Was saving this old Lileks for inauguration festivities, but what the heck.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

There are officially four days left to gloat about the election of Donald Trump and the defeat of Hillary Clinton:

http://donaldtrumprevolution.weebly.com/trump-countdown-clock.html

When the timer expires, please switch over to gloating about President Donald Trump and his administration.

Thank you for your attention to this procedure.

Not going to happen Lastango. Heck, Pelosi is still blaming Bush for something.

Besides, it's easier for me if they just continue flaunting their ignorance of the people they support. That way I do not have to really hurt their feelings pointing the contradictions they "believe" in.

(See BDS vs. the realities of LGBT, Jews, women, and Christians living in the good ole ME.)

Plus if they have already put me in a "peg" there's no need for me to really point out those inconsistencies either. Just continue hiding in plain sight and saying "Yes, it's just turribull.". (See votes for Trump in Counties that Obama won TWICE.)

I don't really want to waste brain time on them anyway. Someone pointed out on this blog "There is no should be. There's what it is, what it is not, and what you are going to about it."

22 Democrats have announced they will boycott the inauguration of President Trump.

I expect two more years of this caterwauling until the mid-term elections.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/19-democratic-congress-members-plan-skip-inauguration/story?id=44783997

I saw that too Gog. It is really weird seeing the Dems push so hard for a Repub super majority.

" 22 Democrats have announced they will boycott the inauguration of President Trump." - Gog

So are they all in the 5th grade ?

No Nick. Trump said some "mean" things about, well, everybody.

So the party that's for women (see Bill), gays (see Florida shooting by terrorist whose words were censored out by AG), for justice (see Ted Stevens if you don't want to look at Hillary), and so on and on and on IS JUST HORRIFIED AT HIS ELECTION.

See the IRS, the EPA, and other items for why. BUT 1/2 the country believes TRUMP IS A BAD MAN because he SAID bad things.

So politicians do the sleight of hand.

You Comney is a GREAT guy except when he is NOT.

...when you insult [John Lewis], you insult America. ~ from Gog's linked article

Because John Lewis is America? Or is he another American with an opinion, one that can (and sometimes should) be challenged?

One of the first things you learn in business that "sacred cows make the best hamburger." When the cash cow product becomes outdated or obsolete, eliminate it. When the esteemed executive is no longer able to keep up with the modern business world, retire him. The non-politics world does this all the time:

• Joe Montana, a San Francisco 49er icon, was traded when he got older and slower, and his younger and faster back up was chomping at the bit. Other superstar players get traded too when they still have trade value, but declining on-field value: Joe Nammath, OJ Simpson, Johnny Unitas, Peyton Manning, etc.
  
• Bobby Bowden, an FSU coaching legend, was forced to step down when the pace of the game had passed him by and the team was no longer regularly in contention for a national title. The school honored him with a statue, but did not leave him in as a coach.
  
• Levi's revamped its flagship 501 style jeans when tastes changed and the old style became "dad jeans." Fans of the old style were left to wail and gnash their teeth.

Progress. Constant change is how you keep up with a shifting and evolving marketplace. Else you lose your market and go out of business. Donald Trump is bringing this mentality to politics. There are no sacred cows, nothing is untouchable. Constant change.

In politics, on the other hand, the washed up politician is kept in office well into old age dementia. Robert Byrd and Strom Thurmond were wheeled from the hospital for votes, votes on issues they could no longer comprehend with their advancing senility. We're being ruled by a bunch of old people stuck in their political heyday. So, you marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. That was 50+ years ago and the world has changed. What have you done lately?

• Do you understand digital privacy issues and government surveillance?
  
• Do you understand the legal and liability implications of self-driving cars?
  
• Is the "one China" policy still viable, subordinating Taiwan to China, despite Taiwan's outsized role in the global economy?
  
• Do you understand the economic implications of having a huge deficit ($20+ trillion and counting)?
  
• Can you break down the differences between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims and the source of their centuries-long conflict? What implications does this have on strategies for the Middle East?

If John Lewis and his '60s era political view are obsolete or out of touch, retire him, sideline him. Honor him, but recognize today's socio-economic concerns no longer include the underlying issues that powered '60s political icons.

This whole "boycott Trump" movement strikes me as a toddler throwing a tantrum. The tantrum throwers cannot see any viewpoint but their own "but I wanted Hillary to win!" viewpoint. Republicans didn't boycott Bill Clinton or Barack Obama's inaugurations, despite having massive misgivings about their socio-economic policies and fitness for office.

