What do you get when you replace a brain surgeon with a chiropractor, or the pilot of a B-1 bomber with a school bus driver? Well, you get Donald Trump trying to be the leader of the free world. It’s been less than two weeks, but it’s been as incessantly awful as the year and a half since he declared for president. Not just in New York, where the tragedy’s first act is playing out to disbelieving reviews in this scheduled five-act play, barring re-election, but here.
Going around town on assignments I run into the usual suspects who, being all Republicans, pat me on the head in that good-doggy fashion and say, it’ll be all right. I’m not sure what reality show they’ve been watching, but it ain’t been the one playing out before our eyes right now. We need only look at the Trump Tower follies. Even if you look past his return to twittering like a teen-age gossip, his bashing reporters or a theater troupe or SNL or his making late-night getaways to posh restaurants as if he were a celebrity evading paparazzi, you’re left with his decisions. These now matter.
The head-patting wisdom was all about how he’d surround himself with a sound cabinet and advisers. There goes that theory. There’s the appointment of Steve Bannon, that crypto-fascist bigot, as Trump’s “chief strategist.” There’s the possible appointment of Giuliani as secretary of state and chief diplomat, though his idea of diplomacy is a Flatbush beating and his conflicts of interest around the world make the Clintons’ look like those of an overambitious middle school booster club. An Alternate would be John Bolton, the original lyricist of bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb-bomb Iran, though Saturday Trump’s meeting with Mitt Romney made all us liberals realize how much we’ve fallen to Stockholm Syndrome: here we are cheering and pleading for a Romney appointment as if he could be our lord and savior.
There’s the actual nomination of that troika of Stangeloves, Jeff Sessions, the Alabama senator who’d be best man at Bannon’s marriage to the alt-right, as attorney general, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn on the national security staff and U.S. Rep Mike Pompeo as CIA chief. There’s Myron Ebell as possible head of the Environmental Protection Agency, though his bank account is all fossil-fuel ingots from global-warming deniers. There’s even the trial-balloon teasing about Sarah Palin as head of Interior because, as the New York Times, that shameless purveyor of fake news, put it, “Mr. Trump loves the tension and drama of a selection process, and has sought to stoke it.”
There’s an in-your-face quality to it all, intentional and triumphant, as with any reversal of roles in an insane asylum. The disbelieving reviews are a joke, too–those plaintive, pleading editorials, this one among them, written as if they could affect a single synapse’s direction in Trump’s tower after an election that saw all but something like three newspapers and magazines around the globe endorse Clinton, or plead against Trump. It made no difference. The press’ influence, such as it was, is dead, displaced by the echo chambers of fake news and trolls, whose dogma-proteined mercenaries begin foaming at the slimmest point of view that doesn’t fit their narrative. (See the comment section below.)
I keep reading that the press didn’t do its job. I disagree. This was the most fact-checked campaign in history. We knew pretty much all there was to know about both candidates to make informed decisions. And it’s not as if Trump takes after obscure post-modernist French intellectuals who need armies of academic translators to figure out what he’s saying. He’s not into big policy statements or overarching visions, at least none that won’t fit on a baseball cap or a pick-up’s bumper. He’s a pretty straight-forward guy. Too straight-forward, is what his aides kept telling him during the campaign. Anything he says is easily understood by the average 8 year old, and usually relatable to the average adolescent. Build a wall. Bomb ISIS. Repeal Obamacare. Check his birth certificate. Grab that pussy. It doesn’t get more complicated than that. So it’s as easy to fact-check as, say, whether the wheels on the bus go round and round. And when the fact-checkers get to work, they find that he lies about 70 percent of the time. That’s not an opinion. It’s not fiction. It’s fact, verified, documented, easily linked.
