Deconstructing Trump’s Inaugural Address

Donald Trump boasted that he would be writing his own inaugural address (and posed for a photo allegedly writing same), and after he delivered it, I believed that boast. However, the fact is that Trump read a speech written by two of his top advisers, Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon. (No self-respecting speechwriter I know would claim authorship.)

Let us examine Trump’s words against the backdrop of what he has previously said in speeches, extemporaneous rally slogans and comments, ubiquitous Twitter remarks, and otherwise:

 “Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, fellow Americans and people of the world—thank you.” The only folks he left out were Lyin’ Hillary (and Associate Justice Clarence “High-Tech Lynching” Thomas, who swore in the Vice President). Seems egotistical to speak to the “people of the world,” who revile and abhor Trump even more than we folks here in the US.

  

“We the citizens of America have now joined a great national effort to rebuild our county and restore its promise for all our people.” America doesn’t need rebuilding, just reshaping and shoring up, not to mention fundamental fairness. And it has had plenty of promise for all the people until you, Donald, began an effort to delegitimize and frighten millions of Americans who don’t fit your vision of who US residents should look like, where they should originate from, or whom they should love. “We the citizens” loathe and despise you, Donald. With your purportedly high IQ, haven’t you figured that out yet?

  

“Together we will determine the course of America for many, many years to come.” Not if we can stop you.

“Together we will face challenges. We will confront hardships. But we will get the job done.” By stealth, lies, ignorance, fear, deceit, gaudy showmanship, and probably treason.

  

“Every four years we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power.” Otherwise we would have tarred and feathered you long ago.

“And we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent, thank you.” They were trying to keep you from breaking everything before they left town. We are all holding our breaths as you stumble through a presidency you are horrendously unprepared to fulfill.

"Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another—but transferring it from Washington DC and giving it back to you the people." We the people have always had the power, but you and your greedy billionaire cohorts think it has been your birthright to grab it and distort it for your own ends.

"For too long a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost." The small group in this country—not necessarily in the capital—who have reaped the rewards of government up until now are comprised of billionaires, lobbyists for major corporations, major air and water polluters, superbanks that are “too big to fail” even as they plunder the finances of ordinary working people, and thieving plutocrats from around the world who are investing their enormous profits in America to insulate them from seizure by their home countries.

"Washington flourished but the people did not share in its wealth." You did, and so did your friends and family, plus greedy military contractors such as Dick Cheney’s Blackwater. “Politicians prospered but the jobs left and the factories closed.” Barack Obama reversed the Republican tide and brought back millions of jobs after George W. Bush crashed the economy. Your fantasies about factories closing are in large part a figment of your tiny imagination.

"The establishment protected itself but not the citizens of our country." And you, Donald, are a card-carrying member of that establishment, lashing out at financial rivals, evicting tenants, filing business bankruptcies that affected thousands, and cutting infamous deals to cheat laborers and contractors who believed they would be fairly paid by you pursuant to their contracts.

"Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. While they have celebrated there has been little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land." And your response is to dump on struggling families even more via restricted medical care, increased mortgage insurance premiums, environmental pollution, underfunded public schools, banned reproductive health care; the list is very long.

"That all changes starting right here and right now because this moment is your moment." That isn’t a sentence. It is gibberish. “It belongs to you. It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone watching all across America today.” If only you believed your own propaganda.

"This is your day." Then why have you ignored labor, environmentalists, immigrants, the LGBT community, reproductive rights activists, and the intellectual community?

"This is your celebration. And this—the United States of America—is your country." Duh.

"What truly matters is not what party controls our government but that this government is controlled by the people." Yawn. Repetitious.

"Today, January 20, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again." The people were the rulers of America until the Republicans blocked access when Obama became President.

"The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. Everyone is listening to you now." You don’t have a clue how to listen to anyone or anything save your own selfish desires.

"You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement—the likes of which the world has never seen before." Unfortunately, the world has seen many movements like yours led by the likes of Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Sadam Hussein, Mao Zedong, Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong II, Robert Mugabe, Idi Amin, Francisco Franco, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot, and Slobodan Milosevic.

