Feb 23, 2023·edited Feb 23, 2023Liked by Jeffrey Carter
It does not surprise the seasoned Trump observer to find him where the action is -- he got elected to be the voice of the voiceless. He was the anti-GOPe and still is. He always went where the voices were silenced.
He was always the only guy in the room who could detect the aroma of bullshit and he told you, "I smell bullshit."
Remember when Trump chewed out the Germans at the United Nations over getting in bed with the Russians on NordStream I/II?
The German diplomats in the audience -- arrogant, self-importunated snobs -- all smirked and laughed at him. Who was right? Who was the only guy on the world stage who smelled the bullshit and called it out?
The calculus is, however, a bit more complex.
What Trump brings is ENERGY. He doesn't fall up stairs. He brings the mojo, the juju -- the juice. And, he lives in the middle of that moment. He isn't talking to aides. He's in the faces of the real people, engaged and listening. [That comes from hanging out on construction job sites.]
He may butcher a few words, but that is a feature, not a bug. He relates and sounds like a guy you can trust cause he isn't some picture perfect, rehearsed toady with mousse in his hair vomiting talking points. He's so genuine some times, it's scary.
Remember when he was informed of Ruth Bader Ginsberg's death. What did he say? He said, "Wow. I didn't know." No bullshit press release, just a genuine reaction. That's it, the guy is genuine.
When Mayor Pete shows up with his woke cologne, he will suck up all the energy and give everybody some McKenzie head. Nice little cute sentences with perfect diction, no rocks in the mouth Queens fussing. All empty and tasteless.
You ever seen Mayor Pete slap a guy on the back, point at him, and laugh with him? Nope. Because he's a robot in an empty suit.
Ever see Mayor Pete bring chow to the troops? McDonald's? Nope cause he doesn't relate to the real people, particularly those with blue collars.
In the real world, everybody is either an energy source or an energy sink. A sink is something that absorbs energy like in thermodynamics a heat sink sucks up heat. [I took thermo more than 50 years ago. Made an A in Admiral Seay's class. Still remember it like it was yesterday.]
When Trump leaves, he leaves the energy. When Mayor Pete leaves, he takes the energy, but he didn't bring any with him in the first place. He leaves people hollow and asking, "WTF just happened?"
When Trump leaves, he trails full bellies, hope, and empathy. Is it genuine? I think so. It's also perfectly natural. Not a bit of it is orchestrated. It's pure Trump. [As the other Jeff notes, sometimes that pure Trump is a little bitter.]
You can still be a leader and be in it to win it and be a bloody mensch. Trump's a mensch.
One thing Scott Adams has said about Trump's persuasive ability is that he makes lots and lots of predictions---when one comes true you remember and you forget about all the others that were wrong. Trump is a fantastic persuader. He knows how to lay landmines in people's brains that explode at the right time.
He will have a tough campaign for a second term not only because of the way he ended his Presidency, but the "warp speed" Covid thing will bite him and the Democrats in the ass. The Covid vax is looking like a killer.
COVID is one of those rare issues in which even after the horse is beaten to death, and the skeleton is pulverized into dust, there is no winner in the clubhouse.
The only bright mark is that Trump got the vaccine finished in 9 months rather than the 5 years all the bloody "experts" arrogantly told us it would take.
If we had done nothing, I honestly believe the outcome would have been better.
Obama, i think, really looks down on the political donor class. I really don't think he likes hanging around with them and really doesn't care all that much about that legacy like other politicians do. He would much rather hang out with hollywood types. Remember, his political life was incredibly short. He spent more time as an activist than he did as a US senator
Whilst agreeing more with you than your own mother, Obama was and is a member of the faux elite class in America.
He is a black man with no American slave experience blackness within him yet he places a claim to be a spokesman for that experience.
He is a black man brought to life by a white mother, an absentee black father African father, and white grandparents. He was raised as a white man by white people.
He lived in the white experience and never spent a minute in the ghetto.
He was educated at elite schools and told he "deserved" top flight outcomes though he never booked the grades to deserve them.
