7 ms·

People are dreaming too much about this guy policies. To me, he looks exactly like Sílvio Berlusconi: a self-centered egocentric, with the attention spam of a

People are dreaming too much about this guy policies. To me, he looks exactly like Sílvio Berlusconi: a self-centered egocentric, with the attention spam of a spider and the temperament of a 10 year old boy. Like Berlusconi he simply wont be able to understand detailed policies or complex problems and doesn't have the intelligence or patience to stitch alliances and deals to implement those policies. Like Berlusconi, the only thing he understands is the "art of the small deals" that bring advantages to him. Edit: I am not the only one saying this: http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21709984-americans-could-look-italy-taste-things-come-what-donald-trump-and-silvio http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21709984-americans-coul...

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vegabook 10y ago
I am not a Trump fan but your post is pure bile.
astrodust 10y ago
Speaking as someone who suffered through four years of having a "Crack Mayor" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Ford https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Ford), you're underestimating the damage a person like this can cause. He's someone who lived a life so ridiculous that the movie Tommy Boy is the closest anyone can get to explaining it. The parallels are surreal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUY6lDja-DE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUY6lDja-DE Rob Ford would declare things as done long before votes had even been called, he would bully people into voting his way, and then he'd declare victory. Anyone who opposed him would be ground down, harassed, and if he couldn't fire them he'd persecute them until they got out of his way or they were no longer a threat. Rob Ford didn't care what the rules were. He didn't care about decorum or tradition. He didn't care if what he said was unworkable, or if he lied, or if he offended people. He just did whatever came to mind, without question, without checking if he had the authority to. Rob Ford was born into privilege, inherited an ownership position in a company worth millions of dollars, and has never had to work a day in his life. He was famous for showing up to work at 2pm and leaving by 4. He had the audacity to brag he'd never missed a day of work on a day he was missing work because he was in drug rehab. Trump will do whatever he wants and there's not going to be anyone there to stop him. This is a man who's never been held to account for any of his actions. He has no concept of morality, nothing to keep him centered. If anyone opposes him, he'll have them fired, blackballed, or tormented until they quit either in disgust or humiliation. He'll make George W. Bush look like a wimp, a man of half-measures, of someone who had too much empathy for his opponents. If he's anything like Rob Ford, which Daniel Dale (https://twitter.com/ddale8 https://twitter.com/ddale8), who covered Rob Ford in depth during his tenure will surely attest, we're looking at multiple scandals per day. It got so bad near the end of Rob Ford's term that he'd give a press conference in the morning and have to apologize in another press conference in the afternoon and even then would almost fuck that up so badly he'd have to give another apology. This shit is real and it's ugly.
- amscanne 10y ago
  I also "suffered" through Rob Ford. His main problem was substance abuse. That led to the the massive circus that was his last two years in office. Trump does not have this issue (or at least, doesn't seem to) so I don't think the comparison is justified. You're being overly dramatic about Ford in general. His first year was actually productive and he delivered on many of his promises (freeze property taxes, repeal registration tax, privatize garbage collection, kill transit city). This isn't just me being generous, I'm echoing Robyn Doolittle, who was the reporter that broke the scandal, followed subsequent scandals and published Crazytown.
  - serge2k 10y ago
    > or at least, doesn't seem to Pretty sure he doesn't drink or anything because of what happened to his brother.
    - astrodust 10y ago
      There is no way I'm ruling out cocaine with Trump.
  - astrodust 10y ago
    Thing is he destroyed everything he could touch. He "balanced" the budget by depleting cash reserves, he cost the city a fortune by cancelling projects that were already under-way, and his legacy is a single subway stop that costs $3 billion that we still don't know how to pay for. This is quite an achievement from a man who campaigned against the "gravy train". It'll take twenty years to unwind the damage he's done, and we're just talking about a city where the Mayor is just one vote, they have very little executive authority. He didn't have access to the most powerful military in the world. He didn't have a political party backing him up. He didn't have nuclear weapons. He did about as much damage as he could do.
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- masonic 10y ago
usmeteora 10y ago
