As Jeb Bush said it so well ... He (Trump) will be the chaos president. It will be a chaos presidency.
Give me low energy or HRC any day.
Give me low energy or HRC any day.
It would be plausible, if the novel were printed on toilet paper.
4
Just another episode in the world wide hit White House reality TV show "Trumped."
5
A hundred years from today
People will say there’s no way
A Trump could exist --
It’s just a plot twist
For novels that need some horseplay.
People will say there’s no way
A Trump could exist --
It’s just a plot twist
For novels that need some horseplay.
4
The Apprentice in office is akin to watching a yo-yo go up and down with the occasional spin out as the string gets tangled.
4
I think the Trump presidency is best seen as a prequel to Cormac McCarthy's THE ROAD.
4
Yeah. In this soap opera, Russia's already winning. Trump just abruptly ended a covert CIA program to arm/train moderate Syrian rebels fighting Assad.
This program's end was long sought by Russia.
Current + former U.S. officials who believe in the benefits of the program see this as a major concession to Russia. And feel it will mobilize yet more radical groups in Syria---as it damages U.S .credibility. In the end, an enormous strategic error---and loss of yet another bargaining chip.
Just 3 months ago, Trump accused Assad of using chemical weapons. Russia was not happy with the bombing. You might recall Trump told the Russians he was bombing Syria, but not the U.S, Congress.
Trump is immediately folding to Russia.
He knows nothing of warfare, and is likely listening to co-President Steve Bannon. Wake up, Republicans!!
Have a spine, for once!
This program's end was long sought by Russia.
Current + former U.S. officials who believe in the benefits of the program see this as a major concession to Russia. And feel it will mobilize yet more radical groups in Syria---as it damages U.S .credibility. In the end, an enormous strategic error---and loss of yet another bargaining chip.
Just 3 months ago, Trump accused Assad of using chemical weapons. Russia was not happy with the bombing. You might recall Trump told the Russians he was bombing Syria, but not the U.S, Congress.
Trump is immediately folding to Russia.
He knows nothing of warfare, and is likely listening to co-President Steve Bannon. Wake up, Republicans!!
Have a spine, for once!
9
I do not perceive a narrative arc. All is chaos, there is no plot, no logic, just a bloody mess.
11
Let's not forget the sentiment expressed by a certain type of writer after Obama won in 2008:
"Ms. Didion lamented that the United States in the era of Barack Obama had become an 'irony-free zone,' a vast Kool-Aid tank where 'naïveté, translated into "hope," was now in' and where 'innocence, even when it looked like ignorance, was now prized.'" (Andy Newman in the NYT, 11-21-08)
Looks like Joan and her ilk got their wish. I eagerly await her magnum opus.
"Ms. Didion lamented that the United States in the era of Barack Obama had become an 'irony-free zone,' a vast Kool-Aid tank where 'naïveté, translated into "hope," was now in' and where 'innocence, even when it looked like ignorance, was now prized.'" (Andy Newman in the NYT, 11-21-08)
Looks like Joan and her ilk got their wish. I eagerly await her magnum opus.
2
If the 2016 election and its aftermath were part of a novel rather than reality, it might be said that Donald Trump would be a very poorly written character.
His body seems to be divided between several different, widely opposed personas. One moment, he's the fascist leader bringing white nationalism to the nation's highest office. The next, he's a reprise of Nixon, brought down by shady deals, attacks on the media, and corruption. He's also PT Barnum, an exploiter of the public mind with tricks such as a bizarre cartoon about CNN. A warrior-leader can also be seen, with attacks on Syria and North Korea. Occasionally, he's Donald Trump, circa 2005: arguing with celebrities, obsessing over fame, and dealing in misogynist vulgarities. The very fact that the man who insulted Morning Joe could just a week later give a speech about saving Western civilisation suggests a personality split to the extent that it would be a bad protagonist.
Climaxes and rising action are also an issue: we jump from plotline to plotline, Russiagate to UC Berkeley protests. The huge supporting cast may also prove confusing.
The biggest flaw in the plot, of course, would be its total lack of an main antagonist to Mr. Trump at present.
His body seems to be divided between several different, widely opposed personas. One moment, he's the fascist leader bringing white nationalism to the nation's highest office. The next, he's a reprise of Nixon, brought down by shady deals, attacks on the media, and corruption. He's also PT Barnum, an exploiter of the public mind with tricks such as a bizarre cartoon about CNN. A warrior-leader can also be seen, with attacks on Syria and North Korea. Occasionally, he's Donald Trump, circa 2005: arguing with celebrities, obsessing over fame, and dealing in misogynist vulgarities. The very fact that the man who insulted Morning Joe could just a week later give a speech about saving Western civilisation suggests a personality split to the extent that it would be a bad protagonist.
Climaxes and rising action are also an issue: we jump from plotline to plotline, Russiagate to UC Berkeley protests. The huge supporting cast may also prove confusing.
The biggest flaw in the plot, of course, would be its total lack of an main antagonist to Mr. Trump at present.
2
This presidency is a continuous loop of misdirection:
Door #1
Door #2
Door #3
and repeat again...... even Monty Hall would be dumb struck.
Now that this presidency has occurred, it is obvious how we got here.
Voting is the antidote, and the Mueller investigation should help disinfect this W.H.
Door #1
Door #2
Door #3
and repeat again...... even Monty Hall would be dumb struck.
Now that this presidency has occurred, it is obvious how we got here.
Voting is the antidote, and the Mueller investigation should help disinfect this W.H.
5
their approach to just try to score legislative points is so pathetic....running a government isn't like running miss universe or the apprentice...
2
Trump to staff: Why is it always just water with these meetings? From now on when it's hot outside I want some ice tea at every meeting. With a nice wedge of lemon."
Later that same day during the start of some meeting Trump will soon forget the purpose of... "See NOW we have iced tea! Look at that slice of lemon, it's a beautiful slice of lemon. Right General? Pence, did you get sweetened or unsweetened? Mine's not sweet...Waiter!"
Later that same day during the start of some meeting Trump will soon forget the purpose of... "See NOW we have iced tea! Look at that slice of lemon, it's a beautiful slice of lemon. Right General? Pence, did you get sweetened or unsweetened? Mine's not sweet...Waiter!"
1
It is an insult to compare the Trump administration and Trump himself to former President Richard M. Nixon, and a bigger insult to Nixon himself, (minus Watergate); because Nixon at least was a student of History and Foreign Policy and Nixon had a firm grasp on Foreign Affairs (Nixon's China Game case in point), Trump couldn't pass a History exam is probably true and Trump's grasp of Foreign Policy is probably non-existent, as well as; a grasp of History. Nixon and Kissinger became legendary-Trump is not even there ????? Where-ever there is??????
4
A Trump Presidential library? Surely you gest.
6
At this pace, I would visit his library just to see what was in it. Should be a short tour, I wonder if the Park Service will even charge an admission fee.
1
Dear John Dean, I was voted "Most Optimistic" in my senior class; even I know there's no possibility of this presidency being recorded as anything other than a tragedy. Anyone who finds this era in our history comedic is probably living somewhere else, or has a very warped sense of humor.
Is that how you made it through?
Is that how you made it through?
5
If a drama introduced a character in the story called Reality Winner who leaked classified documents about the reality TV president, it would be at that point I would think the series had jumped the shark.
5
July 19, 2017
Or how Mary Shelley came to write the great saga of Frankenstein and never was the world to not to believe in fiction as truth that has its impact on the soul of person or a a nation.
jja Manhattan,N.Y.
Or how Mary Shelley came to write the great saga of Frankenstein and never was the world to not to believe in fiction as truth that has its impact on the soul of person or a a nation.
jja Manhattan,N.Y.
1
Trumpenstein.
2
Donald Trump is not an era; nor is he an error. He is a predictable tragic step on America's road towards a Rome style destiny. America has been on that road since Americans elected Ronald Reagan. Trump is merely a culmination. History will record that a lazy, disinterested, uninformed, population squandered history's heretofore most successful attempt to establish a free and just society by letting a wealthy and powerful class distort truth, rules, and process in their unbridled lust for more.
12
Another take on Trump that I like comes from the great Danish writer, Soren Kierkegaard. He held that for man, things must be probable, but for God, all things are possible. Much of Kierkegaard’s writing was a polemic against Hegel, the great philosopher of history who turned history into a rational system. Trump is improbable, but, there he is. We might think of Trump as a judgement of God condemning our modern rationality. The world as it comes to us is irrational and new, utterly beyond our preconceived categories (a continuing creation), and it is only in hindsight that we fit it into something coherent. That is in fact why we have historians, to rationalize human experience. But it is when we delude ourselves that these human rationalization are real that we get into trouble. Reifying (taking creations of the human mind as real objects) the creations of historians is a form of idolatry. And we know God doesn’t like idolatry.
1
The writers mentioned here appear to be liberals only. Our better writers are not at all liberal, however, but very much the other type.
And then, too, good writers don't live in big cities.
And then, too, good writers don't live in big cities.
Where do you get the notion that the better writers are not liberal? This is entirely against the facts, so I'm perplexed by your conclusion. I guess you think only conservatives can be good writers?
2
An odd assertion,
3
Please, name your list of really good writers. I'm very curious.
2
I hope that the stench from this regime sticks on those who let this happen and it will be a generation before people like them will be able to 'serve' in public office again. It will take at least a generation to repair the damage.
16
The anger and despair we feel each day when we see what new humiliation Trump and his Republican stooges have heaped yet again on our once proud nation is very likely what Europeans felt as they witnessed a fascist takeover.
We will not recover until we admit that there is nothing funny about Trump and his rise to power. Then we must learn from the past and do everything possible to take our country back from the hateful ignorant and or super-rich minority of people that enabled Trump to occupy the Oval Office.
Writing comments is a useful exercise in dealing with post-Trump stress. But the real question is how we can get 90 million who stayed home in 2016 to stand up and fight against the corporate fascists who now run our country.
We will not recover until we admit that there is nothing funny about Trump and his rise to power. Then we must learn from the past and do everything possible to take our country back from the hateful ignorant and or super-rich minority of people that enabled Trump to occupy the Oval Office.
Writing comments is a useful exercise in dealing with post-Trump stress. But the real question is how we can get 90 million who stayed home in 2016 to stand up and fight against the corporate fascists who now run our country.
31
too bad that life didn't imitate art in the case of Buckley's The White House Mess and Obama refused to leave the white house on inauguration day.
3
Our imposter president is like Captain Queeg, massaging his strawberries, going mad trying to steer the USS Caine though a typhoon, paranoid, fearful of enemy fire, blaming everyone but himself. Will the mates on board have the gall to mutiny? Before it's too late?
19
Someone throw the palm tree overboard!
1
History and experience tell us that moral progress comes not in comfortable and complacent times, but out of trial and confusion. - Gerald R. Ford
Jesus.... I never ever thought that I would find myself quoting Ford but there has to be a silver lining here somewhere... doesn't there?
Jesus.... I never ever thought that I would find myself quoting Ford but there has to be a silver lining here somewhere... doesn't there?
12
Trump is not funny, the Trump White House is not funny. The Trump White House is not normal. The world is a far more dangerous place with Trump as POTUS. Many of his cabinet are racists Sessions, Pence, liars Sessions, Pence, alcoholics Bannon. Trump's companies are indebted to the Russian mob. We have a President who gleefully hides his tax returns from public scrutiny. We have a President who would not be able to pass an American history exam. We have a laughingstock as President that in many ways would fit into a novel as a Communist robot acting as President who is programmed to lie all the time and accuse others of exactly what he himself has done.
I am scared to death and prepare for the worst. I always believed in good in the world but not with Trump who is a dirty old man that just keeps getting fatter every day and he still lives in the 70's.
