Some Perspective to Help You Through 2017

Does the thought of what the new year will bring got you down, Bunky? Feeling like the country is heading in the wrong direction? That it could, in fact, be the end of America?  Well buck up, I solved your solstice sorrows and I have the cure for this malady too!

We've seen this movie before - Please read on to see how other years started and then answer the simple question at the end. (All info from various sources, Wikipedia.)

Jan 1918 - the first wave of the great flu pandemic was winding down in the US, finally dying out completely in April. Estimates say that between 50 and 100 million people were killed world-wide, more than the Black Death plague. In the U.S. about 28% of the population became infected; 500,000 to 675,000 killed over 12 months - that would be over 29 MILLION dead today. On top of this WWI was still going strong. We lived through it.

Jan 1932 - the country was mired in the depths of the Great Depression with 13-15 million people unemployed or more than 20 percent of the U.S. population at the time - that would be over 65 million unemployed today. The depression went on for another 9 years until WWII started, leaving many people in the country suffering including my parents and grandparents. We lived through it.

Jan 1945 - the US and allies were finally pushing the Germans back after the Battle of the Bulge and by the end of the month, had them on the run. According to the US Dep’t of Defense, however, American forces suffered 89,500 casualties including 19,000 killed, 47,500 wounded and 23,000 missing. The Battle of the Bulge was the bloodiest battle for the U.S. Forces in WW II. We lived through it. 

Jan 1951 - The US and Allies had just finished the horrific battle at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea that had raged for over two weeks in temperatures down to 35 below zero. We were pushed all the way back south and we suffered casualties of 4,385 from the US Marines, 3,163 from the US Army and 2,812 South Koreans attached to American formations. The 1st Marine Division also reported 7,338 non-battle casualties due to the cold weather. The war ended a little over 2 bloody years later. We lived through it.  

Jan 1973 (a personal favorite of mine) - the US and North Vietnam sign the Paris Peace Accords, essentially ending the Vietnamese war. After 8 years and over 58,000 American deaths, hundreds of thousands of wounded Americans and dead Vietnamese – and a trillion dollars spent - the war was coming to an end. We lived through it.

And that’s just the 20^th century.

Now, what are the chances that we won't live through the next four years with our new Ocher Faced President? Or forty years? Or 100 years? Exactement - nil! So come on people, lighten up and have a great New Year!

U2 New Years Day
(The song has more meaning than just the title . . .)

Signed,

Dr. D Roger Pangloss  

                                11^th Annual Solstice Story - "12 Days of Solstice"

This is truly a difficult time of the year for many people. (Okay, mostly for me.) You have to admit that even with global warming, now through, oh say, early May, there isn’t much to live for. 

                                                                      A TV commercial’s view of winter

                                                               
The calendar has brought us back to the heinous point in time that is the approach of the winter solstice. That time of the year when we teeter on the edge of madness between the never-ending cold and darkness . . . and the glimmer of hope that we will make it to the first warm breezes of spring. 

Oh yeah, and there is also the dismal election we just survived (barely) and, depending on their proclivities, half the people that voted are celebrating and half (well a little more than half) are debating moving out of the country.

Well, I’ve got a cure for the symptoms (nothing we can do about the disease.) 

                                                                    Actual view of winter . . .

         

                                                                      

Most people are familiar with the “Twelve Days of Christmas,” right? What you probably didn’t know is that it was originally created as a drinking song by a bunch of 1^st century BC pagan bartenders. No, really it was. This time of year isn’t much fun and if you think it's kind of grim now - being pushed and shoved at the MOA or freezing your ass off getting in the car - imagine it back then. Ugh. I mean, why do you think they lit candles on evergreens?  Why do you think they pranced around them? Why do you think virgins ran scared? (I'm not sure of that last part.) Is it any wonder the early Christians co-opted solstice for Christmas? No! It's because it sucks this time of the year so you need to do something to make it bearable, that’s why. I think that also answers the question of why they drank so much too. (And another reason that bartending is the world’s second oldest profession.)

Anyway, I’ve had to update the song a bit; the original version, besides being in an unrecognizable Gallic tongue, was a little boring for modern tastes. 

