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Joined: Aug 2005
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OP
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Joined: Aug 2005
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Thank goodness he's not like other people. It would be enough to make one wish for our extinction as a species.
"The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them." Lenny Bruce
"The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month." Dostoevsky
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Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 362
newbie
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' The psychologists tell us that 3 or 4 percent of the population are sociopaths.
Luckily or unluckily, what are called the "professions" (doctors, lawyers, judges, politicians, economists, corporate "leaders", military officers, etc.) seem to sop up most of them, so it is quite possible to lead a pleasant life (most of the time) without being polluted by their shadows falling on one. .
Once, weapons were manufactured to fight wars; today, wars are manufactured to sell weapons
It is far easier to deceive folks than to convince them they are deceived
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Joined: Sep 2011
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Moderator Carpal Tunnel
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Moderator Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 18,003 Likes: 191 |
I expressed a theory today about why Trump is so profoundly ignorant about how government works. Like Bush before him, he has no legal training. Clinton, Obama, and the vast majority of our Presidents were lawyers. Most of what a President does involves the law - proposing it, interpreting it, enforcing it. Lawyers are, by training, familiar with the spheres of responsibility of the branches of government, and have a strong affinity for the Constitution. Trump, on the other hand, has spent the vast bulk of his career abusing, flouting, and breaking the law in about every way imaginable. He couldn't care less what the law is and has no respect for the law or its enforcement. His familiarity of the law is mostly gained through avoiding it - by not honoring contracts, paying his bills or taxes, circumventing it or manipulating it. He is a very, very dangerous man.
Last edited by NW Ponderer; 06/07/16 09:47 AM. Reason: Correcting typos
A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.
Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich
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Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 8,112 Likes: 136
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 8,112 Likes: 136 |
I think inherent in the fact he is not legally trained, he will soon realize he can not do as a CEO does, and in that he will not be as dangerous as you would suspect
ignorance is the enemy without equality there is no liberty America can survive bad policy, but not destruction of our Democratic institutions
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,388
old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,388 |
I expressed a theory today about why Trump is so profoundly ignorant about how government works. Like Bush before him, he has no legal training. Clinton, Obama, and the vast majority of our Presidents were lawyers. Most of what a President does involves the law - proposing it, interpreting it, enforcing it. Lawyers are, by training, familiar with the spheres of responsibility of the branches of government, and have a strong affinity for the Constitution. Trump, on the other hand, has spent the vast bulk of his career abusing, flouting, and breaking the law in about every way imaginable. He couldn't care less what the law is and has no respect for the law or its enforcement. His familiarity of the law is mostly gained through avoiding it - by not honoring contracts, paying his bills or taxes, circumventing it or manipulating it. He is a very, very dangerous man. Up to the present, 56.8% of American presidents have been lawyers. Vast majority is usually defined as: Vast majority - means almost all or something like 90% or more, but less than unanimous. Overwhelming majority - means well beyond any hope of finding enough who are swayable to take the opposite case or something like 75% or more. Emphasis is mine. So, the percentage of presidents who have been lawyers is a simple majority. In Trump's case, I consider him a thug. He is neither a businessman (in the entrepreneurial sense of the word) nor is he a scholar of any sort. However, 40% (4 of 10) of those presidents ranked in the top ten were not lawyers. The ranking system is given by the link below. While not a perfect system, it will do as a sort of consensus poll. Rankings So, I think, perhaps, your theory needs some refining.
"The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them." Lenny Bruce
"The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month." Dostoevsky
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 18,003 Likes: 191
Moderator Carpal Tunnel
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Moderator Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 18,003 Likes: 191 |
I'm not going to be drawn into another pedantic distraction/argument, but 25 of 44 Presidents have been lawyers, far more than any other profession - the next closest "profession" is "soldier/sailor" (13) - although many of those were also lawyers. That 60% of "top ten" were lawyers tends to show legal acumen to be of considerable merit. Also, a number of other Presidents also had legal training (e.g. Madison, Theodore Roosevelt), though they never practiced. The point remains, though, that a legal background is a boon to understanding the job. Why Do Law School Graduates Become Leaders?
A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.
Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,388
old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,388 |
Numbers are numbers, dear friend. They belie opinion - that is the point. Not a pedantic argument or discussion. The question is: what else, beside legal acumen, is necessary for the job? After all, no small portion of the presidents were NOT lawyers. So it begs the question: if your model is to be believed then there must be other variables that explain the presidents. Hence, my statement that the theory needs refining. 
"The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them." Lenny Bruce
"The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month." Dostoevsky
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,388
old hand
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OP
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 6,388 |
BTW - a Z-Test for proportions of two groups (I.e., statistical significance) shows that at 99% confidence there is NO difference between 56.8% and 40% with a sample size of 44. That reinforces the idea that there must be other significant variables that explain the phenomenon.
"The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them." Lenny Bruce
"The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month." Dostoevsky
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 12,129 Likes: 257
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 12,129 Likes: 257 |
I suspect that you would find way better correlation with previous positions of leadership and being a successful President. That leadership may have been political, or military, of even corporate. Anybody who has successfully run a large organization (without excessive sociopathology) might make a good President.
The people to ask would their employees, their chain of command, and their victims, to see if they passed the "ethical human being" test. In other words, he or she has to be a "mensch".
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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