June 24, 2022: The U.S. Supreme Court Overturns Abortion Rights

The Justices in the decision. Top row, left to right:

Brett Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett.

Bottom row, left to right: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas,

Chief Justice John Roberts, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.

June 24, 2022: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in the case of Thomas E. Dobbs, State Health Officer of the Mississippi Department of Health, et al. v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, et al. Their decision contradicts and eliminates the decision of Roe v. Wade in 1973, stating that the Constitution of the United States does not give a woman the right to have an abortion, purposefully terminating a pregnancy.

The vote was 6-3. Voting to overturn the Roe decision: Chief Justice John Roberts, and Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett:

* All were appointed by Republican Presidents: Thomas by George H.W. Bush; Alito by George W. Bush; and Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett by Donald Trump.

* All but Thomas had been appointed by Republican Presidents who had lost the popular vote, but became President due to taking the Electoral Vote by dubious means.

* And Gorsuch was appointed by Donald Trump after President Barack Obama, a Democrat, had appointed Merrick Garland to the seat vacated by the death of Antonin Scalia, but his nomination was unconstitutionally held up by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, so that a Republican President could appoint someone new to the seat.

Voting to uphold Roe: Associate Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, all appointed by Democratic Presidents: Breyer by Bill Clinton, and Sotomayor and Kagan by Obama.

Thus ended 49 years of America's women being guaranteed this right by the Constitution. To make matters worse, Kavanaugh had testified in his confirmation hearing that Roe was "settled law." Kavanaugh had also testified that he had never sexually assaulted any women, when women had testified in that hearing that he had. Therefore, on both counts, he was guilty of perjury, and should have been impeached and removed from the Court; disbarred, prevented from the practice of law anywhere in America; and imprisoned.

Among the pro-Roe signs picketing the Supreme Court were some reading, "I can't believe my daughter has fewer rights than I do" and "I can't believe I still have to protest this shit."

Several States soon passed legislation -- and some already had "trigger laws" in place for this very eventuality -- to strictly regulate abortion. The Guttmacher Institute has a map showing the severity of such laws. They list 13 States as "most restrictive." None of them has voted for a Democratic candidate for President since 1996. Of the 11 States that had been part of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, Virginia was listed as "some restrictions/protections"; both Carolinas and Florida were listed as "restrictive"; Georgia was listed as "very restrictive"; and the rest were listed as "most restrictive."

On the night of June 25, I wrote this on Facebook:

You know who's going to make a lot of money this year? Doordash and Uber Eats drivers in Washington, D.C. Because those six Justices will never be able to eat out in peace again.

That is not a threat. But it is a prediction.

UPDATE: Today, I found out that none of the six live in the District of Columbia. Probably because it's majority-black. Three live in the Maryland suburbs, and three in the Virginia suburbs. Somebody posted their addresses. Which could be considered an incitement to harassment or violence. But I no longer care. I don't encourage violence, but if any of them gets hurt as a result of their decision, then they brought it on themselves.

Aside from the tax cuts passed by Trump, Bush and Ronald Reagan, this was the biggest victory for the conservative movement since the fall of the Soviet Union.

In the Congressional and gubernatorial elections to come that November, Republicans were predicting a "Red Wave," in revulsion toward President Joe Biden and his policies on the economy, especially inflation; while Democrats were predicting women rising up in anger at the Republicans, a "Roevember."

UPDATE: The results were inconclusive: The Republicans took control of the House by 5 seats, but the Democrats held onto control of the Senate, and gained some Governorships, in large part due to the threat of new abortion restrictions.

*

June 24, 2022 was a Thursday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Houston Astros, 3-1 at Yankee Stadium. Justin Verlander outpitched Luis Severino. All the games' runs came in the 6th inning: The Astros' on a 3-run home run by Kyle Tucker, the Yankees' on a solo home run by Giancarlo Stanton.

* The New York Mets beat the Miami Marlins, 5-3 at LoanDepot Park in Miami.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-1 at Truist Park in the Atlanta suburb of Cumberland, Georgia.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Harold Ramirez singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Guardians, 6-3 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-1 at Guaranteed Rate Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-4 at American Family Field in Milwaukee.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Minnesota Twins, 1-0 at Target Field in Minneapolis. The only run came in the top of the 6th inning, when Charlie Blackmon grounded into a force play that allowed Connor Joe to score. Germán Márquez (7 2/3rds innings) and Daniel Bard combined on a 3-hit shutout.

