Tag: UnPrecedential

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Dealin’ Don

The Art of the Deal. Taking it to the limits of all decorum and propriety. Scaring the country to distraction with wacky tweets and ridiculous rhetoric. Moving at light speed through Executive Orders with veiled threats. Then. The Don comes out in front of Congress with surprising sanity. Can it be believed? Maybe. Democrats will be so relieved not to have mass deportations or sick people dumped in the streets, they will have no choice but to compromise.

Hope springs… A nice couple from Louisiana gave us Mardi Gras beads in Central Park yesterday. So. As they say. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

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The New Abnormal

Global warming? Balmy February in New York. Rowboats on the Lake. rowboats-in-feb

Bannon’s economic nationalism. Dismantling administrative state. Trump golfing with Els and McIlroy. The new abnormal.

Books are still normal. Just finished a good one. The Honeymoon, Dinitia Smith. A novel about literary icon George Eliot’s life and last honeymoon. Which was a doozy. See review here. Oscars. Ho-hum. This year.

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UnPrecedential Day

throngUnprecedented resistance march on Central Park West. He’s Not My President’s Day rally from 59th to 67th. Even Northamptonites were there. A young kid yelled, “look it’s Steve Bannon!” Ha. It’s going to be a long four years. Fun to watch the throngs gather. bannon

Better to walk just down the hill to Tavern on the Green’s outdoor garden for a private protest on a sunny warm February afternoon.

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The Trump Show

A show within a show. Only it’s real. Press conferences. Bill signing photo opps. Dinners at Mar-a-Lago with world leaders. Couples lunch in the White House Blue Room with Bibi Netanyahu. Campaign-style rallies on a Saturday in Florida. Where are Jim Carrey and Scott Rudin when you need them? Keep the klieg lights on call. It’s going to be a surreal soap opera.

Almost as weird is FX new show Legion. Matthew Crawley meets Quentin Collins.

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From Vlad With Love

Happy Valentine’s Day From Russia With Love. Putin’s arrow on a dangerous trajectory. Flynn’s ties to Vlad finally results in his demise. What was Trump’s own complicity. Chaos Doctrine front and center. Sure has blown up the White House inner circle. Will it backfire on the disrupter-in-chief himself? Pence could be the next Prez sooner rather than later.

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House of Shards

Who is in charge? Nikki Haley gives a strong anti-Russia speech at the U.N. Secretary of Defense off to Japan. Secretary of State takes the helm. They all make their own cases in direct opposition to the President’s. Senators call ambassadors to smooth over commander-in-chief’s nasty phone calls to foreign leaders. Generals crash press briefings with macho proclamations to Iran. Trump whisperers lurking in the White House behind curtains all over the place. Nope. Even Frank Underwood couldn’t make this up.

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Trump Whisperer

Steve Bannon. The President In Effect. A guy who made big bucks investing in Seinfeld. Editor of alt-right Breitbart. Conspiracy theorist and closet racist. Puppetmaster of populism. Trump whisperer. National Security Council interloper. Anti-Muslim executive order architect. Xenophobe-in-Chief. Dangerous if left unchecked. Courts and Congress need to take action. Soon.

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Putin-esca

Trump is concocting a sassy sauce of business and military cabinet picks. Many tethered to Vlad the Invader. Keep your enemies close? Hmmm. Foe or friend in the end? Interesting. Another Putin-phile, Exxon-Mobil’s Tillerson for State. Netanyahu on board. Is that bad?

Outrage. So many of these people have no government experience! Isn’t that the point? More private over public sector. New perspectives. That’s good. A mix of fresh tastes. Several women of varied backgrounds so far. Okay lots of rich white men. In any event. This will be different.

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UnPrecedential

Unprecedented. Trump’s Campaign. Expectation that he’d pivot for the general election by media stalwarts and Republican establishment. Quashed. He never promised traditional political tactics. Trump continues to savor crowd adulation at his rallies. Watching himself on Fox. Retaliating with late night tweets. Party of Lincoln? Pffft. Party of Trump. He puts his label on everything. Why would a major party be any different? His behavior remains that of a petulant adolescent. Presidential? Never. Consistently UnPrecedential.