Paglia Critiques The Republican Debate

[Woodsman]

Re: Paglia Critiques The Republican Debate

...these blog posts by scott adams re trump are interesting, amusing, and worthwhile imo.

How many times do you encounter a disclaimer in persuasive writing?

Warning: Stop reading now if you do not want to take the risk of being influenced to buy a particular item. Seriously. What follows is an experiment in manipulating your opinion. If that sort of experience does not appeal to you, please stop reading.

And this warning is serious. It is not part of the experiment.

Great series; getting another cup of coffee!

In all likelihood, Donald Trump will pick our next president. If he runs as a Republican, he will be picking himself, and winning, assuming he keeps going this way. If he runs as an independent he will be picking Clinton as president. There’s your republic: One guy gets to vote for President this yea

[vt]

Re: Paglia Critiques The Republican Debate

Shock poll in Iowa as Ben Carson is tied with Donald Trump and the top four slots are ALL taken by political mavericks

[don]

Re: Paglia Critiques The Republican Debate

Donald Trump and Gladiator Politics

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: September 17, 2015

Fistfights Occur Frequently in Ukraine’s Parliament

Donald Trump has led the Republican Party into a dangerous trap. Republicans are now competing for tv ratings rather than a serious run for the White House. It’s the “Republican Hopefuls Reality TV Show,” promoted heavily in advance by CNN as a modernized form of gladiator battle.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, Reality TV is a television program “in which real people are continuously filmed, designed to be entertaining rather than informative.” Wikipedia goes further, writing that “the focus tends to be on drama and personal conflict, rather than simply educating viewers.”

Completely in step with the above definition, last night’s three-hour Republican debate, aired on CNN from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Hills, California, featured 11 Republican presidential contestants hurling slurs, innuendo, below the belt personal insults and frequently childish digs at each other.

The entertainment industry magazine, Variety, acknowledged the debate as pure entertainment when it noted that not only was it covering the event but a reporter from “Entertainment Tonight” was also on hand.

The first volley of insults at Trump came from the low-polling Republican candidates who debated earlier in the day: Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, former New York Governor George Pataki, and former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.
Jindal called Trump a “narcissist” while Pataki said Trump was “unfit” to be President. At the later debate, Trump shot back at Pataki saying he wouldn’t be able to “be elected dog catcher right now.”

Presidential candidates sparing at the prime-time, three hour debate included Trump, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, retired surgeon Ben Carson, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Ohio Governor John Kasich, former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas.

Walker ridiculed Trump’s lack of political experience while getting in a dig at Trump’s prior reality tv show, saying “we don’t need an apprentice in the White House.”

Exchanges between Trump and Carly Fiorina were surreal. Moderator Jake Tapper asked Fiorina about Trump’s quote in a Rolling Stone magazine interview where he said the following about her appearance: “Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?”

Tapper noted that Trump had later said he was referring to her “persona” and not her actual face. Fiorina responded: “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.”

Showing that he’s incapable of grasping that there is more to women than their appearance, Trump responded that he thought Fiorina was “beautiful.”
Trump’s inability to escape from his obsession of attacking both women and men on the basis of their appearance while leading the field of Republican candidates in the polls is an embarrassment to America but is likely boosting TV ratings for these reality tv style debates. Trump is likely to milk that as long as he can.

In the first Republican debate on Fox, moderator Megyn Kelly framed a question to Trump by noting, “You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs,’ and ‘disgusting animals.’ ” Trump interjected that he had been talking about “only Rosie O’Donnell,” as if that settled the matter. Kelly continued: “Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contestant on The Celebrity Apprentice it would be a ‘pretty picture’ to see her on her knees.”

In a recent published interview with Trump by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, Trump called Rand Paul a “moron” while again making an inexplicable dig at his appearance, calling him “a tiny little guy.”

Japanese Legislators Brawl Over Loosening Ties on Military, September 17, 2015

The challenge for Trump is to take this 11-character cast to the next level in the ratings battle. Fistfights may be necessary, especially if Trump wants to compete with what’s happening in Parliaments around the world. There’s now even a web site filled with videos of politicians pummeling each other while Parliament is in session.

In a timely underscore of new-age gladiator politics, making headlines around the globe today is a fist-fight that broke out in Japan’s Parliament on Thursday over a bill to allow Japan’s military to fight abroad.

http://wallstreetonparade.com

The Romans brought a horse into their Senate. Here it's a horse's ass . . . .

[dcarrigg]

Re: Paglia Critiques The Republican Debate

10 things I took from last night:

1. 3 hours is waaaaaaayyyy too long for that format.

2. They're actually trying to say that W.'s wars were a good thing now, and 12/14 of them (Rand and Trump excepted) desperately want another hot war in the Middle East, including Jeb!, who wants his very own Iraq War to match his daddy's and his big brother's.

3. Trump still looks like a silverback gorilla surrounded by puppy runts. Regardless of substance, the optics alone had me convinced he would have shoved Bush into a locker if there were one on stage.

4. Fiorina cannot smile. Rubio surprisingly can, and he should try it more. Scott Walker looks miserable. Jeb! looks incredibly nervous and weak. Rand looks more at home on the fringe. Huck looks a lot less friendly lately, don't know if it's eyes or weight or subject matter or what, but he does much better looking friendly than righteous. Christie sounded more rehearsed. Kasich needs to learn when to shut up. Cruz was surprisingly boring. Carson still has the personality of a wet paper bag played back on the VCR in slow motion, and I cannot understand his appeal.

5. Fiorina actually wants to take us to Defcon 2 and cut all relations with Russia, the only nation capable of destroying the earth in response, despite the fact that the US never even took such drastic steps during Stalin or the Cuban Missile Crisis...she had well rehearsed responses, but even Dr. Strangelove would have told her to calm down if he were helping her craft them.