"At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction—that a nation exists to serve its citizens." That is the hope of millions of Americans, which you ignore for your own selfish and self-centered purposes.

"Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families and good jobs for themselves." Simplistic. As for jobs, you said that you would like to raise the federal minimum wage “to at least $10," but then you said wages should be set by each state.

"These are just and reasonable demands." That’s not how you described them on the campaign trail." Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation." You are unable to imagine the lives of African-Americans without picturing them in poverty in the inner cities because YOU DON’T VISIT MINORITY NEIGHBORHOODS IN INNER CITIES. Nice touch, “rusted out factories,” even if it is significantly exaggerated. And really, Donald, “like tombstones.” Truly bad metaphor. A high school student can write much better. Bigly.

"An education system flushed with cash" (flushed with cash? like a toilet?), "but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge. And the crime and the gangs and the drugs which deprive people of so much unrealized potential." You haven’t stepped foot in the inner cities and harbor a fantasy view of nonstop crime and mayhem.

"We are one nation, and their pain is our pain, their dreams are our dreams, we share one nation, one home and one glorious destiny." Gibberish.

"Today I take an oath of allegiance to all Americans. For many decades, we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry" (think Trump clothing lines, Trump hotels and condos), "subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing the sad depletion of our own military." The American military is the strongest on earth although you’ve never been to a base nor visited troops abroad nor served in the military, you hypocrite.

"Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, fellow Americans and people of the world—thank you." (Chumps.)

"We the citizens of America have now joined a great national effort to rebuild our county and restore its promise for all our people." More meaningless rhetoric.

"Together we will determine the course of America for many, many years to come." That’s what millions of people are afraid of.

"Together we will face challenges. We will confront hardships. But we will get the job done." Not if we can help it.

"Every four years we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power." But you used Russian espionage to enable you.

"And we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent, thank you." You can’t hold a candle to the Obamas.

"Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another—but transferring it from Washington DC and giving it back to you the people." Repetitious as well as incorrect.

"For too long a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost." You should know; think of all your tax subsidies that deprived New York City of millions in tax revenues.

"Washington flourished but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered but the jobs left and the factories closed." Stop repeating. You need an editor.

"The establishment protected itself but not the citizens of our country." How could they protect themselves from predators like you?

"Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. While they have celebrated there has been little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land." Boring. Repetitious. Cut.

"That all changes starting right here and right now because this moment is your moment. It belongs to you. It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone watching all across America today." More word salad.

"This is your day." And I have a bridge to sell you.

"This is your celebration.

"And this—the United States of America—is your country." How many times are you going to repeat this simplistic homily?

"What truly matters is not what party controls our government but that this government is controlled by the people." I beg to differ. Republicans plunder the government; Democrats help working people.

"Today, January 20, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again." Pardon me while I upchuck.

"The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. Everyone is listening to you now." With dread and little red hats made in China.

"You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement—the likes of which the world has never seen before." Wholesale exaggeration is an affectation. Plus you know nothing about history.

"At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction—that a nation exists to serve its citizens." Yah, Donald, it really does.

"Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families and good jobs for themselves." True, but you’re not going to help them achieve these goals.

"These are just and reasonable demands." Yawn.

"Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation." You already said this. It wasn’t true the first time either.

"An education system flushed with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge. And the crime and the gangs and the drugs which deprive people of so much unrealized potential." Your ignorance and bigotry jump off the page.

"We are one nation, and their pain is our pain, their dreams are our dreams, we share one nation, one home and one glorious destiny." Patriotic mush. How did you dream up this rhetoric?

"Today I take an oath of allegiance to all Americans. For many decades, we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries, while allowing the sad depletion of our own military." I suggest you read about the Marshall Plan and how it saved Europe after WWII. Your ignorance appalls at every phrase.

"We've defended other nations’ borders while refusing to defend our own." Sounds good but is not only false, but nonsensical.

"And spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay." Trillions and trillions? Gadzillions maybe? More exaggerations. You need to break this habit.

"We have made other countries rich while the wealth, strength and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon." I’ll bet you think this is poetry. No, Donald, it is trash.

