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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

kkhohoho (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#243676: May 27th 2018 at 3:45:57 PM

[up][up]Trump is only 'smart' is that he knows how to sell himself. He knows how to tell people what they want to hear and how to make himself seem like someone you can trust or at least have a beer with. Of course, even that only goes so far until only a minority actually still falls for his shit. But it was enough to win him the election.

Other than that, he's a twat.tongue

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#243677: May 27th 2018 at 4:02:14 PM

President H.W. Bush is back in hospital due to fatigue, but he appears to be recovering.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/27/politics/george-hw-bush-hospital-maine/index.html

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#243678: May 27th 2018 at 4:34:18 PM

Put me down in the "Trump is smart enough to listen to smart people" category. His only hope is to conduct a propaganda campaign and force Congress to interfere with the investigation (his only hope, that is, if he's actually guilty of something and suspects Mueller knows what it is).

And that is exactly what he's doing.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#243679: May 27th 2018 at 4:43:04 PM

[up] And since it's obvious to anyone that isn't Fox News addled that he did something, and I have every confedence that Mueller and his team of "13 Angry Democrats" will find it.

pwiegle Cape Malleum Majorem from Nowhere Special Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Cape Malleum Majorem
#243680: May 27th 2018 at 4:44:11 PM

[up][up] Perhaps, but Trump's definition of "smart" is at odds with the conventional definition of "smart." Anybody who asks him tough questions that he doesn't want to answer or tells him something that he doesn't want to hear is "treating him unfairly."

edited 27th May '18 4:47:28 PM by pwiegle

This Space Intentionally Left Blank.
DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#243681: May 27th 2018 at 4:51:13 PM

I dont believe that for a second. I cant prove it, but somewhere in the background is a Koch Bros and/or Putin paid for team of consultants who remind him every once in a while who owns him. Depending on what combination of carrots and sticks they are using, he would listen.

Its like the Mafia. Trump's smart enough to know what his place is.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
Wyldchyld (Old as dirt)
#243682: May 27th 2018 at 4:55:39 PM

If he needs to be reminded every so often of who owns him then he's not smart enough to know his place. I don't think his ego would allow him to consciously live in such a position anyway.

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
Reflextion from a post-sanity world (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: What's love got to do with it?
#243683: May 27th 2018 at 4:58:00 PM

"Trump is smart enough to listen to smart people"

Yeah, I'm going to have to call "Citation Needed" on that, simply because if he DID know how to listen to smart people, he wouldn't be spouting shit on Twitter 9001 times a day, or refusing to use a properly secured smartphone because it's "too inconvenient", or generally breaking down every time someone bruises his precious little ego

Someone did tell me life was going to be this way.
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#243684: May 27th 2018 at 5:37:16 PM

I believe Trump is amazingly smart because he's pushed the law well past the breaking point and is still not impeached.

I'll believe it when and if the Democrats succeed.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#243685: May 27th 2018 at 5:41:55 PM

That says more about the stonewalling of the Republicans than it does anything about Trump's intelligence. A rabid dog could be in the White House and they'd still do the same.

TrashJack Confirmed Doomer from beyond the Despair Event Horizon (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Confirmed Doomer
#243686: May 27th 2018 at 5:45:23 PM

[up] Having a hyperpartisan Congressional majority in one's favor does not make one smart.

Make no mistake here, Trump isn't some genius, 4-D chessmaster who is so skilled that he's basically the legal/political counterpart to Arsène Lupin (I or III). It's just that his whole party doesn't want to punish his blatant crime and corruption because that in turn would wreck their own power (and because they're really quite similar to him in their goals [read:repeated short-term gains for themselves and their 1%er backers/"friends" at the expense of everyone else, and throw some red meat to the base to stay in power longer], if not in his total lack of tact).

Trump is, for all intents and purposes, President Joffrey Baratheon.

edited 27th May '18 5:53:29 PM by TrashJack

"Cynic, n. — A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." - The Devil's Dictionary
RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#243687: May 27th 2018 at 5:45:31 PM

[up]x3 It doesn't reflect on Trump in the slightest, because Trump has fuck all to do with it. Trump doesn't protect Trump from the consequences of his actions, everyone that is invested in having him as a figurehead is.