I just pray that more Republican legislators recognize what a bad person he is and how he surrounds himself with bad people. He is bad for the GOP, he has sullled the party, he has sullied America.
None of this is funny.
I am scared to death and prepare for the worst. I always believed in good in the world but not with Trump who is a dirty old man that just keeps getting fatter every day and he still lives in the 70's.
I just pray that more Republican legislators recognize what a bad person he is and how he surrounds himself with bad people. He is bad for the GOP, he has sullled the party, he has sullied America.
None of this is funny.
39
Great post. These are treacherous times. We need to be remain vigilant and put pressure on elected officials to do the right thing with Trump sooner or later, despite their own primary self interest, getting re-elected at all cost.
4
20 Trillion of Debt
"We have a laughingstock as President that in many ways would fit into a novel as a Communist robot acting as President who is programmed to lie all the time and accuse others of exactly what he himself has done."
Thanks EC17. You jogged my memory back to Eliza (aka Doctor), a primordial AI at MIT that adeptly turned every assertion back on itself and spit out whataboutisms.. By private-line teletype, just like the launch commands in those days. And these days too.
Thanks EC17. You jogged my memory back to Eliza (aka Doctor), a primordial AI at MIT that adeptly turned every assertion back on itself and spit out whataboutisms.. By private-line teletype, just like the launch commands in those days. And these days too.
The DNC and the Democrat elites show little sign of ever allowing a President Sanders.
6
This is a real life horror movie. "Nightmare on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" where an insidious, evil, enemy imposter destroys the government from within!,
11
The truth, as they say, is stranger than fiction.
5
The Nixon presidency gave us "Our Gang" and "Nixon Agonistes" by two of our country's most distinguished novelists and historians. It's only a matter of time before we have a full trove of similar Trumpiana. Meanwhile SNL and stand-up comedians have a political godsend.
6
Trump likes veterans who don't have blood clots.
15
Writers on the storm....
7
I love it! (2017's catch phrase).
Would add "No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the garden"
Would add "No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the garden"
1
To convey the Trump phenomenon, the first requirement is to leave reality and leap into the absurd. This was done in an episode of The Simpsons, where the people of Springfield were devastated by planes being rerouted so that their house shook to the rafters.
They needed a savior, and found one in the form of a man who was known as an entertainer, but who was also an entrepreneur with a deep dark cynicism, under the name of Krusty the Clown. He was convinced to run forCcongress, by citizens along with a coven of Republicans, including billionaire nuclear power mogul, Mr. Burns.
As an example of his depth of understanding when he won and said, "Wow,, I'm a Senator" and Lisa said, "a congressman" Krusty responded, "What's the difference." He won his election the same way he got away with having the kiddies love him in spite of his being a ruthless purveyor of rancid burgers and anything he could pawn on the public.
The episode was hysterically and brilliantly funny, since it was all in good humor. The writers could have just as easily had him win an election for President, but they must have thought this would be beyond what the fans would accept as too far removed from even the rules of parody.
What is happening now is real; the program won't end when the half hour is over. So, media can't help but obsess, hoping that someone somewhere will find a solution that can remove the clown from power, while sustaining the Constitution that bestowed it on him.
They needed a savior, and found one in the form of a man who was known as an entertainer, but who was also an entrepreneur with a deep dark cynicism, under the name of Krusty the Clown. He was convinced to run forCcongress, by citizens along with a coven of Republicans, including billionaire nuclear power mogul, Mr. Burns.
As an example of his depth of understanding when he won and said, "Wow,, I'm a Senator" and Lisa said, "a congressman" Krusty responded, "What's the difference." He won his election the same way he got away with having the kiddies love him in spite of his being a ruthless purveyor of rancid burgers and anything he could pawn on the public.
The episode was hysterically and brilliantly funny, since it was all in good humor. The writers could have just as easily had him win an election for President, but they must have thought this would be beyond what the fans would accept as too far removed from even the rules of parody.
What is happening now is real; the program won't end when the half hour is over. So, media can't help but obsess, hoping that someone somewhere will find a solution that can remove the clown from power, while sustaining the Constitution that bestowed it on him.
21
I'm seeing this less as a novel and more as a remake of All the President's Men. The question for the media including the New York Times is: who are the 2017 versions of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein? Didn't one of those reporters have a 1970 Karmann Ghia? I'm sure that one or more reporters could drive around New York City and Atlantic City, NJ in one talking to vendors stiffed by Donald Trump, accountants who kept the books for his casinos, accountants who may have done his taxes and divorce lawyers for Trump's ex-wives. Eventually they might, by following any money trail find out the answer to the question we all want answered: to whom does the President owe money? Is it a Russian bank? Or Deutsche Bank laundering money for Russia? or maybe the Chinese? And what are the Russian connections?
7
"All the President's Men"......................for Dummies
3
If we had a 2017 version of Deep Throat, that would finally end the charade that is the so-called Trump administration. He most likely owes gobs of money to the Russians, and so must do Putin's bidding...or have his loans called and himself exposed as the grifter he really is.
3
I don't think we can count on having a President Sanders. In 2021 he will be 80 years old. I suppose we could turn the White House into an assisted living facility if necessary.
12
Thank you, Matt Flegenheimer! This is the first time I've laughed about the Trump Whitehouse (now complete with Gorsuch Court) in many many months.
More, please.
More, please.
5
Why do "Dr. Strangelove", "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Seven Days in May" keep coming to mind?
17
I look forward to publication of the unauthorized post-presidency biography, tentatively titled "Putin's Poodle, A Brief White House Adventure". Release expected (or at least hoped for) in 2018.
9
i would bet that there are at least 10 books currently in progress, and probably the same number of movie scripts. I'd love to see Mel Brooks take on this. Sad that most of his working actor crew are no longer with us. Terri Garr as Ivanka--got be hillarious. Marty Feldman as Steve Bannon? and Blucher as Pense. carl Reiner is still with us , so Carl, you and Mel get this together--we need comedy like never before.
12
As reported in the WSJ 'Radical Transparency' will include Mueller getting the Trump crime family's tax returns relevant to Russia
Like Capone, Donald Sr and Jr might end up spending quite a lot of time in their rooms as a result of their money laundering with the Russians occurring prior to his election
PERFECT...
Like Capone, Donald Sr and Jr might end up spending quite a lot of time in their rooms as a result of their money laundering with the Russians occurring prior to his election
PERFECT...
18
Americans should be commended for their election of an extreme caricature of a president, one of the deeper probable causes being their addiction to show business. Plots, subplots, vivid characters, a ridiculous megabomb lost among daily bombshells ('breaking news": Another Trump Lie!), evil Russians popping up at every corner, friendly Wahabis, competing mad statesmen, ridiculous policies across the board, God-fearing Republican politicians out to harm as many people as possible, money-laundering on a grand scale, hare-brained ideologies, hysterical White House staff, unprecedented proliferation of lawyers, alt-news massaging the rural hordes... What could go wrong?
18
The relentless Republican march into darkness will render serious reading meaningless. Defund the public schools, shutter the public universities, require the good book be studied by all. Once literature and poetry are erased the people will regard human intelligence as insult. Robots will do the main labor.
The rest will do the jobs beneath the intelligence of the robots. Oh, and the bankers won't notice any difference.
The rest will do the jobs beneath the intelligence of the robots. Oh, and the bankers won't notice any difference.
8
What kind of bizarre world are we living in where Liberal Socialists are hysterical over an ostensibly Republican POTUS having a bro-mance with the Russian head of state?
2
It should terrify every American that only 3 rational Republican Senators stand between our cherished democracy and its destruction.
16
Women........what a unique idea for our country
4
Here's the story: this man is unqualified to hold this office. The end.
24
The novel has been written--by me, it was published this week on Amazon--"Deep Strike" about Russian hacking, rogue CIA agents and an American president...best Barry Lando
3
Trump Orange is the New Black. First a book, written as a prison memoir, then becomes a series on Netflix.
6
They can't follow the narrative arc because there isn't one. It's all impulse, all the time. Might be a great way to run a real estate business but for running a country it's an absolute disaster.
9
He's mentally ill......then just make a list................
Isn't truth stranger than fiction?
5
It's why I don't read fiction....Clancy and King could never make this stuff up, good as they are.
3
So should the Trump presidency-for-real be written as horror or satire?
Whatever the case, I hope it's short.
Whatever the case, I hope it's short.
6
Suggested title: There Will Be Tweets
6
The fact that this administration can be described as a soap opera or novel at all makes it clear that the whole thing is fiction, and fake. The fantasy aspects of it must be what Trump is referring to when he yells about fake news.
8
You know what's funny, everything that the Russians have done over the past few years, Bibi Netanyahu and his Israel-first cohorts in Washington have been doing it to us for years. No satire there. Just painful reality.
Imagine Detmer and Netanyahu conspiring with the US congress to defeat Obama during the last election, or to get the US to go to war with Iran over false pretences. Funny or die.
Imagine Detmer and Netanyahu conspiring with the US congress to defeat Obama during the last election, or to get the US to go to war with Iran over false pretences. Funny or die.
12
Tom Wolfe should step up to this.
7
There is only one story. Trump and his supporters relish causing chaos and causing heartship for his detractors.
8
Exactly. Trump appeals to nihilists because he is a shameless arsonist.
5
I say Manchurian Candidate 2--but without the brainwashing.
9
Not much brain to wash.
2
Where is Moose and Squirrel when you need them?
17
Rocky and Bullwinkle send their regards from Canada and advise you to check out its health care system.
7
Boris and Natasha ate them.
2
Here's a real life "fairy tale":
The wicked queen (the sitting president) stops at nothing to destroy Snow White (Barack Obama) out of pure jealousy and spite.
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?"
Answer: "although you are president, there was one "far more fair than thee" (Obama), which enrages the wicked queen.
Snow White escapes the Huntsman's knife (as does Obama the false wiretapping claims and character assassination intent of the wicked queen).
Snow White finds refuge in the forest with the animals (while Obama enjoys his retirement and his ever-growing love and respect from many Americans).
Herein is the moral, a universal truth:
The wicked queen's obsession to destroy Snow White (Obama) will ultimately be what destroys himself and his presidency. Goodness and mercy will always triumph over evil and jealousy.
The wicked queen (the sitting president) stops at nothing to destroy Snow White (Barack Obama) out of pure jealousy and spite.
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?"
Answer: "although you are president, there was one "far more fair than thee" (Obama), which enrages the wicked queen.
Snow White escapes the Huntsman's knife (as does Obama the false wiretapping claims and character assassination intent of the wicked queen).
Snow White finds refuge in the forest with the animals (while Obama enjoys his retirement and his ever-growing love and respect from many Americans).
Herein is the moral, a universal truth:
The wicked queen's obsession to destroy Snow White (Obama) will ultimately be what destroys himself and his presidency. Goodness and mercy will always triumph over evil and jealousy.
28
Nope..thinking the email said, "President Harris would like to meet with you".
5
The Russians did not hack our election, Americans elected a hack.
20
Calvin Trillin introduced the Harry Golden Rule suggesting that when commenting on present day America, it is impossible to invent something so bizarre that it has not come to pass before your fiction hits the presses.
Harry Golden was waxing fantastical when he suggested the first Jewish candidate for President would be Episcopal. Barry threw down the next day.
Harry Golden was waxing fantastical when he suggested the first Jewish candidate for President would be Episcopal. Barry threw down the next day.
4
And the " secret" meeting with Putin. What's a little meeting between the heads of two families??? MOB Families.
18
It must be difficult to keep up with writing a book about the Trump regime. The characters keep doing bizarre things that must be recorded (e.g., Don Jr.'s meeting), and the number of characters grows by the day (e.g., the 8th person in that meeting who did $1.4B in oligarch money laundering). The "plot lines" are a twisted mass that resists organization into a coherent tale.
