Introduction
When I wrote this Tuesday morning I wasn’t thinking about the election. I had no intention to write about it. I assumed the Democrats would win all the elections, but not by the margins they did. I didn’t even think about the speeches and certainly had no idea the four speeches would be extraordinary. Not only that, I didn’t know they’d be given in a sequence that couldn’t have been more impactful if this all been planned in advance by a master screeenwriter.
Thus as things turned out my intended Substack pre-written for Wednesday had to be amended and the title changed. It is now 1:00 AM so this can officially be my Wednesday Substack. Now it’s time for me to put both myself and the Substack to bed.
Act One: If Trump’s presidency was a TV series it would have jumped the shark and been cancelled a long time ago.
Written Election Morning
Fonzie jumped the shark in the fifth season of “Happy Days,” specifically in the episode titled “Hollywood: Part 3,” which aired in the third season of Happy Days on September 20, 1977. The show aired on ABC from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Obviously the term “jumping the shark” applied to a TV series having an episode so implausible that people would stop watching didn’t apply to Happy Days.
Click footnote to see our recent jump the shark show > 1
What made me think of this was this text message:
It would be exhausting to enumerate all of the things Trump has done in the last month that if this was TV series about a president critics would say it jumped the shark. Ripping down the East Wing and his Gatsby gala held while he was cutting SNAP benefits come to mind as recent shark jumping episodes. Just Sunday his telling Norah O’Donnell he didn’t know anything about the convicted crypto criminal he pardoned should have been a shark jumper.
Of course Trump actually was in a TV series where he was the host and so-called star for 14 seasons. I never watched or followed news about it, so I don’t know from experience if they ever had one or more episodes which critics said jumped the shark. This is what an AI inquiry said to the question:
Yes, many viewers and critics believe that “The Apprentice” jumped the shark, particularly during its later seasons when the show’s quality declined and decisions made by the host, Donald Trump, seemed arbitrary. This sentiment was echoed by former contestants and commentators who noted that the show’s format became less engaging over time.
This all brings us to the question upon which the fate of our democracy rests: what will constitute a show ending shark jump. for Trump?
My impression is that he has the uncanny, one might say superhuman, ability to come away unscathed from jumping over sharks. He genuinely seems to enjoy sticking it to his critics by pushing the limits and giving them the finger.
Act Two: Newsom warns about Trump sending in his own sharks.
Written after Midnight and posted on Wednesday at 1:00AM
The returns came in. The Democrats had a resounding victory. I anticipated their winning but not in a blow-out.
Then there were the extraordinary speeches by the gubernatorial candidates, Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill followed by the barnburner Zohran Mamdani.
It was the evening capper speech by Gavin Newsom that threw ice water on my feeling elated and replaced it with a chill of dread.
Unbeknownst to me the AI illustration I used to conclude Chapter One was appropriate.
Here’s Gavin Newsom closing out the evening with his speech about the Prop. 50 win which passed overwhelmingly:
To say that the speech was sobering is putting it mildly. Newsom warned about Trump’s desire and intention to declare war on the cities and described how Trump had already sent troops to his city of Los Angeles and my city of Portland, as well as to Chicago. He described Trump mounting a shock and awe campaign against our big cities.
Continuing with the theme of sharks, what Newsom was portending was Trump’s not just riding voracious sharks while giving us the finger, but commanding armed sharks to take over our cities.
Mamdani concluded his remarks saying, “so Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up!”
I envision Trump, assuming he was watching, reacting to be addressed directly with this aggressive challenge by raging out loud “I’ll show how I can turn the volume up on you and your city mo-fukker!” This is all we know about how Trump reacted when the final results were announced:
If Trump even looked at HUFFPOST this morning, I doubt he’d appreciate the clever main all caps italicized title in red letters:
Afterthought:
It occurred to me that New York City, with it’s new mayor, has a police force of about 33,000 officers. Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest city, has about 9,000 police officers. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department employs approximately 10,000 sworn deputies. Therefore Trump and his Gestapo/SS advisors might think twice about daring the new mayor to try to thwart an attempt to militarize the city. New York City police offciers, like other New York public employees, take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York, pledging to faithfully discharge their duties to the best of their ability. They do not take an oath to Donald Trump.
When they salute superior officers they do not say “heil” to anybody either.
Addendum: Los Angeles is approximately 1,215 square kilometers, making it about 56% larger than New York City, which covers around 781 square kilometers. Los Angeles is about 1.6 times bigger than New York City. Thus LA has a much larger area than New York City to police with far fewer officers.
Update:
I watched Trump this morning as he addressed GOP members of Congress looking for any indications of stress. I didn’t see any. He looked relaxed and sounded cheerful.
However Trump felt watching the election results and speeches he brushed off any anger and rallied for his morning TV show. Nothing, nothing mind you, will allow him to feel he’s jumped the shark.
Trump, being Trump, bragged about meeting the head of Toyota saying he’d asked him how much stock in the company. He said he was told 90.1%. Trump joked “he said point one” and added he told the Japanese industrialist who is about to invest billions in the United States “you must be really rich.’ Who says things like this? Need anyone ask?
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Below are Portland area articles about issues related to ICE and similar stories.
The primary story yesterday was about the federal judge halting National Guard deployment until Nov. 7th. For other stories look at the end of yesterday’s Substack.
Portland media:
Don’t forget, if you missed a recent Substack they are here.
For Ann and me the show Scandal with Kerry Washington finally jumped the shark during episode eight of season three. I won’t explain why since this would give spoilers lest any of you want to watch the show.
Scandal went on for seven seasons usually each consisting of about 23 episodes. We plan to jump ahead and look at season seven to see where the plot has gone before we give up on it.
I asked AI if Scandal jumped the shark and it came back with this:
“Scandal” is often considered to have “jumped the shark” in its sixth season, particularly during an episode where a character survives an implausible situation, which many fans found to be excessively unrealistic even for the show’s standards. The series is generally viewed as having lost its grounding in reality from its inception, making it difficult to pinpoint a specific moment of decline.
