Previous September Posts
All my Daily Kos diaries
Friday, Sept. 30, 2016
Help me raise my national visibility. Read this here and make
Comments on Daily Kos
Okay, once again we have a bombshell one day and a story that bumps that story off the news in favor of one far less significant. Trump’s breaking the Cuba embargo, a federal crime, has been replaced by his hysterical Tweeting overnight which is making Miss Universe — an actual person he maligned who comes across as wonderfully real and sympathetic — his newest villain.
He’s calling her disgusting and asks everyone to check out her sex tapes and past.
This is pure idiocy!
There are few things I can think of that she might have done in her past that will turn the vast majority against her.
She could have made sex tapes — something he and has pal Howard Stern would approve of as would many male Trump fans.
She could have been a drug trafficker — look at the popularity of “Breaking Bad.”
She could have been a murderer… hell, she could have been a serial killer. Look at the popularity of “Dexter.”
I really can’t think of anything she could have done in her past that would work in Trump’s favor.
Maybe being a part of a female cannibal cult….. but then only if they ate adorable children.
Bottom line: The difficult for the average person to grasp Trump outrages will probably have less impact on voters starting to question their support of Trump than human interest stories where he attacks people like the Khans and Machado.
· HalBrown
The Race to Smear Miss Universe Alicia Machado as a Bloodthirsty, Drug Lord-Loving Porn StarRush Limbaugh was quick to dub newfound Trump campaign foe Alicia Machado ‘porn star Miss Piggy’ because someone who looked like her once appeared in porn. It wasn’t her, though.09.28.16 4:20 PM ET
Alicia Machado, the former Miss Universe whom Donald Trump repeatedly attacked for her weight both in 1996 and this week, is a Venezuelan porn actress with a history of violence and palling around with shady characters running drug cartels. That’s how some of Trump’s closest media allies and his armada of alt-right internet trolls are trying to frame the beauty queen’s life on Wednesday, at least. from www.thedailybeast.com/…
· HalBrown
Last year, on the same week that Trump announced his presidential run, Machado had her own nickname for her one-time Miss Universe terrorizer: “Nazi rat.”On the day Trump launched his campaign, Machado called him an “unhappy NAZI!” and two days later tweeted that Trump “is a racist Nazi and despot.”More recently, she has returned to her preferred nickname for the Republican presidential nominee, using the hashtag #RataNazi. from www.thedailybeast.com/...
· HalBrown
What about the murder accusations, etc., being leveled at Machado by Fox News and the alt-right? And does anybody really care if they are all true? Here’s what she said:
“He can say whatever he wants to say. I don’t care! You know, I have my past, of course. Everybody has a past, and I’m not a saint girl, but that is not the point now.”“That moment in Venezuela was wrong, was another speculation about my life because I’m a really famous person in my country because I’m an actress there and in Mexico, too. And he can use whatever he wants to use. The point is, that happened 20 years ago.”
· HalBrown
According to Snopes:
CLAIM: Former Miss Universe Alicia Machado was a 'porn star.'MOSTLY FALSEWHAT'S TRUE: Former Miss Universe Alicia Machado made an allegedly risqué appearance on a TV reality show and was pictured topless in Playboy magazine.WHAT'S FALSE: Alicia Machado has not starred in a series of pornographic films.
· HalBrown
If Trump wants to have his minions post revealing photos of Alecia Machado, he is inviting us — even here on Daily Kos — to post the photos of Melania from her modeling days.
I won’t go there — sexy photos of both of them are easy enough to find on Google Images.
Above: File under Rationalizations
Evening edition:
Breaking news exclusive from Rachel… Trump and Castro, another bombshell Newsweek cover story from Kurt Eichenwald.
Will this latest bombshell fizzle like all the previous ones. Most Kos readers think so...
Hence my latest pic-toon:
Getting Freudian/// read this
Larry Womack’s Huff Po article, Stop Pretending You Don’t Know Why People Hate Hillary Clinton, got me to thinking in the Freudian mode.
Those will comment that this is garbage, but that's typical when someone points out UNCONSCIOUS reasons for people's attitudes. The angrier your comments are the more I'd posit the commenter is using a defense mechanism, or as Shakepeare wrote "The lady (or man in this case) doth protest too much, methinks.”