5
I don't think the problem is that America has become a " dark corporatized place" as one commenter has said. I think the people who continue to support the president no matter what do so because he is just like them. There are about 60 million people in this country who find the administration's policies and actions marvelous. The president's position of power empowers them in ways that are truly frightening.
24
You've got a psychopath in the executive office. There is no mystery as to what will happen. People are going to suffer. Psychopaths enjoy the suffering of others. Specifically how people will suffer is harder to forecast, but there will be suffering. The whole idea of caring and human rights will be ridiculed, because, well, that's fun for some folks - the folks who have a choice.
17
Fiction began around the cookfire with grandma telling stories to kids that reflected reality: a spoonful of fiction helped the reality go down. Others did this as well, that's how we got the bible and all sorts of myths and epics.
The good kind of fiction uses metaphor and narrative, the bad kind of fiction uses lies and mendacity. Was grandma weaving lies into a large mendacious cloth? No, and neither were the folks who shared stories about a talking snake, a bad apple and very large watercraft skippered by a zoologist.
Today we suffer from a moral malaise. Instead of trying to understand reality with good fiction, we confound reality with bad fiction: individual metaphors have become lies and longer narratives have become mendacity.
Truth is in the eye of the beholder in our postmodern era, and what was initially accepted as an individual person's truth now has company, and we accept an individual person's lie. We're entering a new era where fact and fiction are equal, as are objective and subjective reality. We no longer just explain reality with metaphor and narrative, we create it with lies and mendacity.
We've been turning the ecology (objective reality) into the economy (subjective reality) for so long now we conflate the two. We think we're creating more reality everyday as we work to build our world, but in fact, we're just creating more fiction, and the sad thing about it is that we don't know it's the bad kind of fiction. The story will not end well.
The good kind of fiction uses metaphor and narrative, the bad kind of fiction uses lies and mendacity. Was grandma weaving lies into a large mendacious cloth? No, and neither were the folks who shared stories about a talking snake, a bad apple and very large watercraft skippered by a zoologist.
Today we suffer from a moral malaise. Instead of trying to understand reality with good fiction, we confound reality with bad fiction: individual metaphors have become lies and longer narratives have become mendacity.
Truth is in the eye of the beholder in our postmodern era, and what was initially accepted as an individual person's truth now has company, and we accept an individual person's lie. We're entering a new era where fact and fiction are equal, as are objective and subjective reality. We no longer just explain reality with metaphor and narrative, we create it with lies and mendacity.
We've been turning the ecology (objective reality) into the economy (subjective reality) for so long now we conflate the two. We think we're creating more reality everyday as we work to build our world, but in fact, we're just creating more fiction, and the sad thing about it is that we don't know it's the bad kind of fiction. The story will not end well.
8
"President Sanders wants to meet with you."
If only...
If only...
24
The first major work written about Trump should be a retelling of Goethe's "Faust" -- since our soulless president, if he had a soul, would deal it to the devil for 7 figures.
12
And now, we're living in an Allen Drury novel?
Haven't we suffered enough?
Haven't we suffered enough?
4
trump is stuck on the absolute first problem he needs to fix. That he did not get the popular vote. So. Let's see. I know. Voter fraud. (Probably as an off-thought from the Russian hack.) There must have been massive voter fraud for me to have not gotten the popular vote. So I will initiate a Voter Fraud Commission. No. Too harsh. A Make Elections Great Again. Naah. Done that logo. Quick. Get me a speechwriter. Election Integrity Commission. Now that has, whatchamacallit? Gravitas. Yeah. That's what I have. Gravitas. (And he will find those missing millions of votes. Promise. Soonly.) Jenny speaks
11
i wish he was in his gravitas
2
I think you gotta tell this one like a Terrence Malick film. The real protagonist is a still unknown modern Freud/Jung in the process of developing the next great theory that will forever shape human psychology. Individual and collective identities. Virtues and neuroses. Progress and regress. The Trump narrative is best treated as nothing more than a reflective foil in the background, a thread of ignorance woven amongst every true protagonists' tale of transcendence.
4
No, I do wish it though. It will, in reality, more likely be just be another hack novel a la Divinci Code and most everyone will think it is wonderfully deep... Sigh.
1
Loved the happily-ever-after end.
We all should learn from the thesis of this article, and not limit our theories about Trump's missteps (and worse) to the mundane speculations of the past. Even now we are being timid and banal when imagining the recent DJT Jr meeting. Why assume that any information was exchanged in the meeting? How mundane. Better to assume that the meeting was near the start of a negotiation, followed by proofs of sincerity, samples and teasers, with both the quid and the quo delivered in pieces over months and maybe years into the future.
Then look at the nature and the timing of how the emails were released, the actions taken by the campaign at the RNC and since, and watch the financial accounts, both now and into the future. Old business partners are now linked to the Russian hacking and still we don't demand the tax returns.
This article talks about how the extraordinary reality of Trump's actions surpassing the imagination of the public. That should be a call to action to think much more creatively.
Then look at the nature and the timing of how the emails were released, the actions taken by the campaign at the RNC and since, and watch the financial accounts, both now and into the future. Old business partners are now linked to the Russian hacking and still we don't demand the tax returns.
This article talks about how the extraordinary reality of Trump's actions surpassing the imagination of the public. That should be a call to action to think much more creatively.
5
I thought Bush 43 was the biggest joke, but Trump has trumped him. I cannot wait for Perlstein to write the history.
7
Bush gave us reason to laugh. Like "putting food on your family." I have a really hard time laughing with this man in the Oval Office.
Guaranteed Trump had no clue who Jerry Moran was until yesterday.
3
If nothing else, this administration has turned me into a new kind of reader: one who will digest, end to end, the Times special section on the Constitution. Riveted, by the ideas expressed within the document, and by the knowledge that was required to establish those heights. Shamed, by the arrogance and cupidity that allowed its writers to consign an entire race to slavery. It is its own novel, and with luck we have not seen the final chapter yet.
5
The unbelievable thing is not that Trump is unfit, unqualified, incompetent and unwilling to perform the duties of the presidency, or that he and his family are criminals, most Americans realized those things before the election. It is that the GOP continues to prop him up.
41
We have the popular musical Hamilton.
We have it's popular satire Spamilton.
Now we need someone to write the musical Scamilton, with singing Donald and Vladimir.
We have it's popular satire Spamilton.
Now we need someone to write the musical Scamilton, with singing Donald and Vladimir.
9
History would be best served if t tales were simply recounted and published in Ripley's Believe It or Not or under Mad Magazine's heading "What, Me Worry?"
Try imagining this plot has been on a back burner since the 1980s, and then you might understand how much simmering has gone into its secret saucery.
Espionage, money laundering, human trafficking, prostitution, gambling, arms dalinge; is there a vice this artifice is not built upon?
Espionage, money laundering, human trafficking, prostitution, gambling, arms dalinge; is there a vice this artifice is not built upon?
8
I really hope that Thomas Mallon will take a stab at this.
1
Implausible because much of what the media publishes is not true, as Comey has revealed as an illustration in point, as the fiasco surrounding CNN's fired personnel reveal, as well as a CNN producer on video, and a recent NYT retraction.
1
You can make a movie from a book. But you can not make a book from a joke.
3
Waiting for the script by Sorkin and Maddow.
1
The sad problem that the NYT has with Mr. Trump ... is that they do not have the guts to deal with the obvious. Their avoidance of what we all know is a great disservice which helps harm all of America. And keeps the discussion on daily articles they pump out that are clueless ... on purpose.
Namely ... that Mr. Trump has a severe case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. All his daily throwing dirt in the air is his desperate, desperate plea to "look at me ... love me". From ... yeah ... the President of the Untied States. We only have the English word, pathetic ... but it is soooo inadequate.
Mr. Trump's actions cannot be seriously viewed in the context they are currently being written about. He has no policy. He doesn't care about you. He doesn't care about me. He cares only about himself.
He has a serious, psychological disorder, that is basically incurable. Why can't the NYT just state that? Answer: no guts.
Namely ... that Mr. Trump has a severe case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. All his daily throwing dirt in the air is his desperate, desperate plea to "look at me ... love me". From ... yeah ... the President of the Untied States. We only have the English word, pathetic ... but it is soooo inadequate.
Mr. Trump's actions cannot be seriously viewed in the context they are currently being written about. He has no policy. He doesn't care about you. He doesn't care about me. He cares only about himself.
He has a serious, psychological disorder, that is basically incurable. Why can't the NYT just state that? Answer: no guts.
14
Although I agree with your armchair psychoanalysis of the nut job in the White House, Roger, I strongly disagree with your contention that the NYT hasn't called it like it is. Virtually every op ed page columnist who's written about him has indeed proclaimed Trump a psychologically damaged human being. Just read anything over the past few months by Maureen Dowdy or Frank Bruni or Gail Collins or David Brooks and you'll quickly see what I mean.
5
Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Yes! I have submitted this same dead obvious opinion to these very pages for many months now. Stop taking him seriously as there is nothing serious to take.
THERE IS NO PLAN nor can there ever be.
The man in utterly incapable of seeing past himself.
Where is the medical community? Where is a media willing to go further than snark? Where are our elected office holders of all and any stripe?
The emperor has no clothes, no clue and no qualms. Enough.
THERE IS NO PLAN nor can there ever be.
The man in utterly incapable of seeing past himself.
Where is the medical community? Where is a media willing to go further than snark? Where are our elected office holders of all and any stripe?
The emperor has no clothes, no clue and no qualms. Enough.
2
An inexhaustible number of adjectives better than "implausible." Starting with: fake, fraudulent (like Trump University?), bogus, mean, cruel, fake, incompetent, loud, dangerous, preening, strutting, foolish, damaging. This word game has no end.
25
Oops! I said "fake" twice. He's earned the second mention.
2
Don't miss the entire series of Trump best-sellers; buy the entire fraudulent collection now before it's too late:
The Art of the Big Lie
The Art of Spite
The Art of Snake Oil Salesmanship
The Art of the Con
The Art of Consumer Fraud
The Art of Cognitive Dissonance
The Art of Incompetence
The Art of Megalomania
The Art of Fleecing The Public
The Art of Amorality and Immorality
The Art of Fake Leadership
The Art of Knowing Nothing
How To Win Cash and Defraud People
The Art of Being Born Rich
The Presidential Destructive Arts
The Art of Intellectual, Moral and Economic Bankruptcy
A Heart Of Hay And A Mind Of Mush: The Official Authorized Donald Trump Biography
The Art of the Big Lie
The Art of Spite
The Art of Snake Oil Salesmanship
The Art of the Con
The Art of Consumer Fraud
The Art of Cognitive Dissonance
The Art of Incompetence
The Art of Megalomania
The Art of Fleecing The Public
The Art of Amorality and Immorality
The Art of Fake Leadership
The Art of Knowing Nothing
How To Win Cash and Defraud People
The Art of Being Born Rich
The Presidential Destructive Arts
The Art of Intellectual, Moral and Economic Bankruptcy
A Heart Of Hay And A Mind Of Mush: The Official Authorized Donald Trump Biography
110
Socrates, you just filled the single shelf of the Trump Presidential Library. All volumes available in the grift shop!
9
Confederacy of Dunces
28
Today sub-plots emerge as
Charles Krauthammer blasts
Republicans (on Fox News!)
for the "historic" and "epic fail"
of "Obamacare" (otherwise known
as health insurance). Trump is blamed
for "no presidential leadership".
Our President has a "secret"
meeting with Putin, expresses
anger that it is revealed. What
world does he live in?
Are the piranhas loose in the
D.C. swamp? Will the Republicans
eat their own? What will the
tweets reveal? Keep the pencils
sharpened....
