I’m on a New York Tea Party mailing list, mainly just to chuckle over the crazy that’s posted about “Barry Sotero Soetoro” (which is what those who know the real truth about our homosexual president, who has no fewer than 19 Social Security numbers, call him). The leader of the pack, who last garnered attention by recommending a video of Obama portrayed as a Farina in Little Rascals, has a new hero:
Donald Trump’s involvement in the presidential race will change all the rules. Trump has plenty of money and doesn’t need anyone at this stage of his life so he is virtually corruption free. Unless obama and his thugs can dig up something on Trump to shut him up, it looks to be a very interesting year upcoming.
Palin and Bachmann are so 2010.
Josie
I can see the new tag materializing.
Gin & Tonic
“Dig up something”? Hell, you don’t even need a shovel, there’s so much material. I bet oppo researchers everywhere, even on Romney’s staff (perhaps especially on Romney’s) are just salivating at this.
And I really suspect “plenty of money” is way thinner than a lot of people think. I do not think he has hundreds of millions liquid and ready to toss down this hole.
Comrade Javamanphil
I would never trust anyone who doesn’t let their avatar get their freak on.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik
Ah….sweet naivete. I know the Teabaggers worship the rich and all, but sweet christ, it’s amazing the sheer obtuseness to actually believe that anyone with Trump’s kind of money is “virtually corruption free”. Fuck, I agree with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett on a lot of things, but I make no bones to believe they’re anywhere even near “corruption free”, and they’re not even running for office for anything.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: A lot of people who would be supporting Trump probably do believe that he has hundreds of millions simply sitting in a checking account and ready to be spent.
Valdivia
Sorta OT but not really–can’t wait to the Republicans fighting to privatize Medicare the year before the election!
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik
EDIT: Ignore, stupid mistake.
But seriously, yes, make “Virtually Corruption Free” a rotating title.
SFAW
I think the “author” meant to write (or “rite”, for you Teabaggers) that Trump’s corruption comes without additional charge.
And as far as digging something up: isn’t that what he did to get his hairpiece? His combover reminds me of a Mad magazine strip from 40-50 years ago. (Hint: it involved taking a ride in a speedboat.)
If Fred Trump had never existed – or at least not made any significant money – we’d never hear about Teh Donald. What was that comment about being born on third base and thinking he hit a triple?
lacp
He ain’t gonna win dick if he insists on wearing that dead muskrat on his head.
SFAW
I think they modified their goal to address just Medicaid, since poor people vote less than old people.
Josie
@The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik: Well, you know, great minds…..
Valdivia
@SFAW:
According to all the blogs Ryan is swinging for the fences and going to voucherize Medicare. Not just do away with Medicaid.
Bob In Pacifica
These are interesting times, a national test to see how much crazy passes for political thought.
Gin & Tonic
@lacp: Trouble is, he’s pretty much locked into it at this point. There’s no way he can rip it off and say “yep, bald and proud”
SFAW
All of it.
SATSQ
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Bob In Pacifica:
Unfortunately, we’re already seeing how much of a threshold for crazy there is on the state level, which is apparently ‘Sky’s the limit’.
Keith G
Bread and circuses.
It is almost as if there are folks who would rather the public be entertained by the theatrics and not dwell on real issues. And much of the media plays along.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: And that’ll be a problem with fundraising — he’s relying on the support of rubes who think he’s loaded, but they won’t send him a check because they think he’s loaded.
peach flavored shampoo
What’s really funny to anyone that knows Trump is that he really has NO desire to be president. This is all a PR move to boost his dying TV ratings. So it would be sweet, sweet nectar of Jesus if the Iowa GOP would just clown the rest of the nation and have him win their primary. Force him to back out of the race before things get too deep. Force him to admit the farce.
SFAW
Ah yes, the latest Rethug “deep thinker”. Yeah, I heard that too, but I expect Boehner to tamp down Ryan’s … uh … boner, re: cutting more stuff aimed at helping the powerless.
WereBear
@Keith G: I feel it’s the media who:
They are in the entertainment business now, whole hog. That “news” thing? Drain on profits. Ditch it.
Valdivia
@SFAW:
Yeah the great part is the Weekly Standard is out with a huge piece today saying that the nation is now ready for it! Yeehaa!
