In what looks like the most amazing Rick-Roll of all time, we have to come to grips with the possibility that Trump is creating his own October Surprise with the results he wants. While some have speculated it was his wife who gave up his 20-year-old tax form, it would be much easier for him to do it. The recording? Pull it out of his archive.

Why would Donald go to such effort to self-destruct? Because he was never a real candidate to begin with. Everything he's done was a hyperinflated version of what a real stupid conservative Republican might do - turning up the IOKIYAR meme to 11 was sheer brilliance. Or at least good fun.. That's right, Donald Trump is the political equivalent of Spinal Tap - Spinal Trump, anyone? - compleat with little miniature stonehenges and a bizarre appearance at the Armory. And a tribute to fat bottom girls. 

The Wizard of Oz had the formula down 70 years ago - for a brain you just need a degree, for courage a purple heart, and in this case for leadership a ton of money. People want to believe that by clicking their heels they'll be home again, where it's comfortable and non-threatening and a bit boring to boot. With such meager aspirations, who can refuse?

There have been so many contradictions in the GOP for so long, it's just beyond temptation for a con artist self-promoter like Trump to take his best shot, and it easily worked - like taking candy from a baby. Christian? Support the Troops? No abortion? All of it's fungible. The core belief in the Republican Party is a basic intolerant racism along with an undeserved self-assurance that we're better than everyone else. Even Democrats have to worship at the altar of this bullshit American Exceptionalism.

But for all its own demagoguery and superstitious cant, the data-driven Democrats are no match for the Christian-inspired right. *This* batch of losers actively shuns reason and logic for faith-based, content-free belief. Talk about a group just waiting for a Mahdi-like Pied Piper to lead them into jihad (as Bush did in 2003) or to Candy Mountain (as the Tea Party has since 2009).

Trump's a bit like Tarantino - a guy who's more than clicked in to the grand master film archives, and not afraid to use it to the point of overt plagiarism. Everything Trump does has precedent - and like a Chaplin, he extends that precedent into the absurd. Schwarzenegger was supposed to be the Groper-in-Chief, but Arnie was at least muscular and arguably good looking (besides loaded with cash). Dennie Hastert was the serial child molester who makes Trump's comments about his daughter seem tame. Romney was the billionaire vulture capitalist who stuck a sick shitting dog on his rooftop like a Chevy Chase Family Vacation skit, but at least Romney had a functional family. Trump is Sarah Palin with even less experience and a battier repetition of "support the troops".

The biggest "tell" was his note from his doctor - designed to provoke outrage, and instead passed unscathed through the right wing echo chamber. And why not? Bush's abandoned Guard duty and fall "choking on a pretzel" set them up to accept any old failed excuse. What's "Trifecta" to the 18th? Oddly enough, Trump's the only person left or right who could publicly say Bush didn't keep us safe on 9/11, quite the opposite - without it being hara kiri. quite the bizarre pre-scripted environment he's taken over.

Republicans always quote Arthur Vandenberg's line that "politics stop at the water's edge", and then they go and cut a deal to queer LBJ's peace agreement in Vietnam or to get the Ayatollah *not* to release the hostages, or show up in England or Israel talking shit about the prez - and then label Dems as unpatriotic. Trump's pulled a twofer, not only dissing the sitting president with Russia, our longest lasting enemy, he's undermining our whole 15-year approach to building sustainable coalitions in the Mideast by supporting Putin and abandoning the cause to Russian hands. "Sorry folks, it was all meaningless - we're out of here". There have been isolationist Republicans before, but none so flippantly inured to the results. But then again, what's "shrink government til you can drown it in a bathtub?" Yep, Donald's just shrinking our quixotic foreign policy until you can drown it in a vat of Russian vodka. Gary Johnson didn't know what Aleppo is - think Trump does? Or has to?

"Law and Order" - the Spiro Agnew silent majority call to crush the counter-culture and civil rights, tied to "Make America Great Again", a Ronnie Reagan B-Movie that became a cult classic. Build a bigger wall and stop-and-frisk 2.0 - double down on what hasn't worked before, just like the surge in Iraq and trying to train Afghani or Iraqi police. No more talk about balanced budgets - cutting taxes in vast amounts will do. Racism? it's just lazy people, drugs, lack of responsibility. My, we so want our 1950's back.

Trump came out of the reality show biz, is akin to Howard Stern's shock-jock approach. While Trump's success as casino mogul and real estate tycoon distinctly underperformed the business market, his gift at TV with the Apprentice and this year's performance is straight out of Paddy Chayefsky's Network - "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore". The politics of discontent - who'd expect folks to be happy? Instead we want conflict - derision, turmoil, and disputes, 24x7. Not only is Trump the main act, he's the main reporter reporting his own act. Effing brilliant.

Over the next few weeks or the next few hours, we'll see if Trump really expected his house of cards to come tumbling down, or if he was gullible enough to believe his own incantations and elixirs.  So far for a gambling joint, Trump's virtual Casino is still a winner. What are the odds Trump can keep it up, or folds when it's time to cash in, before the house gets too wise? Frankly, for someone attuned to Vegas, we know what the answer is - they ain't that smart, milk 'em till they're dry, give 'em another floor show, slots, some busty blonde in a sheer dress, and just keep the rubes grinning and spinning. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, including con jobs and lost fortunes. Art of the Deal? even that's a retread, more like "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break". Like moths to a candle, they flit and flitter to money and glitter and quickly burn out, but not too much where they can't pick themselves up and do it again. Say g'night, America - you been had. Over and over and over again. God I need a drink.