Reviews

What Are You Doing Inauguration Day?

1/16/2017

Inauguration 2009

I respect John Lewis for staying away.

I respect the people – including some close to me – who are going to Washington on Saturday to protest.

I’m hunkering. I can’t watch the transfer of responsibility, of power, from the President to a reality-show host.

For all that, the dominant feeling I expect on Friday is relief.

This essay is being written on the national holiday for Martin Luther King, who went to Memphis in 1968 to back up striking sanitation workers.

It is written in honor of John Lewis, who went to Selma in 1965 to protest American segregation, and who, thank goodness, survived the beating and is still with us, calling the new President illegitimate.

How many people have been holding our breath since the election of 2008 – hearing in our hearts the lyrics by Dion DiMucci: “Seems the good they die young.”

Instead, came a more subtle version – what Justice Clarence Thomas might call “a high-tech lynching” -- conducted by Mitch McConnell, missing only the hood over his face, and Boehner and Cantor and Ryan, who could not coexist with a black President.

They screwed up the country, leaving a Rube Goldberg health-care bill that could have been so much better, and stalling on infrastructure and education. High-tech resistance.

For eight years, President Obama has conducted business with intelligence and dignity; he will walk away observing the rituals of democracy.

The main thing is, he and Mrs. Obama will walk away. I look forward to their books; I look forward to very rare glimmers of their children, leading semi-normal lives.

The country will now have to respond to the demonstrated rapacity of the new people. This new person has nominated people who cut deals with dicey nations to make money for themselves and shareholders, who demonstrate contempt for the majority as well as for government.

The current polls suggest that many people who voted for the man are now having misgivings. Did you see Charles Blow’s list of polls showing the people’s dis-satisfaction with the transition?

That’s right, the people out there who thought this guy was a fine religious gentleman and an American patriot and a savvy executive are now having misgivings. (Mike Pence, the token of the religious right, looks stricken -- the only man on his island.)

John Lewis is staying away. As always, John Lewis is way ahead on moral stances.

What plans do you have for Friday?

Inauguration, 1961: Robert Frost blinded by the glare.

Hansen Alexander

1/16/2017 02:21:55 pm

George, Taube and I will be preparing to leave the next morning around 5am on one of the many buses leaving New York for the Women's March on Washington. As you may already know, the Fuhrer of Fifth Avenue has already employed his fascist, strong-armed tactics by forcing the march away from the traditional Lincoln Memorial site to Independence Avenue, where it narrows as you approach the sloping hill to the Capitol building. Although we all hope that this is merely business as usual and a normal transfer of power, (the spin of his disciples) this hope keeps getting undermined by the hour, with more attempts to intimidate career federal employees, and ethics issues populating the political climate like a bad influx of locusts. I don't see how this new Administration ever can get past whatever happened with the interference by the FBI Director in the final week of the election and the creepy details of the Putin-Fuhrer relationship. If there was an innocent explanation regarding what has gone down between Trump and the Russians, such as legitimate business explorations, or a genuine affection for vacationing in Russia, you would think Trump or one of his mouthpieces would have already suggested those defenses. But he and they have not. Although the Fuhrer settled the fraud case by the State of Florida almost without notice within seven days of his election, the tangled web of his 50 some years of business deals, now extending to at least 20 countries and their governments, promises to provide endless reports and endless questions, both for ethical concerns and impact on American Foreign Policy. Since he has packed his Cabinet and government mostly with aged corporate officials with mostly no Government experience, THEIR business connections offer endless possibilities of scandal. Assuming that the Fuhrer does not get bored by the whole thing and simply resign, as neophyte Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura did after two years, you have the making of another Grant Administration, defined by corporate corruption at every turn. And that is not even considering the larger issue of whether this bully can adjust to the democratic limitations and compromises of the job as President, or will continue his autocratic and authoritarian methods, and lurch toward dictatorship.

George Vecsey

1/16/2017 02:38:10 pm

Hansen: sounds right. He has picked people who have been working against the majority all their lives -- to line their own pockets and those of people with stock. There is no trace of public service, no impulse of generosity or compassion. My hope is that Congress can impeach him, when the Republicans figure out how damaged he is. Good trip to you both. GV

Brian Savin

1/16/2017 07:29:58 pm

Teach, don’t preach, is a useful mantra to apply to political discussion in my view.

I would like to offer to everyone here upset with our current political life, but yet interested in truly understanding why we have Donald Trump as our new President, two very recent video interviews of two great political minds addressing what faces us and also addressing our election.

Yanis Varoufakis, an accomplished academic economist, is also the former Finance Minister of Greece. He is a radical and a sometimes Marxist. He discusses Greece with references to the U.S. for our better understanding. As you listen to him, please consider how many other connections you can make between the plight of the Greeks, and the plight of increasing numbers of Americans.

https://yanisvaroufakis.eu
January 14, 2017
David Rubin Report (you can skip all of Rubin’s interjections as he shows that he is not actually familiar with the events that Varoufakis explains very well).

