Trump and Kim Jong-un Bring the Heat

Only took Donald Trump six months in office to bring up the N-word... nuclear. Hillary and Barack raised questions about Donald's fiery, impulsive temperament not being well-suited to the Commander-in-Chief job. Then he got elected. From Celebrity Apprentice to the nuclear code of the most powerful nation on earth. The United States used the atomic bomb twice. After Hiroshima and the deaths of 140,000 did not get the Japanese to issue a surrender, Truman calmly stated:

"If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth. Behind this air attack will follow sea and land forces in such numbers and power as they have not yet seen and with the fighting skill of which they are already well aware. ”

The Japanese did not respond and another bomb dropped on Nagasaki killed 70,000 more people three days later.

Truman's words help remind us of the context-- the war between American and Japan had raged for 3 1/2 years. The goal, defeat of Japan with as few additional American lives lost, had been clearly established and understood by the American people and our Allies. Only under these extreme circumstances did Truman make the decision to drop a first atomic bomb, incinerate 140,000 people and then warn the Japanese that a second bomb would follow. Truman chose powerful words to characterize a moment blighted with terror. Compare that to the present situation.

Trump pulls out the rhetorical blowtorch and talks about "fire and fury" being unleashed on North Korea, a small country on the border of China being run by a ruthless, tinhorn dictator. Trump's defenders descry the annoying dictator in Pyongyang with his missile tests and insane saber rattling rhetoric. Sounds like a lot of sound and fury has been generated by both Trump and Kim Jong-un, both men sporting unusual haircuts.

Meanwhile, more heat is the last thing we need: 

• Europe is burning under the influence of a heatwave nicknamed Lucifer.
• European glaciers are melting.
• A US climate report, produced by 13 government agencies, gets leaked to the New York Times out of fear that report will be suppressed by the Trump administration.
• Donald Trump hires General Kelly to manage the White House staff. Then Trump goes to a golf course in New Jersey on vacation. 
• Maybe Mr. Trump wanted to escape any chance of being managed himself? Issues a bunch of tweets from NJ!
• We should always be suspicious of somebody claiming to go to New Jersey on vacation. 
• The Kennedy's had Hyannis Port. The Bush family went to Kennebunkport. And even Bill Clinton and Barack Obama could afford the trip to Massachusetts, hanging out with the Eastern media moguls on Martha's Vineyard.

It's getting so hot in here-- now that's something to fume and fulminate about.

Back from Europe: Trump Puts Us On Like a Suit of Clothes

Did I learn anything from foreign travel? I gained something, more like a feeling than a set of ideas. Just being in France and Spain where the living is slightly different has a beneficial effect. Not sure why…. Maybe the electrons in your brain and body get realigned. At times I felt my stomach twisted in knots of anxiety. Sometimes I got the feeling my cellphone and Google Maps was the only thing between my health and safety and oblivion. Lose the phone and your whole existence goes down the drain immediately. Such is life. As Descartes famously said… I own a Samsung, therefore I am.

Been looking at my travels for some insight to explain modern life. The G20 summit happened soon after we returned. I recognized that late hour of sunset in Europe—the same in Hamburg, Germany as in France and Spain, around 10 PM. I felt slightly more familiar with the protesters because I had been on their continent just a few days before. They were rioting—maybe against capitalism, maybe against the system’s inability to deal with global climate change. The younger generations must fight for their air, water, the temperature of their air—a whole new set of issues from the Vietnam War demonstrations I remember. The issues have changed—maybe moved to a new level of complexity. The same technology and complexity that has made the West so rich threatens the health of the planet. Can people actually choose less wealth? Maybe but it’s quite a struggle.

Where does the Donald Trump phenomenon fit into the global angst. Trump knows something that almost nobody else has figured out. I found some clues in Marshall McLuhan’s writing—where I always look to understand the new, digital environment. 

People complain about Trump’s tweets, not realizing the tweets are Trump’s genius, his grasp of the present moment.

Trump tweeted this out on 1 July 2017, as an answer to his critics:

My use of social media is not Presidential—it’s MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL. Make America Great Again.

5:41 PM

I agree with this tweet—the media world has changed and nobody wants to believe it. They want to kill the messenger. Trump alerts us to the new media environment—and we mistakenly focus on what we dislike about the man. Trump has no great loyalty to any policy or party. He is all about the medium.

Remember Marshall McLuhan’s great aphorism… “The medium is the message.”

