James Comey (Don Quixote) tilts at America

James Comey is a modern day version of the Don Quixote—knight-errant. Comey, just like Don Quixote, is deluded and a master of bad judgement. Quixotic has become a word and it means “exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.”

Like Don Quixote crossing the countryside, James Comey has made the scene at countless TV studios. His story now is “how I got fired by orange hued Donald Trump” just for being a good guy. Funny…Comey’s inept handling of things may have changed American history.

Comey, a long, lanky man with a certain similarity to Don Quijote, now pleads his innocence. Comey may have torpedoed Hillary Clinton’s run for president in the final days when he announced the re-investigation of her emails. An FBI director jumping into the election at a point just 10 days before the election, doesn’t have any precedent in American history. Comey used his nobleman’s jousting pole and bashed Hillary to the ground a few feet from her lifelong goal—the Presidency.

Comey’s first windmill— presuming Hillary’s election victory before it ever happened and feeling he had to ensure her legitimacy—blew up in everybody’s face. Comey may have elected Donald Trump! And then Comey got fired by Trump. It’s all a TV show, right?

Comey, like the confused Don Quixote, created by author Miguel de Cervantes, plunged ahead against perceived foes, chimeras, shadowy outcomes, but somehow intruded upon reality. 

Note the connection between James Comey and Don Quixote: 

Don Quixote's tendency to intervene violently in matters irrelevant to himself, and his habit of not paying debts, result in privations, injuries, and humiliations (with Sancho often the victim).

(Wikipedia)

The connection becomes clear. Just as Don Quijote roamed the countryside looking for enemies, Comey now roams the land looking for TV studios to promote his new book—A Higher Loyalty. 

There is a higher loyalty here—to James Comey himself. And Comey’s main loyalty seems to his book sales. First he interfered in the 2016 election. That’s something to write about—though he spins his role in the whole affair. 

With the Comey book tour promoting A Higher Loyalty he’s stomping his oversize shoes all over the Mueller investigation. The man has a talent for inserting himself deep into the heart of American history. Comey seems impervious to his own real motives. The man is being disingenuous or lacks candor. The silver lining, Robert Mueller was brought in to handle the investigation.

Comey, an admittedly telegenic presence, has some of the hangdog appeal of Don Quixote, the Man of La Mancha. He claims to be a knight in shining armor— working on behalf of America. 

For my money, he is more the knight-errant. 

White House: a revolving door!

re·volv·ing door

noun

1. an entrance to a large building in which four partitions turn about a central axis.

   • used to refer to a situation in which the same events or problems recur in a continuous cycle.

     
     

     "many patients are trapped in a revolving door of admission, discharge, and readmission"
   • a place or organization that people tend to enter and leave very quickly.

     
     

     "the newsroom became a revolving-door workplace"

Donald Trump dismisses FBI bigwigs (James Comey), fires former confidantes, turns against his most loyal early supporter (Jeff Sessions). and eats coffee boys (George Papadopoulos) for breakfast. 

Donald may turn to Temp Agencies to fill these positions.  He enjoys not adding USA Ambassadors to countries across the globe. No American ambassador presently assigned to South Korea.

The Donald keeps government employees on the unemployment line, denizens of the Deep State are stuck in basements, shooting pool or playing video games until things change.

Why Trump's rapid turnover. He has turned the White House into a revolving door atmosphere. If you grew up in New York City, you know revolving doors. They are found on the ground floor of high rise buildings.

Trump loves added his logo, the name Trump, to the top of these buildings. Revolving doors symbolize speed and efficiency. Maybe Trump's childhood visits to Manhattan made a big impression-- a regular primal experience.

"I'd love to send people flying through those doors when I grow up," young Donald may have thought.

Trump's dismissals of personnel are not always that-- and many resignations have been thrown in the mix.

Recent developments: Rob (accused wife beater) Porter fired... Hope Hicks resigned. Hope famous for being a Trump confidante. She answered to the Mueller investigators. Made a dash to the revolving door afterwards... Gary Cohn bolted. Cohn, Economics advisor, folded up his laptop and headed back towards Wall Street.

 Look-up The Art of the Deal, and see what Trump;s co-author Tony Schwartz had to say. Ain't a pretty picture. Schwartz's comments on Trump's short attention span bring to Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff.

