A headline pair on the front page of the NYT catches my eye."How a Naked Man on a Tropical Island Created Our Current Political Insanity" — The naked man catches my eye, but a quick glance identifies the naked man as Richard Hatch, winner of season 1 of "Survivor," and we know that "Survivor" led to "The Apprentice," Donald Trump's big lateral move into the nation's psyche:
As a contestant on the first season of the CBS reality show “Survivor,” Mr. Hatch did something that, in the year 2000, seemed shocking. Instead of trying to win the show’s competition on its own terms — that is, voting in a straightforward manner on which of his fellow contestants most deserved to advance to the next round of competition — the often rude, sometimes randomly naked Mr. Hatch struck a strategic alliance to force out his strongest adversaries. Then, in full win-by-any-means-necessary mode, he outsmarted the producers by opting out of a key challenge and maneuvered himself to victory. But most shocking of all, he broke the golden rule of network television: You have to be likable....
Politics, it can seem, has internalized the logic of reality TV.... Mr. Trump clearly understands how to operate in this particular version of the upside down, collaborating with his audience to create shareable moments that are full of in-jokes and provocations, perpetual-motion meme machines. How could he say all those outrageous things? Doesn’t he know people are going to be shocked? Well, of course, he says them specifically because people will be shocked....
Mr. Trump’s recently cast political opponent seems to have grasped the vibe shift. The playfully self-deprecating memes and the repeated invocation of joy: She’s reality lite...."How a Cultural Shift Favors Harris" — This is a new David Brooks column.
Disdained and scorned by the Manhattan elite, [Trump had] built up a lifetime of anti-establishment resentments that dovetailed with the working class’s pervasive contempt....
Then, in 2018, the group More in Common released a survey of the American electorate in which it popularized the phrase “the exhausted majority.” Many people were tired of the bitterness, the endless Trumpian and culture war psychodrama....
Harris enjoyed a surge in the polls as she became the nominee, in part because she projected a new emotional tone — the politics of joy.... Her smiling equipoise is a statement of self-confident power against his sour fuming.... This is culture. What sort of people do we want to be?... I suspect that Harris’s happy strength gives us a glimpse of the zeitgeist of tomorrow....
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One of the most interesting aspects of political opposition to Trump is that his actual lifetime occupation, CEO of a 500 entity corporate holding company, is completely ignored. I worked directly for two corp CEOs during my career, essentially building in-house media so they could get their messages out effectively throughout a huge bureaucratic structure. Looks to me like Trump has the masterful communication and social skills to be a great CEO. I also worked in corp law, where I learned to understand the structure and legal issues of a corp holding company, so I’m inclined to dismiss out of hand the accusation that the bankruptcies experienced by Trump’s company are unique, or even worth mentioning. Corp bankruptcy has no relationship to personal bankruptcy. It’s a tool that every corp holding company uses. My law firm had an entire department dedicated to corp bankruptcy, and a 24 hour desk in the lobby for the acceptance of process for lawsuits. That’s just pro forma.
...he outsmarted the producers by opting out of a key challenge and maneuvered himself to victory.
I have probably watched 5 minutes total of any Survivor episodes but ... Say what? "Outsmarted" the guys who literally designed the contests and selected what footage to put on TV? That's narrative bullshit. He gave them what they wanted .. interesting footage and competition that kept eyeballs engaged. I think they knew exactly the kind of ruthless people would be the ultimate winners on that show but nobody is going to buy a pitch of showcasing the antics of amoral schmucks in speedos.
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The Harris-Biden administration has had almost four years to project this new joyful "zeitgeist" people claim she is promising. I seem to remember an old guy running on the premise that he would be America's kindly old uncle. What we got was four years of Woke insanity, a cratering economy, blood-red speeches demonizing half the population, and a monomaniacal lawfare campaign against a guy Brooks claims the "exhausted majority" wants to forget.
Does anyone any evidence of this aspect of Kamala’s personality being discussed before she was installed as the candidate a few days ago?
