Politics Election 2016: May 2016 Archives
Donald Trump Really Doesn't Want Me to Tell You This, but ... | Vanity Fair
"I spent a long, awkward weekend with Donald Trump in November 1996, an experience I feel confident neither of us would like to repeat.
"He was like one of those characters in an 18th-century comedy meant to embody a particular flavor of human folly. Trump struck me as adolescent, hilariously ostentatious, arbitrary, unkind, profane, dishonest, loudly opinionated, and consistently wrong. He remains the most vain man I have ever met. And he was trying to make a good impression....
"I was prepared to like him as I boarded his black 727 at La Guardia for the flight to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home--prepared to discover that his over-the-top public persona was a clever pose. That underneath was an ironic wit, an ordinary but clever guy. But no. With Trump, what you see is what you get. His behavior was cringe-worthy. He showed off the gilded interior of his plane--calling me over to inspect a Renoir on its walls, beckoning me to lean in closely to see . . . what? The luminosity of the brush strokes? The masterly use of color? No. The signature. 'Worth $10 million,' he told me. Time after time the stories he told me didn't check out, from Michael Jackson's romantic weekend at Mar-a-Lago with his then wife Lisa Marie Presley (they stayed at opposite ends of the estate) to the rug in one bedroom he said was designed by Walt Disney when he was 18 (it wasn't) to the strength of his marriage to Maples (they would split months later)....
"What was clear was how fast and far one could fall from favor. The trip from 'genius' to 'idiot' was a flash.... I watched as Trump strutted around the beautifully groomed clay tennis courts on his estate, managed by noted tennis pro Anthony Boulle. The courts had been prepped meticulously for a full day of scheduled matches. Trump took exception to the design of the spaces between courts. In particular, he didn't like a small metal box--a pump and cooler for the water fountain alongside--which he thought looked ugly. He first questioned its placement, then crudely disparaged it, then kicked the box, which didn't budge, and then stooped--red-faced and fuming--to tear it loose from its moorings, rupturing a water line and sending a geyser to soak the courts. Boulle looked horrified, a weekend of tennis abruptly drowned. Catching a glimpse of me watching, Trump grimaced."
The meaningless Donald Trump Supreme Court list - The Washington Post
"I think the list is meaningless for that. First, Trump's press release does not commit to choosing from this list. Rather, it states: 'The following list of potential Supreme Court justices is representative of the kind of constitutional principles I value and, as President, I plan to use this list as a guide to nominate our next United States Supreme Court Justices.' So Trump has a 'plan' to use the list as a 'guide.' That's nice, but it's not a commitment to choosing from the list....
"Say what you want about Trump, but he is more than willing to change his mind when new circumstances arise. And actually being elected would count as a changed circumstance. You can imagine President Trump's tweet when he explains why he didn't pick from his list: 'List of 11 was ideal, but had to compromise with Senate. My nephew John Trump is smart. Be a great judge!'
"Finally, if you take the list seriously, it includes a very wide mix of judges. It includes moderates, conservatives and libertarians. It includes those more committed to judicial restraint and those more committed to judicial activism. It includes some distinguished judges and some with less of a national reputation. I assume Trump is counting on conservative and libertarian lawyers to look at the list, see at least one person they like, and decide to support Trump and just hope for the best. But if that happens, I think it will reflect wishful thinking rather than sound judgment."
From 1997, and Donald Trump doesn't seem to have changed all that much (emphasis added):
"Trump's vaunted art of the deal has given way to the art of 'image ownership.' By appearing to exert control over assets that aren't necessarily his--at least not in ways that his pronouncements suggest--he exercises his real talent: using his name as a form of leverage....
"Of course, the 'comeback' Trump is much the same as the Trump of the eighties; there is no 'new' Trump, just as there was never a 'new' Nixon. Rather, all along there have been several Trumps: the hyperbole addict who prevaricates for fun and profit; the knowledgeable builder whose associates profess awe at his attention to detail; the narcissist whose self-absorption doesn't account for his dead-on ability to exploit other people's weaknesses; the perpetual seventeen-year-old who lives in a zero-sum world of winners and 'total losers,' loyal friends and 'complete scumbags'; the insatiable publicity hound who courts the press on a daily basis and, when he doesn't like what he reads, attacks the messengers as 'human garbage'; the chairman and largest stockholder of a billion-dollar public corporation who seems unable to resist heralding overly optimistic earnings projections, which then fail to materialize, thereby eroding the value of his investment--in sum, a fellow both slippery and naïve, artfully calculating and recklessly heedless of consequences.
Why Pro-Trump Conservative Media Should Worry | PJ Media
Christian Toto writes:
"I didn't give up on print newspapers even when the web starting delivering all the news I needed to my laptop.
"I kept buying the daily paper, tucking it under my arm and taking it everywhere I went that day. Sure, I could find it all online, but I loved the feel of the paper in my hands. It also connected me to my early days as a newspaper reporter, eager to read my colleagues' work.
"Not anymore.
"Now, when I see the newspaper on our front lawn, cocooned in its pristine orange wrapper, I just keep on walking. I'll pick it up later. Maybe.
"What day is recycling again?
"Consider that a warning to conservative media outlets serving as Donald Trump's de facto campaign arm. You're destroying habits that have been in places for years. In some cases, decades....
"For roughly 25 years if I was near a radio from noon to 3 p.m. I turned on "The Rush Limbaugh Show." I first heard Limbaugh through my dad. We'd sit in the car together, wolfing down Sabrett hot dogs and listening to "talent ... on loan ... from Gawd."
"I was hooked. Like father, like son.
"As I got older, listening to Limbaugh became instinctual. It was like walking into a darkened room and reaching for the light switch.
"No more.
"Months of hearing Limbaugh, THE voice of conservatism, downplay, ignore or somehow spin Trump's antics changed all that. Now, I turn the radio to a competitor. Or I don't turn it on at all.
"Twenty-plus years of entrenched behavior? Gone, unlikely to return."
