Uncle Rudy Guiliani: Trump’s breakout star

Rudy Giuliani (74 years) is two years older than Donald Trump (72 years) and a fellow New Yorker. Rudy’s age makes him a perfect mentor to Trump. Or just the perfect wing man.

Rudy’s role for Trump seems more bomb thrower than legal advisor. 

Rudy goes out for media interviews and drops the bombs. The bombs reveal some truth about Trump’a actual behavior. Like a defense attorney, he offers his client’s misdeeds before the prosecutors can get to make the accusations:

·     Donald Trump did pay off the Playboy girlfriend…. No big deal!

·     Michael Cohen does have tapes. No big deal! Wait that is a big deal. Cohen's a scumbag.

·     Trump  involved in the Russia meeting at Trump Tower. No big deal!

·     Even if the President colluded, it’s not a crime. No big deal!

Giuliani's rambling, drunk uncle style of communication, is strangely reassuring. I grew up in New York. I recognize the bombastic, circular storytelling of the eccentric relative. Somehow Rudy's rambling narratives feel a little like a TV version of a fireside chat. Giuliani is no FDR but he has some legendary exploits on his resume that make him a venerable, if not always loved, figure. 

Rudy’s Legend

Rudy is the guy who:

·     Took on the Mafia as a prosecutor.

·     As mayor, is often credited with curbing crime in New York City. His “broken window policy” locked up small time offenders and returned law and order to the city.

·     The 9/11 attacks with Rudy Giuliani marching around downtown New York with a dust mask over his face and bringing a sense of calm in the tragedy’s aftermath.

Rudy has the brash style of a New York City, not unlike his boss in the White House. Who could have guessed that the sweet, silent majority of the Flyover States would embrace a cabal of New York City characters? 

The top of the New York heap is—

1) Donald Trump, real estate developer and insult expert

2) Rudy Giuliani, former crime-buster, now flaunts the law and criticizes the FBI and Justice Department.

If I didn’t know better … the spin coming from Rudy Giuliani sounds vaguely like Norm Crosby, the famous double talk comedian. Norm also felt like a dose of normalcy in a world gone mad. 

Norm Crosby revealed day-to-day reality as an illusion. Nothing is as it seems, certainly not if this is the new normal kind of political discourse. 

Rudy now tap dances like a vaudeville hoofer. He doles out spoonfuls of truth  in the middle of Trump's hail storm of lies and distortions. Rudy has been so effective adding to the haze around Trump that the Donald seems content to give him tons of TV time. 

Rudy is the breakout star—the Fonzie of Happy Days in the White House.  

Rudy, like Trump, worked the New York streets and media scene for years. Trump respects that media wisdom and gives Rudy a forum and  his very own screen time. Rudy has a breakout hit in Season 2 of The Trump White House Reality Show. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the other big breakout star.

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Rudy's detractors make a mistake if they underestimates his media performance. Rudy knows the TV cameras. 

The left finally realizes Trump's ability to weave an "emotional narrative" resonates with voters-- even if his is a hate-filled story. The left needs to learn some storytelling skills with maybe a warmer message. Meantime Trump and Rudy run the airwaves like a bull in a china shop.

What matters?

                                                                                

Which of these stories matters the most to you?
* Hope Hicks, Communication Director leaves Trump's White House
* Jared Kushner loses Top Secret security status
* Barbra Streisand cloned her dog
* Arctic temperatures surge-- in the dead of winter

You can probably guess which one got my attention. Read these three paragraphs from The Guardian:

Arctic warming: scientists alarmed by ‘crazy’ temperature rise

by: Jonathan Watts Global environment editor

Tue 27 Feb 2018 10.15 EST

An alarming heatwave in the sunless winter Arctic is causing blizzards in Europe and forcing scientists to reconsider even their most pessimistic forecasts of climate change.

Although it could yet prove to be a freak event, the primary concern is that global warming is eroding the polar vortex, the powerful winds that once insulated the frozen north.

The north pole gets no sunlight until March, but an influx of warm air has pushed temperatures in Siberia up by as much as 35C above historical averages this month. Greenland has already experienced 61 hours above freezing in 2018 - more than three times as many hours as in any previous year.

Back to the blog…

You have got to admit there is cause for concern. Each of the three paragraphs tells an amazing story—more interesting, alarming and cause-for-concern than all the Jared Kushners… Hope Hicks and Barbra Streisand puppies combined.

We gravitate to the mundane, the minutiae, the Trumpian drama, the politics and gossip of the moment while our world crumbles, or melts, around us.

There is a psychological condition to explain this behavior, no doubt Call it “denial” or call it “rationalization” … but don’t call it late for dinner. That’s a little humor.

The Parkland, Florida horror deserved our attention. Even if nothing changes.

Or maybe the young people can make a dent in reality—and will influence the debate. Their protests will have to match Vietnam-era revolutionary action to have a chance to budge the corrupt congressmen and senators. I’m not sure the AR-15, scary as it is, threatens young people the way Vietnam threatened the health and well being of that generation.

Trump is an attention-grabber, maybe the best in the biz. But this Arctic story posed no threat to Trump. Because nobody cared. Nobody asked Sarah Huckabee Sanders about Arctic temperatures. She would tell us something along the lines about some days are hotter than others. Maybe add “Just like in Arkansas.”

We’re not in Arkansas anymore.

Mueller Investigation: Good Guys vs. Bad Guys

Mueller investigation. Everything moves at the speed of light these day. News at 186,000 miles per second… News stories cannot be connected at the speed of light.

So explains Marshall McLuhan, media prophet. I believe McLuhan and so should you.

Donald Trump is the perfect president for communications at the speed of light. His tweeting habit keeps pace with the new electronic environment.

Stories disappear. Tax changes benefit the wealthy… Mass shootings…Trump pays off Stormy Daniels ($130,000 hush money)… Trump pays off ex-Playmate Karen McDougal ($150,000 hush money). Eric Trump promotes Trump businesses in India… Stories won’t linger… won’t stick. Not at the speed of light.

Good guys. Robert Mueller has achieved American hero status. The Mueller investigation provides more entertainment than Celebrity Apprentice. We don’t know Mueller’s allies. The other good guys, the hard working investigators, have remained anonymous.

Mueller's investigation had been the one news story with a plot. Mueller manages the flow of information like a good screenwriter. The plot is building. We wait for denouement, a climax.

Bad guys help the narrative.  

Bad guy parade roll call.

Paul Manafort: campaign consultant and friend of all things Russian…busted.

Rick Gates… Manafort’s sidekick, possibly turning on Manafort…busted.

George Papadopoulos… wanted a place at the table, goofed up and spoke about Hillary’s pilfered emails… busted.

Alex van der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer was the bad guy for today. Looks like a European model for Luxxotica with those snappy European frames. Wasn’t seeing clearly when he lied to the FBI.

Feels like Celebrity Apprentice is still going strong in today’s White House. Rob Parker… Wife beater with a security clearance…Omarosa… Leaves kicking and screaming. Won’t stick…

Today’s winner… Sarah Huckabee Sanders… scores big as Press Secretary with enough attitude to hold the mainstream media at arm’s length.

Sarah Sanders does her best to squelch the accusations against Trump. Her denials may not really matter? Stories will last more a few days and disappear.

The huge open wound separating Left and Right is the chasm that threatens the American nation. It’s the real story that won’t go away.

Trump the De-stabilizer

Let’s turn to the Merriman-Webster dictionary for a definition of the word destabilize.

Destabilize—transitive verb; 1. To make unstable; 2 to cause (something such as a government) to be incapable of functioning or surviving.

Fareed Zakaria, host of a Sunday morning show on CNN, interviewed a journalist from Iran last week. The journalist didn’t speak perfect English. Fareed asked “what do people in Iran think of Donald Trump?”

“Instable,” the reporter answered. He meant to say “unstable” but his meaning was clear. “Donald Trump is instable and he is making America instable…” he continued. He used instable rather than saying “Trump is de-stablizing America.” Ah ha, I thought. I think this gentleman has captured the essence of Mr. Donald Trump. His goal is to “destabilize” each and every situation to his own advantage.

The President of the United States has immense power. We look to the president to add stability. We presume the president reached his position through great skill and experience. The president should be the epitome of—stability. He or she shares that great equanimity with the entire nation and the entire globe. The center of the Free World is Washington DC. We want everything to revolved around the White House. The president is a center of gravity holding reality, politics, war, conflict and peaceful resolution in the center of his hand. But this time it’s different. Donald Trump seeks instability in every situation.

Trump just declared against the FBI. The FBI is in tatters and only Donald the Great can restore the department to its former glory. Strange?! Critics say the morale of FBI agents will fall precipitously because the boss said they suck… Donald throws everybody over like a jiu jitsu master. Everybody is an enemy and he has to keep the adversaries off their stride. He has to destabilize them.

Donald Trump thrives on conflict, while most people avoid conflict as much as possible. We wonder about his motive. My guess is the destabilization technique comes from his business experience. I’ve never read “Art of the Deal” but I probably should. Keep your negotiating adversary off-guard, nudge him out of his game, push him out of his comfort zone. Maybe Trump’s goal is money and making money. His job description is to lead the USA but Trump always has his eye on the dollar bill.

A real estate friend of mine told me—“your power in any house buying decision is the ability to walk away from the deal. Trump alienates all comers. He’s always walking away from the deal.

A few tidbits… heard a radio caller describe Sarah Huckabee Sanders as “a sassy diner waitress type.” That’s hysterical.

The same radio show featured Major Garrett talking about the White House press briefings, now go-to viewing. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is just too entertaining.

Major Garrett said reporters, like him, “stormed the ramparts” to pin Sara Sanders to the truth.

The same caller on the show I mentioned above described the reporters as “obsequious.” You decide….

Word Nerd section:

3 Vocabulary words:

1.   Epitome-- embodiment

2.   equanimity—evenness of mind

3.   obsequious—fawning attentiveness

I used to be a Language Arts/Reading teach