6. When somebody asks you a famous person to put on a US dollar bill, and your response is "My Mom," or "Margaret Thatcher" or "My Wife," you fail. Is it really so hard to name one woman in American history you'd honor like that? They may has well have answered, "The Queen." It was pathetic. And besides Susan B. Anthony (already on a dollar coin, so kind of a copout), Rosa Parks, and Abigail Adams (the only 2 good answers given out of 11), it was failure all around. They literally could have just named dropped Helen Keller or Amelia Earhart or Annie Oakley and they would have seemed less clueless and inept than saying "My mommy!"

7. We have at least 3 anti-vaxxers in the bunch, including both of the 2 doctors on the stage. Great. Just what America needed. A generation of unvaccinated kids getting measles and mumps again because they're scaring parents into thinking that increased Autism rates come from vaccines (they don't)...

8. This whole night was fueled on fear. Much more than the last debate. Fear ISIS. Fear Iran. Fear Putin. Fear Islam. Fear planned parenthood. Fear Hillary. Fear Socialism. Fear, fear, fear. The whole time was dripping with it. They spent far more time talking about dismembered corpses and death feuds and World War 3 than they did discussing any sort of hope whatsoever about the future or their vision for America, which is basically give rich people a tax cut and hope that creates growth (it won't), and send the poor to die in the sandbox. At least that was the vision so far as I could tell. Not very inspiring. The Fox News debate was much more upbeat. If they stay negative like this, they're all going to pay for it.

9. Trump proved one thing you can take to the bank. The man will never apologize. Bush demanding an apology then getting no satisfaction then sauntering around awkwardly was hilarious. It was like the nerd on the playground running up to a bully, demanding an apology, being told to shut up, then running away crying.

10. If you drink every time they say Reagan, you end up hung over the next morning. 3 hours is waaaaayyy too long for that too. They ought to be careful about the St. Ronny thing. Nobody under 40 remembers him, and nobody under 50 remembers him all that well. At this point, it's basically as if Bill Clinton went around in the 90s talking up Truman. It's a little too far in the past to be relevant to the majority of the electorate now-a-days. Ditto with the cold-war fear mongering. 18 year old kids don't even remember 9/11, never mind Ronald Reagan. 30 year old parents don't remember the Berlin Wall coming down. They need some fresh material. It's 2015, not 1988.

And if it sounded like there wasn't a lot of substance in these 10 points, well, then you might just be onto something...

P.S. I thought Santorum won the kids table hands-down, for whatever that's worth.

[lektrode]

Re: Paglia Critiques The Republican Debate

....
8. This whole night was fueled on fear. Much more than the last debate. Fear ISIS. Fear Iran. Fear Putin. Fear Islam. Fear planned parenthood. Fear Hillary. Fear Socialism. Fear, fear, fear. The whole time was dripping with it. They spent far more time talking about dismembered corpses and death feuds and World War 3 than they did discussing any sort of hope whatsoever about the future or their vision for America, which is basically give rich people a tax cut and hope that creates growth (it won't), and send the poor to die in the sandbox. At least that was the vision so far as I could tell. Not very inspiring. The Fox News debate was much more upbeat. If they stay negative like this, they're all going to pay for it.

9. Trump proved one thing you can take to the bank. The man will never apologize.... .

not necessarily a bad thing that he wont = why he's rising (as methinks most are tired of the political class' continual apologist parade)

and the numero uno fear they are generating?

is that they - team NO - dont have a plan on what to do next, sides continue to play spoiler...

And if it sounded like there wasn't a lot of substance in these 10 points, well, then you might just be onto something...

dunno about that, dc - since they all seem more focused on 'appearances' than risk saying anything of substance

again, why the trumpster is rising - since he obviously doesnt give a damn about appearances or what anybody thinks about his...

and thanks for your .02 (it helps cut thru the BS)

[dcarrigg]

Re: Paglia Critiques The Republican Debate

not necessarily a bad thing that he wont = why he's rising (as methinks most are tired of the political class' continual apologist parade)

and the numero uno fear they are generating?

is that they - team NO - dont have a plan on what to do next, sides continue to play spoiler...



dunno about that, dc - since they all seem more focused on 'appearances' than risk saying anything of substance

again, why the trumpster is rising - since he obviously doesnt give a damn about appearances or what anybody thinks about his...

and thanks for your .02 (it helps cut thru the BS)

I think you're right on all of that.

[Milton Kuo]

Re: Paglia Critiques The Republican Debate

5. Fiorina actually wants to take us to Defcon 2 and cut all relations with Russia, the only nation capable of destroying the earth in response, despite the fact that the US never even took such drastic steps during Stalin or the Cuban Missile Crisis...she had well rehearsed responses, but even Dr. Strangelove would have told her to calm down if he were helping her craft them.

Fiorina is utterly horrible. She was a lousy and failed corporate executive and she will make a lousy and failed president. I'm not the least bit surprised she has bad ideas regarding foreign and domestic policy. How does anyone believe she can lead the country capably when she couldn't even run HP, which should have been a walk in the park.

There are three candidates for president that I wish would drop out of the race or immediately die of an aneurysm: Fiorina, Clinton, and Bush. I don't much like any of the other candidates but at least I'm not 100% certain that they would be bad for the country.

[ljaycox]

Re: Paglia Critiques The Republican Debate

I eagerly await the candidacy of future President Hector Camacho.
I am sorry, I got his name wrong: Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho.

[don]

Re: Paglia Critiques The Republican Debate

I eagerly await the candidacy of future President Hector Camacho.
I am sorry, I got his name wrong: Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho.

A transgender, I believe.