Pay particular close attention when Varoufakis talks about the three economic interest blocks of advanced democracies – financial, manufacturing and political -- and tell me which ones our recent Presidential candidates represented?

Chris Hedges is an ordained minister, political moralizer par excellence, and former New York Times war correspondent. He won the Pulitzer for his work. He is also a radical and activist who knows his way around jails, similar to the man we honor today.

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/chris_hedges_on_trumps_naked_kleptocracy_20170113

Note that his opinion of the allegations of Russian hacking is similar to our new President.

These interviews will take less than an hour and twenty minutes of your time total (Hedges is under 12 minutes) and I suspect you will find them enjoyable, thought provoking and useful to your own thought formulation.

By the way, for those seeking “extra credit” I commend this recent piece by Nobel Prize winning economist and former World Bank chief, Joseph Stiglitz, in which he addresses the challenges for Trump in a recent Guardian article. (Krugman might earn a “Gentleman’s C” in his class only because Stiglitz is a very kind man)!

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/15/joseph-stiglitz-what-the-us-economy-needs-from-donald-trump

Richard Taylor

1/17/2017 08:40:37 am

I live in Vermont. Friday I will be in Montreal, Quebec taking my 89 year old aunt to lunch. Can't think of a better place to be Friday, January 20, 2017.

George Vecsey

1/17/2017 11:48:41 am

Bonne idee.
Bonne repas.
GV

PRANAY GUPTE

1/18/2017 07:22:32 pm

As always, a brilliant post, George

George Vecsey

1/18/2017 09:50:29 pm

Pranay: Great to hear from you.
Thanks so much. Come home!
Lots going on here.
G&M

bruce

1/19/2017 03:45:37 pm

george,

i normally watch the inauguration.

i have clear memories being in mr rayner's grade 5 class at greensville public school--about 100 steps away from where i type this--and watching jfk's stirring inaugural speech.

less than few years later i was in mrs sheppard's grade 8 class writing an english exam when she informed us the governor of texas had been assassinated and jfk wounded. she left the room for a few minutes and returned to say the opposite was true.

tomorrow, i will most likely pass watching the event tho i am curious what your country has done to itself.

i have some curiosity to see how much boasting drumpf will do, 'i've already been named the greatest president of anywhere since the creation of the universe' is what i'm expecting.

if i was even a smidgeon religious i might even thank the almighty that i'm canadian--a socialist haven of commie sympathizers--but we do the best we can given our misfortune.

i really expected obama to be assassinated by some right wing religious zealot doing god's work. pleased he finished his eight years untouched.

i liked him tho thought he wasn't very savvy at first. it was obvious to me that the not so honourable opposition would try to screw him and denigrate him every step of the way.

he wasted too much time trying to be reasonable with those morons. american values is a term that makes me rather nauseous; obama was shown some of those values in an up close and very personal way too many times.

trump said earlier today that his cabinet had the highest IQ in american history. we shall see how they fare with scandals, conflicts et al.

finally, trump's congress/senate probably wouldn't have the stomach to impeach him so he might last the entire term, not terms, unless he chokes to death on a mcdonald's fat burg or cholosterol clogs his veins.

unlikely tho since he's the healthiest potus in history, as his very thorough physical showed.

bruce

George Vecsey

1/19/2017 04:23:31 pm

Bruce: Did you catch our latest mug? Nominated for Treasury.
Forgot to mention a $100,000,000 item .
It could happen.
The talk-show guy may issue a new American denomination:
$100,000,000 equals One Mnuchin.
Kind of has a ring to it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/politics/steven-mnuchin-treasury-secretary-nominee-assets-confirmation.html

bruce

1/19/2017 05:51:20 pm

george,

yes indeedy.

i commented on it--as you can see below.

....nothing to see here 'folks'. just move on. nothing to see. i'm sure most of mr trump's supporters/voters amongst the simple folk who loved the snake oil salesman would forget $100,000,000 in assets too....

did you ever read 'the children' by david halberstam?

