TRUMP TRIUMPHANT

THE MOST TERRIFYING BOOK OF 2016

Rush Limbaugh - the John The Baptist for the current American Idiocy - predicts he will win the Presidency in 2016. He himself has beaten off 17 of the most powerful, well-funded, conservative, ruthless, and intelligent Republicans ever arranged against one man. He is a funny, canny, super-rich, fearless, and rude man of uncommon boldness. Here comes Donald Trump - by some measure the most narcissistic "textbook" megalomaniac to run for this modern office - but also the most populist (if not popular).

Nixon did not like lots of people we presume, but he managed to get some of them to vote for him - Trump has never met a group he could not offend. His default position is satirical invective with slap in the face disregard for ceremony. A Trump presidency would be a revolt such as we last saw in America when they chucked out the King - so they do have form. Americans have a capacity for innovation, daring, surprise, and stupidity second-to-few, as an electorate (they voted for Reagan and Nixon) but they can also elect Obamas and Lincolns. The best British book on Trump is by Oliver Jones, and is now out from Eyewear (cover above).

It is witty, smart and cutting. But it makes a good point - Trump is not just a Game of Thrones pantomime villain. He is superbly gifted at surfing on what the media wants. He is the media gift that keeps on giving, so like a radioactive Japanese monster, his enemy's attacks actually do make him stronger. This is because he is all about being the biggest brand, and big brands are talked about, period. He is news as it is made, for its own sake.

So he will be hard to beat. His poll numbers see him down 13% - a hardly difficult gap to vault since the race has barely begun. Hillary Clinton is brilliant, ambitious, and hard-working - but she has a history with Bill and emails that make some people worry about her; and she is the comparative establishment candidate now. She may be progressive, but Trump is Batshit Radical - the nihilist would vote for Trump - his theme song for the campaign trail may well be 'Cities In Dust' - he promises to drop atomic bombs and kick Chinese butt. He has stolen the Putin playbook, and offers the strongest pro-America stance since Teddy Roosevelt. He wants to speak loudly and carry the biggest, best stick ever.

So, I think the contest will be harrowingly close. It may well bring out the most voters ever. Obama got out a lot of young people to change history, but this election will bring people out simply to save the world - or change it. Trump would be about wars and walls - trade wars, wars with ISIS, and maybe wars with others (including in Europe). Seemingly unafraid, he is Hyper-Reagan.

Hillary may be too decent to beat this megalith. Or she may appear so reasonable and sane, she may prevail. But if the riled people want a Krazy Klown Posse to shake things up, the Joker has arrived to smash the old guard in one fell swoop. Stay tuned.

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

THE SWIFT REPORT 2023

I am writing this post without much enthusiasm, but with a sense of duty. This blog will be 20 years old soon, and though I rarely post here anymore, I owe it some attention. Of course in 2023, "Swift" now means one thing only, Taylor Swift, the billionaire musician. Gone are the days when I was asked if I was related to Jonathan Swift. The pre-eminent cultural Swift is now alive and TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR. There is no point in belabouring the obvious with delay: 2023 was a low-point in the low annals of human history - war, invasion, murder, in too many nations. Hate, division, the collapse of what truth is, exacerbated by advances in AI that may or may not prove apocalyptic, while global warming still seems to threaten the near-future safety of humanity. It's been deeply depressing. The world lost some wonderful poets, actors, musicians, and writers this year, as it often does. Two people I knew and admired greatly, Ian Ferrier and Kevin Higgins, poets and organise...

E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

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