Thursday, May 12, 2016

Rania Khalek — Donald Trump Calls Hillary Clinton “Trigger Happy” as She Courts Neocons


OMG. I used the phrase "trigger-happy" to characterize HRC just yesterday, before Trump did. It's I in the air. She set herself up for it.
“On foreign policy, Hillary is trigger happy,” Trump told the crowd. “She is, she’s trigger happy. She’s got a bad temperament,” he said. “Her decisions in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya have cost trillions of dollars, thousands of lives and have totally unleashed ISIS.”
And he expressed a rarely heard appreciation for the “other side to this story,” noting: “Thousands of lives yes, for us, but probably millions of lives in all fairness, folks” for the people of the Middle East.
Trump implied that casualties inflicted by the U.S. military were far higher than reported. “They bomb a city” and “it’s obliterated, obliterated,” he said. “They’ll say nobody was killed. I’ll bet you thousands and thousands of people were killed every time you see that television set.”
“If we would’ve done nothing,” Trump argued, “we would’ve been in much better shape.”
Ouch. This is bad news for Hillary but good news for the world.
Note also that Trump shows some compassion (emotion) for the collaterally damaged.  Persuasion that is emotionally based is more effective that that which is rationally based. Here Trump is using both fear ("trigger happy") and compassion (love, feel the others' pain). A winning combination.

The Intercept
Donald Trump Calls Hillary Clinton “Trigger Happy” as She Courts Neocons
Rania Khalek

12 comments:

Greg said...

Sounds like you are channeling Scott Adams here Tom with your "persuasion" talk. I go to his site regularly and I think he is right.
Ive noticed you linking to him a few times here.

Trump is finding emotional tags that will stick and give him an edge. I think Trump will beat Hillary, unless he royally screws up.... and in all honesty that result won't really bother me. I cant say I WANT Trump for president but I don't want Hillary much more.

Tom Hickey said...

Yes, and I realized that many years ago. "Hearts and minds."

Ignacio said...

Matt Franko policy for the middle east is "just bomb everything", glad to hear Trumpo not on same page...

Simsalablunder said...

"glad to hear Trumpo not on same page..."

The problem with Trump is that he's all over the place, hedging everything it seems. So all comes down to faith, hoping he'll be doing the right thing. Whatever that is depends on political preferences. Some will be screwed either way. If that means more or less than with other candidates, well to know that we have to be able to live in parallel worlds and jump between them. I'm working on it in my shed…

The Rombach Report said...

Yes. Trump has staked out some new territory on foreign policy for the Republican Party, much to the consternation of the neocons. Ironically, Trumps foreign policy is more or less like Rand Paul's.

Tom Hickey said...

We have not seen anything yet, if Scott Adams continues to be correct.

"Master Persuader" Trump has many surprises in store for those who think rationally instead of in terms of persuasion.

Greg said...

@Sim

Being all over the place is only a problem for people who are looking at policy in a rational way. Being all over the place can also mean you might find something that appeals to everyone. I imagine most everyone can find something they have agreed with Trump on, at one time or another. As opposed to Cruz who is such a true believer he eliminates 50% or more from ever agreeing with him.

Recently Trump stated that he thinks Bernie has some good ideas and then today, on Fox of course, he called him Crazy Bernie. So you think a guy you call Crazy Bernie has some good ideas Donald?? There is no way to dissect Trumps positions in a logical rational manner and unless Hillary starts playing that game too (she won't) she is going to get smoked. She cannot connect emotionally with enough people, she's a stiff politician.

Matt Franko said...

"Matt Franko policy for the middle east is "just bomb everything","

Nooooo... my preferred policy would be complete disengagement and an energy alliance with non-OPEC nations.... should have been started by 1:00 pm, Sept 11, 2001 and we would be long done by now...

Short of that lets see what happens if Trump wins and Iran govt holds another "Death to America!" rally... you can see how nasty he can get if he thinks he has an agreeable 2 party relationship and then the other side reneges....

Matt Franko said...

also related... Dan Quayle came out in support for Trump... back in the day, Mr Neo-con Bill Kristol (who works 24/7 to discredit Trump) broke in to DC as Quayles Chief of Staff under Bush I....

Ryan Harris said...

Being all over the place means Trump doesn't follow the clean neat lines on issues, which have been tested by DemoRepubs to ensure they split the electorate and donors in optimal ways to keep the parties in power. The party lines should not be confused with optimal solutions to social problems, an ideology, efficient or effective governance and leadership or anything else. They are simply positions convenient to split the population and donors between parties.

By not following the two-party rules, Trump can take any position he wants to tickle voters fancy.

Ignacio said...

@Matt

I stand corrected then.

However the flirting with Israel neocons I don't know how to take. If Trump starts 'courting' S.A. again it just will mean one things: more of the same.

If he actually was an isolationists he would go the route you said...

Peter Pan said...

Short of that lets see what happens if Trump wins and Iran govt holds another "Death to America!" rally... you can see how nasty he can get if he thinks he has an agreeable 2 party relationship and then the other side reneges....

You might want to vote for Hillary then.