The best of it is that according to the rules they set up in this Congress Ryan can set his budget out of committee all on his own and have a vote on it just like that. Clusterfuck anyone?
RSA
@Gin & Tonic:
Americans haven’t voted in a bald President since Eisenhower. Have there even been any bald D or R candidates since then?
Bruce S
Louis Black is the only pundit qualified to comment on Donald Trump:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-march-22-2011/back-in-black—trump-2012
Says it all…
Dennis SGMM
Trump has GOP shoo-in written all over him. He’s an adulterer, a number of his businesses have declared bankruptcy (One, more than once), he’s white, and he’s perceived to be rich.
Now that he’s mouthing birther nonsense the man is golden.
As for his combover, Rand Paul was elected while sporting a dead badger stapled to his head.
Ash Can
Adjusted for what the teabaggers are really thinking, and for the real reason they admire yet another shallow, blowhard huckster.
PeakVT
Trump has plenty of money and doesn’t need anyone at this stage of his life so he is virtually corruption free.
If this logic (ha!) holds, then Darryl Issa should be corrupt-free, too. And also.
NonyNony
he is virtually corruption free
Hmmm. Feels like it’s missing something…
with notably rare exceptions, Trump is virtually corruption free
That’s better
Bob L
Trump is a real estate developer were,…?
PurpleGirl
But Trump is on the TeeVee… He has a reality show and it’s really good…
I once had a conversation with a young lady about Trump while riding a bus in Manhattan. She was convinced he could do well as a politician because he’s been so successful in real estate. I told her about several of his projects in cities other than NY which didn’t do well at all (he didn’t have the same kind of connections and he didn’t know the cities very well, etc.). Well, her retort was that he’s on TeeVee and has a fun reality show. This was back during the first season of The Apprentice. Face/palm.
cleek
but remember, Obama is the celebrity candidate.
all the other candidates are TV pundits or reality show hosts. but Obama is still the celebrity. never forget.
Just Some Fuckhead
Trump is the perfect person to take the country through bankruptcy.
Gin & Tonic
He had a gimmick that worked once, and now is just unbearable. It reminds me of nothing more than all those SNL skits which work as a 4-5 minute bit at midnight on a Saturday, then somebody says “hey, let’s make a movie” and 90+ minutes of the same thing becomes a human rights violation.
aimai
@Just Some Fuckhead:
FTW!
Also, I’d like to point out to MisterMix that to the cognoscenti its Barry SOEtero. That extra “e” makes it extra foreign.
aimai
Bruce S
I have to say it – I much prefer Trump over Michele Bachmann. I don’t think he believes a word he says, while she’s certifiably nuts. I’d also wager that Trump wouldn’t have invaded Iraq after 9/11. Just saying…
Suffern ACE
@RSA: Isn’t McCain bald?
Suffern ACE
@Bruce S: Because once people are rich, they can’t also go crazy?
PurpleGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Agreed. I hope you will believe me when I say that I have never, ever, watched his show. Anything I say about it comes from other people’s comments, glimpses of commercials and “news” stories about him/it. The lady on the bus loved the show so much.
I’ve loosely followed his real estate career for years, especially since he had a role in closing the old Hotel Commodore and transforming it into a Hyatt. (I loved the old Commodore, home to Star Trek conventions in the 1970s.)
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@peach flavored shampoo:
ah, that would be an attention whore’s dream, he could involve himself in a scandal, though scandal as disqualifier has proven unreliable, or he can claim some other tear soaked reason why he simply can’t do the job.
trump walks away with new found integrity, and the sympathy of more people than would have ever actually voted for him.
trump the ethics manual, appearing on a book shelf near you. as well as a theme park celebrating his willingness to put his ambitions aside for whatever excuse they come up with.
rikryah
They’re all crazy. go from that premise, and everything makes sense. Crazy and Grifters.
jwb
@Josie: That one should be added to the rotating tags at the top of the page.
joes527
@Gin & Tonic:
Coneheads wasn’t THAT ba… OK. You’re right.
mistermix
@aimai: Actually, I consulted the source document and it is “Soetoro”. I’ve corrected the post and deeply regret the error.
