(H/t Paul Krugman, at his blog)
And now, for something completely different… Seagulls follow garbage barges, and Buzzfeed follows Donald Trump. McKay Coppins’ much-blogged-about longread is pretty entertaining, actually:
Donald Trump is sitting in the passenger seat of a black SUV packed with four well-dressed yes-men — and me — as we wind through the snowy roads of Manchester, New Hampshire on a quiet Tuesday morning in January. He has just finished a series of speeches and interviews at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics designed to stoke speculation about his political ambitions. His most recent gambit has been to make noise about running for governor in New York, but none of the students, activists, and local politicos he just spent the morning glad-handling seemed interested — a fact he notes with a tinge of frustration as soon as we get in the car.
“They didn’t ask one question about running for governor,” Trump tells his aides, rubbing his hands together as the vehicle fills with the alcoholic scent of hand sanitizer. “They didn’t care.”
There is a tense moment of silence before the driver offers, “They probably think you’re already past that.”
Trump likes this theory. “That’s interesting,” he says, raising his voice so that everyone in the car can hear. “Did you hear what he said? He said they think I’m past that. I can’t tell you how many people have said that to me. They say, ‘What are you doing running for governor?’” He punctuates the last word with the sort of disgusted tone he might use if someone asked him to trade in his private plane for a Bolt Bus ticket. “It’s a good point.”
The notion that he is simply too big — too presidential — for a measly job in the Albany Statehouse has temporarily quelled his insecurity. But after this morning, Trump can no longer escape the fact that his political “career” — a long con that the blustery billionaire has perpetrated on the country for 25 years by repeatedly pretending to consider various runs for office, only to bail out after generating hundreds of headlines — finally appears to be on the brink of collapse…
Truth is, as a “plutocrat”, The Donald is small potatoes (and few in the hill, as my Irish granny would say). Genuinely wealthy Montgomery Burnses, men like Mike Bloomberg and Tom Perkins, have displaced him as objects of media-friendly populist ire, and his career as a GOP novelty act has been usurped by more dedicated grifters like Ted Cruz (and local comer Scott ‘Short Time’ Brown). By the time the 2016 primaries really heat up, the free-media competition will be so fierce NBC might have to start paying to advertise his ‘reality’ show.
JPL
The only thing of substance that I read in the article was the Don is a bigger narcissist, than I previous thought. His staff appears to be treated well, but what a way to earn a living.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: Brave man. The mere thought of reading an article about the Donald makes me think that I first should put up the guns.
Steeplejack (tablet)
Is Trump really a billionaire? I thought I had read that he is chronically overleveraged and keeps himself “too big to fail” with his creditors.
But if he’s sitting on some (inherited) trove of Manhattan real estate, with the way that appreciates, I guess he could be worth a billion on paper. Anybody know for sure? I don’t have my Google goggles on yet this morning.
Derelict
Trump is like some kind of narcissist shark: He needs a constant flow of publicity past his gills in order to survive.
geg6
Oh man, I laughed and laughed and laughed when I read that Coppins story yesterday. And the more I think about it, the more I kinda feel sorry for The Donald. How must it be to go through life feeling so inadequate, so small and so insignificant that you have to spent every minute of every day doing things to build up your sense of self-respect? And to have to hire an army of people in order to feel important? I don’t have his money or material things, but I like myself and feel good about how I live my life. I’d much rather have my life. He’s really just a pitiful little boy. Kind of sad.
Elizabelle
@Derelict:
narcissist sharks and vampire squids
That is good enough for the urban dictionary. Well done.
geg6
@Steeplejack (tablet):
I didn’t google it, but everything I’ve ever read about his business dealings says you are correct. He’s vastly over leveraged but is too big to fail, so he’s kind of like Citibank or BoA during the Crash. He does own a lot of valuable real estate in big cities, over leveraged as they may be, so I guess he’s a billionaire on paper, but I don’t think he could come up with more than a few tens of millions if he had to come up with hard cash.
JPL
@geg6: I didn’t know that he gave a speech in NH until I read the article. Trump’s connection with Halperin didn’t help him.
BTW Bill Nye will be debating Blackburn on MTP. The topic will be climate change and Dave will mention what a good point Marsha makes every time she opens her mouth. Nye’s motives are pure but there is no reasoning with those who don’t believe in reason.
Splitting Image
By my count, Donald Trump has made exactly one useful contribution to society. When he was pretending to run for President in 2012, someone interviewing him asked him if he believed that there is a constitutional right to privacy.
Trump sort of sneered and said that of course there is a right to privacy. Do the proles think that they are entitled to see his tax returns or something? Then his brow furrowed and you could see him thinking “Wait… why did they ask me a question like that?” You could tell that he knew it was a trick question, but he didn’t know why.