    

Here’s the original first couple verses:

“On the first cold, horrible, smelly day of solstice my woman give to me . . . an axe."

“On day after first cold, horrible, smelly day of solstice my woman give to me, a flagon of wine . . . and an axe.”

And then went on adding another flagon of wine each time. (Bartending was kind of in its infancy then.) Also, it’s pretty easy to see how there ended up being a lot of bloody family reunions during the holidays: “Okay, Vercingetorix* I see you eyeing my wife and my cattle - now stop eyeing my cattle!"  

Anyway, I think if we were to return to the roots of this song it might ease the pain of this awful time of the year – or black it out completely.

So sing along with me:

On the first day of Solstice my true love gave to me, a giant vodka martini!

On the second day of Solstice my true love gave to me two scotch and waters  - and a giant vodka martini!

On the third day of Solstice my true love gave to me to me three lovely daquiris, two scotch and waters - and a giant vodka martini!
  

On the fourth day of Solstice my true love gave to me four Long Island Iced Teas, three lovely daquiris, two scotch and waters - and a giant vodka martini!

On the fifth day of Solstice my true love gave to me Five Golden Cadillacs! Four Long Island Iced Teas,  three lovely daquiris, two scotch and waters - and a giant vodka martini!

On the sixth day of Solstice my true love gave to me six mojitos - five Golden Cadillacs! Four Long Island Iced Teas,  three lovely daquiris, two scotch and waters - and a giant vodka martini!

On the seventh day of Solstice my true love gave to me seven margaritas, six mojitos - five Golden Cadillacs! Four Long Island Iced Teas,  three lovely daquiris, two scotch and waters - a giant vodka martini!

On the eighth day of Solstice my true love gave to me eight mimosas, seven margaritas, six mojitos - five Golden Cadillacs! Four Long Island Iced Teas,  three lovely daquiris, two scotch and waters - a giant vodka martini!

On the ninth day of Solstice my true love gave to me nine rusty nails, eight mimosas, seven margaritas, six mojitos - five Golden Cadillacs! Four Long Island Iced Teas,  three lovely daquiris, two scotch and waters - and a giant vodka martini!

On the tenth day of Solstice my true love gave to me ten manhattans, nine rusty nails, eight mimosas, seven margaritas, six mojitos - five Golden Cadillacs! Four Long Island Iced Teas,  three lovely daquiris, two scotch and waters - and a giant vodka martini!

On the eleventh day of Solstice my true love gave to me eleven plum full pitchers, ten manhattans, nine rusty nails, eight mimosas, seven margaritas, six mojitos - five Golden Cadillacs! Four Long Island Iced Teas,  three lovely daquiris, two scotch and waters - a giant vodka martini!

Okay big finish!

On the twelfth day of Solstice my true love gave to me my - own - stomach - pump!

Eleven plumb full pitchers, ten manhattans, nine rusty nails, eight mimosas, seven margaritas, six mojitos - five Golden Cadillacs! Four Long Island Iced Teas,  three lovely daquiris, two scotch and waters - and a giant vodka martini!

On the day after the solstice my true love said to me, "It's off to rehab for you." 

The beauty of this is that after you get out the days should be getting longer. Even better, you will have avoided another holiday of staring at relatives and pretending to enjoy receiving new undies or a screw driver set.

There, don’t you feel better already? You're welcome.

I think next year I will create one of those holiday calendars, you know the ones with the 25 little doors that has a little treat behind them. Maybe behind each door will be a picture of all the Trump appointees who are "outsider" white, billionaire men  (might need more windows.) Or how about pictures of exciting young, up and coming Democrats (probably won't need many windows.) Ah, the possibilities are endless!

               Since Russia is our new best friend let's enjoy winter like them!

Express your point of view on the season with music:

Play 1 for "Can't wait for spring"

Choice 1

Play 2 for "I'll stick with the traditions"

Choice 2

Play 3 for "Okay I like the holidays but need something different"


Choice 3

Happy holidays to all, enjoy them (or at least try to survive them!)


