62. Braunstein + Trump

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Braunstein

I'm still plowing through my folder full of Medium story recommendations. Today I hit one that is ridiculously longer than all the others. Usually these pieces are reasonably short but this was like a New Yorker story, but very interesting, and in a way that relates to my previous blogs. 

"Friend of the Devil" is an account of the life and crimes of Peter Braunstein, a writer who had worked for Women's Wear Daily before he attacked an ex-fellow employee and plotted to kill Anna Wintour. Braunstein himself references Michel Foucault and he is very much in the Foucault camp when it comes to death, crime, and madness. 

But beyond the Foucault connection, what struck me today was how a person who could be viewed as accomplished and lucky in both his professional and personal life -- up to a point -- could view himself as a victim of a hostile establishment. This reminded me of something else, about Trump, that I ran into yesterday. 

Trump

The entire piece is HERE, but the headline is probably all you really need to read:

Trust-fund-baby-turned-billionaire-married-to-supermodel feels system unfairly rigged against him

That I get the same vibe from Trump that I get from Braunstein is the latest, and perhaps scariest, reason to fear his candidacy. 

P.S.

I had to add the quote below I just ran into on the BBC website since it seems to support what I wrote above:

In a blog post on Friday titled "Meeting Donald Trump," British tycoon Sir Richard Branson became the latest celebrity to give his thoughts on this never-ending election. And it wasn't a pitch for President Trump.

Mr Branson describes being invited by Mr Trump to his apartment in Manhattan where the New Yorker discussed his bankruptcy and the various people he had gone to for help but who had turned their backs on him.

"He told me he was going to spend the rest of his life destroying these five people," Mr Branson continues, before adding that he found the event "bizarre". He told Mr Trump there must be more constructive ways to spend the rest of his life. "Hopefully my advice didn't lead to him running for president!" he writes.

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