The clown show defense
I often argue that the Trump administration is nothing more than a clown show. But that’s actually unfair to clowns, as they know what they are doing. They know that they are trying to look foolish, to entertain the public.
When Trump encourages the Russians to sabotage the Clinton campaign, or when he suggests looking into nuking hurricanes, or when he says things like this:
I asked Bill a question that probably some of you are thinking of, if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous—whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light—and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too. It sounds interesting…
And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with. But it sounds—it sounds interesting to me.
He’s not aware that he’s acting like a clown. His aides will later tell him (politely) that he made a fool of himself, and in desperation they’ll invent the “clown show defense”, the claim that Trump was just joking.
But in this case the cover-up is almost worse than the crime. Trump’s statement was obviously not a joke. The fact that they need to make that claim is tacit admission that this president is so deranged than his statements can only be defended by pretending that he was just joking.
Trump has the mind of a 7-year old boy, where it makes perfect sense that one might want to kill a virus in the body with disinfectant, and that this idea was something that doctors had never stopped to consider.
Trump’s right that people are surprised about how much he knows about medical science. But I don’t think they are surprised in the direction that he assumes.
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25. April 2020 at 11:21
Ah yes, pondering out loud about something you don’t know is a sign of stupidity and we should mock folk for openly expressing curiosity. Or maybe he’s just wondering and not ashamed to express that.
25. April 2020 at 12:33
Yeah, right, pondering out loud about a subject you are ignorant about in the midst of a worldwide press conference supposedly concerning the nations progress in fighting an existential threat. That’s the real mark of a great leader. Why try to instill confidence and hope when you have a chance to show what a great bullshitter you are.
I remember like it was yesterday, after 9/11 when bush went on and on about how on his ranch, when they built a bunkhouse, it took more than lousy airplane to knock it down.
And of course there was Roosevelt saying that if only the navy would listen to him about making ships out of oak, like old Ironsides, those battleships at Pearl Harbor would still be floating…well ok maybe just the pieces.
25. April 2020 at 12:49
Peter,
How is it not disturbing to you that Trump is obviously not only dumb enough to consider applying disinfectant or UV radiation inside the body, but is even a big enough fool to ask such questions publicly? Not only is Trump unbelievably stupid and ignorant, but he’s also completely unaware of how stupid he is. In fact, he seems to think he’s always the smartest person in the room.
Don’t you get concerned that people will also think you are stupid when you type the kind of comment you just typed? Do you not realize how you come across? I know this is unkind, and it’s not my goal to be unkind, but seriously, I’d never want to do business or otherwise have anything to do with someone who’s okay with a President like this, and worse, defends it. I’m actually personally offended that you apparently take the responsibilities of the President so lightly and people like you are not only ruining the country, but the broader world. Sorry, but there’s no kind way to say that.
We all do stupid things sometimes, and I’m certainly no exception, but there’s adult stupid, and then there’s stupid, even for a child. Trump is even stupid by prepubescent child standards.
And this isn’t just speculative about how harmful this can be. Tens of thousands of people are now dying needlessly, because nearly half the voters in this country are idiots, at best.
25. April 2020 at 13:12
I wonder, what would be the effect of UV light on the lungs? Assuming exposure equivalent to, say, fifteen minutes in the sun.
25. April 2020 at 13:36
Maybe Trump was just trolling his audience? I myself am guilty of that on this site. You know when I’m joking however, when I say something ridiculous like agreeing money is not neutral. And as Peter says upstream, Trump is not unlike Reagan in having a ‘child like curiosity’ about things, even when that curiosity is at odds with science (as was Reagan’s ridiculous “Star Wars” anti-nuclear shield, which still has not been perfected 40 years later).
25. April 2020 at 15:12
Peter, You don’t understand, people are super impressed with Trump’s knowledge once they get a chance to speak with him. They are truly surprised by how much he knows about medical science. He says so.
Seriously, when you become president, have the biggest ego on the planet, and keep telling everyone what a &$^#*& genius you are, expect to be judged by slightly higher standards that a modest person with an IQ of 73 who doesn’t claim to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Understand?
Do you ever see me mocking the ignorance of a non-arrogant high school dropout?
