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Donald Trump has America reading again, although the 45th president apparently reads nothing before spouting observations that are brazenly untrue..
The belligerent executive orders, the Kellyanne Conway descriptions of falsehoods as “alternative facts,” her description of events that never happened, the growth of a mass movement opposing Trump … the stuff is irresistible but it difficult for the citizen, otherwise occupied, to keep up.
The parents of this political scribe had the same problem working in San Francisco during World War II, he at a shipyard and she driving a meat truck.
They put their faith in one news source — Time magazine — only to be taunted by their offspring years later for having “Luce morals.”
In today’s online America, a weekly email summation of our crazy times has emerged in this neck of the woods: “Last Week in Trump: The best of both bubbles.”
It is the off-hours work of a Windermere real estate agent named Sol Villarreal, a Texas native who once voted for George W. Bush, experienced a liberal conversion, labored in the Obama campaign and ended up out here working for then-Mayor Mike McGinn.
He’s produced a product with a lot more diversity in it than Time under the imperious Henry Luce. The connection: lastweekintrump.com.
Villarreal offers a summation of the week’s major developments. He then quotes “conservative reactions” and “liberal reactions.” He ventures into other executive actions, plus a “miscellaneous” section that sums up what’s just happened and what is about to happen.
The chief attraction of “Last Week in Trump” is that Villarreal not only scours national news outlets but reads and quotes news outlets on both sides of America’s great political divide. Increasingly, Americans have tuned into — or read online — exclusively what they agree with.
Hence, “Last Week in Trump” contains observations and reactions from the National Review on the right, and Breitbart News on the far right, as well as the Daily Kos website and Talking Points Memo on the left.
Villarreal jokes that he has found Breitbart and Daily Kos to be remarkably alike, an observation that would probably cause fits with Steve Bannon at the White House and Markos Moulitsas at opposition headquarters in Berkeley.
The reader can come away decently informed without enduring hour-long talkfests of political operatives on cable TV, or one-sided web posts designed to get you outraged enough to start giving.
At the end, Villarreal offers “What Went Viral Last Week” so the reader can link to provocative articles at each end of the political chasm.
Joe and Dolly Connelly were prisoners of Time publisher Henry Luce from Pearl Harbor to VJ Day. Time indoctrinated them in love for China’s leader Chiang Kai Shek, and lionized Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
That was then, before 24/7 news cycles. “Last Week in Trump” is for these turbulent times. Villarreal provides succinct sum-ups and lets advocates do the arguing.
One point of criticism: He ought to scan a little more widely around the country. East Coast news outlets often behave like blackbirds on a telephone pole: They all take off in unison and land in the same place.
Still, Villarreal succeeds in boiling down the news without robbing it of flavor. He lets us keep up, and that is vitally necessary. Hold onto your seat belts: Our nation is in for a bumpy ride.
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