But facts are irrelevant anymore. Donald Trump is the post-modernist president to whom facts are themselves constructions of his own desires. There is no “truth.” No evidence, no documentation (there weren’t even any tax returns). There’s only what he says and what you want to hear. It works. It got him elected. Why change? So press outlets these days are like those minuscule Democratic majorities in so many state legislatures, Florida’s among them. They exist, but as ornaments, a bit like the pretenses of republican democracy when the Roman republic was in hospice care, before Caesar put it out of its misery. We assume it won’t come to that and even smoggy cynicism won’t let me go that far. But this has been year of assumptions lined up and guillotined one after the other. There’s no reason to think it should suddenly stop now just because we—by which I mean you who elected Trump—must live with the consequences of an act even many of his followers never thought would lead to a Trump presidency.
That’s why the hollow ring of phrases like “it’ll be all right” (the jarring rhyme with it’ll be alt-right aside). All we need is the present and the recent past, the last few weeks at most, to know the direction of the next few years. And if you can still tell me with a straight face that it will be all right, then I salute you: your kind of optimism must be a new discovery on the periodic table, right there between Americium and Plutonium. That still won’t change the 140-character quackery in control of our fate.
Pierre Tristam is FlaglerLive’s editor. Reach him by email here or follow him @PierreTristam. A version of this piece aired on WNZF.
Anonymous says
You just can’t handle the fact your girl lost. Now is the time for ALL
Americans to stand behind OUR president!
Don’t worry he can’t do worse than our last “leader”.
Veteran says
Why don’t you quit prognosticating and give the man and his crew 6 months in office. The bashing of Trump by the media and democrats is not helping this country!
Mark says
Your rants are going downhill Pierre. He hasn’t grabbed you yet. He is going to drain the swamp and there is nothing you can do about it. Haha!
Jim's says
When a true genius appears in the world you’ll know him by this sign: the dunces are in confederacy against him! J. Swift
So, Piierre? Rally thy dunces!
Josh Davis says
Interesting that no one was this worried about political experience when a one term Senator was elected 8 short years ago…
Sw says
Look he isnt even in office yet. He won . Get over it. I didnt vote for him either. He may go down as the best ever. Who knows….
Ws says
It will be all right buttercups! Anything will be better than the last 8 years.
Anonymous says
FYI – The winner gets to do what they want, remember when Obama told the media Republicans had to “sit in the back” because we won? Liberals will have to lick their wounds for at least the next 4 years and depending on how Liberals continue to act maybe even 8 – 12 – 16 years. Liberals insisting/assuming they know what is best and how everyone MUST think like them was their down fall in 2016, I’m surprised many Liberals (media) seem unwilling to adjust their stance. I suggest they do, that is the best thing Liberals could do for America right now.
DaveT says
You know Pierre, it gets really old with this same old same old the world is ending doom you have been writing or preaching in your private news journal since Trump announced his candidacy but man, the guy won. We have got to hope it works out for America. Nothing you can do or write about is going to change the way America will be governed. The only way your idea’s and beliefs will mater is that you need to run for office any office and try to change something that matters to you and hopefully to those you could represent. . You write and good piece but your views didn’t sway the voters of Flagler County. Like a few have noted. Time to move one, Hillary didn’t make it to the big dance, now its time to support who we got, the best of the worst, deal with it. .
Pierre Tristam says
DaveT, you’re misunderstanding the point of dissent, or the point of journalism–or conviction, for that matter. After 9/11 when Bush got the entire country to fall in line and declare war on half the Mideast I did not “move on” and fall in line: I considered him a megalomaniacal nut case and wrote these endlessly whiny pieces one after the other. That was back when the News-Journal wasn’t yet owned by a reactionary gang of click-baiters who wrap every other line in flag and commerce. It took about six years and untold mass graves for the rest of the media and country to catch up, but they did, as you saw from the disastrous end of a disastrous tenure. Rest assured, I’m not “moving on” now. You may be comfortable with a totalitarian mindset of ideas. I’m not. And clearly from your history of comments you’re not as obtuse as that and should be the first to know where I’m coming from (which is why I’m addressing you and not some of these more Pavlovian trolls in here). That I respect the presidency doesn’t mean that I have to respect the man demeaning it and us. So put simply, the last thing I’m doing is moving on, moving to Canada, or shutting up in our mutual backyards. I’m just getting started, though I pity the opposition: it’s already not a fair fight. And if you think the only thing that matters is who wields power, then clearly you have no idea how lopsided the fight is between all those forces wanting us all to shut up and patriotically take it in the ass and, say, what a few whiny lines from a Birmingham jail still mean to those who see more than submission in our future.
