(08-25-2021 01:45 PM)tanqtonic Wrote:  

(08-25-2021 12:49 PM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(08-25-2021 11:52 AM)Middle Ages Wrote:  

(08-25-2021 11:00 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  

(08-24-2021 05:00 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  I see someone rambling, speaking off the cuff, but not full of clarity. That’s just a really odd adjective to use for Trump. It doesn’t matter how much worse one thinks Biden is.

(08-24-2021 07:31 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Clearly phrased and stated as a question. But somehow the left spun it into both an advocacy and a recommendation.

This is what I mean by 'clarity'. I don't mean that he is 'spot on' in his comments... I just mean that it is clear that like 90+% of people, he is out of his depth when it comes to virology and is merely musing.

More on the Biden comparison in a moment.

(08-25-2021 06:36 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  The abject dishonesty of the media in blatantly misquoting Trump here and with regard to Charlottesville go to the very heart of the issue of trusting subject media.

This

(08-25-2021 09:09 AM)Middle Ages Wrote:  I find any defense of Trump to be curious, but this one in particular makes no sense and just reveals bias IMO. I was watching this live, as I'm sure many of you were, and I had been reading/ consuming every bit of Covid-19 information I could- as I'm sure many of you were. He was being advised by people that had been studying virology and epidemiology their entire lives. He should have been AT LEAST as well informed as you and me.
Yes, this was in the form of a question, but it was maybe the dumbest question a president ever asked (in public anyway). He appears to have realized that because he immediately came back the following day to say that the question was to reporters and was "sarcastic" and "meant to "see what would happen".
But you all watched it- that was an earnest question posed to Debby Blix by what can only be described as a moron (we are all taught as children that disinfectant is toxic if ingested). How anyone can defend that statement.....

I'll just never understand the benefit of the doubt that people give Trump.

And to the suggestion he run for congress and become Speaker of the House- LOLOLOL. Have you paid any attention to this man? He doesn't give a s**t about governing, the American people or about anything other than glorifying himself and feeding his ego. You think he is going to take a position LESSER than the presidency? It boggles my mind how his supporters see what they want to see in him and ignore what is staring them in the face.

BTW- this is coming from a lifelong conservative and Republican. I have no love for the Democrats, Biden, or whatever. I just know a charlatan when I see one

I never suggested he run for anything. He's a MASSIVE political liability because of his personality. I know charlatan's as well... and Biden (like most politicians) is just a different sort of one. As I said when he ran the first time... The ONLY thing I like about Trump is that because he is not part of 'the system', he has no reason to support or defer to it... and the 'system' of politics we have is one of divisiveness and having 'the power' rest in the arguments, not in the solutions. My hope when he was elected was that because he wasn't part of the system and owe tons of favors to everyone in it, that he would focus on 'doing good things' in order to create a legacy for himself... which would serve his egotistical purposes as well as ours (by actually fixing some issues). Now we can argue about whether or not his 'solutions' were popular or were the RIGHT things to do... but IMO, he accomplishes nothing for himself (and that is his #1 goal) if he isn't remembered in a positive way by at least a decent number of people.

My 'defense' of Trump is not really that at all. I didn't say anything about him being right or 'smart' in what he said... I merely implied (and another said it better) that it was clear that he was musing and not remotely suggesting that people go inject themselves with things... yet despite how clear that was, the press (in concert with the left) acted as though it wasn't clear that he was musing or not clear that he was speaking out of his depth... As part of 'the system', I find THIS aspect even more abhorrent than Trump's personality... because people can discern for themselves whether or not Trump is a jerk... but it is more difficult to do so if people (the press) constantly misrepresent him, as they did in both of these situations and dozens of others. If you repeat a lie often enough, it BECOMES the truth to most people. I am not defending Trump as much as I am chastising the press (and really, the left) for KNOWINGLY lying about what he said in order to CREATE truths. This was only SOMETIMES about policy with the left... and there are some VERY obvious policy differences between him and the left... it was WAY too often about 'style'.... and this is an example.

What policy difference is there here? What policy difference was there about his inaugural crowd size? Dozens of other examples? None.