D Roger Pederson,  
Dean, Electoral College                                                                                                                                    

*For history geeks, Google it

New Guests to the site please feel free check out my other posts here, you might like the New View Askew - and always feel free to offer comments, it's what keeps me going!

What I Learned from  Downton Abbey and Poldark

Huh, Looks like a Pederson Family Reunion

Okay, I think I’m starting to get it. Mrs Dear Leader and I have watched the entire “Downton Abbey” series three times and now we're through “Poldark” for the first time and I think I’ve learned something: English people really speak funny. Okay, just kidding. No, seriously here's what I've learned: Change is a bitch - and also inevitable. On a positive note, we always get through it. 

If you haven’t watched Downton you would, of course, be one of the three people in America who haven’t and if so I’ll catch you up. Simply stated, it’s a series that follows the family of an English peer (Earl Grantham to be exact) from the years 1912-1926 and they live in an English manor called - duh - Downton Abbey. It has an “Upstairs/Downstairs” feel since the servants are as important to the story as the family. (That's doing it a disservice, it is a really great series with terrific characters that you get to know and care about - even the rotten ones!)

In addition to the interesting relationship issues of the Earl’s family and the staff at Downton Abbey (and there are some beauts!) the show is really about how all the the members of this fine household - upstairs and downstairs - are affected by the changes taking place in English society during these years coming out of the Victorian age. As you're watching the show it is kind of obvious, as an outside viewer anyway, that everyone is dealing with change differently. The Earl is a good man but can't imagine that cars will ever catch on; his mother is still struggling with accepting electric lights. Others are embracing change; the youngest daughter is interested in politics - gasp! One of the servants wants to get a job as a secretary - horrors! 

More importantly, as I reflected on this show - oh, maybe halfway through the second time - it dawned on me that change can occur suddenly and jarringingly or very subtly. For example, WWI hurled the family forward making a lot of their old beliefs immediately untenable; suddenly the genteel women folk learn to actually do something productive in support of the war, forcing them to change their entire perspective on their previous lives. On the other hand, simple little things like adopting electric toasters and hair dryers seem innocuous but eventually it becomes obvious that things like this mean fewer people are needed to accomplish some jobs in the big house - a very big deal. 

By the end of the series you see a family that once dressed for dinner every night in ball gowns and tie and tails with footmen, hand maids and valets become a more or less modern family (even if they still have a LOT of windows to clean!) 

Fourteen years. Not very long when you think about it but a huge amount of change.   

         










                                                            Ross Poldark (a twin of my younger self)

You may not have heard of "Poldark" yet, it's just starting it's third season, but it's becoming very popular. Based on a series of books (which I guess I will now need to read) it starts out in about 1783. It too is about an upper-class Englishman but has a clever twist – he is Revolutionary war vet returning to England after their defeat in the colonies. (His simple response when asked how the greatest army in the world could lose? “We were on the wrong side.”) Poldark is also a story about change and not in a good way; it’s kind of dark. It is about the very difficult times that the beginning of the industrial revolution was inflicting on “certain” people and, in fact, changing everyone.

When Cap’t Poldark comes home his dad is dead and the family estate is kaput; the mines played are out, the land is fallow and whole thing mortgaged to the hilt. Oh yeah, and his fiancée has run off with his cousin. Poldark is a changed man when he returns, as vets usually are. He was essentially a gambler and playboy when he left but is now a serious guy. Anyway, there are essentially just two classes of people is this story: the tiny group of bankers and “elite” that own everything (of which, however shakily, Poldark is one) . . . and toiling masses that work for them. 

At one time, they all worked in the fields but when the industrial revolution came along the the workers moved to the mines and the factories. In the new, "modern" world they are no longer in control of their lives, just working for "the man."  Oh yeah, and there’s no food stamps, healthcare, social security – nuthin, zero, zip, nada. But Poldark is a good man; he treats his workers well, pays top dollar and is interested in their welfare. This, of course, is anathema to his fellow gentry and thus begins the drama to bring him down. An interesting irony here is that the “bad guy” is the grandson of a blacksmith – not a landed gentry - who has pulled himself by his bootstraps (and some really crappy dealings) to become the richest (and rottenest) banker in town. Huh.  