I knew what the author was going to drive at before I read this -- the same reason I've thought all along. Obama was black -- a powerful black man, Hillary is a powerful woman (both dangerous to insecure white men).
Larry Womack writes:
It’s time to stop pretending that this is about substance. This is about an eagerness to believe that a woman who seeks power will say or do anything to get it. This is about a Lady MacBeth stereotype that, frankly, should never have existed in the first place. This is about the one thing no one wants to admit it’s about. emphasis added
My reason, being a Freudian oriented therapist leaned towards the Oedipal…(see image)… analysts have long pondered what Freud said about the Oedipus Complex, for example:
Ernest Jones essay "The Oedipus Complex as an Explanation of Hamlet"s Mystery" was first published in The American Journal of Psychology in January of 1910. It was published in German the following year as a monogram, and then revised and expanded in 1923 when it appeared under the title "A Psycho-Analytic Study of Hamlet" as the first chapter in Jones' book, Essays in Applied Psycho-Analysis. It was further revised and extended into Jones' Hamlet and Oedipus (1949), a book which was almost immediately taken to be the expression of the official Freudian position on Hamlet, largely due to Jones' closeness to Freud himself, both as a disciple and as his official biographer. artsites.ucsc.edu/…
Freud read the Bard and incorporated his characters into this theories --- the Lady MacBeth stereotype fits right in -- google Lady MacBeth and Freud..
Lady MacBeth, if you recall, was so committed to achieving her goals she’d kill her own child! Men and women with unresolved conflicts, often deeply unconscious conflicts, with their perhaps controlling or overbearing mothers may find Hillary’s power threatening. To defend against the emergence of anxiety rooted in childhood they may channel this into feelings of hate.
Here’s what she said as she manipulates her husband into killing King Duncan:
I have given suck, and know How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done to this. (I.vii)
Those will comment that this is garbage, but that's typical when someone points out UNCONSCIOUS reasons for people's attitudes. The angrier the comments are the more I'd posit the commenter is using a defense mechanism, or as Shakepeare wrote "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" -- but here you'd substitute "the man." I knew what you were going to drive at before I read this -- the same reason I've thought all along. Obama was black -- a powerful black man, Hillary is a powerful woman (both dangerous to insecure white men). However, my reason, being a Freudian oriented therapist leaned towards the Oedipal... but off course SIGGY read a lot of the Bard and incorporated his characters into this theories --- your Lady M syndrome fits right in -- google Lady MacBeth and Freud…
Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2016
Even edition:
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| My pic-toon contribution. |
The Party's Over ... Water Controversy Spills Over
(Disclaimer: Jest jesting, Komrades ... jest a leetle sarcasm)
by my friend Dr. Howard Covitz
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| Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens (14 July 1911 – 8 January 1990) was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads and toffs, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as "What an absolute shower!", "Good show!", "You dirty rotter" and "Hard cheese." -- from wikipedia . |
Second pic-toon comes from Rosie:
First pic-toon:
Monday, Sept. 26, 2016
Post-debate funnies:
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| Everyone on MSNBC talking about his facial contortions and using the word Grimace — and guess what I found… 12 year old Trump and his real father. |
Perhaps you passed by the most recent issue of The National Enquirer in the check-out aisle and saw the sensational headlines and were curious. Not curious enough to actually read the revelations about the explosive secrets that will doom her campaign. Well… here’s how Trump was supposed to win the debate:
Comments on Daily Kos
This is just an audience participation blog.
The tempest in a teapot over Mark Cuban sitting in the front row at the debate and the man who want to be president, Donald J. Trump, floating the idea that if he did Gennifer Flowers would also sit in the front row led Trump to make a remark calling Cuban a failed TV show host.
I thought a good come-back for him would be a Tweet that said “I guess I’m just not cut out to be a carnival barker.”
I decided to find an image of a carnival barker and found out that someone had already depicted Trump as the barker in the old photo above. See right.
I’ll be thinking of retorts that Hillary we wish Hillary could feel free to use in the debate and hopefully come up with some today that I can share.
I doubt Hillary will use the more colorful ones I think you and I can come up with, if she uses any at all. I expect she will take the high road and stick to substance over style, policy over performance art. My inclination is that it is a huge risk to use a zinger lest it fall flat.
Here’s an opportunity to vent a little and show your creativity.
