Ladies and gentlemen, we have President Trump

January 20, 2017 • 11:30 am

The Dark Days of Mordor have begun, for my CNN news feed tells me this:

Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States during a historic transfer of power.

Trump took the oath of office on the West Front of the Capitol, swearing to preserve, protect and defend the US Constitution. That moment marks the culmination of a stunning upset victory in last year’s bitter presidential election.

From over in England, Matthew, equally dispirited, wrote me this:

Trrump’s first act has been to take down the energy pages.

And to threaten the Climate Action Plan.

70-reasons-to-mourn-for-america

praying_eagle_by_andy_emcee

92 thoughts on “Ladies and gentlemen, we have President Trump”

  2. I listened to the speech and the thoughts which first came into my mind were by someone else – “Ein Volk. Ein Reich. Ein Fuhrer”. Something also about “heart and blood and land” was in there, but I could not remember the derivation.
    Alas!

    3. “Blood and soil”? Bismarck? No wait, that was “blood and iron”. A better precedent might have been “With malice toward none, with charity for all…”

      1. Blood and Soil was the work of Walter Darre ,i think ,without looking it up ,yes it was ,thank you google .

      1. Pretty depressing prognostication. I’m going to try to think something will happen to get him tangled in law suits and drag him down before too much damage is done.

        1. Hoping for something good to come out of lawyers? You must be depressed. Keep away from high places, sharp implements and potent drugs.

  5. Today..we’re entitled to grief. Tomorrow…women will march, plans will be made and we WILL resist!

  6. ITV News just said — and I quote — “Donald Trump is the oldest person ever to be elected President; so, Mike Pence may well have to fill the role if something happened; like an assassination…” I cannot have been the only person to notice that.

    1. What’s the betting that he has a heart attack soon? How on earth he had the gall to attack Hillary over physical fitness is beyond me; just imagine that tub of lard without his clothes on (if you dare!).

        1. The policy worry is that we’ve just sworn in a right-wing, authoritarian maniac…and his boss (no prize either) is 70 years old.

          3. Trump recently claimed his cabinet will have the highest IQ of any in history. I guess he never heard of Jefferson, Hamilton, Henry Knox, Edmund Rudolph, or the rest of the first cabinet.

            For that matter, Rick “Oops” Perry is Trump’s pick to replace a Stanford PhD in theoretical physics at the Energy Department. That’s a tough IQ-deficit gap to climb out of.

          4. In the case of Trump, the Hitler parallel is not a puerile regurgitation of Godwins Law. It is a valid observation. I have read several books on Hitler’s ascent to power and the most frightening aspect is how readily a demagogue ‘leader’ can dismantle the democratic apparatus. Rather than considering such horrors as consigned to history you realise that this can happen today just as easily as it did in Germany in the 1930’s. We do not take the lessons of history seriously. Hitler played on fears of the day and portrayed himself as the only one who could ensure law and order. He enacted emergency powers, abolished freedom of the press and anti jewish laws amongst other things. After Hidenburgs death in 1934 there was no election, Hitler had abrogated such trifling democratic traditions. Hitler showed how fragile democracy really is in the face of an unscrupulous leader willing to feed anger and exploit fear. Sure, all politicians are somewhat chameleonic but Trump is on a whole different level and is the most terrifying threat to democracy and freedom since, I dunno…..Hitler?

          5. I have also read a lot on that subject Dan and you make some good points. Perhaps another useful lesson on the danger of how democracy can quickly be dismantled is a look at Turkey and how Erdogan has destroyed the secular state set up by Atatürk.

          6. Stephen – Yes, agreed, the Turkish political developments are very sad – naturally religion is very much a factor. Whilst I doubt Trump is particularly religious, the people he is surrounding himself with are certainly of an evangelical mindset, evangelicals represent a significant proportion of his voter base and the potential for future parallels with Turkey can’t be ignored . Also the likely Supreme Court appointments (potentially four) during Trumps tenure (assuming he lasts 4 years) are also a depressing prospect. The enshrined separation of church and state in the U.S is under threat like never before.

        2. I am not making ad hominem attacks on the man because of his size; I am referring to the fact that he appears to be seriously overweight. I am almost exactly the same age as him, eat very healthily, and am very active and in reasonable shape, yet I have already had a stent fitted. I assume that he has been thoroughly checked out medically, but he certainly doesn’t appear to fit the profile of a healthy mature male!

    1. Discounting the at least 67 nasty permutations of Obama’s name, for eight years, I heard *most* of the right-wing media refer to President Obama as “Mr Obama,” “Obama,” or just “The President. Happy to do the same with this guy.