Charles Krauthammer blasts
Republicans (on Fox News!)
for the "historic" and "epic fail"
of "Obamacare" (otherwise known
as health insurance). Trump is blamed
for "no presidential leadership".
Our President has a "secret"
meeting with Putin, expresses
anger that it is revealed. What
world does he live in?
Are the piranhas loose in the
D.C. swamp? Will the Republicans
eat their own? What will the
tweets reveal? Keep the pencils
sharpened....
20
The problem monetizing this White House farce for the screen is that the reality begs credulity. It is far more absurd, bizarre and unbelievable than any fictional rendering would dare go. Late night hosts and Saturday Night writers are confounded by the sheer volume of it. They fear overloading and desensitizing their viewers.
What might work, I think, is a weekly sit-com depicting a dysfunctional White House family with a narcissistic, unintentionally funny, pathetic (but unsympathetic) aging patriarch. The requisite sexual tension would come from a much younger, long-suffering model-like wife who agrees to keep up the pretence of a happy marriage as long as he agrees to keep his distance from her in private and she's free to spend his ill-gotten gains on anything she wants.
Maybe that weekly half-hour with a funny, fictional First Family would help take the sting out of the real, far more disturbing tragedy playing itself out in the real White House.
What might work, I think, is a weekly sit-com depicting a dysfunctional White House family with a narcissistic, unintentionally funny, pathetic (but unsympathetic) aging patriarch. The requisite sexual tension would come from a much younger, long-suffering model-like wife who agrees to keep up the pretence of a happy marriage as long as he agrees to keep his distance from her in private and she's free to spend his ill-gotten gains on anything she wants.
Maybe that weekly half-hour with a funny, fictional First Family would help take the sting out of the real, far more disturbing tragedy playing itself out in the real White House.
15
Right! Kind of like Spin City, but with national politics. What actors would play which parts, though, and would they do it willingly?
You can't stick a square peg into a round hole without first knocking off the rough edges.
2
You can borrow my chain saw
We are learning that Trump Tower was (is?) the ideal place for Russians to do some major money-laundering, and that Trump has been keeping some pretty appalling truths from the people he is sworn to represent. Since Trump is a Gemini, we can assume his evil twin has taken over and anything good about the man is long gone due to greed. This story cannot have a good ending for the Trump family.
2
A Confederacy of Dunces comes to mind. If there ever was one, this is it.
And all of the signals have been there all along. It is just that most of the media and the citizens did not think this Administration would come to pass.
Alas, most were wrong.
We had better be careful and do our homework now, before the 2018 election.
So long as the same Senators and Congress remain, this story will never be over.
And all of the signals have been there all along. It is just that most of the media and the citizens did not think this Administration would come to pass.
Alas, most were wrong.
We had better be careful and do our homework now, before the 2018 election.
So long as the same Senators and Congress remain, this story will never be over.
6
In another column by Badger and Quealer in these pages, the authors argue that Trump uses the rhetorical device of "Essentialism".
Trump "names" people, such as "Lyin' Ted Cruz". To me, this is a page out of the mafia playbook, being akin to Michael "The Nose" Mancuso.
There's another mob aspect to Trump: the idea of "protection". He threatens Germany and France and the rest of NATO that if they don't pay up they lose Trump's "protection". He even does a little mob Kabuki when he has a very public "secret" meeting with Putin at the G20.
Trump Lawyer Kasowitz makes sure the world sees him threatening someone in a series of "released" e-mails - "I know where you live>"
So yesterday - when Trump threatened 30 million people with loss of health care - he's saying, in his own mind, pay up - pay the protection.
Trump "names" people, such as "Lyin' Ted Cruz". To me, this is a page out of the mafia playbook, being akin to Michael "The Nose" Mancuso.
There's another mob aspect to Trump: the idea of "protection". He threatens Germany and France and the rest of NATO that if they don't pay up they lose Trump's "protection". He even does a little mob Kabuki when he has a very public "secret" meeting with Putin at the G20.
Trump Lawyer Kasowitz makes sure the world sees him threatening someone in a series of "released" e-mails - "I know where you live>"
So yesterday - when Trump threatened 30 million people with loss of health care - he's saying, in his own mind, pay up - pay the protection.
5
I've entertained this perspective of the Trump executive office:
These folks are more bubble-bound than would seem reasonably possible for any Presidential administration. 0 experience in politics, virtually 0 awareness of what the "other side" (not Fox or Brietbart) is saying. Not the slightest ability or desire to understand political and philosophical frameworks.
No idea or appreciation for conflicting interests, nor appreciation for the world of international subterfuge and espionage or the complexities of the politics of sovereign nations. No historical perspective nor any interest or care of the subject of which Washington measures itself.
The entire Trump White House is filled with rubes and capitalist radicals whose limited life experiences and education, and their lack of knowledge of current events or precepts of Civics or Civilization, creates the impression and fact of absolute loss or lack of control.
Bribes and threats everywhere as the base currency for how these ignoramuses think. It is as repulsive as it is dangerous. The Health Care issue has shown a remarkable lack of humanness, as has the willingness to want to partner with the Russian Crime Regime.
Flabbergasting. Every little moment of this.
These folks are more bubble-bound than would seem reasonably possible for any Presidential administration. 0 experience in politics, virtually 0 awareness of what the "other side" (not Fox or Brietbart) is saying. Not the slightest ability or desire to understand political and philosophical frameworks.
No idea or appreciation for conflicting interests, nor appreciation for the world of international subterfuge and espionage or the complexities of the politics of sovereign nations. No historical perspective nor any interest or care of the subject of which Washington measures itself.
The entire Trump White House is filled with rubes and capitalist radicals whose limited life experiences and education, and their lack of knowledge of current events or precepts of Civics or Civilization, creates the impression and fact of absolute loss or lack of control.
Bribes and threats everywhere as the base currency for how these ignoramuses think. It is as repulsive as it is dangerous. The Health Care issue has shown a remarkable lack of humanness, as has the willingness to want to partner with the Russian Crime Regime.
Flabbergasting. Every little moment of this.
15
Back during Watergate the great Art Buchwald lamented "If I wrote this stuff nobody would believe it."
24
Not even a glass of great wine or whiskey in the story.
Trump is as dry as toast personally.
I would love to get him wasted and then hand him his phone to Tweet away! Now that would be a great ending to his book!
Trump is as dry as toast personally.
I would love to get him wasted and then hand him his phone to Tweet away! Now that would be a great ending to his book!
8
Will there be any books in the Trump Presidential Library?
23
Of course not, he hates books. There will be tweets.
6
None for adults.
2
"Truth is stranger than fiction"
I'm not sure that even Mark Twain saw this coming...
(because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't)
I'm not sure that even Mark Twain saw this coming...
(because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't)
7
Need Paul Conrad, Master Cartoonist. Picture of Baby with Trump logo diapers smashing WH toy to shreds crawling away past wasteland of beaten toys (Obamacare in tatters).
5
Without sex? :)
4
Hopefully the ending will come in November 2020 when the new President starts his acceptance speech: "At long last, our national nightmare is over."
22
One thing is painfully clear, and we are all witnesses: Trump either has no capacity to grow into the job of president, or outrightly refuses to adapt. In the six months since he took office, Trump has shown no change in demeanor, temperament or behavior. His incessant tweeting continues unabated. He seems to transform into Mr. Hyde once alone in a room with just his Twitter account. His insistence on blaming former President Obama for all is a mainstay in his repertoire. His heavy-handed over-the-top description of anything and everything is embedded in his DNA. Everything is “great” or “tremendous” or “fantastic” and everything is “going to be” that way, even though none of it is at present. He’ll say things are “very, very, very…” whatever. He exaggerates for effect. Like a circus barker. He can’t help himself, it is terminally-embedded neurosis. This is transparent for all to see and sadly, the only thing transparent about him.
Trump continues to believe that what worked for him in business will work in Washington. Or perhaps, and this is most likely the case, perhaps this is the only tool in his tool chest. An example is his desperate lunches trying to hammer out the un-hammerable. This style might have worked for Trump International, but no one comes to a settlement over lunch in Washington. He is, sad to say, entirely ill-equipped and unqualified to be president. Which, ironically, is what President Obama said prior to the election.
Trump continues to believe that what worked for him in business will work in Washington. Or perhaps, and this is most likely the case, perhaps this is the only tool in his tool chest. An example is his desperate lunches trying to hammer out the un-hammerable. This style might have worked for Trump International, but no one comes to a settlement over lunch in Washington. He is, sad to say, entirely ill-equipped and unqualified to be president. Which, ironically, is what President Obama said prior to the election.
21
Hillary said it, too.
4
This saga is straight from the pens and imaginations of Harvey Kurtzman, William Gaines and their "usual gang of idiots" during the early'60's heyday of MAD! magazine. Come to think of it, after reading the most recent editions of this learned publication, they're now plagiarizing themselves on that very topic.
37
Now that you mention it, a number of the main characters look like they could have been drawn by Don Martin...
Especially the Trumpster himself. How would you caricature a caricature?
Like many a good novel written by many a good author, we don't need an ending, a conclusion. This administration, this president, is fodder for intrigue or mystery, satire or parody, science fiction or fantasy, or the genres which gave us Steven King and Cormac McCarthy.
This story unfolding, life imitating surreal art, is ready for the taking. One thing we do know - or rather hope for - is that this country of ours with all its flaws has a way of attaining justice. I am already confident of how things will end for Trump, badly. So let's have a good read soon where we think we already know the "and we all (finally) lived happily ever after."
This story unfolding, life imitating surreal art, is ready for the taking. One thing we do know - or rather hope for - is that this country of ours with all its flaws has a way of attaining justice. I am already confident of how things will end for Trump, badly. So let's have a good read soon where we think we already know the "and we all (finally) lived happily ever after."
3
The German Philosopher Walter Benjamin once published a paper titled "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechcsnical Reproduction." Benjamin argued that in the laborious process of creating a work of art something of artist's soul was transmitted into the work. Thus when looking at a work of art the viewer gets the sense that something is gazing back. He called it aura. This aura he argued was wholly absent from things like photographs, which threatened true art with the overpowering, but souless, allure of verisimilitude.
We now live in an age where machines have been refined to the point of now being able to mechanically reproduce so much of the intellectual work product of our minds. As such, one wonders if our lazy minds are beginning to suffer an atrophy of imagination thereby precluding us from producing work product with intellectual aura. After all, the trump phenomenon was clearly foreseen by the Founders of the Republic, way back in the day. If it's catching our current wordsmiths up short all they need do is to request Mr. Google to fetch the musty Federalist Papers (especially Federalist 68) from their current repository in THE CLOUD.
There, for all to see, is the fact that in the dark days of candle light, outhouses, wooden teeth and writing quills, the likely manifestations of a radical demagogue becoming The President of the United States was clearly within the imaginative scope of Hamilton and his crew.
We now live in an age where machines have been refined to the point of now being able to mechanically reproduce so much of the intellectual work product of our minds. As such, one wonders if our lazy minds are beginning to suffer an atrophy of imagination thereby precluding us from producing work product with intellectual aura. After all, the trump phenomenon was clearly foreseen by the Founders of the Republic, way back in the day. If it's catching our current wordsmiths up short all they need do is to request Mr. Google to fetch the musty Federalist Papers (especially Federalist 68) from their current repository in THE CLOUD.
There, for all to see, is the fact that in the dark days of candle light, outhouses, wooden teeth and writing quills, the likely manifestations of a radical demagogue becoming The President of the United States was clearly within the imaginative scope of Hamilton and his crew.
3
"For evil to triumph, good men must do nothing" or some form of that quote.
