Tag: politics

Trump declares noninterventionist foreign policy

I realize many are skeptical that Trump is going to do anything that he says he is going to do. But look at the risks the man is taking. Look at the limbs he is willing to stroll confidently out upon. This is genuinely remarkable in American politics:

Donald Trump outlined an unabashadly noninterventionist approach to world affairs Monday, telling The Washington Post’s editorial board that he questions the need for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has formed the backbone of Western security policies since the Cold War.

The meeting at The Post covered a range of issues, including media libel laws, violence at his rallies, climate change, the NATO and the U.S. presence in Asia.

Speaking ahead of a major address on foreign policy later Monday in front of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Trump said he advocates an aggressive U.S. posture in the world with a light footprint. In spite of unrest abroad, especially in the Middle East, Trump said the United States must look inward and steer its resources toward rebuilding domestic infrastructure.

“I do think it’s a different world today, and I don’t think we should be nation-building anymore,” Trump said. “I think it’s proven not to work, and we have a different country than we did then. We have $19 trillion in debt. We’re sitting, probably, on a bubble. And it’s a bubble that if it breaks, it’s going to be very nasty. I just think we have to rebuild our country.”

He added: “I watched as we built schools in Iraq and they’re blown up. We build another one, we get blown up. We rebuild it three times and yet we can’t build a school in Brooklyn. We have no money for education because we can’t build in our own country. At what point do you say, ‘Hey, we have to take care of ourselves?’ So, I know the outer world exists and I’ll be very cognizant of that. But at the same time, our country is disintegrating, large sections of it, especially the inner cities.”

Granted, George Bush ran for office on “a humble foreign policy” and we all know how that turned out. But at least we know he’s not going to go to war with Russia over Ukraine. It should be very interesting to hear what he has to say to AIPAC later today. I’m going to guess it won’t be the ritual genuflection that is customary for Republican candidates.

I mean, he’s openly talking about shutting down NATO. This is serious stuff.

UPDATE: Trump speech at AIPAC.

The left-wing mind

An explanation of it from a red diaper baby now in recovery:

For the millions raised as leftists, it is not an ideology; it is a culture. Since childhood, they have lived and breathed it every day in the home. They know nothing else. Like any culture, it is a way of speaking, thinking and acting, with its own narratives and rituals. Narratives are held sacred, repeated, reinforced and, over time, added to. That which challenges sacred narratives, even reality itself, is met with confusion and hostility. As with any aggressive, intolerant culture, if you enter it, it enters you.

Contrary to opinion, leftism isn’t just about hate. Leftists are more complex than that. From my time as a red diaper leftist, I can tell you that a whole range of emotions are involved. Hate, anger, fear, bitterness, jealousy, envy, rage, greed, pride, smugness and paranoia (not technically an emotion, but it is widespread among leftists).

With such a parade of negative emotions, it is no surprise that so many leftists suffer from chronic depression, often from a young age. Even if they lose the anger, they still retain the attitude: that the government must fix everyone’s problems, regardless of cost and that there is an enormous right-wing conspiracy that is just around the corner.

The victim narrative of the Left is very infectious. You are always the victim and you are always owed something. The wealthy are always evil, while you are always good and wholesome. Converts are often more intense than those born into it. My father, raised a leftist, eventually mellowed and began to question some leftist beliefs. My mother, not raised a leftist, but having become one, never mellowed.

Leftism encourages and is driven by the most negative, damaging
emotions. It harnesses together childish emotions and paranoid thought
processes. Its narratives are a filter that reality has to try to
struggle through, often failing. The child-like thinking
solves all problems without pesky details and facts interfering, leading
to delusions of intellectual brilliance.

It’s an interesting glimpse into what, for me, is an entirely alien mindset. I find it easier to understand those from very foreign cultures, including the English, the Italians, and even the Japanese, than I do a left-wing 2.0 American. While I correctly noted their fixation on narratives and the childish nature of their magical thinking, I was always mystified by their delusions of intellectual brilliance.

I put it down to their education and credential fetishes, but the author makes clear their belief in their intelligence is actually due to the fact that they are so deluded, they believe they are actually producing the solution to all the various problems they encounter by virtue of repeating their magic mantra: more government spending.

Of course, their concept of government is childish too; it is essentially a magic combination of a 365-day Santa Claus with a friendly Sunday School god whose got the whole world in his hands.

This is useful, as it provides several clues for rhetorical triggers that should prove devastating. It also explains why it is not merely my high intelligence, but my willingness to openly flaunt it, that reliably enrages them. This confirms my belief that if you assume emotional projection when attacked by a rhetoric speaker, you’ll be given the key to dismantle the attacker’s psyche.

Mailvox: an epiphany

A reader has a realization:

A long time ago, there was a comfortable Establishment, which ran the roost via handshakes and insider back-scratching. The Right People got the right rewards, and all was good for the  Establishment

Then a bold, brash newbie shows up, and, despite pissing off the establishment by being exceptionally politically incorrect, becomes more and more successful until the Establishment decides that Steps Must Be Taken, and the Newbie must be destroyed. They’re destroying the accepted procedure, and they don’t care. . .