25. April 2020 at 15:41
I’m not sure if you can access this video (from TikTok via Twitter) but I found it hilarious: https://mobile.twitter.com/sarahcpr/status/1253474772702429189
25. April 2020 at 16:12
Rajat, that was brilliant! Thanks!
25. April 2020 at 17:51
I think the clown show is both good theater for all of us and politically astute given his target audience.
Is Infinite Jest not only the best but also the most far-sighted novel written in the last 50 years ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Jest
25. April 2020 at 18:47
Scott
Why not give the guy a break. He’s not a doc and he’s trying his utmost to get the US out of this pickle. It’s obvious , except to a TDS idiot, he’s not talking about putting bleach in people’s veins. He’s talking about some cleansing agent.. anything that would help. Cheap shots are never good and it makes you look cheap. Don’t do it.
25. April 2020 at 23:42
@Robb: Sure, if you are one of those that believe presidents are leaders or that we should care about a single thing they say on anything. I was raised better than and am not in the dear leader crowd though I guess if I was you and assigned people with self-perceived higher status jobs than yourself some magical insight to transfer your own feelings of inadequacy onto their divine shoulders, yeah I guess I might be upset my God Emperor appeared to be non-omnipotent .. guess what, he poops to and it smells. President is a job, no different than a janitor when it comes to moral insight, leadership requirements, etc. He was having a conversation, somebody popped up in his mind, and he wondered about it. Perfectly normal behavior for us mere mortals.
@Michael: People are dumb enough to consider all sorts of things to include facemask made out two-inch fishnet stockings will statically reduce the death rate from Chinese Flu as my good mayor believes or that banning drugs means nobody will use them. I find those sorts of people tend to gravitate to senior positions in any organization so how would water being wet disturb men. I don’t disagree with your or Scott’s assessment of his ego including obviousness to his own shortcomings but face it, that is every President in living memory, probably ever, and nearly ever senior position in any organization ever. Once again, waters wet.
“Don’t you get concerned that people will also think you are stupid when you type the kind of comment you just typed? Do you not realize how you come across?”
No and yes. As I said to Robb I was raised better than that. Maybe if I grew up on the coast or East Asia or I had a PhD so my entire life was about keeping up with my fellow Ivory Tower “intellectuals” and the only thing that would matter in my life is “not getting caught”, “social status pecking order”, and “face” sure that would bother me but alas I was just raised poor white trash in poverty in fly over country. Like here I am in my fifties and to the aghast of many commenters on a post over at MR I didn’t even know what a GRE was until last week or why it had scores or how they matter. Now I know and they don’t.
And then people wonder why we have the government we have. I’m indifferent how foolish somebody sounds when engaging in GOOD FAITH inquiries and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to realized dismissing people attempting to seek information in good faith as stupid is counterproductive and some of the worst things social media has contributed to. If a genuinely stupid person asks a stupid question, or hell even an intelligent person, they are acknowledging their own ignorance and genuinely attempting improve themselves and gain information at a cost of face / weakness by opening themselves up to criticism. But sure, lets instead crap on those people, laugh out how stupid them, and let them continue to move forward in ignorance while also contributing to future bad decisions as they freehand it because they tried and were not only ridiculed, not didn’t even get an answer. I wonder stuff all the time, it’s a trait we should do more as a society to encourage rather than condemn.
“I’m actually personally offended that you apparently take the responsibilities of the President so lightly and people like you are not only ruining the country, but the broader world. Sorry, but there’s no kind way to say that.”
Likewise man. The fact people like you and Robb believe in the divinity of senior positions and the punishment of good faith inquires is the exactly the world we live in today and it’s why the broader world is already ruined. But sure, I’m glad you find great comfort God Emperors and their pantheon of lesser deities all the way down to your first level supervisor. The rest of us are pretty happy with what the Presidents responsibility actual are, you know Article II Section 3 of the US Constitution. It’s a pretty solid list of duties and we would be better if he stuck to all six of them. Last I checked “not being inquisitive”, “God Emperor of American People”, nor even the word leadership is mentioned once. TBH if we elected the guy and never heard his name again for four years I wouldn’t lose sleep at all, hell I would probably say halleluiah and vote for him again.
