to county, one step ahead of the sheriff and a crowd with tar and feathers....

ftp://

lots of people still do!

I'm waiting for Stephanie Miller to use that clip.

Its just packaged differently and marketed on the internet and elsewhere.

High colonic, anyone? How 'bout a coffee enema? Or a con man running for President?

He would fit right in with that party.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing

Including the idea that Donald "Brain Fart" Trump is speaking artfully. But neither their existence not their opinion makes them correct.

This isn't about art. This is about giving the audience what it wants on subconscious level.

It seems to try and appeal to a particular demographic with imagery that the persons in that demographic find appealing.

It ends up being transparent and just sucking. It wasn't always like that.

So yes, it's no accident when he says things twice, things twice, sometimes three times and tops it off with a superlative.

The problem is when he reads speeches off of teleprompters. You can see his stupid little pauses, jarring, as he reads the phrases. And he's stuck on teleprompter because he'll use his genius lingual delivery techniques when speaking off the cuff, to say something stupid, nazi, outrageous, and totally indefensible, which causes him to drop further in the polls.

He's a very real danger, and his manipulation of language and feeling are very real. Hopefully he'll continue to endulge in the self-destruction trait that he shares with Hitler, and the timing of his compared to his hero Adolph's is super sped up. He's like hitler on a speed ball of crack and meth, while poor hitler had to settle for IG farben pep pills.

As if he is this superhuman being who controls the masses with his well crafted rhetoric. He is a bullshitter, I suggest everyone read the book "On Bullshit", it is on the web here:

https://jdc325.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/harry-frankfurts-_on-bullshit_.pdf

The problem with us mortals is that, although we think we recognize bullshit, we do at a very low level.

A superhuman would not have gone into bankruptcy as much as he has, he is just a bullshitter who spews hate through his mouth every time he opens it, and to not recognize that he is banking on an American fault, which is racism, and violence is kidding him/herself. Trump is just a very lucky man who was handed a lot of money by his father and because of his wealth, which is unknown how much it really is, he gets away with horrible behaviour because that is another American fault, to forgive those who have money and punish the poor.

The history of this country is infected with racism, violence, a sense that women, non-white are inferior to white men, etc. we must recognize this to start moving forward.

Don't believe me?

- He can keep up the illusion that he's worth $10 billion and a successful businessman.
- He basically hijacked the GOP from under the nose of GOP career-politicians.
- Almost 40% of the US want this pompous fascist to be President.

Could you do any of this???

I am not into deceiving people, but the con-Trump is.

By the way, I am not taking your remark as offensive...I am just answering your question.

I don't know that is Trump so much that gets away with that bull because of his own doing, I believe it is the corrupt media which controls the masses.

I listened to the NPR news yesterday and they had 10 seconds of Hillary Clinton, but two minutes of the conman. That is the real problem, the media is using this guy as an audience grabber, and that is why he can get away with the vile behaviour he exposes every day.

So...I don't think it is his cleverness, it is the corrupt media doing it.

You can always tell if someone is clever or not by the way they express themselves, and Trump fails miserably at that.

In fact, Mussolini despised all this intellectual stuff as unmanly. And Hitler was a simple lower middle-class guy whose superiors in the german army saw no leadership potential in.

Neither of them was "clever" or artful. But both had an instinctive understanding for drama, for touching people, for speaking to their emotions.



Sometimes I wonder how history would have went if Adolph Hitler hadn't tried to become a painter and instead had gone into acting. Maybe he would have found fulfillment there.

But on the other hand, he was a traumatized veteran who saw the social and political landscape changing and didn't understand:
- a lost war
- an economic crisis
- rise of Communism
- german monarchy destroyed
- political crisis with a dysfunctional democracy
- infiltration by "foreigners" with a weird religion and scary plans to destroy Germany
- being "backstabbed" by the political establishment
He wanted to make his country great again and return it to a golden past that never existed.

and Goebbels had a Ph.D. and an academic specialization in German drama. I don't think Hitler would actually have gone as far if he had not had Goebbels running the Nazi propaganda machine from the mid-twenties. Goebbels knew that the working class were best appealed to through the use of images and simple headlines with eye-catching, histrionic subject matter. Unfortunately the Weimar gov didn't realize the threat the Nazis posed until it was far too late.

By his manipulation. I'm guessing IQ has much to do with it.

Actually the people who study this stuff say that smart people who think they are immune or who don't believe the techniques really work tend to be the most vulnerable, because they aren't on guard for the hidden influences.

Not a lot of Rhodes scholars in that bunch.

