{"id":5259,"date":"2015-11-08T21:02:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T03:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=5259"},"modified":"2015-11-08T23:28:27","modified_gmt":"2015-11-09T05:28:27","slug":"meta-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2015\/11\/meta-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Never Meta Trump Like This"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b><\/b>Shy of a Load<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2015\/11\/meta-trump\/saturday-night-live-logo-459x309\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5265\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"5265\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2015\/11\/meta-trump\/saturday-night-live-logo-459x309\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Saturday-Night-Live-logo-459x309.png\" data-orig-size=\"459,309\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Saturday Night Live logo 459&amp;#215;309\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Source:&lt;br \/&gt;\nhttps:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Saturday_Night_Live.svg &lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Saturday-Night-Live-logo-459x309-300x202.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Saturday-Night-Live-logo-459x309.png\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-5265 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Saturday-Night-Live-logo-459x309-300x202.png\" alt=\"&quot;Saturday Night Live&quot; logo\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\" srcset=\"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Saturday-Night-Live-logo-459x309-300x202.png 300w, https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Saturday-Night-Live-logo-459x309.png 459w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>The Nov. 8 <em>Saturday Night Live<\/em>, hosted by magnate Donald Trump, was more significant than hilarious, although it was lots funnier than most\u00a0weekend pundits claim.<\/p>\n<p>A scan of\u00a0website headlines shows mine\u00a0is a minority view. I have not read their texts yet to prevent their influencing mine.<\/p>\n<p>The first review for me to read will be that of my friend Gene Seymour at CNN.com, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2015\/11\/08\/opinions\/seymour-donald-trump-on-snl\" target=\"_blank\">Trump on SNL: The Ultimate Implosion of Reality<\/a>.&#8221; Gene&#8217;s certainly will be a full write-up and thoughtful. Below contains impulsive\u00a0impressions.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s making fun of yourself, self-deprecation (not necessarily funny) and destroying-then-reconstructing your image. Trump may well have deliberately gone for the last. When political candidates have appeared on <em>SNL<\/em>, as recently as October\u00a0when Hillary Rodham Clinton played a phantom bartender, it&#8217;s for a single skit or a walk-on with\u00a0line. Politicians thus can be seen by the youthful audience, appear hip and control the message. Clinton used it to claim\u00a0she was\u00a0self-aware, relaxed, competent and a few shades warmer than her cool reputation.<\/p>\n<p>As host, Trump appeared in most of the sketches in the 90-minute program. It&#8217;s live: The room for misspeaking and other errors\u00a0is huge &#8212; HUGE &#8212; especially for amateurs. He&#8217;s been on camera for thousands of hours but not as a professional comic performer.<\/p>\n<p>This is at a time when Republican candidates including Trump are reconfiguring debates to increase their control.<\/p>\n<p>Why did Trump take this risk? My take is that he doesn&#8217;t want to be president, unless we just hand it to him. What Trump proved Saturday that he\u00a0<em>really<\/em> wants is to improve the candidate selection process by warning\u00a0the American people to\u00a0watch what they ask for, they might get the likes of him.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The final skit confirmed it. (Its video is essentially &#8220;safe for work&#8221; but inappropriate for those older\u00a0children who get\u00a0double-entendres. Toddlers won&#8217;t understand\u00a0and teens will giggle.)<\/p>\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/player.theplatform.com\/p\/NnzsPC\/widget\/select\/media\/9Z8K0kOU4d9I?disableEndCard=true\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" frameborder=\"0\" seamless=\"seamless\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The recurring Vanessa Bayer &#8211;\u00a0Cecily Strong sketch &#8220;Porn Stars&#8221;\u00a0comprises a series of malapropisms as the addled performers misread the cue cards \/ TelePrompTer for a variety of\u00a0infomercials. This one is purportedly a<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbc.com\/saturday-night-live\/video\/porn-stars-donald-trump\/2933543\" target=\"_blank\"> Trump campaign ad<\/a>. They call him &#8220;Donald Tramp.&#8221; Bobby Moynihan pops in with a large red, not blonde, wig\u00a0to impersonate Tramp. The real deal appears at\u00a0the end to disavow the ad &#8212; &#8220;I did not endorse this. &#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Name another politician who could appear in something like this while seeking\u00a0office or already serving.<\/p>\n<p>Another dicey skit is a take-off of a video by Canadian rap star Drake, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbc.com\/saturday-night-live\/video\/hotline-bling-parody\/2933534\" target=\"_blank\">Hotline Bling Parody<\/a>,&#8221; where cast members do silly dances in a large box with colored lights. Trump takes a turn hopping around, as does former cast member Martin Short as the nerd\u00a0Ed Grimley.