Extraordinary Ordinary Americans

I just walked out of a movie very surprised - well not I, but we: My wife and I. We're kinda shocked, actually, with what we just spent the last 120+ minutes watching - Michael Moore's new film 'Fahrenheit 11/9'.

After a long evening spent strolling through Portland's Southeast Belmont, Stark and Burnside neighborhoods, about a 4 minute walk from where we're staying, we passed the perhaps famous(?) but in any event rad Bagdad Theatre. There was one last movie showing for the night at the Bagdad. And it looked not terrible.

At least the ratings aren't that bad; even if I can smell the narrative from 6 feet under. Or so I thought.

While the movie does for sure take aim at Trump (including an awkward as hell montage where Moore tried as best as he could - but crucially without ever stating it explicitly - that the current POTUS got all West Virginian on his daughter at some point), the whole film was an assassination on the entire political framework and cast of characters over at least the past 30 years.

Obama. Between the eyes.
Hilary. Murked.
Bush. You already know.
Clinton. Zee-boom.
Rick Snyder. Murked in front of his kids.

As for the current party in power including DJT? Well, as Moore would like you to think, *they* are at best a group of maniacal, ultra-rich racists or at worst the second coming of the third-reich.

The latter point is what was pretty surprising: whereas the reviews that I read before the movie made it seem like Moore singled out POTUS as the next Hitler - hence leading me to assume the complete narrative initially - what ended up happening was Moore sacrificing all traditional politics beginning with the "fascist-probably" Republicans and continuing on to the elitist and treasonously (Bernie got robbed!) self-serving Democrats.

While Moore dismisses any rank-and-file Democrat he provides a decent amount of time on some incredibly promising new politicians. For me at least that was an eye opener. While Moore didn't present this grouping as such, they represent what I see a a real potentially powerful third political party.

Despite the politicians themselves self-labeling as either Democrat or Republican, it may very well only be a matter of time until a formal announcement; or very well "announcements" - plural - are made.

At least that was my initial takeaway after the movie ended and my wife and I slowly began to make our way to the exits.

The wind was snappy and brisk on the walk home. What optimism I had been feeling about the future prospects of my mother country cooled a bit.

You gotta have faith, but there are times when you gotta be real. And it looks like shit is about to get (or at the very least could very easily get) real.

Regardless, we need some Extraordinary Ordinary Americans asap.

Negotiations & History

In less than 3 hours the meeting between Trump and Kim will go down.

For those with short memories, journalists and North Korean experts were up in arms a few short weeks back after Trump "canceled" negotiations. The furor they raised just confirmed how little they (or really most people for that matter) know about negotiations. Negotiations are never over until they are over, and while parties may kick and scream during negotiations, when the ink dries on a final, signed agreement everything except what has been agreed upon is forgotten.

Despite the negotiations pushing ahead and even after the summit was declared on again, you have a bunch of ideologues criticizing the whole meeting citing past North Korean atrocities as evidence that the US is negotiating not just with a terrorist but a war criminal. 

Everyone knows North Korea has been a shitty place to live, and some people were really fucked over. You can also say the same thing about really any group or nation throughout history, including the US and South Korea. But the key things to look out for are the moments when things may change and benefit a huge swathe or group of people.

The meeting between Trump and Kim may be one of those moments, but also it may not be. That said, directionally they are heading towards one of those moments where the past of North Korea will be (largely) forgotten so that a future can be opened up where many more people than were fucked over in the past can benefit. That is how history, thought broadly, is written.

So, to summarize: Negotiations are finalized when participants agree to do one thing or a set of things while forgetting everything else in much the same way that history is written about one thing or a set of things while omitting everything else. When you see people only focusing on the "everything else" on Twitter or on the news or at the bar, ask them why they are focusing on everything else.

Dream Fast, Write Slowly

Make haste slowly

There is something just so perfectly zen about this saying. It's derived from the Latinate motto 'festina lente' which in turn came from a Greek saying.

This saying literally carries wisdom through the ages, not too fast and not too slowly.