The question: Who am I talking about: The Puppies. . . .or Donald Trump ??

I’ve realized it’s the SAME STORY, and the ‪#‎NoTrumpers are just the PuppyKickers in a different venue.  How is gaming the convention rules any different from E Pluribus Hugo?

This is why the Puppinette referred to me as “the Donald Trump of science fiction”, which is, of course, a grand compliment indeed. But in both cases, we are the change that the establishment does not want to see.

The rise of Channel Alt Right

First, the Kickstarter for Silenced is winding down. You only have four more hours to back it. Back Silenced here. I did. And I suspect that you’re going to want to be able to say you did too.

Second,  Mike Cernovich explains why the media is losing its undeclared, but vicious war on the Alt Right:

Why has the mainstream media and especially conservative pundits
projected their rage onto Donald Trump and his supporters? Pundits are
fighting hard because there’s a war going on. No one saw this war. Well,
almost no one…

This election has been about more than Trump.
This is a war over the future of the media.

Pundits are poor in money and rich and status. Most of them live off
of sugar daddies to pay their bills, and money does not drive pundits.

Pundits are status obsessed. Being seen as the right kind of person
is their only goal in life. They live and die on shame…the feeling that
they do or do not belong to the proper social class.

Supposed journalists and pundits have accumulated considerable social
status and power. With the power of an article, journalists have forced
the most powerful politicians and richest chief executives to quit
their jobs.

One does not lose power without a fight.

Third, on the basis of the new polls that show Trump +52 in New York, +12 in Arizona, and +16 in California (the latter is less credible since Rubio is included, but he’s only got 10 points), it is safe to conclude that Donald Trump has effectively won the Republican nomination.

He’s still got to close it out, but at this point, it would be a major surprise if he didn’t. He’s clearly increasing his lead over Cruz at this point.

UPDATE: Holy cats, nice work, everyone. It was at 58K when I last noticed. It finished with 838 backers pledging $71,060 to bring SILENCED to life. Well done.

I’ve spoken to Mike about this, and I don’t think he’d mind me telling you that the seeds being planted here are going to result in a lot more than just a single documentary film. The man has a vision and it is one worth supporting.

A+ ad and the linguistic killshot

Scott Adams explains how Trump is cutting out Hillary’s legs already:

On a related topic, many of you asked my opinion on Trump’s anti-Clinton ad that shows Hillary Clinton barking like a dog and Putin laughing. I give the ad an A+ for persuasion. It was funny and doesn’t take itself too seriously, but at the same time it appealed to our irrational minds just as Trump intends. Your rational mind knows that Clinton’s “barking” has nothing to do with anything. But your irrational mind sees Putin and ISIS looking powerful on the video while Clinton barks like a chihuahua.

The humor in the ad is what makes it work. Without the humor it would look like a lame comparison. And people equate a good sense of humor with high intelligence, whether or not that is true. The ad leaves us feeling that Trump is funny-smart and Clinton is ridiculous.

You know who wasn’t funny? Hitler, that’s who. Every time Trump makes us laugh he chips away at the Hitler meme that has been dogging him. So it works on a branding level too.

I also see the ad as Trump’s way of assuring everyone who has, over the years, seen one Republican after another refuse to put up a real fight, especially when a woman is on the other side: “Don’t worry, I got this.”

Fox Republican debate canceled

Donald Trump is making both Fox News and the RNC his bitches. Like a boss:

Monday’s Republican presidential primary debate has been canceled after GOP front-runner Donald Trump declined to participate, citing a scheduling conflict.

“On Feb. 20, the Republican National Committee announced that a GOP presidential primary debate would be held on March 21 in Salt Lake City. They offered that debate to Fox News Channel to host, provided there were enough candidates actively campaigning,” Fox News Executive Vice President Michael Clemente said in a statement.

“This morning, Donald Trump announced he would not be participating in the debate. Shortly afterward, John Kasich’s campaign announced that without Trump at the debate, Kasich would not participate. Ted Cruz has expressed a willingness to debate Trump or Kasich — or both. But obviously, there needs to be more than one participant. So the Salt Lake City debate is cancelled,” Clemente said.

So much for the idea of a brokered convention. At this rate, if Donald Trump decides not to show up for the Republican National Convention, they’ll cancel that too.

Why Trump will crush Hillary

Scott Adams explains the situation from the Master Persuader perspective:

Trump could frame Clinton as anti-male without ever saying “anti-male.” The exact words matter less than the concept. But the words do need to be catchy in some way, so everyone wants to repeat them.

My gut feeling is that men will abandon Clinton every day from now until November unless Trump murders a baby on live television. Otherwise, I think Trump wins easily with men.

But women are the interesting wild card in this scenario. For the sake of discussion, let’s say half of Clinton’s female supporters have a grudge against men. That seems about right if you consider all the attention on gender discrimination. Now add to that all the abusive relationships women have experienced, both personally and professionally, and you have plenty of reasons for women to be anti-male, even if only subconsciously.

But the hypothetical half of women that do not have a grudge against men would run like the wind to avoid being labelled anti-male. It goes to identity. And identity is always the strongest level of persuasion. The only way to beat it is with dirty tricks or a stronger identity play.