“is even a big enough fool to ask such questions publicly”
Why not ask it. Once again, it’s just wondering and it’s not foolish to do so in good faith except to pretentious people that like to look down on less formal educated folk from their high horse. And casually it’s even that bad of a wonder for medical layman. For example after hearing everybody mock it I have to admit I wondered about it myself. Now sure UV and disinfectant won’t kill Chinese Flu in the body without harming the host most likely but we do that all the time if the risk is worth it, i.e. chemotherapy is a race to see what kills you first, chemo or cancer. Could we possible find a wave length or dosage that only targets lung type II alveolar cells which have been infected by Chinese Flu, I have no idea and neither do you nor Scott. Could we find an inhalable disinfectant that does the same, I have no idea either but I do know we current inhale various substances to fight medical issues (asthma, antibiotics, pneumonia, etc.) and papers have been written on using things like 207 nm UV lights to disinfect and clean surgical sites because it mostly affects bacteria at that wavelength with little to effect on human tissue.
Also I’m not a surgeon but I can easily imagine, maybe wrongly but I’m not afraid to wonder, in a massive abdominal injury via let’s say a gunshot, stab wound, perforated bowel where your feces leak all over the inside of your guts they have some sort of process to disinfect the exterior surfaces of the organs covered in feces, dirt, etc after wiping off the visible amounts with sterile water before they sow them back up and that probably involves some sort of contact chemical disinfectant or UV light after all I’m pretty sure sowing up the intestines but leaving all the feces in the interorgan spaces is a “bad thing” and probably will lead to future sepsis. So sure if you were to ask me “do I think it will work”, no and TBH probably not something worth spending money on researching given more media perceived promising avenue of approach BUT that doesn’t mean it’s not something to wonder about or that it was “stupid that an adult person could even wonder this”. Moonshots occasionally work, you don’t get them with curiosity.
@JC1: Bingo
25. April 2020 at 23:44
And apologies on the white spacing in the previous post, didn’t cut and paste well from Word I noticed after submit as not all the carriage returns carried over.
26. April 2020 at 08:15
Wow. Just wow.
Some of these comments are unbelievable. You don’t have to be a “doc” to know that disinfectant wouldn’t do to well if you injected it in your body.
26. April 2020 at 09:11
Rajat, Cute.
Market, Perhaps I need to check out that novel. Is it similar to Pynchon?
JC1, You do realize that President Trump just called me savvy, and he just called you an idiot, don’t you?
Look up the dictionary definition of “sarcasm”. Trump says he was being sarcastic. That means people like you who defend the remarks are idiots (in Trump’s eyes, not mine) and Trump think’s I’m a savvy individual who saw the patently obvious silliness of his claim.
You Trumpistas need to get your alibis straight, otherwise you look foolish. It was sarcasm, right? Right?
Peter, You said:
“President is a job, no different than a janitor when it comes to moral insight, leadership requirements, etc. ”
Exactly my view. The problem with Trump is precisely that he does not understand this. Indeed he has perhaps less understanding of this point than any of the 7.8 billion humans on the planet. That’s a problem, a big problem.
Miro, Yes, and as I said to JC1, Trump just (implicitly) called his own defenders “idiots”. He threw them under the bus. Sad!!
26. April 2020 at 09:18
@miro We don’t know if that is true in an absolute sense. For example I can easily imagine a non-toxic non-absorbable disinfectant of some sort having potential use to treat SIBO if injected into the small intestine.
26. April 2020 at 09:37
Trump is actually dumber and much more malicious than the President in Idiocracy. That movie was actually optimistic in some ways. Trump’s followers and defenders have their heads so far up their asses, they aren’t worth dealing with at all.
I’m seriously considering leaving the US in the next year or two. Panama seems like a very nice country, particularly for Americans. I’ll have to visit soon.
I can’t watch this once great country go down hill like this. It’s too painful.
26. April 2020 at 09:55
I’m constantly reminded of two books lately. One is the Death of Expertise, by Tom Nichols, and the other is Caplan’s Myth of the Rational Voter.
I don’t see how an economy or society can function properly without the appropriate respect for expertise. It undermines division of labor, which is fundamental to economic efficiency and sound government. Experts aren’t always right, but they are right more often, on average, than non-experts.
And Caplan’s concept of rational irrationality keeps coming to mind, though I’m starting to question the rational aspect as I read about adults inquiring about consuming bleach or Lysol to treat a viral infection.