It also pretty much encapsulates this blog, and more specifically my writings and musings on the future of the internet, beta.cent.co.

Since first reading about Cent back in early November, my day dreams and fantasies about the site have always raced ahead of my writings, whose frequency have never really broken more than a brisk stroll.

The imaginative energy and stimulation from my fantastic thoughts have provided the perfect amount of inspiration and clarity to write simple, deep and thoughtful pieces.

I have achieved the ultimate equilibrium whereby I have managed to balance the fantastical with the repetitively subdued resulting in a constantly replenishing pool of daily creativity.

Now it's time to work towards those dreams, and get paid.

Not too fast, but not too slowly. That's how I'll keep on keeping on.

The Art of the Deal

I have been reading 'The Art of the Deal' by Donald J. Trump (with Tony Schwartz) for about two weeks now and I'm just about finished. Normally, with a book as easy and entertaining to read as this I would have finished in 4~5 days, but I have really been drawing this reading out. It has just completely defied my intially low expectations, which after reflection I realize were unfounded in the first place since everyone I've met who has actually read the book has had nothing but positive things to say about it.

What has surprised me most are the many, many insights into Trump's decision making process that seem to very clearly explain why he says and does things as president in his very unorthodox and un-politicianly way.

To be clear before we go on, I have no horse in the race of American politics - I have never been registered to vote nor do I plan on doing so, perhaps until it is time for me to run myself - but I have been observing Trumps involvement in politics with a detached interest for a while now. The starkly polarizing reactions that Trump seems to elicit from typical Americans - the die hard supporters versus those who see Trump as the second comming of Hitler - should cause anyone who has a properly functioning brain to want to find out a little more about who this polarizing figure really is. And what better way is there to do that than by reading or listening to the mans thoughts. Thoughts that - crucially - came from a time before he was a politician, because, well, you just can't trust anything a politician says.

If there is one thing that seperates Trump the politician from every other politician, it is his seeming indifference to bad press. It wouldn't seem off base to suggest that Trump seems to thrive off of bad press. When Trump was pursuing the construction of the Trump Tower, he described the resulting controversey and negative publicity thusly: "Even though the publicity was almost entirely negative, and there was a great deal of it, and that drew a tremendous amount of attention to Trump Tower. Almost immediately we saw an upsurge in the sales of apartments. I'm not saying that's a good thing, and in truth it probably says something perverse about the culture we live in. But...controversy, in short, sells."

 A few years later when Trump was receiving resistence from New York City politicians despite making numerous offers that he would like to offer his help to rebuild the Wollman ice rink instead, he made the following observation: "If there's one thing I've learned from dealing with politicians over the years, it's that the only thing guaranteed to force them into action is the press - or, more specifically, fear of the press...Bad press translates into potential lost votes, and if a politician loses enough votes, he won't get reelected. If that happens, he might have to go out and take a 9 to 5 job. That's the last thing most politicians want to do."

There are many more instances where Trump makes comments specific to particular deals, or offers up thoughts on what seperates good businessmen from bad ones, or explains how he chooses people to lead projects (the best and most competent, regardless of experience) that offer a window into his actions and decisions today. In particular his thoughts on family then, help explain his preference for installing many of his immediate and extended family nembers in high positions today - something that isn't exclusive to Trump in the history of the presidency, but something that receives a lot of focus today. "There is nothing to compare with family if they happen to be competent, because you can trust family in a way you can never trust anyone else."

We are all human, and Trump is no different. If you have an open mind and are curious about why President Trump seems so different, I highly recommend you pick up 'The Art of the Deal' and give it a read. Thanks to this book I'll be focusing more on what I think the long-term goals Trump is focusing on are and evaluating him on 1) the necessity and importance of those goals and 2) if he actually achieves those goals or not. I will look for potential angles that could explain how his punking of the media could help serve some tactical purpose of helping to move the goal-posts closer to the end zone of those goals. And I know it'll be interesting too, because as Trump puts it: "There is no typical week in my life."