Women's March on Washington (for the Inauguration of Donald J. Trump)

The women need to march -- the Trump administration will be at war with them: over not just women's issues, but family issues, education issues, parity under law questions, birth control, Roe versus Wade, insurance issues, abortion issues, rape/abduction issues, controversies over child custody, drug use issues, and about a hundred other issues as well.

Trump is an old-time chauvinist masquerading as a "modern American male." Of the 1930's maybe, but not of the current time. He is a NYC playboy-wannabe pretending to be a desirable man. But only for those women who are "turned on" by bluster and a powerful comb-over! Donald Trump is that nightmare "date" who can't keep his hands off, or his mind on any kind of clean track. He is a pig -- he thinks he can "buy" people like beauty queens, models, starlets, any beautiful woman -- just for his own personal use.

He deserves to be cut off from women -- he treats his beautiful wife Melania like a part-time consort, who happens to be the Mother of his son. He is the worst of men, not the best. He is not to be envied; but despised!

America and Its Young People

I have, in many ways, the privilege of teaching super-intelligent, highly motivated young American students. Most of them are between the ages of 14 and 25. They are truly the future. And they are terrific.

Their elders however, those that have currently risen to power in American government are soft, and uncritical, and "entitled." By virtue of color, or race, or prejudice -- they have set themselves up as intellectual oligarchs -- hoarding opinion for fact, and belief for truth. And they are leading our country into unknown chasms of ignorance, and ultimately, despair.

Arrogance is their crime. And entitlement is their game. They are the Republicans who have failed us so many times before, and will fail us so many times in the future. We who are left, can only pity them and provide for ourselves.

Winter of Our Discontent

Russia, China and North Korea routinely hack our most secret and protected government and private internet accounts in the US. Privacy is a "thing of the past."

Politicians like Donald Trump claim that all that "hacking" makes no difference in the real world. Yet elections are lost or won because of them; public opinion is shaped by outright lies and the innuendos of false news. The public is unable to decipher the difference between "truth" or "falsehood." And the world glides on into a "post-truth" era. And the opportunists take advantage of the public's confusion and incorporate and inveigle their own agenda onto the public venues.

And we are, apparently, powerless to fight the obvious and endemic flow of "s__t" descending upon us.

Past Denial

We have moved past denial, but have not (and hopefully never will) move into the realm of acceptance. We are not in the "stages of grief" here but rather in the oncoming age of "trump." Not the man, but the "movement."

What will this "movement" mean for all of us: war? poverty? social unrest? societal fracturing? strife?

What will it all mean?

It might mean no real changes will occur, just a natural progression towards the "right" so that the reverse can happen two years from now. I might mean that "trump" rules the land, and the poor people choose to love it. Not likely, but possible.

Stuck

Stuck in my brain are endless thoughts about what can and will go wrong with a Trump Administration. It is too late to blame anyone for Clinton's loss; it makes no difference whether it was caused by the FBI, or the Russian hacking, or the insipid portion of the American electorate. It is what it is.

And for the foreseeable future we are "stuck" with this President, perhaps for as long as four years.
Regardless of what happens he will inevitably take credit for any successes (caused by the rest of us) and decry any failures as the fault of his internal opponents (Republicans, Democrats, anyone who opposes him).

This is all happening because of our carelessness -- we were too lazy to vote, or we thought the "outcome was secure enough," or we just wanted to "stir the pot" to see what would happen. War could happen; nuclear proliferation could happen; more terrorism could happen; loss of our very own country and its government could happen; self-destruction could happen. And all because we were, in some way, careless and selfish with our own heritage.

We are now stuck!

A Bad Year Ends, a Bad Year Begins

2016 was the year of the Rise of Trump -- a man no one with a brain would want to be their President. But there it is. It was also the year of great migrations from war-torn or drug-ravaged lands: Sudan, Venezuela, Syria, Central Africa, Mexico, Columbia, Panama, et al. 2016 also brought us the brutality of ignorance, change for change's sake, and unrelenting stupidity and lies.

The political process broke down -- social media beat real media -- and mankind itself wavered in its  humanity. Selfishness replaced compassion; hate replaced love; anger replace common sense.

Women lost significant ground in reproductive rights, and control over their own bodies, their wages, their choices in life. And "crypto-fascism" became a "real thing."

2017 will probably not be a better year.

America in Chaos --Not an Easy Place to Be

The new "government" in America is either going to "drain the swamp" or become one. It will be filled with reprobate or retrobate but generally untrustworthy corporate magnates, disgruntled pundits, anti-status quo crazies, and conspiracy theorists -- all with no discernible governing ability. Many are rich, too rich, to understand or empathize with the rest of us. We will be treated like "specimens" in all phases of government: losers, non-billionaires, failures, excess --- all because we "did not win."

To a Capitalist/plutocratic/crypt--fascist regime we are all expendable. If we can't get health insurance, so what! If we can't pay for college; too bad! If we can't afford rent, or food, or insurance, or any of the normal pleasures in life --- it must be our own fault! It must be, because the "rich" have made it -- so something must be wrong with the rest of us. That's how life plays to a thick-brained plutocrat!