In "Poldark", the change in society for everyone is grinding on without resolution, just doubt and fear and pain for many - and for a loooonnnnngggg time. Even as the industrial revolution eventually brought many great things, it wasn’t without incredible pain and suffering for a lot people caught up in that change. In other words, the change might have been inevitable but it certainly wasn't painless for everyone. 

Oh, and it might also be a lesson about a small group of people having all the money.

Anything here ring a bell? 
              

I don’t want to make too much of these shows - I know they are just stories - but it’s hard to miss the similarities between these fictional characters and real people that are so distressed today. 

As a wise man once said, history may not repeat itself but it does rhyme. We’re way past the end of industrial revolution and apparently about at the end the information age moving to . . . I’m not sure what. There are a lot of moving parts to the change that we see all over the world and we have a lot of folks that are struggling with those changes: social, economic, cultural - you name it. And, of course, everything moves faster today making it that much more difficult to deal with. But there is also such a thing as progress and I'm pretty sure that you can't have progress without change. (Admittedly, one guy's progress could be another guy's step backward.) In any event, just like some change, you may not LIKE it but progress IS going to happen.

Obviously not all change is good - keeling over, divorce, running out of vodka - but we have to be really careful when deciding what part of change we want to fight. I'm no expert (and have certainly done my share of bitching about change) but maybe it would be helpful to be good students of history.  

And be willing to change even if you don't want to?

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. George Bernard Shaw

A great and appropriate song - RIP David

David Bowie Ch Ch Changes

Feel free to let me know what you think.

NOTE: I hope you’ll read my previous post about the elites – it’s related.

Score: Rabble 1, Elite 0

You know all the talk about how the “elite” are in charge and ruining the country has been making the rounds among all the (elite) media, talking heads and politicians, right? Well, I thought it was about time to see how this charge is holding up now that this “deplorable” campaign season is over. Here’s how I see it:

Essentially, the elite gave us Hillary. Now you can love her or you can hate her but the fact is that she was a deeply flawed and unpopular candidate; it may not be totally fair but she lost and there you have it. Despite her resume, in a normal election there is NO WAY she should ever have been a candidate.  However, she was clearly the candidate that the elite (at least on the Democrats side) wanted. And they got her.

On the other side, the rabble (sorry, can’t think of a better name for the opposite of elite) gave us The Donald. Despite the herculean efforts of the Republican elite to stop him, they had a candidate who, if he was running for dog catcher, would quickly be eliminated. “The people” wanted him and they got him.

So I ask you, who do you think is winning this abysmal race, the elite or the rabble? Put another way, did the rabble win or did the elite lose?

I am, as is often the case, a little confused. This time I am confused by the confusion that a lot of people seem to have about so called “elites.” I always thought of an elite as someone that is really good at what they do and that was a good thing - but now apparently it is a bad thing? That can’t be right, can it? Alrighty then, let’s talk common sense.

Would you rather watch a 13 handicap - say, me, for example - play golf?

(No, this isn't actually me -  thank God!)

Or would you rather watch Tiger Woods or Jordan Spieth?

You’re very kind but I would choose those guys – they are elite golfers.

            

Also, you never hear anyone who has any kind surgery done say, “Yeah, I had the guy who finished last in medical school do the procedure" (even if he really might have been.) Of course not, your doc is always the best, the elite! 

And was it just some average yahoo that figured out general theory of relativity? Noooo! Or how about the cure for polio? Nooo! And simple personal computers? Again, no.  

A lot of people love to drag out the Founding Fathers when they talk about freedom and independence and that the old boys (weren't no girls allowed) would be appalled with all the elites running things. Maybe so but it’s important to remember the Founding Fathers weren’t exactly a bunch of everyday farmers or day laborers (not that there is anything wrong with that.) No, they were the elite of the colonies. As an aside, there is this: usually revolutions are led by the underclass against the leadership. (hey not unlike this year’s presidential election!) That really wasn’t the case in the colonies, was it. I read somewhere once that our revolution wasn’t so much a revolution as it was really just a protest by the middle and upper classes - and elite - of the colonies against unfair laws i.e. essentially it was just about money. If the King had simply lightened up on taxes and rules there might not have ever been a revolution. (A large minority of the colonists were loyal to the crown.)  Dunno but something to think about when we worry about the elites.

