In my preceding post, I congratulated the speechwriters and the delivery by President Trump of his address to the crowd, the nation and the world. I thought it was a well-written speech and the delivery was fairly eloquent, but I see many observers feel it was not a good speech at all, for various reasons — which shows how much I really know about American politics, i.e. very little, indeed.
But my praise of the speech and my congratulations to him and his supporters should not be viewed as support for him and his administration. It wasn’t. I was just doing what so many people did today: congratulated the winners, just as a losing hockey team congratulates the winners after a hard-fought playoff series.
Personally, I see some hope for the American people in the promises of President Trump, but I understand why so many people dislike him. But I worry more about the party he represents and the people pulling the strings behind the scene, because I don’t think the U.S. president has as much power as some people think. I don’t think Trump personally has anything against LGBTQ people, for example, but others in his party certainly do. And as they attempt to roll back gains made by LGBTQ people, I’m not sure Trump will be able to stop them. I’ll get into this in more detail in a later post . . . but I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump quits in disgust somewhere down the line.
About the inauguration: I had never watched the inauguration of a U.S. president before, and I was touched by some of what I saw, namely the class shown by Barack Obama and his wife, by Hillary Clinton and her husband for showing up, and by the whole process in general.
I also came away from it — after listening to three prayers by three individuals during the swearing-in process — with the thought that the American government has a firm Christian foundation. I’m not sure if that is a Republican thing or is just the way it is done for all presidential inaugurations, but there is no doubt that the Republican party has pretty deep fundamentalist leanings — and that’s just the way it is for so many Americans. Not so in Canada, where prayers and hymns simply are not part of our federal political process.
I watched the coverage on CBS, and the announcer mentioned how moved he was as Barack Obama and his wife boarded the helicopter that would fly them out of Washington, while President Trump and his wife and Vice-President Pence and his wife stood on the steps of the Capitol building and saluted. Yes, I was touched by that, too. It’s not the sort of thing we see in Canada.
All in all, it was a great show, even if the main actors were not the ones I wanted to win.
This historic day, though, was not a time for protest for me. It was a time to applaud an American process that is repeated every time a new president is inaugurated — and it will probably be happening again in four years, and Donald Trump will make the same sort of gracious exit that President Obama made.
I was disappointed to see that some demonstrators in D.C. resorted to violence later, burning cars and smashing store windows and injuring police officers. I don’t blame that sort of hooliganism on Trump; I blame it on the individuals who are looking for any opportunity to run amok — and Montrealers can tell you all about that sort of thing after we witnessed similar hooligans using peaceful student protests against Quebec’s Liberal government policies to loot and burn and injure. These types of idiots exist in every city, and they have nothing to do with peaceful democratic protest.
In fact, some hooligans in Montreal used the Trump inauguration on Friday as an excuse to cause trouble in Montreal streets. So stupid . . .
— Jillian
Photo: A classy handover of power: President-elect Donald Trump and outgoing President Barack Obama leave the White House en route together to the presidential inauguration ceremony on Jan. 20, 2017. Source: Screengrab taken by Jillian Page
Jillian Page 
Within an hr. of becoming President Trump signed a bill taking away a $500 deduction 1st time homeowners were allowed to get. Watch what happens to the poorest people as well as the middle class when the rest of the bills are signed. I can’t wait to see what happens with the Obamacare replacement. If you are not rich and American then you are about to be kicked in the Ass big time.And if you voted for Trump you deserve it.
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I didn’t watch the inauguration, but I heard clip of Trump’s speech on the radio. His words were not particularly inspirational, rather he took on a very strident protectionism stance. The U.S had been in this space before but it was such a long time ago, it seems as if Trump is dialing back the clock big time. The as mentioned by Sheldon, he hits potential first-time home owners as one of his first presidential moves. Is this a priority? I thought he promised to help the “little” guy, the hurting middle-class, or those aspiring to become part of that class. Like young people just starting out. It seems petty and not a very prodctive way to begin an “historic” presidency. (And WTF is so historic about Trump in the White House? Maybe as the biggest mistake voters have made in modern U.S. history.)