The whole idea here with the boycott and the Russian hacking headlines is to delegitimize the Trump presidency. Suddenly, dissent is once again patriotic and obstruction is a legitimate tool of the minority party in the legislature. "Bring back the filibuster so we can block the president's nominees," they cry, even though they're the ones who eliminated it so they could overcome Republican efforts to block their nominees.

Dems, quit whining and follow the usual losing party protocol. Attend the nomination and clap desultorily. Trump and his fragile ego will delegitimize his own presidency soon enough, or prove his doubters wrong. We'll find out which shortly.

No president or any politician has ever reflected exactly my views on every issue. I have always thought some of what they say makes sense, some is nonsense, and some is actively dangerous. Are they all #notmypolitician? That is not how it works. You cast your vote and hope for the best, and if (like always) some (many) of them turn out to be idiots, you lobby them, get articles or commentaries published showing how policy should change, write letters to them, send money to public interest groups, sign petitions about this or that, etc. This idea that if you don't get the perfect candidate (or your candidate) you are going to burn it all to the ground is just childish. It is possible to destroy a governmental system. Look at Venezuela or Somalia. Anarchy is not just a word, it is a disaster.

The 'Not my President' thing has become normal to me. It just means you are left wing and really has no relevance other than that. The hair jokes I actually like. I saw a Trump T-shirt with his hair morphing into a star spangled bald eagle in the mall a few days ago. Like it or not Trump's hair is weird. But it has become kind of an icon of his. Criticizing it is about as effective of complaining that impressionist paintings lack detail. But the skip the inauguration thing does tick me off. Hillary's team foreshadowed this when they broke many of the usual rules of decorum after the election. This is just more of it. But once those rules are broken by one side don't be surprised when the other side doesn't want to follow them either.

The Left says, "X is not my president." And the Right says, "Don't blame me, I voted for Y."

Which do you think is the more hateful jibe? Which one separates the slogan holder from the rest of the country?

Yet the president has never been "your" president. He's always been "our" president or "the" president. And Donald Trump is "the" president, for better or worse, for the next 4 or 8 years. Just as Obama was "the" president for 8 years, much to the consternation of the Right and the joy of the Left.

If you didn't vote for Trump, that's okay. Your viewpoint was expressed. Your vote was counted. Your voice was heard. The election went the other way. Now, cry a little bit. Then, suck it up and deal with the fact that he's the new president.

Now, Lefty Congress critters, if you're unwilling to talk to Trump, your voices won't be heard - because you chose not to speak up, not because he didn't listen. If you truly want to represent your constituents, you'll talk to the new president. You'll at least try to work with him.

John Lewis showed himself to be a senile ol' bigot when he (and another congresscritter) claimed to have been called the "N Word" when walking through a Tea Party rally.

Funny though, no video of such taking place has ever emerged.

So, senile ol' bigot. He, like Obama, just cannot stand white people unless they are bowing down to his victimhood.

> So are they all in the
> 5th grade ?

Well, there's nothing wrong with this question. And by the spirit in which you asked it, the answer is certainly 'Yes. These people are unpleasantly child-like.'

But part of DC's infantilism is their sanctimonious embrace of hollow traditions. It might be a silver, if slender, lining: Lefties are endlessly upset because Trump is doing this or that and that's not how it's done. We have traditions for these matters....

Well, y'know, Hillary did everything by the book and got her ass handed to her.

This stable needs mucking out:

For decades, Washington think tanks have been holding pens for senior government officials waiting for their next appointments and....

Trump is a nightmare. But it's the entrenched idiocies of DC that made him possible, and perhaps necessary.

"Trump is a nightmare."

Crid, you could try medication.

I find Trump to be the right person at the right time. We'll see.

Yes. And you will be held accountable.





Bring me anything but your tears.

I'll bring you peace.

Could you bring me some pie? Mmmm pie! I'm not picky which kind. Apple, pecan, they are all good!

Just remember Crid has given you an open invitation to bring him stuff other than tears. A headache, indigestion, or some horrible disease are all options. Be creative. Have fun with it.

Crid, how about I give you now a recollection of earlier times. Good times. I thought of you the other day at Fleet Farm - why you, I don't know - when I saw something you haven't seen in a long time. Remember those really cold, below zero days cold, when the girls wore their long underwear under their jeans. Wow, such beauty.

I bring you PIE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9rgh8MCpe8

The only possible delusion for which a Trump voter might (might) be forgiven would be a fragile, blind-deaf-dumb and wholly inarticulate prayer that the Orange Foaming Goofball could, in some sequence events too complicated for anyone to ever have described for us, pull down the temple hosting America's corruption through government.