* The Chicago Cubs beat their arch-rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-0 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Kyle Hendricks (7 1/3rd innings), Chris Martin (2/3rds) and David Robertson (1) combined on a 5-hit shutout.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-1 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Texas Rangers, 2-1 at Globe Life Field in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-1 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 at Petco Park in San Diego. The only run came in the bottom of the 6th, when Austin Nola, batting against his brother Aaron Nola, singled home Eric Hosmer. It took 4 Padres to pitch a 5-hit shutout: MacKenzie Gore (5 innings, although he did throw 97 pitches), Nabil Crismatt (2), Luis García (1) and Taylor Rogers (1).

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Los Angeles Angels, 4-3 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Mike Trout hit a home run, and Shohei Ohtani went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI, but the Angels still lost.

* And the Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-2 at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

January 20, 2025: Trump's Indoor Inauguration for Oligarchs

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

January 20, 2025: Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, by the Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington.

As with Ronald Reagan's 2nd term in 1985, it was too cold to have an outdoor ceremony for Trump's 2nd term, so it was moved into the Capitol's Rotunda, with a much smaller crowd. Of course, before anyone knew that it would be so cold, there were plans for protests, which threatened to be larger than the crowd who showed up to cheer the Inauguration. And Trump's 2017 Inauguration crowd had been a lot smaller than he'd hoped.

And so, either bowing to the cold, or bowing to his own cowardice about seeing the crowd coming to see him being too small, Trump had the ceremony moved indoors. And that turned out to be one of the less unusual things about this Inauguration ceremony.

As with his 1st Inauguration in 2017, when outgoing President Barack Obama attended, this time, outgoing President Joe Biden attended. Trump had not attended Biden's Inauguration in 2021, and had left Washington that morning.

Unlike with his 1st Inauguration, this time, Trump did not place his hand on a Bible during his Oath of Office. This had only happened twice before. In 1825, John Quincy Adams placed his hand on a law book. And in 1901, there was no Bible in the house where Theodore Roosevelt was sworn, in under emergency conditions following the assassination of William McKinley.

While he mentioned Biden, along with other distinguished attendees, at the start of his Inaugural Address, he did not pay tribute to him during the Address itself. Every incoming President had done so since Gerald Ford had asked for prayers for Richard Nixon in 1974. Even Trump had praised Obama in 2017. No praise for Biden this time.

He began:

My fellow citizens, the golden age of America begins right now. From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first.

Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent, and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end.

And our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous, and free. America will soon be greater, stronger, and far more exceptional than ever before.

As Biden would have said, it was malarkey. America had never been less respected than it was during Trump's 1st term. Dictators from Russia to Saudi Arabia to Iran took advantage of him. The only "weaponization of the Justice Department" had been the one he ran, which Biden stopped, and whic Trump now renewed.

Among the attendees were some right-wing populists from all over the world: From parties such as Britain's Reform UK (Nigel Farage), France's National Rally, and Germany's AfD. Also in attendance were some of the world's richest and rottenest men: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin. It was an Inauguration for oligarchs: Of the rich and right-wing, by the rich and right-wing, for the rich and right-wing.

By the next day, Trump had practically handed the Administration over to Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which cut billions of dollars in spending on some of the most beneficial things the federal government had been doing. It got to the point where Musk, born in South Africa and thus ineligible for the Presidency, was being called "The Co-President." This wasn't mocking him: It was mocking Trump.

Where was I at 12:00 Noon, when he was sworn in? I was at the Essex County Courthouse, on Market Street in Newark, my parents' hometown, engaging in a one-man protest and demonstration. In front of the Courthouse, opened in 1904 with Greek-inspired columns, is a statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln, sculpted by Gutzon Borghlum, who would later design Mount Rushmore. I had recently passed my 55th Birthday, and was the age that Lincoln was when he ran for re-election in 1864, during the American Civil War.

The back of the Courthouse faces Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., formerly High Street. Across from it is an annex, the Martin Luther King Jr. Justice Building. Inscribed over its doors are words of Dr. King's: "INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE." In front is a statue of King, holding two pieces of paper, one labeled as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the other labeled as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, both of which would not have become law without both his activism and the subsequent action of the federal government.

