An evil man as President would be bad enough. A stupid man who doesn't have a freakin' clue as to how the job works would be bad enough. A weak man who lets others push him into bad policy would be bad enough.
January 20, 2017: An evil man, a stupid man, and a weak man walked into the White House. And Donald Trump was all three. And that's no joke. But now, we all needed to walk into a bar.
Having gotten a majority of the Electoral Vote, but finished 2nd in the popular vote, Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. The country went from a black President to an orange one; a smart President to a stupid one; one who stood up for all of us, even those of us who hated him because he was black, and those of us who hated him because he was liberal, to one who stood up for Vladimir Putin of Russia and Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.
Barack Obama, limited to 2 terms by the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, handled the transition exactly as he should have, treating Trump as if he were any other incoming President.
And, despite everything he had said about Obama over the last 10 years, after being sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Building, Trump began his Inaugural Address the way every recent President has done, by saying something nice about his immediate predecessor: "Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, and we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent."
If Trump realized that he was now in over his head, he gave no indication of it. Instead, he treated his Inaugural Address not as a declaration of principles, as had such pretty much every President before him, regardless of political party; but as yet another campaign speech:
For too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.
This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.
In fact, Obama's policies had led to reduced poverty, increased industrial production, higher graduation rates for both high school and college, and vastly reduced crime.
Trump either didn't know that, which would have made him a fool; or he did know, and he said what he said anyway, which would have made him a liar.
He went on:
For many decades, we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military, we’ve defended other nation’s borders while refusing to defend our own, and spent trillions of dollars overseas while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.
Continued lies. Or, as Obama himself had too much class to say on this occasion, "Ask Osama bin Laden if our military has been sadly depleted." And Obama had deported millions of illegal immigrants -- through the due process of law, something that would be a sticking point for Trump.
He went on:
We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth. And we will bring back our dreams. We will build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports, and tunnels, and railways all across our wonderful nation. We will get our people off of welfare and back to work – rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor.
Did he do any of those things? No. Did he fail? No, because "fail" would indicate that he actually wanted to do those things, and gave it his best shot, and it didn't work. He never intended to do those things. Rather, the aim of his Administration was to enrich himself and America's already fabulously wealthy, through tax cuts that ended up killing jobs; and through deregulation that removed preventative measures against pollution and other health disasters.
He went on:
We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones – and unite the civilized world against Radical Islamic Terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth.
Instead, he undermined the alliance of NATO, because he was in debt to Putin. And the civilized world was already allied against Islamic terrorism. To the point where it had been severely reduced. What he'd called for had mostly already happened.
And he closed:
So to all Americans, in every city near and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, and from ocean to ocean, hear these words:
You will never be ignored again. Your voice, your hopes, and your dreams, will define our American destiny. And your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along the way.
Together, We Will Make America Strong Again. We Will Make America Wealthy Again. We Will Make America Proud Again. We Will Make America Safe Again. And, Yes, Together, We Will Make America Great Again. Thank you, God Bless You, And God Bless America.
In 4 years, he made America weaker than it had been since the Great Depression of the 1930s, poorer than it had been since the Great Recession of 2007-10, less proud than it had been since the Depression, and less safe than it had been since the thaw of the Cold War in the late 1980s.
MAGA? It was bad enough that Trump did the opposite of what he promised: He made America no longer great, because he rendered America no longer good.
But from this day forward, he set about to remake America in his image. Greedy, corrupt, bigoted and stupid.
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January 20, 2017 was a Friday. Baseball was out of season. Football was between Playoff rounds. There were 9 games in the NBA:
* The Brooklyn Nets beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 143-114 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.
* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 93-92 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.
* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Toronto Raptors, 113-78 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte.
* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Chicago Bulls, 102-93 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.
* The Orlando Magic beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 112-96 at the Amway Center in Orlando.
* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Sacramento Kings, 107-91 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.
* The Utah Jazz beat the Dallas Mavericks, 112-107 in overtime at the American Airlines Center.
* The Golden State Warriors beat the Houston Rockets, 125-108 at the Toyota Center in Houston. Kevin Durant scored 32.
* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Indiana Pacers, 108-95 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.
And there were 6 games played in the NHL:
* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 6-1 at the Prudential Center.
* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Boston Bruins, 1-0 at the TD Garden in Boston.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 7-1 at the PNC Arena (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina.
* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo. Kyle Okposo scored the winning goal with 26 seconds left in overtime.
* The Nashville Predators beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-2 in a shootout at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Florida Panthers, 2-2 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
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