Trump knows who he is trying to influence, and he's going for the low hanging fruit. He probably took some seminars years back to absorb the basics but he's winging it, and while what he's doing is working well he doesn't seem able to pivot to deal with a more challenging audience. The thing is, even if he is appealing to stupid people it's not just their stupidity; after all he pretty much stole the GOP from the high pooh-bahs who thought THEY were the master Machiavellian manipulators of their world.

Is that he is NOT a politician. The problem comes in when a bunch of wonks, who are very interested in defending the idea that their snake oil still is medicine, try to throw all their tricks at him, ala DWS, throw the stuff that is NOT made to deal with folks like him. You cannot embarrass a reality show TV star out of their career! Fortunately, Hillary is getting less formal and more folksy, and she has one of the best, slickest snake oil sellers in Bill to test things with. Hell, why can't bill be her debate prep, he knows Trump well, and could imitate him.

I bet they are both doing a lot of laughing at him.

but not particularly "artful". Trump really does have the equivalent vocabulary of a 4th grader. One of the reasons he repeats the same words over and over again is because he doesn't have any other words to use. Believe me.

This 'linguist' is ascribing a level of intelligence to Trump that is superhuman. What he/she is saying is that each word is masterfully planned out and isn't just stream-of-consciousness blathering.

Trump must be one of the Illuminati then.

Trump is the Rorschach blot candidate. There is so little structure to what he does that the observer is left to impose whatever form and structure they desire.

This morning in the Dallas Morning News there were two pro-Trump letters.

One from a man angered because the doctor he wanted to switch to won't accept Medicare patients. This is, of course, the Democrats fault and Obama's in particular. The final line in the letter is, "VOTE TRUMP". Silly me, I can't remember Trump ever saying anything about Medicare or healthcare. The 2nd was from a woman violently opposed to the status quo (because everything is in the toilet from the economy to immigration) and she opposes Hillary because she will just perpetuate the status quo (which is badness). I quote, "If you want change and improvement, you must vote the better choice, Trump. He is our only hope."

This is the Trump voter in a nutshell. Start out with the notion that everything is bad. Trump says he'll make the badness go away without specifying how (the specifics he does supply are completely cra-cra). Therefore Trump is good. You've already accepted that all is bad without any sort of analysis so accepting that Trump will fix that vague badness with his vague pronouncements is not much of a leap.

This isn't genius. Trump thinks simply the way his followers think--simply. Things are true because someone has said them and they agree with what they hear so it must be true.

Fox did it first (if anything Ailes is the genius). Trump just took it into a Presidential race. He's not a genius. He's just as dumb as they are and they love him for it.

I gave it a close try, but you explained it beautifully.

Everyone should memorize "Moral Compass" simple, but concise explanation to answer any Trump supporter who believes the bull of the well crafted and thoughtful stupidity of Trump.

Conning people is his business and he's been doing that for 50 years.

If you do something often enough, your brain adapts to the task. Over time, you get a "feeling" for how things work, even if you cannot fully comprehend them. You just "know" when things are right and when they are not.
It's a bit similar with scientists: They eventually get a "feeling" for the science behind the phenomenon and instinctively know what to do next and where and how to look for answers.

Then you haven't been paying attention, because Trump has attacked "Obamacare" (the Affordable Care Act) many times.

He has single-handedly PROVED beyond any doubt how stupid 40% of the American electorate is.
It's brilliant!!!!!

Most people would say "dealing with". Trump intentionally makes this exchange.

been in sales for a really long time now.....
every now and then you see someone who is just gifted....

and trump is gifted....a liar a fraud and a crook as well but he is gifted.....

he has millions of folk ready to buy the slop he is selling

We who enjoy studying an thinking about political policy, history and philosophy, as many of us on DU do, are sort of like highly accomplished music students who are appalled by the commercial crap that predominates some genres and times. Meanwhile, the people creating and performing it are making millions and selling out shows while I'm lucky to play bebop or chamber music to 50 people or sell 1000 copies of a CD.

His "linguistic skills" might be hypnotic or something.

All I hear is an asshole trying to sell me a steaming pile of shit.

on the order of "smart like a fox." Trump is not skilled in anything. And the absolute last thing he thinks about is oratory. He's another Sarah Palin. and IT IS WORD SALAD.

Con men thrive by delivering a persuasive patter. We may not be fooled, but many are.

Read what his ghost writer, what Sam Harris, what many psychologists have said about him. He can barely articulate a coherent thought! WHY do so many people give him credit he does not deserve? Believing what you DON'T see, or hear in this case, must explain why so many voted for him. I'm just mystified.

He's ignorant in many ways but he's skilled in throwing out bullshit effectively. He's charismatic in his conversational style of speaking and effective in branding opponents with use of slurs that he repeats. He has few talents, but he has that.

Skilled orator, manipulator, words carefully chosen. Nope. Only the mindlessly gullible buy that snake oil.