If a comment makes you smile or laugh, give it a like.
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| Watch segment here |
Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016
Evening edition:\ Comments here
It seems like all of Trump’s critics write and talk about Trump being a pathological liar. We just can’t say this with any certainty. In fact, if he was a pathological liar I think, were he not so deplorable in so many ways, we might just have some empathy for him.
Wait before you zoom down to the comments. Here’s why. “Pathology,” from the Latin “pathologia” is generally used to describe the causes and effects of disease. It can also be used to describe a mental, social, or linguistic abnormality or malfunction. In other words, if that’s what Trump is, he’s sick.
What then is the disease, abnormality, or malfunction that causes Trump’s incessant lying? We can say that he’s an inveterate or incorrigible liar. We can even compare him to other public figures and say that he’d a world class liar
I put a poll on that diary to see how readers came down on the deliberate vs. the delusional (so to speak). The results are on the right.
I wrote about how pathological lying was not currently a psychiatric diagnosis, and how it didn’t even fit into the symptoms of any other diagnosis.
How can one deal with a politician about whose lies there is only one dispute: does he lie every 3 ½ minutes or every five minutes? This is the topic all over the media. Should the debate moderators hold the candidates to a standard of truth telling? Should we rely on journalists and others to live Tweet fact checks. Should we count on the media to fact check after the debate? Or should we listen to Kellyanne Conway who said this evening on MSNBC that it wasn’t the job of journalists to fact check, leading one of the commentators to say something to the effect of “what does’t that make us, stenographers?”
What I’m left with is, as the King said in the immortal musical “The King and I:”
There are times I almost thinkNobody sure of what he absolutely know.Everybody find confusionIn conclusion he concluded long agoAnd it puzzle me to learnThat tho' a man may be in doubt of what he know,Very quickly he will fight...He'll fight to prove that what he does not know is so!Oh-h-h-h-h-h Sometimes I think that people going mad!Ah-h-h-h-h-h! Sometimes I think that people not so bad!But not matter what I think I must go on living life.As leader of my kingdom I must go forth,Be father to my children and husband to each wifeEtcetera, etcetera, and so forth.If my Lord in Heaven Buddha, show the way!Everyday I try to live another day. If my Lord in Heaven Buddha, show the way!Everyday I do my best for one-more day![Spoken] But...Is a puzzlement!
Listen here. Hopefully it will cheer you up if you’re stressed out over Trump.
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| I ade this pic-toon this morning, thought about it, and came up with the following: |
Another in my PSY-VU series, i.e. from a psychotherapist’s viewpoint.
Does Trump knowingly lie? Does he believe the lies he spins. Or, perhaps he wishes so hard that his lies are true that he believes them at the time he utters them. This is far more serious than the wishful thinking most people engage in.
If he knowingly lies and feels not a twinge of guilt then he is engaging in a reprehensible behavior for which there is no excuse. He can’t even make the excuse that he lies because he suffers from anti-social personality disorder, because despite the fact that some have called him a sociopath, he isn’t. He has some traits of sociopathy, the guilt free lying for example while being charming, but that doesn’t support the diagnosis.
His lying seems may be a defense mechanism used to protect a fragile self-concept from truths that contradict what he wants to believe.
I break down his lies into two rarely overlapping categories. The first doesn’t really impact on his fitness to be president. This are the lies of braggadocio: inflating his monetary worth, his business accomplishments, and so on. He has a lot of ego (self-image) invested in these lies as evidenced by how he lashes out at those who challenge him on them. For example, his war with fellow billionaire Mark Cuban.
The other lies are political. These are the lies reported on by many sources from the L.A. Times to Al Jazeera to the conservative National Review to websites from PolitFacts to Trump Lies.
These are the lies that should be judged as disqualifying for anyone holding the office of President of the United States. You know what they are.
What you or I can’t know is why he tell these lies. If you were hoping that I had some great psychological insight to this, I am sorry to disappoint you. I don’t. There’s nothing I can find in the psychiatric literature that helps explain Trump’s lying.
There’s no psychiatric diagnosis for this unless you count “trumpism” which comes from psychologist William Doherty’s Citizen Therapist Manifesto: (my emphasis added)
What is Trumpism?Trumpism is an ideology, not an individual, and it may well endure and grow after the Presidential election even if Donald Trump is defeated. (Variants can be seen all over Europe.) Trumpism is a set of ideas about public life and a set of public practices characterized by:
- Scapegoating and banishing groups of people who are seen as threats, including immigrants and religious minorities.
