Scott Adams Says This Anti-Trump Ad Backfires

March 17th, 2016

So an anti-Trump group put together an ad consisting of women reading the mean/stupid thing Donald Trump has said about women:

Says Scott Adams:

Have you seen the anti-Trump video that features women quoting Donald Trump’s most offensive statements about women?

I just showed it to a woman. She thought it was funny. Apparently nothing that Trump says comes off as offensive to her.

The reason I checked with a woman is because I didn’t trust my own reaction. To me, the video looked like the most tone-deaf ad of all time. I would rank it as among the worst I have ever seen in terms of persuasion. I’m guessing it worked in Trump’s favor.

On the 2D level of reality – where we pretend people are rational – the video makes perfect sense. The makers of the video figured women voters would not like a candidate that says bad things about women. That seems totally logical. I can see why they made the video.

But on the 3D level of persuasion, what the viewer sees is several average-looking women in bad moods complaining about a guy being, well… a guy. I assume men won’t be offended by the video because Trump is no more of a jerk than most men. And men probably don’t get a warm feeling from the judgmental, angry messengers in the video. That video looks like a huge fail to me.

While I’m not on-board with Adams’ “people are just moist robots” thesis, I think he’s right about this video.

“Oh look, Reginald! That uncouth vulgarian is distressing his class betters again!”

“Shocking, Eleanor, simply shocking!” (drops monocle)

The ad ignores the reality that a great deal of Trump’s appeal is his willingness to transgress against the unspoken shibboleths of the overclass. People are voting Trump because they can’t punch an NPR host in their smug face over the radio.

When a whole bunch of dour middle-aged feminist scolds (which is what it comes off as) read Trump quotes in the manner of “celebrities read mean tweets,” the result is laughter, not outrage. The real tone of the ad is “We know better than you, and Trump offends our finely-tuned sensibilities! Doesn’t our naked contempt dissuade you from voting Trump, you dim-witted flyover country rubes?”

No wonder they disabled video comments on YouTube.

So the Our Principles PAC (headed up by ex-Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush staff) should stop running this thing, as it’s only helping Trump.

And that Princess Di quote is pure comedy gold…

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Posted in Elections, Republicans, Social Justice Warriors, video | 2 Comments »

Four Bandidos Arrested in Drug Raid…in Australia

March 17th, 2016

“Four people have been arrested in raids on the Geelong chapter of the Bandidos outlaw motorcycle gang.”

Geelong is an Australian city about 40 miles southwest of Melbourne.

Bandidos head Jeff Pike may swear up and down that the Bandidos are law-abiding these days, but it appears that some of their overseas affiliates haven’t received the memo…

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Posted in Crime | No Comments »

Updated Voting Results from Yesterday

March 16th, 2016

Donald Trump won everywhere but Ohio, where John Kasich won. Ted Cruz was only .2% behind in Missouri, and less than four points in North Carolina.

Judging from his numerous fundraising emails, Kasich seems disinclined to take his participation trophy and go home.

A few links:

  • Rubio lost because of Rubio.
  • “It is still mathematically possible for Cruz to get beyond 1,237 delegates. He will perform well in Utah and Wisconsin and has a solid ground game…There is a way to stop Trump. But that way is rallying to Ted Cruz. That is the only option at this point.” (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • Trump could still fall short in the delegate count. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • Low-information Democrats are going for Trump.

    • Now everyone is waiting to see if Rubio endorses Cruz…

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    Posted in Elections, Republicans | No Comments »

    Marco Rubio Suspends Presidential Campaign

    March 15th, 2016

    Better late than never:

    Mr. Rubio, 44, was felled by many of the same forces that drove other contenders from the race: a deep anger at the Republican leadership, a level of mistrust among the party’s most motivated voters, a field of candidates splitting up the vote, and an inability to stop Mr. Trump from exploiting all those factors.

    But Mr. Rubio also notably lacked what both Mr. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz could boast of: victories in a string of early nominating contests. Mr. Rubio carried only Minnesota, along with Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, sapping his campaign of critical energy and fueling the perception — no matter how hard he tried — that he was incapable of winning the nomination.

    He claimed to be the only candidate who could unite the Republican Party, but he could never unite enough voters behind him to persuasively make that case.

    It’s either Ted Cruz or Donald Trump. Vote accordingly.

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    Posted in Elections, Republicans | No Comments »

    Newsflash: Trump Projected to Beat Rubio in Florida

    March 15th, 2016

    Only 10% of the vote in, but AP is projecting that Donald Trump beats Marco Rubio in Rubio’s home state.

    It’s long, long overdue for Rubio to leave the race. If he doesn’t do that tonight, then he’s essentially declaring he wants to see Trump rather than Ted Cruz win the GOP nomination.

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    Posted in Elections, Republicans | No Comments »

    Presidential Election Update for March 15, 2016

    March 15th, 2016

    Another big primary day, with Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina voters going to the polls today.

  • Polls show that Hillary crushes Trump in the general. “Donald Trump is detested by the general electorate.”
  • Hell, Trump even loses to Bernie Sanders. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • So how did Republicans get Trump foisted upon us?

