Trump

[Little stoned kiwi]

The only winning move is for Trump and Clinton not to play.

[KlaxonCow]

This is beautiful.

The most bizarre thing is, though, that no-one ever calls him out on this.

Because, like, were I interviewing Trump and he came out with that sort of rambling incomprehensible nonsense in reply to a question, then I'd ask him to explain what the fuck he was talking about. Could you please explain to the audience what the shit any of that empty meaningless noise-making you were doing there was actually supposed to convey to them?



The age old question. Who is more idiotic? The idiot that rambles nonsense like this, or the people who stand idly by and pretend like it all makes perfect sense? The Emperor is naked, folks. The Emperor is naked.

[pogo]

The most bizarre thing is, though, that no-one ever calls him out on this.

It is important though. I think I was too kind to him earlier, when I said Clinton won but not convincingly. The problem is I’m used to listening to Trump, and am probably way more engaged with US politics than most Americans, who have not been following the election that closely. The debates are the first time many tune in to it; especially this debate which reportedly was watched by 100 million people, far more than normal. And people watching him for the first time are going to think "WTF?" at the above and many other extracts. At the same time people fed on a diet of lies and conspiracy theories about Clinton will have been pleasantly surprised how normal, competent and well prepared she was.

Two other things. Trump was sniffling throughout, while Clinton looked healthy and on top of her game. So much for the nonsense about her health being an issue. And the moderator did very well, focussing on the issues that he thought would bring the most interesting responses, but in that he was more like a reporter than a moderator. That might be Trump’s one opportunity to spin this.

[Istar]

This week I'm posted to our NYC office, so I'm currently sitting in my 60th-floor officle on Lexington, overlooking Central Park. My commute is a walk from 6th Ave. to Lexington along 56th St. which happens to run right past Trump Tower. There are NYPD and secret service EVERYWHERE along that stretch of 56th, and yesterday a huge crowd of supporters.

Today, aside from a few bored-looking concierges, nothing.

I said to the missus yesterday that all Clinton had to do to win the debate was turn up, look compos mentis, and not say anything insane. I think there are a lot of people waking this morning and sleepily asking themselves whether Trump really said some of the things he said last night, watching the reruns and analysis on GMA, and feeling a little embarrassed at themselves for ever thinking this dickwad was presidential material.

[snaff]

Spoiler: show

[zip accident]

Half of any population are below the average intelligence for that population.

[Absolute_Zero]

Half of any population are below the average intelligence for that population.

That would be true if none of the population were of average intelligence. /pedant

You lose 2 points

[and 'average' is the incorrect terminology for population above == population below]

[zip accident]

Half of any population are below the average intelligence for that population.

That would be true if none of the population were of average intelligence. /pedant

You lose 2 points

[and 'average' is the incorrect terminology for population above == population below]

Did you read snaff's spoiler?

[Absolute_Zero]

Did you read snaff's spoiler?

I don't read snaff, period.

Apologies if I've overlooked a subtlety.

[pogo]

Snaff’s spoiler seems to be made up of entirely self-selected polls, on Twitter and the web. All the proper polls I have seen – a number of panels on the night and the following by CNN – show Clinton winning convincingly.

Post-debate poll: Hillary Clinton takes round one

[Barney]

Isn't CNBC a children's channel like CBBC?

[merman]

My favourite fact-checking tweet after the debate said this:

Every time Trump said "I didn't say that" [in the debate], he had said it.

The fact he is now ranting about the moderator, being asked "the wrong questions" and saying his mic wasn't working properly prove once again what a bad loser he is.

[pogo]

The mic was working fine. For one it picked up all his sniffles, as his pre-event cocaine fix got the better of him

[gumboot]

His mic must have been broken. Every time he spoke it would pick up some jibbering imbecile talking about something unrelated to the question he was asked.

[KlaxonCow]

Actually, in fairness to him, seeing it cut together like that, it just looks like he's been coached in microphone technique. But, unfortunately, the microphone was set up in entirely the wrong position, exposing and thus ruining the technique.

Because, watching that, you can see that he's mostly doing it on the natural beats. End of one sentence, start of the next. At a verbal comma.

It's a simple idea - and singers do this too, but more aggressively as they use up much more air - to inhale in the gaps. Grab enough breath to ensure you can get out the next few lines uninterrupted and there won't be any mid-sentence breathing.

And, though it failed horribly in this instance, as Trump obviously doesn't realise how the technique works to notice that the microphone was in the wrong position for this to work properly, the idea of inhaling through your nose is that it disguises that you're doing it.

Imagine the microphone was higher up and perpendicular to his mouth. If he breathes in and out of his mouth with the microphone in that position, he's breathing on the microphone. It'll be picked up and you'll hear all this heavy breathing. But if you inhale through your nose, the air is travelling up and down in front of your face, parallel to it, perpendicular to the direction the microphone is facing. Instead of breathing on the microphone, you're breathing at 90 degrees to it. Particularly with a directional microphone - which is purposefully used to focus on a sound source and ignore as much "background noise" as possible - then this should hardly be picked up.

The problem was that Trump's microphone was kind of low - for his height - and was pointing up his nose. So instead of the nose breathing helping to disguise his breathing technique, it was pointed directly at his nose, amplifying it for all to hear.

Note carefully that Hillary's microphone was positioned correctly - she's been doing this kind of thing longer, so she knows to get the microphone properly adjusted to her height before they begin - so that it's pretty much pointing directly at her mouth.

Because, yeah, I'm watching the footage and Clinton's using the same breathing technique. Now you know what to look for, watch for it and see for yourself. She's also inhaling through her nose in the natural beats and pauses too. But, well, she's just far more practised at this, so she doesn't fuck it up, unlike Trump.

The podiums were low. He's much taller. The microphone was pointed upwards because of his height. Unfortunately, this points the thing right up his nose, so this little trick of inhaling through the nose gets picked up loud and clear, and everyone thinks you've been snorting cocaine.

(The microphone was not broken. But it was improperly set up for his height. Although, if he understood these things better, then he'd have spotted the problem and got them to adjust the microphone beforehand. Clinton's microphone is exactly set up for her height - like, perfectly so - that I'm sure she actually was diligent enough to check this beforehand and get it properly adjusted. Trump should have done the same. But he's an inexperienced idiot in comparison and now he's moaning at others for what's really his own cock-up. A wise speaker makes sure to be responsible for their own microphone set up because, well, if it's wrong, you're the one who looks like the creepy heavy breathing idiot to the whole world.)