My point about any comparison to Biden is that the press is VASTLY less interested in the numerous times that he not just rambles off on a subject where he is not knowledgeable, but where he clearly has completely lost his ability to put together a coherent statement. Surely we all recognize the difference between those two things.... and their significance when it comes to 'the most powerful man/leader in the world'?? Trump's penchant to speak in unnecessary and inaccurate euphemisms like 'the best' or 'the biggest' or to muse about scientific breakthroughs is not nearly as important to me as knowing that he is mentally competent. I also find it interesting that 'musing about scientific breakthroughs' is 90% of the 'meat' behind climate change initiatives.... and nobody bats an eye at that simply because the people giving THOSE speeches are more careful.

I was recently at a Rice Athletics event speaking to an old friend and as often happens, the conversation I was having quite naturally shifted to creating synthetic fuels. I was clearly out of my depth in this conversation... and am about to demonstrate it. The idea as I understand it is that they are simply mimicking the chemical makeup of gasoline/diesel fuel by combining chemicals... as opposed to drilling for oil and refining it... (or at least using less of it/being less 'dirty' in the process). For the average person, its enough to know that there are people working on ways to make STILL have IC engines, but be much cleaner about them... without having to remotely understand the process. I certainly know that fuel can be expressed as a chemical formula and that chemicals can be combined using that formula... I just don't know enough about all of the chemicals IN fuel. I can look up now that the formula is C8H18 or CH3-(CH2)6-CH3.... and I know that carbon and hydrogen don't NEED to come from oil deposits.... but the science of that, especially as compared to 'drilling' is beyond me. I might muse just as Trump did.... and say something like... if fuel is a complex combination of carbon and hydrogen, can we synthesize it from water and air? Can 'the solution' to our 'greenhouse gasses' (the main two as I understand are CO2 and CH4) which would 'use' Carbon and Hydrogen and release oxygen in the process??

While I know almost nothing about what is necessary to do that, it is HIGHLY interesting to me to muse about it. When I did so with my friend, it was clear that he knew I was out of my depth... but he was polite and didn't embarrass me. The only reason he would have had to imply to someone else that I was implying a 'perpetual motion' sort of situation as in we're 'recycling' the air of C and H and creating pure 02... the goldilocks situation... would be to try and embarrass or demean me, which of course he did not. He in fact said something more like... 'in simplest terms, that is close enough to what we're working on for this conversation.' That's what I would have said in response to Trump if I had been an expert in the matter.

Look, I'd LOVE it if our 'best and brightest' who are experts at everything ran for office. Hell, let's make them king... but that isn't how our system works. We elect 'popular' people. REALLY SMART people wouldn't want that job. It's not worth it.

RE: your synthetic fuels example (which I am very interested in BTW) vs. the Trump disinfectant incident: I agree with your core argument that you were both just musing about something you weren't educated about but the context is completely different, as is the knowledge threshold. Taking the last part first, I would argue that not many people understand how synthetic fuels are made (or why). On the other hand, by the time we are 5-6 years old, most of us know not to ingest disinfectant. So his wasn't just musing, it was objectively stupid. I can't thing of a comparable statement with synthetic fuels because they are not widely understood by most people. Second, your conversation was in a private setting and (I'm guessing) no impressionable third party was listening to the conversation. By openly and earnestly asking Dr. Blix this question in front of a national audience that is thirsting for positive information about the virus, I think his musing gave the question a legitimacy that it should never have had, and *contributed* to the lack of understanding/ mis-information about Covid that we are still dealing with today. The country needed leadership and direction based on science and this just further muddied the message and undermined his science advisors (if Trump isn't listening to them why should I?).
On the media treatment: Are we really surprised that the mainstream media bludgeoned him with this? I mean, both sides spin the hell out of the other sides comments, take statement out of context, cut off parts of statement to make it look like they said something they didn't, etc. Yes, he technically asked a question, but I was watching it and I was characterize what he did as a suggestion that Dr. Blix look into it. That is not promoting it, I agree. But it doesn't take very much media spin to get there.

Agree. I never thought the issue was "Look at this idiot recommending that people chug bleach." It was more of a "Look at this idiot mumbling about something that he completely doesn't understand in front of a captivated and scared populace." How completely clueless (or mentally diminished?) must one be to decide that it was an appropriate time/place to try to cough up a cure for COVID on the spot? The lack of insight was/is baffling.

Buffoon or Mr Mumbles Blank Stare. Quite the choice.