Trump 27: Happy Holidays Orange Menace

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump says he’s a genius. A study found these other presidents actually were."

Spoiler

President Trump says he’s a genius. Sometimes people even say it for him.

“You’re an F-ing genius,” someone wrote to him on Twitter in 2013. “I.Q. tests confirm!” Trump replied. In fact, he wrote this weekend, his lifetime of success in business, TV and politics “would qualify as not smart, but genius . . . and a very stable genius at that!”

He has been somewhat less enthusiastic about providing evidence of his intelligence.

Trump has repeatedly challenged people to IQ tests, but when someone once asked him to prove his own score, he simply replied: “The highest, a‑‑hole!” The Washington Post asked the White House whether it would share his IQ test results on Sunday, if there are any, but got no immediate reply.

So be it. There’s no law that a president has to document his intelligence. But if Trump doesn’t, he should know that someone might come along and try to measure it for him.

It has happened before.

In 2006, a psychologist at the University of California at Davis applied a statistical algorithm to reams of presidential biographies, surveys, polls and other historical sources, and concluded that the smartest man to have occupied the White House was our sixth president, John Quincy Adams.

With an estimated IQ between 165 and 175, Adams was a genius by any common definition of the term, according to the study. By comparison, most people score about 100. (A child with an IQ in the 160s was declared smarter than Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking by international tabloids.)

There are, of course, many asterisks beside Adams’s big number. He never took an intelligence test, which Politico notes were not invented until the early 1900s, long after his death. And the definition and meaning of an IQ has evolved even since then.

But as psychologist Dean Keith Simonton wrote in his 2006 study, Adams was among eight U.S. presidents declared geniuses in a 1926 study by an early intelligence researcher named Catharine Cox. She had sifted through the biographies of hundreds of famous people and worked out a method to estimate IQs based on childhood and adolescent achievements.

It’s not hard to see how Adams would have impressed her. As the University of Virginia’s Miller Center writes, he was the son of John Adams, who also was bound for the White House. Young Adams considered himself his family’s protector while his father was helping plan the Revolutionary War. He crossed the Atlantic at age 10, rode mules from Spain to Paris, and passed the bar exam in the new United States of America at 23.

Simonton took Cox’s IQ estimates for Adams and other early presidents, and cross-referenced them with biographical information about their modern-day successors. He used some clever statistical techniques to build an intelligence matrix for all the presidents up to George W. Bush — about whose intelligence he was most curious.

The psychologist claimed that his method was nonpartisan and extremely accurate, and the journal Political Psychology deemed it robust enough to publish in 2006.

The second-smartest president in the study, by average score, was Thomas Jefferson — of the Declaration of Independence fame — followed by John F. Kennedy, who inspired his country to go to the moon.

Bill Clinton was the No. 4 White House genius, with an estimated IQ range between 136 and 159. Simonton explained why:

“His demonstrated capacity for mastering impressive amounts of complex and detailed information, his verbal eloquence and fluency, and his logical adroitness and sophistication — at times, as during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, verging on sophistry — places Clinton head and shoulders above his successor in terms of intellectual power.”

We’ll come to that successor in a moment. Keep in mind that the study was published before Barack Obama or Donald Trump became president.

“Unfortunately, given all of the attention recently attached to the incumbent’s intelligence, nobody has tried to followup my 2006 study,” Simonton wrote to The Washington Post. But, he added, “there’s something very striking about the incumbent’s insistence that he is both very stable and extremely intelligent. It comes across as very defensive, like he’s discussing aspects of his person about which he feels vulnerable.”

Simonton noted that people tried to cram Trump into the top of his list during the 2016 presidential campaign, ranking him just below Adams in a meme that still proliferates:

That’s fake news, though. Snopes traced the meme to an article on a hoax site that claimed to have calculated Trump’s IQ of 156 based on his college acceptance standards. Among a host of “logical missteps and factual inaccuracies,” Snopes wrote, the article didn’t even name Trump’s freshman school correctly.

Trump does not appear to have ever specified his IQ. “If he’s actually taken an IQ test, then why not report the results?” Simonton wrote to The Post. “I think we can guess why.”

Like Hawking, Trump once seemed dismissive of the concept of IQs. He wrote in his autobiography, “The Art of the Deal”:

“You can take the smartest kid at Wharton, the one who gets straight As and has a 170 IQ,” Trump wrote with his co-author in 2009, “and if he doesn’t have the instincts, he’ll never be a successful entrepreneur.”

A few years later, Trump challenged his secretary of state to an IQ test. He has claimed on Twitter to test “much higher” than Obama, who Simonton said is “obviously far more intelligent,” or George W. Bush.