"One by one, shutters have closed on our factories without even a thought about the millions and millions of those who have been left behind." Repetitious. Yawn.

"But that is the past and now we are looking only to the future." Yours is away from the Oval Office, preferably impeached.

"We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, in every hall of power—from this day on a new vision will govern our land—from this day onwards it is only going to be America first—America first!" That’s what Charles Lindbergh and his Nazi sympathizers said. For shame. It is time to read your first real book in half a century.

"Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families." In what century?

"Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength. I will fight for you with every bone in my body and I will never ever let you down." You’ve let the entire country, the entire world down already, and we are all dreading your every Tweet.

"America will start winning again. America will start winning like never before. Loose lips sink ships.” (This was a WWII slogan, and we’re not in a shooting war now.) “We will bring back our jobs, we will bring back our borders, we will bring back our wealth, we will bring back our dreams." We will bring back a president we can respect and trust—most decidedly not you.

"We will bring new roads and high roads” (high roads?) “and bridges and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation." Maybe you plan to use more Chinese steel?

"We will get our people off welfare and back to work—rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor." Check the statistics on welfare; those people tend to be disabled or single parents with young children.

"We will follow two simple rules—buy American and hire American." You don’t.

"We seek good will with the nations of the world but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their nations first." That way lies eternal conflict. Nations that stand together are stronger and more secure.

"We will shine for everyone to follow." Little Miss Sunshine?

"We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones" (with Russia?) "and unite the world against radical Islamic terrorism which we will eradicate from the face of the earth." You need to stop exaggerating; you can’t possibly ensure such an outcome.

"At the bed rock of our politics will be an allegiance to the United States." Lousy metaphor (one word, not two). We are already in allegiance to our country.

"And we will discover new allegiance to each other. There is no room for prejudice." You mean misogyny, racism, hatred of immigrants, the disabled, and the LGBT community, the cornerstones of your permanent campaign of hate?

"We will bring back our jobs, we will bring back our borders, we will bring back our wealth, we will bring back our dreams." We will bring back a better editor or speechwriter to keep you from running off at the mouth.

"We will bring new roads and high roads and bridges and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation." You said this already, sigh.

"We will get our people off welfare and back to work—rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor." See above.

"We will follow two simple rules—buy American and hire American." See above.

"We see good will with the nations of the world but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their nations first." Repetitious.

"We will shine for everyone to follow." This little light of mine . . .

"We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones, and untie the world against radical Islamic terrorism which we will eradicate from the face of the earth." Stop repeating yourself. Plus you don't know the difference between Shias and Sunnis.

"At the bed rock of our politics will be an allegiance to the United States." You already said this.

"And we will discover new allegiance to each other." There is no room for prejudice. Yawn.

"Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, fellow Americans and people of the world—thank you." Enough already; your audience is asleep.

"We the citizens of America have now joined a great national effort to rebuild our county and restore its promise for all our people." More word salad.

"Together we will determine the course of America for many, many years to come." Not if we can help it.

"Together we will face challenges. We will confront hardships. But we will get the job done." By filing bankruptcy?

"Every four years we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power." We hope to get rid of you a lot sooner.

"And we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent, thank you." You already said this. At least once before. You’re not in the same class as Barack Obama, a prince among men.

"Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another—but transferring it from Washington DC and giving it back to you the people." Boring.

"For too long a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost." Repetitious.

"Washington flourished but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered but the jobs left and the factories closed." You already said this.

"The establishment protected itself but not the citizens of our country." Right: you protected yourself.

"Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. While they have celebrated there has been little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land." You know NOTHING.

"That all changes starting right here and right now because this moment is your moment. It belongs to you. It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone watching all across America today." You consider this to be oratory? Yuck!

"This is your day." Yawn.

"This is your celebration." Cough.

"And this—the United States of America—is your country." Sneeze.

"What truly matters is not what party controls our government but that this government is controlled by the people." Repetitious.

"Today, January 20, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again." The Big Lie.

"The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. Everyone is listening to you now." Repetitious.

"You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement—the likes of which the world has never seen before." Gross exaggeration; read your history.

"At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction—that a nation exists to serve its citizens." But you don’t believe this.

"Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families and good jobs for themselves." Repetitious.

"These are just and reasonable demands." (I fell asleep.)

"Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation." You already said this. So many tombstones; are we in Dodge City?

"An education system flushed with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge. And the crime and the gangs and the drugs which deprive people of so much unrealized potential." Again the purple prose.

"We are one nation, and their pain is our pain, their dreams are our dreams, we share one nation, one home and one glorious destiny." Yuck!

"Today I take an oath of allegiance to all Americans. For many decades, we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries, while allowing the sad depletion of our own military." This is gobbledygook.

"We've defended other nations’ borders while refusing to defend our own." False.

"And spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay." This canard again?

"We have made other countries rich while the wealth, strength and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon." More word salad.

"One by one, shutters have closed on our factories without even a thought about the millions and millions of those who have been left behind." Shutters don’t have thoughts!

"But that is the past and now we are looking only to the future." We hope your future is not in the Oval Office.

"We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, in every hall of power—from this day on a new vision will govern our land—from this day onwards it is only going to be America first—America first!" You want to bet on it?

"Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families." Puleeze.

"Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength. I will fight for you with every bone in my body and I will never ever let you down." Every bone?

"America will start winning again. America will start winning like never before." Like the students at Trump University?

"We will bring back our jobs, we will bring back our borders, we will bring back our wealth, we will bring back our dreams." We will bring back a competent president.

"We will bring new roads and high roads and bridges and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation." Repetitious.

"We will get our people off welfare and back to work—rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor." Like the H-2B workers you hire for Mar-a-Lago?

"We will follow two simple rules—buy American and hire American." Like Trump Tower constructed with the help of 200 undocumented Polish workers and Trump International Hotel near the White House just constructed with the help of 15 undocumented Mexican laborers?

"We see good will with the nations of the world but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their nations first." That way lies fascism.

"We will shine for everyone to follow." This little light of mine.

"We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones, and untie the world against radical Islamic terrorism which we will eradicate from the face of the earth." This again?

"At the bed rock of our politics will be an allegiance to the United States." I pledge allegiance. 

"And we will discover new allegiance to each other. There is no room for prejudice." Then why are you wallowing in prejudice of all kinds?

"The bible tells us how good and pleasant it is when god’s people live together in unity." Since when have you been reading the Bible?

"When America is united, America is totally unstoppable." Except by a nuclear warhead from Russia or North Korea.

"There is no fear, we are protected and will always be protected by the great men and women of our military and most importantly we will be protected by god." When did you find religion, Mr. Draft Dodger?

"Finally, we must think big and dream even bigger. As Americans, we know we live as a nation only when it is striving." Huh?

"We will no longer accept politicians who are always complaining but never doing anything about it." Lock Him Up!

"The time for empty talk is over, now arrives the hour of action." Run-on sentence.

"Do not allow anyone to tell you it cannot be done. No challenge can match the heart and fight and spirit of America. We will not fail, our country will thrive and prosper again." You appear to be plagiarizing. And you keep using run-on sentences.

"We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the earth from the miseries of disease, to harvest the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow." Duh, the New Millennium began 17 years ago. So tell me, Mr. Trump, what’s your take on climate change and evolution?

"A new national pride will stir ourselves, lift our sights and heal our divisions. It’s time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget, that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots." A new national pride will stir us, not ourselves. You’ll never bleed the blood of patriots (I doubt you have any blood).

"We all enjoy the same glorious freedoms and we all salute the same great American flag and whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look at the same night sky, and dream the same dreams, and they are infused with the breath by the same almighty creator." Constant Reader frows up.

"So to all Americans in every city near and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, from ocean to ocean—hear these words—you will never be ignored again." Is this verbiage a bad joke?

"Your voice, your hopes and dreams will define your American destiny." We fervently pray that your destiny is to vacate the Oval Office pronto.

"Your courage, goodness and love will forever guide us along the way." What bad prayer book are you cribbing from now?

"Together we will make America strong again, we will make America wealthy again, we will make America safe again and yes—together we will make America great again." The country is only as great as its leaders, and you, Mr. Trump, are no more than a doppelgänger, a pustule on the American backside, a dirty joke.