On the other hand, that is not to say that something isn’t rotten in Denmark – or Washington DC. All the people in this country who are pissed off on the right and the left are correct that the government is no longer representing them. There are certainly elites involved in this mess but I think they are a different kind of elite. They are the money people who politicians have to suck up to get elected (and to hold on to their elite status themselves.) The lobbyists for big business, big unions - big money – who whisper sweet nothings to the party officials and candidates to influence everything that happens in the country. 

I guess you could say they have kind of turned the government into a gangster-like operation and it really sucks.

So what’s my point? I’m not sure. I guess my point is that we need to be careful when we rebel against the “elites.” We have famously become a country that has deep disregard of facts and science e.g immunizations, evolution, . . . flossing. And a distrust for anything that differs from our preconceived beliefs: liberals bad, conservatives dumb. What’s next, doubting gravity!?

This country from day one has depended to a certain, and probably, great extent on our elites to help us get through this self-governing thing. I mean, after all, the reason the founding fathers created the electors (now Electoral college) is because they didn’t really trust majority rule and, I suspect, the capabilities of the “average voter.” And I, for one, am also a bit hesitant to turn it over to the average, uninformed yoho to totally run things. (Any connection to recent electoral results is totally coincidental.)

We also don’t want to discourage the brightest among us from doing what they are best at whatever field it might be and that is to lead and innovate and be smart – we do NOT want the baby to go out with the wash!

What we need to do is find all those fake elites who are lurking behind the scenes and screwing up the country whether they are lobbyists, career politicians or billionaire trouble makers of all stripes and force them out. How? Other than change the Constitution to get money out of the equation, I’m not sure what to do. But maybe after this mess of on election and these totally unacceptable candidates for president the so called political elite will get the message that something has to change.

If not, who knows, it might be time for second – or real – American revolution by the average guy and let the chips fall where they may. If nothing else, what’s left except maybe a raffle or pull names out of hat.

Could it really be much worse than what we’ve got?

Poor Prudie - even she was surprised by Mr. Trump's victory!




This was a tough election – duh! In my opinion we were offered two very poor candidates for president, both with very obvious flaws. So much so that it was the case that many people voted AGAINST the other candidate rather than for their's – a damn sad way to run a country. In any event Donald Trump won so we need to move on but I cannot lie, it hasn't made me happy. This is my effort to help get straight with this, for myself if no one else. If it makes you feel better too, fine. If not . . . well, there’s always 2020 (or 2018.)

If you’re a Republican you might feel like this . . .









"Go back to Pharaoh the liberals," the LORD commanded Moses. "Tell him them, 'This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so they can worship me (and guns) Exodus 9:1(mostly)

"For evangelicals, for the Christians, for the everybody, for everybody of religion, this will be, may be, the most important election that our country has ever had. And once I get in, I will do my thing that I do very well. And I figure it is probably, maybe the only way I'm going to get to heaven. So I better do a good job." Donald Trump, speaking to evangelical leaders in Orlando, Florida, August 11, 2016


Huh?


This is my fourth attempt to write this, each version different than the previous one. Some too whiny, some too angry, some too, well, just too much . . . hey wait, I think I know what happened, I was going through the 5 stages of grief! You know: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Dunno, maybe I’ve made it to acceptance (or stopped at depression.)



Now you may ask yourself, why would Dear Leader grieve about this election unless he was another of those elite, liberal Hillary lovers? A possible reason but wrong. (In fact, I did not vote for either candidate.) The honest answer is very simple and very selfish – I hate being wrong. And the sad fact is that I have been TOTALLY wrong on this whole sordid thing from the beginning.


I have followed this blond turd for over ten years and loathed his bombastic and idiotic statements (as well as his ridiculous hairstyle) for the same period so I was biased from the start. I thought he’d be out by last fall. I didn’t think he’d have any chance of winning the nomination. Finally, I thought that no matter what the polls said, when people went in to the booth there would be no way any cogent person, no matter how much they hated Hillary, could vote for a misogynistic, racist, sociopath who has no interest in facts or truth. I know, I know, Hillary was deeply unpopular candidate (more on the candidates latter) but she at least seemed sane. In a binary choice I guess I thought people would choose crooked over crazy. Boy, was I wrong! Note to self: practice what you preach to your students on confirmation bias!