The right to privacy, of course, underpins a woman’s right to have an abortion. We are indebted to Mr. Trump for demonstrating just how little the G.O.P. cares about that particular issue unless it’s feeding time at the teabagger trough.
WereBear
In my case, it’s not possible. :) But I’ve had long exposure to him in the NY metro area.
It helps to remember that the children of the rich don’t have to mature. So, most of the time, they do not.
Baud
@geg6:
I think that whenever they talk about people being millionaires and billionaires, they are looking only at assets, not liabilities. And I doubt Trump owns those properties outright; more likely owns them through corporations, partnerships, or real estate trusts.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@geg6:
I broke down and read that article, and it says Trump got $63 million for one season of Celebrity Apprentice. Even that seems farfetched. Maybe his production company owns the show? But that seems too much like work for the Donald.
Maybe I’m just a hater.
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle: Seconded.
Anya
@Steeplejack (tablet): Lawrence O’Donnell mentioned on his show that if Trump was a billionair as he claims to be why is he doing a reality t.v. He stated on his show that Trump is not a billionaire and that he is not the great real estate developer he claims to be but he leases his name to real real estate developers so that they use his name in their own building. Then he pretends that he develop those buildings. He also pointed out the number of times he filled for bankruptcy.
Naturally, Trump threatened to sue. O’Donnell spent a lot of time mocking him and taunting him to sue him but the short-fingered vulgarian chickened out because if he did it would show how in debt he really is.
MomSense
I love my son’s art work. He Just pulled a project out of his backpack. It is a sort of corgi crossed with a cat made with purple, green and gray torn paper. It is wearing a really big gold medal with a shiny bronze chain.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL:
Related. Hopefully Bill will adopt the strategy, known as the “Put Up or Shut Up” argument, and ask her what evidence she has that global warming is not caused by man.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: It was years before they even admitted that
climate change was a possibility. (baby steps) I hope that he asks her to explain the difference between climate and weather. Am I cruel?
Botsplainer
DVRed “In the Heat of the Night” last night. Hadn’t seen it in years. Had forgotten how tight it was.
On rewatching it, it occurs to me that the most interesting character isn’t Tibbs – it is Gillespie (Steiger). He’s not a bad cop or a bad guy, just struggling with his cultural baggage in a shitty environment that reinforces that culture.
Ash Can
@JPL: Cripes. I hope Nye makes Blackburn look like the idiot she is. That’s the best outcome when a “debate” isn’t actually a debate but rather a crusade against ignorance.
WereBear
He’s what keeps you watching, I agree. Steiger runs him as both the worst stereotype of the Southern sheriff, AND a pragmatic realist who knows when to turn off his cultural programming.
Botsplainer
@WereBear:
His character is self-aware and capable of learning. It was a masterpiece of a combination of some brilliant writing and a great portrayal. It would have been so easy to simply make him a Bull Connor character; this had some depth, and was probably reflective of about a third of Southern lawmen.
Patrick
I am still waiting for the so called journalists to ask Donald Trump when his investigators are going to release their evidence that Obama is not a US citizen. He claimed this back in 2012 and has never released his findings. The media gave it so much air time back in 2012 that one would have thought the media would really care about their findings.
lamh36
On the subject of music, if you missed it last night (with all the shit going on with that Florida bullshit, I completely forgot to record it), CBS News 48 Hours aired a program called “The Whole Gritty City”.
You can watch the whole program online like I did here:
Trailer: The Whole Gritty City
It is both heart wrenching and heartwarming. At certain moments, I would dare ya not to cry. Even with the sad parts, after the frustration of yesterday evening, after watching it online, it eased my soul a little bit to see the little black boys and girls who just wanted to play some music and who greatest night was marching in a Mardi Gras parade.
It was just a lovely story. So please check it out!
OzarkHillbilly
@Botsplainer: Don’t forget Steiger got an Academy Award for that role. Great movie, great choice. I have seen it a dozen times and will see it at least a dozen more if I live long enuf.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL:
Nahhhh. Cruelty is sentencing future generations of children to periods of endless drought, innumerable killer storms, hunger and starvation for some, unending economic uncertainty, and more that is unimaginable at this point in time. You have a long ways to go before you match the standard set by the climate deniers.