"Thank you.

"God bless you.

"And god bless America."

Dear Donald: This speech is full of plagiarized language, lame truisms, repetition, and trite images. It has also not been fact-checked. It is MUCH TOO LONG. You need to enroll in remedial English 101.

Overall grade: D –

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Donnie . . .

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Donald John Trump.

He lived with his mother, father, two brothers, and two sisters in a large house in Jamaica Estates in the Borough of Queens in New York City, a house that was graced with four white columns and twenty-three rooms. It was a status symbol for elegant living with a housekeeper, a cook, a chauffeur, and even an intercom system.

A child who was four years younger than Donald was once left in a playpen in a back yard adjoining that of the Trump family, and the younger boy’s mother returned to find Donald throwing rocks at the little boy. Trump was using the playpen for target practice. He showed no remorse.

Donald was a child who never took “no” for an answer. When he was a second-grader he gave his music teacher a black eye because Trump “didn’t think he knew anything about music.” He was nearly expelled.

His nicknames around the neighborhood were “Donny,” “The Trumpet,” and “Flat Top” (for his hair). “In his neighborhood, Donald and his friends were known to ride their bikes and ‘shout and curse very loudly,’ said Steve Nachtigall, who lived nearby. Nachtigall said he once saw them jump off their bikes and beat up another boy.”

One of Trump’s schoolmates recalls that, “When that kid was 10, even then he was a little s---.”

The Child is Father to the Man. Many people would currently characterize big Donnie as a big s---.

Young Donald “commanded attention with his playground taunts, classroom disruptions and distinctive countenance, [and] even then his lips pursed in a way that would inspire future mimics.” Oh Donald, we hardly knew ye.

He has said he hasn’t changed since the first grade. (That’s when he was age six.)

For example, little Donnie refused to acknowledge mistakes, even one so trivial as misidentifying a popular professional wrestler.

His seventh-grade teacher remembers Trump as follows: “He was headstrong and determined. He would sit with his arms folded with this look on his face—I use the word surly—almost daring you to say one thing or another that wouldn’t settle with him.”

When he was sent off to military school at age thirteen—in effect banished from the family home because he was nearly out of control—he tried to push a fellow cadet out a second-floor window during a fight, but was stopped when two other students intervened.

“To his [military school] classmates, Trump was a blend of friendly and cocky. He boasted that his father’s wealth doubled every time he completed a real estate deal.”

Trump is being ridiculed around the world, not just in the U.S. by Alex Baldwin on Saturday Night Live (resulting in repeated Tweets by Trump to denigrate the actor). And the ridicule went global some time ago, with a variety of comedians in fright wigs pontificating in a number of other countries, one of whom is hawking “Trump Finger Tampons.”

Political cartoonists are having a field day.

Since the election it has been revealed that Trump paid nearly $12.5 million to his own businesses and family members during his eighteen-month campaign for president, as indicated in mandatory campaign spending reports. These payments, especially $8.7 million to Tag-Air Inc. to operate his airlines, are apparently legal.

We flock to Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York City to protest, carry signs, and remind Donald that he is Not Our President. I doubt Trump reads these signs.

He stays up late devising new and surprising messages by using his Samsung cell phone on that most presidential of media, Twitter. (He has failed to hold a news conference for about six months and rarely sits for actual media interviews that record his responses audibly and even visually, including his body language.) This less than august mode of one-person communicating without feedback by a president-elect also brashly and snidely attempts to upstage the actual current occupant of the Oval Office, one President Barack Obama.

Trump was named Person of the Year by Time Magazine, or “President of the Divided States of America.” In the cover Trump poses in a raggedy upholstered chair with a sinister glare over his shoulder (the once stylish chair, like the marble and gold of Trump Tower, represents decadence morphing into disrepute). “For reminding America that demagoguery feeds on despair and that truth is only as powerful as the trust in those who speak it, for empowering a hidden electorate by mainstreaming its furies and live-streaming its fears, and for framing tomorrow’s political culture by demolishing yesterday’s, Donald Trump is TIME’s 2016 Person of the Year.” Nancy Gibbs, “The Choice.” Trump appeared to believe this was an honor.

