Gawker Goes Bankrupt

Gawker recently decided to declare bankruptcy, thanks to the good works of Peter Thiel and Hulk Hogan, among others. But don’t celebrate the death of Gawker yet. Bankruptcy is a rescue plan, not a funeral. Gawker is looking for a buyer to keep it in business. Ziff Davis has already shown interest….

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The Robot Judge

If you have been watching CNN, you know Anderson Cooper has been reporting about the discovery that a sitting judge is actually a robot. His name is Gonzalo Curiel and he is presiding over the Trump University case. Curiel looks human on the outside, and he has passed as human…

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My Endorsement for President of the United States

I’ve decided to come off the sidelines and endorse a candidate for President of the United States.  I’ll start by reminding readers that my politics don’t align with any of the candidates. My interest in the race has been limited to Trump’s extraordinary persuasion skills. But lately Hillary Clinton has…

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The Risks of a Trump Presidency

What exactly is the risk of a Trump presidency? Beats me. But let’s talk about it anyway. Your Abysmal Track Record For starters, ask yourself how well you predicted the performance of past presidents. Have your psychic powers been accurate? I’m not good at predicting the performance of presidents. I…

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The Sanders Debate Gambit

Last night Donald Trump appeared on Jimmy Kimmel and said he would debate Bernie Sanders so long as the profits from the debate go to charity. Sanders quickly agreed via Twitter. There’s your headline for a few days, or more. Let me tell you how clever that was. By agreeing to debate…

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Citizen Government

Slander is illegal, but hard to prove. And if you lose your case in court, it can be super-expensive. You’ll end up paying your own court fees and those of your opponent. In other words, the government can’t help you if someone slanders you in public. You’re sort of on…

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Evaluating the Political Chess Board

Trump has pulled ahead of Clinton nationally in both the new FOX poll and the Rasmussen Poll. And Trump passed Clinton in favorability according to the newest national poll on that topic. The Megyn Kelly interview (including the hyping of it ahead of time) marked Trump’s third-act turn. By the way, Anderson Cooper of CNN…

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Impossible To Ignore

I added a new book to my Persuasion Reading List. The book is Impossible to Ignore: Creating Memorable Content to Influence Decisions This is a must-read for anyone interested in influencing an audience. The book explains the science behind making things memorable and shows you how to do it. And memory is…

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Trump’s VP Pick Prediction

Here’s a good summary on Business Insider of the top 14 likely VP picks for Trump. See if you can predict who Trump will choose. Few things are harder to predict than a VP choice because the situation stays fluid until the actual selection. And frankly, I don’t know much about the…

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How to Do Persuasion Wrong

Now that Donald Trump has effectively wrapped up the Republican Party nomination, let’s talk about the general election. Clinton’s campaign chair, John Podesta, has started to make the case that Trump is too “risky” to be president. That signals a shift from arguing about policy and experience to pure persuasion. That’s a big…

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Clinton Versus Trump – Persuasion Scores

Today I’ll take you to the third dimension of persuasion to see how Clinton and Trump are matching up lately. I can’t make this post appear balanced because Clinton is making big mistakes on the persuasion dimension while Trump is being his usual skillful self. So the best I can…

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The Health Tell

I have blogged and tweeted that Hillary Clinton looks unhealthy to me. And I have mentioned on Twitter that one of the skills of a hypnotist is identifying subtle bodily changes. Observation is a huge part of a hypnotist’s skill. You look for micro changes in muscle tone, breathing, posture,…

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The Unfavorability Illusion

Regular readers remember I blogged that Megyn Kelly got her new haircut because of Trump’s influence. This article seems to confirm it. You also know I predicted that Megyn Kelly would do an interview with Trump that would mark Trump’s third-act solution. That interview is scheduled for May 17. It is worth noting that…

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Cyberbombs and ISIS

According to the news, the United States is stepping up its use of cyber attacks and psychology against ISIS. For example, our cyber forces are creating fake messages to send ISIS fighters to the wrong places. Update: Here’s more about current efforts. But the funniest part is that the U.S. military is…

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How Powerful is Persuasion?

I have been writing about Donald Trump’s powers of persuasion for months and yet many of my readers are still persuasion doubters. I get that. We like to think of ourselves as creatures of reason.  But we are not creatures of reason. We aren’t even close. Science has known this for a…

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