It’s not joy, it’s relief that they don’t have to be embarrassed by Biden, and the fact that they tried to pull the wool over our eyes. This joy thing is the same thing: pretend Harris isn’t what we all know she is, a Marxist valley girl loser.
Hatch is a stupid analogy bit he was a good contestant. The other contestants had no idea how to win. Hatch outwit outplayed outlasted. It’s a game he said. The others were proud of playing the game ‘the right way’ they said. Scmucks…
Some of us were tired of David Brooks' leg nerves determining his politics a long time ago.
My conservative daughter married into a family of hardcore liberals. The perfect definition of unequally yoked. Forget the last 4 years of hatred spewing from the Biden administration towards the political opposition, she’s buying into the joy from Harris.
The media is incredibly greedy and vain, but in this particular case there is a grain of accuracy. Without the idiots in the Clinton campaign trying to "pick" Trump as beatable, he likely would not have won 2016. The media reception is much worse now, of course, but it's at the point where fixed debates (and elections) don't even dent the Trump coalition. Not needing the corporate oligarchy to get a message out is the kind of authenticity that tankies and posers can only dream of.
Harris has no qualifications or experience that make her suitable for the job. She seems silly, empty-headed, and smug. She is a political construct, not a real person. Her "joy" is phony. She gathers endorsements from pop stars who made their careers by celebrating their own poor judgment.
David Brooks is well past his sell-by date.
Hatch is one of my favorites. Pavarti 2x gets respect. Ozzy. Boston Rob because homer. The best was that science teacher. Made his own idol in exile ffs, then used it twice. Backstabbed. Won a physical challenge against the hunky boys. He should be President…
Trump was around forever before reality television. These story writers were not.
Since none of them ever do homework or research they’ve never heard if Trump’s other reality show- 'Donald J. Trump's Fabulous World of Golf‘. Lots of fodder for manipulation there but it does show that Trump isn’t the Hitler they beed him to be. That’s enough to bury it…
"How a Naked Man on a Tropical Island Created Our Current Political Insanity" — The naked man catches my eye, but a quick glance identifies the naked man as Richard Hatch, winner of season 1 of "Survivor," and we know that "Survivor" led to "The Apprentice," Donald Trump's big lateral move into the nation's psyche"
That ignores Trump's move into the political realm, despite his unsuccessful run for the presidency in 2000 (with about 7% support as a Reform Party candidate). How did he manage to gather so much support in 2016? I've already made the case for that.
How long would Harris last on either of those shows?
I wonder if that naked man just fell out of a coconut tree.
The first snippet was an interesting connect-a few-dots, even if some basic facts were wrong. The second one was just sad.
So after her “Prosecutor” pose thoroughly turned off viewers of the debate, who found her as unlikable as Hillary! now it’s back to the tiresome mirthless happy happy joy joy pose. No wonder progressives are panicking. You can win Survivor without being likable but not the office of Chief Executive.
"It’s not joy, it’s relief"
Exactly. The governor called.
Richard Harris did time for tax evasion. He's probably developed a really useful skill set to add to his reality game show talents. Maybe he can become a Trump advisor, along with the other creepy weirdos the esteemed GOP candidate is surrounding himself with these days.
How joyful do you really have to be to seem like a more pleasant alternative than ole Mr. Crypto?
I don't think David Brooks has any idea what people west of Manhattan think about anything. He probably doesn't even realize he is being used as the useful idiot (alternative viewpoint) as long as it suits the NYT. Pure drivel.
The Apprentice is a powerful portrait of Donald Trump’s beginnings — Cannes film review ~ FT
https://www.ft.com/content/df4ae834-28cb-463e-96c9-da98a395f204#comments-anchor
This is just a warm-up for the final act - the self-destruction of a pathological liar.
In Harrisworld joy = printing more money.
Hatch was an interesting character. As ruthless and unprincipled in real life as on Survivor.. Served time in federal prison for trying to evade taxes on his winnings. In the 1980s married an Australian woman in what now appears a scam so she could quickly get US citizenship. Most recently, lost a home in a tax sale.
So it was Richard Hatch all along! And he would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those meddling kids!