Anonymous says
I predict Trump won’t last four years. He will be impeached by the Left if he threatens to drag us down the Neo-Conservative rabbit hole and impeached by the Right if he refuses to do so. Or, maybe he will “step-aside” if the heat from the kitchen gets to be too hot, the way he just settled his Trump University lawsuit, despite his vow to win the case or die trying. Look at who Trump is surrounding himself with. THOSE are the people who are running our government now and will be for the next four years, despite anything Trump, himself, may or may not do–or try to do. The ultimate joke? All that hay the Republicans tried to make out of Bill Clinton’s sexual picadellos, even though it was Hillary Clinton running for political office, not Bill Clinton. And now, Guiliani for Attorney general? He was caught up in a call-girl scandal not too long ago, as I recall The hypocrisy of the Right is astounding in both its depth and its breadth. We must be the laughing-stock of the world! We’ve already become the willing lapdogs of Russia. And all they had to do was throw a few juicy political “milkbones” our way to feed our insatiable bigotry and misogyny.
Merrill Shapiro says
Great piece, Pierre! Happy Birthday!
Here’s a reading list for those who disagree with you!
^ Rick Steves. Rick Steves’ Snapshot Munich, Bavaria & Salzburg. Berkeley, California, USA; New York, New York, USA: Avalon Travel, 2010. p. 28. “Though the Nazis eventually gained power in Berlin, they remembered their roots, dubbing Munich “Capital of the Movement”. The Nazi headquarters stood near today’s obelisk on Brienner Strasse…”
^ a b McNab, Chris (2011). Hitler’s Master Plan, Amber Books Ltd. pp. 22, 23. ISBN 1-907446-96-6
^ Davidson, Eugene. The Making of Adolf Hitler: The Birth and Rise of Nazism. University of Missouri Press. p. 241.
^ Orlow, Dietrich. The Nazi Party 1919–1945: A Complete History. Enigma Books. p. 29.
^ German Imperial colours
^ Thomas D. Grant. Stormtroopers and Crisis in the Nazi Movement: Activism, Ideology and Dissolution. London, England, UK; New York, New York, US: Routledge, 2004. pp. 30–34, 44.
^ Otis C. Mitchell. Hitler’s Stormtroopers and the Attack on the German Republic, 1919–1933. Jefferson, North Carolina, USA: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2008. p. 47.
^ Frank McDonough. Hitler and the Rise of the Nazi Party. Pearson/Longman, 2003. p. 64.
^ Michael Wildt (15 July 2012). Hitler’s Volksgemeinschaft and the Dynamics of Racial Exclusion: Violence Against Jews in Provincial Germany, 1919–1939. Berghahn Books. pp. 96–97. ISBN 978-0-85745-322-8.
^ Simone Gigliotti, Berel Lang. The Holocaust: a reader. Malden, Massachusetts, USA; Oxford, England, UK; Carlton, Victoria, Australia: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. p. 14.
^ Arendt, Hannah. The Origins of Totalitarianism. London; New York; San Diego: Harvest Book. p. 306.