I took this picture. It had snowed in the last few days.

As it happened, it was the 3rd Monday in January, the federal holiday that honors Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement, as his birthday was January 15. He was 39 years old when he was assassinated in 1968, one day after making a speech in which he said to his supporters, echoing the Biblical figure of Moses, "I've been to the mountaintop, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!"

I needed those words at that moment. Because Dr. King wasn't just speaking to black people, to African-Americans, to, as he put it in his "I Have a Dream" speech 5 years earlier, "the Negro community." He was speaking to all Americans. Even the ones who hated him for his race and for his various stands.

I walked back down Market Street to Broad Street, and stood at a spot where, on September 15, 1960, my father, a freshman at the school now known as the New Jersey Institute of Technology, reached out and offered his hand to a man in an open convertible, shaking hands in a campaign motorcade: Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. A few minutes earlier, on the Belleville stretch of Broad Street, that motorcade had passed by the building that then served as Belleville High School, and is now the town's Junior High School. My mother, a freshman there, looked out the window and saw Kennedy.

Kennedy won that 1960 election, but was assassinated less than 3 years into his term, at the age of 46. In 1965, a bust of him was installed on a column in Newark's Military Park, roughly across Broad Street from the spot where the two Johns, Pacholek of Newark and Kennedy of Boston, shook hands. (Unlike Kennedy, my father's friends never called him "Jack.")

And on this day in 2025, I crossed that street and stood before his bust, and the Lloyd Bentsen phrase came to my mind: "Donald Trump, you're no Jack Kennedy."

In 1968, doo-wop singer Dion DiMucci made a brief comeback, with a song that had been written about these three men who had been taken far too soon: "Abraham, Martin and John." I stood before their memorials that day, and I felt as though I could carry on in opposition to the tyrant who was now perverting their ideals.

The fact that Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated 2 months after Dr. King, at the age of 42, and that his son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., had betrayed everything the family stood for, and had accepted the post of Secretary of Health and Human Services, for which he was completely unqualified, from Trump, did not escape my notice.

Meanwhile, Trump had already survived two assassination attempts the year before, although there was evidence that both had been staged, to gain sympathy for him at times when his polling was bad. There would be more.

*

January 20, 2025 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. Football was between rounds of Playoffs. There were 8 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Atlanta Hawks, 119-110 at Madison Square Garden. Jalen Brunson scored 34 points.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Dallas Mavericks, 110-105 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte.

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 108-106 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.

* The New Orleans Pelicans beat the Utah Jazz, 123-119 in overtime at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. CJ McCollum led all scorers on the day with 45 points.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Phoenix Suns, 118-92 at the Rocket Arena in Cleveland.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Houston Rockets, 107-96 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 112-99 at the Intuit Dome outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Zach LaVine scored 35 points.

* And the Boston Celtics beat the Golden State Warriors, 125-85 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

And there were 9 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 3-1 at the UBS Arena.

* The Boston Bruins beat the San Jose Sharks, 6-3 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-3 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-3 at the United Center in Chicago. Sebastian Aho scored the winning goal, with 4:01 left in overtime.

* The Minnesota Wild beat the Colorado Avalanche, 3-1 at the Ball Arena in Denver.

* The Utah Hockey Club beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-2 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. The UHC became the Utah Mammoth the next season.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Vegas Golden Knights, 5-4 in a shootout at the T-Mobile Arena in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-1 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

* And the Seattle Kraken beat the Buffalo Sabres, 6-4 at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.

January 20, 2021: Joe Biden Is Inaugurated as President

January 20, 2021: Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is inaugurated as the 46th President of United States, ending the 4-year tyranny of Donald Trump.

There really was some question as to whether Trump and his family would refuse to accept the Inauguration, and have to be escorted out of the White House by the Secret Service at 12:01 PM. They eliminated that possibility by getting out of Washington early. Trump became the 1st outgoing President since 1869, and only the 5th overall, to refuse to welcome his successor to the White House, ride with him to the ceremony, and then attend the President-elect's Inauguration.

The others:

* 1801: Despite their former, and eventually restored, friendship, John Adams left town before Thomas Jefferson could be sworn in.