NonyNony
@Bruce S:
And yet I doubt that there would be a hairs-breadth of difference between the policies that Trump would push or the policies that Bachmann would push for the most part. And where they DID differ, it would be because Trump was attempting to steal as much as he could that wasn’t nailed down – like a certain governor of Florida.
Depends. W went after Iraq for a lot of reasons, and only one of those reasons was “Daddy issues”. It was a target of opportunity and there was a whole lot of oil that was being lost to his buddies because of sanctions (though the oil was being drained away with the Oil for Food program, and his buddies were making out like bandits there, so who knows). Trump has fewer buddies in the oil industry and his Daddy issues involve him building gigantic buildings rather than bombing countries, so maybe. Then again if there was a buck in it for him Trump would want to be pushing the buttons to drop the bombs himself.
That’s the problem with Trump over Bachmann – Bachmann may be a nutter but she’s actually a fairly predictable nutter. She’ll bring the crazy, but she’d be easy to build an opposition group to and the press would never get dazzled by her crazy-eyes. Trump is a purely naked opportunist who can channel PT Barnum well enough to distract people while he’s picking their pockets. I consider that far, far more dangerous than Bachmann.
IOW – Bachmann has crazy ideas, but would face intense opposition. Trump has crazy ideas but can make himself look not-crazy enough to foil opposition just long enough to put his crazy ideas into practice. On the whole, that makes Trump the more dangerous one of the two.
(Though I’d take Trump over Pawlenty or Kasich any day of the week – they do Trump’s schtick more subtly than Trump does and so they’re even more dangerous.)
singfoom
This sounds like a good idea. There certainly aren’t enough rich white men in the Republican party to go around. Sounds like they’re working on expanding their tent.
SFAW
Given the subject, interesting choice of words. Can we assume it was intentional?
Paul in KY
@Dennis SGMM: That should be mailed to Jack Conway, who would have beat Sen. Paul if he hadn’t run such a bad campaign (especially last 3 weeks of it).
Comrade Dread
Who knows, though. With enough campaign money from the Donald Trumps of the country (or if you’re feeling really cynical and paranoid, a hyped up bond market crisis), they might have a shot.
Pass the whiskey.
Paul in KY
@SFAW: He admits in his book ‘The Art of the Deal’ that Fred gave him 20 million to start out his business career.
SpotWeld
Trump is a person who gambles with other people’s money and charges them for the priviledge to let him to it.
No idea how well that could transfer to politics. But it’s less of a sure game, and I don’t see Trump of actually entering a casino unless he has the house advantage.
martha
In keeping with the new BJ tag (“virtually corruption free”), I’d like to nominate the following:
“Brian Deschane has no college degree, very little management experience and two drunken-driving convictions.Yet he has landed an $81,500-per-year job in Gov. Scott Walker’s administration.”
http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/119159584.html
Ah yes, evil government. The dumping ground for wastrel sons of big-time contributors.
Paul in KY
@Suffern ACE: I would consider him to be. I wish he’d hear me say it, because I know he’d get pissed & then maybe he would have a heart attack & die.
FlipYrWhig
It says a lot about your political party if Donald Freakin’ Trump is your Integrity Candidate.
Omnes Omnibus
@martha: Well, that starts my day out well. Thank you.
Julia Grey
People who do watch the show have this image of Trump as the smart, decisive, guy who cuts through bullshit with unerring intelligence and can bark “You’re Fired!” without hesitation. The apprentices, with whom the audience is supposed to identify, are all striving for his attention and approval. The authoritative father figure, who also carries the enormous power of money.
I’ve said it elsewhere, but I’ll say it again. We worship the 1% in this country.
We think rich people are Special, and we convince ourselves that they deserve their wealth (mostly). Because, you know, we are going to be filthy rich ourselves one day (LOTTO!), and we will certainly deserve it when we get it.
I don’t know whether the media is following or leading this mindset, but these new series, “Secret Millionaire” and “Undercover Boss,” and the like, are meant to show that the super-rich/top of the corporate heap are really cool people at heart, and — if you DESERVE it, of course — they will actually be thrilled to share some of their wealth with you. No wonder they’re so fucking popular.
I’m sorry, but I find the underlying intent/attitude of these “Fatcat rewards Cinderella” programs insidious and sickening.
Failure, Inc.
