In 24 hours, Queens native Donald Trump will be, like it or don’t like it, the President of the United States of America.
The transition of powers has been rife with petty bickering by both parties. Combined outlandish and salient accusations of the president-elect’s financial ties to foreign leaders and Putin and election legitimacy. Contentious mass protests and emboldened attacks on religions, nationalities and races. A farcical confirmation process of a cabal of smug and arrogant billionaires who don’t need the jobs and would prefer to have these posts and departments obliterated. Palpable and overwhelming yet justified fears of the further transmitting of wealth to the avaricious oligarch class and the dooming threat to checks and balances. The dismantling of already diminishing safety net programs like social security, health care and affordable housing. And most recently the slow destruction of the fourth estate of government, the journalists.
As this recent disgraceful event as shown, we as a nation have still not learned a thing and have not found our collective balls or ovaries. The press there had a grand opportunity to shame and expose this motherfucker for the living breathing fraud that he is if they would have demanded to see those props files on stage alleging to contain all of his businesses he divested from, maybe one of the reporters could have accidentally knocked it over, and should have walked out of the room when he initially refused. For they are not even labeled or even have printed type on it. Even late late night show us Seth Myers noticed it. But that would leave just Steve Bannon’s minions from Breitbart and their imitators, the sniveling sycophants applauding and laughing at Don Worthless quips, his kin, and his lawyer, what I think may be an unprecedented act of a president-elect to defend his hoodwinking divestment scheme, which should portend more doom about how he will shape policy and maybe how court cases will proceed ( why bother with evidence, when you can show kinds of evidence).
This past week alone has seen some stupid behavior with the feud Donald, with his social media account, engaged with civil rights leader Congressman John Lewis, on the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. Which led to more damning coverage to the shameless president-elect, again the media failing to cover more important issues, say the confirmation hearings, and covering instead digital shit talking. All because Congressman Lewis had the temerity to refuse to accept, as with millions of others who voted 3 months ago and major newspapers and websites, Trump’s victory. Which is his divine right. But Congressman Lewis is another one who doesn’t have an actual say in this, because when he had a chance to back someone legitimate, Bernie Sanders, he maligned him for not being much of an advocate for civil rights like he did and claimed he never saw him at protests and rallies, which possibly influenced his district to pull for his pandering opponent. Who knows why he would disparage and undermine a like-minded thinker and fellow progressive politician, because Bernie was marching in civil rights protests. Maybe he didn’t get his skull cracked or was in Selma but there was no doubt about his bonafides. If him and all his colleagues, peers, and those 465 superdelegates didn’t jump the gun at the start of the primary and backed Manifest Hillary, we wouldn’t all be living in existential fear and dread right now.
But at the matter at hand, this inauguration is going to have as many protesters as spectators. And the security deployed is going to be as militaristic and invasive as anything written in all the dystopian novels written in the past century. But it’s for everyone’s good and well-being in this big and dangerous world we are constantly browbeated reminded about. Besides, Americans today need more paternalism, more patriot acts, and the minds of billionaires to keep us in a kind of semblance of security. Hopefully having an amalgam of an oligarchy, kleptocracy, and kakistrocracy will work for everyone Trump deems worthy, all those who voted for him, and even the losers he text-derides who won’t kiss his ring and ass.
This is not an exit
I can’t ever change it
Cause this is not an exit
Be dangerous and unpredictable
And make a lot of noise
Anthrax
Impunity City 
While yesterday busy at work, I was detracted from the inauguration of one of the biggest con men in history and the blind sheeple who voted and supported him (WHICH by the way for the REAL RECORD, was not the majority of Americans, Hillary won the popular vote by 3 million plus, so no Donny, you did not win by a landslide nor was your winning a mandate either as you have LIED many times. AND yes Trump supporter, you guy lost the majority of American votes). But it really started to hit me last night and this morning that this con clown and all his swamp billionaire cabinet members who have no business being anywhere near the White House, as I watched Obama head up the steps to the military plane and thought, the end of civility. While no I don’t think the world will end or our country will fall completely apart with Con Man Trump and his billionaire club taking over the White House, the 1% will get richer, the poor will get poorer, the middle class will continue to erode and our environment will get FUCKED BIG TIME. And who knows who this clown will put on the Supreme Court and it is time for the damn Democrats to bust balls, get nasty and continually block bad moves from this administration just like Republicans have done for the last eight years (why didn’t the Republicans pass the whole infrastructure bill that Obama proposed and that now Trump is talking about doing). Anyway, no doubt as usual our country will be split again and even more so with this totally unqualified and dangerous individual in the White House. If you have not been watching Net Flix’s BLACK MIRROR, a Twilight Zone for today’s self indulgent must have a cell phone and tweet anything population, DO SO, where you can see where we are headed and how someone like this clown got into office.
