I happened to read Kevin Baker’s opinion piece in the New York Times Sunday Review today, titled The America We Lost When Trump Won, where he states, (referring to the outcome of the election in November):

Today’s passive, unhappy Americans sat on their couches and chose a strutting TV clown…

as the 45th President of the United States. Damn, I think I just threw up in my mouth.

Baker begins his missive by saying:

NO, I’m not over it.

and I have to agree with him. I’m not even close to getting over the grave disservice 62,979,636 of my fellow Americans selfishly inflicted on the entire nation by casting their ballots for that idiotic, preening, self-absorbed, racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, narcissistic a**hole on November 8th. In fact, I’ll go so far to say I’ll never get over it.

Donald J. Trump is not my President. He never will be. But the real tragedy is he never should’ve been nominated, let alone elected, in the first place. You see, those passive, unhappy, couch potatoes Mr. Baker referred to fell for the con, the countless lies, the blatant conceit; they fell hard and they fell fast.

…and if Spicer’s dubious debut is any indication of what we can expect, I’ll also mourn the total loss of civility, humility, decency, integrity and yes, even basic common sense emanating from the White House Briefing Room for the next four years. Nobody – and I do mean nobody – is going to convince me otherwise.

Mr. Baker continues:

Yet when I say that I have lost the America I knew, I’m not talking about policy, or even fundamental rights, disorienting as their loss would be. I mean a greater, almost spiritual faith that I had in my fellow citizens and their better instincts, something that served as my north star…

The America where my working-class parents lived and loved – the America where I was born and raised – has been lost. No, it was not lost decades ago, nor was it lost even a few short years ago. Rather, it was lost two days ago, on January 20th, 2017 at 12:00 PM EST.

It was lost, but not forgotten…

Pop Quiz – describe the similarities between:

Kellyanne Conway
Scottie Nell Hughes
Tomi Lahren

Yup, they’re all peroxide blondes, all of ’em have had work done, (yeah, that kind of work), they possess entirely-contrived names, and when a microphone gets shoved in their general direction, they start spewing the typical bile routinely attributed to pretty much every brainless Trump surrogate out there. In a word, all three are bimbos.

Meanwhile, votes continue to be tallied, and the advantage Hillary R. Clinton has over Donald J. Trump has steadily grown to over 2.6 million votes, (2,654,600 to be exact), as of December 8th. According to The New York Times, Clinton’s tally stands at 65,476,535 votes (48.1%), while Trump’s tally stands at 62,821,935 votes (46.1%), as of December 8th. While no one can dispute the disparity reflected in the Electoral College delegate count as of December 8th, (Trump has been awarded 306, or 56.9%, while Clinton has been awarded 232, or 43.1%), we need to acknowledge why this disparity exists – decades-old, GOP-led gerrymandering of voting districts and the so-called “winner takes all” approach used to award those delegates.

Lastly, I wanted to pass along a link to an article appearing in The Washington Post today, written by James Hohmann, describing demographic analysis pointing toward a correlation between opiate addiction, alcoholism and suicide mortality rates and Donald J. Trump’s performance among voters in specific counties across the country. This analysis was highlighted in a feature called The Daily 202, and was titled “Trump over performed the most in counties with the highest drug, alcohol and suicide mortality rates”. Yikes! I know we’re not supposed to drive while under the influence, or operate heavy machinery while under the influence, but did anybody ever think maybe we ought to dissuade voters from casting f*cking ballots while under the influence??? Sad.

…kinda sounds like that whole “…basket of deplorables…” comment Clinton made might not be too far off the mark, huh?

Thank goodness I’m not a Twitter user. Sure, I secured my namespace, but that’s it – not following anybody, nobody following me… Nope. …don’t even have it installed on my iPhone.

I have to ask myself why so many people, (supposedly there are millions of ’em), place such great significance on the random thoughts of other people? …and since when did an arbitrary 140 character limit magically elevate the profundity of these random thoughts?

Haiku – 17 poetic syllables – now that’s a constraint I can live with! Sublime.

Twitter – claptrap limited by a technological constraint in the SMS specification. Dumb.

Apparently the media, now thoroughly humbled by the much-ballyhooed collective ‘fail’ of Biblical proportions, (a.k.a. predicting the outcome of the 2016 presidential election), has been engaging in round after round of soul-searching since the early morning hours of November 9th. I’ve already weighed in on the public breast-beating here, so let’s focus on what constitutes honest-to-goodness news, (and worthy of amplification in the media), vs. the complete and utter bullsh*t spewing forth on Twitter 99.999% of the time.

I’ve grown tired of journalists, (and commentators, and moderators, and reporters), lamenting the categorical destruction of previously-respected societal “norms” by President-elect Trump. Sorry folks, those longstanding norms are still there, and they need to be respected. …if not by President-elect Trump, then most assuredly by you, the men and women the rest of the nation relies upon for legitimate, fact-based, relevant reporting of noteworthy – and newsworthy – events. Heaven forbid, a naughty little rule-breaker! …yeah, more like a morbidly obese, narcissistic, 70-year-old bully.

Stop whining. Start enforcing [those societal norms].

Here’s a prescription for the media: cease breathlessly reporting anything – and I do mean anything – you find on Twitter. Relegate this ridiculous social media platform to the bottom of the heap in terms of being regarded as a legitimate source of material when reporting noteworthy, (and newsworthy), events to the general public.

Hey journalists, commentators, moderators, reporters, listen up! Time to apply equal – and opposing – pressure to the bully! …and don’t assume the role of a goddamned victim. You’re not! Remember who has the microphone – and I’m talking about the real microphone here – it’s not the President-elect. It’s you.

Trump. Tweet. Troll.

OK, so I don’t know who this stupid person is, but Scottie Nell Hughes’ commentary on The Diane Rehm Show this past Wednesday regarding the existence of facts was complete and utter bullsh*t.

Her poorly-worded attempt at rationalizing – or legitimizing – an outright lie should be regarded as reprehensible. You cannot apply the principle of relativity to the truth, i.e. a fact, when it suits your purpose, then turn around and scream bloody murder under slightly different circumstances when it doesn’t…

Ms. Hughes needs to spend a little more time in front of a dictionary and a little less time in front of the mirror – yikes! I don’t care if she reaches for the Oxford Dictionary or if she prefers Merriam Webster – either will do – but for God’s sake, at least try to sound like you’ve got an IQ above 40 if you’re going to appear on NPR!

Let’s be clear, there is no liberal interpretation of a fact, nor is there a conservative interpretation of a fact – there is only one interpretation of a fact – the objective, completely unbiased interpretation, period.

Methinks Ms. Hughes may be confusing the word ‘fact’ with the word ‘opinion’.

Ms. Hughes is entitled to an opinion about a fact, just as everyone else is entitled to their own opinion about that very same fact. Her opinion may align with reality – meaning she accepts the statement of a fact as just that, the truth, or her opinion may conflict with reality – meaning she rejects the statement presented as being factual.

And yes, opinions will invariably reflect a degree of bias based on the perspective, or relative point of view, held by whomever it is expressing said opinion, but let’s not conflate the two terms, shall we? Let’s agree facts are absolute truths, not subject to interpretation based on one’s political leanings, alright?

Facts aren’t red, nor are they blue; rather, they’re simply stated in black and white.

What a dirtbag this guy is! A political neophyte, dubious business leader, narcissist and world-class liar. Do not accept this most despicable person as President of the United States.

Protest. Resist. Question. …but do not accept – ever.