He was a poseur, a fakir, and a con. He was neither black nor white, but wanted to be and has pretended to be both.
At his core is nothing.
He was created by the camera which projected his skinny latte image to great attraction. The camera loved him and he developed a line of bullshit a thousand miles long.
In his wake, we have chaos and more racial division than before.
What Trump doesn't seem to understand is that personnel IS policy. Remember, the trump organization is not that big, never has been. He hasn't run operations with thousands and thousands of employees. The bulk of his plays are investments as a non-control owner or he gets paid to put his name on something. As was pointed out in 2015, his actual personal investment performance record is basically in line with the S&P 500. Most billionaires from the US are self made, their return on investment is many 1000 x's the return on the S&P. As you have stated what Trump is really good at is retail politics. But i always come around to the fact that he just doesn't know how to surround himself with good people.
Feb 23, 2023·edited Feb 23, 2023Liked by Jeffrey Carter
In real estate -- building institutional quality commercial large scale projects as he did -- the magic ingredient is leverage.
There are five kinds of leverage: financial, operational, marketing, property management, and people.
You can seemingly run a small organization, but most of the people are contracted and this makes it a huge organization.
As an example, you hire a broker to buy the dirt, an architect/engineers/designers to design the project (tons of specialized consultants - window design, fire protection, systems, elevators, digital, lightning, roof), deal with the city for regulatory matters, hire contractors to build it, deal with the city to approve it, hire marketing people to peddle it, hire lawyers to deal with all kinds of contracts including leases, deal with lenders/investors, hire property managers to run the admin, hire a mechanical staff to operate it, and then have to collect the rents and pay the bills and mortgage.
If you had all those folks on your payroll -- rather than contracting their services -- you would never get the best people or performance and you'd be running a massive enterprise.
In this way, he has run a big company that is likely more similar to running the government than other alternatives.
As a guy who used to build tall buildings, I can tell you with authority building 100-story buildings is not 2X more difficult than 50-story buildings; it is 100X more difficult and the risks are infinitely greater.
This guy was able to build 100-story buildings in his sleep. He was no dummy.
As to his Cabinet -- perhaps the best exemplar for his talent spotting and the quality of his subordinates -- he had a very good Cabinet. I would put Wilbur Ross and Rick Perry and Steve Mnuchin at the top of the class.
Wilbur Ross at Commerce was the best Commerce Sec in the history of the US and was the best demolisher of unnecessary regulation. The economy speaks for that.
Rick Perry, long standing Gov of Texas and an energy expert, oversaw an energy sector that achieved something never before done -- energy independence. No surprise there -- he'd done the same thing in Texas.
Steve Mnuchin did a superb job at Treasury and delivered an incredible economy -- growth, low inflation, low interest rates, strong dollar, and no showboating.
I could have done without the original Sec State, but Pompeo turned out to be a solid hand.
Pompeo at CIA was a solid pick.
I always was down on Mad Dog Matthis -- a showboater and a self-aggrandizer who fancied himself a WWII quality gen'l officer who never commanded anything bigger than a division. He was a disloyal small picture guy who turned out to be wrong on some big calls. Totally wrong o Syria and the Kurds. Given unlimited assets, he couldn't figure out how to beat the Taliban. No excuse for that. Generals are supposed to nuke strategy -- that's why they have Command & Gen'l Staff College and the War College. He made an F-.
Trump should have begged Gates to stay at Sec Def.
Elaine Chao was a brilliant strategic pick -- chick slept with McConnell. Oh, forgot they were married. Sorry.
Nikki Haley was a superb UN Ambassador.
Sonny Perdue at Ag was a great pick as was Ben Carson at HUD. And John Ratcliffe as DNI.
Trump did not have a good relationship with either of his Attorneys General as he wanted them to be what they were designed to be -- a department of the Executive Branch. DOJ thinks its part of the judiciary and untouchable.
