Trumped

It occurs to me that Donald Trump represents the very best and the very worst of American culture.  On the one hand he is the picture of success and resilience.  On the other hand, he's a gas-bag headline whore who thrives on attention no matter the cost.  

I've been quite irritated with Donald Trump for the past several months because of all this running for President talk.  Let me be brutally clear...Donald Trump is Ross Perot reincarnated...PERIOD.  Donald Trump no more wants to run this country than Ross Perot did back in his day.  

The breakdown:  Every so often there is a man with enough personality and money to join a Presidential election in order to accomplish one goal.  The goal is to take away votes from a party in order to get a particular and desired candidate into office.  In other words, Donald Trump is trying to influence the outcome of the Presidential election in a way that will ultimately benefit him as a business man.  I can tell you right now, Donald Trump is not going to step away from his billion dollar empire to take the political job equivalent of working at Macy's as a cashier.  It's simply not going to happen.   

Then came the Obama birth certificate talk...  This is the point at which I moved from irritated to pissed off.  Trump used sensationalism and crack-pot conspiracy theories to get free advertising.  After all, the only thing Donal Trump has EVER tried to sell is "Trump".  It's a global brand with many different offerings.  He's not trying to sell anything in particular, just the overall brand.  He IS the brand.  So, any time he appears in a news conference or on a TV show it's a push for the Trump brand.  The sad part of this ordeal is that there are people out there that buy into this crap.  They believe that President Obama has not proven that he was born in the US.  Certain people continue to ignore that he's issued the legal document that is used by all Hawaiians now.  The long form is no longer even accepted for legal purposes in the state of Hawaii.  So what Trump and other nay-sayers have been asking to see is a document that is no longer legally relevant.

Trump has seen from the start that he could use this issue to get press time.  He laments the fact that news organizations only ask him about the birth certificate.  There are two reasons for that.  First, it's just about the only thing he has to talk about.  Second, he keeps making statements about the birth certificate that only generate more questions, which really means more press.  He may be fooling some people, but he's not fooling everyone.  He's most certainly not fooling me.  

The Bottom Line:  Business men in the vein of Ross Perot and Donald Trump will say and do ANYTHING to make a dollar.  Ross Perot ran as an Independent in 1992.  One of his campaign talking points was not outsourcing American jobs.  In 2009, Perot Systems was sold to Dell for 3.9 billion dollars.  Dell...one of the largest outsourcing companies around.  Don't get Trumped.  This is some knee-deep Voodoo. 

(click on the word Voodoo above for hilarious reminder of the type of person we are dealing with)

   

On The Verge

It's just before 5AM on what should be just another Tuesday.  It's painfully quiet here in my apartment, even with the white noise in the background.  All this silence has left me thinking about my life and where it's headed.  It's an odd experience to constantly feel on the verge of greatness or disaster.  It's how I've found myself feeling more often than not lately.   I have a career, bills are paid, a teeny tiny bit of money in the bank, a beautiful apartment, you know...all the basics.  Even still, I can't help but sense that the universe is still out to trial on whether my life will really be great or not.  It's strange how one can feel so out of place when everything is seemingly in order.

It's very much like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel but not being not awake enough to determine if it's a train or the baby Jesus.  Maybe this is what purgatory feels like.  Am I being made ready for something?  I wish I could share with you that I've just been enlightened with the answer to my own question, but alas, not so much.  I suppose it's really more philosophical than literal, although the two seem to intertwine effortlessly.  

I have bad dreams to thank for this moment of mental Purgatory that I find myself in.  I should be asleep; not tapping away on my laptop listening to my ice maker work over-time.  I've decided that since I have to be up early, I will just make some coffee and push through this sleepless and thoughtful moment in time.

The Bottom Line: I will let you know as soon as I find it.