<\/p>\n<p>Donald Trump is a social but not religious\u00a0conservative. He continues to be first or second\u00a0in most polls, apparently because of his bluntness about the current president, immigration worries, black Americans, social programs, and\u00a0with foreign policy he leaps from intervention to isolationism willy nilly. These appeal to those who are unlikely to watch <em>SNL<\/em>, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Know_Nothing\" target=\"_blank\">Know-Nothing<\/a> \/ Isolationist sort. In fact, Saturday&#8217;s program included just the type, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbc.com\/saturday-night-live\/video\/weekend-update-drunk-uncle-on-donald-trump\/2933539\" target=\"_blank\">Moynihan&#8217;s &#8220;Drunk Uncle&#8221; character<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This (Political Action Committee) PAC-funded primary process is failing\u00a0when a rich guy who breathes near-parody moves over into full parody &#8212; and still continue to lead. Until he doesn&#8217;t, probably after the first\u00a0primaries in early 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah,\u00a0I like most of what Trump did on the show. It wasn&#8217;t top SNL,\u00a0but it had moments of spot-on\u00a0absurdity and satire. If self-deprecatory humor is not quite accurate, then call his effort a literal testing of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Postmodern_literature\" target=\"_blank\">post-modern<\/a> slash <a href=\"https:\/\/simple.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Deconstruction\" target=\"_blank\">deconstruction<\/a> slash <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Metafiction\" target=\"_blank\">meta<\/a> approach. Trump just might be aiming for\u00a0a transparent, perhaps cynical, view that lets voters see behind the curtain of hypocrisy.<\/p>\n<p>This just could strengthen both parties and streamline the presidential candidate selection process. Maybe that&#8217;s been Trump&#8217;s plan all along.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n<p>This past week Trump&#8217;s top rival, Dr. Ben Carson, has been found to have been\u00a0padding his resume. No more than other candidates, but it&#8217;s the neurosurgeon&#8217;s first exposure of overreaching.\u00a0He has claimed to have been\u00a0a tough kid, offered a scholarship to\u00a0West Point &#8212; both summarized in &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/bigstory.ap.org\/article\/93d6bced5f004d2c8ab28660ade5a14a\/carson-defends-west-point-story-calls-news-media-unfair\" target=\"_blank\">Carson Defends West Point Story, Calls News Media &#8216;Unfair&#8217;<\/a>&#8221; from the Associated Press &#8212; and\u00a0aced a psychology class experiment at Yale, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/ben-carsons-past-faces-deeper-questions-1446861864\" target=\"_blank\">broken by <em>The Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The AP story notes, &#8220;Students who are granted admission to West Point are not awarded scholarships. Instead, they are said to earn appointments to the military academy, which come with tuition, room and board and expenses paid, in exchange for five years of service in the Army after graduation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A friend from Little Rock newspaper days noted on Facebook that Hillary Clinton has exaggerated aspects of her record as well. Another ex-newsroom colleague wrote, &#8220;You know that Hillary has been vetted inside and out compared to Carson! Welcome to the would-be president world!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I wrote in to agree\u00a0with both.<\/p>\n<p>It happens because <em>story<\/em> matters to the electorate. The turning from a life of violence, the opportunity to go to not just an Ivy League school but to be sought by the U.S. Military Academy, to outsmart peers, is\u00a0packaged for them.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, there are examples showing possible presidential mettle, like when Hillary Clinton ducked a thrown object in April 2014 during a speech in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Watch Hillary Clinton dodge a shoe on stage\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8gq7pw3Nypk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2014\/04\/11\/us-usa-clinton-protester-idUSBREA3925P20140411#fvCjQQY91JEEob3L.97\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters&#8217; account<\/a> identifies the assailant.<\/p>\n<p>HRC is tough to like. Trust is nearly out of the question. Though we claim niceness and honesty are\u00a0necessary for leaders &#8212; I grew tired of my friend the editorialist Paul Greenberg carping on Bill Clinton&#8217;s lack of candor &#8212; those need to be low on the scale of\u00a0attributes for president.<\/p>\n<p>Voters want and need to know the background of who they choose to run the country. Voters need more that a president is wily when needed, which is often.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s sad that there&#8217;s only a couple of Republicans who could run the country &#8212;\u00a0my pre-election-year opinion is &#8220;into the ground&#8221; but my conservative relatives and friends say they&#8217;d do fine &#8212; John Kasich and\u00a0Marco Rubio. It&#8217;s a shame Paul Ryan, the 2012 GOP vice presidential candidate, isn&#8217;t returning to the national stage. He had to be talked into running House speaker in recent weeks. Ryan&#8217;s smart, and he negotiates tough while willing in the end\u00a0to compromise for the greater good.<\/p>\n<p>Trump&#8217;s mocking of the overlong primary process could help the Republicans in 2020 gather a field of competent candidates. It also will help the other (left or blue) side of the aisle.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s sad that the Democratic choice is just Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders is running as a symbol. Biden and Al Gore may be in the end too old to be comfortable as candidates. Where are the younger Dems? Clinton\u00a0has been a fait accompli for four years, even\u00a0eight years, so no names come up from the middle to left. We will see one, though, when she picks a running mate. It could be a fellow from Texas, according to &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2015\/06\/clinton-campaign-julian-castro-hillary-vp-hispanic-118619\" target=\"_blank\">The Campaign to Put Julian Castro on Hillary&#8217;s VP Shortlist<\/a>&#8221; from <i>Politico<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>The Democrats this year should have had at least one strong rival to Madame Clinton. Republicans vetting\u00a0well over a dozen is no better and ending up with a politically inexperienced twosome is no better.