Who to Blame
Normal people have gone from laughter to shock to anger to abject fear of the Trump presidency as his reality television drama has torn at the very fabric of our society for almost 2 years since he was inflicted upon us by voters who are idiots. I worked in New York during the eighties when Trump was a punch line, the target of derision and anger over his trashy gold plated branding and real estate failures. Many New Yorkers called him Donald Chump.
How did he go from laughingstock to the most powerful job in the world? In one word, television. Were it not for The Apprentice, Trump would still be relegated to the pages of tabloids like the Enquirer and the Daily Post. The Apprentice used trumped up drama (no pun intended), manufactured qualifications, fake controversies, and personal destruction of contestants as a formula to transform Trump from widely known failure to a successful businessman.
Who accomplished this seemingly impossible feat? His name is Mark Burnett, who invented the first major reality television series, Survivor, in 2000 and then The Apprentice a couple of years later. After meeting Trump Burnett identified him as the perfect character around which to build a fake “successful” businessman who ruled over contestants each week. Burnett called it the “Urban Survivor”. The formula worked, and the rest is our nightmare today. The New Yorker has just profiled Burnett, and the article reads like a…wait for it…reality television show.
So, if you want to blame someone for the train wreck that is now our daily reality, here’s the guy.
I agree. Trump has been in the living rooms of people for years and it wasn’t much of a stretch for them to imagine him in the White House. They could ignore all the corruption and obvious con jobs in his past because he presented himself as successful, actual reality be damned. That and the fact that he wanted to return the country to the 50’s and 60’s when white people were in charge and women and blacks knew their place.
1Boo to Mark Burnett for creating surreal and dishonest lying version of Donnie. But more aimed at all snacilbupeR operatives since FDR to destroy the social safety nets and fabric of a democratic society. There’s a special place in hell for the operatives and Republicon enablers since Nixon who created the atmosphere ripe for Donnie. The Koch brothers, Mercers, Schlapps and et al .01% enabling the destruction of a country and a planet deserve to be on the business end of a pitchfork with all Republicons.
2It’s too horrifying to blame just one person when there are so many Republican enablers just sitting on their thumbs and allowing this disaster to happen to our country. I agree entirely with Jane & PKM, and let’s include the Russian manipulation and tampering in with all the rest. A perfect storm of collusion.
3AK Lynne, while there are many Republicon enablers in Congress to blame for the Russian collusion and lack of oversight on Donnie and his maladministration, first and foremost is Old Scratch McConnell. First he obstructed President Obama for 8 long years, then he failed us miserably when early reports of Russian election interference were apparent and he absolutely refused bi-partisan cooperation to President Obama to do anything about it. Old Scratch, Devin Nunes, Dana Rohrabacher and Lyin’ Ryan need to be grilled and/or water boarded until truth actually escapes their lying lips. If that’s extra judicial, then a day at the WMDBS, Inc. would be equally acceptable to pry some truth out of them.
4If only Trump, his decisions, and Tweets could be as heavily edited as “The Apprentice.” I’ve never watched an episode, but I read the final editing of each episode was essential for making the show watchable. Without it, the uncut raw footage was a video train wreck.
Time to go whole hog? Mark Burnett for Chief of Staff?
5The Murdochs, Burnett, Trump, and so many other 1-2 generations separation from the land of their ancestors, DJT may have a point…big all and extreme vetting.
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