Cuban joe says
Pierre this is flagler,most of the people here are suppresed ,racists most of German decent,from our clerk of court .to those in office all Europeans. If not red necks galore.The thing is trump stands for the privileged. The corrupt the do me a favor and I’ll get you a job class.From our judges down. No one is more entitled than them.From the workers at serve pro to the city council to intracoastal bank and I would say 40 percent of sheriff’s office.This presidency has ebolded them.Now old friends will show their colors. Ethics commision violation after violation.No one prosecutes no one looks into anything.It’s the status quo.I hope and I pray for all of us disenfranchised immigrants,blacks,low income familys.Because now the Doj will do even less.What’s on the recordings kimberle weeks made?No one has asked that question?Only was it proper for her to make them.What was on those recordings and what would worry her so our supervisor of elections?That she had to record I have tried to fight corruption ,racism in this town only to have them rip my life apart so just stay sit and play nice or theyll eat you whole. And as you said to me on the phone it’s you’re business and you have to protect it .You as a journalist “are the weak the hungry the tired”.I hope you see that to them your just a Sand n***.I’m just a spick.The powerful the wealthy and the white government job holding middle class rule palmcoast…st Aug. …daytona ,Jacksonville ,and everything in between. Barely able to rember what they had for lunch but holding public offices ,jobs in our court house ,sheriffs dep.These racists,slash,wanna be rich aristafools will now triple time abuse their powers.Get digital scanner sit back and enjoy the show.Really quick the right is now boarding the fuck y@u train.So get ready way will triple costs will double ,consumers will get screwed.And like me Davis said it’s ok he’s white and his daddy what white .White with power….I made a joke get it whitepower?Our judge’s get apointed by daddy’s friends.Pierre get ready the used you now they’re gonna vomit you out like a bad lamb sanwich.Report the corruption ask real questions do you job with passion for if more of you do it “more of the disenfranchised can and will fight.Well get ready gas will go up and crime will be the new norm.Yay trump…..I feel like an apprentice already.Your a reporter if your really doing your job it should be a lonely position…for power doesn’t like truth…..write the truth…leaveto the people.
ScotchRox says
7 replies so far and nobody has kissed your butt Pierre…
The times they are changing! Read it, learn it, love it…
Voter says
It’ll be all right? That sounds like what the Germans said to each other when Hitler took over. egad
r&r says
Suck it up. You’re a sore looooooooser.
Anonymous says
Well, once again you have come out with your typical loser liberal spew of crap. Look, Trump won and he will be our president for at least the next 4 years. With the Republicans in control of Congress maybe, just maybe something will get done. If you are so upset and against the new people at the top go ahead and join all the Hollywood elite that are moving to Canada to get away from him. Oh, that’s right most of those liberal assholes that said they would leave really aren’t going anywhere now are they?
woodchuck says
There has to be other things to whine about Pierre.
Steve Wardrip says
Listen, I told you eight years ago that Mr. Obama wouldn’t even make a good high-school basketball coach, much less a good president. Now, we see his own team hasn’t been taught how to accept defeat, by their display of angst and confusion. I think it’s time to grow up, beyond high-school sports mentality and get behind a team of professional adult world class game winners, instead of a bunch of sniveling cry baby sore losers. America was much greater years ago before the demands of misaligned perverts were met with the Clinton era, which by the way, is very over. Now, this country can flourish, once again. Be proud to be a part of it, not ashamed and down in the mouth. That only weakens your already weak torch bearers.
Marlee says
Thank you.
I am forwarding this.
Percy's mother says
If I remember correctly, our current President, Obama, had little to no experience in governing AND had never run a business, grown a business, created new business, made a payroll, created jobs, had employees who depended on him, negotiated business deals. et cetera.
From what I can remember, our current President, Obama, was a community organizer before becoming a new senator. So he had much less experience OVERALL than the incoming President Trump.
footballen says
Apparently the standards of political warfare are changing before our eyes.
I am so proud that Republicans did not display this sort of angry spoiled child behavior when President Obama was elected. We accepted it and carried on then watched it happen again and just accepted it and carried on.
Democrats are showing a lot about themselves these days. Imagine if we had acted this way eight years straight. Imagine if we had our children drop their studies and walk out of school, or riot in the streets. Unbelievable and its Trump they insult.
Makeitso1701 says
Pierre, as you can see from the previous comments, the chumpsters are too racist,brainwashed and too ignorant to care about facts. They got their dream candidate.