* 1829: John Quincy Adams followed his father's example, and left town before Andrew Jackson could be sworn in.

* 1841: Martin Van Buren refused to welcome William Henry Harrison.

* 1869: Andrew Johnson refused to welcome Ulysses S. Grant.

This, of course, does not count Presidents who didn't attend their successors' swearing-in because they died in office: Harrison for John Tyler in 1841, Zachary Taylor for Millard Fillmore in 1850, Abraham Lincoln for Johnson in 1865, James Garfield for Chester Arthur in 1881, William McKinley for Theodore Roosevelt in 1901, Warren Harding for Calvin Coolidge in 1923, Franklin Roosevelt for Harry Truman in 1945, and John F. Kennedy for Lyndon Johnson in 1963.

Nor does it count Richard Nixon for Gerald Ford upon his resignation in 1974. Gerald and Betty Ford did escort Richard and Pat Nixon to the waiting helicopter before Gerald's swearing-in.

Outgoing Vice President Mike Pence did attend the ceremony. So did former Presidents Barack Obama (Democratic, to whom Biden had been Vice President), George W. Bush (Republican), and Bill Clinton (Democratic). The only former President still living who did not attend was Jimmy Carter (Democratic), who was 96 years old and, given the continued COVID situation and security concerns, thought it best to decline the invitation.

Those "security concerns" were about a possible 2nd attempt by Trump supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol Building, after the insurrection 2 weeks earlier delayed, but did not prevent, the certification of the Electoral Votes that confirmed Biden as President-elect.

Lady Gaga (Stefani Germanotta) sang the National Anthem. Her fellow New Yorker, Jennifer Lopez, sang Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" and "America the Beautiful." Garth Brooks sang "Amazing Grace." Amanda Gorman, just short of turning 23 years old and looking even younger, recited her poem "The Hill We Climb."

At 11:40 AM, outgoing Senator Kamala Harris of California was sworn in as Vice President, the 1st woman and the 1st nonwhite person to hold the post, by U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. And at 11:48 -- 12 minutes before the official start of his term -- Biden was sworn into office by the Supreme Court's Chief Justice, John Roberts.

Biden's Inaugural Address lasted 21 minutes, about average. He pledged to "fight as hard for those who did not support me as for those who did."

At the end of the Inaugural Ceremonies, Biden, the 3 former Presidents in attendance, their wives, the new Vice President, and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, were driven across the Potomac River, to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, to participate in a gesture of unity, a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

*

January 20, 2021 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was in the middle of its Playoffs. There were 9 games played in the NBA:

* The Brooklyn Nets lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers, 147-135 in double overtime at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland. Kevin Durant scored 38 points for the Nets, and Kyrie Irving added 37. But Collin Sexton scored 42 for the Cavs, and Cedi Osman 25.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics, 117-109 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia. Joel Embiid scored 42 points.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Detroit Pistons, 123-115 in overtime at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Trae Young scored 38 points.

* The Miami Heat beat the Toronto Raptors, 111-102 at the Amalie Arena in Tampa. The Raptors played all their 2020-21 season "home games" there because COVID restrictions prevented the league's only Canada-based team from entering Canada.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Houston Rockets, 109-103 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Indiana Pacers, 124-112 at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 97-96 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Sacramento Kings, 115-96 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles. Kawhi Leonard scored 32.

* And the Golden State Warriors beat the San Antonio Spurs, 121-99 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

There were 5 games played in the NHL:

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-1 at the Scotiabank Arena. Under the League's COVID restrictions, all 7 Canada-based teams were placed in the same Division, and all 31 teams played regular season games only within the Division assigned to them for this one season. Oddly, this was the easternmost game played in the NHL that day.

* The San Jose Sharks beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-1 in a shootout at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

* The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Arizona Coyotes, 5-2 at the T-Mobile Center in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada. Is this going to become a geographic rivalry? Maybe, but it depends on the Coyotes staying put. I suppose it could still be a rivalry, if the Coyotes move to Salt Lake City or San Diego.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Anaheim Ducks, 3-2 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Montreal Canadiens, 6-5 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

January 20, 2017: The 1st Trump Inauguration: "American Carnage"

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.

*

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.