So keep the source in mind as you read the rest of this.


If you’re a Democrat you might feel like this . . .







“This will not be over quickly. You will not enjoy this. I'm not your king.” (But I am your president!) Lord Theron before assaulting Queen Gorgo, Movie “The 300”


After much psychological milling around and pages of self-important harrumphing, I will just let fly with a bunch of micro thoughts (and no comments please about those being all I’m capable of.) Starting with:


- The results of this election were inevitable; if not this one then the next one or the one after that. I have long preached that the wheels were wobbling on the old national golf cart due to the total takeover of our system by big money at every level. (Not liberal, not conservative – just all corrupted.) Trump identified this in his own unique way and jumped on it.


· Score one for the Donald.


“Look at those hands, are they small hands? And, [Republican rival Marco Rubio] referred to my hands: ‘If they’re small, something else must be small.’ I guarantee you there’s no problem. I guarantee.”


(Okay, make that two for Donald)


- Trump has said he intends to “drain the swamp” in Washington and I am sincerely on his side – it really needs it. He is already learning, though, how hard it is to be an outsider in Our Nation’s Capital i.e. you need insiders to figure out how to get inside so that you can throw the insiders out. Also, “It’s hard to remember you came in to drain the swamp when you’re up to your ass in alligators.” I’ll be right behind you, pal!


- This election apparently really was about white men who feel left behind and I guess probably are. But it’s not just working class whites either. I have any number of educated, smart and financially secure friends who are just as angry, convinced, I assume, that we are heading to the perdition of a liberal hell and pooping on the Constitution while on the way. (I grant you they ARE older and white and sometimes angry - but usually only about their golf swing.) These are not dumb people so the fact that they would prefer someone like Trump who they would ordinarily find as appalling as I do shows that they are as desperate as everyone else to fix real and perceived problems. (And, of course, they hate Hillary too.)


(Check out this link for a great explanation for Mr. Trump’s success – it is brilliant, pretty accurate and generally positive toward Mr. Trump.)


3 Movies Explain Trump's Rise


- Oddly, I also understand that about 50% of educated white women voted for Trump. Go figure.


"You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the p**sy. You can do anything." –Donald Trump in a 2005 interview with Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush


(I think the Democrats better go figure too – but maybe skip the p**sy grabbing.)


- What I’m saying is that Trump clearly recognized this anger and anxiety and brilliantly tapped into this river of frustration the good, old fashioned way: fabricating and demonizing enemies (Mexicans, Muslims, lefties, the media - pretty much everybody not on Fox), offering simple (but likely impossible) solutions to complex problems (walls, deportation, tearing up trade agreements, bombing ISIS, bombing Iran, not bombing Russia) and NEVER apologizing no matter how wrong he was (At least 75% of everything he said.) Ironically, Bernie Sanders was coming at this same thing from a different angle – minus the demagogue stuff – and might have been an interesting match but thanks to the DNC we’ll never know.


- But here's my surprise prediction (with zero evidence to support it): Trump didn't mean most of what he said and he's actually NOT a misogynistic, racist, sociopath asshole (although I'm still pretty sure he's not too keen on actual facts and data.) I grant you that is not a very high bar but there you have it. (Keep in mind, however, the accuracy of my predictions to date that I mentioned at the beginning.)


· Score another one for Trump.


"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay? It's, like, incredible." Donald Trump, speaking at a rally in Sioux Center, Iowa as the audience laughed, January 23, 2016


- This is not just an American issue. In the UK the Brexit was kind of sending the same message about people feeling like they are being controlled by the big boys, the system, the elites. Ditto in other parts of Europe who are rebelling against the bullies of the EU. There is a LOT of angst in the developed world and Donald has hopped on board that train. Where it will stop, no one knows - but it will be a hell of a trip.