I realize I’m somewhat hypocritical here, as I’ve argued with the resident expert on economics and monetary policy here about the stance of monetary policy in recent decades and even on how to model it. I have much more often been wrong than correct, but in fairness, there seems to be no widely accepted macro model sufficiently detailed and empirically supported to resolve many of the disputed points with anything like certainty. Also, I do my best to test my ideas against available evidence, however imperfectly. I would rather be shown to be wrong than to waste my time with bad ideas.
26. April 2020 at 10:36
Regarding Infinite Jest – I would say there are some similarities in style to Pynchon. I highly recommend it.
26. April 2020 at 11:00
Like most technical people, I cringed when I heard that line. Not because he is telling everyone to go mainline Lysol, but because of the description given here, and I’m surprised that places like CNN don’t get it. (“I gave you an explanation so that you could make the proper decisions about allocations of resources, not because I need your technical advice about how best to proceed”)
Having said that, I wish he had asked the stupid seven year old question about face masks weeks ago, since even a blind squirrel occasionally finds a nut.
26. April 2020 at 13:35
@JC1: The issue is that if someone like Joe Biden said the exact same thing as Trump did, you would be ripping him mercilessly.
26. April 2020 at 14:27
@MichaelS:
Going to motivate me to read “Death of Expertise” finally as a lot of people seem to reference it at least in my silos of excellence as curious if he says what I think. I read the other one and I miss the OLD Tyler.
Still to your point about “I don’t see how an economy or society can function properly without the appropriate respect for expertise. It undermines division of labor, which is fundamental to economic efficiency and sound government. Experts aren’t always right, but they are right more often, on average, than non-experts.” I think what you are missing is most of the “experts” aren’t actually experts and the historic veil is being ripped off to understand the emperor has no clothes.
While you are correct on that last part, experts generally aren’t experts ™ hence why we don’t have a sound economy nor government. You don’t get promoted being an expert in your field and especially not in bureaucratic organizations. Expertise in agreeableness, sycophancy, and other “social intelligence” skills as well as diversity metrics are what propel you to success and I think we both understand that sort of expertise isn’t the sort you want make real decisions about things of import. I’m not saying intuitions don’t have expertise but experts aren’t going to get their message out as it simply won’t filter up and, even if it did, would get ignored. If you are generally interested in “expertise” (using the Federal system as an example am, I’m familiar with that) you need to be asking for broad anonymous consensus papers from the equivalent of the doers, i.e. GS1 to GS13. Your GS-15/SES on USG Press Event Doctor Beth, Director of Scientific Agency hasn’t done actual science in twenty years and has no interest in it hence her chasing promotions. And even when she did it was solely non offensive irrelevant science whose only intend was to support the orthodoxy whereas the GS-12 scientist that actually is an expert, not an expert(tm), has been in that trench for twenty years as is probably a persona non grata at this point to be honest. Sure she might bring some of the help with her to the briefing, they were carefully screened to support the orthodoxy and have expressed promotion interests hence willing to openly shill.
For example, not to pick on anybody in particular, the former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency Director was an astronaut. Why should I, as a member of the public, give a care in the world what “Dr. Sullivan, Phd in Science, NOAA Director, comments on the threat to sea turtle migration” or “the projected hurricane season”. She’s an astronaut. Now sure she might be a competent administrator and a polyglot but she’s not an expert in turtle migration, she’s an expert(tm) in using her status as a white female astronaut and agreeableness to become the NOAA Director. And that goes for Mr. Oliver as well, the current “NOAA Fisheries Administrator” who has spent all of three years (the first three) of his thirty-three year as an administrator even though he has a master’s in fish science. Actually, you will generally see that across most “scientific” agencies in that if you look at the CV of the experts(tm). They generally have initial entry in their field of expertise or interest before quickly deciding they don’t actually like the field and move on to management. Most of them tend to have business degrees and only return to get a graduate degree in science later when they figure out midcareer the lack of will preclude them from senior positions, i.e. SES as the public demands their experts(tm) have the pro forma science degree.