HE AWN THE TEEVEE, CLETUS. AHM GONNA VOTE FER HIM.
Facebones
@Gin & Tonic: I’ve been saying this for years. The media loves Trump’s Richest Man in the World shtick, but you don’t see Warren Buffett selling self branded steaks & vodka.
piratedan
well the last “candidate” to be “virtually corruption free” was Schroedinger’s fetus, but that damn puritan original sin concept kept mucking up the works.
Paul in KY
@Julia Grey: ‘Undercover Boss’ is about as subversive as ’24’.
Both of them prop up memes the Repubs worship.
OzoneR
@Paul in KY:
Jack Conway ran a bad campaign? Boy, you wouldn’t have known it if you listened to DailyKos, Firedoglake or OpenLeft. They thought Aqua Buddha was a stroke of genius.
piratedan
@Julia Grey: They need to retitle Trump’s show as “Celebrity Lackey”. The recurring theme that keeps showing up on these Cinderella shows is that the rich people have NO FREAKING IDEA that the actual work done by these people is so incredibly difficult.
martha
@Omnes Omnibus: I actually think this is a really good dead horse to beat. I may post this on every BJ thread today, just because I’m feeling feisty!
rickstersherpa
I suspect all these Tea Party heads are grifters, but grifters always are suckers for another con. And any history of the The Donald over the last 30 years will reveal him as grifter of the first magnitude. The Donald has not gotten where he has by losing his money, he has gotten there by losing other people’s money (usually bank shareholders and insurance company shareholders left holding the bag after one his his companies have gone bankrupt.) I expect the primary motivation is The Donald is acting to enhance ratings for his reality show with priceless free publicity.
As for finding dirt, we Obama thugs will only have to go to The Donald’s Wikipedia article to start the dirt collecting.
SFAW
Well, who do you think owns Omaha Steaks?
(No, it’s not Buffett – well, I don’t THINK he does, anyway – just wanted to make a pointless diversion from an otherwise-enthralling thread.)
Comrade Javamanphil
@martha: Nice work if you can get it. Only took 15 comments on that story for the first “Barry Sotero” mention too.
Xenos
@Gin & Tonic:
Trump is in this to make money, not lose it. The only time he is willing to lose money is for guaranteed loser projects like the NJ cashinos, which were mostly a matter of other people’s money being invested. And were about the easy access to hookers and blow.
artem1s
@peach flavored shampoo:
ah, yes it would be sweat justice if he were to win Iowa. unfortunately, in addition to his ratings he is also only after the tax breaks. every trip, meal, suit, etc. he purchases is a write off against the income he “puts into” his campaign chest. how much you wanna bet it will exactly equal the amount he raises/spends over the life of his ‘exploratory committee’?
it constantly amuses me how teahaddists and libertarians think there is some cut off point to greed of someone like Teh Donald. I mean, srsly, where do they think he got all of his money? By giving half away to the poor? By paying taxes? my experience of the wealthiest American’s abilities to job the system to their own benefit puts welfare mom with 300 hundred children and a fleet of Cadillacs for their baby-daddies to shame.
Julia Grey
The whole concept behind these “The Filthy Rich Are Big Ol’ Sweethearts Who Want to Help the Deserving Poor” TV shows drives me CRAZY.
I really think this kind of soothing, soaking-into-the-skin “RICH = GOOD” propaganda is almost more dangerous than the Limbaugh variety.
Xenos
@rickstersherpa:
As they say, you can’t cheat an honest man, or in the updated version, Annie Leibovitz will walk by a dozen honest financial advisors to find the shady character offering to double her money every six months, forever.
martha
@Comrade Javamanphil: Yeah, the jsonline whacko trolls are legendary. But, they’re off their game, now that their beloved Scooter has turned out to have feet of clay. Sob.
Paul in KY
@OzoneR: It was releasing it 2 weeks early that was stupid. That kind of ad you put out the day before the election. I thought he was more savvy than that.
daveNYC
I have no idea how far gone you have to be to think that someone who does construction in New York and New Jersey and has a casino in Atlantic City is ‘virtually corruption free’.
Julia Grey
Even better. They acknowledge their peons’ difficulties. That endears their viewers to them even more. And then comes the special (limited) reward for the special, hand-picked, hard-working people ONLY. Maybe a couple of little reforms here and there if the work force is really lucky.
