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In reply to the discussion: NYT story on Trump's birther phase says Trump sent no investigators to Hawaii, made little effort to [View all]calimary
(81,261 posts)Nobody EVER interrupted his stream-of-consciousness babbling to ask him - "like what?" NOBODY ever followed up on that. "Like WHAT, Donald? WHAT are they finding?"
But in this case, it wasn't because they "all knew" he was blowing smoke. They were just lazy. Nobody wanted to interrupt the show, maybe a few of 'em couldn't believe what they were hearing. But NOBODY ever tried to pin him down. It would have been great to see. But nobody challenged him.
I'm not surprised this has come out. He's got NOTHING. He's just words. Just outrageous bombastic P.T. Barnum-style flourishing flap-drabble. That's all he's got. He's a bigger gas giant than rush limbaugh. And yet, people let him go on and on, like they're watching some episode of "The Apprentice" - and don't question him or try to pin him down.
My dad was like him (although without the big bucks). At times he'd talk about when he worked in radio, so he obviously knew all about how that industry operated first-hand (or that was the illusion he created). Well, I worked in radio, too. I was on the air. For a lot of years. Never in any sales department or upper management as I suppose he would have been, but in multiple newsrooms and production rooms and on the air. And one day, I finally decided to follow up on what, exactly, this radio career of his was. Drill down on it a little bit. "Dad, what did you do in radio? Were you on the air? Were you a GM? General Sales Manager? Regional Sales Manager? Account exec? Program Director? Jock? What was it that you did in radio?" Guess what he answered. "Well, I WORKED RADIO."
You "worked radio"? I noticed the preposition "in" was missing. He didn't say "I worked in radio" this time. Instead, it was "I worked radio." Me: "What does that mean, Dad?" "I bought commercial time! I WORKED RADIO."
AHA! Now I see. Of course. It's a little clearer now. I knew he'd never held some sort of air shift or had one of those offices "down the hall" where the sales staff or upper management staff had their offices. That wasn't who he was. He was a businessman. And he wouldn't have worked for anybody else, on somebody else's staff, anyway. But I wanted very much to cut through the salesmanship that was being sold to me. Which my dad always did. He knew how to play with words and twist meanings and massage talking points. He was a master at inference, allusion, suggestion, and insinuation. He'd say just the right things and the right wording to make YOU put two and two together and get whatever sum he wanted you to reach. Salesmanship.
That's what it was, and what it is. Just slick, fast-talking salesmanship. And I've seen and heard Donald Trump do that same rapid-fire "talk-a-good-game" schtick again and again and again. Notice how he talks. Fast and no breaks - quite often, he doesn't even stop to take a breath. The rushing stream of words and sentences and catchy phrases all running together in a big gooey puddle coming at you as though in some storm-swollen flood control channel so you're flooded. You're overwhelmed. Mowed down. Swamped. You don't have time to think, or sift, or sort. The water level's up just under your nostrils and you struggle even to get an unobstructed breath. You don't know where to start trying to pick through the crap or drill down through the muck to find the actual bottom, and it just sorta ALL washes over you and leaves the impression behind that he wants you to be covered with.
Donald Trump is all about salesmanship. He's a salesman. He's just a salesman and a huckster. P.T. Barnum risen from the grave. He'll say anything he thinks he can get you to believe. Cutting through the crap with him is actually quite easy, though. You just have to assume, from the start, that it's all hogwash. Whatever he says - and it doesn't even matter what he says. Unless he provides immediate concrete objective unimpeachable truth to back up what he says, it's all baloney. And you'll notice he NEVER DOES provide any proof. No. He'll redirect you toward that shiny object over there somewhere. He'll immediately start directing you to go look at his necktie display, or notice that table of fancy bottled "Trump Water" over there, or those incredible amazing suites in that lighthouse behind him (on the Scotland golf course he probably doesn't even own free 'n' clear but is leveraged up to the top of his ferret hair and will eventually find his way to bankruptcy declarations to weasel his way out of).
I swear - I know this guy. I grew up with that, and with him.