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Tuesday, July 19, 2016

RNC Gut Check

The Republican Convention has so far been an utterly demoralizing spectacle of broken people threatening to break other people.

7 comments:

jimf said...

> Dale Carrico Retweeted
>
> . . .
>
> Scott Baio is not a celebrity.

And besides, Kirk Cameron is cuter.

jimf said...

> . . .an utterly demoralizing spectacle of broken people. . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2L6dk5J6ns
---------------
Trump: Obama’s Words Okay But Body Language Suspicious
The Young Turks
Jul 18, 2016

(quoting Donald Trump:)

You know, I watch the President, and sometimes the words are OK,
but you just look at the body language and something['s] going on.
Look, there's something going on, and the words are not often
OK, by the way. There's just bad feeling. And a lot of bad
feeling about him. I see it too, there's a lot of bad feeling
about him. . .
====


The Young Turk commentators mocked this, of course, but I
think they also missed a point.

There **is** something about Obama's mannerism which, I suspect,
rubs a lot of people the wrong way, and which Trump "gets"
and is playing up. It's the whole "cool Vulcan" thing --
Mr. Tuvok aboard Voyager. I appreciate it as much as
Captain Janeway did, but **a lot** of people, especially
in Trump's target demographic, are going to react to that emotional
constraint the way Dr. McCoy (also a Southerner :-0 )
did to Mr. Spock in the original show.

I'm also reminded of:

Kirk "No Room for Bigotry" S01E14 Balance of Terror
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdqseBkIoSk

Dale Carrico said...

Kirk Cameron is cuter

Only when he is praying. And, presumably, preying.

Dale Carrico said...

There **is** something about Obama's mannerism which, I suspect,
rubs a lot of people the wrong way, and which Trump "gets"
and is playing up.


Trump's mannerisms are much more normal and reassuring, to be sure.

https://youtu.be/zVe8canfI_U

jimf said...

Speaking of guts, I saw in the newspaper this morning that
there's a suspected outbreak of norovirus at the RNC.

Shades of _Veep_!

Bring on the yoghurt. (Notice I spelled that with an 'h'.)

jimf said...

We've been rickrolled!

Republicans Plagiarized A LOT Of Lines At RNC
The Young Turks
Jul 19, 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp_YGpnoyuc

jimf said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/21/technology/peter-thiels-embrace-of-trump-has-silicon-valley-squirming.html
----------------
Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming
Farhad Manjoo
STATE OF THE ART
JULY 20, 2016

. . .

Venture capitalists have a special term for investment opportunities
that offer the potential for a big return but also carry a great deal
of risk: high beta. For Silicon Valley’s political aspirations,
Mr. Thiel’s speech is the ultimate high-beta performance. . .

On the one hand, an emissary from tech will have a national
platform to push the industry’s agenda and, more important,
its worldview. By the end of Mr. Thiel’s speech on Thursday night,
it’s possible he will have succeeded in showing off an
ideology that is rarely encountered in public — the hands-off-my-stuff,
techno-libertarian vision that is a hobbyhorse of Mr. Thiel
and a few other Silicon Valley bigwigs.

And if Mr. Trump wins the White House, Mr. Thiel will have a
direct line to a chief executive who hints at a penchant for
making big things happen for his supporters. . .

On the other hand, this could end quite badly. . .

[I]t could also become another plot point in the larger story
line that Silicon Valley is exclusionary and narrow-minded
and that its innovations are advancing global inequality. . .
====


What's this "beta" crap, kemosabe? We all **alpha** males
'round here!

Calling all Singularitarians: TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP!