Trump: rain-maker or hatchet man?

Hatchet Man--  definition

• a person employed to carry out controversial or disagreeable tasks, such as the   dismissal of a number of people from employment.
• person who writes fierce attacks on others or their work.

Donald Trump has roared into power like an unknown racehorse storming to the front of the pack and crossing the finish line before the competition. Rather than sit on his laurels and savor his victory with a cigar and glass of champagne, he seems more fired up than ever. What does this intensity mean?

Trump's critics perceive a scary future in the whirlwind of tweets and attacks he has leveled in almost every direction. What should we expect from The Donald? Take a look at a few things we have learned.

Donald Trump loves the states and the voters that voted for him-- especially the states not expected to go his way, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He loves Ivanka, his attractive daughter. Jared Kushner, Ivanka's husband and Donald's son-in-law, has a talent for strategy. Jared played a key role in engineering Donald Trump's campaign and unexpected rise to the front of the pack. Jared Kushner has risen to the top of Donald's inner circle. He may have helped with Donald Trump's understanding of the effective use of electronic media.

Donald is fond of Twitter. He tweets the electronic environment as a means of bypassing committees, bureaucrats, enemies, fellow Republicans, and the mainstream media. Donald's inflammatory tweets propel him to the front of the mainstream media-- cable TV news shows, etc., and he becomes mainstream media.

Donald portrays himself as a master dealmaker, presumably a peerless negotiator. Donald Trump is in an enviable position for expanding his own wealth. The accumulation of personal riches has been a life-long goal. He is having trouble separating himself from this commitment to his own wealth. He claims to have switched his hierarchy of goals. Now he wants to do great things for America. Does he know how to do this? What does this look like for America? He plans to win many jobs for Americans. 

Donald likes to play hardball. His deal-making style is to keep the other guy off balance. Does this aggressive style work on the world stage? The stock market does not like off-balance. Parents like their children to feel the world is a peaceful place. Trump enjoys keeping everybody on edge and himself firmly planted on center stage, the only man who can pull us from the fire, the skilled super-hero able to grab victory from the jaws of defeat.

We will learn if Donald Trump truly has any talent for making other people richer-- the great expanse of humanity, the American citizenry feeling the most pain. Most rich people devote themselves to their own riches. Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City, and a billionaire like Trump, showed an interest in the day-to-day operations and details of running of the city. Bloomberg never employed braggadoccio or threats. He had a talent for steering New York City down a path to success.

Donald Trump reminds me of a hatchet man (see above). A hatchet man arrived at my place of employment, an office where I worked about fifteen years ago. He had a confrontational style which ran totally contrary to the bureaucratic environment. People shook in their boots-- wondering if their job was in jeopardy. The guy's name was Sean. He brimmed with confidence and was not afraid to seem a bit eccentric. Sean broke the mold. I left that office for reasons not related to Sean's arrival. I later heard he left under a cloud of controversy. Turns out Sean had skeletons in his closet, had committed acts of bad judgment, far worse than anything he had accused of others. Sean shook things up-- changes were made that only he had the courage to act upon, but his demise came quickly. 

The question will be answered in the coming weeks, months and years. We will learn. Donald Trump may be a rain-maker, the greatest job producer every place by God on this green earth... or maybe he is just a hatchet man, acting on society's impulses, and forcing change upon us all.

Trump: The Importance of Insouciance

The name Trump is on everybody's lips. Love him or hate him, you've got to watch him. Trump understands electronic media. Funny that a 70 year old man figured out the method for flourishing in the 24/7 media environment. Donald Trump is a natural extrovert. He defines the concept that "all publicity is good publicity." He embraces the microphone, the spotlight and tweets constantly. Trump loves conflict. All drama progresses on the basis of conflict. Good movies move forward on conflict. Today's politics have converged with entertainment-- and beg for conflict.

Only one scholar has explained how this happened-- Marshall McLuhan, the media guru who died in 1980. Marshall McLuhan taught us a simple truth-- the candidate must meet the the electronic media with an attitude of insouciance.

What is insouciance?  In-sou-ci-ance -- (noun) a casual lack of concern; indifference

Synonyms--lack of concern, unconcern,  disinterest, lack of interest, lack of enthusiasm, apathy, nonchalance, insouciance


Marshall McLuhan made the following statement in a Saturday Evening Post magazine article he penned about the 1968 presidential election and the importance of television:


Why should TV demand sophistication and insouciance? Simply because it is a depth medium for which earnestness is fatal. Depth requires perception on many levels and, therefore, an absence of single purpose or direction. An all-at-once world, fashioned by electric information, demands a candidate full of puns and unexpected nuances. Such a man is one who knows so much about the contemporary interface of all cultures that he cannot possibly be deluded into any earnest regard for any one of them. The new changes are not moral but technological.  

