots of the things you are accrediting to Trump like he's some sort of genius puppet master are complete rubbish. When you look at things that have a probability of working rather than are a certainty (almost everything) it's very easy to look at what works and then reverse engineer a reason as to why it worked as if it's a given when that's just not true.

    If you asked people to choose 1 of 100 boxes of which 1 had a prize in and then looked at the groups of those who didn't get a prize and those who did and tried to find out what was different about the two groups I'm sure you could find tonnes of things but the reality is none of those things matter. If you get enough data we eventually find this but when applied to our scenarios we don't we get snapshots of time and try to give them meaning & ironically scenarios which are different and more rare are given the most meaning.

    A good analogy is if you look at rich entrepreneurs they'll all go on about risk taking and how important it is & undoubtedly calculated risks are but almost none of these people understand risk on any real level. They just happen to be the tiny % that came good. Putting £100 on green when playing Roulette is a bad risk but I bet all those people who do and win don't think so.

    Now political races and what not obviously have more to them than this and there are lots of things you can do to help your chances but the reality is Trump is doing so well because he just fits the bill of an "alternative" candidate in what is a wave of discontent within politics that seems to have developed in almost all western politics in the past couple of years.
    Last edited by Savy; 08-26-2016 at 03:00 PM.
  35. #1685
    A better more relevant analogy is the poker boom.

    Look at people who lucked out and won big tournaments around the time poker exploded. Lots of those people weren't good at poker but that didn't stop them gaining huge success & money. Whereas there will be tonnes of very good poker players who have never had any big scores full of great advice that never get looked at because clearly the person with more success and fame is "better" than that other person.

    I may be speaking out of turn here & correct me if so but who's giving better poker advice Renton or Chris Moneymaker? Who is the average person getting into poker listening to?

    Same in gyms you're always going to listen to the "big" guys advice over someone who is smaller and may actually know what they're talking about.

    edit - That got a bit off topic and isn't really relevant to the original point but meh whatever.
  36. #1686
    I don't disagree that I have confirmation bias. Everybody has it, and maybe it is partially mitigable at best.

    However, to your specific points, my tune on Trump has changed dramatically since I began reading Scott Adams. Most of what I say about Trump's master persuasion skills I pull from Adams. For sure there is confirmation bias at every point in what I see, but there is also a great deal of evidence and reason to believe Trump is the Master Persuader, as Adams puts it.

    Examples: the way he took down his opponents was different than I've seen in politics, and each example fits the bill of being visceral and confirming biases voters already felt about the candidates. He crushed Bush with one statement: low energy. The claim confirms our biases that Jeb really does seem like he could use more energy, and it took away one of his greatest strengths (policy seriousness) and put him in a fight for his life against the idea that he doesn't want to be there or can't handle it. "Lyin Ted" was another top quality linguistic kill shot. Ask anybody (even me, one of Ted's biggest supporters), and they'll say Cruz looks like a sleazy car salesman. How did Trump beat him? By playing to that bias in a simple way. I recall this was something JKDS pointed out at the time, how it was crazy how Trump turned the "TrusTed" theme on its back. At the time I thought that was not correct because I guess my bias was that voters are more logical than being easily persuaded word-thinkers. But JKDS was right. "Lyin' Ted" probably won the nomination fight for Trump.

    There are too many examples of Trump's top level persuasion tactics to go into them all. I guess the one I'll end on that shows he thinks about this much more deeply than people give him credit for is that the position he is in now has been manufactured for a purpose. Multitudes of voters think he's a lunatic because that's what the media has said over and over. Yet at the first debate they're all gonna see a guy who doesn't fit the media's description. All Trump has to do to win the first debate hands down is perform mediocre. Perceptual contrast is one of the first elements of persuasion covered in Cialdini's Influence, and it seems pretty clear that this has been a goal of Trump. Since he has been branded so deeply as Literally Hitler, to win the election he just has to show people that he's not Literally Hitler. It's a great position to be in for effective persuasion.
  37. #1687
    so what happens if in the debates trump asks Billary if shes going to follow her husbands example of how to behave as a president and have sexual relations with a woman in the oval office?
    does it back fire on trump , help trump by reminding the undecided that Bill had the monica affair , put Hillary off guard by making her deny she's a lesbian etc
  38. #1688
    Quote Originally Posted by Keith View Post
    so what happens if in the debates trump asks Billary if shes going to follow her husbands example of how to behave as a president and have sexual relations with a woman in the oval office?
    does it back fire on trump , help trump by reminding the undecided that Bill had the monica affair , put Hillary off guard by making her deny she's a lesbian etc
    I'm a novice of the psychology of persuasion at best, so I don't know. But if I'm guessing based on what I've learned, here it is:

    Few undecided voters care about Clinton's sexual escapades, so there's little bias to confirm with them by hammering on those escapades. The tactic would probably be unpersuasive. It would also likely give Clinton ammo and make Trump look bad since the general bias is that Hillary was a victim of her husband's indiscretions. She and the media could, with great effect, paint Trump as a bully of women and victims.
  39. #1689
    Quote Originally Posted by Keith View Post
    so what happens if in the debates trump asks Billary if shes going to follow her husbands example of how to behave as a president and have sexual relations with a woman in the oval office?
    does it back fire on trump , help trump by reminding the undecided that Bill had the monica affair , put Hillary off guard by making her deny she's a lesbian etc
    Three options

    1 - Doesn't happen - Masterful
    2 - Does happen and goes well - Masterful
    3 - Does happen and goes badly but we'll later say how it was the best action due to some given context - Masterful
  40. #1690
    Quote Originally Posted by wufwugy View Post
    I don't disagree that I have confirmation bias. Everybody has it, and maybe it is partially mitigable at best.
    I'm not talking about confirmation bias.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
  41. #1691
    I'm admitting to having confirmation bias. I'm not seeing the survivorship bias. That appears to be cognitive dissonance that ignores failures. I don't think I'm doing that. Granted I probably only post about his successes (a small fraction of them).
  42. #1692
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    Quote Originally Posted by Keith View Post
    so what happens if in the debates trump asks Billary if shes going to follow her husbands example of how to behave as a president and have sexual relations with a woman in the oval office?
    does it back fire on trump , help trump by reminding the undecided that Bill had the monica affair , put Hillary off guard by making her deny she's a lesbian etc
    She'll too easily pivot to her bread and butter - properly stating what she will do in office.

    If Trump could jostle her off her message so easily, it'd be really entertaining though.
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  43. #1693
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    wuf, you say trump will win in a landslide. how do you explain the current polls and gambling websites giving Hilary a 4:1 favorite?
  44. #1694
    Quote Originally Posted by BankItDrew View Post
    wuf, you say trump will win in a landslide. how do you explain the current polls and gambling websites giving Hilary a 4:1 favorite?
    Gambling sites: they've been wrong this whole cycle (at least on the GOP side). They also would have been wrong on the Dem side if the DNC hadn't literally cheated, but whatever. Also, AFAIK betting odds are set to generate action, to reflect how bettors want to act, not necessarily the *real* odds.

    The polls: pollsters are engaging in some raunchy pro-Clinton tactics. For example, many of them are weighting for 2008 turnout. 2016 is not going to look like 2008. That doesn't mean that they should try to more accurately predict turnout, but it does show the polls have a consistent bias that is not likely to show up on election day. Most signs point towards the turnout being more GOP leaning than 2012 was, which suggests the race is very tight.

    I think there will be a moderately significant Shy Trump effect. The Shy Tory effect has seemed to happen quite a bit in Britain. They say it happened with Brexit, where the polls had Remain winning yet it ended up getting soundly defeated.