Trump has spent his life concentrating on Himself, and believes that the world will be enthralled with his comments on such topics as:

— The Donald J. Trump Foundation’s demise at the hands of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (for making distributions for non-charitable reasons using other people’s money);

— Trump’s characterization of the United Nations as a “club for people to have a good time” even as the U.N. has been considering the legality of new construction of Israeli West Bank settlements and other countries have condemned this conduct;

— Trump’s assessment of his impact on the mood and financial status of the global economy: “The world was gloomy before I won—there was no hope. And now the market is up nearly 10% and Christmas spending is over a trillion dollars!”

— Trump’s exaggerated excuse for his pitiful performance at the three televised debates with Hillary Clinton: “Are we talking about the same cyber attack where it was revealed that head of the DNC illegally gave Hillary the questions to the debate?”

— Trump’s boasting whoppers about his November victory: “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”

The poet James Whitcomb Riley once wrote:

“Little Orphant Annie’s come to our house to stay,

“An’ wash the cups and saucers up, an’ brush the crumbs away,

“An’ shoo the chickens off the porch, an’ dust the hearth, an’ sweep,

“An’ make the fire, an’ bake the bread, an’ earn her board-an’-keep;

“An’ all us other children, when the supper things is done,

‘We set around the kitchen fire an’ has the mostest fun

“A-list’nin to the witch-tales ’at Annie tells about,

“An’ the Gobble-uns ’at gits you

            “Ef you

                        “Don’t

                                    “Watch

                                                “Out!

“Onc’t they was a little boy would n’t say his pray’rs—

“An’ when he went to bed at night, away up stairs,

“His mamy heerd him holler, an’ his daddy heerd him bawl,

“An’ when they turn’t the kivvers down, he was n’t there at all!

“An’ they seeked him in the rafter-room, an’ cubby-hole, an’ press,

“An’ seeked him up the chimbly-flue, an’ every’wheres, I guess;

“But all they ever found was thist his pants an’ roundabout!

“An’ the Gobble-uns ’ll git you

            “Ef you

                        “Don’t

                                    “Watch

                                                “Out!”

A fitting end for Little Donnie?

Donald Trump Triumphs as The Lady Weeps

Lady Liberty is weeping today as the 240-year-old grand experiment with democratic greatness that is the United States of America has crashed and burned in the person of a foul-mouthed con artist who will now have the power to steer the ship of state.

“What can they have been thinking?” we all ask each other of the voters who cast their ballots for Donald Trump. “Don’t they know what will happen next?” “Don’t they have any sense of history?” Jackboots persistently march through our memories and we cringe.

Alas, too many Americans do not understand the ramifications of voting a narcissistic megalomaniac into the highest office, the Presidency, but somehow think they have “won.”

No, Trump voters, we have all lost. Your minions in particular.

Bigly.

Trump will do nothing to help his struggling white male voters regain their sense of worth and their value in the marketplace. But they won’t learn this until it is much too late.

And The Donald cemented his victory with—what else?—a tweet:

“Such a beautiful and important evening! The forgotten man and woman will never be forgotten again. We will all come together as never before.”

No, Donald, we will not all come together as never before. You have torn us asunder as never before. You have conquered the country, and the world is horrified at the wreckage you have left in your wake. Your campaign was modeled on the Red-baiting consigliere Roy Cohn approach to problem-solving: “Asked about Mr. Cohn in 1980, Mr. Trump was blunt in his assessment: ‘He’s been vicious to others in his protection of me.’”

Stephen King succinctly summed up the results: “No more book recommendations, politics, or amusing dog pictures for the immediate future. I'm shutting down.”

And Trump supporter and former Imperial Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan David Duke messaged: “GOD BLESS WIKILEAKS.” If Leaker-in-Chief Julian Assange was previously thought by some to be disloyal, he is now reviled by a substantial number of people for his—and his Russian confederates’—malicious interference in the American election. Assange is nothing less than a traitor.