As the saying goes “those who can do, those you can’t teach” and while it’s not direct applicable here it’s a good paraphrase for “those who can either leave the government and go private because they can’t accomplish anything or spend thirty years not getting promoted bashing their head on the wall because they are a true believer in the job and take their oath of office seriously, those that don’t care or can’t, get promoted to expert(tm)”
THAT is why trust in expertise is failing. Because with the advent of the Internet it’s far easier than ever to realize the experts(tm) are just official propaganda, an opioid for the masses who don’t pay attention. Same reason the Director of the Honolulu Heath Services can with a straight face, and be believed by nearly everybody in the state, that a homemade mask made out of two inch fishnet stockings will save you from getting Chinese Flu or that how washing your hands for twenty seconds will save you but washing them for nineteen is putting your life on the line. Same reason the Director (doctor again and expert(tm)) of the State of Hawaii Health Department claimed “two boats passing each other in the open ocean closer than twenty feet is putting your life on the line for Chinese Flu”. Really??? The learned expert(tm) advice which we should all follow and believe is Chinese Flu is going to kill me in the middle of the open ocean when I’m out fishing if I pass another fisherman at nineteen feet and eleven inches. I wonder what the social distances requirement is underwater while I scuba dive. But yep, experts(tm) and then folk like you appear to lament why nobody believes them. Yeah I wonder.
We can all dream/wish/lament for day when the deep state / swamp / bureaucracy because a technocratic meritocracy instead of a political mediocrity but that isn’t going to happen, well ever. Hence yeah expertise is dead and the faster the masses catch on to that the better because no experts(tm) are generally not right more often than not. Experts sure, experts(tm) no. Experts aren’t on TV nor does the government let them speak at all without career ending hence if you are the public and see the government opining on anything, it’s safe to assume it’s all BS. Just ask all the whistleblowers that are unemployable or jailed or the intentionally ineffective IG’s. How did being an expert work out for CPT Crozler whom even if enough pressure if brought to reinstate him, will never reach flag2 or be assigned a position of import again.
26. April 2020 at 21:21
@Peter:
That was a well written jeremiad, and a lot of it rings true. I’m a tas more optimistic by nature so I was wondering:
Do you feel there has been a time in the past where expertise was more properly administered, that the ‘experts’ were not just agreeable mediocrities? I feel like we must have done something right to advance to where we are. Things are pretty good compared to past eras, and so did they have better experts then?
26. April 2020 at 21:28
Scott, focus on the first thing. Did Trump say or mean someone should ingest bleach into their system? No, why then continue with other nonsense.
Trump did not say or mean that. I don’t know why it’s even an argument. Anyone who believes otherwise is propagating a hoax.
Go and look on this blog to see if I’ve ever said anything about Biden. Let me save you the time. I haven’t!
I’ll say this though. Out of 23 candidates the best the D’rats could come up with is a person whose family should be considering assisted care either in residence or in a nursing home for him.
27. April 2020 at 00:18
I think its praiseworthy, and a preeminent part of an entrepreneurial mindset. His words are not filtered, and propagated through platitudes, and he is clearly not afraid to brainstorm in real-time.
It should also be noted that nano-technologists are currently working on a disinfectant using nanobots. so he is thinking outside the box, in a very innovative way – which I find rather impressive.
27. April 2020 at 01:17
One other thing Scott. The discussion (argument) is if Trump suggested people should be injected with regular cleaning agent. No, he did not say that or even suggest it. Coming back with other irrelevant stuff doesn’t change this bare fact. He did not say that. It’s a hoax.
27. April 2020 at 09:36
JC1, I pointed out that Trump is a senile old fool. And then you say:
“Why not give the guy a break.”
Nice to see you have compassion, unlike me. And then you turn around and say Biden is a senile old fool.
“Out of 23 candidates the best the D’rats could come up with is a person whose family should be considering assisted care either in residence or in a nursing home for him.”
Seriously, do you even know what you write?
As for your defense of Trump’s claims, it’s too late. Even Trump says he was being sarcastic. You are about the only person on planet Earth that’s still not in on the joke. He was JOKING. Do you not know what “sarcastic” means?
You said:
“One other thing Scott. The discussion (argument) is if Trump suggested people should be injected with regular cleaning agent. No, he did not say that or even suggest it. Coming back with other irrelevant stuff doesn’t change this bare fact. He did not say that. It’s a hoax.”