    The guys who ran the best poll in 2012 IMO are running this poll: http://cesrusc.org/election/

    Nate Hydrogen hates it, but I think he's wrong. There is a great deal that can be garnered from this type of polling, and it was spot on in 2012. The link updates daily with new results. It's probably best used to view where the candidates are relative to each other and trends.
  45. #1695
    More or less, I don't think the polls will ever show a landslide coming. But I think on election day, the enthusiasm will be for Trump and not for Clinton. In addition to enthusiasm, I think the doubts people have about Clinton will be too high and that the doubts for Trump will have been mostly assuaged. Together this will mean millions of people making that marginal decision to show up for Trump and millions of people making that marginal decision to not show up for Clinton.
  46. #1696
    Without spending too much time on it, I'll point out one very compelling element within the polls. African American support is indicating a landslide for Trump even in polls that show Clinton with the lead. One of the latest polls has Clinton/Trump at 73%/14% of African Americans. 73% is disaster for Democrats. They would lose all sorts of blue states, like Pennsylvania and probably Michigan, with such low African American proportions.

    The cross tabs are telling us the polls are not telling us the state of the race that well.
  47. #1697
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    Thanks for the response.

    So bet the house on trump? It's paying 3.5:1
  48. #1698
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    As a Canadian, I've been following the race everyday since last June. I find it immensely more fascinating than our politics.
  49. #1699
    What fascinates me about American politics is the fact that the public has such a broad view of what makes a candidate qualified for office. Reagan, Schwartzenegger, Ventura, and now Trump all come to mind as people who started their political careers by running for a significant office (governor or president) with little or no experience in politics/government at all. This does not happen in other English-speaking countries or the West in general afaik.

    What I think this illustrates is that the US has mastered the art of marketing in elections. The amount of money spent on funding elections is astronomical compared to anywhere else. Discussions of policy are lacking or at most secondary to the real question of whose brand is a better seller. It may as well be an election pitting MacDonald's versus Coca-Cola.
    Last edited by Poopadoop; 08-27-2016 at 06:57 AM.
  50. #1700
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    Quote Originally Posted by Poopadoop View Post
    What fascinates me about American politics is the fact that the public has such a broad view of what makes a candidate qualified for office. Reagan, Schwartzenegger, Ventura, and now Trump all come to mind as people who started their political careers by running for a significant office (governor or president) with little or no experience in politics/government at all. This does not happen in other English-speaking countries or the West in general afaik.

    What I think this illustrates is that the US has mastered the art of marketing in elections. The amount of money spent on funding elections is astronomical compared to anywhere else. Discussions of policy are lacking or at most secondary to the real question of whose brand is a better seller. It may as well be an election pitting MacDonald's versus Coca-Cola.
    I think it's more along the lines of thinking that the kind of common sense that can manage your work and family and community should scale up to the highest office.

    It shouldn't take some great calculus to stand as the country's executive.
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  51. #1701
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    Quote Originally Posted by BankItDrew View Post
    Thanks for the response.

    So bet the house on trump? It's paying 3.5:1
    Do not do this.
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  52. #1702
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    Quote Originally Posted by wufwugy View Post
    More or less, I don't think the polls will ever show a landslide coming. But I think on election day, the enthusiasm will be for Trump and not for Clinton. In addition to enthusiasm, I think the doubts people have about Clinton will be too high and that the doubts for Trump will have been mostly assuaged. Together this will mean millions of people making that marginal decision to show up for Trump and millions of people making that marginal decision to not show up for Clinton.
    I have zero enthusiasm for Clinton, but I'm still voting for her.
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  53. #1703
    Quote Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla View Post
    I think it's more along the lines of thinking that the kind of common sense that can manage your work and family and community should scale up to the highest office.

    It shouldn't take some great calculus to stand as the country's executive.
    Doesn't America have a pretty strong history of anti-academia with regards to people in office? I imagine a lot of countries also do, being seen as the smartest guy in the room isn't a positive trait for this.
  54. #1704
    Quote Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla View Post
    I think it's more along the lines of thinking that the kind of common sense that can manage your work and family and community should scale up to the highest office.

    It shouldn't take some great calculus to stand as the country's executive.
    But it should take someone with some experience in office, no?

