The Art of the Donald Trumpocalypse

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed May 04, 2016 12:26 pm

As much as I hate Scott Walker and fear putting this idea out onto the internet where people might read it and think it's a good idea to do, Walker would also make a lot of sense as a VP pick, and might well accept.

Captain Caveman · Post by **Captain Caveman** » Wed May 04, 2016 12:26 pm

Carpet_pissr wrote:
PLW wrote: I predict Joe Arpaio (?), or whatever the name is of that crazy charismatic anti-immigrant Arizona sheriff.
Oooh, nice one!

Would it be possible to get negative Hispanic votes? That would be the way to find out.

I think we all know who the only logical choice is here. Dennis Rodman.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed May 04, 2016 12:29 pm

Rodman is tapped for Secretary of State.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Wed May 04, 2016 12:30 pm

Chuck Norris
Ted Nugent

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed May 04, 2016 12:35 pm

Carpet_pissr wrote:Chuck Norris - President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition
Ted Nugent - BATF

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed May 04, 2016 12:37 pm

There is no precedent for this level of fuckery. At this point, everything...and I mean everything...is on the table.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed May 04, 2016 12:39 pm

Captain Caveman wrote:
Carpet_pissr wrote:
PLW wrote: I predict Joe Arpaio (?), or whatever the name is of that crazy charismatic anti-immigrant Arizona sheriff.
Oooh, nice one!
Would it be possible to get negative Hispanic votes? That would be the way to find out.

All the Hispanics in this country will join up to form MegaHispanic, a super super delegate.

tru1cy · Post by **tru1cy** » Wed May 04, 2016 1:09 pm

El Guapo wrote:Rice would be a terrible choice for everyone involved. For Rice, like Jeff V said she would immediately get Trump's stink on her. Right now she has an above-the-fray stateswoman perception to her, which is invaluable in any future public or private ventures for her going forward - that would be immediately tarnished.

For Trump there are a couple problems. First, her involvement in the Bush foreign policy team, and most specifically her connection to the Iraq War, hurts Trump's ability to knock Clinton for supporting the Iraq War. Second, it's unclear that "balancing the ticket" by including a minority / woman VP would really help Trump all that much. It's, shall we say, not entirely clear that Trump's base is terribly desirous of making sure that public representatives come from across the rainbow. For people who *are* significantly motivated by ensuring minority representation at the highest level of public life...is the VP choice really going to get many of those people to vote Trump?

Also, don't forget her infamous shoe shopping trip during Hurricane Katrina

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Wed May 04, 2016 1:10 pm

I still say he's crazy enough to ask Bernie. Is Bernie crazy enough to accept?

tru1cy · Post by **tru1cy** » Wed May 04, 2016 1:12 pm

msduncan wrote:I still say he's crazy enough to ask Bernie. Is Bernie crazy enough to accept?

I don't think Bernie's socialism would do well with Trump's base

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed May 04, 2016 1:16 pm

msduncan wrote:I still say he's crazy enough to ask Bernie. Is Bernie crazy enough to accept?

Definitely not. Or I should say, he's not crazy enough in the right way to accept.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed May 04, 2016 1:18 pm

Another option would be Chris Christie, though I think he's less likely than Gingrich or Walker.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed May 04, 2016 1:19 pm

Presidential Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics - Bob Knight

Asked by CNN's John Berman about Trump's controversial remarks and how they might affect him as the nominee, Knight dismissed the criticism.

"That doesn't really mean anything to me right now," Knight said on "New Day," "because we're talking about a guy that I think can handle things far better than anything we've had recently."

He added, "I'll tell you one thing about Donald Trump: There will never be a Benghazi in a Donald Trump administration."

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Wed May 04, 2016 1:21 pm

msduncan wrote:I still say he's crazy enough to ask Bernie. Is Bernie crazy enough to accept?

The RNC opens with a motion to disband the Republican party. The motion passes on the first vote, convention is over.

A number of former party leaders and selected delegates head across the street, where they announce the formation of the RWA party, with a baboon as the party mascot. The RWA instantly approves an agenda that calls for the repeal of Obamacare, Guns...fuck yeah!, the criminalization of science, and a tax plan that moves 100% of the tax burden to the bottom 20%, since after all, they are the ones who use government services which the taxes pay for.

Who does this party nominate as their candidate?

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed May 04, 2016 1:22 pm

I mean, I have no doubt that there will never be a consulate attack in Benghazi during a Donald Trump presidency.

Trent Steel · Post by **Trent Steel** » Wed May 04, 2016 1:25 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:Presidential Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics - Bob Knight

Asked by CNN's John Berman about Trump's controversial remarks and how they might affect him as the nominee, Knight dismissed the criticism.