- Degrading, ridiculing, and demeaning rivals and critics.
- Fostering a cult of the Strong Man who:
- Appeals to fear and anger
- Promises to solve our problems if we just trust in him
- Reinvents history and has little concern for truth
- Never apologizes or admits mistakes of consequence
- Sees no need for rational persuasion
- Subordinates women while claiming to idealize them
- Disdains public institutions like the courts when they are not subservient
- Champions national power over international law and respect for other nations
- Incites and excuses public violence by supporters
Doherty claims this isn’t a diagnosis, something he refuses to speculate on publicly. In fact, this list of Trump’s characteristics is so extreme that it actually goes beyond the most common diagnosis which is being suggested applies to Trump by laymen and those professionals will to make an actual diagnosis, that of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD)—
But here’s the puzzlement. Does extreme narcissism really account for pathological lying? By now I expect most of you are familiar with the characteristics of NPD:
- Grandiosity with expectations of superior treatment from others
- Fixated on fantasies of power, success, intelligence, attractiveness, etc.
- Self-perception of being unique, superior and associated with high-status people and institutions
- Needing constant admiration from others
- Sense of entitlement to special treatment and to obedience from others
- Exploitative of others to achieve personal gain
- Unwilling to empathize with others' feelings, wishes, or needs
- Intensely envious of others and the belief that others are equally envious of them
- Pompous and arrogant demeanor
The closest to a mention of lying in the description of those with NPD is here: Associated symptoms: People with NPD tend to exaggerate their skills and accomplishments as well as their level of intimacy with people they consider to be high-status. en.wikipedia.org/…
Okay, then what about the whole pathological liar accusation? You may be surprised to know that there’s no psychiatric diagnosis for this. This is from Psychiatric Times, 2008. “Pathological Lying: Symptom or Disease?” by Charles C. Dike, MD, MPH, MRCPsych
Pathological lying (PL) is a controversial topic. There is, as yet, no consensus in the psychiatric community on its definition, although there is general agreement on its core elements. PL is characterized by a long history (maybe lifelong) of frequent and repeated lying for which no apparent psychological motive or external benefit can be discerned. While ordinary lies are goal-directed and are told to obtain external benefit or to avoid punishment, pathological lies often appear purposeless. In some cases, they might be self-incriminating or damaging, which makes the behavior even more incomprehensible. Despite its relative obscurity, PL has been recognized and written about in the psychiatric literature for more than a century. The German physician, Anton Delbruck,1 is credited with being the first to describe the concept of PL. He observed that some of his patients told lies that were so abnormal and out of proportion that they deserved a special category. He sub-sequently described the lies as "pseu- dologia phantastica."
Isn’t it amazing that as recently as 2008 pathological lying was a controversial topic in the mental health field and there was no consensus as to whether it was a symptom or deserved a diagnostic category of its own?
According to Charles Dyke, here’s the controversy surrounding PL
The debate over the ability of pathological liars to recognize their lies as false has dogged this phenomenon for decades. Integral to the debate is the confusion emanating from questions about a pathological liar's ability to think logically. It has been observed that pathological liars believe their lies to the extent that the belief may be delusional. As a result, PL has been referred to as a "wish psychosis."1 Furthermore, PL has also been described as impulsive and unplanned.1 These observations have raised doubts about the pathological liar's ability to fully control his or her lying behavior. The relative purposelessness of the lies, including the intangible benefits of false accusations or self-incrimination, and the repetitive nature of the lies, despite negative consequences to the liar's reputation and livelihood, further encourage doubts about the liar's ability to control his behavior. On the other hand, it has been observed that vigorously and persistently challenging pathological liars may lead pathological liars to partially acknowledge their lies, an observation that suggests the presence of logical thinking. Such a presentation is consistent with a view of PL as a fantasy lie, a daydream communicated as reality, told solely for the liar's pleasure.Although the fantasy lies may help the pathological liar escape from stress-ful life situations, or compensate for developmental traumas, there is evidence that individuals with PL show normal "guilty responses" when lying during a lie-detection test.7 It is perhaps an attempt at guilt reduction that motivates pathological liars to believe their lies, thereby creating a strange form of double bind.The further observation that pathological liars usually have sound judgment in other matters and the observed association of PL with other criminal behavior in approximately half of the cases supports the notion of intact reality testing. The crimes associated with PL include theft, swindling, forgery, and plagiarism. It is worth noting, however, that some pathological liars are successful professionals without any public record of crime.
