As an authoritarian, Trump is a flop. Authoritarians don’t reduce gummint control, they increase it.

They remember things.

Cardinal Bergoglio . . .  became Argentina’s most prominent churchman, and there is no shortage of accounts of him as he was seen inside and outside the Church.

Perhaps the most penetrating study of his personality was the one that was published by Omar Bello, El Verdadero Francisco (“ The Real Francis”), within a few months of his election as Pope.

It is worth mentioning that this book vanished from the book-shops with unaccountable speed and is now unobtainable, a fate suffered by some other publications that were not favourable to Pope Francis.

Omar Bello was a public-relations executive who in 2005 was engaged to launch a new Church television channel which President Menem had gifted to the archdiocese of Buenos Aires, and over eight years he was to work for the Archbishop and get to know him.

As a professional in the field himself, Bello was quick to detect in Cardinal Bergoglio an accomplished self-promoter, disguised behind an image of simplicity and austerity. Bello moved in the circles of the archiepiscopal staff and got to hear the many stories that circulated about their enigmatic superior.

Colonna, Marcantonio. The Dictator Pope (Kindle Locations 467-475). Kindle Edition.

Devious.

Probably the best-known of these is the one of Félix Bottazzi, an employee whom the Archbishop decided one day to dispense with, and he arranged his dismissal without showing his hand33.

Once he was out of the Curia, Mr Bottazzi sought an interview with Cardinal Bergoglio, who received him with friendly confusion: “But I knew nothing about it, my son. You surprise me …. What did they sack you for? Who did it?”

Mr Bottazzi did not get his job back, but Bergoglio presented him with a new car, and he went away convinced that the Cardinal was a saint, pushed by forces beyond his control and dominated by a circle of malicious subordinates.

Colonna, Marcantonio. The Dictator Pope (Kindle Locations 476-481). Kindle Edition.

What happened?

From Bello’s description, this way of dealing with people may have been as much temperamental as political; he quotes the account of a priest who worked for Bergoglio and thought him his friend: “He manipulated me for years …. The guy manipulates you with the affections. You think he’s your daddy and he strings you along.” 34 In this case there was no apparent practical purpose in the treatment dispensed.

Colonna, Marcantonio. The Dictator Pope (Kindle Locations 481-485). Kindle Edition.

Tricky fellow.

 

Look at this front page as readable, uncluttered, clear. The head(bones) connect to the story{bones), hear the words of a Chicago newspaper with punch and clarity.

Then turn to Chi Trib’s maelstrom of this and that, full of just-out-of-college meanderings. How do grown men and women come up with campus hi-jinks, too clever by half?

Gimme that old-time newspapering, if you will, where what you see is what you get, keeping it simple for strap-hangers.