Still, Bill Barr was a good pick and Jeff Sessions did a good job. Neither allowed Trump to weaponize the DOJ like the current bunch. I cannot fault Sessions for appointing an independent counsel, but he picked a hard Deep Stater in Mueller and then let him get away with assembling a team of zealots.
Trump figured out James Comey and canned him -- perhaps his best personnel move. Comey should be in prison. What he did and lied about was nothing short of a paper coup.
Just considering the quality of Trump's Cabinet and comparing them to this bunch of lame misfits, Noah's Ark, weird losers makes me realize how much better the Trump Cabinet truly was.
The best thing about Trump -- and the only thing I care about -- is his policies. He had the right policies and was right on almost everything.
Plus, the guy turned in a perfectly respectable Sword Dance with the Saudi King.
Trump is real. Warts and all. And the best communicator of the concerns of people who work for a living since Will Rogers. He's got as much support in the oil patch as he does among city construction workers. It interests me that so many people respond positively, beyond just the MAGA people, while so many people just hate him. What is it that the haters see, or think they see, or are they just not getting a full picture? I know "news" is now distorted all the way round, but some of the haters must see some of the good -- I know people predisposed to like Trump because of his policies have gotten bombarded with negatives since, well, since the 1980s when he was a tabloid favorite. I might even vote for him again. See what happens over the next year.
Jeff, I struggle with this issue in Ohio. The people are suffering yet Trump uses them as a pawn in the process to meet his political needs. Heck the elitist Transportation Secretary could not stand to go to Ohio until the heat was on him which is just as bad. The GOP needs to move on from Trump. We saw the last election cycle. He only has the fervent supporter now voting for him and continues to surround himself with horrible people. I agree that Trump knows how to play the political stuff better than most but he tried to steal an election. Trump’s lawyers launched 62 some odd lawsuits in so many states and lost them all due to the fact that his lawyers know if they lied they would be disbarred. Get DeSantis in the race and let’s win for a change.
It does not surprise the seasoned Trump observer to find him where the action is -- he got elected to be the voice of the voiceless. He was the anti-GOPe and still is. He always went where the voices were silenced.
He was always the only guy in the room who could detect the aroma of bullshit and he told you, "I smell bullshit."
Remember when Trump chewed out the Germans at the United Nations over getting in bed with the Russians on NordStream I/II?
The German diplomats in the audience -- arrogant, self-importunated snobs -- all smirked and laughed at him. Who was right? Who was the only guy on the world stage who smelled the bullshit and called it out?
The calculus is, however, a bit more complex.
What Trump brings is ENERGY. He doesn't fall up stairs. He brings the mojo, the juju -- the juice. And, he lives in the middle of that moment. He isn't talking to aides. He's in the faces of the real people, engaged and listening. [That comes from hanging out on construction job sites.]
He may butcher a few words, but that is a feature, not a bug. He relates and sounds like a guy you can trust cause he isn't some picture perfect, rehearsed toady with mousse in his hair vomiting talking points. He's so genuine some times, it's scary.
Remember when he was informed of Ruth Bader Ginsberg's death. What did he say? He said, "Wow. I didn't know." No bullshit press release, just a genuine reaction. That's it, the guy is genuine.
When Mayor Pete shows up with his woke cologne, he will suck up all the energy and give everybody some McKenzie head. Nice little cute sentences with perfect diction, no rocks in the mouth Queens fussing. All empty and tasteless.
You ever seen Mayor Pete slap a guy on the back, point at him, and laugh with him? Nope. Because he's a robot in an empty suit.
Ever see Mayor Pete bring chow to the troops? McDonald's? Nope cause he doesn't relate to the real people, particularly those with blue collars.
In the real world, everybody is either an energy source or an energy sink. A sink is something that absorbs energy like in thermodynamics a heat sink sucks up heat. [I took thermo more than 50 years ago. Made an A in Admiral Seay's class. Still remember it like it was yesterday.]
When Trump leaves, he leaves the energy. When Mayor Pete leaves, he takes the energy, but he didn't bring any with him in the first place. He leaves people hollow and asking, "WTF just happened?"