Revolving Door. Let's get the invention facts:
American inventor Theophilus Van Kennel reportedly hated holding doors open for women, so he created energy-efficient revolving doors to cure his social phobia.
(Noah Friedman, Business Insider, Dec. 19, 2016)

And from Wikipedia:

Theophilus Van Kennel  was recognized for his invention with the John Scott Medal by the Franklin Institute in 1889, founded the Van Kannel Revolving Door Company, which eventually was bought out by the International Steel Company in 1907. International Steel Company is the parent company of International Revolving Door Company.

Van Kennel invented and owned Witching Waves, an amusement ride introduced at Luna Park, Coney Island, in 1907.

Witching Waves is an interesting name for the amusement ride at Coney Island by Van Kennel.  

Mysterious waves lapping at the shore. Waves washing ex-White House staffers out to sea... Witching Waves describes America's continuous turnover rate at the top. 

Mr. Trump professes conflict is key to his management style. Hard to argue with the pugnacious president.

Postcards from the Heartland: Trump's base speaks out

Recently I read a conservative publication, a right wing newspaper from deep in the heart of Texas. My copy came via a friend with connections to the paper. I've told him I'm a liberal and a Hillary Clinton voter at that! But still he shared the paper with me. Here are a few of these Trump Base sentiments, followed by My Liberal Perspective:

Trump Base Beliefs:

1) Trump is under attack. Attackers include lefties, Hollywood people and even Republicans like Paul Ryan, John McCain, John Kasich and Marco Rubio.

2) He is a "poor man's billionaire."

3) Every media platform is against him.

4)  Trump is an earthy man because of his experience in the construction industry.

5) Trump borrowed money from his father, but turned the million dollar loan into an empire worth more than 10 billion dollars.

6) Trump raised his kids right by making them on construction sites-- driving back-hoes and heavy equipment.

7) Donald Trump uses a bullying style because it works and because of the intensity of the attacks against him.

8) Trump is learning to be less gruff as he gains experience as President.  

9) Trump is anti-establishment.

10) Trump has revealed the Washington D.C. swamp for what it is. He threatens the Deep State bureaucrats, special interest groups and lobbyists running our government like no other president.

11)The United States is actually being run by a shadow government and Trump has done his level best to reveal the situation.

12) Trump puts America first. His enemies are using the Russia collusion story in an desperate attempt to bring him down.

My liberal perspective:

I love the term poor man's billionaire and I think it does capture one of Donald Trump's paradoxes-- though a high roller, he rarely appeals to educated voters from the upper income demographic. His cabinet is full of wealthy people, not exactly a swamp-drainer.

I interpret the tough guy approach to politics as Trump's strategy more than a personality trait. As Trump's primary campaign unfolded he got a clear message from Republican primary voters-- the more outrageous and less politically correct you behave, the more we like it.

Trump has perfected a very direct style of speech-making. I heard one commentator state that Trump speaks with the cadences of a comedian. Trump is at his most effective when he stays away from the teleprompter. He becomes animated and entertaining.

Trump is an interesting contradiction-- very open about using Twitter in support of his complicated machinations but a master of distraction. Trump has instincts towards secrecy-- ask him about his income taxes and he changes the subject. 

The baffling combination of saying whatever crosses his mind, while changing his mind constantly- makes for a 24/7 reality-TV show. Nobody seems sure Trump is suitable for the presidency, but he's a master of marketing and media. And he somehow figured this out from a second tier reality TV show called Celebrity Apprentice...

The "You're fired!" tagline for Celebrity Apprentice works well for Trump's approach to government. Just ask Mike Flynn, Paul Manafort, Sean Spicer,  and James Comey. They all got the axe, bit the bullet, took one for the team. Jeff Sessions may be next, and the Donald may even add Robert Mueller's head to the chopping block. That will add some thickening to the plot.

Trump never hired Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani or Chris Christie, experienced politicians with  media savvy. Trump doesn't like to share the spotlight with the heavyweights. But smooth talking Anthony Scaramucci has recently arrived on the scene. "The Mooch" grabbed some of Trump's screen time over the last 48 hours and may soon hit the highway for the same reason...

SNL spoofs Trump/ Holt interview-- Struggling to Keep Up

Watched Saturday Night Live (SNL) last night. Melissa McCarthy was guest host and her opening theme was Mothers Day and she even brought a middle-aged Mom out of the audience, probably planted there, as part of her opening routine. She provided a backstage tour for the Mom and offered a glimpse of the inner workings SNL, Lorne Michael's amazingly durable comedy show. That was fun, and reminded the viewers that the show really is theater, somewhat reminiscent of any other kind of live theater but with the addition of TV cameras and a national audience.

Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump has become a regular feature of the opening minutes of the show and last night was no exception. Trump's interview with Lester Holt about the firing of James Comey was recreated-- an event that happened only a day or two earlier. Things move faster. The real Donald Trump felt the need to get quickly to the airwaves when he saw the country meltdown in reaction to the Comey decision. The Trump/Holt interview went out to the entire country, maybe the world, and was rapidly absorbed into the nation's collective conscious. The news volley, much like a tennis match, flies quickly and comedy must follow suit. Anything too old in the 24/7 news cycle would not work well for the SNL parody.

Michael Che playing Lester Holt did an awesome job capturing the even-keeled television newsman. The comic summoned up Holt  so accurately-- big forehead, cool, friendly, but always professional, the expressionless expression, had a certain hysterical quality. The real Lester Holt must be about as far as you can get from a SNL skit. And Michael Che actually does the "Weekend Update" segment for SNL so has some of the news anchor instincts already built in.

Baldwin was good as always and made the point that Trump is kind of a mini-Nixon, not exactly my position on the issue. But having Speaker Paul Ryan show up as an overly solicitous, ass-kissing soda fountain jerk with two scoops of ice-cream for Donald Trump was ingenious. Donald insists on two scoops of ice-cream because Richard Nixon only got one scoop of ice-cream. Baldwin and the writers had captured the Donald Trump narcissism and the Republicans fear of offending Trump with great comic efficiency.

So this skit earned an A grade-- but made me wonder about the hurry up nature of our existence-- even comedy must reflect events from only a day or two ago... or it becomes old news.

Trump as King Midas: chops off the head of James Comey

The Donald Trump era has the feel of tremendous hedonism. Donald Trump always struck me as a Midas-like figure, a man who craved gold. He gave his Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan a golden sheen for gold was clearly his favorite color. Maybe he dislikes the White House because of its pale tones-- so bland and pedestrian. Even his hair has a gold luster.

Then there is fame. Trump lusts after fame even more than gold. And he combined the two. He used his fame, branding the Trump name to get loans to build casinos and hotels create more wealth.Trump built hotels and golf courses, not exactly a Steve Jobs like achievement. His money never resulted from innovation, only from fame and branding. And he brags about his wealth, a sin rarely indulged in by the truly wealthy. What's the point? Rich people know you only create envy in others by reminding them of your superior wealth.

Trump's willingness to talk about his riches convinced me he does not really care that much about money. Attention gets him off, more than wealth. That's why he could handle the bankruptcies and bounce back, still ticking like a Timex watch. He measured the success of his wedding to Melania based mostly on celebrity stats-- pointing out that more than 250 celebrities showed up to the reception. He was eager to have Bill and Hillary Clinton show up for the festivities-- and they did. Trump loves famous people.

Trump cannot get too much attention; he craves more; and we crave more of him. Trump's love of all  manner of fame and notoriety reminds me of King Midas, the king who turned everything he touched into gold. The talent seemed wonderful until Midas found his fingers turning his food and drink into the solid yellow metal.

Trump may have overdone it on the fame front. Like gorging on too much food, the news cycle has been gorging on too much Trump. James Comey, the recently fired FBI director tried to join the fame orgy. He clumsily inserted himself into the election news. He couldn't wait to do it again and went back at Hillary a second time. Now, with these Russian hacker accusations, and possible Trump team collusion, things got dicier and Sean Spicier, and Comey found himself on the ropes.

Trump liked Comey's pre-election high jinks, inserting himself into the 2016 election needlessly, and thereby improving Trump's chance at victory. Comey seemed like a high school kid forcing his way on to the prom committee as he strived to impress his Republican friends. Forgot he was in charge of a police agency known at onetime for its discretion in these matters.

Comey got in over his head-- and now his heads been chopped off. Trump couldn't restrain himself.

Nowadays the news seems to arrive too quickly. Mike Flynn hired, shamed and then quickly fired. Comey remained in office, briefly, surviving momentarily despite the election controversy-- but Trump quickly dumped the guy. Comey seemed like a loose cannon. Trump only likes one loose cannon on the scene-- and guess who that is?!