Sigh...

One can lack intelligence and be wealthy. One can lack wealth and be intelligent. Trump is proof of that. Smart business men do not go bankrupt unless done intentionally as a means to not keep their word, not pay their debts, and/or not lose their business. Dumb business men can tremendously increase their wealth by virtue of having the right people in the right places.

One can lack intelligence and be wealthy. — creativesoul

Sure.

Trump is proof of that. Smart business men do not go bankrupt unless done intentionally as a means to not keep their word, not pay their debts, and/or not lose their business. — creativesoul

No, Trump is totally not proof of that. Nor did he intentionally go bankrupt. And by the way, losing a business or two isn't abnormal for a good businessman. Even Henry Ford went bankrupt several times. It doesn't follow from that that he was dumb, or not a good businessman.

Dumb business men can tremendously increase their wealth by virtue of having the right people in the right places. — creativesoul

This is false. Look, you don't know what you're talking about, and that's fine, but I can tell you for sure that dumb businessmen can absolutely not increase their wealth. Having the right people in the right places first of all requires intelligence - intelligence to choose them, get them in the right place, and intelligence to motivate them and keep them (as well as intelligence to check that they are not screwing you). Rich people have many around them who want to take their money away, or make easy money off them.

Trump may be immoral in some regards, but he's certainly not stupid — Agustino

Of course he is. He verges on imbecilic.

Of course he is. He verges on imbecilic. — Wayfarer

That is your opinion, you have offered no evidence of proving that.

:-O

It doesn't take intelligence to be lucky enough to afford multi-million dollar financial losses. It doesn't take intelligence to be lucky enough to be able to afford to hire the right people. It does take intelligence to be able to recognize these things...

Good business men keep their word.

It doesn't take intelligence to be lucky enough to afford multi-million dollar financial losses. — creativesoul

Sure, but he inherited at most 200 million from his dad. His wealth is at least around 4 billion today. He's made more than he's lost, and he's beaten inflation - at least.

It doesn't take intelligence to be lucky enough to be able to afford to hire the right people. — creativesoul

Look mate. It's no use if you have money to afford hiring the best talent if you (1) can't recognise that talent, (2) can't ensure that that talent is working for you and not against you, (3) can't retain that talent. These are NOT easy tasks at all. If someone gave you 1 million dollars and said do something with them, the chances are you'd lose them, and I don't think you consider yourself dumb. It's not as easy as you make it sound.

Good business men keep their word. — creativesoul

Some of them do, some of them don't. Business skill isn't the same as morality - the two are different. So there's moral good businessmen, and immoral, but skilled businessmen too.

Of course he is. He verges on imbecilic.
— Wayfarer
That is your opinion, you have offered no evidence of proving that. — Agustino

Trump is notoriously uninformed. There is a quote from one of his 'books', 'The day I realized it can be smart to be shallow was, for me, a deep experience.' He never reads books and refuses to read briefing papers. He gets all his information from Fox and Breitbart. The only way State Department can get him to read anything is to salt the papers they give him with references to him. He changes his mind continually and often shows no grasp of facts, principles or policies. This is all on the public record and common knowledge.

Trump is notoriously uninformed. — Wayfarer

This may be true, that he's not a very cultured man, but that's totally different from saying that he's dumb. He's very smart, he hasn't however applied his intelligence to such matters.

'The day I realized it can be smart to be shallow was, for me, a deep experience.' — Wayfarer

I would be skeptical of this. The real Donald Trump is probably different than what the media and his books have portrayed him to be, because remember, he's trying to build an image that sells. That speaks to the common, lazy folk, who want to hear that it's easy to achieve success. They'll pay for those books. This is an essential marketing principle that Trump has applied his whole life.

The only way State Department can get him to read anything is to salt the papers they give him with references to him. — Wayfarer

This is anecdotal.

He changes his mind continually and often shows no grasp of facts, principles or policies. — Wayfarer

Actually I think Trump is one of the most stubborn politicians - he rarely changes his mind on goals, but frequently on means of achieving them.

So, more of the same. Childish insults, exchanging barbs with tv show hosts, more bluster, more narcissism. Meanwhile total incompetence on the legislative front, couldn't start piss up in a brewery. Business as usual, in other words.

Very bitchy, designed to incite

The term was selected by the Oxford Dictionary as 2016 Word of the Year.