Now that I’ve explored what the mental health community thinks about Trump and about lying, unfortunately I can’t come up with an answer to my initial questions. My mind is boggled.
Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016
If you have a YaHoo! email account you’e already heard that there was a massive state sponsored hack, and have changed your email password to something like uT7&-hHH-r#-5-83-+~fuk-off. If you haven’t heard about this:
Yahoo Suspects Its Hack May Be State Sponsored, And Much Worse Than Originally Believed
Friday, Sept. 23, 2016
The Many Times Donald Trump Has Lied About His Mob Connections
He apparently lied under oath to deny he associated with organized crime figures.
My psychotherapist co-conspirator, Dr. Howard Covitz, and I gave readers a chance to comment on how they are dealing with Trump stress yesterday. Without getting deep into Freud-land and the various theories of humor, there is general consensus among sentient beings that humor is a great stress reducer.
People are asking—I shouldn’t be saying this, but a tremendous number of people are asking—why does Donald Trump always have on that floppy suit jacket? Why doesn’t he button it? Can he button it? Other candidates, when they visit a state fair, wear bluejeans and a work shirt. A work shirt. They want to show that they’re in good physical condition, because a President needs stamina. He has to be high energy. No work shirt for Doughboy Donald. He wears a floppy suit jacket and a baseball hat. What’s he hiding? And have you noticed that his neckties—wide neckties, really huge neckties, huge—come clear down to his belt buckle? How does that happen with a man who is six feet three? That’s all I’m asking. Is he malformed? Does he have a short upper body to go with the short fingers? Does he buy extra-long ties? Or are the neckties specially designed to hide the outlines of some stays around his midsection? I don’t know, but that’s what some people say. And why is his face that funny orange color? Could it be that he has to hold his breath because of a tight corset? I’m just passing along what some people are asking. These people don’t care whether a candidate is fat or thin. What they care about is whether or not they can trust the nuclear codes to a man who is deceptive about his own shape. From “A Trumpian Candidate on Trump’s Corset.”
I actually wondered about why Trump wore wide ties that were so long they folded onto his lap when he was sitting down, so now we have an answer.
We each have our own way to use humor when we write about Trump. Being a psychoanalyst, Howard has a style that some may find challenging, see for yourself in the diaries he moved over from a blog he calls “Nazi/Shmamzi…As long as Trump loves his mother” (us Jews can get away with some Nazi references). Howard posted his essays as diaries so they are now on Daily Kos.
Thurs. Sept. 22, 2016
Evening pic-toons by HB:
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| I took the top insert from a Daily Kos piece |
SHOUTS & MURMURS
A TRUMPIAN CANDIDATE ON TRUMP’S CORSET
No work shirt for Doughboy Donald. He wears a floppy suit jacket and a baseball hat. What’s he hiding?
By Calvin Trillin
People are asking—I shouldn’t be saying this, but a tremendous number of people are asking—why does Donald Trump always have on that floppy suit jacket? Why doesn’t he button it? Can he button it? Other candidates, when they visit a state fair, wear bluejeans and a work shirt. A work shirt. They want to show that they’re in good physical condition, because a President needs stamina. He has to be high energy. No work shirt for Doughboy Donald. He wears a floppy suit jacket and a baseball hat. What’s he hiding? And have you noticed that his neckties—wide neckties, really huge neckties, huge—come clear down to his belt buckle? How does that happen with a man who is six feet three? That’s all I’m asking. Is he malformed? Does he have a short upper body to go with the short fingers? Does he buy extra-long ties? Or are the neckties specially designed to hide the outlines of some stays around his midsection? I don’t know, but that’s what some people say. And why is his face that funny orange color? Could it be that he has to hold his breath because of a tight corset? I’m just passing along what some people are asking. These people don’t care whether a candidate is fat or thin. What they care about is whether or not they can trust the nuclear codes to a man who is deceptive about his own shape. Continued
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| Daily Kos regularly uses this picture (without my captions) to illustrate stories. |
How anxious or depressed are you over the prospect of Trump winning? Comment here.