And let us not forget the pinpoint precision of James B. Comey, disgraced Director of the FBI, who brushed off stern warnings from the Department of Justice to keep his mouth shut and instead tilted the playing field for Trump with breathtaking audacity when he made his late-October announcement about yet more phony Clinton email misconduct.

My mother, who died five years ago at the age of 92, was the child of Eastern European immigrants, a young pre-war bride when she first voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She married in haste so that my father would not be eligible for the new military draft that was imposed more than a year prior to Pearl Harbor—and he ultimately served in the Navy with distinction. She lived through the Second World War with its courage and self-sacrifice, the sinister McCarthy years, the stultifyingly boring post-war Fifties with their coercive uniform codes of conduct, the upheavals and reforms of the Sixties, the dawn of the electronic era, into the new millennium, and the election of the first black president with all that followed in the wake of these developments.

She welcomed that new millennium, never afraid to go forward. She always voted Democratic and eventually convinced my father to do the same. She tried not to follow the herd but taught me and my siblings to think for ourselves. In her own quiet, nonadversarial way she announced that she alone would decide what manner of living was moral and ethical and right—and what was most decidedly not.

In her selfless, understated style she personified the Lady with the Lamp. No Trump herd could ever have swayed her. No chants of “lock her up” would ever have turned her against the public servant we thought would be the first woman elected president. She would never have permitted such careless disregard for the truth to have changed her mind. She knew the power of lies that, when repeated enough times, accumulate gravity and power. She would have railed against those vile lies that misrepresented the conduct of the only qualified nominee for President in November 2016, Hillary Clinton.

My mother would have been appalled by the very idea of a Donald Trump in the White House, horrified, incredulous, speechless.

I am glad she never lived to see this day. It would have prostrated her with grief.

As many of us in these United States are this morning.

My mother was a teacher, and she knew the power of persuasion for good and for evil. This year in America, evil has triumphed.

God save the Republic.

Living While Female in Donald Trump’s America

It is time to blow up fantasies about what it is like to go through life in female form in Donald Trump’s America.

It isn’t sexy.

It isn’t fun.

It isn’t easy.

And it often isn’t safe.

I am now a woman in her senior years, and I think back on the incidents in my life, my fairly ordinary middle-class life lived in three different states, and how they have helped formed my consciousness as a woman.

To travel back down the memory lane of sexism and rape culture, I recall the following:

When I was eleven, a close male relative shared a bedroom with me one night when a family house guest was given my bedroom. My thirteen-year-old relative stripped me in my bed, groped me all over, and tried to persuade me to do the same for him. I was afraid to protest, but I refused to reciprocate and, mercifully, he then hesitated and left me alone for the rest of the night. Decades later I recalled the repressed event and told a female relative, whose response was, “You must have been playing doctor.” Nope, no way, no how.

When I was about eleven I was called over to a vehicle parked on the street next to my family’s suburban residence. The middle-aged male driver asked me if I wanted to see “something funny,” and he removed a newspaper from his erect penis which was propped up on the steering wheel. Thoroughly frightened, I ran back to the house and told my father, who called the police, but the man had driven off by the time they arrived.

When I was sixteen my then-boyfriend put his hands into my panties and tried clumsily to arouse me. I was a virgin. He said his buddies had consulted together and recommended this plan of action. He was not embarrassed to make this confession. He became a rabbi.

When I was seventeen I was on a class trip to New York City, and in the subway a man started rubbing his erect penis against my body in a crowded train. An astute female classmate understood what was happening and pulled me away from the attacker. I was bewildered.

When I was eighteen I was “pinned” to a fellow college student who was nuts about me. His fraternity brother, who had wanted to date me, spread the rumor that I was “putting out” for my boyfriend. I was still a virgin.

When I was twenty-one and temporarily substitute teaching in New York City in a Lower East Side junior high school, a group of teen-age boys began to surround me in my classroom after school was dismissed for the day. As they backed me into a corner and I feared the worst, another teacher entered my classroom and the boys scattered. I was close to tears and limp with relief. I didn’t teach again for seventeen years.

When I was about twenty-six and still living in New York City, I was ascending the stairs to an elevated subway when three adolescent boys slid down the banister next to me, the first groping my thighs and crotch under my skirt, the second watching with curiosity, and the third ducking as I raised my umbrella in fury.