As far as his inaugural address, was it as bad as some are saying. While far from a great address to bring people together (more of the con job that Trump is so good at), the folks criticizing his speech are partly right, but not 100% and neither is Trump for that matter. And it all depends on your perspective and where you live. If you live high above the clouds on Park Avenue or even in Park Slope, yeah, things look great. But if you are viewing things from say, Jamaica, or other communities like it across the country be it black, white or mixed, NOT SO GREAT.
So let’s take a look at parts of the speech, the critics view from Aaron Rupar of Think Progess (Trump’s inaugural speech painted an ugly picture of America, that isn’t reality. From jobs to crime, Trump wants you to believe things are worse than they really are) of it and this Jamaica boy’s perspective. NOW of course Trump wants you to think that things are worse than they really are, but then the critics on the other side are not being 100% truthful as well, I mean, I don’t think the speech painted an entirely ugly picture of America, but also America is not quite as rosy as some think at least for many of us.
TRUMP: “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 all knowledge; and the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential,” Trump said. “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.”
AARON RUPAR, Journalist, THINKPROGESS: But as was the case during Trump’s similarly dire Republican National Convention speech, many of the claims he used to paint his picture of “American carnage” were false. In other instances, Trump referred to real problems, but didn’t mention that he has no plan to fix them.
CLEAN UP JAMAICA: Sure, “American Carnage” was a very strong rough term to use making one think that all hell has broken loose, BUT in reality, in some places, hell has been broken loose for various reasons (Chicago, Detroit, Flint, South Jamaica for examples). Gangs are a big problem in this country and in some cities regardless if over crime is down. I mean yeah Park Ave, Forest Hills and Park Slope doesn’t deal with this, but South Jamaica does and do many places in the dirty SE Queens).
JOBS
TRUMP: Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed… We will bring back our jobs,” Trump said. In his speech, Trump specifically mentioned factories closing and “the millions and millions of American workers that were left behind.”
AARON RUPAR, Journalist, THINKPROGESS: But during the Obama years, the economy has actually been adding jobs each month at a steady pace: it added jobs for 75 straight months, the longest streak on record. There were 2,157,000 more jobs added over the last year, and 11,250,000 created over Obama’s presidency. The manufacturing sector has lost jobs, to the tune of 286,000 over Obama’s presidency and 3.3 million over the last decade and a half. But layoffs in the sector are happening at the lowest rate in more than a decade. Meanwhile, Trump said nothing about jobs in any other sector, even though services like health care, retail, and restaurants make up more than 80 percent of employment.
CLEAN UP JAMAICA: Trump is right about all the jobs and factories that are closed, but I don’t think he was talking about the last eight years but over decades. And as someone who grew up in a steel mill town and saw the devastation on the area during the 80’s of that, this is REAL for many Americans and nothing was wrong with using “rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation” because if one ever went to some of these areas across the country (get out of your fucking bubble), this is REALITY. Yes, jobs were created during Obama’s administration, BUT the reality is that many of these jobs were part-time and low paying jobs without benefits. And yes the unemployment rate is very low, 4.7, but many people have given up looking for work or are making much less than they did before. Bottom line there are still many people hurting, while Trump and his buddies keep getting richer and more powerful.
INFRASTRUCTURE
TRUMP: “America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay… We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation,” Trump said.
AARON RUPAR, Journalist, THINKPROGESS: Trump is right that America’s infrastructure is in terrible shape. The American Society of Civil Engineers gives the country a D+ grade on the state of its roads, bridges, waterways, schools, and other critical pieces. It also estimates it would take $3.6 trillion over the next four years to get it to decent working shape. But while Trump has talked about this problem frequently, the plan his team put forward just before the election would effectively do nothing to solve the most critical problems. Their outline called for giving private investors tax credits to help them fund projects, and those firms would then recoup their costs in profits. That requires any infrastructure project to have a ready source of income for its funders, however — such as tolls or fees — and won’t work for things like railways, schools, or levees.
CLEAN UP JAMAICA: Yes, Trump is right about our horrible infrastructure (this is something we all know anyway), BUT, BUT, BUT, when Obama wanted to pass the infrastructure bill, the asshole Republicans, like they did with so much during Obama’s term, nixed it. They put their own best interest before the countries and the American people. Talk about UN-AMERICAN.