The Left overlooks the fact that had Trump's policy proposals on the border and economy and foreign affairs not been popular with the electorate, Clinton and the DNC-Media's "elevation strategy" would not have worked. It was kind of a mirror image of what Harris's campaign is: Trump was a known quantity on TV and people felt they knew him and liked his ideas, yet the DNC-Media insisted he was the new Hitler with no evidence; and now we've seen Harris's inaction and prevarication for four years, supporting every leftist fever dream the team behind the office could talk Joe into yet the Media think they can rebrand her as the "Joy!" candidate and te3ll us she has changed her mind on everything and we will buy it.
Nope. It's New Coke and it sucks.
Why, yes that's Kamala's boot on your face. But you need to focus on the joy in her eyes.
Are Democrats still going on about "Joy"? I kind of forgot about it and thought they did too.
Do you know anyone convinced by the "Save the Republican party by voting for the Democrat" scheme that Brooks and the Bulwark and Jen Rubin keep pushing?
Both these stories are founded on the bullet proof belief held by so many in the elite media, that the regular folks (their inferiors) have no legitimate opinions of their own based on conclusions reached by observation and experience. That they lack the capacity for understanding only believe what they are told. That they are endlessly malleable and that it's up to the media to figure out what magic words will put them under the spell. Their job isn't to inform the people so they can make intelligent decisions. Their job is to make them willing and compliant subjects so the necessary social experiments can be carried out. They believe they are the good guys, the angels of Progress.
They think Trump is just a malicious, self-serving competitor in this regard and that's why they're okay with trying to silence him by any means necessary.
interested in your view = is not Buffett with BH similar to Trump with his holding corp?
They count on us forgetting a LOT of things.
Concepts of a Plan OR System of a Clown 🤡…
🫵 You 🫵 decide.
Cappy said…
“So it was Richard Hatch all along!”
We know from The Godfather it was Barzini all along. Hatch is just a cutout.
Mark burnett was a royal marine survivor was based on his training regimen
There's ONLY one man who led to Donald Trump and it wasn't Richard Hatch, it was:
Barack Hussein Obama
The very next President after 9/11 is named Hussein, who couldn't produce a forged birth certificate for two years, and who attempted to eviscerate the smiling Trump on a national stage (the White House Correspondent's dinner).
Barack Hussein Obama, a Muslim Kenyan installed as President of a defeated country, created Donald Trump.
Everything the NYT writes is DNC propaganda designed to "Push the agenda" and keep their buddies in power. If it was a serious newspaper, we'd be focusing on Policy and the election coverage would be about "the Biden-Harris record", and what Harris will do with 4 more years. IOW, serious questions of policy.
Instead, we get "the politics of Joy", Reality game show analolgies and discussions of Donald Trump's persona. Biden-Harris' record on inflation, crime, foreign affairs, climate change, the deficit, illegal immigration and border security, ethics, and abuse of power, has been terrible. Their judges have been terrible too. Harris will give us more of the same.
But Brooks/NYT don't want to discuss issues. Why would they? They like the Harris-Biden policies. So, its "Kamala is so likable".
I first heard of Donald Trump in the 80’s, and even back then he was interested in the Presidency. His name and brand was out there long before Survivor. Hirechorn’s brand seems to be LGBT documentaries on gays and trans. No surprise he would want to credit Trump’s success to a naked gay guy on television that millennials never knew.
The actor? I thought he'd passed away.
Actually, just the day before yesterday Biden slipped back into “kindly old uncle” mode, chatting amiably with a Trump supporter while autographing a Presidential cap for the man and then putting a MAGA hat on his head. That’s a little strange he, to put it lightly.
Mutaman will be along to claim that the video clip is faked in 3. .. 2 ..
"Barack Hussein Obama, a Muslim Kenyan installed as President of a defeated country, created Donald Trump."
False. Trump was offering up the very same political assessments and ideas in the 1980's.
Republican establishment fecklessness, unwillingness to fight back against the dems/GOPe Failure Theater over 40 years led to Donald Trump the politician.
Trump invited Bill and Hillary Clinton to his wedding. Like Reagan before him, he was a lifelong Democrat prior to the installation of Barack Hussein Obama in the White House.