Trump is well on his way to owning the identities of American, Alpha Males, and Women Who Like Alpha Males. Clinton is well on her way to owning the identities of angry women, beta males, immigrants, and disenfranchised minorities.

If this were poker, which hand looks stronger to you for a national election?

I think Trump will crush Hillary myself, but not based on any particular communication tactics. Hillary is a ridiculously corrupt member of a corrupt elite who is a terrible candidate almost entirely dependent upon a) the Clinton machine clearing the path for her and b) her opponents refusing to hit her because she’s a girl. So to speak.

Trump knows how the machines work and he’s not even remotely hesitant to launch both rhetorical and dialectical attacks on anyone. Hillary has a glass jaw, she doesn’t handle criticism well, and I expect she would not only fold, but collapse completely, before the kind of pressure Trump would bring to bear.

Making Reddit Great tomorrow

I’ll be stopping by The Donald subreddit for an Ask Me Anything session tomorrow:

Vox Day, Trump supporter and author of Cuckservative: How “Conservatives” Betrayed America will be doing an AMA TOMORROW 3/17 @ 2:30PM ESTt

Many of you are already familiar with Vox as he is a major figure in the “alt-right” movement, as it is sometimes called, and a pro-nationalist. He’s an American currently living in Europe and he is insightful and well-versed in numerous topics, including (but not limited to): politics, economics, immigration/refugee crisis, gamergate, and publishing.

Some more info about Vox. He is:

  • A professional game designer who teaches the DEVGAME online game development course
  • A former nationally syndicated columnist for Universal Press Syndicate and WorldNet Daily
  • Creator of a personal blog with 2.2 million monthly views
  • Creator of one of the top game theory/men’s issues blogs on the web
  • The top critic of SJWism in the Science Fiction/Fantasy community
  • The best-selling political philosopher on Amazon
  • According to one Hugo award-winning author, “the Donald Trump of Science Fiction”

I hope you’ll show up as well. It is a moral imperative that we top Milo’s performance of 1637 comments, 1791 points, 68% upvoted, because you know it would drive him crazy and inspire him to new heights of fabulosity.

Trump: the math of victory

I’ll update this with more accurate data from Missouri when it is reported. But the results of the primaries and caucuses since the last analysis have been generally favorable for Trump, and contra the media naysayers, he’s in a slightly stronger position than I expected him to be after failing to pick up Ohio.

In my previous analysis, I said that Trump’s minimum expected delegate count after March 15 if he took Ohio would be 750 (719 + 31 from NC) and that “he will need somewhere between 271 and 325 delegates from the 606 that remain in the winner-takes-all states.” According to Real Clear Politics, his delegate count going into yesterday was 460. On top of that, yesterday he picked up:

99 Florida
52 Illinois
35 Missouri (est)
30 North Carolina
09 Northern Marianas

That brings him to 685 delegates. Now, there are 297 proportional delegates remaining to be assigned, and Trump is regularly winning about 44 percent of them. (For example, I estimated 31 for NC and his actual count was 30.) So, he can reliably count on 127 of those proportional delegates, which will bring his total to 812, 425 short of the 1,237 required for the nomination. The more he outperforms in the proportionals, and Rubio’s dropout should help him there, the more room for error he will have.

But perhaps the easiest way to understand it is this: there are 606 delegates left to be won in the 12 remaining winner-takes-all states. Trump has enough leeway that he could lose California and still win the nomination outright. He needs around two-thirds of the winner-takes-all delegates, which, given the way he has won 5 of the 6 winner-takes-all contests, losing only to a sitting governor in his home state, still tends to favor him.

Trump crushes Rubio in Florida

From Decision Desk HQ:

45.3% Donald Trump
27.6% Marco Rubio
16.5% Ted Cruz

That’s with 60 percent reporting. Ohio and Missouri don’t have any statistically significant results in yet. Remember to ignore the media spin. I’ll have a full mathematical analysis tomorrow, but the reality is that Trump needs either OH or MO to pretty much lock in the nomination.

He doesn’t absolutely need either, but if he gets both, he will get the necessary delegates.

UPDATE: The New York Times writes about Rubio’s dropout. The missing word? You guessed it.

Did you know that “one crucial shortcoming” was his youth?  I actually never ever read or heard that mentioned.

On the other hand: this entire article explains his failure to attract Republican voters without once mentioning “immigration”, “amnesty”, or “gang of eight”.

Those guys at the NYT are really on top of things.

At a certain point, you begin to realize they’re not stupid, they’re deceivers.

UPDATE 2: Fox has called Ohio for Kasich now. Not a drubbing, but not very close either. Missouri still looks pretty good for Trump, at 43-34 over Cruz, but only 3 percent of the vote is in.

If that holds up, the results are good, but not the hoped-for four-state KO. Trump would take 160 of the 226 available winner-takes-all delegates, so based on my general recollection, he’ll need something like 330 of the 606 remaining winner-takes-all delegates. (I’ll provide a more accurate number tomorrow, but I’d guess that estimate is on the high side.)

That should be doable, considering that he appears likely to take 71 percent of them today.