We have to monitor this narcissism. Since Trump can't control himself, we must be vigilant.
If we aren't, it will end poorly for all of us and he won't have a clue as to his hypocrisy.
We have to monitor this narcissism. Since Trump can't control himself, we must be vigilant.
If we aren't, it will end poorly for all of us and he won't have a clue as to his hypocrisy.
7
Hi Jeanne. Great post, on the money. Just did a review of the 1941 movie gem, Citizen Kane. It's a direct parallel; all about Nacissistic Personality Disorder. Hitler was similar - it's an old story. Always ends in disaster. You nailed it.
3
The most apt story that comes to mind is Rumpelstiltskin, wherein the American people are represented by the miller's daughter, who is forced to produce wealth for the greedy king (our plutocracy), and who believe in a "savior" (Trump) who in the end demands everything from them.
As Trump shouts "Let Obamacare Die!", I picture a shrunken little ogre, red of face, and eyes shut tight, stomping his boots demanding to get his way.
As Trump shouts "Let Obamacare Die!", I picture a shrunken little ogre, red of face, and eyes shut tight, stomping his boots demanding to get his way.
23
Orange of face.
"Government of spite, by spite, for spite"
Trump and the Grand Old Preschoolers Making America Hate Again.
Nice people.
Trump and the Grand Old Preschoolers Making America Hate Again.
Nice people.
59
This is not a reality show its real. This is one of the ways the man was elected people blur entertainment and the news.
5
Trump as a novel = Beat to a Pulp Fiction.
8
@Sarah
*handing over the '' Punster Extraordinaire '' award.
*handing over the '' Punster Extraordinaire '' award.
3
Sarah, that's great! I have to try my hand at this, too.
The November of Our Discontent. For Whom the Tweet Tolls. War and Pence.
The Merchant of Vengeance.
I could probably keep going, it is entertaining, until I remember the why of it.
The November of Our Discontent. For Whom the Tweet Tolls. War and Pence.
The Merchant of Vengeance.
I could probably keep going, it is entertaining, until I remember the why of it.
1
I suppose Trump could easily be the main figure in a novel, soap opera, cartoon, or ink blot series. Whichever, I'd like to read two words coming soon: The End.
10
Like Neo in the Matrix, I can't tell whats real anymore. The lies and deceitfulness of this administration continually blur the lines between reality and fiction. This hyperreality is our new world. You can't write a book about it, no one would believe you.
5
We can't even watch House of Cards because it hits so BELOW THE MARK of Trump reality.... what have we come to?
4
A "narrative arc"? That's a rather generous description of Trump's actions. The less charitable might describe it as a type of Brownian Motion - the erratic, random ejaculation of thoughts as a result of continuous bombardment by those with competing agendas in the medium (and media) surrounding him.
1
a black comedy about a stupid narcissist trying to get as much publicity for his golf courses and picture time with world leader all the while pretending his is a maverick and dangerously different! At the same time. Washington think tanks, and billionaire insiders are laying out paths to turn this white house into a bull in china shop to destroy as much of the Washington system as possible with no regards for the American people who will suffer as long as the 1% gets a big tax cut!
11
This is the end, beautiful friend
This is the end, my only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
---- that's the story
This is the end, my only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
---- that's the story
8
A soap opera on " The Christian Broadcasting Channel". Absolutely NO Sex or salacious material. But plenty of money, wheeling and dealing, schemes and scams. Wholesome, Family entertainment, for the Trump fans. Sad.
9
Inauguration Day 2021!! Nooooo! Waiting that long. Lordy help us.
3
To think the course of history and the fate of the world might have been changed if some network executive enticed Trump with a new, meaty "reality" series or perhaps a talk show. Is it too late?
4
Perfect - then pull a bait and switch. Too bad - gotcha.
I'm waiting for the movie, except that it will have to be an HBO or Showtime series that will Seem Endless and rival the likes of Game of Thrones and the Sopranos.
2
I've always thought of Trump as a creation straight out of the speculative sci-fi writer Philip K. DIck's works. Dick's entire output concentrated on the inability of people to separate fictions from (often serpentine constructed) realities. Here we have the first President constructed from 100% fantasy. And if it were a DIck novel, the focus would be on how others behind the scene's were plotting against the population while the Presidential excesses distract everyone. In a Dick novel, perhaps Trump is an android sent from future humanity to destroy the planet via global warming before it is taken over by aliens and enslaved. In any event, this whole scenario belongs in sci-fi by now.
3
My husband is a literary agent for television and film writers. He says the industry as a whole was caught flatfooted by Trump's audacity. No one could have written the story of, "Trump's Adventures with Governance." The inside scoop is that many of the mainline Trumpists are getting book deals . . . ICM, CAA and Trump's agency, "WME," are actively trolling for tell alls . . .
3
This administration has passed being surrealistic and will soon qualify for an Outer Limits movie. Before Trump it would have been hard to imagine a US President and cabinet to be this incompetent and still be in power. This Congress needs to get over the shock of Donald Trump actually being President and find a way to get rid of him. He is a clear and present danger to our Constitution and well being of all US citizens.
10
Implausible? Really!? His entire career was built on being a carnival barker who couldn’t be trusted. Multiple bankruptcies, lawsuits, Obama wasn’t born in the US, bragging about groping women, telling Russians to hack Hillary’s emails, and this was before he was elected President.
I wish I could understand why so many thought once he got into office he would somehow become a “President as usual.” If anything I expected, and we got, the chaos President. Full of nauseating twists and turns, lies upon lies, going against liberal ideas just because they’re liberal ideas even if it meant hurting Americans.
You can fool some of the people some of the time, and it looks like it worked. Certainly for Trump supporters and the writers mentioned in this article.
I wish I could understand why so many thought once he got into office he would somehow become a “President as usual.” If anything I expected, and we got, the chaos President. Full of nauseating twists and turns, lies upon lies, going against liberal ideas just because they’re liberal ideas even if it meant hurting Americans.
You can fool some of the people some of the time, and it looks like it worked. Certainly for Trump supporters and the writers mentioned in this article.
7
How can there be a narrative with Trump's all consuming narcissism? He is the only story he's interested in. The quicker we fully understand this, the less we keep trying to understand, the more we RESIST.
5
Not only is he implausible he's boring. Nothing new really happens it's all just warmed over from yesterday. When you've heard one lie you've heard them all and they could all have been said by a four year old. There's nothing creative about his insults. If you want lively insults try Winston Churchill.
Unrelieved stupidity and laziness abound.
Unrelieved stupidity and laziness abound.
48
H.L. Mencken writ yuge. SAD!
5
The literary connection that fits with me is Kurt Vonnegut. Some kind of pan-galactic tomfoolery and disintegration of society.
4
Franz Kafka Meets The Simpsons.
6
Imagine it to be a beautiful day and you are out for a stroll. You have coffee in hand and come across a used bookstore.
You think to yourself that you might pick up the latest romance novel or thriller by a leading author. You peruse and make your way down the aisles. Something is pulling you along, but you are not sure why or necessarily where you are going.
You forego your original plan as you come across a big barrel of discount paperbacks. Your hand reaches out and pushes away some dirty and dusty well leafed through books. Finally you come across an odd looking cover of a man that is in the process of screaming. The title of the book is called: '' Fake Takeover '' .
You flip through some of the pages and it piques your interest. You find yourself at the counter paying for it, and then putting the little book into your bag. You go home and upon entering, drop everything except for that book.
You start to read and get lost within its pages. The story on its face is compelling. It draws you in , and you start reading faster and faster. The story line is good and getting better. Then suddenly you come to a section that is missing several pages.
This is the story of this Presidency.
You think to yourself that you might pick up the latest romance novel or thriller by a leading author. You peruse and make your way down the aisles. Something is pulling you along, but you are not sure why or necessarily where you are going.
You forego your original plan as you come across a big barrel of discount paperbacks. Your hand reaches out and pushes away some dirty and dusty well leafed through books. Finally you come across an odd looking cover of a man that is in the process of screaming. The title of the book is called: '' Fake Takeover '' .
You flip through some of the pages and it piques your interest. You find yourself at the counter paying for it, and then putting the little book into your bag. You go home and upon entering, drop everything except for that book.
You start to read and get lost within its pages. The story on its face is compelling. It draws you in , and you start reading faster and faster. The story line is good and getting better. Then suddenly you come to a section that is missing several pages.
This is the story of this Presidency.
5
To echo someone else's comment, all this attention for the Washington scene is well and good, but is the NYT aware and does it care that behind the mesmerizing glare of the Trumpian burlesque there actual people taking actual decisions? That somewhere in a well appointed lair Steve Bannon lurks and plots the deconstruction of the "deep state"? That VP Mike Pence is undoubtedly conniving with his soul-brethren at State-level to dismantle as much as possible of what was so arduously achieved in terms of equality-enhancing legislation and practices? Even when you fume and rant and point out all that is truly wrong about Trump, you are playing HIS game.
To go slightly off topic, while you're at it, don't also fall into the trap of believing these polls that "prove" that Trump's support is ebbing away. Not only are some of those who agree with him and his objectives surely reluctant to own up to that (it would go too far, I hope, to surmise that some are intentionally misrepresenting their views to boomerang back at you in 2018). Many of Trump's supporters are not captured by traditional polling methods. But fear not, they WILL show up to vote.
You're not doing anyone a service by letting Hollywood loose on this. This is way more serious than you acknowledge!
To go slightly off topic, while you're at it, don't also fall into the trap of believing these polls that "prove" that Trump's support is ebbing away. Not only are some of those who agree with him and his objectives surely reluctant to own up to that (it would go too far, I hope, to surmise that some are intentionally misrepresenting their views to boomerang back at you in 2018). Many of Trump's supporters are not captured by traditional polling methods. But fear not, they WILL show up to vote.
You're not doing anyone a service by letting Hollywood loose on this. This is way more serious than you acknowledge!
3
Skip the novel and go straight to television for the benefit of trump followers and others who don't read.
7
That principle I always provided my literature students seems worth repeating here: "Fiction must be probable; reality must only be possible."
71
What immediately pops up is the red-haired stepchild of the novels "Being There" and the "Manchurian Candidate." You choose which parent is the progenitor.
There are short stories contained right in your essay:
"Russia - Clinton- private and confidential." Five words.
"The Russians have come to visit us." Seven words.
For American writers who seek to concentrate on their work, it is just another distraction, not an inspiration. Well maybe an inspiration to do our writing offshore in some tiny Portuguese fishing village without any internet...
There are short stories contained right in your essay:
"Russia - Clinton- private and confidential." Five words.
"The Russians have come to visit us." Seven words.
For American writers who seek to concentrate on their work, it is just another distraction, not an inspiration. Well maybe an inspiration to do our writing offshore in some tiny Portuguese fishing village without any internet...
4
I do think that the Trump presidency is a blessing to America. If Clinton was elected, we will see the same gridlock and nothing will change. With the Trump presidency and the total Republican controlled congress, the Republican party is completely exposed. Even their supporters see how mean spirited they are. After all the brain wash by their media, they can see Obama Care is a good thing. Let the extreme Republican Party explode and collapse. Democrats will take control in 2018!
8
All of Trump's implausible ideas are playing out as they should as failures. His soap opera life with the multiple marriages, bankruptcies, lawsuits, feuds, scandals and lies is testament to a flawed personality and character. The voters who did not vote for Trump should file a class action suit against the Republican Party for breach of their Contract with America, and for a myriad of other crimes that Party has perpetrated against innocent citizens which James Comey will provide in his book.
5
I have always believed that if you really want to know what's presently going on among the power brokers you need to use imagination, you need to wonder. Research is good to figure out what already happened, however creative fiction is needed to guess what is happening now and in the future.