As the old saying goes,”don’t cut off your nose to spite your face”, well that’s exactly what those so called Americans did.If they cared anything about this country at least they would have picked someone else in the primaries to represent the republican party.They voted for the Alt-right guy as pay back for having a black president for 8 years.
Unfortunately, we will all pay for the disastrous upcoming administration.
ken says
Take a deep breath.
James Joy says
What a weepy , whiney piece. Deserves a pat on the head. Pat, pat. There. All better. Oh, except for the fact that the Supreme Court issue has been taken care of for next generation, and all those Obama regulations will be gone. Everything more is gravy, and there will be more.
Hmmm says
People keep talking about how bad the last 8 years were. If you ask me, Obama is stepping out of office leaving America in a pretty good economic state. The health care deal might not have worked out so great for everyone, but what else is there to keep complaining about. A president isn’t going to satisfy everyone. But Obama sure wasn’t the mess up so many people try to claim he was.
Anonymous says
Im just Chappy Hillary Rotten Clinton did not win.
John says
Hillary would have been disastrous. Democrats simply had the wrong candidate.
The last 8 years have been awful under Obama, and while Trump is definitely not perfect, but the hope is maybe he can stop the flooding of this liberal lunacy that’s destroyed our country. I’m looking forward to being able to believe what I want without the liberal thought police coming after me.
Oldseadog says
The MEDIA just don’t get it——————–HE won and is soon to be POTUS!
God Bless America as the liberal crowd just are so terrified that perhaps this country may be made GREAT once again.
Oldseadog says
Fw for consideration:
Who Reads Which Newspaper
Experts have found the following analysis to be near 100% accurate:
1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country, and who are very good at crossword puzzles.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don’t really understand The New York Times.
5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn’t mind running the country, if they could find the time and if they didn’t have to leave Southern California to do it.
6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country.
7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren’t too sure who’s running the country and don’t really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.
8. The New York Post is read by people who don’t care who is running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.
9. The Chicago Tribune is read by people that are in prison that used to run the state, & would like to do so again, as would their constituents that are currently free on bail.
10. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country, but need the baseball scores.
11. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren’t sure if there is a country or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are gay, handicapped, minority, feminist, atheists, and those who also happen to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy, provided of course, that they are not Republicans.
12. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.
13. The Seattle Times is read by people who have recently caught a fish and need something to wrap it in.
Geezer says
Everytime Trump thinks of Putin he gets flushed and his pupils dilate.
He runs into the woodshed during these heightened hormonal events.
I understand that he whittles until his little crisis passes.
The Ghost of America says
I can’t wait until he dismantles social security, Medicare, and Medicaid. I’m tired of subsidizing all of these boomer leeches.
Ben Hogarth says
Read the comments on this forums and others Pierre.. I think you will find both the answer as to why and how Trump was elected… and the reason the average voter feels it will be “all right.” Sometimes I suppose… this is what we get for a terrible education system. I’m not referring to higher education – just need to put that disclaimer for the “intellectual elitist”conspiracy theorists.
Personally, I think that anyone who voted for Trump should be forced into those situations you alluded.. where they go into a doctors office for surgery and first year business school student informs them about he/she will do a much better job than doctor with the education and experience.
Lobotomies for all? Voting for Trump certainly qualifies a person for one,
As a government and political professional – I literally have to watch my area of expertise degraded by a clown circus we call elections every 2-4 years. Whereas medical doctors typically don’t have to worry about the average American telling them how to do their job better, my field of study is precisely that… and it’s as annoying and frustrating as you would think.
Geezer says
Dear “The Ghost of America”
You have to be kidding, because you can’t possibly be so immeasurably dense.
Most of us have paid into the system without uttering a single complaint
over many years time. People like myself see this a contract with the people
of the United States.
Let’s wait until you get older, hopefully you’ll be in good health for many, many years,
and need little medical care until close to the very end. Whatever happens,
I hope that you can opt-out of Medicare since it troubles you so.