And the viewer thinks “Oooh, wouldn’t that be super if it happened to MEEEE?” and “Wow, that CEO is really nice! Look how he fixed things as soon as he found out what was going on!” Right. Nice of him to come down for a couple days.
And then the rich people return to their rich lives, because a little largesse and a bit of organizational tinkering here and there makes everything wonderful for everybody again. Not to mention the great publicity for the company. Corporations are so COOL!
Julia Grey
Aqua Buddha was just a brainlessly dumb ad. Nothing to do with the timeline.
shortstop
I believe Trump’s hair is forizzle, not a rug. It’s just the world’s worst combover, because he’s gotta be top of the heap in everything. I actually have seen the show once or twice, and thoroughly enjoyed an outdoor scene in which the wind caught his 36″ hair curtain and the whole thing had to be pixelated out.
@NonyNony: Where does this “with notably rare exceptions” come from? I apparently missed its genesis.
Davis X. Machina
@martha: In the old days, if we can trust Waugh and his contemporaries, you packed unacceptable and inconvenient younger sons off to a rubber plantation in Malaysia, and let gin, cirrhosis and humidity do the rest, but now, seriously, what are your alternatives?
ppcli
“Trump has plenty of money and doesn’t need anyone at this stage of his life so he is virtually corruption free.”
Yep. Because nothing says “clean as a whistle” like money earned in New York real estate and Atlantic City casinos.
Comrade Javamanphil
@Julia Grey:
Exactly. I’ll watch when and only when the CEO rewards the hard-working employee at the end by giving them and every single one of their co-workers raises equivalent to the CEO’s annual compensation package increase percentage.
ppcli
@shortstop: Alan Greenspan recently attempted a self-resurrection in which he announced:
“Today’s competitive markets, whether we seek to recognise it or not, are driven by an international version of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” that is unredeemably opaque. With notably rare exceptions (2008, for example), the global “invisible hand” has created relatively stable exchange rates, interest rates, prices, and wage rates.”
Much hilarity and good-spirited high jinks ensued blogosphere-wide. “Everyone is immortal. Every day (with notably rare exceptions) you will not die.” was one of the more obvious ones.
(People didn’t even have time to spare to chuckle much about the hand which is both invisible and opaque.)
scav
@Comrade Javamanphil:
What about if they really did arrange a live Goldman Sachs v. nun standoff over pay? Alas, the CEOS have had practice but imagine the television. . .
catclub
Pat Paulsen: the _serious_ loon candidate for Prez.
martha
@Davis X. Machina: Well, surfing in Mexico if you want to support them. If you don’t, I guess putting them on the public dole is your best option…
SFAW
You seem to think anyone would care about whether it’s clean as a whistle. That’s only for the “little people”, i.e. the ones who don’t matter, to care about.
shortstop
@SFAW:
shortstop
@ppcli: Ah, thank you. I caught much of the ensuing hilarity but had missed its inspiration.
Woodrowfan
@SFAW: How many Medicare uses will think that they’re targeting them instead? Lots probably. This could easily backfire, as it should…
ericblair
@Julia Grey:
It’s a twofer of “If Only The Tsar Knew” and Horatio Alger. The Horatio Alger stories people talk about aren’t generally about self-made plucky upstarts; they’re about some eager beaver who manages by some luck to curry favor with a Distinguished Older Gentleman, who then takes him under his wing and gives him stuff until he’s A Success. So pucker up and kiss some rich people ass, and you can be rich, too!
Paul in KY
@Julia Grey: I think the actual ad was not well done, it did get across a message that Rand Paul is a hypocritical weirdo (but maybe a great guy to go to a frat kegger with).
Actual ad aside, you have to agree that you don’t run that one when the other party has a couple of weeks to respond & act all pious & stuff.
Paul in KY
@Comrade Javamanphil: I’d like them to put one on where the boss comes across as a total douche. You know they’ve probably done one or two & then saw how it was going & pulled the plug on that episode.
shortstop
@Paul in KY: I’ve only watched one episode of this show — with the Ricketts family, which owns the Cubs — and they could not disguise the sheer assholosity of the lead Rickett. It was just astounding how much this man whined and bitched while he was doing other people’s dirty and/or difficult jobs for a total of maybe two hours each. At one point, he threw his unsold hot dogs into a garbage can, paying for them out of his pocket, because it was too much work to walk through the stands to sell them. Unbelievable.
