I didn’t watch the inauguration, but I did read some of the speech. I imagine that when Trump spouted off about “America first,” a big asterisk appeared over his head with the words “after Russia and Israel.” Am I right?
Stuff to read:
Jonathan Freedland, “Divisive, ungracious, unrepentant: this was Trump unbound.”
Gary Younge, “Trump’s first speech in office was unapologetic appeal to nationalism.”
Josh Marshall, “A Few Thoughts on Entering the Trump Era.”
New York Times, “What We’re Seeing at Trump’s Presidential Inauguration.”
I may add some more if I stumble onto anything good.
Violent protesting from the usual anarchists, not cool.
Good protest signs, cool.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/01/20/the_best_protest_signs_from_donald_trump_s_inauguration.html
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/01/trumps-speech-gave-us-america-the-ugly.html
No homework, now political reading tonight.
I’m exhausted.
I’m going to read a good mystery novel tonight.
I’ll do my homework tomorrow morning, maha. I promise!
I just noticed a curious paradox that I would like to share with you.
Donald Trump ran as a populist; Hillary Clinton ran as a technocrat.
Now you would think that if the Electoral College and the popular vote gave two opposite results, then the technocrat would win by the rules, and the populist would win the vote.
But the opposite occurred!
Therefore they _both_ lost!
“an education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge” exists in what current universe???”
Dan: good point. I live in a top-notch school system and they are always running bake sales to keep the doors open and the underpaid teachers from fleeing.
“an education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledgeâ€
Canataloupe Ceaucescu is referring to the finishing schools of Manhattan where he’s currently shopping for Wife #4
I part-time teach at two colleges. One has faculty and student input in governance. It is affordable and academically well-respected. We part-timers have benefits and a pension. It recently defeated an assault by an accreditation agency (now itself discredited) attempting to impose a more centralized model. They wanted a more expensive college with fewer students and more computers.
In my other job, those same accreditors completed their work. The college is now indeed awash in money, but it goes to buildings, computers and administration. They’re hiring secretaries but not tutors. The Chancellor called the college a business and herself its CEO. But then who is the customer and what is the product? I say that the student-loan officer is the customer, and the student is the product. (And we faculty are the ‘human resources’ strip-mined to build the product.)
I did watch the inauguration. I love pomp & circumstance. Didn’t pay much attention to Trump’s speech but instead watched the faces of people to see if I could read their emotions. Here’s what I perceived:
Hillary……depressed
Michelle……bored or stoic
Jared……arrogant
Baron……What’s going on?
Jill Biden….happy
Bill Clinton…..resolved/depressed
Karen Pence & Melania….stern/appropriate
George Bush…..amused
Melania…..proud look at Donald when he was being sworn in
Barack & Joe….buddies/relief
Barack…..gracious/reflective
Trump….scared/tired/restless/impatient
Pence…nothing, like a mask
Mitch McConnell….old man
Pelosi….smiling/fake
So, for what it’s worth, that’s my take.
I’d like to have something extremely analytical and intelligent to contribute to the collaborative effort being made here in understanding exactly what Trump’s Presidency means to our democracy and our nation. Unfortunately, my mind has been gripped with a paralysis due to his being elected that only allows me to regurgitate a single thought…That being, Trump is a nasty bag of narcissistic shit who has and will continue to demean and degrade all that is precious about America.
My hope is that misery seeks him out and overtakes him. I find it ironic that he swears on Lincoln’s bible to defend the Constitution against enemies both foreign and domestic while his rhetoric exemplifies the epitome of a domestic enemy to the Constitution.
Trump is a nasty bag of narcissistic shit who has and will continue to demean and degrade all that is precious about America. My hope is that misery seeks him out and overtakes him.
Misery has already overtaken him, it’s his whole life. There was article in Forbes a few months ago about a lunch between Trump and fellow billionaire Richard Branson. Branson was stunned that Trump spent nearly the whole time talking about the five people Trump approached to help him out of bankruptcy, and how he would spend the rest of his life destroying them. This a petty, vindictive and lonely little man who flies around in a 757 with his hot babe trophy wife thinking he’s God dispensing judgments (“You’re FIRED!”). Now that he’s in the top office he is going to do nothing but inflict misery. It’s what conservatives aspire to do, push their innate misery onto others. He’s the extreme version of this.
I read that Trump wanted to parade the military around his inauguration, much like the Kremlin would roll those tanks and missile launchers around Red Square, trying to show how powerful they are. Cooler heads prevailed and instead T only got a bunch of planes flying overhead, buzzing the event. Only tin pot dictators want to do these things, and this is Trump’s desire.
I am in the same boat, Swami, more than a bit at sea.
But, on the bright side, my wife called me from work. There is a TV in the call room, so she caught some of the news regarding the march in Washington, and in cities across the globe. I have a few friends who had some free time and enough of the quick and ready to get to Washington, but, I am sure a lot of them are participating locally.
I was a little worried about my friends who went to Washington, there were some of the usual suspects ginning up the hate and misinformation. But, what a contrast between the hundreds of thousands of women who took to the streets, often with their men beside them and the Cliven Bundy crowd. It only took one day for the women of the world to set a brave and moral example of a way forward. They didn’t need the false courage that relies on having a gun. Maybe there is some hope after all.
Spinning off the French nature of the titles posted here lately, it brought to mind some history. (I read a French high school history book last year for practice.) When Louis XIV set out to make France a great nation, he patronized the arts and sciences and regulated the quality of French products. His reasoning was that a vibrant and fertile culture would inspire admiration and if people knew that buying something made in France guaranteed a level of quality, that would give them an advantage in the marketplace. It seems that he was right, and people still revere the “Sun King.” Napoleon, organized and built an excellent educational system, which to some degree, still survives. Even his epigone, Napoleon III, preserved and protected the right of workers to strike and to bargain collectively. Each of these rulers had some drawbacks, but they left a mark on the world with enduring benefits. Trump is taking the opposite course. Education and the arts and sciences seem likely to take a hit. Culture will be made up by the consumption habits of the the unimaginably venal and vulgar, who take their place at the top. We will all merely be spectators. That’s not a formula for greatness.
Also, when Marie Antoinette suggested that the poor “eat cake,” I think it was more like brioche. Who knows? It could come up in a conversation.
It’s what conservatives aspire to do, push their innate misery onto others. He’s the extreme version of this.
Amen to that, moonbat!.. 🙂