He was asked repeatedly by interviewers if he would run for office and he always said no.
Just a reminder that Biden-Harris could not have gotten their deficit-riddled budgets enacted if not for Republicans who run the House of Representatives. They are SINGLY responsible for the massive debt this country has racked up.
In a contest between bad and worse, I am going with bad. Re-elect Donald Trump.
Brooks: a consummate Ellsworth Toohey of our time.
@Patrick Henry
Yup!
An anti-war Republican candidate who won't sign a nationwide abortion ban and even supports free IVF treatment? Totally psychotic. Trump advocates a diplomatic resolution to the war in Ukraine -- oh my God!!! the man is batsh*t crazy! Trump argues that high crime rates and open borders are destroying the lives of working class Americans -- oh boy this lunatic must be stopped!!!
Maybe the NY Times opinion page writers are jerks,
The treatment of Trump is similar to how the dems simply called Reagan a "failed" actor and never referenced his 2 terms as Governor of CA, his former role as head of tbe Screen Actors Guild and his years (almost a decade) hosting GE Theater which he spent traveling and meeting/speaking with factory workers (over 200,000 estimated) and management at General Electric manufacturing and research plants in the US.
Reagan got to know those people intimately, their concerns and outlook, and spent all of those years writing his own speeches which reflected that understanding.
"I suspect that Harris’s happy strength gives us a glimpse of the zeitgeist of tomorrow...."
I suspect many are realizing how nice it was for them when Trump was taking on the abuse from the Establishment. But Biden/Harris shifted to the American people as their target by 2022. A lot to cover up their failed policies.
What these people fail to realize is that the various measures they suggest are not capable of bringing about the beneficial results aimed at. On the contrary they produce a state of affairs which from the point of view of their advocates is worse than the previous state which they were designed to alter. If the government, faced with this failure of its first intervention, is not prepared to undo its interference with the market and to return to a free economy, it must add to its first measure more and more regulations and restrictions. Proceeding step by step on this way it finally reaches a point in which all economic freedom of individuals has disappeared. Then socialism of the German pattern, the Zwangswirtschaft of the Nazis, emerges.
von Mises, Ludwig (1947). Planned Chaos
The voting block I’m wondering about are the Reform and Conservative Jewish voters. The Orthodox have long been aware that the antisemitism they experience has come from the left, from identity groups that are firmly embedded in the Democrat coalition. It’s only been since last October that the Progressive left has dropped their masks and exposed their antisemitism where none could dispute it. Will the Democrats be punished? If so, how? Or will Jews continue to support people who in turn support people who shout “Death to Jews”?
I believe the characterization of Kamala that best fits and explains not only her entry into politics but also her current strategy was not made by David Brooks but by her running mate, Tim Walz, just yesterday in one of those unfortunate but accidentally accurate gaffes:
"As a young prostituter, Kamala Harris talked about going into that courtroom for the first time,..."
"Beware, beware, beware of the naked man."
--Randy Newman
I read the Hirschorn article. He had some interesting points to make about reality show villains. I noticed, however, that in his attempts to make Trump some kind of reality show villain, he ignores several other villains with far more flamboyant mustache twirls. There's Fani WIllis. Omorosa is Gidget next to her. Beyond this, the true villain of reality shows, as Hirschorn himself indicates, are the network producers of such shows. They operate on a level of manipulation and hypocrisy that's a quantum jump ahead of most politicians. Hirschorn in his branding of Trump as the true heir of Richard Hatch is an example of that. It looks to me like Kamala Harris is the one who has gamed the system. She isn't outrageous like Trump, but she's figured out a way to stay on the island without doing much of anything......Not many here look on Veep Kamala and feel a spontaneous surge of joy. It's a tough sell, but not so tough as convincing the world that Joe Biden was a spry old man with a steel trap mind. Perhaps they'll succeed.
He could't take it, because he'll never have that recipe again.
Comrade Drago writes: "Republican establishment fecklessness, unwillingness to fight back against the dems/GOPe Failure Theater over 40 years led to Donald Trump the politician."