The dictionary defines “post-truth” as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”

It is similar to Frankfurt's technical use of "Bullshit" in that truth and falsehood cease to be significant. The post-truth world is the result of the ascendancy of the bullshitter, who is contrasted with the liar in that while the liar knows what is true and what is false, and knowingly speaks falsehoods, the bullshitter does not know or care for truth.

But of course truth is what is still there despite what you say about it. A post-truth world must fail. — Banno

A very timely subject. America is definitely a post-truth environment right now, I can tell you that.

Truth to me is one of the foundational and most important concepts in philosophy. Truth is the reason I mostly reject postmodernism, which I see as a philosophy that eliminates the special status of truth and replaces it with the concept of perspective or interpretation, of which many are equally valid.

Not all sentences express a truth or falsehood. For example, an opinion may be true, false, or neither.

But if you are asserting a purported fact about the world, I would argue that truth is the essential component that constitutes the fact.

"Mike Pence is currently the VP of United States." Russian meddling aside, unless he is removed from office through impeachment, I believe that this is an undeniable fact about the world.It is not susceptible to interpretation or perspective. A contradictory fact would simply be a false statement.

A skilled businessman need not be a good one. If profit is the sole measure of being a good business man, then any and all means to increase profit are acceptable as long as they do so. All business men give their word. When one promises to do X, then 'X ought be the case' is a true statement. A good business man is trustworthy. A skilled business man may not be. Conflating good with skilled is a mistake in thinking which eliminates the ability to further discriminate between successful business men and good ones. All good ones are successful, but not all successful ones are good.

Ahem... Donald Trump.

I introduced the distinction between the bullshiter and the liar in the OP.

I introduced the distinction between the bullshiter and the liar in the OP. — Banno

So you did, beg your pardon. It's getting piled on thicker by the day, in any case.

Just so long as they know who to blame.

Trump makes America grate :-)

8-)

Trump makes America irrelevant.

The leader of the West is now Angela Merkel. China has out-played the USA in international development through programs such as the Belt, and will soon out-play them in military technology. America's great ally, the UK, is on the verge of fragmentation.

Follow the money.

Merkel on US policy.

"While we are looking at the possibilities of cooperation to benefit everyone, globalization is seen by the American administration more as a process that is not about a win-win situation but about winners and losers," she said.

China Sees Opening Left by Trump in Europe, and Quietly Steps In

Speaking to Mr. Xi in Berlin on Wednesday, Mrs. Merkel said tellingly: “I am delighted to be able to welcome you in a period of unrest in the world, where China and Germany can make an effort to soothe this unrest a bit and to make a somewhat quieter world out of it.” The two countries have “a comprehensive strategic partnership,” she said.

Trump: Making America irrelevant.

Trump: Making America irrelevant. — Banno

Isn't that a preferable no matter who the president is?

I think the answer to my question is yes. The US should be irrelevant. If it's not it's because some gruesome threat is on the scene from within or without said nation.

Trump 'Satisfied' with Putin Assurances'

Paraphrase:

"Vlad's such a nice guy. He's sincere, he has a good handshake. And he looked me right in the eye, and said, 'Donald, there's no way my people did these awful things the "fake media" are talking about. They're your real enemy Donald. I'm your friend. You're a great man, and a great leader'. And I believe him. I know that deep down, Vlad is a good guy. And he likes me."

(Y)

https://www.facebook.com/abcnews.au/videos/10156942348159988/

Sometimes else I would have been quite nervous about this.

But now we know how simply inept Trump is and that his cabinet (Tillerson, Mattis, etc.) and congress simply won't go along with a full capitulation to Putin. So NATO isn't going fall apart. And likely the Russians know now how much they can use the Trump card.

The fact is that Trump alternative-universe of his own has made him basically the majority of the time totally irrelevant where he can have his feud with the media. The only time when Trump does have an effect is when some policy decision is a) acceptable to the Republicans and b) not a major security policy issue that would truly rock the boat. And those kind of things naturally do happen (like going out of the Paris Accords).

Click on that abc.net.au link above your post. It's gone viral overnight. Nails it.

It's not the media that's fake. It's the person occupying the office of the Presidency.

Click on that abc.net.au link above your post. It's gone viral overnight. Nails it.

It's not the media that's fake. It's the person occupying the office of the Presidency. — Wayfarer

Have you been reactivated by Crooked? The orders arrived in the mailbox or what happened? X-)

You can keep spouting crap, but don't expect any further response from me.