When Trump leaves, he trails full bellies, hope, and empathy. Is it genuine? I think so. It's also perfectly natural. Not a bit of it is orchestrated. It's pure Trump. [As the other Jeff notes, sometimes that pure Trump is a little bitter.]
You can still be a leader and be in it to win it and be a bloody mensch. Trump's a mensch.
JLM
www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
One thing Scott Adams has said about Trump's persuasive ability is that he makes lots and lots of predictions---when one comes true you remember and you forget about all the others that were wrong. Trump is a fantastic persuader. He knows how to lay landmines in people's brains that explode at the right time.
He will have a tough campaign for a second term not only because of the way he ended his Presidency, but the "warp speed" Covid thing will bite him and the Democrats in the ass. The Covid vax is looking like a killer.
COVID is one of those rare issues in which even after the horse is beaten to death, and the skeleton is pulverized into dust, there is no winner in the clubhouse.
The only bright mark is that Trump got the vaccine finished in 9 months rather than the 5 years all the bloody "experts" arrogantly told us it would take.
If we had done nothing, I honestly believe the outcome would have been better.
JLM
www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
I think that's right, especially given the interview Tucker Carlson just did with a Mr Dowd.
Obama, i think, really looks down on the political donor class. I really don't think he likes hanging around with them and really doesn't care all that much about that legacy like other politicians do. He would much rather hang out with hollywood types. Remember, his political life was incredibly short. He spent more time as an activist than he did as a US senator
Whilst agreeing more with you than your own mother, Obama was and is a member of the faux elite class in America.
He is a black man with no American slave experience blackness within him yet he places a claim to be a spokesman for that experience.
He is a black man brought to life by a white mother, an absentee black father African father, and white grandparents. He was raised as a white man by white people.
He lived in the white experience and never spent a minute in the ghetto.
He was educated at elite schools and told he "deserved" top flight outcomes though he never booked the grades to deserve them.
He was a poseur, a fakir, and a con. He was neither black nor white, but wanted to be and has pretended to be both.
At his core is nothing.
He was created by the camera which projected his skinny latte image to great attraction. The camera loved him and he developed a line of bullshit a thousand miles long.
In his wake, we have chaos and more racial division than before.
JLM
www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
Agree with your more than you agree with yourself. Obama is one of the worst types of people you can associate yourself with
He was a state Senator for a bit before he became a Senator, then Prez. Also ran against Bobby Rush for Representative and lost.
Wasn't that where he got the nickname state senator present? He voted more time "present" then yes or no for a couple of years?
Yes it was.
As Rush used to say "he lives in Real-ville!" Our political-media intelligentsia, not so much.
What Trump doesn't seem to understand is that personnel IS policy. Remember, the trump organization is not that big, never has been. He hasn't run operations with thousands and thousands of employees. The bulk of his plays are investments as a non-control owner or he gets paid to put his name on something. As was pointed out in 2015, his actual personal investment performance record is basically in line with the S&P 500. Most billionaires from the US are self made, their return on investment is many 1000 x's the return on the S&P. As you have stated what Trump is really good at is retail politics. But i always come around to the fact that he just doesn't know how to surround himself with good people.
In real estate -- building institutional quality commercial large scale projects as he did -- the magic ingredient is leverage.
There are five kinds of leverage: financial, operational, marketing, property management, and people.
You can seemingly run a small organization, but most of the people are contracted and this makes it a huge organization.
As an example, you hire a broker to buy the dirt, an architect/engineers/designers to design the project (tons of specialized consultants - window design, fire protection, systems, elevators, digital, lightning, roof), deal with the city for regulatory matters, hire contractors to build it, deal with the city to approve it, hire marketing people to peddle it, hire lawyers to deal with all kinds of contracts including leases, deal with lenders/investors, hire property managers to run the admin, hire a mechanical staff to operate it, and then have to collect the rents and pay the bills and mortgage.
If you had all those folks on your payroll -- rather than contracting their services -- you would never get the best people or performance and you'd be running a massive enterprise.
In this way, he has run a big company that is likely more similar to running the government than other alternatives.