"That doesn't really mean anything to me right now," Knight said on "New Day," "because we're talking about a guy that I think can handle things far better than anything we've had recently."

He added, "I'll tell you one thing about Donald Trump: There will never be a Benghazi in a Donald Trump administration."

If we're going to get stuck with Trump, might as well relax and enjoy it.

Post by **ImLawBoy** » Wed May 04, 2016 1:27 pm

Trent Steel wrote:
Isgrimnur wrote:Presidential Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics - Bob Knight

Asked by CNN's John Berman about Trump's controversial remarks and how they might affect him as the nominee, Knight dismissed the criticism.

"That doesn't really mean anything to me right now," Knight said on "New Day," "because we're talking about a guy that I think can handle things far better than anything we've had recently."

He added, "I'll tell you one thing about Donald Trump: There will never be a Benghazi in a Donald Trump administration."
If we're going to get stuck with Trump, might as well relax and enjoy it.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed May 04, 2016 1:32 pm

Meanwhile, how many unreturned voicemails do you think Jindal has left for Trump?

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Wed May 04, 2016 1:33 pm

I think Trump is crazy, but I also think he's really damn smart. He is exceptionally good at self-promotion. In that respect, I think you could see him shift like a chameleon into "kinder, gentler" Trump mode now that it's general election campaign time. Hell, I already saw glimmers of it in his concession speech.

Wouldn't it be astonishing to see Trump come out in the debate looking like a calm voice of reason for a divided nation, while an increasingly flustered Hillary gets more shrill and harpy-esque as the evening goes on?

It sucks we have to pay for these next few months of amusement with four years of disaster, but I have not been this entertained by politics in ages.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed May 04, 2016 1:34 pm

Sigh... One of the two far right coworkers I'm stuck with wants desperately to fight with me over Trump. She's hardcore Trump and hardcore ANTI Hillary. She's tried four times today to engage me on this, but I keep telling her that I don't think it's a conversation we should be having given our political beliefs.

Which seems to enrage her even more. Thankfully though, it appears she's stopped talking to me out of anger. Win!

YellowKing wrote: He is exceptionally good at self-promotion

This I give you. But I stop short at calling him smart. He's already proven on more than occasion that he can't control his anger, and that he can't even listen to sound advice. Two things a smarter man would work on.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed May 04, 2016 1:39 pm

YellowKing wrote:I think Trump is crazy, but I also think he's really damn smart. He is exceptionally good at self-promotion. In that respect, I think you could see him shift like a chameleon into "kinder, gentler" Trump mode now that it's general election campaign time. Hell, I already saw glimmers of it in his concession speech.

Wouldn't it be astonishing to see Trump come out in the debate looking like a calm voice of reason for a divided nation, while an increasingly flustered Hillary gets more shrill and harpy-esque as the evening goes on?

It sucks we have to pay for these next few months of amusement with four years of disaster, but I have not been this entertained by politics in ages.

The main challenge for Hillary in the first debate is going to be managing expectations. While the media certainly has many negative views of Hillary, she is generally viewed as competent, smart, well versed in policy issues, and serious. While Trump is viewed as crazy, unhinged, racist, and irresponsible. So, it would be incredibly for Trump to go in and play Mr. Reasonable, and probably be deemed to be the winner of that debate by the media. With the one caveat that since by all appearances Trump genuinely is not well versed in policy matters, he would need to avoid saying something Palin-esque (or Rubio-esque) during the debate that could be recycled as an endless soundbite.

That said, while that's a real concern, the material that Clinton and allied Super PACs and the like will have available to them to put into attack ads is going to be breathtaking, and I don't really have much doubt that that will mostly or entirely negate any Trump advantages. To say nothing of the fact that people are already very familiar with (and have a strong disliking of) Trump, so I doubt the needle will move all that much before November.

Barring something like a major ISIS attack in DC on Nov. 1st.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Wed May 04, 2016 1:51 pm

Maybe that was tongue in cheek, but I don't think he's crazy at all (do you really believe he is mentally insane?)

Extreme narcissism, sure, probably even a God complex to boot. Asshole? Oh yeah. Bully? Ding. Little light on grey matter? Yeah, he's probably as bright as Palin.

Lots of people throwing that word out there to describe him, and honestly I don't think it does any favors when trying to discredit him. It's probably one thing he's not. So many nasty qualities to choose from, why not pick one that's valid!?

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed May 04, 2016 1:55 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:Presidential Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics - Bob Knight

Asked by CNN's John Berman about Trump's controversial remarks and how they might affect him as the nominee, Knight dismissed the criticism.