But if I were you, I’d arrange for an ultrasound of your brain, and sincerely hope
that there isn’t too much of an echo to make the test unfeasible in your case.
Geezer says
Ben Hogarth:
Always an excellent commentary. That’s the power of a good education.
FlaglerBear says
As a Republican, I did vote for Trump. Although I must admit I was apprehensive given his unusual temperament. I rarely agree with Pierre’s views, but I’ll have to admit this is one of the funniest pieces he has ever written and unfortunately so true. Thank you Pierre.
Makeitso1701 says
All you chumpsters that are calling Pierre and anyone else that have expressed their concern for our nation, “sore losers”, well let’s see where we are in a couple of years. I believe our country will be in worst off situation in terms of economy,and God knows what the trumpster will do to our relations with our allies.
We will all be losers, even all you Chumpsters.
stjohnspatriot says
As President Obama said a few days ago, “Reality has a way of asserting itself.” Trump can Tweet all he wants, but he will be judged a failure if 22 million folks lose their health insurance. Failure if the unemployment rate rises above the current 4.9%. Failure if incomes stop rising. Failure if Social Security is cut. Failure if SNAP claims stop falling, Failure if the deficit stops falling. Failure if inflation begins to rise. Failure if gas prices rise above the current $2 range. Failure if we go into recession. Failure if the stock market crashes from its all time high. Failure if auto sales crash from its current all-time high levels. Failure if his Presidency is plagued with scandal (with this Alt-Right crowd guaranteed!). Hillary Clinton was more popular than Donald Trump by nearly 2 million votes. More people are “with her.” Yes, reality has a way of asserting itself.
Fredrick says
To say the media did their job is a joke. They called everyone who would not vote for Hillary a racist, homofobe, misogynist. blah blah blah… They focused on Trump and nothing about Hillary and her “issues”. It was a no win situation for the liberals. And Pierre you need to get over your butt hurt.Your still playing the game of lumping the people who did not vote for HRC into one group. I do not have a lot of confidence in the president elect but the message has been sent by the people. Obama’s path has been rejected and Washington you need to get your shit together or you will get voted out too.
jersey exit 82 says
I am either a VERY liberal repub or a slightly conservative dem. Anyone who can not vote against party lines needs to check into a clinic somewhere. Our leader (no matter who he/she is) will never be right/wrong on every issue. We need to stop being SO partisan on every issue and start using common sense. Cheer a good policy and LOUDLY protest a bad one. If Everyone would do this, the people at the top would have to listen to the vocal majority. Do not accept anything less. I am glad the press can voice all opinions. You should be too.
Freddy says
Oldseadog forgot #14.
14. The Flagler Live is read by a bunch of whiners and deplorables.
terminus says
I’ve never seen so many people get so angry and take offense to factual criticism. All the attacks of “get over it” or “your girl lost” is pretty much the level of intellect on the “other side” of the voting spectrum. They want to call Democrats thin-skinned PC freaks…well, after seeing what the “alt-right” and the “wannabe alt-right” did after Hamilton, I don’t think there’s any doubt who the most offended, most in need of PC hand-holding is in this country – Trump supporters and their bellyaching about criticism and factual reporting. Guss it’s okay to say racial, offensive things against a black President and his family or sexist statements against a female Presidential candidate but talk factual about the human Cheeto and they lose all sense of control and start throwing around such intellectual, well-thought statements that can be found in any Neo-Nazi handbook. Who are the real “sore” sports out of all of this? Let the facts do all the talking and “get over it” your human Cheeto and his people have every right to be criticized.
AL says
Will all the Trump supporters be able to man-up and admit they were wrong when Trump imposes a 45% tariff on China (as Trump promised) and they go to Wal-mart and there are no more cheap goods and Walmart lays off half its employees? Or if they get laid off because China, in retaliation, buys its goods everywhere but the United States and manufacturers have to lay off even more workers? Or when that beautiful new international airport in northern Costa Rico along with upgrades to the Pan-American Highway becomes the distribution hub for Central America to South America and north to Mexico while the United States becomes less and less hospitable as a trading partner? Or when American farmers who trade internationally are dumped and American farmers have to raise the prices of their produce to Americans?