Thanks to Daily Kos’ Hunter “Donald Trump: there’s a lack of spirit between the white the black.” I couldn’t figure out what he meant by “spirit” until I realized he was referring to what he observes in his rally crowds. That’s when I thought of making the pic-toon below.
“It just seems that there’s a lack of spirit between the white and the black,” Trump said Thursday during a phone interview with “Fox and Friends.” “I mean, it’s a terrible thing that we’re witnessing. You’re seeing it. I'm seeing it, and you look at what went on last night in Charlotte — a great place — and you just see it.”
While I for one am doubtful of any conversation on race relations that begins and ends on Fox & Friends, let's see where this goes. All right, Donald, how do you propose we resolve this lack of spirit between the white and the black.
“Well, it really has to be — you have to have law and order at the time, you have to have, you know, you have to have a certain spirit, a certain unity, and there’s no unity,” Trump said. “You look at the level of hatred, the, you know, the rocks being thrown and everything happening. It’s so sad to see. You know, this is the United States of America. I mean, it’s so sad to see. But there’s just no unity. There has to be a unity message that has to get out, and it starts with leadership.”
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| Posted on Daily Kos, see comments |
The results of the latest poll aren’t as big news as the breakdown. The numbers for now look good, but we all know how polls fluctuate.
Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by 6 points nationally, according to a new poll released Wednesday. Hillary Clinton has 43 percent support among likely voters, the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found. Donald Trump is at 37 percent.
This is more important:
Fifty percent of Clinton supporters say they are voting affirmatively for Clinton, while 44 percent say they are backing her out of opposition to Trump.
In contrast, 51 percent of Trump's backers say their vote is primarily out of opposition to Clinton.
From The Hill
Here’s why.
Many of those who say they are backing Trump out of opposition to Clinton have a visceral dislike for her. It isn’t only the emails, they’d dislike her no matter what. Part of it is that she’s a woman who wants to assume a position they believe is only worthy of a man. Both men and women feel this both for overlapping and for distinct reasons. I won’t get into how women can be as misogynistic in their own way as men.
Here’s what’s important. Some of these voters dislike Trump too, and I believe just find Clinton off-putting because she can come across as medium cool (to take a phrase from the movie) and humorless. They don’t find her relatable, not they they find Trump more relatable. But they have a different standard for Trump because he’s a man.
They’d sit at a bar and (if he drank) have a beer with him, but never invite him to their table. They might say later “what an asshole that guy was."
Here’s what’s important. Some of these voters dislike Trump too, and I believe just find Clinton off-putting because she can come across as medium cool (to take a phrase from the movie) and humorless. They don’t find her relatable, not they they find Trump more relatable. But they have a different standard for Trump because he’s a man.
They’d sit at a bar and (if he drank) have a beer with him, but never invite him to their table. They might say later “what an asshole that guy was."
We know that when Clinton shows her serious side it isn’t possible for her to be warm and fuzzy at the same time. Men can be serious and talk about serious issues and nobody cares that they furrow their brows. Hillary Clinton talks about grave matters and there are those who aren’t comfortable with her because, again, she’s a woman. It is entrenched sexism at play.
My thesis is that there are some who are open to abandoning Donald Trump, perhaps not many, but a significant enough number to add up to a landslide for Hillary Clinton. I suggest that there are more voters willing to change in the Trump camp than in the Clinton camp.
This is because Trump is a foul potion to all those who aren't disciples. These are voters who would never want their daughters to marry someone like him. These people are mostly Republicans who wish they could have been able to support one of the other 16 Republicans from the primary, and would have voted for a Democrat like Bernie but for their negative feelings for Hillary Clinton.
The 44% of Hillary voters who say they are voting for her because of opposition to Trump are sometimes called the nose-holders (a horrible term), though that’s not fair to people who just disagree with lots of her policies but know Trump would be a disaster. Count George H. W. Bush among them. Some of them are the more avid of the Bernie supporters. All in all, this is a solid group and no changes in Trump’s behavior will sway them. They are, even with reservations, all in for Clinton
This next part is crucial.
The thankfully larger group of 51% of Trump backers who say they are voting for her in opposition to Clinton I see as being willing to change their minds between now and the election.