Trump has a history of heavily relying on his own advisors for his own company, so I'd have a hard time believing he will cast this off. I do know when he does it is not pretty, but I don't believe that he does not listen to any of his advisors, so maybe if his advisors are good they will be able to adequately run realms of policy and run them well. I have no idea if this is true or whether his experience with advisors that have served him well financially in the past would translate well to policy management in the white house, but it is not true that he does not rely heavily on advisors, which could turn out to be a good thing for everyone depending on who he appoints. This does not mean I support Trump, but he is going to the President, and even before he was President jumping to assumptions does not help anyones point, if anything is disqualifies and gives more power to Trump and his party which daily offends many people, including myself. This is happening though, and unlike the Mayor of Toronto, Trump has a history in successful business and turning bad neighborhoods in NYC and has alot of old school respect from people who remember the impact he had. You can contribute economically in a positive way to society and still be a crummy person. Alot of business men are like this, and think it entitles them to women as if they are goody bags. This is coming from me, a woman, who cannot even begin to articulate the offense his words about women muster in me. But I know the women who are liberal who scream victims end up being victims even more. I wish calling people out on their crap worked but I know first hand it doesnt. So I was like WELP I can drink whiskey for the rest of my life in an introductory level Engineering job and hate my life, and we live on in this old school inequality, or I can show that I have what it takes and I can take on the challenge. Now, lets be clear, I still drink whiskey from time to time, but not every night anymore out of emotional distress. I sympathize, but I have to get up and go to work everyday and earn respect from men to get ahead in life so I can scream and moan and yell or I can act like an adult and try to understand what makes these people successful and often times there are elements about them that are very intelligent that people never learn because they are too busy hating them. People need to learn that you can be successful and be a dickbag, and to be a successful non dickbag you will at some point interact with dickbags. You can learn from them and set the example that you too can be a leader in many ways without having to act like them, which is really the biggest weapon we have against people like this, or you can cry about it. And lets be clear, men like this that I work for now, do not treat me this way, because they know that I don't put up with that crap. I change the way I interact with men to make it clear it aint gonna work. It's not a judgment of other girls and victims of Trump, it's just me and my experience working with men in business who have egos bigger than Trump. Again, I'm not giving this guy free rides or condoning him, but we need to be realistic moving forward. SO many of my female friends are in tears still and yelling and screaming, and yo, I gotya girl, I do, so lets like be awesome together and show them we can do it too because crying just gives men like this more power.
serge2k 10y ago
> doesn't have the intelligence or patience to stitch alliances and deals to implement those policies Does he need to? Has at least 2 years of completely republican rule.
- AnimalMuppet 10y ago
  And many of the Republicans hate him. The Republicans are the first alliance that he has to stitch together.
  - hga 10y ago
    Or perhaps not, for as you point out, many, they're mostly the GOPe(stablishment) types, hate him. Hard to negotiate with such people, will no doubt be harder after all the lame duck session stunts they'll pull. I suspect he's considering a 2 year campaign against a "Do Nothing Congress" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80th_United_States_Congress https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80th_United_States_Congress) as a threat to get them in line, and/or to get rid of a bunch of them in 2018 so he can accomplish a bunch of his promises that require the cooperation of the Congress.
vegabook 10y ago
you're very smart. Your comparison with Berlusconi is accurate and entertaining. But here's the problem. Smart isn't enough. You need generosity. The main problem with the past 70-years Hayek/Randian "every man for himself" dogma is that it leaves large parts of your fellow, less intellectually talented, human beings, behind. But believe it or not, those "lesser" human beings are often the very source of your happiness, because they are the ones who are not striving for financial gain. They are the ones who soothe your soul. They have non-monetary skills which you will never have. They are the ones who glue a society together. You're clever, and you owe them for the healthy society which they, unlike you, are intrinsic to. Trump, obliquely, has tapped into that disjoint. Let me put this more simply. Imagine a world exclusively populated with disdainful high-iq people such as you. I call that a smart but heartless place. Hell.
- badsock 10y ago
  I agree with your point that we terribly undervalue non-financial contributions, but I think you're wrong to put intelligence and kindness at opposite ends of a scale. I've never seen anything to suggest that they're not orthogonal.
  - vegabook 10y ago
    I think I may adjust my point to suggest that financial gain is orthogonal to kindness. Thank you for your insightful comment.
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vegabook 10y ago

