Omarosa Manigault: Ultimate Survivor

                                                                                 

                                                                                

Up until now I thought Donald Trump was the ultimate Survivor. Trump has a personality made for reality TV. Reality TV made him a presidential contender. Reality TV .... "been berry, berry good" to Donald Trump.

Trump’s salesman instincts were spot-on. He recognized the pain running through the American heartland. It took a New York real estate developer to figure out Middle America.

Trump put a dagger in the heart of a slew of Republican candidates by being a plain talker. He called them names-- Low Energy Jeb Bush, lyin' Ted Cruz, etc-- and this chutzpah appealed to Middle America.

Remember Robert Preston in “The Music Man” the 1962 movie, about a flim-flam man who conned the the hicks in River City and took their money. Trump has hypnotized all of us. He took the American presidency and turned it into a reality TV show!

Almost forgot about Omarosa Manigault. 

Hunter Thompson, the gonzo journalist, famously said …“when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” 

Omarosa more than almost any other person proves the truth of the weird turning pro. She has achieved an almost stateswoman type media presence. Omarosa plays a Villainess on reality TV, but with Trump's assistance has taken her act to the national stage. 

Omarosa has an ego to match Donald Trump and an iPhone tape recorder to embarrass the hell out of him. Omarosa seems unburdened by conventional moral codes. Who does that remind you of?

If Donald Trump comes back as an African-American female for his next lifetime—can you guess what his name will be?

These people were made for cable TV, in fact made by cable TV, and they’ve lifted everybody’s ratings. They fill our flat screens with drama and everybody likes watching the new train wreck of our national politics now presented as a TV show.

Omarosa does not mind having enemies. Who does that remind you of? She rose from humble roots in Youngstown, Ohio and has survived all the slings and arrows. She truly was an apprentice of Donald Trump.

Omarosa learned rapidly. She appeared on Trump’s “Apprentice” in 2004, the show’s first season. Omarosa was strong in the boardroom portions of the show. In 2016 she was sitting at the around the White House table.

Omarosa’s rapid rise via the television medium has been one of the fastest moves upward in recent political history. Sarah Palin got pulled out of the Alaskan outback by presidential candidate John McCain. She had appeal with the same people that became Trump backers. Like Omarosa, Sarah Palin was a force to be reckoned with. Sarah's act quick ended. She claimed her 15 minutes and was gone.

Omarosa is guaranteed at least 20 minutes. Without Trump, there is very little interest in Omarosa. The White House offered to pay her a salary to keep her mouth shut. Omarosa did not take that bait. She's too much a Survivor to fall for that ploy.

Omarosa’s strategic use of a recording device guarantees a measure more of fame and fortune. She has a book out, Unhinged, at the top of the New York Times bestseller list.

Omarosa has turned pro. 

Speeding off of a cliff (the new technology)-- while staring at the rearview mirror

Marshall McLuhan was interviewed by Playboy magazine in 1969. McLuhan, the oracle of Toronto, teaches us more about the present moment, 2017, then any of our media critics or the talking heads on cable TV. I've truncated the following portion of the interview for the sake of brevity.

PLAYBOY: Is the public, then, at last beginning to perceive the "invisible" contours of these new technological environments?

McLUHAN: People are beginning to understand the nature of their new technology, but not yet nearly enough of them-- and not nearly well enough. Most people, as I indicated, still cling to what I call the rearview-mirror view of the world.

Because we are benumbed by the new technology-- which in turn creates a totally new environment-- we tend to make the old environment more visible...

In the midst of the electronic age of software, of instant information movement, we still beleve we're living in the mechanical age of hardware.

We reverse the old educational dictum of learning by proceeding from the familiar to the unfamiliar by going from the unfamiliar to the familiar, which is nothing more of less that the numbing mechanism that takes place whenever new media drastically extend our senses.

You must read the entirety of this interview-- highly recommended.

First off, how amazing that Professor McLuhan speaks about "software" and "instant information movement" in 1969! His critics dismissed his prophetic teachings-- disdainfully rejecting his theorie  as "technological determinism." And now you see almost every single pedestrian staring at his cellphone, totally enslaved by the instant information flow seducing all of us. Technological determinism indeed!

The news media salivated mightily over Donald Trump's 7 tweets this morning-- including one which mentioned Trump's reference to possibly taping his conversation with James Comey in the Oval Office. The pundits stated that Trump's behavior mimicked Richard Nixon's tapes of phone conversations-- and concluded Trump is a new version of the President Nixon, a cynical, suspicious paranoid personality brought down by his own insecurities. The media turned to the past to understand the present. Trump must be like Nixon, so the thinking goes.