If the 2006 study is correct, beating Bush might not be much of an achievement.

“Ever since George W. Bush was elected to the presidency, questions have emerged about his general intelligence,” Simonton wrote, noting the president’s infamous tied tongue. Rest assured, the psychologist concluded, “Bush is definitely intelligent.”

But not as smart as nearly every other president.

With an estimated IQ between 111 and 139, Bush was fourth-lowest on the list. He ranked just above Warren G. Harding, James Monroe and the much-maligned Ulysses S. Grant, who came in dead last with an IQ no higher than 130.

It wasn’t that Bush was necessarily dumber, Simonton explained, but he scored particularly badly on one of his metrics: curiosity.

“Despite being the scion of an elite family with worldwide connections, Bush’s hobbies appear limited to not much more than running, fishing, and baseball,” the psychologist wrote, quoting from a news article. “It would seem that the younger Bush does not make the impression of having wide interests or of being especially artistic, curious, sophisticated, complicated, and insightful,” he added.

We note that Bush has since taken up painting. Maybe it’s time for a retest.

I think the TT should replace Grant at the bottom of the list.

[GrumpyGran]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

Also, this... 

Exclusive: Bannon apologizes

Hahahaha, nice try. Do these people really believe that they can make unfiltered, off-the-cuff remarks and then later convince everyone that they didn't really mean what they said? That kind of sets a dangerous precedent, doesn't it?. As in, we won't believe anything you say because next week you're going to say you meant something else.

I guess Bannon didn't have a Plan B either. Don't want to go to Vegas with him.

[GreyhoundFan]

This will probably be on sale on Agent Orange's website in the next week, a "steal" at $49.99.

[GreyhoundFan]

Some time ago, the WaPo published this funny short video comparing the WH to "Mean Girls". Well, they updated it to the "fire and fury edition" to include crap that has happened in 2018. It's worth a watch.

 

[Cartmann99]

There's a link to a pirated copy of the Fire and Fury book floating around social media right now. Putting the issue of copyright violation aside, downloading files from questionable sources is an easy way to get all kinds of nasty crap on your computer. If you want the book, be safe and buy it from a trusted source. 

[47of74]

Jesus, Man Baby strikes again;

 

[47of74]

And man baby fucked up and introduced the term consensual presidency

 

[JMarie]

Clear your calendar, because Trump has announced he will be handing out Fake News Awards on January 17.  Now, don't worry, it's a Wednesday, so it won't interfere with his golf schedule, or anything else he might want to do (embarrass himself by meeting with foreign leaders, giving press conferences about the wall or DACA or the booming stock market).  No, the whole day is wiiiiiiiide open.

[candygirl200413]

Did anyone see this? 

Scoop: Trump's secret, shrinking schedule

Quote

President Trump is starting his official day much later than he did in the early days of his presidency, often around 11am, and holding far fewer meetings, according to copies of his private schedule shown to Axios. This is largely to meet Trump’s demands for more “Executive Time,” which almost always means TV and Twitter time alone in the residence, officials tell us.The

schedules shown to me are different than the sanitized ones released to the media and public.

The schedule says Trump has "Executive Time" in the Oval Office every day from 8am to 11am, but the reality is he spends that time in his residence, watching TV, making phone calls and tweeting.

Trump comes down for his first meeting of the day, which is often an intelligence briefing, at 11am.

That's far later than George W. Bush, who typically arrived in the Oval by 6:45am.

Obama worked out first thing in the morning and usually got into the Oval between 9 and 10am, according to a former senior aide.

Trump's days in the Oval Office are relatively short – from around 11am to 6pm, then he's back to the residence. During that time he usually has a meeting or two, but spends a good deal of time making phone calls and watching cable news in the dining room adjoining the Oval. Then he's back to the residence for more phone calls and more TV.

Take these random examples from this week's real schedule:

On Tuesday, Trump has his first meeting of the day with Chief of Staff John Kelly at 11am. He then has "Executive Time" for an hour followed by an hour lunch in the private dining room. Then it's another 1 hour 15 minutes of "Executive Time" followed by a 45 minute meeting with National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. Then another 15 minutes of "Executive Time" before Trump takes his last meeting of the day — a 3:45pm meeting with the head of Presidential Personnel Johnny DeStefano — before ending his official day at 4:15pm.

Other days are fairly similar, unless the president is traveling, in which case the days run longer. On Wednesday this week, for example, the president meets at 11am for his intelligence briefing, then has "Executive Time" until a 2pm meeting with the Norwegian Prime Minister. His last official duty: a video recording with Hope Hicks at 4pm.

