Trump - Clown Genius

[IlliniDave]

Sounds like there's some improvement to be had following the European model? The number I got was from reports on the latest Tufts CSDD report.

http://csdd.tufts.edu/news/complete_sto ... cost_study

[Chad]

@IlliniDave
Just because the US system is ever so slightly closer to being a free market, in some ways, than the European/Canadian systems does not make it a free market. In a free market the consumer would have choice. They do not, for multiple complex reasons. I'm not even sure a free market healthcare system is possible given the incredible number of important and very restrictive variables in healthcare.

Also, many of these public companies build their research off of basic science sponsored by NIH and other government agencies. So, yes, they spend there own money, but it's usually at the tail end.

Historically, the largest government investments in basic drug discovery research have been made by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has also contributed to the discovery stage by taking on some relatively high-risk biologic projects. Moreover, in part as a result of the public’s impatience with the slow pace of the discovery process, state governments are increasingly taking the initiative in this area....

...At the other end of the continuum is late-stage development, which is funded primarily by pharmaceutical companies or venture capitalists with some collaborative support from government sources, such as NIH.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK50972/

[GandK]

NextAvenue (a PBS-affiliated web site aimed at people who are 50+) recently posted the results of an online survey of more than 3,400 readers regarding what older voters care about.

The comments cited were both inspirational and eyeroll-inducing. In the aggregate, it appears that people over 50 would like everything in society provided and paid for, and lower taxes to boot.

[enigmaT120]

NextAvenue (a PBS-affiliated web site aimed at people who are 50+) recently posted the results of an online survey of more than 3,400 readers regarding what older voters care about.

The comments cited were both inspirational and eyeroll-inducing. In the aggregate, it appears that people over 50 would like everything in society provided and paid for, and lower taxes to boot.

Was there some selection bias, in that it was their readers who were polled?

[GandK]

@enigmaT120 Some, I'm sure. The articles I've seen posted on that site tell me that their readership is middle- to upper-middle class 50+ year old people who are both politically inclined and are plus or minus ten years from their desired retirement date.

[Dragline]

The comments cited were both inspirational and eyeroll-inducing. In the aggregate, it appears that people over 50 would like everything in society provided and paid for, and lower taxes to boot.

This is how the Boomer Generation has always polled. The fiscally incoherent behavior of our government since the days when the last boomers reached voting age (circa 1978) has reflected these incoherent desires.

[brighteye]

The Australian show "Insiders" created this clip with Trump (I watched it because I am a fan of the books and series)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0tE6T-ecmg

I haven't followed any US politics lately.
Did he actually say all these things??

[jacob]

@brighteye - Quite likely. Here's another classic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU_Jdts5rL0 (some of the soundbites seem taken out of context)

[George the original one]

Yup, he said all of that. They actually went soft with the waterboarding quote as Trump also said, "Torture works."

[leeholsen]

Yup, he said all of that. They actually went soft with the waterboarding quote as Trump also said, "Torture works."

i watched him on the hannity show in a townhall and then a live debate. it's fascinating to me. this guy has no depth on any issue or any platform like a certain tax rate or any reference other than what he sees on tv. he looks more like a used car salesman with his pitch but no substance.


how people can line up for a sales job after they did in 2008 is telling of just how easily people can be drawn in on lollipops and butterflies.

[C40]

Look at the voting by demographic. Basically, it's the uneducated Republicans that are voting for Trump.

[Dragline]

Yup, he's got that full-on Bubba thing going for him:

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-m ... na-primary

[GandK]

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-m ... na-primary

That/he makes me want to vomit, and I'm a conservative.

[Dragline]

I'm not sure you were reading the same article, or you are talking about the same people. This is what it said:

"Nearly 1 in 3 also support banning gay people from entering the U.S. On the issue of religion, 1 in 3 also say Islam should be illegal in the U.S. Forty percent of his supporters say they support shutting down mosques in the U.S. (while 36 percent say they would oppose it). While the majority of Republican primary voters, and in some cases, the majority of Trump supporters, don't agree with these ideas, the highest share of supporters agreeing also support Trump.

The ideas in the poll draw a sharp contrast between Trump and the establishment-approve candidates. On the issue of Japanese internment, during World War II, 61 percent of Jeb Bush supporters and 50 percent of Marco Rubio's supporters oppose the policy. Among Donald Trump supporters, 33 percent oppose it while 32 percent support it and 35 percent say they aren't sure.

Of Trump supporters in South Carolina, 16 percent believe whites are a superior race. Notably, the candidate with the next most support among white supremacists is actually Rubio with 9 percent. More Trump supporters say they wish the South had won the Civil War than say they are glad the North won — again, Trump supporters are the most likely to think this. On the issue of the Confederate flag, a full 70 percent support it hanging on the capital grounds. It was removed from the South Carolina statehouse after a racially-motivated shooting spree left nine dead in the state last year."

These people are essentially American fascists. They don't believe in freedom of religion or of thought and they are racially motivated. They are looking for people to throw under the bus, over the wall or at the end of a rope to justify their dissatisfaction with their own lives. The catharsis of mob violence against a pre-identified scapegoat is what they are interested in.

America is greater that it has ever been right now, is the only superpower in the world, and is safer to live in in virtually any time in our lifetimes.