So I misrepresented his views by quoting him WORD FOR WORD. Okaaaaay . . . .
27. April 2020 at 09:49
Ryan:
“I think its praiseworthy, and a preeminent part of an entrepreneurial mindset. His words are not filtered, and propagated through platitudes, and he is clearly not afraid to brainstorm in real-time.”
“not afraid?” “brainstorm?” Seriously? I think you misspelled “clueless enough” and “bullshit” because his whole life has been spent bullshitting and he surrounds himself with people who *are* too afraid to contradict him.
Lol, the comments here. Scott, this is hilarious. Thanks. You’ve brought out the Dunning-Krugerists.
27. April 2020 at 09:54
We’re at the stage now when the mothership fails to materialize, the hardcore supporters just redouble their faith. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Prophecy_Fails
27. April 2020 at 10:05
Of course it’s far from just your comments section. For example, this exemplar thinker, and former Jade Helm conspiracy theorist, now writing for RedState (Brandon Morse):
https://twitter.com/gorskon/status/1253694840438734848
Looks like Brandon wasn’t in on the “joke” either. Poor fool, can’t he see sarcasm and humor when it’s starring him in the face? Instead he doubles down on the quackery. Trump should talk some sense to him, Lol
27. April 2020 at 10:31
https://twitter.com/gorskon/status/1253755633909878784
27. April 2020 at 13:21
@JC1: I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you can’t understand simple phrases. I didn’t say you’d said anything about Biden before, I said IF Biden had said the same idiotic thing about drinking bleach and sticking UV light up your nose, you wouldn’t be telling us to give Biden a break as he’s not a doctor (like you said about Trump). You’d rip him to shreds, probably with the same reference to him needing a nursing home.
Because you’re another boring partisan. Trump good, Dems bad. Stupid shit Trump says, give him a break, stupid shit Biden says, put him in a home. Useless.
27. April 2020 at 13:27
@Ryan: Trump wouldn’t know a nanobot if a billion of them were grabbing Ivanka by the p*ssy
I mean, look, I get that some people preferred Trump to Clinton. I get that some people even like Trump (don’t agree but I can understand it). What I don’t understand is how the smart ones (the dumb ones are beyond hope) can’t at least acknowledge the most obvious of things about him. He’s obviously a narcissistic, corrupt, incurious bullshit artist. That’s not a matter of opinion, that’s what those words mean: Trump.
Why can’t the smart supporters say “look he is all that but that’s still better than _____” or “It’s good that he’s like that because _____”? I guess because that’s not possibly true?
27. April 2020 at 23:58
Scott,
No one is better than you with monetary policy – both in terms of explaining complex issues and understanding them. You should be running the Fed.. Hell you should be running every central bank in the world by cloning yourself. You, however suffer a great deal of TDS and should take stock. It’s a binary choice at present. It’s Trump vs Biden. There’s no way anyone not suffering TDS could support Biden – a old guy entering full blown dementia combined with a credible #Metoo accusation against him. His progressive policies are deplorable too. Listen to someone who admires your economics.
28. April 2020 at 01:07
The most worrying thing about this for me is not that Trump said some obviously dumb and obviously dangerous things. It’s that the politics of the situation and thus the whole system, by whatever means, concludes the right response is not to declare him unfit for office but to make up lies and defenses for him that are blatantly ridiculous.
We have a WHO and CDC which are in theory apolitical but very likely lied to the people about masks, although it is at least plausible they did it with good intentions, something I Don’t believe for trump. The other alternative is they were incompetent.
Ultimately I think the only real reckoning for this kind of behavior will be when the electorate decides that integrity is something worth voting for.
28. April 2020 at 07:05
@JC1:
” a old guy entering full blown dementia combined with a credible #Metoo accusation against him.’
I thought you LIKED Trump….
28. April 2020 at 14:19
@msgkings
“I thought you LIKED Trump….”
Lol, my thoughts exactly.
28. April 2020 at 22:11
You really have laugh at TDS but then it gets serious. It even leads TDS’ers to murder in attempts to make Trump look bad.