But he's not even interested in that.

He's never been of service to anyone. His entire public life has been a pathetic charade of attachment & trust, with bitterly collapsed families, partnerships and investments demanding redress in our courts.

It's not possible to countenance the grade-school idiocies offered in these comments in the past year as political principle, or as principle of any kind. A favorite moment was Rad's assertion that since Trump (apparently) had more money than me (or you), he was therefore owed our vote.

The man is essentially illiterate. He's never been of service to any interests but his own.

What makes you think he'll be of service to you?

I don't think you're very bright.

Shit's gonna happen: Systems will fail, losses will wound, and I seriously believe lives will be lost.

That blood will be on your conscience, Little Muffin... Not on mine.

America wanted an outsider and the Democrats should've run Bernie. C'est la vie.

One of the suffering minions at HuffPo raked his fellow New Yorkers over the coals back in April for supporting Hillary's anti-gay, pro-Wall Street, refusal-to-take-a-stand stand.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anis-shivani/hillarybots-you-blew-it-t_b_9774144.html

First of all Comb-Bah-Yah is funny.

Second, I was getting a little shaggy, so this afternoon included a haircut. Don't want to go through the inauguration with people thinking it's a combover.

Lest we all take this ... business ... too seriously, I offer a song of perspective and insight.

The Galaxy Song

> Trump and his fragile ego will
> delegitimize his own presidency
> soon enough, or prove his doubters
> wrong. We'll find out which shortly.

I want to wager on this, $50 dollars says he doesn't complete a single term without (successful, if perhaps inconsequential) impeachment. Amy could hold the money, but there isn't time to get it all arranged.

Anyway, here we go.

"Shit's gonna happen: Systems will fail, losses will wound, and I seriously believe lives will be lost."

I see. Nothing new.

Before enlightenment: Washing dishes, chopping wood.

After enlightenment: Washing dishes, chopping wood.

Remember those really cold, below zero days cold, when the girls wore their long underwear under their jeans. Wow, such beauty.

Dave B at January 16, 2017 3:56 PM

We still do that here in western Pennsylvania.

Sometimes while eating pie.

For people inclined to make travel plans - the season ends sometime in early March.

Good to know! Good to know!

Maybe... This *is* a pretty sweet moment.

> Nothing new.

Look, if you're going to be that cynical, then fuck everything. Don't vote. Don't count on anyone in public affairs doing anything righteous whatsoever.

But some of us aren't here ——and aren't paying taxes—— for new-age koans about the inevitability of social collapse.

Identity politics people, whether Clintonian or Sanderian, are essentially twins of the ludicrous Trump voters. ALL these voters demand first to be flattered by their government hires, after which they'll stop paying attention to the outcomes, as if the constitution promised them a long vacation. Both kinds of voters are incapable of courageous or humble thinking, and are desperate to press their personal resentments into the lives of others through government, because they can't imagine paying any personal cost.

This detachment is not "enlightenment."

When the American voters demanded more from government than the expression of their own 7th-graders' pain (whether through identity politics or through voting for a pussygrabbing game show host), the cosmos fucking trembled. No force in the history and prehistory of Creation did more good for more people than the United States of America... First within her borders and then around the planet. A stunning percentage of this improvement in the human condition has come in your lifetime, especially beyond our borders. Twenty years ago I'd say that you (the taxpaying voter) were footing the bill for these miracles, and deserved some credit.

No more. The lefties are trying to reduce our culture (and finances) to the primitive levels of those impoverished regions they most deeply, and ignorantly, fear. The Trump voters are chasing the same outcome, pursued just as directly by creating our own Castro-style "Dear Leader."

Peas in pod.

Clinton might have encouraged collapse through her own mafiosi-style criminality, Sanders might have brought it about through broader ignorance of typical socialist corruptions, and Trump will get us there by sheer incompetence.

But don't talk to me about carrying water, as if it could never have been any better.

I voted thoughtfully and decently, and for none of these fuckwads.

No tears; don't come cryin'.

"America wanted an outsider and the Democrats should've run Bernie. "

Of course, given how the party is currently structured, that would have been an impossible task. Even if Bernie had pulled enough primary votes to overcome Hillary's thumb on the scale, the party would have found itself incapable of organizing around him.

2020 will be interesting for the Democrats. Right now, there doesn't appear to be an obvious "it's my turn" candidate. (Unless you count Biden, but I don't think too many people are taking that seriously.)

"I voted thoughtfully and decently, and for none of these fuckwads."