EDUCATION
TRUMP: During his inaugural speech, Trump said the “education system” is “flush with cash,” but schools are failing anyway.
AARON RUPAR, Journalist, THINKPROGESS: What he didn’t mention, however, is the role of the states in education funding, and how that funding has fallen since the recession. A majority of the $1.15 trillion spent on education for the 2012–2013 school year came from state, local, and private sources, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Ninety-two percent of funds for elementary and secondary schools came from non-federal sources.Most states provide less funding for schools than they did before the Great Recession, according to a 2016 report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In at least 18 states, local government funding fell since 2008, and in at least 27 states, local funding went up but did not make up for past cuts. During her confirmation hearing earlier this week, Betsy DeVos, Trump’s nomination to lead the Education Department, refused to promise that she wouldn’t strip funding from public schools or allow education to be further privatized. Trump also overlooked that high school graduation rates have been on the rise for the past four years.
CLEAN UP JAMAICA: Let’s face it, our public education system is a fucking mess, especially in lower income neighborhoods and many communities of color as well. And do we really need the Department of Education. For those who don’t know, this department is not something that has been around for a long time, it was created in 1979. So all my time in public school (and got a good education (as did many) even in a mill town public school which had issues) there was no DOE. It seems that the public schools worked just fine back in the days before the creation of the DOE and got worse since it’s creation.
CRIME
TRUMP: “the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.”
AARON RUPAR, Journalist, THINKPROGESS: According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the number of homicides in the 30 largest cities increased in 2016. But Chicago gun violence specifically accounted for 43 percent of the increase. The number of homicides were down in cities with previously high levels of violent crime, including Washington, D.C., New York City, and Baltimore. The FBI’s national crime statistics have also shown a decades-long, downward crime trend. The Bureau has yet to release national crime from 2016. While violent crime rose slightly in 2015, it did not exceed the number of crimes committed five and 10 years ago. Property crime was also down. “The average person in a large urban area is safer walking on the street today than he or she would have been at almost any time in the past 30 years,” the Brennan Center wrote of 2015 crime data. “That does not mean there is not variation across cities. In some cities, murder is up. However, there is not yet sufficient evidence to conclude that these levels will persist in the future or are part of a national trend.”
CLEAN UP JAMAICA: Yes, in the overall picture, crime is down, but it still is a big problem in many areas of the country. Again, Park Ave, Park Slope or Forest Hills really does not deal with this issue, but we here in Jamaica & the dirty SE Queens do (even though most of us are not directly affected), so do folks in East New York, Brownsville, many places in the Bronx, Corona, Jackson Heights). Yes, for those in their ivory towers or with their hoods filled with artisanal cheese shops and expensive coffee houses or celebrities, it is fine and dandy, but not for others).
So we have those way over on the far conservative right painting a horrible end of days scenario of our country and Dictator Trump is the only answer. On the far left liberal other side we have those living in their expensive LIC glass towers that say, hey, everything is good ( Sure from their far left liberal bubble where they don’t have to deal with crime or tons of homeless shelters or garbage or illegal conversions and all the other shit they don’t see in “their backyard”). BUT for us regular folks, reality, REAL REALITY, surrounds us everyday from the minute we step out our too expensive places to see garbage all over and hop on an overcrowded dirty, filled with homeless, broken down subway system that by the time we get to our jobs, we are already so fucking miserable, then stir, mix and repeat. Everything is not so damn black and white and too many folks are in their own little bubble be it conservatives and liberals, or Republicans and Democrats.
I will end saying that I think Trump is a disaster and totally unfit to be in the White House, but on the other hand, give him a chance to see what he actually does (although I think the environment is FUCKED with a Trump presidency). I mean, we have never had anyone like him in office. I mean he is not really a true conservative or Republican, he is totally unpredictable and you never know where he stands on so many issues (partly because he is not a very well read person). If he totally fucks up and screws over the regular people, we toss him out next election, that is if he has not brainwashed so many of the sheeple who put him into office that even when he fucks then over, they say:
Unfortunately I do not have much faith in mankind, where too many have been brainwashed and lobotomized by the powers that be on both sides, corporations, reality TV, American Ido and self-obsessed untalented celebrities and “fake celebrities”.
But a message to my fellow liberal Democrats, time to play FUCKING HARDBALL like the Republicans always do. No time to be fucking pussies. In other words, GROW FUCKING BALLS and get DOWN AND DIRTY.
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