bruce

Hansen Alexander

1/19/2017 07:07:11 pm

George,

I can't pretend to have anything but dark thoughts on the eve of the Fuhrer's coronation. The blue print seems simple and evil enough: take his personal cut of the action with the elimination of ACA with all the that surcharge money he gets back, push through another massive tax cut on income and dividends, which will help him personally to the tune of many many billions of USD. Then his minions in the chosen agencies destroy those programs, such as global warming research, abortion funding, etc. and the rest of the needs of the Koch Brothers umbrella. The bottom line becomes a weaker and less efficient federal government, the time honored goal of the Republicans since Reagan. Major problems then "are returned the states" who have not the interest or the money to deal with them. This dream decentralization returns the once powerful United States into the weak infant of the Articles of Confederation years and its chaos. The Right's concept of the United States as a third world, poverty depressed nation only with a massive military is realized. Only the Chinese call in the debts which essentially pays for our over extended Empire with credit. Boom! One century as an empire and the US joins Britain, Portugal and all the other once powerful empires. Yes, it can happen that fast. We are essentially continuing the transfer of wealth from the middle class to the very rich begun under Reagan, and using the very poor whites as the vehicle of power to do it. Like the Southern whites who fought in the Civil War so bravely despite getting screwed themselves by the slave owning class, the poor, uneducated, unskilled whites of the swing states this year are now going to get royally screwed by the Big City conman they so foolishly believed in. In short, I fear we are retreating to the lawless and depressing time of Jim Crow. Already Chief Justice Roberts essentially overturned Brown v. Board of Education in Seattle School District, so the retrenchment and decline has been underway for a long time.

George Vecsey

1/19/2017 07:18:34 pm

Hansen, i totally agree. Trump is not alone. He's joining people like the smirking Roberts who told us that things are fine now in America, no need to have all those antiquated decisions.
I agree with you also that the ones who are going to squeal the loudest are the white males who apparently believed the reality show guy was for them. Your Civil War analogy is correct. Men and women sacrificed for slaveowners. Now they will sacrifice for the Tollisons and DeVoses and Mnuchins (What $100,000,000?) of this world.
They asked for it. The polls indicate some are realizing exactly what they did.
GV

bruce

1/19/2017 07:42:43 pm

george,

i don't think 'better late than never' is applicable in this case.

bruce

bruce

1/19/2017 07:40:21 pm

hansen

my advice would be to stay away from sharp objects and loaded guns.

after saying that, it's something else how the right wing in many/most countries can get people to go against their self interests. seems most true in the usa. or perhaps it's more destructive with the pathetic safety net available compared to any other major western democracy that it know of....

Hansen Alexander

1/19/2017 08:38:34 pm

Bruce,

Thanks for the comfort. I need it, LOL

bruce

1/19/2017 09:11:35 pm

hansen,

think nothing of it.

any friend of george's is good in my books (i think).

if memory serves, you're somewhere that's infested with those dreaded socialists, ain't ya?

bruce

Brian Savin

1/19/2017 08:14:34 pm

Today was an emotional inaugural ceremony and concert at the Arlington Cemetery and Lincoln Memorial stretching on down the reflecting pool populated by tens of thousands of good people. I hope and suspect that most who saw it were given confidence that this country is in good shape, as President Obama believes.

Tomorrow is transition. The other day the BBC produced an interesting analysis calculating who was the second longest serving President after Four Term Franklyn. It's quite enjoyable.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38634235

I encourage everyone to watch the inauguration tomorrow if you have access to it. A member of our family, who himself was shocked by the result, said an interesting thing on NPR yesterday. He said he could not help but watch it, and thought it was important to do so. I agree with him. For everyone. It's important.

brian

1/19/2017 08:27:38 pm

brian,

it'll take more than a pre inaugural ceremony to give people confidence the usa will be in good shape in trump's hands.

bruce

Hansen Alexander

1/19/2017 09:27:01 pm

Bruce,

Me thinks that your campaign to paint the transfer of power to Trump as a benign exercise of democratic tradition and therefore business as usual, is rather like a crisis management spokesperson of a meat company trying to put a bad meat scandal behind it, only to be undermined by the CEO himself, who claims that not only wasn't the meat bad, it was the healthiest meat ever axed off the hide of a cow. In between what you believe was an inspiring bipartisan ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial, and what I saw as an extended photo opportunity (and maybe even future campaign commercial by Roger Ailes), the Donald was accusing his own intelligence gathering operation as of noon tomorrow, of being a "bunch of Nazis." It is difficult for any fair and open minded person to give such an out of control adult the benefit of the doubt.

bruce

1/19/2017 09:37:00 pm

hansen,

methinks you meant to address this to brian, pas moi.

bruce

Brian Savin

1/19/2017 08:19:32 pm

Today was an emotional inaugural ceremony and concert at the Arlington Cemetery and Lincoln Memorial stretching on down the reflecting pool populated by tens of thousands of good people. I hope and suspect that most who saw it were given confidence that this country is in good shape, as President Obama believes.

Tomorrow is transition. The other day the BBC produced an interesting analysis calculating who was the second longest serving President after Four Term Franklin. It's quite enjoyable.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38634235

I encourage everyone to watch the inauguration tomorrow if you have access to it. A member of our family, who himself was shocked by the result, said an interesting thing on NPR yesterday. He said he could not help but watch it, and thought it was important to do so. I agree with him. For everyone. It's important.

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3/1/2017 03:44:38 am

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What Are You Doing Inauguration Day?

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