    And what is it about any of these people that suggests they are good at managing all of their work, family and community? Trump's been married multiple times, for example, and has been described as the 'least charitable billionaire in the world' (suggesting he's less than keenly interested in the 'community'. Surely a highly educated, successful person with a stable marriage and some experience in government would make a better candidate than any of the ones i mentioned if that were the only criteria used to judge them.
  55. #1705
    I can tell you this: If Rupert Murdoch (or whoever the UK equivalent of Trump is) should run for office he would not get a significant amount of support for the reasons I mentioned.
  56. #1706
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    Quote Originally Posted by Poopadoop View Post
    But it should take someone with some experience in office, no?

    And what is it about any of these people that suggests they are good at managing all of their work, family and community? Trump's been married multiple times, for example, and has been described as the 'least charitable billionaire in the world' (suggesting he's less than keenly interested in the 'community'. Surely a highly educated, successful person with a stable marriage and some experience in government would make a better candidate than any of the ones i mentioned if that were the only criteria used to judge them.
    Obama didn't have much experience and I think he did well enough.

    I'm very anti-Trump, so I can't really square up a defense for the man. I will, however, defend those that want to vote for him in earnest.
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  57. #1707
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    Quote Originally Posted by Poopadoop View Post
    I can tell you this: If Rupert Murdoch (or whoever the UK equivalent of Trump is) should run for office he would not get a significant amount of support for the reasons I mentioned.
    What about the Philippine version of Trump? Guy literally campaigns on "I will murder all of the problems", is elected, and then does just that.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/w...lers/86936916/
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  58. #1708
    Quote Originally Posted by ImSavy View Post
    Doesn't America have a pretty strong history of anti-academia with regards to people in office?
    That's kind of what I was getting at, but even more, experience in office seems less relevant in the US than in other places.
  59. #1709
    Quote Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla View Post
    What about the Philippine version of Trump? Guy literally campaigns on "I will murder all of the problems", is elected, and then does just that.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/w...lers/86936916/
    Well I assume you would want to think your country is a bit more civilized than the Phillippines. I'm sure there's lot of dodgy guys elected in S. America and Africa too. But I was comparing the US to the rest of the West.
  60. #1710
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    Quote Originally Posted by Poopadoop View Post
    Well I assume you would want to think your country is a bit more civilized than the Phillippines.
    I very much do not.

    We're all people, after all.

    But I was comparing the US to the rest of the West.
    Didn't the UK make Boris their top diplomat?
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  61. #1711
    Quote Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla View Post
    Obama didn't have much experience and I think he did well enough.
    According to Wiki, his former jobs were community organizer (whatever that is), lawyer, and lecturer. So yeah he wasn't experienced in office but at least he presumably had some understanding of how laws were made. Isn't that one of the president's main jobs.

    Quote Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla View Post
    I'm very anti-Trump, so I can't really square up a defense for the man. I will, however, defend those that want to vote for him in earnest.
    So will I. There's nothing wrong with someone having their own opinions and I wasn't arguing they should be denied the right to vote for Trump or anyone else.
  62. #1712
    You don't think your political system is any more advanced than that of the Phillippines? Interesting.

    Quote Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla View Post
    Didn't the UK make Boris their top diplomat?
    Your point presumably being that he's an unkempt buffoon, and so comparable to Trump?

    Johnson was an MP for 8 years before being Mayor of London for 8 years. Before that he went to Oxford. He worked in the media for several years as a political columnist before becoming MP.
  63. #1713
    Quote Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla View Post

    Didn't the UK make Boris their top diplomat?
    I'm not really a fan of Boris but he's been in politics for a really long time & is actually a decent face for British politics in foreign markets. Of the people who could have got that job (poor bunch admittedly) he's by far and away the best pick.
  64. #1714
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    Quote Originally Posted by ImSavy View Post
    I'm not really a fan of Boris but he's been in politics for a really long time & is actually a decent face for British politics in foreign markets. Of the people who could have got that job (poor bunch admittedly) he's by far and away the best pick.
    I remember thinking the same thing about George W.
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  65. #1715
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    Quote Originally Posted by Poopadoop View Post
    Your point presumably being that he's an unkempt buffoon, and so comparable to Trump?