If you can think of an idea, chances are it's been written about and you can find it in the library -- original thoughts are rare. Also, market researchers will tell you that if one person sent in a complaint letter, there's a thousand more malcontents without a postage stamp. Imagination and wondering about what's going on -- using creative fiction to plumb the depths of reality -- is the most accurate way we can stay ahead of what's happening to us.
The bosses in control of the political economy (pretty much everything) are creating reality 24/7 deciding to do this or that: hmmm how about an interest rate increase, a new bill, an executive order, a leveraged buyout, a special ops mission, a legal or judicial opinion, perhaps even a war. For us to know what's happening requires us to do the same thing: imagine, create, wonder, then we can at least see it coming.
My goats are only good at doing research, they're constantly figuring out what already happened. For me, it's a good thing, though, is that they have no creative sense and can never figure out what I'm doing in the moment or what I'm thinking of doing next...am I coming to feed you, milk you or slaughter your sons...
If you can think of an idea, chances are it's been written about and you can find it in the library -- original thoughts are rare. Also, market researchers will tell you that if one person sent in a complaint letter, there's a thousand more malcontents without a postage stamp. Imagination and wondering about what's going on -- using creative fiction to plumb the depths of reality -- is the most accurate way we can stay ahead of what's happening to us.
The bosses in control of the political economy (pretty much everything) are creating reality 24/7 deciding to do this or that: hmmm how about an interest rate increase, a new bill, an executive order, a leveraged buyout, a special ops mission, a legal or judicial opinion, perhaps even a war. For us to know what's happening requires us to do the same thing: imagine, create, wonder, then we can at least see it coming.
My goats are only good at doing research, they're constantly figuring out what already happened. For me, it's a good thing, though, is that they have no creative sense and can never figure out what I'm doing in the moment or what I'm thinking of doing next...am I coming to feed you, milk you or slaughter your sons...
2
Excellent piece!
I've thought all along, that this whole saga could put Shakespeare to shame.
The cast of characters:
Trumpio, the boorish, illegitimate king
Putinius, rival of Trumpio
Donnicus, son of Trumpio
Pencius Pilate, assistant to Trumpio (and future betrayer of the king)
Kushio, the mute
Banno, the intriguant; advisor to Trumpio
Flynnocchio, former general turned merchant
Comio, a count, and whistleblower
They could each have earned Drama Desk awards (okay, well, maybe not Pencius). And let's not forget the supporting roles played by the squires: Paulus, Mitchio, Christus Christus, Cruzifixus and of course, the damsel in distress, Melancholia and her young son, Barronicus. The only problem is- this play should have ended a long time ago. Better yet, it should never have been written in the first place.
I've thought all along, that this whole saga could put Shakespeare to shame.
The cast of characters:
Trumpio, the boorish, illegitimate king
Putinius, rival of Trumpio
Donnicus, son of Trumpio
Pencius Pilate, assistant to Trumpio (and future betrayer of the king)
Kushio, the mute
Banno, the intriguant; advisor to Trumpio
Flynnocchio, former general turned merchant
Comio, a count, and whistleblower
They could each have earned Drama Desk awards (okay, well, maybe not Pencius). And let's not forget the supporting roles played by the squires: Paulus, Mitchio, Christus Christus, Cruzifixus and of course, the damsel in distress, Melancholia and her young son, Barronicus. The only problem is- this play should have ended a long time ago. Better yet, it should never have been written in the first place.
26
@Miranda
One of the wittiest comments I've run across.
Kudos...still laughing
NOT my president
One of the wittiest comments I've run across.
Kudos...still laughing
NOT my president
4
Brilliant!
3
As loath as I am to give Trump credit for anything, I must acknowledge that he has achieved something his predecessor was unable to:
Making Obamacare popular among Republican voters.
Making Obamacare popular among Republican voters.
23
"But rarely has the ham-fistedness felt so all-consuming, infusing even the simplest of tasks from a president who, seeing little need for subtext, tends to read the bracketed stage directions aloud."
The best line is this depressingly, humorous examination of the first six months of the bad dream that is the Trump presidency. Please, how soon can we get someone up on a ladder to post "CANCELLED" across the marquee?
The best line is this depressingly, humorous examination of the first six months of the bad dream that is the Trump presidency. Please, how soon can we get someone up on a ladder to post "CANCELLED" across the marquee?
4
This is a lot more like a horror story then a soap opera and if truth is often stranger then fiction then the reality is far more horrific then any fictional horror story.
5
The mainstream media is still very upset that America didn't vote for who they were being told to vote for. The media is still in hysteria mode creating fake Trump Russia narratives and have done little to cover Melania visiting hospitals and other good deeds while Mrs Obama got much attention for these types of things. The media keeps forgetting that in 2016 out of 3,100 counties in America, 2,600 voted for Trump.
1
No Peter, the media is upset because Trump and his people lie constantly, are totally incompetent, appear to be taking orders from Russia, and do not seem to have America's interests in mind at all. It's not so much that millions of people were boneheaded enough to vote for Trump, despite all his obvious, glaring flaws. It's that we're stuck with this incompetent, bullying ignoramus for now.
21
How about this title: The Tower of Babel in the Modern Age, with Trump as protagonist.
2
This whole thing strikes me as a classroom of 6 year old kids practicing to play the Godfather in the gym room. The fat bully gets to be Don Corleone and the other 29 all get to play Tom Hagen, the family lawyer.
4
Working Title:
Alternate Fake Facts Vetted and Enhanced
Alternate Fake Facts Vetted and Enhanced
3
I really like your structure of words: "Fake Facts"! Right on the money! Thanks, Mark.
2
When does this series get cancelled by the network?
95
November 2020.
1
I would have thought it would be impossible, or at least irressponisble, to write this kind of piece without reference to Philip Roth's 1961 essay, "Writing American Fiction," but apparently this is not the case. To wit:
"It stupefies, it sickens, it infuriates, and finally it is even a kind of embarrassment to one’s own meager imagination. The actuality is continually outdoing our talents, and the culture tosses up figures almost daily that are the envy of any novelist. Who, for example, could have invented Charles Van Doren? Roy Cohn and David Schine? Sherman Adams and Bernard Goldfine? Dwight David Eisenhower? "
Change a few names (and keep one! Hi, Roy!) and what has changed other than degree?
Steven Wright
"It stupefies, it sickens, it infuriates, and finally it is even a kind of embarrassment to one’s own meager imagination. The actuality is continually outdoing our talents, and the culture tosses up figures almost daily that are the envy of any novelist. Who, for example, could have invented Charles Van Doren? Roy Cohn and David Schine? Sherman Adams and Bernard Goldfine? Dwight David Eisenhower? "
Change a few names (and keep one! Hi, Roy!) and what has changed other than degree?
Steven Wright
5
This implausible "soap opera without the sex and fun" will almost certainly turn out to be a gory horror movie.
President Trump's self-centered disregard for others is yuuugely evident in his pronouncement: "Let Obamacare fail." He and his Party are setting the stage for a major national catastrophe.
Republican tax cuts, when they come, will, as usual, favor already immensely wealthy individuals and corporations far more than others.
I fear that President Trump, in order to distract the public from his and his Party's inability to govern, will soon send the American military careening off on yet another costly and fruitless adventure. Given the likelihood of this "Wag-the-Dog" scenario and the GOP penchant for tax-cuts at the most inopportune moments, the country will plunge into a debt and death spiral, just as it did under President George W. Bush.
If military adventurism and lowered taxes are coupled with Trump-GOP financial-deregulation fervor and current ballooning private sector debt, then the stage is all set for another 2008 style economic meltdown.
History is starting to echo--and echo loudly.
President Trump's self-centered disregard for others is yuuugely evident in his pronouncement: "Let Obamacare fail." He and his Party are setting the stage for a major national catastrophe.
Republican tax cuts, when they come, will, as usual, favor already immensely wealthy individuals and corporations far more than others.
I fear that President Trump, in order to distract the public from his and his Party's inability to govern, will soon send the American military careening off on yet another costly and fruitless adventure. Given the likelihood of this "Wag-the-Dog" scenario and the GOP penchant for tax-cuts at the most inopportune moments, the country will plunge into a debt and death spiral, just as it did under President George W. Bush.
If military adventurism and lowered taxes are coupled with Trump-GOP financial-deregulation fervor and current ballooning private sector debt, then the stage is all set for another 2008 style economic meltdown.
History is starting to echo--and echo loudly.
7
Where have all these witty "storytellers" been for the past thirty years, when the society-destabilizing conditions that created a void for someone like Trump to fill were festering?
And where does W's speechwriter get the nerve to criticize anybody, about anything?
And where does W's speechwriter get the nerve to criticize anybody, about anything?
2
There is no plausible narrative arc. For as long as we tolerate the lies of this administration. The media, i.e., New York Times and Washington Post, to name a few, are trying their best to rise above the muck this odious and illegitimate President and his cohorts created. We have to persist - for the truth.
50
Meuller will soon provide all the sex and fun that the Trump administration can handle.
39
The Trump presidency brings new meaning to Sid Caesar's immortal laugh line from the movie Airport '77, "the stewardess is flying the plane?!".
35
We now know what trump is:
Everything Obama isn't.
Everything Obama isn't.
33
The Fresh Air Show ( Podcast) for June 18, 2017 tells the fascinating story of how Bannon was able to put Trump in the White House. This is a truly bizarre piece of the story of these times. I recommend listening to it at:
http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/
http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/
9
I think you mean the July 18 show.
3
"Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
A true tragedy indeed.
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
A true tragedy indeed.
38
It'd be funny, except most of us are bystanders in this idiot's version of The Godfather, and we're all in danger of becoming collateral damage when this petulant Don decides to go to the mattresses.
21
The "sex and fun" happened in a suite in a Russian luxury hotel a few years back and Michael Flynn knows all about it.
Chuckle-snort.
Sad!
Chuckle-snort.
Sad!
55
The Times did an article on Trump as Theater over a year ago.
Maybe the Times should go back to that article. At the time I recall seeing it as "a good start" only.
Now we have at least three acts:
Act 1. Trump Tower. Junior receives an email. From a Russian! Gets all excited. There's an email chain. That's pretty exciting too. Many people end up at a Russia meeting! At least 8 so far. Interesting characters! The Mystery: Where is Trump? Does he know? (This all occurs just when Trump has secured the nomination. I'd add an early scene of 3 Witches. A cauldron. Another early scene: A foggy heath. And a secret planning meeting there. Possibly a ghost too!)
Act 2. Trump has - unbelievably! - been elected. This act includes a scene at the Russian Embassy, where Kushner has a secret meeting with the Russian Ambassador. Seeking a secret back-channel way to communicate. With Russia! A lot more happens in this act. But it's all so secret still.... also scary!
Act 3. Trump at the G20. Has no friends, unless Putin. Supposedly he's never met Putin. (But in Act 2, "The Shadow" .... "knows"!) In one scene, Trump and Putin meet for the first time. They hold hands - like lovers do. (Meanwhile The NY Times has a story about Act 1.) Trump &Putin meet privately. World leaders get suspicious! Scenes of Trump on airplane, crafting Act 1 cover story to respond to Times story! Secrecy!
Act 4. Congress. Ghost. Witches. Is Mueller The Shadow?
Maybe the Times should go back to that article. At the time I recall seeing it as "a good start" only.
Now we have at least three acts:
Act 1. Trump Tower. Junior receives an email. From a Russian! Gets all excited. There's an email chain. That's pretty exciting too. Many people end up at a Russia meeting! At least 8 so far. Interesting characters! The Mystery: Where is Trump? Does he know? (This all occurs just when Trump has secured the nomination. I'd add an early scene of 3 Witches. A cauldron. Another early scene: A foggy heath. And a secret planning meeting there. Possibly a ghost too!)