  • “‘Lending” the Republican Party to Trump for the next six months might mean you never get it back.” (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)
  • “The GOP has required that its nominees receive a majority of the vote from its delegates for 160 years now. And this requirement has been consequential: Along the way, multiple candidates have received a plurality of the vote, yet failed to become the nominee.”
  • “Ted Cruz’s campaign is pouring another half a million dollars into television and digital ad buys slated to run in Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina ahead of the contests in those states on Tuesday.” (Hat tip: Conservatives 4 Ted Cruz.)
  • “I’ve got nothing in particular against Rubio except that he let Chuck Schumer snooker him on immigration, but I keep hearing what a great candidate he is, and he keeps sucking in the actual votes.”
  • Florida Tea Party supporters who voted for Rubio in 2010 are itching for a chance to help defeat him tonight:

    Floridians for Immigration Enforcement, a group that opposes illegal immigration, supported Rubio in his campaign for Senate that election cycle, in part due to an hourlong-conversation they had with him on that fateful day in 2009. During that meeting, Oliver said, Rubio pledged never to support “amnesty or legalization of people” in the United States without documentation.

    “He ran for president as a graceful way to exit. He would have lost the Senate seat if he had run for reelection.”

  • The money behind John Kasich? George Soros. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)

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    Posted in Elections, Republicans | No Comments »

    Winning

    March 14th, 2016

    How do you know you’ve won the game of life?

    When you get certified as the oldest living man in the world, which is what Israel Kristal just achieved.

    Moreover, Mr. Kristal, who was born in Poland, survived being sent to Auschwitz.

    That means not only did he win the game of life, but he did it on the highest difficulty level.

    Now Kristal lives Haifa, Israel, surrounded by a large family.

    In your face, Hitler!

    (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)

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    Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

    Ted Cruz Wins Wyoming Caucuses, Picks Up 9 Delegates

    March 13th, 2016

    Ted Cruz has won the Wyoming Caucuses with 66.3% of the vote, picking up 11 delegates. Marco Rubio finished a distant second (or as he calls it, Rubio Gold™) with 19.5% of the vote, while Donald Trump came in third with 7.2%, each of them picking one one delegate.

    An additional 14 delegates will be selected at Wyoming’s state Republican convention, and I would expect Cruz to do very well there as well.

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    Posted in Elections, Republicans | No Comments »

    Members of Rotherham’s Islamic Child Rape Gang Sentenced

    March 12th, 2016

    Meant to put this up last week, but the crush of events pushed it to the back burner.

    Three brothers who groomed, raped and sexually assaulted 15 teenage girls in Rotherham have been jailed.

    Arshid Hussain, 40, was jailed for 35 years while siblings Basharat, 39, and Bannaras, 36, were jailed for 25 and 19 years respectively.

    Their uncle, Qurban Ali, 53, who was found guilty of conspiracy to rape, was jailed for 10 years.

    Associate Karen MacGregor, 59, was jailed for 13 years and Shelley Davies, 40, given an 18 month suspended term.

    Of course, 15 girls is just the number proven in court; the original estimate was more than 1,400 young girls had been sexually abused in Rotherham.

    The local government tolerated sexual violence on a vast scale. Why? In part, because the criminals who committed these sickening acts were Muslims from the local Pakistani community, and noticing their depravity was considered insensitive at best, racist at worst.

    The British home secretary says “institutionalized political correctness” contributed to the abandonment of hundreds of girls to their tormentors. Imagine something out of the nightmarish world of Stieg Larsson, brought to life and abetted by the muddle-headed cowardice of people who fear the disapproval of the diversity police.

    In Rotherham, multiculturalism triumphed over not just feminism, but over the law, over basic human decency, and over civilization itself.

    How many more Rotherhams are there?

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    Posted in Crime, Jihad | No Comments »

    National Review Endorses Ted Cruz for President

    March 11th, 2016

    Not a surprise, but now it’s official:

    Conservatives have had difficulty choosing a champion in the presidential race in part because it has featured so many candidates with very good claims on our support. As their number has dwindled, the right choice has become clear: Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.

    We supported Cruz’s campaign in 2012 because we saw in him what conservatives nationwide have come to see as well. Cruz is a brilliant and articulate exponent of our views on the full spectrum of issues. Other Republicans say we should protect the Constitution. Cruz has actually done it; indeed, it has been the animating passion of his career. He is a strong believer in the liberating power of free markets, including free trade (notwithstanding the usual rhetorical hedges). His skepticism about “comprehensive immigration reform” is leading him to a realism about the impact of immigration that has been missing from our policymaking and debate. He favors a foreign policy based on a hard-headed assessment of American interests, one that seeks to strengthen our power but is mindful of its limits. He forthrightly defends religious liberty, the right to life of unborn children, and the role of marriage in connecting children to their parents — causes that reduce too many other Republicans to mumbling.

    That forthrightness is worth emphasizing. Conservatism should not be merely combative; but especially in our political culture, it must be willing to be controversial. Too many Republicans shrink from this implication of our creed. Not Cruz. And this virtue is connected to others that primary voters should keep in mind. Conservatives need not worry that Cruz will be tripped up by an interview question, or answer it with mindless conventional wisdom when a better answer is available. We need rarely worry, either, that his stumbling words will have to be recast by aides and supporters later. Neither of those things could be said about a lot of Republican nominees over the years.

    Not sure it moves the needle much, since National Review has made its preference for Cruz over Donald Trump clear over the last year, but maybe it will help some of Marco Rubio’s wavering backers push him more strongly to get out of the race.

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    Posted in Elections, Media Watch, Republicans | No Comments »

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