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Showing posts from November, 2016

The Tweeter-in-Chief

Ever since he began his quest for the presidency, Donald Trump has made Twitter his digital platform of choice for launching the kind of strategic messages he cherishes most--attacking his critics and praising himself. Not long into his run for the White House, The Donald got hip to the potential impact of social media. Those who were assigned to monitor Trump discovered his habit of staying up all night reviewing the comments of his critics and firing off tweeted reposts. It was clear that the billionaire real estate magnate did not react very well to criticism; Twitter became a valuable weapon he could use to respond instantly to what he perceived as unwarranted criticism and personal slander, even if only limited to 140 characters. Mr. Trump shot his tweets fast and furious Friday night, responding to Broadway actor Brandon Victor Dixon after the star of the hit musical "Hamilton" gave an impromptu speech in the direction of VP elect Mike Pence who had attended that ni...

Enter the Emperor

It all started with the escalator. The semiotic implications of the moment couldn't have been more clear. Like some blow-dried potentate, J. Donald Trump, builder of towering buildings, reality television star, salesman and con-man, descended from the heavens, a few steps above his angelic wife ready to announce his candidacy for the office of President of the United States. Carefully managed dramatic entrances would come easily for the man who would eventually stun the world with his electoral victory. A master of marketing and manipulation, the Emperor Donald 1st must now feel a bit like Muhammad Ali right after he floored Sonny Liston -- captivated by his own image, surrounded by adoring sycophants, many on bended knee in search of a cabinet post or a cushy assignment as an American ambassador. Last summer, when it was questionable that Mr. Trump would have enough political support to be accepted into the debates, he decided that his way to stand out from the other Republica...

Election 2016 --Welcome to the Barnyard

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” Winston Churchill... The world now has the opportunity to prove Churchill's famous dictum. For many, the loss of the White House to Donald Trump outlines the failure of representative government revealing some serious flaws in the way we do democracy. An opportunist businessman, a demagogue with no political experience and no program to offer the country, has been placed on the throne by a confused and angry electorate eager to give the finger to anything resembling the establishment. The unexpected victory had surprised everyone. Like many, I needed some time to process the nightmare: Donald Trump, who managed to manipulate the press with daily stories of his life as a presidential candidate, had actually been elected! It couldn't have happened! What about all the calculations, all the projections, all the math? I soon realized that I had awakened to a different country, one that had seemingly lost i...

November Surprise, or Anthony's Junk

Well the surprise was on me. I had stated in a post about the phenomenon of the October Surprise that the tale of Hillary Clinton's emails and the stories about Donald Trump's personal pecadillos would not be the factors that would ultimately define the destiny of their candidacies. I was certain that it would be Vladamir Putin who, like Ming the Merciless, would engage in some inter-galactic treachery designed to  sabotage the election of the  American president. I was sure that it would be Putin, that Trump supporting, Russian relic of the Soviet security machine, who would stake his claim to a red October. No, the true culprit, it turned out, was FBI director James Comey.  The Republican chief of the Bureau announced that it had found additional emails possibly belonging to Hillery Clinton on a laptop owned by former Congressman Anthony Weiner, better known as the pedophile husband of Hillery's assistant Huma Abedin.  It seems that Mr. Weiner was more concerned...