Do you ever get tired of beclowning yourself? Is it like a fetish to be humiliated?
It's been a wild journey from the Reagan era of: 'America is the greatest country ever' and 'Shining City on a Hill' conservatism. To the modern America is a filthy shit-hole, but perhaps, with hard work and a lot of deportations, we might rise to the level of Hungary.
Oh no… OH NOES!!!!
More BS. Trump was popular as a businessman long before apprentice came out. Watch old clips of hi on early Oprah shows.
The media and the Harris campaign (but I repeat myself) are advertising execs. Keep trying new stuff until something catches on.
More BS. Trump was popular as a businessman long before apprentice came out. Watch old clips of Trump on early Oprah shows.
👆👆 🤡 👆👆
Drago is too in love with Trump - true enough. .. But America - especially the cities - are former shells of themselves - and it all happened under leftwing Democratic rule.
See San Francisco as a primary example.
The collective left opened the prison doors, made theft/crime legal, and said F U to the common man.
New handle, same old Rich.
I get the strong impression that all of the messaging around the Harris campaign is aimed at convincing white liberals that she's actually competent and knows what she's doing -- that there's a method to her madness and please stick with her even though the country is in shambles as a result of her policies. To the extent the campaign occasionally signals some desire to appeal to non-liberals (mainly by trying to co-opt a Trump policy), I sense that they're also doing THAT mainly for performative purposes in order to maintain the illusion among her core supporters that she's a serious candidate and not the vacuous, giggling schoolgirl she comes across as. Has there ever been a national campaign that has relied more on its supporters' self-delusion than this one?
I read the Brooks article. He doesn't say anything substantial, but when you read it, it comes across as literate and thoughtful. It's as fatuous as anything uttered by Kamala, but it doesn't present as word salad. He really is a professional writer. It takes some doing to present a cumulus cloud as the rock of GIbraltar but he does it. I never really noticed Kamala's "good cheer" or "smiling equipoise" until Brooks brought it to my attention. The deification of Kamala proceeds on schedule. It's funny that a scant four years ago none of the Democratic voters noted all her many sterling qualities......I can recognize Trump in some of their criticism of him, but, holy shit, who is this benign, wise, joyful Kamala character.
“Has there ever been a national campaign that has relied more on its supporters' self-delusion than this one?”
YES, Trump’s. I can’t believe that didn’t dawn on you.
Concepts of a Plan said...
It's been a wild journey from the Reagan era of: 'America is the greatest country ever' and 'Shining City on a Hill' conservatism.
It certainly has, and as Dcl,gFy notes, who exactly has been in charge not only of the US in general but also of the GOP in particular for a good percentage of it? Here's a hint ... not Donald Trump.
I've been wrong. You CAN prep a hyena.
italico
"Rich" is that you hiding again?
Good points.
Drago is right.
Also in the news today: Federal officials tell us that the bag of Cheetos a tourist dropped in Carlsbad Caverns could provoke a local -- nay, even a global -- ecological disaster. Maybe the naked man on the Pacific Island can save us from the coming apocalypse. Or perhaps we'll just have to rely on Greta to save the world again. Is she out of jail yet?
Following Taylor Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris, there has been a "400% or 500% increase" in voter registration — between 9,000-10,000 people per hour, according to data firm TargetSmart. ~ CBS News
"It's really unlike anything I've seen," says TargetSmart senior adviser Tom Bonier.
It’ll take 10 years for Charlie Kirk to come close to this …z
Are Omarosa and Fani Willis sorority sisters?
And would they be willing to do a reality show with Stacey Abrams, Kamala Harris, and Michelle Obama?
I will say that Trump spent years doing business in New York, which required joining the game in the City.
The Dullard immediately appears to confirm your point.
Trump served as prez for four years and the country thrived. Peace and prosperity. Ergo, no self-delusion required in order to pull the lever for Trump in 2024.
What sort of people do we want to be?... I suspect that Harris’s happy strength gives us a glimpse of the zeitgeist of tomorrow....
.... he said, without evidence.
America is not going to be a very happy place when it comes time to repay our 33 trillion dollar national debt.