"That doesn't really mean anything to me right now," Knight said on "New Day," "because we're talking about a guy that I think can handle things far better than anything we've had recently."

He added, "I'll tell you one thing about Donald Trump: There will never be a Benghazi in a Donald Trump administration."

Would have been nice to hear someone pipe up with "what's this Benghazi thing you mentioned?"

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed May 04, 2016 1:55 pm

Carpet_pissr wrote:
Extreme narcissism, sure, probably even a God complex to boot.

And with that, you're kind of guilty there too, my friend.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Wed May 04, 2016 2:10 pm

hepcat wrote:
Carpet_pissr wrote:
Extreme narcissism, sure, probably even a God complex to boot.
And with that, you're kind of guilty there too, my friend.

Just because he demands everyone get on their knees on a well-soiled carpet and face South Carolina 12 times per day while mumbling "please don't smite me please don't smite me" doesn't mean he has a god complex.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Wed May 04, 2016 2:20 pm

Of course I don't think he's clinically insane. But I think you have to be at least a little crazy to want to be President.

I disagree that he's not intelligent. You don't become head of an empire like that by being a dunce. I'm not saying he's the self-proclaimed genius he thinks he is, but he's too shrewd a businessman to be a moron.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Wed May 04, 2016 2:23 pm

There are different kinds of intelligence. While IDK how Trump stacks up in the book learnin' department, he's certainly got the social intelligence down, and knowing how to manipulate people is much more valuable to a politician than being able to out-think them. Which of those skills is more valuable to a president is another question.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed May 04, 2016 2:26 pm

YellowKing wrote:Of course I don't think he's clinically insane. But I think you have to be at least a little crazy to want to be President.

I disagree that he's not intelligent. You don't become head of an empire like that by being a dunce. I'm not saying he's the self-proclaimed genius he thinks he is, but he's too shrewd a businessman to be a moron.

To be fair, you do become the head of a business empire by inheriting a shit ton of money from your businessman father. Whether he is actually an especially shrewd businessman (rather than leveraging the wealth he started with) seems debatable.

em2nought · Post by **em2nought** » Wed May 04, 2016 2:27 pm

Brian wrote:
msduncan wrote:I really wish the anger had materialized as votes for the Libertarian candidate. However I don't even know who the hell that is, so I wouldn't know how to vote for them at this point.
Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico.

that would be the best choice followed by

Which would be a fine piece of negotiating, although what would have to be offered would be too high a price.

Oh, the Linda Blair like spinning heads! What fun!

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Wed May 04, 2016 2:30 pm

hepcat wrote:Sigh... One of the two far right coworkers I'm stuck with wants desperately to fight with me over Trump. She's hardcore Trump and hardcore ANTI Hillary. She's tried four times today to engage me on this, but I keep telling her that I don't think it's a conversation we should be having given our political beliefs.

Which seems to enrage her even more. Thankfully though, it appears she's stopped talking to me out of anger. Win!

YellowKing wrote: He is exceptionally good at self-promotion
This I give you. But I stop short at calling him smart. He's already proven on more than occasion that he can't control his anger, and that he can't even listen to sound advice. Two things a smarter man would work on.

You can't train or self-monitor yourself out of base emotions or arrogance. I don't think it has much to do with intelligence. Anger and arrogance are irrational behaviors and not tied to intelligence.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed May 04, 2016 2:34 pm

msduncan wrote:
You can't train or self-monitor yourself out of base emotions or arrogance. I don't think it has much to do with intelligence. Anger and arrogance are irrational behaviors and not tied to intelligence.

Recognizing that they are a weakness, and then acting on that knowledge does require a modicum of intelligence, imho. But even beyond that, the inability to accept the advice of others who have far more experience than you on a subject is quite certainly an act of stupidity.

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Wed May 04, 2016 2:34 pm

El Guapo wrote:
YellowKing wrote:Of course I don't think he's clinically insane. But I think you have to be at least a little crazy to want to be President.

I disagree that he's not intelligent. You don't become head of an empire like that by being a dunce. I'm not saying he's the self-proclaimed genius he thinks he is, but he's too shrewd a businessman to be a moron.
To be fair, you do become the head of a business empire by inheriting a shit ton of money from your businessman father. Whether he is actually an especially shrewd businessman (rather than leveraging the wealth he started with) seems debatable.

He successfully revitalized Times Square and Atlantic City. He said he was going to do it, and he did it. Watched a documentary on it about 6 months ago on PBS. Just because people disagree with him doesn't make him unintelligent. I'd argue that his campaign was highly intelligent based on the fact that he broke just about every cardinal rule of politics and cruised to a crushing victory.