As a guy who used to build tall buildings, I can tell you with authority building 100-story buildings is not 2X more difficult than 50-story buildings; it is 100X more difficult and the risks are infinitely greater.
This guy was able to build 100-story buildings in his sleep. He was no dummy.
As to his Cabinet -- perhaps the best exemplar for his talent spotting and the quality of his subordinates -- he had a very good Cabinet. I would put Wilbur Ross and Rick Perry and Steve Mnuchin at the top of the class.
Wilbur Ross at Commerce was the best Commerce Sec in the history of the US and was the best demolisher of unnecessary regulation. The economy speaks for that.
Rick Perry, long standing Gov of Texas and an energy expert, oversaw an energy sector that achieved something never before done -- energy independence. No surprise there -- he'd done the same thing in Texas.
Steve Mnuchin did a superb job at Treasury and delivered an incredible economy -- growth, low inflation, low interest rates, strong dollar, and no showboating.
I could have done without the original Sec State, but Pompeo turned out to be a solid hand.
Pompeo at CIA was a solid pick.
I always was down on Mad Dog Matthis -- a showboater and a self-aggrandizer who fancied himself a WWII quality gen'l officer who never commanded anything bigger than a division. He was a disloyal small picture guy who turned out to be wrong on some big calls. Totally wrong o Syria and the Kurds. Given unlimited assets, he couldn't figure out how to beat the Taliban. No excuse for that. Generals are supposed to nuke strategy -- that's why they have Command & Gen'l Staff College and the War College. He made an F-.
Trump should have begged Gates to stay at Sec Def.
Elaine Chao was a brilliant strategic pick -- chick slept with McConnell. Oh, forgot they were married. Sorry.
Nikki Haley was a superb UN Ambassador.
Sonny Perdue at Ag was a great pick as was Ben Carson at HUD. And John Ratcliffe as DNI.
Trump did not have a good relationship with either of his Attorneys General as he wanted them to be what they were designed to be -- a department of the Executive Branch. DOJ thinks its part of the judiciary and untouchable.
Still, Bill Barr was a good pick and Jeff Sessions did a good job. Neither allowed Trump to weaponize the DOJ like the current bunch. I cannot fault Sessions for appointing an independent counsel, but he picked a hard Deep Stater in Mueller and then let him get away with assembling a team of zealots.
Trump figured out James Comey and canned him -- perhaps his best personnel move. Comey should be in prison. What he did and lied about was nothing short of a paper coup.
Just considering the quality of Trump's Cabinet and comparing them to this bunch of lame misfits, Noah's Ark, weird losers makes me realize how much better the Trump Cabinet truly was.
The best thing about Trump -- and the only thing I care about -- is his policies. He had the right policies and was right on almost everything.
Plus, the guy turned in a perfectly respectable Sword Dance with the Saudi King.
JLM
www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
Trump is real. Warts and all. And the best communicator of the concerns of people who work for a living since Will Rogers. He's got as much support in the oil patch as he does among city construction workers. It interests me that so many people respond positively, beyond just the MAGA people, while so many people just hate him. What is it that the haters see, or think they see, or are they just not getting a full picture? I know "news" is now distorted all the way round, but some of the haters must see some of the good -- I know people predisposed to like Trump because of his policies have gotten bombarded with negatives since, well, since the 1980s when he was a tabloid favorite. I might even vote for him again. See what happens over the next year.
Jeff, I struggle with this issue in Ohio. The people are suffering yet Trump uses them as a pawn in the process to meet his political needs. Heck the elitist Transportation Secretary could not stand to go to Ohio until the heat was on him which is just as bad. The GOP needs to move on from Trump. We saw the last election cycle. He only has the fervent supporter now voting for him and continues to surround himself with horrible people. I agree that Trump knows how to play the political stuff better than most but he tried to steal an election. Trump’s lawyers launched 62 some odd lawsuits in so many states and lost them all due to the fact that his lawyers know if they lied they would be disbarred. Get DeSantis in the race and let’s win for a change.