Trumped
Richard Lutz reviews his last seven days – Trump, scam-mail, buddy movies, a good rant from a dead writer.
Bloviate: to talk endlessly and without substance.
Well, that’s the word a correspondent from the States used to refer to Trump. But now his bloviation, which seems to hypnotise the British media, has blown up. Trump’s weekend announcement to stop a rally because of the threat of violence really ratchets up the endless primary electioneering which will seque seamlessly come the summer into the full-on Presidential circus.
Trump, of course, used his neo-Fascistic speeches to urge backers to beat up demonstrators – which I think is a criminal offence as it is incitement to violence. But let’s just sit back and think of something else. It is a mad circus being played out.
What I do believe is the next step is for Trump to display his new flag resplendent with angular dark symbols and to show off his new nifty military uniform with loads of epaulets and braid and ersatz medals dangling from his breast pockets. Then will come the Trump Code bound in black leather that must be memorised by the age of ten
Onto other matters. Earlier in the week, I had the pleasure of seeing the new play of Don Quixote at the RSC’s Swan Theatre. I already reviewed it so won’t into details. It is good though.
The Man of La Mancha and his loyal servant Sancho Panza are the models for many fictional buddy teams: Britain’s Morecambe and Wise, Laurel and Hardy, Thelma and Louise, Beckett’s Vladimir and Estragon, all those Die Hard movies with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.
There is the lead and the supportiing role and each adds a certain pinch of spice to how the world is perceived. Don Quixote is deluded and sees the universe as it is not. Sancho is down to earth but mad enough to go with the delusionary flow. It is elemental comedy – as are all the best duo stories.
To lighten the load before Trump destroys the world or implodes from Over-bloviation, I dive into the late Christopher Hitchens’ tome God Is Not Great.
This is a 250 page rant against religion. His perception is that all creeds are basically nuts and delude the hapless faithful. He is a good ranter, dear dead Hitchens, and I remember when the book came out, he made a good fist of hot-headed testy nose to nose battles with religious leaders of all ilks. It is an angry, literate piece of polemic and comes as close as you can get to a hot-headed testy friend in your home shouting at the walls about the outrageous state of the world. Worth a read.
Something that is less readable. Something has happened in my e-world. The gates have suddenly opened and spam after braindead spam after braindead spam vomits into my junkbox. Here is a highly edited list of offers erupting from digi-hell: crackpot medical cover; glass conservatory insurance; a very credible email from the UK tax service telling me I am owed £260 (about $400) “just click here and the cash is yours…”; a cash plea to help Jim get out of jail in Singapore; a new offer from something called Vanquis credit card; and the daily diarrhoea from Argos Stores offering me a £15 ($20.00) coupon. All I gotta do is “just click here…”.
There is no way to stop this incessant rubbish. To hit an unsubscribe button is just another way to be seduced into the world of scam. I have to live with it. Is there protective gear I can buy to keep out the egregious stream of garbage produced to con the gullible and rob the innocent? It’s the price of living in 2016, I fear.