Trump has his flaws, but he's not a new Nixon. Trump fancies himself the new Reagan. He is neither Nixon nor Reagan. Trumps talks constantly-- especially if we consider Tweets to be a form of conversation. Nixon was secretive, careful, circumspect. Reagan called "the great communicator" liked and mastered the television medium. Both men had considerable experience with the American political process, Nixon famously struggled with the television medium in his debate with John F. Kennedy.

Trump is something of a television expert-- and now he is the most popular TV show in television history-- including the daily soap opera co-star Sean Spicer in his White House briefings. Trump lives the hot lights of media attention but has no sense of political realities. Very few explanations of Trump can be found in the TV annals, not even from his own show--  Celebrity Apprentice.

So, how do we understand Trump? His adversaries focus on Trump's lack of morality and the absence of a political ideology. Perhaps the absence of morality and absence of a political philosphy actually do explain Trump. He's working as an improvisational performer-- staying a step ahead of the pundits by not thinking through all the rational details. He speaks more like a comedian-- and he worked wonders with that method on the campaign trail.

Every week gets more interesting than the week before. Trump has brought Reality TV to the White House and embraced Twitter as his secret weapon. This is not necessarily a good or bad thing. Expecting him to "act Presidential" seems a lost cause. He's playing by a new set of rules. None of us understand them and the rearview mirror is providing no help whatsoever.

Put on your seat belt. Dr. Hunter Thompson, the gonzo political satirist for Rolling Stone magazine, is a man much-needed at the present moment. He likes to say "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." Trump seems like a pro in a roomful of amateurs, cub reporters with their pencils behind their ears. Trump likes unscripted, reality television and now he does it full-time. He lives in the moment and casts all previous truths aside.

I've noticed people are turning to artists and poets for an explanation of the present angst. McLuhan always praised artists as the only people willing to look at the present. The artists among us may provide the best answers.

Mr. McLuhan, we must praise you every day!

Hunter Thompson, Bob Dylan and the Jingle Jangle Morning (1967)

Walking around my Austin neighborhood... and I came across a "Free Books" box standing tall in a neighbor's yard. There were 5-7 books in there and some were not bad. I saw a John LeCarre novel but I cannot keep track of plot twists. Then I spied Fear and Loathing in America (volume II), a collection of Hunter Thompson's letters from 1968-1976. I took it home. The very first letter got to me-- and it starts... "1967 was the year of the hippy."

That was the year I graduated high school-- what kind of chance did  I have? It's okay, Ma, I'm only bleeding... Just kidding, but that was a hell of a time to be 18 years old and trying to make sense of the world.

Hunter said "the word 'hipppy' coined by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen-- who also came up with 'beatnik.' " 

Damn, talk about a man with a talent for branding!

Thompson mentioned that "Bob Dylan was the original hippy" and "Mr. Tambourine Man is both an epitaph and a swan-song for the lifestyle and the instincts that led, eventually, to the hugely-advertised 'hippy phenomenon.' "

Hard to recall a time where things changed so dramatically, based upon things like rock music and a new ideology-- the hippie lifestyle and culture. Where would we be without that revolution...? Still dressing like Mad Men and sipping martinis?

So glad that Hunter mentioned Surrealistic Pillow! I listened to the LP up in my Long Island bedroom on the night before I headed off for college-- wondering what awaited me. That was a powerful album and, as Hunter Thompson said "The Jefferson Airplane is another key sound from that era..." and he goes on to praise the talent of Grace Slick, their lead singer.

Remember this refrain from Mr. Tambourine Man? 
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

That comes from a proto--hipster named Lord Buckley... Don't believe me, Google it--

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Buckley

Lord Buckley died in 1960, just before the big hippie change had a chance to get rolling. He even predated the Beats. And I quote the wiki piece on Lord Buckley: 
"Bob Dylan in his book Chronicles, said 'Buckley was the hipster bebop preacher who defied all labels.' " 

And here's a footnote from the end of the Wikipedia piece on Lord Buckley:
"The jingle-jangle morning" in "Mr. Tambourine Man" is a phrase Bob Dylan claims to have taken from Lord Buckley.^[18] It appears in Buckley's performance of Scrooge.^[19]