He is a weaselly little man who speaks vaguely because he has no position other than look at me. His speeches are those of a racist. It is that simple. His supporters know it and they embrace it. They know they are bigots. Here in Kentucky they don't even bother to pretend otherwise. They want all non whites and non christiAns gone. Just choke back your bile long enough to pretend you are one of them and they will tell you. The battle for the soul of America is on.

Donald Trump... "artful" and "careful"... nope.

Lots of people here are denouncing the author for saying that Trump has a method behind his seeming madness.

Donald Trump has been selling snake oil
his entire life He's now doing it on a much bigger scale. Like any good flim flam man he knows his audience--both those receptive to his message and those who are not.

Bush, Rubio, Cruz etc. all wrote Trump off as a clown. He destroyed them all. Despise him, yes but don't underestimate him or his ability to make people believe in dreams based on smoke and mirrors.

I don't think he mulls over every word and that kind of thing. What he does do is to use techniques that he either learned or picked up through sales.

He acts as though he really believes in his product for starters, and tries to project that. His voice becomes not only louder, but more forceful. Notice how "passionate" he gets when he tries to tear down Hillary or Obama. He repeats himself over and over, saying things one way and repeating them at the end of a sentence to drive home his point.

He uses superlatives constantly. Nothing is "good" or "bad", it is incredible, great, awful, the best or the worst. There are never several, there are "many, many".
He uses flattery on the buyers constantly. His people are always "great" or the "best".

The one thing he is "skilled" at is reading his audience and changing on the fly. He noticed how well his his lame idea about a "wall" went over the first time, so it became part of his stump speech. Even he must realize how stupid that is...but it works in speeches and sells product.

that is something he learned from someone in the business community as he is definitely not a master of language in any sense. The simplistic, constant repetition of key terms in patterns of three is a way to plant an idea, to persuade people who aren't very intelligent, who aren't going to notice that a person speaking to them keeps repeating certain concepts they want to sell three times (and it is ALWAYS three times).

I started noticing it back during the primaries, and it is very apparent in his media appearances and rallies. Whatever stupid notion he is trying to sell he will repeat three times in a row, "powerful," "powerful," "powerful." I am actually surprised that we haven't heard more parodies of it because it is SO transparent. That is his favorite gimmick in addition to the old sales technique of saying "You know that we need x" to the person or persons to whom he is speaking as a cheap attempt to convince them that they agree with his proposal and even thought of it before he proposed it, "You know we need a wall, citizen x, you know it right? You know it. I will build a wall and it will be powerful. It will be a powerful wall. Powerful."

who convinced congress members with Dovish leanings to start a war in Iraq. John Kerry voted against the gulf war and for the invasion. W's ordinary language and fear mongering were effective and we underestimated his potential to turn this country into an aggressor and put us in a position of nonstop military action.
Trump is a salesmen and an "actor" who spent years on television selling his personality and big talk. The media wants to put it on him when the truth is, they gave him the opening to develop what has become fairly skilled dialogue via reality TV. Does anyone not believe he bought some dramatic training?
He is a con artist and he wins even if he loses the election. He either assumes the power of the presidency, or he will have pulled of the ultimate con in getting millions of people to reveal thier ugliest selves and scaring the rest of us.

He is not talking only to haters. Trump is speaking the language of people who feel left out when it comes to government because they don't speak the language.

of being an American racist idiot moran.

He has toyed with the "Art of the Game", for his own self indulgence. The man is a sociopath. You do not need to be a psychiatrist to make the determination, just look up the definition and his spoken words.

Does this sound artful to anyone?

...he's just smart enough to know just how to say just what stupid people want to hear."

It becomes second nature to them. That doesn't give him superhuman intelligence, it just means he's able to sell NYC on buying land that he wants to build on so he doesn't have to pay the taxes. It means that he's been able to sell himself as the author of The Art of the Deal when he really wasn't. He's spent his life manipulating his family and friends, his business associates and politicians who can do things for him that make him look good. When one has spent at least 50 or 60 years doing the same thing over and over selling rain making to those in a drought, one becomes so good at it that it comes naturally. He may even believe or mean what he's saying, but it's always to benefit him in the long run.

I agree that he uses the same techniques, but I don't think it's strategy, I think it's just who he is.

Trump is a con artless. He's neitger smart nor skilled, but happily for him he doesn't have to be any good at it to gain an audience--no more than does an Uwe Boll or Larry the Cable Guy.

his thumb and forefinger forming a circle with the other three fingers raised? Surely some of you are aware what this gesture means in other parts of the world* - is he doing it on purpose or is he subconsciously insulting all those people at his rallies? Or, is he just too stupid to know?







*This gesture means A$$hole, elsewhere on this planet.