(Saturday Evening Post, August 10, 1968)

McLuhan's statement about the Importance of Not Being Earnest applies even more precisely to the presidential election of 2016.

Trump uses Twitter to go directly to the audience. He captures and capsizes his enemies with simple phases-- Low Energy (Jeb Bush), Lyin' Ted (Ted Cruz), Crooked Hillary (Hillary Clinton)-- but simple phrases are never turned on him. The attacks do not work on Trump.

The insults never turn the tables on Trump- because of his insouciance. His skin may seem thin, but...  Sticks and stones may break bones, but words will never harm him.

Trump is Hermes (the shape shifter)

Hermes is Trump... Hermes is the second youngest of the Greek gods. Dionysos, god of wine and partying, is the youngest. Donald Trump is a teetotaler. Doesn't seem like a party animal. Not a Dionysian, Trump is Hermes.

Hermes is considered a god of transitions and boundaries. He is described as quick and cunning, moving freely between the worlds of the mortal and divine. "He is an emissary and messenger of the gods, an intercessor between mortals and the divine, and conductor of souls into the after-life."

Trump has become an intercessor between physical reality and electronic or virtual reality. He has turned facts and truth into a game. His wild ravings change direction constantly and twitter rantings create a universe of their own. He alone manages that electronic universe  from atop his Trump Tower. He works with only a small phone in his hand, texting out unsettling versions of reality while the media, his followers, and his enemies, hang on every tweet.  Trump is the master of rhetoric and crosser of boundaries.

"In some myths, Hermes is a trickster and outwits other gods for his own satisfaction or for the sake of humankind."

Trump has proven himself to be the master trickster, portraying himself as a patriot while paying no taxes, calls himself a friend to the little man, but steals money from the little man through gambling casinos, phony Trump University, etc.. Trump lacks real friends. He prefers not to have physical contact with other people, certainly not the hoi polloi, the common people. Watch how awkward his physical movements become when he stands in close proximity to anybody, other than his wife and children.

Hermes' attributes and symbols include the herms, the herms is a statue of just the head and genitals... Trump brags about his genitals...  the rooster,  Trump strives to be the rooster in the henhouse, the tortoise (Trump is a hard-skinned animal), satchel or pouch  and Trump carries a money bag with his constant references to his wealth, winged sandals (Trump prefers wingtips, the shoes of the businessman), and winged cap. Trump wears a crazy wig of orange hair with wings flying off in every direction. 

"Hermes has been viewed as the protector and patron of herdsmen, thieves, oratory and wit, literature and poetry, athletics and sports, invention and trade roads, boundaries and travelers." 

Trump has a fondness for thieves and conmen-- a rogues gallery of characters like Rudy Guiliani and Chris Christie, the vainglorious David Petraeus, etc.. As for sports, Trump has been involved with boxing, at his failed casinos, and the United States Football League (USFL). Trump has an undeniable talent for oratory-- he used words to rise like a Phoenix from the ashes-- tripping up the likes of Jeb Bush... low energy.... Ted Cruz... Lying' Ted.... and Hillary Clinton... Crooked Hillary with his witty and effective use of language.

Hermes is called Mercury in the Roman pantheon. Have you seen the elusive movement of mercury, a substance neither solid nor liquid, shifting constantly, impossible to grab, dissipating and re-forming but always impossible to grasp. Trump is Mercury.

The Hymn to Hermes invokes him as the one "of many shifts (polytropos), blandly cunning, a robber, a cattle driver, a bringer of dreams, a watcher by night, a thief at the gates, one who was soon to show forth wonderful deeds among the deathless gods." 

Trump is the shape shifter supreme.

Roiling Electorate: is @realDonaldTrump all that real?

The Presidential election sends people into spasms of pain, or delight, depending on whether they fear Trump or embrace him. The powerful reaction of people has more mystery than the political issues. Nobody knows what to expect, Trump included, from a man who rode gambling casinos into bankruptcy. Gambling is an addiction! If you cannot succeed playing to people's addictions, wow, you've got a problem. That's like failing with a liquor store. Hardly ever happens.