The Mesa City Police Department’s homicide division is investigating the death of Gary Lenius, the Arizona man whose wife served him soda mixed with fish tank cleaner in what she claimed was a bid to fend off the coronavirus. A detective handling the case confirmed the investigation to the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday after requesting a recording of the Free Beacon’s interviews with Lenius’s wife, Wanda.
Gary Lenius, 68, died on March 22. Wanda, 61, told several news outlets last month that both she and her husband had ingested a substance used to clean aquariums after hearing President Donald Trump tout one of its ingredients, chloroquine phosphate, from the White House briefing room.
Detective Teresa Van Galder, the homicide detective handling the case for the Mesa City Police Department, confirmed that the investigation is ongoing but declined to provide additional details.
“As this is an active investigation, I cannot go into any details at this time regarding the case,” Van Galder said. The Free Beacon provided a recording of its interview last month with Wanda Lenius.
News of the police probe comes after a series of Free Beacon stories raised questions about the portrayal of the couple in the initial NBC News report that vaulted the story onto the national stage.
Though that report and others suggested the couple mindlessly followed the president’s medical advice to disastrous results, friends of Gary Lenius told the Free Beacon they were skeptical he would knowingly ingest fish tank treatment.
29. April 2020 at 13:57
JC1, I’ve been calling Biden a buffoon for decades. But Trump isn’t just a buffoon, he’s a buffoon raised to the 10th power. There is literally no one one the planet more buffoonish than Trump.
We have a choice between a buffoon who molested a woman and an ultra-buffoon who molested dozens of women.
Me, I’ll vote Libertarian.
6. May 2020 at 23:09
@msgkings
Hey sorry on late response, was busy in real life and chewed on the wordsmithing only to give up, others more educated on the topic have written about it better than I will / have.
Basically, the short answer is “yes” along the lines “celebrity/fame/shortening_of_communication_lines” corrupts or to quote Smith “Man not only desires to be loved, be lovely”. When you flatten the communications channels to real time where the entire world becomes your local office, experts/ideologues/competence no longer have space to flourish because everybody above them is involved in court intrigue to get promoted / secure their supervisory position. When before, let’s say three hundred years ago, the only measure the palace had of their viceroys competency was reports with a months long delay via official or unofficial (the masses embarking on a dangerous journey to the capitol to protest) channels, meritocracy from the view of the public and central authority was more important after all if I send you off to build a bridge with a legion of engineers and gold, well I better get a bridge or your head rolls; ditto if I face a local rebellion / social unrest at your incompetence. Yes I understand corruption, mismanagement, etc existed then to, I’m not looking at history that naively but you don’t have to be prefect here, three steps forward, two steps back is still a winning strategy whereas I would suggest today it’s zero steps forward or backwards or, in many cases, backwards only.
In 1839 the director for the Center of Turtle Counting in Rural Montana had to rely on his experts whom he didn’t hire (i.e. they were assigned to him) reports back to DC to maintain his job hence the incentives were for him to both ensure the competency of those experts and support them. Ditto DC had the incentive to hire competent directors with freedom to act and get the job done as they couldn’t really effectively micromanage them. In 2020 that same director won’t make a single decision ever no matter how minute because he can ask DC real time and mediocrity rules because at that point it’s an entire pyramid of “ask the next level up” hence any unorthodox report is simply buried as it no longer reflects the competency of the local director but the Secretary of Commerce (who oversees turtle counting if you go up five levels) whom of course can do no wrong.
It’s one reason for example the US military has become less competent whereas historically we always comparatively had a strong effectively independent middle management. A hundred years ago when the Navy Governor isolated American Samoa on his own accord to fend off Spanish Flu, he was secure in the knowledge he could both act independently AND the USG had faith in him to do so. Today we fired a captain for choosing IN PEACE TIME to ensure the fighting capability of his ship and the safety of his crew / Americans after getting sick on a DC directed port stop in the middle of an epidemic simply because he asked and was ignored so he acted as he was trained to do. That only happens when you have real time communications which foster decision paralysis as a result of celebrity / fame. When ever question, no matter how small down to “should be buy a pencil”, is predicated with “Must avoid showing up in the media at all cost”, well expertise(tm) is dead.
I’m pretty positive over my life I heard this concept has some sort of formal name, like I said, it’s not novel but that’s the gist of it. Expertise dies in the bureaucracy when it’s not given space to flourish.