They were all coming to the White House today to see if the big five—Trump, McConnell, Schumer, Ryan and Pelosi—could work out a way to keep the government running after the budget runs out this month. Of course, Trump tweeted out early this a.m.: “Meeting with “Chuck and Nancy” about keeping the government open and working. Problem is they want illegal immigrants flooding into our country unchecked, are weak on Crime and want to substantially RAISE Taxes. I don’t see a deal.”
After that went out, Chuck and Nancy said, “Why bother?” and cancelled the meeting at the White House.
To my mind, it was a big strategic mistake on their part. It’s been a year and it’s time that Chuck and Nancy learned to speak “Trumpish.” To speak and understand Trumpish, there are a few basic rules you have to know.
- Rule #1: He hasn’t the remotest idea about what’s going to come out of his mouth or into his Twitter feed
- Rule #2: In any event, 30 seconds after he sends the it, whatever it was is totally gone from his memory
- Rule #3: If someone shows it to him, he won’t recognize the content or will say it means something totally different
That all being the case, the appropriate response to Trump’s tweet is to say as follows: “Mr. President, we all thank you for having the political courage to raise some of those issues that are difficult to talk about, but we think, with your leadership, we can find some consensus.”
Trump, of course, will inflate like a balloon and then go along with whatever the other four can agree on. Whatever they do agree on, he’s never going to read, think or care about it as long as, in the end, there is a good photo op and you tell him he’s wonderful.
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A week or so ago, we had a major visitor from out of town. If you passed by the Malibu Pier at noon, there was a lineup of black SUVs, a large cluster of California Highway Patrol motorcycles and a bunch of hard-eyed security types—with buttons with little spiral chords hanging down from their ears, talking into their sleeves and wearing mirrored sunglasses. They milled around on the Pier, looking distinctly inhospitable. My curiosity got the better of me, so I put on my press pass (which did me no good whatsoever) and went to check it out. After going through a uniformed Secret Service person, the most I could get out of them was that it was all for some head of state—country unspecified. Apparently, the head of state was having lunch upstairs in the room above Malibu Farm Pier Cafe at the ocean end of the pier. A TV crew was just hanging around, waiting for him to come out. They wouldn’t tell me who it was but they had tell-tale Israeli accents Next, I saw a couple of security guys, with that same steely-eyed look, but these guys were also wearing yarmulkas, so it was becoming apparent that the visitor wasn’t exactly the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. Someone finally admitted that it was Reuven Rivlin, the president of Israel, and the mystery was solved.
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An item in the Los Angeles Business Journal told an updated story on Gladstones Restaurant. The county planned on finding a tenant to tear down the old building down and then give the new operator a long-term lease. Apparently, what they hadn’t thought about is how long it takes to go through the redevelopment process, so they had something of a change of heart and decided to renegotiate a new, two-to-five-year lease for the old operator. This would at least keep the restaurant open while they go through the long process of planning for the new building. Supervisor Kuehl said she expected it would take a few years to negotiate a new lease and get all the necessary entitlements and permits, which explains why it’s so expensive to build anything on a beach these days—even if you’re the government.
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We were initially told by the city that it hadn’t asked nor told the Methodist church to stop feeding the homeless and that the story on CBS TV got it all wrong. However, the Presbyterian Church has also put their feeding program on hold; we were told by some at the church that it was at the request of the city. I can understand that people start getting very uneasy when the number of homeless people reaches some sort of critical mass and that the city wants to take control before it becomes a health or crime problem. But what makes me very uneasy is when the city starts double-talking by not coming right out and saying what it is doing. It makes the city look stupid, underhanded and it feeds into a larger narrative of Malibu as some little selfish, elitist town.
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I just saw a wonderful new movie at the Malibu Film Society called “3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” It is a spectacular new movie—the kind people barely make anymore—with tour de force performances by Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell. The film and the three actors are certainly going to all be Oscar contenders. Go see it.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with correct information about Gladstones Restaurant.