    Johnson was an MP for 8 years before being Mayor of London for 8 years. Before that he went to Oxford. He worked in the media for several years as a political columnist before becoming MP.
    Funny thing about resumes, they often don't do justice to the person.

    <br>
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  66. #1716
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    Gotta show what I'll fall for.

    He seems like a pretty competent sec of state, but I still voted against him for president. Probably woulda made a decent president too.
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  67. #1717
    Quote Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla View Post
    Funny thing about resumes, they often don't do justice to the person.
    It's actually one of the reasons he will excel in the job. Bush was/is an idiot with poor public speaking skills, Boris is a shrewd well surrounded politician who plays up to the bumbling idiot toff stereotype which curries him huge favour with the masses & does a job of hiding his very right wing views.
  68. #1718
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    Quote Originally Posted by ImSavy View Post
    It's actually one of the reasons he will excel in the job. Bush was/is an idiot with poor public speaking skills, Boris is a shrewd well surrounded politician who plays up to the bumbling idiot toff stereotype which curries him huge favour with the masses & does a job of hiding his very right wing views.
    I remember when I defended Bush as a person of incredible people intellect. That, after a day at yale, he had already memorized everyone's name.

    We like to trust that our leaders are capable. Doesn't mean they are.
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  69. #1719
    Quote Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla View Post
    I remember when I defended Bush as a person of incredible people intellect. That, after a day at yale, he had already memorized everyone's name.

    We like to trust that our leaders are capable. Doesn't mean they are.
    That's the what is happening here though. I could happily go through the majority of the cabinet and tell you why they're useless fucks who shouldn't be in a job.
  70. #1720
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    Quote Originally Posted by ImSavy View Post
    That's the what is happening here though. I could happily go through the majority of the cabinet and tell you why they're useless fucks who shouldn't be in a job.
    Don't they have a shadow cabinet?
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  71. #1721
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    Quote Originally Posted by ImSavy View Post
    Doesn't America have a pretty strong history of anti-academia with regards to people in office? I imagine a lot of countries also do, being seen as the smartest guy in the room isn't a positive trait for this.
    Maybe. 11 out of the last 13 presidents have had serious academic credentials. Like Yale, and Harvard Law.

    Loads of people run as the "common man", but it's rarely true. There's nothing common about running for president or senate.
  72. #1722
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    Quote Originally Posted by Poopadoop View Post
    That's kind of what I was getting at, but even more, experience in office seems less relevant in the US than in other places.
    Why do you say that? Many presidents have been previously vice president, secretary of state, or governor. Without being president, these are each pretty close.

    Our media is batshit crazy, and downplays the experience thing while also not up selling it enough. But I think most people agree that we want an experienced leader.
  73. #1723
    virtually all have resigned cos they realize that with corbyn in charge at the next election they will all be having to look for a proper job. This weeks train fiasco has helped weaken his position even further and casts a shadow over his integrity ,judgement and honesty . Not a great position if you want to be PM . http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37173048
  74. #1724
    Quote Originally Posted by JKDS View Post
    Why do you say that? Many presidents have been previously vice president, secretary of state, or governor. Without being president, these are each pretty close.

    Our media is batshit crazy, and downplays the experience thing while also not up selling it enough. But I think most people agree that we want an experienced leader.
    None of the examples I cited had experience, and likely would not have been elected in the UK at least. That's what I'm getting at. We don't have any wrestler or actor MPs, for example. All of Reagan, Ventura and Schwartzenegger were elected governor with no experience in public office at all.

    No-one's yet made a good argument for why any of these guys were qualified apart from being easily recognizable and having charisma (i.e., being marketable).
    Last edited by Poopadoop; 08-27-2016 at 11:31 AM.
  75. #1725
    Quote Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla View Post
    I remember when I defended Bush as a person of incredible people intellect. That, after a day at yale, he had already memorized everyone's name.
    I don't even doubt he was intellectually up there until some time around his election the first time when he started to develop early onset dementia. I tried to find a video of him being articulate but all they have on youtube are ones of him looking impaired.

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