[up][up] & [up] [nja]

edited 27th May '18 5:46:09 PM by RainehDaze

Gilphon (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#243688: May 27th 2018 at 5:47:48 PM

Yeah, if it had anything at all do to with Trump being smart, he wouldn't have, for example, freely admitted to the real reason he fired Comey.

And, like, in addition to partisanship, this has also lasted as long as it has because when we're talking about stuff like this, the case against him has to be 100% airtight, and building a case like that against a man with a lot of power to interfere with your ability to make said case takes considerable time and effort.

edited 27th May '18 5:48:20 PM by Gilphon

RJ-19-CLOVIS-93 from New Zealand (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#243689: May 27th 2018 at 6:44:15 PM

Be honest, what presidents do you think are still worse than Trump?

Galadriel Since: Feb, 2015
#243690: May 27th 2018 at 6:55:55 PM

Jackson, (genocide), Polk (started the war with Mexico, which was entirely unjust) and Buchanan, for starters.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#243691: May 27th 2018 at 6:56:53 PM

Andrew Johnson (going easy on the South and botching Reconstruction), Buchanan (doing nothing to stop the impending Civil War).

edited 27th May '18 6:57:51 PM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
TheWildWestPyro from Seattle, WA Since: Sep, 2012 Relationship Status: Healthy, deeply-felt respect for this here Shotgun
#243692: May 27th 2018 at 7:01:54 PM

Meanwhile, Grant gets a colossal amount of shit from historians, but all things considered he actually did a decent job.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#243693: May 27th 2018 at 7:02:56 PM

The US Civil War and the narrative around it (mostly) are an interesting and annoying aversion of Written by the Victors.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#243694: May 27th 2018 at 7:36:57 PM

Thankfully the newer generation of historians have been very vocal about rehabilitating Grant's reputation. I have four biographies written in the last two decades that have all attacked the Lost Cause propagandists and upheld Grant's good points.

RJ-19-CLOVIS-93 from New Zealand (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#243695: May 27th 2018 at 7:38:57 PM

@ Galadriel: Guessing you would've voted for Henry Clay in the 1844 election, given he was a staunch opponent of manifest destiny and admitting Texas into the union. I wonder what would've changed in Henry Clay became the 11th president instead of Polk

The Whigs should've tried him again in 1848 instead of Zachary "hasn't held a political office before" Taylor. That ended horribly for them

TheWildWestPyro from Seattle, WA Since: Sep, 2012 Relationship Status: Healthy, deeply-felt respect for this here Shotgun
#243696: May 27th 2018 at 7:41:56 PM

[up][up]

Thankfully.

Honestly I'm a proud Unionboo myself, so it's nice to see Grant getting the respect he deserves.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#243697: May 27th 2018 at 7:44:51 PM

The US Civil War and the narrative around it (mostly) are an interesting and annoying aversion of Written By The Victors.

History is not necessarily written by the winners. It's written by the survivors and their descendants. That's why the Lost Cause bullshit has persisted to this day.

And no, I'm not saying the Union should have completely slaughtered the Confederacy. But people should have done more to counter the Lost Cause propaganda.

edited 27th May '18 7:45:37 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#243698: May 27th 2018 at 7:48:20 PM

-High five- Union Forever!

Zachary Taylor did smack down the slave states when they threatened to secede, at a time when they had a much better chance of winning

DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#243699: May 27th 2018 at 7:49:21 PM

[up]x4 Clay was old and a 3 time loser at that point (He came dead last in the 4-way '24 election, lost to Jackson in '32, and lost to Polk in '44). Running him again would've been absolutely dumb. Plus, Taylor wasn't that bad; he was against the expansion of Slavery into the newly acquired territories, and was against Clay's Compromise of 1850 that really got the Slave issue rolling.

edited 27th May '18 7:49:41 PM by DingoWalley1

TheWildWestPyro from Seattle, WA Since: Sep, 2012 Relationship Status: Healthy, deeply-felt respect for this here Shotgun
#243700: May 27th 2018 at 7:52:13 PM

[up][up]

grin

HURRAH BOYS HURRAH, DOWN WITH THE TRAITORS, UP WITH THE STARS-

edited 27th May '18 7:52:26 PM by TheWildWestPyro


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