  10. I heard Sam Harris say of Trump’s ascension to power, effectively dethroning Mr. Obama: “Only Shakespeare could explain it” (my paraphrase). I think he’s right.

  11. The only way this could get any worse is if something happens to Drumpf and Pence gets his finger on the big red button. Trump is a muppet who doesn’t seem to have the aptitude to get his batshit crazy ideas through the legislature. Even the dumbest most bigoted hicks are going to eventually tealise he can’t deliver and you don’t want someone who knows how to game the system in a position to start ww3 to take the heat off theor own ass.

    1. you don’t want someone who knows how to game the system in a position to start ww3 to take the heat off theor own ass.

      I have more confidence in the competence and self-control of Putin and Jinping than to fear that outcome. On the other hand, Trump versus Kim Jong-un has the potential to go to detonation. Which isn’t going to have more than 30-40 megadeaths (depending largely on how fast DPRK can increase their strike-back capability). Maybe 50 megadeaths if you add in the fallout deaths – but Trump won’t count them, being mostly in China, South Korea and Japan and not containing many voters.

        1. Well, there was anticipation of Pyongyang celebrating the inauguration with a launch. Whether they’d be able to hit Hawaii or California remains an open question. that they’re trying isn’t an open question.
          Of course, they can probably deliver a nuke to New york tomorrow. By boat. The difficulty is obfuscating the origin, not doing the delivery.

  12. “The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I have just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away forever.”

    “But that’s impossible! How will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?”

    “The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line…”

    1. Well actually a Death Star. Which relies somewhat heavily on science and engineering, two things Trump knows nothing about.

  13. I keep being told to give him a chance, hope for the best, and maybe he’ll be a great president.

    That’s from people who said Obama wasn’t a Christian, but that Trump is. And squealed for years that Obama was going to take away guns, tax bullets, let 100m Muslims into the country, set up death camps, implement Sharia Law, and introduce an Ebola epidemic.

    I don’t think they understand irony.

    1. Yes, it’s ‘give him a chance’ from the party of ‘our goal from day 1 is to stop Obama from being successful at all costs.’

    1. Hey, there’ll be none of that furrin stuff, just all American freedom songs. And fries. Big-ass freedom fries.

  17. Here is what Trump says he wants to do in his first 100 days:

    “http://www.npr.org/2016/11/09/501451368/here-is-what-donald-trump-wants-to-do-in-his-first-100-days”

    I can’t find the article right now that lists some of the federal agencies, including Energy, that Trump wants to close to save money. NPR will not be public. ACA goes away. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will be altered, and probably privatized. Internet and communications companies will be controlled by business interests to the detriment of the public.

    National parks will be turned over to the states (as they are considered to have no value despite the millions in revenue they bring into government coffers and the 2,000,000+ employees they provide jobs for.)That will permit the states to lease oil and mineral rights on all the affected land,
    not just large portions as occurs now. Camping, hunting, hiking, communing with nature will likely be further limited in these areas henceforth.

    We will probably have more fracking, more pipelines, more trainloads of oil and chemicals hauled cross-country to western and southern ports for shipment overseas endangering our country. The federal government does not provide financial aid to our rail companies nor help with infrastructure as they currently do with the highway system (likely to be decreased or go away.)They do not monitor these companies in an ongoing manner.

    Welcome to the Chinese version of the curse, “May you live in interesting times.”

    1. “Internet and communications companies will be controlled by business interests to the detriment of the public.”

      In other words, without federal oversight and protection,

      1. Yes, the net neutrality ruling that found the internet to be a public utility and under the jurisdiction of the FCC will probably be overturned. The ISP’s will be freed from government regulation, allowing them to control access and content on the web.

        1. FCC

          That’s got “Federal” in it. That’ll have to go.
          Come to think of it, there’s no need for that “FAA” thing too – it just gets in the way of the average plane-owning tycoon.

    2. Most of the NPS and National Forest Service employees I know (~ 10) voted for Trump. I guess that might be a blessing. They would be upset if they thought they were getting a raw deal. Either Trump will do something that will make him immensely unpopular or he might do something that could actually work. I am guessing the former.

      1. I’m not questioning your number, but I’m totally blown away by this. Parks are going to suffer. I guess it’s just like the people on Obamacare who voted for Trump. I’ll be the one watching them piss and moan and eventually swing in the wind.