The thankfully larger group of 51% of Trump backers who say they are voting for her in opposition to Clinton I see as being willing to change their minds between now and the election.
There are things Clinton can’t control, like terrorist attacks which Trump has and will exploit. No doubt he is hoping there’s an attack in the United States attributable to an immigrant. This would hurt Clinton. There’s nothing Clinton can do to prevent this although she needs to have her response ready.
However there are things Clinton can control to lure away Trump voters who up until now are supporting him out of opposition to her.
The easiest is advertising. So far her ads have been good. She can make sure she has a balance between ads exploiting Trump’s unfitness for the presidency, and focusing on herself in two ways. One is easy, highlighting resume, because it is extraordinary. She must remind people that she has been engaged in the noble profession of public service since she was a young adult, and will be the most experienced president to assume office in history.
The harder one for the ads is to show her as warm and funny and relatable without the ad coming across as too slick, too saccharine. It can be done.
The harder one for the ads is to show her as warm and funny and relatable without the ad coming across as too slick, too saccharine. It can be done.
Next is her public appearances. She has proven to be really good at handling these but still needs to make sure she strikes the balance between seriousness and smiles. Clinton has a great genuine laugh, and I think is really relatable when she shows this side of herself. If she throws in a one-liner jab at Trump it has to be really, really good.
Trump’s teleprompter public appearances are snoozers. His ranting doesn’t gain him any new voters and puts him at risk of losing voters who finally admit to themselves he doesn’t have the the,percent to be president. As far as making himself more relatable, Trump only has a self-satisfied smirk. Combine that with how he always claps his hand for himself — I mean — who does that (except a germaphobe like Trump who is only comfortable touching himself and curvaceous women)?
Trump’s teleprompter public appearances are snoozers. His ranting doesn’t gain him any new voters and puts him at risk of losing voters who finally admit to themselves he doesn’t have the the,percent to be president. As far as making himself more relatable, Trump only has a self-satisfied smirk. Combine that with how he always claps his hand for himself — I mean — who does that (except a germaphobe like Trump who is only comfortable touching himself and curvaceous women)?
Finally, the debates. Politico had a good article about what debate strategy would be best for Clinton. They suggested that the best advice would be to let Trump screw up. Here are some quotes:
- "He’s going to say some cockamamie stuff. Give him the rope,” said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-Mont.).
- Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said “inevitably, he’s going to say enough dumb things to dominate the headlines. He’s gonna make mistakes; the question is, how big are the mistakes? And I’m certain there are things she can do that would cause his mistakes to be bigger.”
- “She has to be unafraid,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. “He’s a bully; he can’t help himself. I don’t know how he’s going to use a teleprompter in a debate situation. And he can’t control himself. His attention span is nonexistent.”
- “He’ll do it himself,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). “There’s never been a time where he’s talked for longer than 30 seconds where he’s managed to say anything. He just says nothing. He’ll say the same empty phrases over and over again, and I think it will become obvious after an hour and a half.”
- Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said: “It’s important for people to see this side of him that is very much unpresidential and out of control,” “It’s temperament, as much as anything. People want to trust that their president … is in control.”
It's a risk to follow the Politico advice, but Trump is a proven counter-attacker, so the rope-a-dope may be the best strategy. He comes across as almost somnolent when reading the teleprompter. He seems to be boring himself. I think he's addicted (literally) to the rush he gets by going off script into his usual venomous rants. The question is whether or not he can control the rants and come across as "presidential." Hillary has 90 minutes, so halfway through if Trump seems to be winning she can move into a plan B which would involve attacks calculated to provoke him to lash out at her in characteristic fashion and show his unhinged and nasty temperament.
Another unknown and unknowable is what egregious Trump pronouncement or revelation, or combination of the two will catch fire with the public and burn his hairy orange ass. The list of outrages that would derail any other candidate is historic. However you never know which revelation, or what new utterance, will be his undoing.
This election is such a shitstorm, with so much at stake, that it is a shame that in our culture so many people vote for the candidate they could see having a beer with. Unless you’re a glutton for punishment and want to listen to someone who doesn’t give a crap about you while they brag about themselves, Hillary Clinton is without a doubt the only beer-worthy candidate.
P.S. The pic-toon below may actually represent what Trump is thinking….
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