I am not a Trump fan but your post is pure bile.

astrodust 10y ago

Speaking as someone who suffered through four years of having a "Crack Mayor" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Ford https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Ford), you're underestimating the damage a person like this can cause. He's someone who lived a life so ridiculous that the movie Tommy Boy is the closest anyone can get to explaining it. The parallels are surreal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUY6lDja-DE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUY6lDja-DE Rob Ford would declare things as done long before votes had even been called, he would bully people into voting his way, and then he'd declare victory. Anyone who opposed him would be ground down, harassed, and if he couldn't fire them he'd persecute them until they got out of his way or they were no longer a threat. Rob Ford didn't care what the rules were. He didn't care about decorum or tradition. He didn't care if what he said was unworkable, or if he lied, or if he offended people. He just did whatever came to mind, without question, without checking if he had the authority to. Rob Ford was born into privilege, inherited an ownership position in a company worth millions of dollars, and has never had to work a day in his life. He was famous for showing up to work at 2pm and leaving by 4. He had the audacity to brag he'd never missed a day of work on a day he was missing work because he was in drug rehab. Trump will do whatever he wants and there's not going to be anyone there to stop him. This is a man who's never been held to account for any of his actions. He has no concept of morality, nothing to keep him centered. If anyone opposes him, he'll have them fired, blackballed, or tormented until they quit either in disgust or humiliation. He'll make George W. Bush look like a wimp, a man of half-measures, of someone who had too much empathy for his opponents. If he's anything like Rob Ford, which Daniel Dale (https://twitter.com/ddale8 https://twitter.com/ddale8), who covered Rob Ford in depth during his tenure will surely attest, we're looking at multiple scandals per day. It got so bad near the end of Rob Ford's term that he'd give a press conference in the morning and have to apologize in another press conference in the afternoon and even then would almost fuck that up so badly he'd have to give another apology. This shit is real and it's ugly.

amscanne 10y ago
I also "suffered" through Rob Ford. His main problem was substance abuse. That led to the the massive circus that was his last two years in office. Trump does not have this issue (or at least, doesn't seem to) so I don't think the comparison is justified. You're being overly dramatic about Ford in general. His first year was actually productive and he delivered on many of his promises (freeze property taxes, repeal registration tax, privatize garbage collection, kill transit city). This isn't just me being generous, I'm echoing Robyn Doolittle, who was the reporter that broke the scandal, followed subsequent scandals and published Crazytown.
- serge2k 10y ago
  > or at least, doesn't seem to Pretty sure he doesn't drink or anything because of what happened to his brother.
  - astrodust 10y ago
    There is no way I'm ruling out cocaine with Trump.
- astrodust 10y ago
  Thing is he destroyed everything he could touch. He "balanced" the budget by depleting cash reserves, he cost the city a fortune by cancelling projects that were already under-way, and his legacy is a single subway stop that costs $3 billion that we still don't know how to pay for. This is quite an achievement from a man who campaigned against the "gravy train". It'll take twenty years to unwind the damage he's done, and we're just talking about a city where the Mayor is just one vote, they have very little executive authority. He didn't have access to the most powerful military in the world. He didn't have a political party backing him up. He didn't have nuclear weapons. He did about as much damage as he could do.
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masonic 10y ago