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Wed May 04, 2016 2:38 pm

Mostly it's his racist and misogynistic comments that make him seem like an idiot to me...

That and his plans for things, like 'the wall'.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed May 04, 2016 2:39 pm

msduncan wrote: I'd argue that his campaign was highly intelligent based on the fact that he broke just about every cardinal rule of politics and cruised to a crushing victory.

And I would argue that finding success through breaking the rules (i.e. playing to the growing racism, sexism, and distrust of a government that seemed to be telling white males they were no longer the kings of the universe) was a happy accident for him. I'm not downplaying his ability to ride that piece of luck. But I don't think he entered the race with any hope of winning. Trump is the product of 70 percent lucky timing, 30 percent ability to recognize that and play into it.

As was noted in an interview with one of his campaign's early workers, I get the feeling that Trump was just as surprised as we were when he started doing so well.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed May 04, 2016 2:49 pm

msduncan wrote:
El Guapo wrote:
YellowKing wrote:Of course I don't think he's clinically insane. But I think you have to be at least a little crazy to want to be President.

I disagree that he's not intelligent. You don't become head of an empire like that by being a dunce. I'm not saying he's the self-proclaimed genius he thinks he is, but he's too shrewd a businessman to be a moron.
To be fair, you do become the head of a business empire by inheriting a shit ton of money from your businessman father. Whether he is actually an especially shrewd businessman (rather than leveraging the wealth he started with) seems debatable.
He successfully revitalized Times Square and Atlantic City. He said he was going to do it, and he did it. Watched a documentary on it about 6 months ago on PBS. Just because people disagree with him doesn't make him unintelligent. I'd argue that his campaign was highly intelligent based on the fact that he broke just about every cardinal rule of politics and cruised to a crushing victory.

Do you have a link to that documentary handy? I'd be interested to check it out. Admittedly due to the nature of the campaign season I've been seeing more stuff lately tearing down his business record (that setting aside individual business failures, if you compare his probable wealth now to what he started with the rate of growth is below the interest rate over that period), but I am curious to hear what the documentary said about this stuff.

I also tend not to think of Atlantic City as "revitalized", but maybe that's changed more recently.

FWIW I assume Trump is at least not a moron, though whether he is especially smart or not I am not sure about. It also depends on stuff that's hard to know - like, did he run the campaign he has because he believes all this crazy nonsense (which would make him dumb) or did he run the campaign he has because he decided he could be successful running a campaign explicitly appealing to craziness that the GOP elite has (somewhat to its credit) underserved (which would make him smart, if immoral)?

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed May 04, 2016 2:57 pm

From everything I've ever read, Atlantic City is the exact opposite of a success story. Trump's involvement, even less so.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Wed May 04, 2016 3:00 pm

I would think an intelligent adult would have a vocabulary the goes beyond the 4th grade. Trump's doesn't.

dfs · Post by **dfs** » Wed May 04, 2016 3:01 pm

El Guapo wrote:The main challenge for Hillary in the first debate is going to be managing expectations. While the media certainly has many negative views of Hillary, she is generally viewed as competent, smart, well versed in policy issues, and serious. While Trump is viewed as crazy, unhinged, racist, and irresponsible. So, it would be incredibly for Trump to go in and play Mr. Reasonable, and probably be deemed to be the winner of that debate by the media. With the one caveat that since by all appearances Trump genuinely is not well versed in policy matters, he would need to avoid saying something Palin-esque (or Rubio-esque) during the debate that could be recycled as an endless soundbite

I fully expect Trump to start playing Mr. Reasonable now if only to get elected. The republicans to rally around their guy. Somebody will have his ear enough to push him centrist at this point.

Reagan, Bush1, Bush2...all sounded pretty loony at the times to get the nomination. Then came the general election and all three of them went into statesman mode. It will be the same story with Donald.

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Wed May 04, 2016 3:10 pm

Though I'm no Trump fan, I still outright reject the idea that wanting a legal and process-based immigration policy with secure borders indicates some sort of racism. It's a convenient mud pie to sling at the other side so you can infuse the electorate with voters that align with your policy desires. Pretending otherwise is dishonest. No other country on earth allows wholesale chaotic immigration without a legal process -- not even Mexico.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed May 04, 2016 3:13 pm

msduncan wrote:Though I'm no Trump fan, I still outright reject the idea that wanting a legal and process-based immigration policy with secure borders indicates some sort of racism. It's a convenient mud pie to sling at the other side so you can infuse the electorate with voters that align with your policy desires. Pretending otherwise is dishonest. No other country on earth allows wholesale chaotic immigration without a legal process -- not even Mexico.

It must be a relief that nobody here is arguing any of that, then.