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And, lest I forget, but I’m watching Bill Maher and they mentioned the new Trump White House, as part of its first to-do shit, took down the previous administration’s web sites on climate change and LGBT issues, along with a few others.
https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/20/trumps-white-house-website-deletes-climate-change-lgbt-pages/
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Ian, as one of my colleagues points out, the Obama administration website was moved to https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/
I’m guessing the Trump administration wants to start with a clean slate, but don’t expect it to include a climate change site or an LGBT issues site, considering the Republicans rule the roost now.
Our American LGBTQ friends have a fight ahead of them, as do so many others in that country — and it all makes the faux pas by Trudeau in Sherbrooke this past week look so small in comparison, eh?
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And the world is still waiting to see the degree of psychopathy the human has because it is the season of the witch. In the end, “common” folk are going to die. We’ve seen it before, we’ll see it again. The “tribe” will ensure it does. If you “think” we’re not monkeys, you have to have your head examined. Time for my meds %P
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The inauguration “speech” was just more campaign talking points. The first ever that doesn’t even try to mend fences with political opponents. What most people don’t realize is that most of Trump’s campaign promises – he does not have the authority to make happen. He needs congress.
As long as Trump will sign any shit sent to him by the Republican Congress, they will love him. Here’s their short list:
Defund Planned Parenthood
Defund the Affordable Care Act on the way to a repeal with no replacement.
Privatize the Public Broadcast System making them a commercial enterprise complete with commercials
Privatize the world’s safest Air Traffic Control system bringing management to the highest bidder- expect huge fare increases and the end of General Aviation
Destroy public education- Charter Schools are another way of saying segregation since parental participation is required, and the poor, usually black or brown, are two-income families. Wealthy families can buy their way out of parental participation. Also, even though largely funded with public funds, Charter schools also teach religious fairy tales as fact. Yes, religion is a Republican thing since it cultivates low-intelligence voters.
Defund the EPA- who needs clean air when there is money to be made. (GOP means Gas and Oil Party).
Repeal equal rights protections for women.
Make anti LGBT laws at the Federal level, under the hypocritical “religious freedom” line.
Defund the National Science Foundation.
Defund NASA. Who needs weather satellites anyway.
Defund The National Endowment for the Arts.
There’s more.
The worst will be the nomination of a Supreme Court justice so far to the Right that voter rights, women rights LGBT rights will all be discarded, and it will take a generation to recover from that carnage.
Under the Republicans, who for eight years cried about the national debt (that dropped through all of the Obama years), the US debt will go up by ten trillion dollars.
Jobs? I fully expect a trade war with China – this is something that Trump can do all on his on. When the cost of goods goes up tenfold or more, we will lose jobs.
Infrastructure jobs? Trumps plan to pay for the infrastructure is through “user fees”. A seemingly reasonable term republicans use when they mean tolls. Fix a bridge, pay for it with tolls. Fix a highway, tolls. Improve an airport, higher fees added to every ticket.
Coal? LOL Those jobs will never come back. Coal is dead. It is dirty and more expensive than natural gas. Almost all coal-fired power plants in the US have switched to natural gas.
The wall? Good luck getting enough Republican congressmen and senators to agree to pay for it. Oh, but Trump says Mexico will pay for it, but he hasn’t said how, or even if it would be legal.
Deportations? Trump wants to deport 10- to 12- million undocumented aliens. That’s more than the population of every state but the largest six. That’s the population of the smallest ten states combined. Again, how does he plan to pay for it?
If Trump stays in office for 100 days, I will be surprised. If he stays for one year, I’ll be astonished. If he gets re-elected, I’ll leave the country.
Then there’s the 46th president- Pence. If you are not a wealthy christian white male, you should worry. Pence has said that he is a christian, a man, a republican and an American – “in that order”. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
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Good summary, Steve. There are bad times ahead. Hold on tight, my friend.
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