I love this expression (again kudos to someone):

There is no should be. There is only what it is, what it is not, and what you are going to do about it.

"It's the economy, stupid" is a slight variation of the phrase "The economy, stupid", which James Carville had coined as a campaign strategist of Bill Clinton's successful 1992 presidential campaign against sitting president George H. W. Bush. (from Google, our friend)

The above probably encapsulates the thinking of fly-over country more than anything else. No deep thinking when your job(s) no longer cover your expenses.

It's that simple. Many of my bosses were assholes but my needs required me to keep my thoughts to myself, try to keep my job, and take care of business.

That's life for almost everyone. You have to work with assholes, for assholes, and because of assholes.

Is this such a "new" concept for many of you? SURPRISE! Assholes are my two choices to run the country.

Oh my! Guess I pick the female because, well, female. (Although nothing she said sounded like more food on my table. Just another 8 years of SOSO.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD94dVu8lqQ
.

I want to wager on this, $50 dollars says he doesn't complete a single term without (successful, if perhaps inconsequential) impeachment. ~ Crid at January 16, 2017 8:14 PM

Completes a term? Why wait? Maxine waters is all set to go now.

The term "impeachment" gets bandied about quite loosely these days, by people who should know better.

Brings to mind a scene from the "Coach Buries a Grudge" episode of Cheers wherein Coach finds a once-admired and now-deceased teammate once made a pass at his wife:

Bar Patron: "Let's hang him in effigy!"

Coach: " To hell with that. Let's hang him right here in Boston."

Maxine is the stupidest human ever elected to public office in the history of the US.

Nice write-up about how and why the LA Times poll consisted showed Trump winning vs. the polls the media preferred to tout.

I also note that the pundits are in the news today saying "polls show Trump approval/popularity lowest ever". Same old same old.

http://www.returnofkings.com/111417/why-the-polls-always-showed-trump-in-the-lead

Maxine is the stupidest human ever elected to public office in the history of the US. ~ dee nile at January 17, 2017 8:06 AM

I'm going to go with second-stupidest. Apparently, you've never listened to Corinne Brown drone on about the Florida Gators winning their second national championship in a all-out assault on the English language. And this woman holds two advanced degrees from UF, one in education. She's also been on the faculty at UF and at Edward Waters College, from which she received an Honorary Law degree. A proud day for FAMU, EWC, and UF alumni everywhere.

From the Return of Kings site:

She was going to help us heal our "divided" Nation but OOPS! (Like some of the Trump stuff it feels so wrong to LOL. What can you do?)

http://www.returnofkings.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/3fc5919cc1-574x754.jpg

Summer Zervos, a one-time contestant on The Apprentice and Trump sexual assault accuser, has filed a defamation lawsuit against the President-elect for saying she lied about him harassing her in a hotel 10 years ago.

Will James Carville et al now come to his defense and accuse her of being money-grubbing trailer park trash since she waited 10 years to bring the accusation against him? Remember "drag a dollar through a trailer park?"

Probably not. They'll jump to her defense since Gloria Allred is her attorney.

"A favorite moment was Rad's assertion that since Trump (apparently) had more money than me (or you), he was therefore owed our vote."

Actually, I intended to show that such a fortune made him more suitable a candidate than you, for instance.

Money is a suitable metric. Why should I expect a pauper to know how to run anything?

At the time, you were making such a righteous noise!

> Money is a suitable metric.

A rare instance of your concision in a typical one for your lunacy. Carry on.

CNN continues the profitable drumbeat of fear.

Trump's New World Disorder! Trump is turning the world upside-down! Dogs and cats, living together, total chaos!

Apparently 140 characters on social media is all it takes to destroy civilization. Or make CNN irrelevant. Hence the fear...

> 140 characters on social media
> is all it takes to destroy
> civilization. Or make CNN
> irrelevant.

What Gog said.

The thing I like best about the humiliation suffered by these MS media types is that they're a generation younger than I am, yet we both 'hit the wall' in essentially the same hour.

Well, also, I didn't make a fool of myself by making unprincipled, condescending, detached presumptions about the other cultural streams in the United States. All I did to become irrelevant was grow some grey hair... Well, it's Hollywood. I knew that could & would happen when I got got the first Santa Monica haircut.

I cannot decode BIT's comment of January 17, 2017 11:24 AM.

Really Crid? You don't get it? Going from 'We need to heal our divided nation.' to 'Fuck you white America.' in just one day doesn't make you laugh at the blatant hypocrisy?

Holy Shit! I can't believe I'm actually sayin this,but I agree with Crud!

Shocked he doesn't support Trump, actually...