The content of Trump’s tweets is not the important thing. The fact that Trump uses twitter as his governing mechanism and image builder and that we read his tweets is what matters. 

And here is what McLuhan said in his Playboy interview of 1969:

“The new political showman has to literally as well as figuratively puts on his audience as he would a suit of clothes and become a corporate tribal image—like Mussolini, Hitler and F.D.R. in the days of radio, and Jack Kennedy in the television era. All these men were tribal emperors on a scale theretofore unknown in the world, because they all mastered their media.”

European Travel: Saints, Castles, Cafes and a Mermaid

Just returned, back home to the USA, after a one month swing through France (Paris and Amboise) and Northern Spain. I got to live the life of a bourgeoisie, as they call the middle classes in France, staying at hotels and eating fabulous meals in restaurants and tapas bars. I observed a few things in my travels with my friend, and came to a few conclusions. Or let's just call them observations:

* The summer sun goes down late in Europe-- around 10:00 PM.

* The French kings built beautiful castles for their wive and mistresses-- euphemistically called chateaus. Chateau is an understatement. These amazing structures- fortified with moats and thick walls and are truly regal. We saw a few, Chenonceau and Loches. Chenoncea has an amazing history and extends across the entire width of the river Cher. Loches has the feel of the Middle Ages and rises high above the surrounding Loire Valley countryside.

* The Parisian women have great style. So many beautiful women!

* The temperature in Amboise was very comfortable and the city has great charm. The walled streets of the city come right up to the lanes and streets winding through the town. You get transported back in time.

* At the L'Alliance restaurant I had "panna cotta", a cream dessert,with blackberries and other fruits. The flavor of panna cotta verged on a religious experience for me-- maybe the best sweet food of my lifetime.

* In Spain, we started out in Barcelona. I made a good decision to join in with a tour group for the La Sagrada Familia cathedral, the life work on Antoni Gaudi-- and wrote a blog entry about the power of that experience. Gaudi is up for a sainthood, I've read.

* Our favorite hangout in Barcelona, Chicha Limona restaurant was recommended by Jose, our VRBO landlord. We became regulars and got to know the wait staff in their black-and-white checked shirts. A shout-out here to Pilar, Tomas, Julia, and Lluis-- some of the employees who treated us so well.

* Santiago de Compostela also transports you back in time. The pilgrims completing the "Camino", the walk that begins in France and crosses north Spain to the cathedral and burial place of St. James, add a strong theme to the city's identity. We loved the Costa Vella Hotel, recommended by Rick Steven, and its shaded jardin in the back. Another city of endless winding lanes with stone walled houses and apartments lining the street.

* The Mama Peixas (mother fish) restaurant in Santiago is a standout. Spanish food and especially seafood is a standout.

* Check out a town called Comillas and the north Atlantic. Spanish tourists go there, a good sign, and they have an early Gaudi building called "Capricho". Capricho is covered with sunflower tiles. And we got to see actual sunflower fields in France-- where the flowers actually pivot to follow the sun.

* The amazing city of San Sebastian features a surf beach with golden sand. The sand somehow matches the gold tones of the walls of the buildings. I loved the pounding surf, too powerful for the surf school kids to enter very far into the ocean that day.

* The Spanish women are also beautiful.

* And I had my very own Girl from Impanema experience at La Playa de San Sebastian. The surfer beach in San Sebastian is where we encountered "la sirena", the mermaid. The mermaid was dark-haired with brown skin and might even have been South American. She wore a black wetsuit with a raya azul and had swim fins. The wetsuit fit her body like a glove. Wetsuits fit everybody like a glove-- but the glove surrounding her  body was exceptional. I asked her if it was a dangerous day for body surfing. "Peligro, no?" I asked. She shrugged her shoulders and smiled with playful eyes. She seemed to to say... it goes with the territory. But her territory is actually water. No surf is too dangerous for La Sirena.

My last observation concerns European travel, especially for the American middle classes, and the impact of a guy named Rick Steves. We had Rick Steve's books for France and for Spain. Rick, it turns out, is a Lutheran from Edmonds, Washington. Somehow his passion for travel led him to become the guru of all European travelers, at least American travelers with a little bit of money. I know there more hippie style of travel from youth. Reed and I got in many conversations with fellow Americans. Usually we would be in fabulous restaurants in between beautiful entrees or tapas courses-- and the topic of Rich Steves, the traveler writer and TV travel host, would invariably come up. Rick has become the patron saint of the well-heeled traveler. I got to experience that lifestyle for a month and let's just say... it ain't bad.