Act 2. Trump has - unbelievably! - been elected. This act includes a scene at the Russian Embassy, where Kushner has a secret meeting with the Russian Ambassador. Seeking a secret back-channel way to communicate. With Russia! A lot more happens in this act. But it's all so secret still.... also scary!
Act 3. Trump at the G20. Has no friends, unless Putin. Supposedly he's never met Putin. (But in Act 2, "The Shadow" .... "knows"!) In one scene, Trump and Putin meet for the first time. They hold hands - like lovers do. (Meanwhile The NY Times has a story about Act 1.) Trump &Putin meet privately. World leaders get suspicious! Scenes of Trump on airplane, crafting Act 1 cover story to respond to Times story! Secrecy!
Act 4. Congress. Ghost. Witches. Is Mueller The Shadow?
18
Bizarro world.
9
As a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel I would say one could present not just Trump but his precedents Roy Cohn/ McCarthy and the honcho moguls around him who all get along so well with moguls all over the world. The worm hole to a deeper darker more pernicious dimension has opened up & it wlll take a dark novelist to recount it.,
11
Laugh away.
-In the meantime. the WH is:
- planning to privatize war (remember Blackwater - owned by Betsy DeVos brother (!!!) with 'contractors' (mercenaries) not beholden to the State Dept.
- reinstating 'prisons for profit' (there has got to be a campaign donor in there somewhere
- following uber-male "mother-may-I" Pence's holy mission to mandate forced pregnancy
- conspiring to "let [the ACA] fail" ( leaving to die in the dust the disabled (whom he ridiculed on the campaign trail) and IRONICALLY, the same R 'base' that voted for him. Laugh on.
Joke is on us.
-In the meantime. the WH is:
- planning to privatize war (remember Blackwater - owned by Betsy DeVos brother (!!!) with 'contractors' (mercenaries) not beholden to the State Dept.
- reinstating 'prisons for profit' (there has got to be a campaign donor in there somewhere
- following uber-male "mother-may-I" Pence's holy mission to mandate forced pregnancy
- conspiring to "let [the ACA] fail" ( leaving to die in the dust the disabled (whom he ridiculed on the campaign trail) and IRONICALLY, the same R 'base' that voted for him. Laugh on.
Joke is on us.
64
The greatest comedy is that this is exactly what Trump supporters, the real ones out there, away from the swamp, really wanted.
10
I will wait to read Doris Kearns Goodwin's book on the Trump years. I've no doubt that it will be worth the wait.
10
The greatness of America is attested by its survival against all odds. How many nations would have survived two catastrophic war defeats in a row, like Viet Nam and Iraq? Normal, unexceptional countries after just one such debacle are dismantled and placed under some foreign authority. Not us. We still go to the movies, drink coke and dream our dreams.
So, do we have a new chance now? Will America survive the command of a rabid, ignorant buffoon? I think it will, again. But prayers remain in good order.
So, do we have a new chance now? Will America survive the command of a rabid, ignorant buffoon? I think it will, again. But prayers remain in good order.
12
These war defeats were hardly catastrophic for Vietnam and Iraq, not the US. What is catastrophic is our inability to learn not to repeat such ill-conceived failures.
2
This is not a child's game of endless chances. The United States was required to grow up after Vietnam. Instead, it retreated to the world of coca cola and dreams and conjured up Reagan.
The fiesta ended right then and there. If you don't see it you are consigned to an empty mobile home lot on the Salton Sea here in California. There you can sit in your darkened movie theater forever. Because the power's been cut off. Permanently.
The fiesta ended right then and there. If you don't see it you are consigned to an empty mobile home lot on the Salton Sea here in California. There you can sit in your darkened movie theater forever. Because the power's been cut off. Permanently.
3
what's not to like. anticipation is the gate way to eventual conclusion. Is is not dramatists.
1
And now for another episode of 'As Trumps World Turns'...
This is a daily soap opera, with the leading character (and I do mean character!) starting every episode with a tweet that is heard around the country and possibly the world...
So sad...
This is a daily soap opera, with the leading character (and I do mean character!) starting every episode with a tweet that is heard around the country and possibly the world...
So sad...
6
Given the corporate policies of this administration, I think that the end game is that Amazon will acquire the USA for stock and cash and the SEC will find no conflict of interest.
29
At this point, I'd take Amazon over Trump. Maybe we could then write customer reviews of our nation's policies.
1
Words to the wise - keep it short and simple. A fake book and fake library containing one tweet. Suggestion: He never thought his fake presidency would be so difficult.
12
It's not a "story". It's real life. WE THE PEOPLE must make sure The Con Don and his International Mafia Top 1% Global Financial Elite Robber Baron/Radical christian Good Old Boys cabal is a tiny little footnote in HIStory.
Help get rid of him NOW! Sign at the sites below:
https://unitedtoprotectdemocracy.org/
https://impeachdonaldtrumpnow.org/
Help get rid of him NOW! Sign at the sites below:
https://unitedtoprotectdemocracy.org/
https://impeachdonaldtrumpnow.org/
10
The very sad, but important, fact is that some years from now, writers will have to summarize this Presidency in history text books. And our children will have to study what happened during this administration. And teachers will have to get through these chapters professionally. I can't even imagine what the test on this chapter will look like.
104
As bad as he and his Presidency was our children should be taught it was a horrible period in American history and we should NEVER, EVER let it happen again. Actually that's the test for America right now.
5
Seth, at the rate he's going there won't be anyone to educate, and we'll have to rely on fake reports from all manner of sites.
2
To be historically accurate and to go along with this presidency's theme of anti-intellectualism, the test should be a take-home - one part true/false, one part multiple choice, and one part matching section. A third grader could write the questions and answers, and students could exchange papers with their best friends and grade them in class. Throw in a high curve and some grade inflation, and students will learn a lot about how this administration operated.
1
"No one said Mr. Trump was a reliable narrator."
The Emperor also has no pom-pom s.
The Emperor also has no pom-pom s.
19
It is almost amusing the way the Times - and others - spend much ink on the mess in Washington. Never do we read or encounter questioning such as why?
Aside from authors Talbot, Kinzer, Scott, Douglass and a handful of others, very few publications or historians wish to truly "investigate" the why of the decline of America. When did it start? What triggered it?
Aside from authors Talbot, Kinzer, Scott, Douglass and a handful of others, very few publications or historians wish to truly "investigate" the why of the decline of America. When did it start? What triggered it?
30
What "started" it ? Capitalism gone amok. Corporate greed in a democratic society that worships money and is spiritually bankrupt !!
NOT COMPLICATED AT ALL.
NOT COMPLICATED AT ALL.
41
Robert, good observation. Part of the difficulty of pinpointing and understanding what "triggered" the decline of the USA, (and let's be honest, that's what we're seeing), is that the country and the system has been on this road for a very long time. In other words, this is the inevitable evolution of a nation that deifies profit and self-interest and refuses to absorb the truth of the corruption and moral weakness of its institutions. Yes, these weaknesses are reported on and written about (eg. Vietnam, Watergate, 2008, etc.) but it is mostly consumed as entertainment. Any legislative responses to it are too easily swept away by oppositional forces in the political process we call democracy but is in fact a plutocracy.
As for American Exceptionalism, the phrase only works when our middle class works and thrives. They made heroes of the USA during WWII and they engineered and manufactured the economic juggernaut that gave us our 20th century supremacy in its aftermath. What happened in the 21st century? The middle-class started to melt away due to gradual institutional weaknesses like labor and consumer protections and more abrupt catastrophes like the financial collapse of 2008 and the subsequent social costs related to poor physical and mental health and a resurgence of drug addiction.
Much needs to change to reverse what might in fact be irreversible. After all, donald trump was elected as our savior. If that's not a symptom of a grave disease, I don't know what is.
As for American Exceptionalism, the phrase only works when our middle class works and thrives. They made heroes of the USA during WWII and they engineered and manufactured the economic juggernaut that gave us our 20th century supremacy in its aftermath. What happened in the 21st century? The middle-class started to melt away due to gradual institutional weaknesses like labor and consumer protections and more abrupt catastrophes like the financial collapse of 2008 and the subsequent social costs related to poor physical and mental health and a resurgence of drug addiction.
Much needs to change to reverse what might in fact be irreversible. After all, donald trump was elected as our savior. If that's not a symptom of a grave disease, I don't know what is.
7
Elaine.......what you say is partially true. Fact is America is still the largest and richest economy in the world. We still have personal freedoms most countries outlaw, and people like you and I can change things here slowly through education and persistence. One day soon, Trump will be a memory,and new problems will surface that require solutions from younger people who now might see moral values as a National conscience.
1
JKile - my thought exactly.
What's implausible about it? For 35 yrs the Republican Party has been chanting, "government is the problem and if it ain't broke, break it." They broke it and Trump moved in to mop up. They're evil—they care only for using the largess and power of the federal government for their selfish gain.
185
We all understand that writing our own representatives in State and Federal positions but I've started to write those from the other party and outline what I want from them as representatives for all the people. Some of them are confused this isn't about winning for their political party this isn't a'WIN FOR THEM PERSONALLY' this is about a win for the people and the country and many have failed serving only themselves. When representatives do the right thing for the right reasons I email them and thank them to reinforce that we are all paying attention.
Trump is the nightmare we all hope to awaken from sometime soon.
He's an ignorant, ghastly, and loud-mouthed person with no ethics and apparently no morals. There is absolutely no way that I would invite him to my dinner table. Let him fly-off to Mother Russia never to be heard from again.
He's an ignorant, ghastly, and loud-mouthed person with no ethics and apparently no morals. There is absolutely no way that I would invite him to my dinner table. Let him fly-off to Mother Russia never to be heard from again.
189
And he appeals to millions of Americans, besides the one's who voted for him to be our President! That is the greater nightmare, and it is frightening!!!
7
As I have mentioned elsewhere, there are 60 million people in our country who love him as they love themselves because he is who they are. I don't think he's going anywhere soon.
3
"Let him fly off to Mother Russia never to be heard from again."
I imagine that's the plan, so he can never be extradited to face trial.
I imagine that's the plan, so he can never be extradited to face trial.
1
Thought the novel was written. It was called "Being There."
101
Except unlike Trump the character of Chance had a good heart.
5
Except Chance the Gardener was a decent guy.
11
That was a beautiful movie and an even better read. It is sad that we must compare the lead character to such a vile ugly man like Trump. If Trump was capable of care, concern or the love that Jerzy Kosinski put into his character's heart we wouldn't be screaming for his head . . . but, we most of us are.
3
Somebody, please, turn on the alarm! Wake me up!
20
I like how Steve Isreal's book ends!!
4
Writing is just another form of self-expression that fortunately only readers have to endure.
2
What books would be in a Trump presidential library?
50
What books? The only books would be those he "wrote", just 1000s of unsold copies that he would shill to those visiting his "library".
3
Comics and the whole "... for Dummies" series, I imagine.
6
None,
He already said that he doesn't read.
He already said that he doesn't read.
10
The book will open with the Golden Shower scene at the Ritz Carlton Presidential Suite in Russia.
Then, CUT TO: Trump accepts the Republican nomination.
Balloon drop. POP goes democracy.
Then, CUT TO: Trump accepts the Republican nomination.
Balloon drop. POP goes democracy.
27
Where facts are not real. Where every truth is a lie. Where heroes are villains. Welcome to "Malice in Wonderland".
113
Where is the innocent who suddenly proclaims, "But the emperor has no clothes!"
47
Many not-so-innocent people have been proclaiming that since the start of all this. But Trump's followers cannot change their tiny minds, under any circumstances, and continually dress him in their delusions.