I may have seen a moment or two of a reality show when channel shifting- back when we had cable TV instead of fiber optic internet and Netflix and Amazon and on demand shows we chose. I've never seen a full episode of any of them, and only know of Snooki and Kim Kardashian from news stories and blog comment sections- and from them I know more then I want to know about them.
And now there's something passing for news and opinion that Trump became POTUS because of a naked man who I never heard of until today was on a reality show...
Yeah, no.
Harris a childless shrew married to a sociopath. No one is buying her Joy.
Harris a childless shrew married to a sociopath. No one is buying her Joy.
“Just a reminder that Biden-Harris could not have gotten their deficit-riddled budgets enacted if not for Republicans who run the House of Representatives. They are SINGLY responsible for the massive debt this country has racked up.”
‘SINGLY”? In a pig’s eye.
Out from under her rock comes she!
So ? Biden repeatedly sought office and lost until he didn't. Then he found new friends.
More "Rich" bullshit.
I'm finishing a book: Rogues, by Patrick Radden Keefe, in which he blames Mark Burnett for Trump's political rise. I'm unpersuaded that a significant portion of the voting public based their votes on their viewing preferences. It goes without saying that Mr. Keefe has an intense dislike of Mr. Trump. The last chapter of the book is a hagiography of Anthony Bourdain. A guy who killed himself and left behind his eleven-year-old daughter.
"Joy" is so last week.
FDR won with smiles and "Happy Days are Here Again," but he wasn't of the incumbent party. I don't see how Joy! will resonate with so many disgruntled Americans, or how Trump will lose a fair election.
I think that was Chris Mathews who had the tingle run down his leg. David Brooks became really enamored with Obama because he noticed an immaculate pleat in his pant leg.
these trolls are getting lamer and lamer
I went to law school because I thought that was a good way to get into politics. Fortunately I discovered that what I really wanted to be was "A Lawyer".
In my career as a lawyer, I met several successful, but by then retired, politicians. They had what now are called "people skills". They were GOOD at that. Yes, you may dislike their politics, but you couldn't help but like them.
I think that's all gone now. Yes, Joe Biden once had it, but in the last few years he's lost it, hasn't he? So far as I can tell Kamala doesn't have it, and never did.
To me, Trump doesn't have it either, but he is really good with crowds, like, say, TR.
Inga the die-hard Full Decade Hoaxer Pusher Supreme and self-proclaimed mind-reading savan wishes to comment upon self-delusions.
This should be fun.
Michael K writes: "I will say that Trump spent years doing business in New York, which required joining the game in the City."
You see, this is the kind of comment that displays a misunderstanding of who Trump is. He can’t be discussed as if he were some rational actor with a legitimate seriousness about what the issues are facing the US and the world generally. His awareness is limited to a very narrow lens of transactional reality. The fact that he was so easily manipulated by Harris has to bother anyone who has been involved in serious negotiations or has done a presentation for advancing new ideas in managing an important relationship with new partners.
I’ve been a fairly close follower of Trump’s life since the late 80s. Stems back to my association with investors who lost their investments in Trump’s Atlantic City businesses. I knew about the Plaza Hotel mess and the Bonwit Teller skullduggery as it happened. Point is he’s always been a crook, a liar, and essentially someone nobody who’s done business with him can trust. What never ceases to amaze is how he’s still able to snooker people and how people who do associate themselves with him, like the current GOP, consistently underestimate his ability to go to any lengths to get what he wants. Make no mistake. If given a second chance in the presidency there is no limit, none, to what he will do carry out what he’s threatening to do as far as seizing absolute control. And if the sh-t hits the fan he’ll throw those Republican enablers under the bus if that’s what it takes for him to stay on top. Don’t underestimate this guy anymore, please.
'Make no mistake. If given a second chance in the presidency there is no limit, none, to what he will do carry out what he’s threatening to do as far as seizing absolute control. '
Dude, what powers do you think the POTUS actually has? Are you living in an underground bomb shelter or something? Put down the can opener, go outside, and get a fresh- cooked meal somewhere.
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