        1. All of the NPS people I know are previously military, which, I think, tends to give them a more conservative stance.

          1. How is wanting to gut institutions willy-nilly that have existed for 100 years and were created by a republican (Teddy Roosevelt, right?) conservative?? US federal republicans now are *radical and revolutionary*, just of an authoritarian semi-populist sort (think Peron?).

  18. Only listened to parts of the inauguration So much for the separation of church and state. If you were not a Christian tough luck buddy I expected Trump to say “So help me Me”

    1. I think I can understand that. This particular rendition of the bald eagle seemed to me to accentuate the layout of the feathers so that in my mind they appeared to represent the black gown of a judge. A judge with head bowed at the pending destruction of the Constitution.

    2. I googled this photo. Ironically (for this site anyway), it’s known as the “Praying Eagle”. And if you really want to upchuck, google “Praying Eagle” and look at the images.

  20. I’m relieved my parents and grandparent aren’t alive to see this character inaugurated, and to know that it was their people — the white working-class of the old industrial belt — who put him in office.

    The working class of their generations knew that when a rich Republican headed up a presidential ticket, his entire raison d’être was to screw the working stiff. Rich Republicans were the ones who owned the company store, who negotiated for management when the union contract was up, who hired the goons and scabs to bust heads and cross picket lines.

    That’s the ilk Trump and his cabinet come from, and the working stiffs who voted them in are in for an updated, 21st-century-style screwing.

    1. No doubt very true. However, as I watched I could not but feel that Dubya and Obama had more in common with each other than either had with Trump. Of course, as a Britisher I accept that I may be well off the mark.

      1. No, you are correct. Trump manages to make Bush look presidential and competent. And Romney too. The joke is that Bush is delighted now that he won’t be the worst president.

        1. Move over Dubya and Warren Harding and Andrew Johnson, there’s a new “worst ever” kid in town.

    2. an updated, 21st-century-style screwing.

      Are we back to Goatse and the “vaginal eggs”?

  21. Good news – @POTUS just became @POTUS44, so no need to unfollow on Tw^##er – though it would’ve felt good.

  22. David Corn sums it up very well: illegitimate!

    Today, as of noon, the president of the United States is a man who boasted of sexually assaulting woman. The nation’s leader is a purveyor of fake news and conspiracy theories who led the racist birther campaign. The commander in chief in charge of the US nuclear arsenal is a fellow who was unfamiliar with the nuclear triad but who is obsessed with revenge. The head of the federal government is a businessman who vowed to “drain the swamp” but who has taken office loaded with troubling conflicts of interest and flouting multiple ethics norms. The defender of the Constitution is a record-setting prevaricator and fabulist who has repeatedly attacked journalists who challenge his false assertions. The guy who oversees national law enforcement is a dishonest developer who was sued for racially based housing discrimination and who lied about his mob ties. The person in charge of US national security is a foreign policy novice who has called for enhancing relations with a foreign power that covertly worked to subvert American democracy in order to benefit him and whose associates are under investigation by agencies he now oversees for possible contacts with that foreign power. The most powerful man in the world is a thin-skinned, arrogant, name-calling, bullying, narcissistic hotelier.

    Thank you, America. Or, that is, the 46 percent of the electorate who voted for Donald Trump.

      1. Leftists haven’t been in love with Russia for decades, ever since it stopped being a communist heaven and became just one of resource-based economies headed by a near-dictator. What’s shocking is that conservatives are now getting warm feelings towards it.

        1. After the fall of communism, Western leftists indeed did not exactly love Russia, but at least some of them kept questioning information about Russian atrocities as propaganda to obscure the US atrocities (always presumed to be worse); and they thought that even if Russia is bad, it is nice that there is someone to balance the warmongering America. (The latter view is popular also among Indians, whose culture seems to value balance.)
          I agree that the sudden Russophilia of US conservatives is shocking. Reagan must be spinning in his grave.

  24. This administration has more than a whiff of nostalgie de la boue about it

    welcome to the Dark Ages The U S missed out on the first time round

    rogue state
    n
    (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a state that conducts its policy in a dangerously unpredictable way, disregarding international law or diplomacy – Collins Dictionary

  25. Did everyone remember to set their clocks back 300 years last night? (stole that from Chris Rock).

  27. As I watch Trump’s parade, Brazilian TV is showing many (10%?) in the crowd giving Trump the Nazi salute. Is this being shown on TV elsewhere.

  28. Looking on the bright side, I am hoping that the innate dignity of the presidency will cause Trump to rise to mediocrity. I know, I know, but I am a habitual optimist.

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