usmeteora 10y ago

Trump has a history of heavily relying on his own advisors for his own company, so I'd have a hard time believing he will cast this off. I do know when he does it is not pretty, but I don't believe that he does not listen to any of his advisors, so maybe if his advisors are good they will be able to adequately run realms of policy and run them well. I have no idea if this is true or whether his experience with advisors that have served him well financially in the past would translate well to policy management in the white house, but it is not true that he does not rely heavily on advisors, which could turn out to be a good thing for everyone depending on who he appoints. This does not mean I support Trump, but he is going to the President, and even before he was President jumping to assumptions does not help anyones point, if anything is disqualifies and gives more power to Trump and his party which daily offends many people, including myself. This is happening though, and unlike the Mayor of Toronto, Trump has a history in successful business and turning bad neighborhoods in NYC and has alot of old school respect from people who remember the impact he had. You can contribute economically in a positive way to society and still be a crummy person. Alot of business men are like this, and think it entitles them to women as if they are goody bags. This is coming from me, a woman, who cannot even begin to articulate the offense his words about women muster in me. But I know the women who are liberal who scream victims end up being victims even more. I wish calling people out on their crap worked but I know first hand it doesnt. So I was like WELP I can drink whiskey for the rest of my life in an introductory level Engineering job and hate my life, and we live on in this old school inequality, or I can show that I have what it takes and I can take on the challenge. Now, lets be clear, I still drink whiskey from time to time, but not every night anymore out of emotional distress. I sympathize, but I have to get up and go to work everyday and earn respect from men to get ahead in life so I can scream and moan and yell or I can act like an adult and try to understand what makes these people successful and often times there are elements about them that are very intelligent that people never learn because they are too busy hating them. People need to learn that you can be successful and be a dickbag, and to be a successful non dickbag you will at some point interact with dickbags. You can learn from them and set the example that you too can be a leader in many ways without having to act like them, which is really the biggest weapon we have against people like this, or you can cry about it. And lets be clear, men like this that I work for now, do not treat me this way, because they know that I don't put up with that crap. I change the way I interact with men to make it clear it aint gonna work. It's not a judgment of other girls and victims of Trump, it's just me and my experience working with men in business who have egos bigger than Trump. Again, I'm not giving this guy free rides or condoning him, but we need to be realistic moving forward. SO many of my female friends are in tears still and yelling and screaming, and yo, I gotya girl, I do, so lets like be awesome together and show them we can do it too because crying just gives men like this more power.

serge2k 10y ago

> doesn't have the intelligence or patience to stitch alliances and deals to implement those policies Does he need to? Has at least 2 years of completely republican rule.

AnimalMuppet 10y ago
And many of the Republicans hate him. The Republicans are the first alliance that he has to stitch together.
- hga 10y ago
  Or perhaps not, for as you point out, many, they're mostly the GOPe(stablishment) types, hate him. Hard to negotiate with such people, will no doubt be harder after all the lame duck session stunts they'll pull. I suspect he's considering a 2 year campaign against a "Do Nothing Congress" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80th_United_States_Congress https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80th_United_States_Congress) as a threat to get them in line, and/or to get rid of a bunch of them in 2018 so he can accomplish a bunch of his promises that require the cooperation of the Congress.

vegabook 10y ago

you're very smart. Your comparison with Berlusconi is accurate and entertaining. But here's the problem. Smart isn't enough. You need generosity. The main problem with the past 70-years Hayek/Randian "every man for himself" dogma is that it leaves large parts of your fellow, less intellectually talented, human beings, behind. But believe it or not, those "lesser" human beings are often the very source of your happiness, because they are the ones who are not striving for financial gain. They are the ones who soothe your soul. They have non-monetary skills which you will never have. They are the ones who glue a society together. You're clever, and you owe them for the healthy society which they, unlike you, are intrinsic to. Trump, obliquely, has tapped into that disjoint. Let me put this more simply. Imagine a world exclusively populated with disdainful high-iq people such as you. I call that a smart but heartless place. Hell.

badsock 10y ago
I agree with your point that we terribly undervalue non-financial contributions, but I think you're wrong to put intelligence and kindness at opposite ends of a scale. I've never seen anything to suggest that they're not orthogonal.
- vegabook 10y ago
  I think I may adjust my point to suggest that financial gain is orthogonal to kindness. Thank you for your insightful comment.

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