Hello Good WhatevertimeofdayitmightbewhenIgetthisonethroughtheslousegates Friends, SadlyNauts, and other Passengers of Earth I thought you might enjoy a visit from these adorable little critters because they are adorable, and also happen to each be wearing the expression that I do upon waking in the morning and realizing that yet another un-plated serving of fail, awaits my discovery for consumption and analysis of its impact on my immediate future.
Four little heads, eight piercing eyes one depression in the sand waiting in rapt attention for their mother and or father to bring home something to break the fast.
And with that palate cleanser on the table, let us see what Dear Leader has managed to do to get David Brooks lathered up, because if that professional cannot muck Trump’s Stable and come out with a bar of Gold, then we might have a problem…
At certain times Donald Trump has seemed like a budding authoritarian, a corrupt Nixon, a rabble-rousing populist or a big business corporatist.
But as Trump has settled into his White House role, he has given a series of long interviews, and when you study the transcripts it becomes clear that fundamentally he is none of these things.
At base, Trump is an infantalist. There are three tasks that most mature adults have sort of figured out by the time they hit 25., Trump has mastered none of them. Immaturity is becoming the dominant note of his presidency, lack of self-control his leitmotif.
First, most adults have learned to sit still. But mentally, Trump is still a 7-year-old boy who is bouncing around the classroom. Trump’s answers in these interviews are not very long — 200 words at the high end — but he will typically flit through four or five topics before ending up with how unfair the press is to him.
Remember, this is David Brooks ‘Britzing’ in the Paper of Record on possibly the most prestigious piece of editorial Real Estate in the Country in what might be considered trumps own home town rag going on like he does when he is on one of his tours of the heartland examining the ways of people of the salted earth…Examining the subject like something unknown, unrecognizable, as if he had never before seen this person in the wild….. Or never had a cup of coffee within sight of the tower on which Trump’s name is plastered. I mean I get it, he is talking past these shoulders and speaking to a heartland Golem, quite possibly one who I might have crossed paths with within the last week, or seen in these wilds with my own two eyes, but he is not talking about me, he can’t be.
For one: I have been out of Fritters Indiana on more than one occasion, I also have something that passes for an education, if only of the hardscrabble kind, and I have ridden a bicycle down fifth avenue in Manhattan, right past Trump Tower in fact, and to be honest, I did not appreciate it at the time, being concerned with traffic and what not, but later it was pointed out to me and the next time I approached I made sure to take a look at the magnificence of its creation, and marvel at the gilt appointments, opulent splendor, knowing that my laughter would fill the foyer should I cross the threshold because it could only be more tasteless inside….(Bring it back to Brooks)
He is thus the all-time record-holder of the Dunning-Kruger effect, the phenomenon in which the incompetent person is too incompetent to understand his own incompetence.
Which is like saying someone is the world record holder for “The Kleptomania effect.” As in, if I did not just pull that one out of my ass, and it was a real thing, as in, a psychological conditional reality, there still would still be no world records, for there is a) no competition involved, b) not an Olympic sport or c) a Guinness category. But if I had to guess, Brooksie might just be setting a trap, or taking this opportunity phone it in, knowing, or suspecting as he must, that he must find a good distance in which to take cover, so he is out of the way when the walls fall down, and can be on the ground floor running, when the Conservative Siren song calls from the rubble…
Trump thought he’d be celebrated for firing James Comey. He thought his press coverage would grow wildly positive once he won the nomination. He is perpetually surprised because reality does not comport with his fantasies.
It would have been helpful if Trump had been a real mastermind at anything other than winning the lottery and being an entertaining buffoon…
Third, by adulthood most people can perceive how others are thinking. For example, they learn subtle arts such as false modesty so they won’t be perceived as obnoxious.
I picture that last bit as his glasses talking to him as he puts them on after shaving in the morning, so that he makes it to his desk without getting beat by a random dude on the street.