On Thursday, the president has an especially light schedule: "Policy Time" at 11am, then "Executive Time" at 12pm, then lunch for an hour, then more "Executive Time" from 1:30pm.

Trump's schedule wasn't always like this. In the earliest days of the Trump administration it began earlier and ended later. Trump would have breakfast meetings (e.g. hosting business leaders in the Roosevelt Room). He didn't like the longer official schedule and pushed for later starts. The morning intelligence briefing ended up settling around 10:30am.

Aides say Trump is always doing something — he's a whirl of activity and some aides wish he would sleep more — but his time in the residence is unstructured and undisciplined. He's calling people, watching TV, tweeting, and generally taking the same loose, improvisational approach to being president that he took to running the Trump Organization for so many years. Old habits die hard.

In response to this article, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders wrote:

"The time in the morning is a mix of residence time and Oval Office time but he always has calls with staff, Hill members, cabinet members and foreign leaders during this time. The President is one of the hardest workers I've ever seen and puts in long hours and long days nearly every day of the week all year long. It has been noted by reporters many times that they wish he would slow down because they sometimes have trouble keeping up with him."

 

[AmazonGrace]

There are 65 million or more American who I bet would differ that this is a consensual presidency...

I'm like, really smart, a stable genius.

[fraurosena]

Now this is suspicious, don't you think? I mean, they were accusing Hillary of trying to burn her 30.000 emails last week. So he must be burning his tax-returns, right?

 

[JMarie]

5 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

There are 65 million or more American who I bet would differ that this is a consensual presidency...

I'm like, really smart, a stable genius.

We all know he wasn't a consensual celebrity.  He even bragged about not being consensual.  So it's odd that he would blurt out that word (even accidentally), since he doesn't know what it means.

[onekidanddone]

6 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

There are 65 million or more American who I bet would differ that this is a consensual presidency...

I'm like, really smart, a stable genius.

Because a really smart stable genius Onekidand done talks about themselves in the third person. Everybody who reads Onekidanddone's posts sees them. Like Onekidand done posts on FJ and people see them. 

[AmazonGrace]

Fire and Fury: First we burn Manhattan , after we burned Chappaqua... 

[Audrey2]

11 hours ago, candygirl200413 said:

Did anyone see this? 

Scoop: Trump's secret, shrinking schedule

 

Regarding the article:

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, just because Trump is up watching TV for several hours, it doesn't mean that he is working long days.

[AmazonGrace]

13 hours ago, JMarie said:

Clear your calendar, because Trump has announced he will be handing out Fake News Awards on January 17.  Now, don't worry, it's a Wednesday, so it won't interfere with his golf schedule, or anything else he might want to do (embarrass himself by meeting with foreign leaders, giving press conferences about the wall or DACA or the booming stock market).  No, the whole day is wiiiiiiiide open.

Not that anyone will care but it may be illegal for White House aides to assist in this sort of thing:

 

[JMarie]

36 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

Regarding the article:

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, just because Trump is up watching TV for several hours, it doesn't mean that he is working long days.

If watching TV for several hours per day counted as work, unemployment really would be at an all-time low.

[smittykins]

I would love to get paid for watching TV all day!

[Destiny]

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/950404182061838336.html

Interesting twitter thread from Seth Abramson on the potential for bad for the Orange Menace if he is in fact called to testify to Mueller, which word on the street says will be a thing. 

[AmazonGrace]

Imma start saying it's my "executive time" when I'm napping.

 

 

[GrumpyGran]

44 minutes ago, smittykins said:

I would love to get paid for watching TV all day!

Well, now we know what he does all day long-nothing. Just watching Faux, checking in with Breitbart, Newsmax, probably calling and demanding more Diet Coke and more articles that praise him. Wouldn't surprise me if he's watching porn.

9 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

Imma start saying it's my "executive time" when I'm napping.

 

 

Oooowww, Kellywise was part of his access? Where is she these days? In a cell somewhere?

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, GrumpyGran said:

Well, now we know what he does all day long-nothing. Just watching Faux, checking in with Breitbart, Newsmax, probably calling and demanding more Diet Coke and more articles that praise him. Wouldn't surprise me if he's watching porn.

Oooowww, Kellywise was part of his access? Where is she these days? In a cell somewhere?

She's probably hiding in the gutters. I heard Wolff saying that it was her and Bannon that made his interviews possible. No wonder he left when Bannon was ousted. And no wonder either, that the book was all about Bannon...

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

Oh well but the average IQ of a tack is pretty much 0

[Destiny]

I'm making a new thread early cos holidays are over. Onward here!

http://www.freejinger.org/topic/30486-trump-28-hes-a-stable-genius-with-a-big-powerful-button/