forging ahead
. . . WE DID IT! President Fuckwit is no longer the president. He's basically fled to Florida with his tail between his legs—of course, not without pardoning Steve Bannon and countless other slugs like him. Whatever. This man is so vile it's a relief no matter what he did yesterday. He's gone, he's gone, he's gone.
To be honest, the greatest relief was just when he was de-platformed from social media. His accounts should have been suspended ages ago, but Twitter in particular kept coming back with this bullshit line about "public interest" being the reason they would not suspend the president for countless things for which they constantly suspend regular users. If they'd actually held him accountable, to the same standard as regular users (and how insane is it that their argument is that because he was the president, he was held to a lower standard than regular users!), the siege on the Capitol almost certain would never have happened.
This is a guy who became the first president ever impeached twice. And he will also be the first to face impeachment trial after he has left office. I remain resolute in the opinion that the second impeachment should be gone through with no matter how long it takes. The importance of denying him the right to run for office again cannot be overstated, not to mention the removal of his security detail and an annual allowance he absolutely does not need.
So, this morning, I watched the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris—the latter now being the highest-ranking woman ever in federal office. She didn't make it quite as far as Hillary Clinton was attempting but she made it farther than any other woman has managed. I think there is a fair chance Biden will not seek a second term just due to his age, but that really depends on a host of factors, and it may be less of an issue if he remains as lucid then as he is now. Whether they feel the country is ready to elect Kamala as the first woman president (not to mention the first woman of color) will really depend on the tone in the country four years from now.
What an emotional blow 2016 was, what dread we all had, and how much worse the following four years turned out to be than people even imagined. I lost patience with some of the histrionics myself after the 2016 election, and I still feel like getting to work is more effective than wallowing in disappointment. That's history now, though. The President Fuckwit Era is history. It honestly bugs me that he'll continued to be called "President Trump" for the rest of his life, but there's some satisfaction in the knowledge of his status as an absolute outcast among all former presidents. Bush and Clinton did not attend the last inauguration, but they returned for this one. Carter would have but in the covid era he's just way too old for the risks involved.
For the record I still also think Bush is vile as well. The key difference is, even though I spent eight years thinking of him as an idiot, President Fuckwit's intellectual capacity, or lack thereof, makes Bush look like Einstein. At least Bush understood how government and politics actually work.
And I have to say this: Biden was always my second-to-last choice in the Democratic primaries, but he continues to endear himself to me. Time will tell whether or to what degree that continues, but not only does today bring immense relief, I feel more hopeful than I have since the day before the 2016 election.
I have zero hope that we'll get out of the catastrophic effects of climate change, just to be clear. That ship has sailed, and Democrats are hardly less to blame. But, I do feel hopeful now that what is inevitable at this point, will be mitigated to at least some degree. A second term with President Fuckwit would only have actively made it worse. That fuck stick literally blamed Californians for their wildfires while actively withholding any federal aid. Oh my god I loathe that man.
It's also scary to consider where we go from here when 75 million people voted for President Fuckwit this last time around—even more than voted for him in 2016, which is objectively insane. That alone indicates a bumpy road ahead. But, I really think the biggest thing was just getting him off of Twitter. He whipped all the many dipshits in this country into a frenzy of completely unearned entitlement complexes, and I suspect he'll be far less successful at that without the bullhorn of social media. We just have to be careful not to let yet another person hell bent on growing a cult of personality come along in our lifetimes.
It does make a difference that Biden has been in Washington (D.C.) for forty years. President Fuckwit ran on the quite-wrong idea that his being a complete outsider was an asset, then came in and alienated everyone around him for four years. They all know Biden, though. Even people who hold opposing ideological views actually respect him. That kind of thing goes a long, long way, and actually gives Biden a lot more to work with than far too many alarmist leftists give him credit for. I like the guy. And I like Kamala Harris too.
I mean, for now. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. But I'm also not going to declare them enemies if they don't do everything I want them to. News flash! That's not how life works.
What did I do last night? Shobhit took the day off and made two large pots of sambar; I had that for dinner while watching a couple more episodes of Pretend It's a City on Netflix, while Shobhit attended his online project management class. That ended at 8:00 and then we watched Joy Reid's hour-long interview with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—another one vilified by people on the left as well as the right, which is again insane. It was a very good interview. And I'm with Shobhit now, regarding his opposition to Congressional term limits. Only the people there for the long haul have a real understanding of how to craft policy that sticks. Of course, the downside of that is people like Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz. It's still better than winding up with an entire Congress of rookies who can never get the experience needed to learn the makings of long-lasting legislation.
Shobhit also pointed out that now the first and second in the line of succession are women, which is pretty fucking awesome. Once the Senate confirms Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary, she will be fifth in line as well. And then Shobhit started on conjecture as to who might wind up President Pro Tempore of the Senate, which is the position in third, and there's some chance that one could wind up a woman as well. But, evidently we haven't gotten clarify on that just yet.
Biden has a lot of work ahead of him, and I honestly think he'll be remarkably productive in his first 100 days. Hell, his first day, which is expected to include many executive orders reversing a host of insane executive orders by President Fuckwit. But, once new leadership is fully installed, I honestly think the organization and efficiency of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout will increase noticeably, if not necessarily remarkably (though the latter would not surprise me either).
Last thing today: I just got off the weekly Office Lunch Meetup on Zoom, and we had seven people again this week! And a slightly different group, as well—most were regulars: Rebecca, Noah, Katherine (who has attended three weeks in a row now, a first for her), myself. This week we also got Andrew back again, who is consistently intermittent; also Michelle returned for the second week in a row (also a fist for her); and for the second time ever, Jennifer B. Jennifer had us on her phone propped on her dashboard while she was driving. She explained she had been wanting to join for weeks and figured this was a way she could do it.
There was a lot of talk about how great this morning was, all the relief we were all feeling, and how Joe Biden has managed to endear himself to us after being so low on many of our priority lists in the primaries. It's nice to be feeling optimistic about things for once.
[posted 1:02 pm]