4
But TV hosts and pundits and smart comedians are doing this every day! It has to be the Republican eyes closed/no talk cult members who finally speak forcefully. [To McCarthy: 'At long last, sir, have you no decency?']
6
But it's clearly *not* soap opera. It's farce.
38
I'm pretty sure it's tragedy.
1
Fact is always stranger than fiction.
11
Sometimes fiction is the only way to tell the truth. One example: read David Ignatius startling accounts of CIA shenanigans in Lebanon and environs in the 1960s. Who knew?
With Trump, fact trumps fiction--impossible scenario.
With Trump, fact trumps fiction--impossible scenario.
1
Just think, if Washington-focused writers, who are intimately familiar with the machinations and intrigue of the place, are struggling to keep up, how difficult it us for the rest of us across this broad land to keep things straight. I keep thinking I can catalog the various topics (story lines) and keep them straight, perhaps envisioning directions or even outcomes. But alas, no, a new one erupts out of parts of the White House and the Capitol that even a relatively astute, well-informed follower couldn't have predicted. I used to read fiction and really loved it. It's been six months since I've been able to focus on a book. My eyes and my attention keep being diverted over to the capital train wreck. Too bad it's our beloved nation that's a victim.
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I, too, have been unable to concentrate on books for the past 6 months, and I thought it was because of a death in the family last year. Now I've heard several people say that the Trump presidency with things changing day to day is more than the brain can handle. Or should have to handle.
I wish this were the Gong Show and that one of the panelists would get out of his/her chair and bang that gong telling Trump to take his act somewhere else.
I wish this were the Gong Show and that one of the panelists would get out of his/her chair and bang that gong telling Trump to take his act somewhere else.
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I too. I believe it is a mass cultural case of PTSD, as a result of being impinged on by the daily specter of a wanton id, or runaway animus, just breaking everything good to pieces right before our eyes.
I once met a man who told me he used to, as a child, take a stick to beautiful flowers in yards along his way, shattering the blossoms.
I once met a man who used to have fantasies while driving in his car of swerving into bicyclists.
It's harder now to find a calm space of time. After watching a good movie in which I am thoroughly taken away, or waking from a good sleep, I sometimes feel I'm waking up into the reality of a nightmare.
I don't know what else to say.
From a former longtime trauma and family psychotherapist.
I once met a man who told me he used to, as a child, take a stick to beautiful flowers in yards along his way, shattering the blossoms.
I once met a man who used to have fantasies while driving in his car of swerving into bicyclists.
It's harder now to find a calm space of time. After watching a good movie in which I am thoroughly taken away, or waking from a good sleep, I sometimes feel I'm waking up into the reality of a nightmare.
I don't know what else to say.
From a former longtime trauma and family psychotherapist.
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I toi have been unable to enjoy fiction since this national nightmare began.
Prior to the election, I was surrounded by those that professed their support for Trump, needless to say they went to my list of "imaginary" friends. Any person that can support Trump is part of the horror story we are witnessing.
I miss the days when reading was done for pleasure. Now it seems that current events and truth are indeed stranger than fiction.
Prior to the election, I was surrounded by those that professed their support for Trump, needless to say they went to my list of "imaginary" friends. Any person that can support Trump is part of the horror story we are witnessing.
I miss the days when reading was done for pleasure. Now it seems that current events and truth are indeed stranger than fiction.
5
After the Trump administration is over, much of the story will be seen as a comedic farce, except for the parts where some of the players go to jail. Four years of "NOTHING ACCOMPLISHED," with many false starts. Donald Trump will be seen as the egotistical bumbling fool that he is.
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Sure, he'll be seen that way by all but his followers, as they will continue their lobotomized worship forever. They're incapable of accepting reality.
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Law books featuring criminal statutes.
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And yet somehow entirely consistent with his established character and history of personal behavior that have been brazenly on display in public for the better part of his 70 years.
So the implausible part is still that someone with his character and history of personal behavior ascended to the highest office in the land, or more correctly, was allowed to bring the office down to his level.
So the implausible part is still that someone with his character and history of personal behavior ascended to the highest office in the land, or more correctly, was allowed to bring the office down to his level.
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Neil Postman's book "Amusing Ourselves To Death" comes to my mind.
These are dangerous and sad times for the USA.
Trump is but a mirror reflection of the dark corporatized place we have become. God help us.
These are dangerous and sad times for the USA.
Trump is but a mirror reflection of the dark corporatized place we have become. God help us.
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Full marks, Brett B. I have been touting Postman's book with its incredibly apt subtitle since Trump declared his candidacy (along with the film "A Face in the Crowd"). And to think Postman was writing before the Internet. There are still people who say they voted for Trump because they liked him on The Apprentice.
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Brett, thanks for the reference! There are some great videos on youtube of him explaining his brilliant insights.
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Brett, where have you been? This all started with good old Ronald Reagan, who, when presented with a fact he didn't like, charmingly replied "oh, I don't think that's true." Then he went on to break unions, openly despise and deride both government & government employees, declare useless & broken (it wasn't)and balloon the national debt. In hindsight, the amount seems ridiculous, but a "[few]billion ain't what it used to be"(credit:Hunt brothers) National debt went from a mere 907.701 billion in 1980 to 2.602,338 Trillion in 1988. Without even spending on infrastructure!Laughable compared to 18.96 trillion,but it seemed like a lot then.
Working for your fellow citizens in government service, which used to be an honorable profession, became a sign of incompetence.
I first learned about the 25th Amendment (incompetence) during Reagan's second term, when his aides openly discussed it. Reagan was showing what may have been early signs of dementia.(a terrible, horrifying affliction.) He spent a lot of time watching old Westerns on TV & seemed to think he was in one at times. Now, we have Trump, who is openly obsessed with TV, ratings etc. He has no time for briefings, a distinct lack of ability to focus, erratic sleeping habits, rapid changes in mood/opinions which he communicates by tweet (!) despite pleas of family,lawyers,etc. He seems a bit paranoid; concern about foreign meddling in elections is not concern for country,we are "after him"
I'm worried about America.
Working for your fellow citizens in government service, which used to be an honorable profession, became a sign of incompetence.
I first learned about the 25th Amendment (incompetence) during Reagan's second term, when his aides openly discussed it. Reagan was showing what may have been early signs of dementia.(a terrible, horrifying affliction.) He spent a lot of time watching old Westerns on TV & seemed to think he was in one at times. Now, we have Trump, who is openly obsessed with TV, ratings etc. He has no time for briefings, a distinct lack of ability to focus, erratic sleeping habits, rapid changes in mood/opinions which he communicates by tweet (!) despite pleas of family,lawyers,etc. He seems a bit paranoid; concern about foreign meddling in elections is not concern for country,we are "after him"
I'm worried about America.
1
The story of this presidential administration is unlike any we've ever seen. If America is lucky, we will never see anything like it again. I don't believe we've ever had a president who lied this much, who was this obnoxious, ignorant, self-infatuated, and a long list of other undesirable traits.
The nice thing is how much he's failing. The ACA hasn't been destroyed and replaced with something worse yet, he hasn't built that worthless wall, he hasn't managed to get us into another war yet. But I doubt anything will go particularly well for America until he's out of office.
Personally I've realized, if I don't stop paying so much attention to him, I'm going to get an ulcer. He is so distressing, in his daily idiocies, that it fills me with anxiety and dread. So I'm hoping I can tune it out a bit for the next few years, and that it ends without America being destroyed. At the end of this, I'll be glad to write a book about how awful the Trump presidency was, I'm sure material will be simple to accumulate.
The nice thing is how much he's failing. The ACA hasn't been destroyed and replaced with something worse yet, he hasn't built that worthless wall, he hasn't managed to get us into another war yet. But I doubt anything will go particularly well for America until he's out of office.
Personally I've realized, if I don't stop paying so much attention to him, I'm going to get an ulcer. He is so distressing, in his daily idiocies, that it fills me with anxiety and dread. So I'm hoping I can tune it out a bit for the next few years, and that it ends without America being destroyed. At the end of this, I'll be glad to write a book about how awful the Trump presidency was, I'm sure material will be simple to accumulate.
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" I don't believe we've ever had a president who lied this much, who was this obnoxious, ignorant, self-infatuated, and a long list of other undesirable traits."
Ever hear of Obama?
Ever hear of Obama?
Dear Joe,
That's ridiculous. President Obama lied only as much as pretty much everyone does, he was never obnoxious at all, he was very knowledgeable, wasn't full of himself, and had nearly no undesirable traits at all. You're just biased due to partisan belief, and if you think Trump is better than Obama in any way, you're completely delusional. Sorry, but it's true, and I know you'll reject that, and I'm past caring.
That's ridiculous. President Obama lied only as much as pretty much everyone does, he was never obnoxious at all, he was very knowledgeable, wasn't full of himself, and had nearly no undesirable traits at all. You're just biased due to partisan belief, and if you think Trump is better than Obama in any way, you're completely delusional. Sorry, but it's true, and I know you'll reject that, and I'm past caring.
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Yes, Joe, we've heard of him. He's the only reason I have health insurance today.
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Will Durant summarized the long reign of Louis XV with a perfect three-word sentence: "Omnipotence married incompetence." The Republicans have all three branches of government, a State Church of fawning Evangelicals, and their very own fact-proofed media outlets. With all that going for them they should indeed be omnipotent. Thank God they're so incompetent.
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The main things you can take away from articles like this: How mindlessly chatty the United States culture at large is, for a combination of reasons, compared to any other developed country (and it's not Italy, with a gracious communicative streak built into the language, this is different). How sterile people's minds have become in Washington, because of being constantly in what is now Hollywood East. And finally, how because of first Reagan and now Trump Americans have descended into a less than mediocre show biz media hell as a reference point for their greater good.
I hope no one buys any of these horrid books, no matter who wrote them. Give the money to the public schools Betsy DeVos wants to tear apart. And stop listening to most of this mindless drivel from both sides.
I hope no one buys any of these horrid books, no matter who wrote them. Give the money to the public schools Betsy DeVos wants to tear apart. And stop listening to most of this mindless drivel from both sides.
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So much to say yet there is so little said. I'm hopeful the books that are ultimately written contain real, truthful information that can be used by the reader to develop a concise, logical opinion. Yes, I'm hopeful and perhaps a bit naive.
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Most of the people who will write all "these books" are anything but concise. Maybe a little logical, now and then at best. This is ALL for THEM, their aggrandizement and their pocketbooks. You are far too naive...
Trump library? For what, one shelf?
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There is an empty warehouse in Brooklyn with one big shelf.
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The book that always comes to mind for me:
"The Berenstain Bears' Bike Lesson" sums up my thoughts on Trump and his endless, cluess bumbling:
"Yes, this is what you should not do.
Let this be a leson to you".
"The Berenstain Bears' Bike Lesson" sums up my thoughts on Trump and his endless, cluess bumbling:
"Yes, this is what you should not do.
Let this be a leson to you".
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No, for 1 book - trumpeter's own novel, "The Art of The Deal", from an artless man-child!
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DT in the WH, either cover it straight with deep investigative reporting or go for a romp, DONNY! HE'S GOT TO HAVE IT. Forget conventional fiction, it can't compete, except in the stories of the Trumpists' victims.
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Look! The Founders!! (oops!)
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Ah yes, in an ideal storyline, Trump's moronic shenanigans would cause the Founding Fathers to rise from their graves, besiege him in the White House, and ultimately eat him, in the style of The Walking Dead. Unfortunately it's too much to hope for, but it's a pleasant mental image.
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Trump is delusional. He is incapable of performing even the simplest duties of his office. I dread Thanksgiving - instead of pardoning the turkey, he'll probably roast it and serve it well-done with ketchup.
Trump is the Complainer-in-Chief, the Festivus president who airs his grievances about everything and everyone on a daily basis.