Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Trump as a Bullshit Artist

I have watched the Donald on TV quite a bit, and the breadth and depth of his bullshit is truly astonishing. I would like to share three of my favorite Donald bullshitisms with you right now.

1. When Trump was the top dog Obama birther he said he sent investigators to Hawaii to look into Obama's birth place and they found "amazing things," truly amazing. Needless to say we never heard of this again because the Donald had nothing, and knew it. He just wanted to create the impression in your mind that Obama was not born in the U.S., and succeeded with a substantial fraction of the far right.

2. My second fav was the absolute and complete ban on Muslims entering the country. The Donald knows perfectly well that U.S. military on deployment would come home regardless of religion. He knows that Muslim U.S. citizens will come home when they please. He knows that he can't keep diplomats from North Africa, the Middle East, central Asia and other Muslim countries from coming to embassies and consulates all over the country. The Donald knows perfectly well that real terrorists trying to enter the country aren't going to advertise their religion, i.e., the whole concept is totally bullshit, but you have to admire the chutzpa.

3. I'll save my favorite for last: his secret plan to defeat ISIS. Just like Nixon's secret plan to win the Vietnam war there is no there there. Just to be clear, we lost the Vietnam war. The Donald, even though he says he gets his military expertise from watching TV shows, knows perfectly well that although the U.S. military could conquer the territory currently held by ISIS fairly easily, the real fight would start after the occupation and, as we found in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's not conquering but the aftermath that goes badly. Still, Trump got to stand in front of big crowds, thump his chest, and emit vast quantities of bullshit. How fun!

So there's a few of my favorites. Feel free to share them with your friends and add your own, I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding them. Just watch your TV.

1 comment:

Paul Fernhout said...

Hi Al! You may find this of interest by Sam Altman (of Y Combinator) on Trump:
http://blog.samaltman.com/trump
"I'm going to say something very unpopular in my world: Trump is right about some big things. He's right that many Americans are getting screwed by the system. He’s right that the economy is not growing nearly fast enough. He's right that we're drowning in political correctness, and that broken campaign finance laws have bred a class of ineffective career politicians. He may even be right that free trade is not the best policy. Trump supporters are not dumb. But Trump is wrong about the more important part: how to fix these problems. Many of his proposals, such as they are, are so wrong they’re difficult to even respond to. ... He distracts us with hate of outsiders in the hopes that we don’t notice he has no plan for the inside. He has failed to put forward a serious plan for major investments in research and technology that we so desperately need. Instead, he tries to distract us with fear of Them. ..."

BTW, glad to see the Space Settlement Contest pages ( settlement.arc.nasa.gov/Contest ) are still going strong. Hopefully space habitats will someday support more geographical and political diversity in living arrangements. That way people will be have more choices for voting with their feet for what sorts of communities they want to live in. As with the Brexit vote, many people want smaller (more local) governments with more accountable leadership. Sad if we have to go all the way to outer space to find that though. Making things work better for all on Earth in various present-day communities is a great way to practice for going to the stars. :-) But, thinking about living in space can provide a new perspective that helps inform our thinking on Earth, too.