Flowers For Socrates

I would recommend not putting off important plans in anticipation of the Big Russia Reveal. Trump has a habit of claiming that he has really important information and that the press will simply have to wait on tenterhooks for the big unveiling, but he never bothers to cough it up.

He is using a standard reality TV tactic: Building suspense by promising big revelations and exciting new twists.

Just like any other reality TV producer, he’s not particularly worried if he doesn’t have the goods. Getting everyone chattering around the water cooler is the only thing that matters…

Trump’s public search for secretary of state fit the pattern of a reality TV show like “The Apprentice” or “The Bachelor,” where contestants are put through a bunch of humiliating trials.

Very organized process taking place as I decide on Cabinet and many other positions. I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2016

Trump taking Mitt Romney out for a candlelight dinner to build anticipation — and then making a spectacle of not choosing him — was a tactic straight out of “The Bachelor.”

“In the end, he doesn’t get the rose and has to go home humiliated,”

If, as Trump says, he has secret information that will clear this up, why speculate at all? Why not just reveal the information? The answer is that he doesn’t have it. He’s using reality TV tactics to create hype, and never had any intention of delivering on it.

The sad part is that this strategy will work, just like it did in the campaign. Journalists will get all hyped up about the big reveal, waiting on him instead of doing their own digging and actually covering the news. Trump just has to bide his time until all the steam has run out of the story and everyone has moved on to something else.

TeenVogue, so much better than Tiger Beat on the Potomac a.k.a. Politico…

And consider this: In just 56 days as the president-elect, Trump’s frequent daily use of Twitter has already resulted in inciting world leaders, insulting global organizations, causing domestic market volatility, and disregarding America’s intelligence agencies. The vast majority of what Trump spews onto his timeline has not only been gravely inaccurate, but it’s also mostly comments that have clearly avoided serious vetting from experienced and knowledgeable sources who, at the very least, could communicate to him the controversies he creates with his off-the-cuff remarks.

Pippa Norris, a Harvard professor, political scientist and the director of the Electoral Integrity Project, tells Teen Vogue, “diplomatic signaling (when state officials use platforms such as the media or the internet, to exchange informal information between government leaders) is a delicate art that requires considerable finesses about the exact choice of words. Any unfiltered commentary, without carefully consulting professional diplomats in the State Department, could easily send inappropriate signals that generate confusion and uncertainty about America’s foreign policies and thereby destabilize the world.” Unfortunately, this statement has already proven to be all too accurate.

www.teenvogue.com/…