- Then there is the fact that no matter what he says, Mr. Trump is like every new president that comes in; he is not going to get all or even most the things that he says. Remember Obama’s hope and change? No less a brilliant analyst (and future cabinet member?) than Sarah Palin said, “How’s the hope and changey thing working for ya?” She was right – it didn’t.


- In fact, Trump is already showing an understanding about how campaign promises stand up in the reality of a president’s actual power and the complexities of the real world of governing and that’s a good thing. He's even thinking about keeping parts of Obamacare - will wonders never cease?! Besides, many of the promises he made are so over the top heinous, impractical or impossible that they should slip into the abyss of broken campaign promises as quickly as possible and I’m confident they will, so we got that going for us.


“I have much better judgment than she does… I also have a much better temperament than she does… I think my strongest asset maybe by far is my temperament. I have a winning temperament.” Donald Trump


- Hopefully President Trump means what he says about being the president for ALL the people, it is a sentiment to admire. Also, hopefully he will be a little humble about how he won the election i.e. without the popular vote majority - just like the last Republican president.


"I think I am, actually humble. I think I'm much humbler than you would understand. Donald Trump, 60 Minutes interview, July 17, 2016


- As an aside, it appears that just a little more than half the eligible voters in the US voted AGAIN, proving that we do, indeed, get the government we deserve.


Past President and Future President . . .





Hey you sandbagger, you owe the Clinton Foundation a hundred bucks!
(You knew I would get a golf picture in here somewhere)


- In some ways, Mr. Trump really is an outsider; he didn’t take money from many of the big Republican donors so he doesn’t owe them anything - that is something I respect. And if Bill Kristol is against him, I'm for him! (Although that's almost cancelled out by that smarmy dink, Sean Hannity who is also for him.) Yes, he has a Republican Congress but that is both a good and bad thing. First, I’m not convinced that Trump is really a Republican. (He could have appealed to the same people as a Democrat - although probably without the xenophobia and woman baiting.) He's a NYC billionaire who has rubbed shoulders with the so called elite all his life. He has also said he is a strong believer in social security and universal healthcare - damn curious Republican!


If I don't get along with Democrats, I'm sort of, like, out of business. Donald Trump


- And this Congress, especially the House, is full of such a group of scurrilous curs that it ALMOST makes me feel sorry for Paul Ryan. Trump is certain to bump heads with a lot of these jokers (as presidents always do) so that’s a good thing too. On the negative side, we know what can happen when one party has all branches at once: see Geo W's first term (and second wasn't too great either.) And Barry O and Obamacare. Enough said.


- The down side also is that we will likely have to put up with some real pukes in his cabinet; please, Don, Newt is okay - put him charge of the Dep't of Family Values - but do NOT find a place for Giuliani, find some . . . outsiders!


Sorry, but thinking of Trump looking for cabinet members reminds me of Hedley Lamarr in "Blazing Saddles" when he was looking for a gang to terrorize Rock Ridge:


"I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents. Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves. Bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists."


And Republicans?!


But then Obama had some jewels too like Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. Oh, and Rahm Emanuel too so have at it, Donald!


- Trump has some ideas that are worth a try (excluding the Great Wall of Texas and Fed Exing millions of illegal immigrants out of here - oh, and maybe starting trade wars.) Term limits? Good luck but go get 'em, Donald! For the economy there are some ideas to try like reducing regulations and making it easier to do business here and fixing the tax codes. Of course there will be a lot of the same, tired Republican stuff like tax breaks for the rich and bigger spending for the DOD but what the hell, you have to take the good with the bad - and who cares about deficits (when Republicans are in charge anyway!)


Speaking of Trump’s economic policy? “Now, you might say he’d make a terrible president. I mean, the guy bankrupted his own casino. A casino! Where the House always wins! Unless it’s Donald Trump’s house!” Louis Black


Oh and don't forget immigration reform - with this lot it's going to be one of those things you need to just sit back, watch and be entertained!