Carnacki
@Gin & Tonic: Harsh lighting the other day showed it’s a double combover in a criss cross pattern
jimmiraybob
As all True Patriots™ would know, “our homosexual president” should read “our homosexual secret Muslim president.” You damn hippie socialist commie pinkos are all alike*.
*Alas, it’s become impossible to discern sarcasm/snark from the brain-fevered ramblings of the Teabirchers, therefore, I will reluctantly submit a sarcasm alert notification Form 23469-B to the proper authorities.
Paul in KY
@shortstop: I stand corrected then. I didn’t think they’d put on a show where one of our Galtian Ubermen is revealed to have feet of clay.
As you may have gathered, I don’t watch the show. Thanks for telling me about that one. I’m a White Sox fan, so I’m happy to see the Cub’s owners looking bad.
Nied
Don’t you know? He’s an international con man who will bankrupt the country with his socialism!
International Con Man Barack Obama Leaves U.S. With $85 Million In Campaign Fundraising
Paul in KY
@Carnacki: I have to give him some credit (or his barber, I guess). That’s not a hairstyle you see very much: The double combover thatch weave ™.
polyorchnid octopunch
Just one point to make on this one: “Virtual = In appearance, but not in fact” which makes the quote used as the basis for this article completely true!
shortstop
@Paul in KY: I only watched it that one time so I could confirm my worst suspicions about the Rickettses. I am fearing this thread makes me sound like a reality TV junkie, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Except for the Amazing Race. ;)
RSA
@Suffern ACE:
Good God, how could I have forgotten that?
Stillwater
This is right. Because once wealthy people have enough money, power and influence, they just dedicate themselves to doing good things for the less fortunate.
Basta ya!
Ash Can
@shortstop #90: The virtue or lack thereof of Tom Ricketts notwithstanding, isn’t the whole point of that show the fact that the boss bitches about how difficult the work is? The last thing the producers — and the viewers — would want to see is the boss saying, “Oh, this is easy; anyone can do this,” and (worse) proceeding to do the job just as well or (worst of all) better than the actual workers. Now that’s what would never make it to the screen. Ding on Ricketts and the other bosses all you want, but the bitching-about-the-work bit is a nowhere point.
Hob
ppcli @79: “the hand that is both invisible and opaque”
OMG, the free market is The Damned Thing! </retrogeek>
PanAmerican
How did I miss the private label Vodka? Tossing neutral grain spirits into a gaudy gold bottle and calling it premium is the distilled essence of Trump.
Bex
@shortstop: Assholosity–another new tag!
Paul in KY
@shortstop: I’m an Amazing Race watcher. Was pissed it got pre-empted for some Country BS. The last team that I disliked was eliminated (that deaf guy is the biggest whiner), so every team remaining I’m OK with them winning. Hoping little miss google-eyes & her dad can pull it off.
bcinaz
Trump Campaign Slogan:
“One Bankruptcy Just Didn’t get it DONE”
or
“One Bankruptcy is Never Enough”
Ruckus
@Dennis SGMM:
Rand Paul was elected while sporting a dead badger stapled to his head.
Maybe the staples went too deep and all the circuits shorted?
I see why you would say that badger was dead but isn’t there some line where it crosses from dead to mummified?
shortstop
@Ash Can: No idea. I have zero interest in the show or in why they do what they do. I was responding to Paul in KY’s question about whether they actually show bosses being assholes; I answered that in the single episode I saw, they certainly did.
SFAW
From your “mouth” to FSM’s noodly ear-like appendages, one can only hope.
Julia Grey
Well, yeah.
One of the major rules of political advertising is to avoid anything that’s going to give your opponent scope to display wounded dignity, “more in sorrow than anger” head-shaking, or clouds of prissy sanctimony. In fact, that’s probably the #2 rule after “Don’t lie, especially if there’s any chance people can find the truth on the internet.”
What’s #3? “When your opponent is drowning, throw him an anchor — but make sure it’s disguised as a life ring.”
Hmm. Maybe all three rules could be summed up with a simple: “Beware the blowback.”