When I was twenty-eight and temporarily living with an actor—who was also a special FBI agent—in an island summer getaway, he was especially obnoxious to me. So I slapped him. In response he punched me in the face, and I saw stars. The. Only. Time. Ever.

When I was twenty-nine or thirty and walking home from law school classes along an urban park next to a busy multilane roadway at sunset, I was stalked by four adolescent males, who were gaining on me as we approached the entrance to the dense grassy park. I ran out into four lanes of rush-hour traffic—barely escaping being run over—to dodge my pursuers. I have no doubt that otherwise I would have been gang-raped. When I reached a nearby sidewalk I told another woman what was occurring, and she grabbed my arm, turned me 180 degrees, and fast-walked me to safety.

When I was about thirty-two and appearing in a lower state court on behalf of a litigant, the sitting judge asked me sarcastically in open court if I were “a Miss, a Mrs, or a Msssss or whatever.”

When I was about thirty-five and eating lunch at a local bar and grill during a break from court, a married lawyer who had previously made several passes at me—which I had ignored—finally asked loudly from the other end of the bar, “Are you a lesbian or what?”

When I was thirty-seven and representing a group of investors and entrepreneurs who were seeking issuance of an FCC license to operate an FM radio station, and had been able to ascertain and notify the FCC that a competing group had failed to disclose the identity of all its board members (whom I listed), I received an anonymous telephone call from a man who threatened, “I will kill you, bitch.”

When I was forty-five and handling a real estate closing on behalf of the sellers, the attorney for the buyers, who had already cursed at me over the telephone prior to the closing, came over to me in the presence of two other male attorneys, the buyers, the sellers, and two realtors and called me, twice, sotto voce, a “fucking cunt.”

When I was about forty-seven and trying to resolve a divorce case on behalf of a wife regarding custody without a lengthy trial that neither party could afford, I went to the probate court records archive, the only private space available during a break in the proceedings, to try to work out a compromise with opposing counsel—an older married man who was at least six feet tall. He backed me up against a concrete wall, inches away. “Leonard,” I protested without missing a beat, “you’re in my personal space.” And Leonard slowly moved back as I resumed talking about the case.

As I continued to represent the same wife in her divorce proceedings, her estranged husband on two occasions came to my combined residence and office, after dark, when the lights were on in my house, and vandalized the professional shingle attached to a post in the front yard. This same man was later tried and convicted on child rape charges, fled the state, and was arrested and imprisoned in another jurisdiction after a shootout with law enforcement. He had been a suspect in the unsolved disappearance and presumed murder of a young woman in the original state some years previously.

When I was about fifty and participating in the taking of a witness deposition in a matrimonial matter, opposing male counsel began cursing at me on the record, and the deposition was continued to another date.

When I was fifty-one and representing a wife in a divorce proceeding, her estranged husband sent an anonymous note to about fifty attorneys who practiced in my community which featured a drawing of a witch on a broomstick and recited that it was in my “honor” for my “dedication to legal ethics, justice, truth, brevity, courtesy to all, and fair play.” It further stated that “If Assholes Could Fly, [my address] Would be an Airport!”

When I was about fifty-five and living and working in New York City, I was on a packed commuter subway when a young man got on next to me. Within seconds after the doors closed he began rubbing against me with an erect penis. I drew back a fraction of an inch and gasped, unable to move away from him in the crowded car. He then ceased, and at the next stop, before I had the presence of mind to alert anyone else on the train, he ran off.

When I was about sixty and traveling on a New York City subway, a man began openly masturbating a few feet away. Others have done this on numerous subsequent occasions although they generally attempt to mask their actions under jackets or other clothing.

When I was in my sixties on another New York City subway, three or four pubescent boys began harassing and threatening me verbally until an older man about my age shamed the boys by scolding them that they wouldn’t like it if someone treated their mothers like they were treating me. The boys reluctantly quit their campaign.

And these memories are only the ones I can clearly recall. Others flit by in fragments.

Life in America among the boys. The ones who never grow up.