<\/p>\n<p>We should howl at Trump&#8217;s star turn &#8212; if we believe &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Meta-joke\" target=\"_blank\">meta<\/a> is betta,&#8221; if we dare laugh at ourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shy of a Load The Nov. 8 Saturday Night Live, hosted by magnate Donald Trump, was more significant than hilarious, although it was lots funnier than most\u00a0weekend pundits claim. A scan of\u00a0website headlines shows mine\u00a0is a minority view. I have not read their texts yet to prevent their influencing mine. The first review for me [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-items"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5277,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2015\/12\/barbershop\/","url_meta":{"origin":5259,"position":0},"title":"At the Barbershop","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Shy of a Load It's December, and for a month\u00a0I've avoided writing about the state of national politics. Other blog-columnists\u00a0are doing a good\u00a0job. I'd do fine, but I have nothing to add that's different. Until today? Yes, as it's not me opining. This is reporting. I was at my barber's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Shy of a Load&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Shy of a Load","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/items\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Illustration of traditional barber pole","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/barber-pole-246x800-92x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5148,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2015\/08\/coachs-wisdom-paint-dump-trump\/","url_meta":{"origin":5259,"position":1},"title":"Coach&#8217;s Wisdom, Paint Dump, Rhymes with Trump","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Shy of a Load I haven't thought of Coach Jim Rowland in ages, but apparently he's still there, now athletic director for Fort Smith, Arkansas, Public Schools.\u00a0 His address to the School Board there Monday the 24th inspired the editorial \"That Is All\" in The City Wire regional news website.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Shy of a Load&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Shy of a Load","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/items\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Contractor cleaned latex paint off brushes in front garden bed, formerly organic, Aug. 24, 2015.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Paint-in-bed-1000x750-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5700,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2017\/06\/trump-djt-digit-emollient-clause\/","url_meta":{"origin":5259,"position":2},"title":"DJT (Say Digit) Smooths on Emollient Clause","author":"Ben S. 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That is I did not adjoin the word \"president\" and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News, Spin&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Portraits-of-President-Donald-J.-Trump-and-Vice-President-Mike-Pence.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Portraits-of-President-Donald-J.-Trump-and-Vice-President-Mike-Pence.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Portraits-of-President-Donald-J.-Trump-and-Vice-President-Mike-Pence.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Portraits-of-President-Donald-J.-Trump-and-Vice-President-Mike-Pence.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Portraits-of-President-Donald-J.-Trump-and-Vice-President-Mike-Pence.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Portraits-of-President-Donald-J.-Trump-and-Vice-President-Mike-Pence.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5318,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2016\/02\/tea-careers-calm\/","url_meta":{"origin":5259,"position":4},"title":"Tea, Careers and Calm","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Shy of a Load \"Cults, Conspiracies and the Twisted History of Sleepytime Tea\" by Megan Giller may well keep you awake. Celestial Seasonings had somewhat predictable beginnings in the hippy movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. But besides free love and illicit drugs, that period saw lots of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Shy of a Load&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Shy of a Load","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/items\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"0512 brick logo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Solebrick-logo-2-150x150.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5214,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2015\/09\/throwing-drones-for-a-loop\/","url_meta":{"origin":5259,"position":5},"title":"Throwing Drones for a Loop","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Shy of a Load The City Wire in \"Citing Privacy and Protection, UA-Fayetteville Prohibits Drone Use over Campus\" joins other news media and social media in ricocheting the University of Arkansas' news release that \"unmanned aircraft systems\" such as drones as of now may not be flown over campus without\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Shy of a Load&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Shy of a Load","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/items\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cover of The Great International Paper Airplane Book, 1971","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Great-International-Paper-Airplane-Book-727x1000-218x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5259"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5271,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5259\/revisions\/5271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}