Hopes the South will rise again are part of a fallacy of nostalgia, or longing for a past that only really exists in the imagination. The fallacy of nostalgia is what authoritarians feast upon for their daily sustenance -- the power to "restore the old order."

We are not at war with any Muslim countries -- or any countries at all for that matter. We have problems with essentially international pirates, thugs and criminal organizations, like the Barbary pirates of history long ago. They are not invincible masterminds and are less threatening to you and me than our crazy neighbors.

Terrorism in America is not a big problem -- its an excuse for politicians to impose draconian restrictions on your freedom and for media to attract your attention so they can sell more ads. If you do not believe me, do the factual research to answer this question: In which order do the following rank from most likely to kill you to the least based on what actually happens in real life and not what you read or hear in the so-called news: (1) getting killed by a terrorist; (2) getting killed by a bee sting or other insect; (3) getting killed by lightning.

Part of living where there are lightning storms and insects is accepting that there is a small chance they will kill you. Part of living in an empire is accepting that there is a small chance that terrorists will kill you. Part of living in a free society is accepting that there is a small chance that your neighbors or your Uber driver might kill you. Get over it. You're more likely to get hit by a car -- probably not an uber -- or bus.

[Ego]

I'm not saying people like that don't exist, but you can't explain his wins based on racism alone, and the more the media keep trying to portray his supporters as a bunch of of uneducated idiots, the further they are propelling him towards the White House.

I get the impression that there are a lot of people who are mad that they can't say aloud what they think and believe, like they once could. They have to filter themselves at work and it pisses them off so they are voting for the guy who appears to refuse to filter.

I really think most people want their American identity back, without apology, and that is why they are identifying with a loudmouth bully who challenges this constant hand-wringing.

The American identity has changed. It will continue to change. People don't like change.

[Chad]

I think you hit the nail on the head with your comment about change Ego. Fear of change is the base fear running through all this. It's why Trump supporters don't really care what his policies are or that he hasn't defined "greatness" at all. They just want the change to stop.

[jacob]

A lot of them are also mad because [their] real wages have been stagnating since the 1970s. That's rather bleak and so when that happens, people turn to other outlets of "expression" for lack of a better word. Everybody wants to feel important in some way so if they can't get richer(*), rallying behind one of more of the following alternatives is a time-tested outlet: their flag, their glorious history, an ideology, their particular skin-color, gender, race, religious affiliation. Kinda like soccer hooligans but on a national scale.

Lets call them reactionaries.

(*) The mark of the chosen ones in a consumer/materialistic society---which is most of the world by now.

The Tea Party was supposed to be the last protest move against because they quickly got absorbed by Washington politics. So now Republican reactionaries no longer trust any establishment politicians and look for an outsider. Ron Paul is gone and Rand is too much into real-politik and in any case they were too libertarian (a politic preferred by people who do well in society (or think they do---see young hotheads) not those who don't). Bernie Sanders is similar reactionism for the Democrats. They essentially want a return to LBJ's Great Society which was proposed right around when Bernie Sanders graduated from college. Go figure.

One of the problems with these reactions is that they need a fascist system to enact that much change. Essentially they have to declare themselves dictators. Such efforts have not been successful in Europe (too much recent history) and I'm not convinced it would be easy in the US despite the success of the executive branch in usurping increasingly much power over the past many decades. So ironically what happens when they have been elected with substantial mandates from the people is that they ... refuse to govern. They're smart enough themselves to realize that their policies aren't practical (e.g. "Build a wall and let Mexico pay for it") and so they reject the responsibility preferring to be "the great rejecter".

It's possible that if Trump becomes president we're going to see the status quo even more deadlocked with the president vetoing anything that manages to pass the congress and senate.

[GandK]

I really think most people want their American identity back, without apology, and that is why they are identifying with a loudmouth bully who challenges this constant hand-wringing.

The American identity has changed. It will continue to change. People don't like change.

This is it in a nutshell. It's a repeat of "Who Moved My Cheese?" only this time there are millions of mice. People who would have easily prospered 40 years ago, due to demographics or geography or more factory jobs available or whatever (many root causes, as @ffj says), are looking around and saying, "Hey... I can't do that anymore! There was a promise," implicit and tenuous at best, "that if I worked hard I could win! And there are all these other people here now," mostly brown ones, "and they're winning and I'm not! They stole my win!" The people with this mindset - I should have won and I didn't - are pissed, and they're looking for targets of blame, and Trump has tapped into that vein of anger.

And yes, many of these people won't admit in public that part of the reason they would have had those jobs 40 years ago is that better-qualified brown people would not have been given an opportunity. That is entirely beside the point in their eyes. There were lots of good-paying, low-skilled job opportunities for "people like them" back then, and now there aren't, and someone must be to blame. Also, there's no cohesive "American Identity" any longer, @Ego. One more thing to be pissed about: no shared sense of community or values. Christians, especially, are sore about that one. And Trump says he'll fix all that.

Damned good salesman.

[George the original one]

"Drill, baby, drill!"

[jacob]

I think I have a good question(!)

How come the Republicans let Trump run under their flag instead of as a third party?

Can anyone just declare themselves R or D and run against the candidates of that party?