PS: the put up or shut up argument is not about changing the minds of the intelligent myopically shortsighted stupid. It’s about the rest who aren’t sure. It is how minds were changed on gay marriage. The gays put up and now more and more of the sensible can see just how idiotic the arguments of the teabangelicals are.
debbie
Trump in a nutshell. I wish he’d run for governor, because his smashing defeat would be a joy to watch.
debbie
@Steeplejack (tablet):
Totally on paper. He’s declared bankruptcy 4 times, yet calls himself a success. What he is is a scam artist.
lamh36
@lamh36: Check out this extra segment from the Whole Gritty City documentary that was not aired on TV.
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/im-with-the-band-le-rabouin-hs-marching-falcons
Hal
@Steeplejack (tablet): I could have sworn he sued a reporter who ran a story saying he wasn’t a billionaire. A hundreds millionaire yes, but not billions.
Here it is:
http://mobile.omg-facts.com/Celebs/Donald-Trump-sued-an-author-for-1-billio/54337
Elizabelle
@Botsplainer:
@lamh36:
Thanks for shout outs to “In the Heat of the Night” and “The Whole Gritty City.” Both worth a viewing, soonest.
Tokyokie
@Anya: ++++ for incorporating Spy Magazine’s decription of The Donald in your post! (Although I was thinking it was oftern “stubby-fingered.”)
jeffreyw
Don’t go here if you have pets or kids.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie:
Yes, but he’s successful at it.
Amir Khalid
@Hal: I wonder why he never sued Gail Collins for calling him a thousandaire.
Mustang Bobby
TCM during their 31 Days of Oscar is like a bowl of pistachios; I can’t keep away.
Barbara
This was pretty entertaining. Best line:
Alas, alas.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Exactly! But how did that become defined as “successful”?
Ash Can
@debbie: It would be a hoot, to be sure, but let’s face it — he’ll never really run for anything, because he’d never be able to stand the scrutiny. He’d have to reveal a bare minimum of his finances, like Romney was able to get away with, and even that much would reveal him to be the fraud that he is. All he’s ever going to do is holler for attention.
GregB
Now that the stories about potential Presidential candidates on the snowy roads of New Hampshire are trickling out, can we officially declare that the 2016 race is on?
The question for Trump is will his ego allow him to humiliate himself with a massively failed run for President or will his ego allow him to massively fail at flirting to run for the trillionth time?
Either way, does anyone in the media finally call him a fucking buffoon to his face?
kc
@Botsplainer:
I was surprised to see it airing on USA network. A nice change from the usual fare.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Have you noticed it is only Republicans who call him successful? Explains everything to me.
Dead Ernest (Thought Wrangler)
@Amir Khalid:
I’d not heard that Amir.
You provided my first out-loud chuckle of the day. Thanks very much.
bemused
@Amir Khalid:
Mr. Sensitive sent a letter to Collins circling her picture with the words, the face of a dog.
Mike in NC
Trump couldn’t get elected dog catcher of Atlantic City if he went around town handing out $100 bills. He’s a complete joke.
Draylon Hogg
Donald Trump is a colossal bell end.
JoyfulA
@Anya: Trump also leases his name to clothing lines, “Trump University,” how-to-get-rich books, etc. Plenty of rubes apparently think he’s smart, well-dressed, and generous with his talents.
Cermet
Aaah, yes, the comb over that talks. Why is he even a thread here?
Mnemosyne
There’s only one counter you need to people who claim Trump is some kind of financial genius: he went bankrupt running a ca$ino. Only a total frickin’ idiot can manage that.
Ruckus
I believe that he also has claimed that he has not filed bankruptcy, only his companies have. The ones he owns and controls. Don’t know why that distinction is so important, except that he must think everyone must be stupider than he is. Which is probably about par for the course for a dead muskrat with a stiff attached.
rikyrah
SmartyPants: Jordan Davis And The Heritage Of Racism
Those who didn’t watch the trial might not know that Dunn’s testimony was that he had a verbal altercation with Jordan and “thought” he saw a weapon. In response, he started shooting. As the car Jordan was in tried to flee, Dunn got out of his car and continued shooting at it, narrowly missing killing the driver. It was this latter shooting that the jury agreed was attempted murder.
I join those who suggest that Dunn’s account of what happened between he and Jordan is simply not credible. Police found no gun in the car, no one but Dunn heard any threats from Jordan, Dunn fled the scene without calling the police and he didn’t say anything to his fiance about a gun over the next 24 hours as he tried to reassure her. But as I understand the law, the prosecutors had to prove – beyond a reasonable doubt – that Jordan did NOT have a gun. It is almost impossible to prove a negative. That, my friends, is the result of the odious and racist Stand Your Ground law
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2014/02/jordan-davis-and-heritage-of-racism.html
pseudonymous in nc
@Anya:
It’s an open secret that Trump is leveraged from his arse to his rug. Call in one of his debts and the whole edifice would collapse.