I understand Trump turned his failed casinos into a profit-maker, for him, but that's another story. I have none of the information on how you turn failure into profit. You've got to be big-time player to pull off that kind of ruse. And now Trump is the biggest of all players!

Why does hucksterism work so well in the new media environment-- the electronic universe we all occupy in the present day. Trump mastered Twitter. Everybody constantly studies the phone in their hand. Marshall McLuhan warned us that the digital environment would be grafted directly to our brain and nervous system. Trump, give him credit, figured this out and circumvented Jeb Bush and his hundred millions of dollars. Trump did the same to Hillary. He went directly to the spinal chord of the people via their telephones.

Will Donald Trump use electronic communications to run the country? He spoke grandly of manufacturing and other dreams of restoring the past. That mechanical, industrial stuff is not the thing 21st century dreams are made of. Obama kept saying that the less fortunate needed to learn the digital skills that enable a worker to flourish as a present-day worker. That gets down to learning to program computers, or at least function in the digital environment, beyond the ability to study your phone. Trump promises factory jobs. That seems like sentimentality. But he sold it brilliantly.

The people hired a businessman, a guy with an aversion to paying taxes. He wants to punish the high tech moguls for keeping their billions offshore. Well, takes on to know one, as they say...

Celebrity Apprentice prepared Trump for his present mission. Only now he is the celebrity apprentice, trying to learn the job of President of the United States. Could be something of a challenge-- and not sure Twitter works as well when you're behind the wheel of the country. Not as easy to lob Twitter grenades when suddenly you find yourself as the establishment. And Trump is now the main guy, no longer the gadfly.

Life is Shortz (New York Times)

NY Times crossword, Tues, Nov 2, 2016

Life is Shortz, no doubt about it. Will Shortz shared some wisdom in his crossword puzzle on this day: amidst all the blockgame scenery, fake and feint foolery, word and parry parody.

The clue—Down 23--What kindness and graceful aging reveal… La respuesta, the answer … Inner beauty, sounds like the supercilious, surefire meaning to existence

Will said it best and moved on ahead most beautifiously  to Down 24—Quibbles. And the answer to Quibbles? Nit… And so goes life you move from inner beauty to nitpicking in a heartbeat, a nanosecond a blink of the eye. Cause that’s how Will rolls… the man has cojones like Yemens Lemons, he’s no slave to space and time. Well, actually he’s pretty particular about his spaces. And he likes his rhymes.

Way down upon the Swanee River, far far away. In Ancient Central America, Juliet found her Romeo amidst the Ebola, the Togoslogos and the Allosaurus. Or was that Al O’Saurus, the Irishman from Pleistocene.

Rolling Stones lack it—. Moss. A rolling stone gathers no moss, fools us does Mr. Will Shortz the harlequin, and even adds a  television reference, a “Wheel of Fortune” buy— an e. You’re a funny guy Big Willie.

Bonnie and Clyde went on a crime spree, he reminds, and Theseus slew the Minotaur on Crete. Don’t know if Bonnie and Clyde made it to Peoria but I know they never hit Lesotho. But like Sondheim said… It takes two. And that’s Across 59-- a duet. Just do it!

And Mr. Shortz does do it, roaming down and across the cosmos like an Allosaurus from pre-history to Wheel of Fortune… across the map and all over history, myth and legend. Across 61, To be, in Toulouse, that’s c’est  and with Will it’s either c’est la vie or not to be—you just never know.

Just gotta see if it fits.

Donald Trump: Most Redeeming Quality

Donald Trump has taken over the global electronic marketplace. He is on every screen, his name constantly uttered by media pundits, talking heads, friends, enemies, sycophants,  and, most importantly, the man on the global street. Will all this attention get him elected? I think not. He is down in the polls and the subject of much criticism, especially of late, for his crude techniques for meeting women. Some describe the encounters as assaulting women. Like everything else Trump does, his methods for introducing himself is heavy-handed, self-absorbed, crass, blunt and direct. He moves forward until pushed back-- in business, in sex and on the campaign trail. It's often not a pretty picture.

In Hillary Clinton v. Donald Trump, Debate #2-- the town hall-style meeting, with citizens asking questions-- the final question was directed to both candidates. It went something like.... What is one trait you find admirable in your opponent?

Donald Trump answered the final question more successfully than Hillary Clinton. He described her tenacity, persistence and ability to keep moving forward under the most difficult circumstances. That compliment might be double-edged, implying Hillary is something of a plodder, going forward despite all the odds. But she does have the ability to fight with great intensity in the most grueling circumstances-- a key personality trait to achieving the lofty goals she has set for herself.

Hillary struggled to find a single positive thing about Donald. She settled on saying she admired his family. Trump's family is not really a personality trait. Having a good family reflects well on one's character and priorities. But it's almost the equivalent of saying you admire their car or their house. She was reducing her commitment to finding a specific trait she found admirable in Donald Trump and offering faint praise by shifting the subject to his children. Her daughter Chelsea Clinton is friends with Ivana Trump, Donald's daughter.

Though I'm a lifelong Democrat and self-declared liberal, I will find a trait in Donald Trump that is admirable-- and something we could all benefit from-- he does not sweat the small stuff.

I can hear the roars of anger rising from the throats of Trump haters. He doesn't fret over anything, including the prospect of pushing a button to start a nuclear war. Okay, that's a flaw. But most impressive to me is the way he has moved through life without a fear of committing a faux pas.

Most of us cower at the thought of offending any single person, never mind an entire ethnic group or President of the United States. And he knew the birther claim about Barack Obama was a flat-out lie. But, by contrast, the vast majority of people are light years away from the Donald Trump approach to life. We tiptoe through our lives,  jumping away nervously if a butterfly alights on our shoulder.

So, the Trump trait I admire is a willingness to not Be-Perfect. The fruitless attempt to Be-Perfect is a neurotic drive in most of us. We limit our embrace of life, or should I say... I have limited my embrace of life and all of its challenges-- by a huge timidity. Most of us, or maybe it's just me... get intimidated by the thought of not doing something perfectly well.

Trump cannot apologize under any circumstances-- but most of us fail at the other extreme-- we do not take life on with the vigor it deserves and miss out on many experiences as a result.

I was hesitant to write this piece-- knowing that the Trump name and behavior sparks a firestorm of reaction. But I decided to throw Be-Perfect to the winds and plunge ahead. For once!

Debate Tickets: getting a front row seat

The Clinton-Trump debate starts in a few hours.  Two New Yorkers go at it. Donald Trump, a native born New Yorker, moved from Queens to Manhattan as soon as he could get there. Hillary, a naturalized New Yorker, born in the Midwest, moved to New York as soon as she could get out of Arkansas. Both want to move to Washington, D.C..  To the Oval Office baby!

The debate, 1 1/2 hours of must see-TV, might include more than the usual dose of mudslinging, innuendo, gossip, and insults. Certain pressure points exist-- Hillary's health and Donald's demeanor. And this is where the psy-ops, psychological operations, come in. The Psy-Ops, psychological operations warfare, even concern the seating plan for  the front row of the debate.

Hillary has saved a seat for Mark Cuban, just to rattle the opponent. Cuban, a feisty billionaire, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, star of Shark Tank, a fondness for the glare of the spotlight is actually a recent arrival to Hillary Camp. He even considered signing up for Trump's vice presidential candidate. But that was months ago. And months ago feels like aeons in Infotainment World, our present home.

Trump countered strongly with suggestions he would bring in Gennifer Flowers, Bill Clinton's mistress for a dozen years.

This tactic recalls Godfather II-- where Frankie Pantangeli is about to testify in front of a Washington grand jury and name names. The Corleone family places an old school mafioso from Sicily in the back of the hearing room and  Frankie quickly reverts to "I don't know nothing." Frankie later takes his own life, the honorable route, rather than rat out his brothers. Clinton and Trump don't strike me as the fall on your sword type of individuals.

Cuban likes to be in the national discussion, whether baiting the refs at his team's NBA games or starring on a reality TV competition show. Who does that remind you of?

Gennifer spells her name with a "G"-- and is called a showgirl. Gennifer Flowers, we learn, has not actually been invited by Trump. Trump may see a downside to going too far with the adultery card. So she may not even be there. Too bad.

Ironically, the studio audience at Hofstra will be completely out of view. The audience is literally in the dark. Trump may not be able to see Cuban, unless Cuban charges the stage a la Kanye West.

The whole front row seating thing reminds me of the motley assemblage of celebrities reminds me of the Beatles high moment, and their memorable cover for the Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover. I always liked the image of Sonny Liston. Where's Sonny when you need him?

The only image that matters will be the body language of the contestants, er, the candidates. If we've learned anything it is that how you comport yourself and how you feel on stage with 80-100 million watching is what really matters. The camera is an X-ray machine and the audience sees the candidates to the core of their being. That clarity seals the deal.