- I have no idea what he will do with foreign affairs which is perhaps the most frightening. I really like the idea of not being the policeman of the world anymore and punishing our troops with constant wars of nation building. I am foursquare behind the president on that (although I’m sort of a pacifist so he probably wouldn’t want me there.) And there is talk that John Bolton is being considered for a top job. If so, start building a bunker, the man is nuts! There is also the terrifying mix of Trump's thin skin and nuclear weapons (and John Bolton.) Oh boy. (Another example of hope for the best but plan for the worst with this guy.)


I know more about ISIS than the generals do, believe me. Trump, Nov 2015


"I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier." Donald Trump, on receiving a Purple Heart as a gift from a retired lieutenant colonel and supporter (August 2, 2016)


Thanks, commander-in-chief, you're swell!

- Finally and best best of all, the Republicans own the whole shootin' match now. It's poop or get off the pot. They wanted it, they got it. Whatever comes out the other end of the sausage grinder is all their's so . . .


I say we all get ourselves some chips and beer and watch the show!


Okay, enough o' that. Here is maybe the most important positive (hopefully.) If the major parties had been paying attention to the many issues affecting main street Americans instead of being in the pocket of big business, big unions, special interest lobbyists – and yes, the elites - they could have sought out the kind of smart, young outsider candidates to represent their competing views based on what’s really going on in the country. They might have spared the country this excruciatingly divisive experience. But noooo, instead we get a deeply flawed OLD political retread with more luggage than a 747 and a cartoonish, OLD reality show star who is so spectacularly unqualified he makes Geo W. look like old Abe Lincoln. Holy crap, are you guys kidding me?!


The Democrats are in deep shit. They have more factions than the Muslim Brotherhood, basically zero people in the wings to carry on any of their current, tired liberal policies let alone creating any new ideas. As importantly, they need a crash course in how to deal with white males especially the working class (and apparently educated, white women.) Stop looking for victims and start trying to solve real problems for people!


It may not seem like it with their election success across the country but the Republican party is also in a world of hurt. They do have the new president, the congress and many state governments (although a lot of those experiments are going deliciously haywire.) Yet Trump might be about as much of a Republican as Hillary – and much less predictable. And with their ungovernable tea party goofs and out-of-step old guard there is going to be a battle for their soul. However, it won’t matter if they don’t figure out what to do about non-white Americans and younger generations. HELLO! Angry old white guys are dying off . . . something I'm personally very sorry to report.


"We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated." Donald Trump on his performance with poorly educated voters who helped him win the Nevada Caucus, Feb. 23, 2016


Essentially, both parties are totally unprepared to deal with the 21st century and a new age of chaos.


So what’s the good news? Well, hopefully this election has been a wake up for them both. Maybe they will get off their asses now and get to work trying to figure out a way to solve some of the problems that Trump has identified instead of retreating to their comfortable but failed past. It will be hard and ugly but it has to be done. It’s either that or the two-party system – at least with these two parties – is doomed. And who knows, maybe even that’s not so bad. Thanks, Donald!


So there you have it. Trump is unlike any candidate in my lifetime - and I'm an old guy. There really is no telling how this will turn out; he could be a transformative president getting things heading in a better direction . . . or end up being the devil's spawn. We won't know for years. Here’s what I do know, there are two paths you can take: you can try to be supportive of the president, wish him well and give him some time – if he does well, we all do well. Or you can be like be Mitch McConnell, the great Republican Senate Majority Leader who proudly said after Obama was elected that the Republicans' primary role was to assure that there was no second Obama term. How nice (even if they did fail.) I will let your conscience be your guide on this.


On a final positive note, my wife gives piano lessons to a couple local high school kids, she’s had them since they were little. As luck would have it, she had one over the day after the election. Needless to say, the election had been a huge topic of conversation in their class (public inner city, not private school.) I asked him what was the discussion like about this divisive election. He said, the students talked calmly and deeply about the process and shockingly (to me) not the personalities. He said that “It was the best lesson they could possibly have had about civics.” Damn, I hope the rest of us can be as smart as 10th graders.


Feel better? Me neither but I think (hope?) we’re going to be all right.


PS
One final good thing, at least for me: I vow NOT to forward a whole bunch of stupid anti-Trump emails (which will be legion) to all my friends who have kindly shared same with me about the soon-to-be ex-president the last 8 years. Well, maybe just a few.