Face the facts. Either Trump lied about what he is about to do or he didn’t. If his choice of cabinet members, thus far proves, he intends to live up to his campaign promises. God help us as the rest of the world joins the global Technical Revolution, while we here in the United States get poorer,.enmired in nationalistic fervor. Of course, Trump will get rich, too.
I could go on and on, but I’m preaching to my choir or my predictions fall on the stone deaf, brain dead Trump believers. Just be careful of what you wish for.
Capt. Deployable says
Shut up….Sit down….Put your head between your legs…and kiss your sorry liberal ass GOODBYE.
YOU LOSE !!!!!
RickG says
I always love the parenthetical comments in your pieces about the comments below. Obviously you know your readers and they never disappoint. I’ll be sitting here reading Flagler Live as Mr Orange goes lame on all those right wing promises about bringing jobs back to the US. Is he really going to go against those who financed his campaign and finance his projects worldwide?? I don’t think so. And to all of you Obama bashers (now true he wasn’t the greatest of all but better than something not quite as good) I don’t recall any appointments made by him that was advocating a roll back of our rights and certainly not any Black Nationalists.. Its time in this country that we stress civics in the classroom again, perhaps then the electorate may grasp the concept statesmanship.
Anonymous says
Al-Walmart then will have to buy American or pull their monopoly out of the USA. Mom and Pop stores can then again be a thing of the future so the wealth can be spread out among all of us. I am tired of paying good money for junk from Walmart. I am tired of buying everything made in China making them wealthy. Walmart is not going to keep their doors open if they don’t have product to sell, and they are going to buy low and sell high, so make it in American to benefit US in the USA!
Sherry says
EXCELLENT article Pierre! And absolutely right on!
Now, will all of you who do not appreciate credible, “factual” journalism, please, just go back to your Rush, FOX, Drudge and Breitbart racists, conspiracy theory outlets. . . in order to massage your prejudice egos. If you do not desire to read any intellectual discourse, why do you continue read Flaglerlive and throw insults at wonderful Pierre and the rest of his educated, politically active readers with your completely asinine remarks? Critical thinking and political activism may be irksome and foreign to you, but it is absolutely critical to any evolving culture!
We. . . the “majority” of patriotic Americans. . . who did NOT vote for Trump will continue to hold him, and his sycophants (look it up) accountable to the American people, and the people of the entire world, for everything they say and do with the power YOU have given them. He will NEVER be my president!
Anonymous says
AL, That would sting at first, but long term it would be the best thing that could ever happen for America and the American worker. Our Industry would come back to America and bring our stolen jobs right along with it. I grew up in a much more self reliant America when American jobs were protected by tariffs. You could by foreign cars or products if you wanted, but you had to pay as much or more for them than the American version. There is no way we as Americans, can compete with other countries in Free Trade, when the other country is paying slave wages. It is Impossible and the elite bankers who want Globalization know this and have been using our nations leaders as “useful idiots” to accomplish their goals. Before Globalization can occur the United states and Great Britain must fall. If you check out the 20 trillion we are in debt, that won’t be to long from now if we don’t pull out of these one sided trade agreements. If it causes a war, so be it. I’d rather go done fighting knowing I had done all I could to save this, the greatest nation the world has ever known.
THE VOICE OF REASON says
At least you’re showing a bit of a sense of humor about it.
Some of these people ARE just whining instead of actually protesting. But I can only imagine the angst with which you wrote about hoping for a Mitt Romney appointment as a steadying influence — that was hilarious.
Jack says
The people deserve who they elect! Trump is not going to be any better than he appeared while running for office. As a man, I am ashamed of the majority of men who voted for him. How can anyone overlook the bigoted sexists man that he is. Many people say “He (Trump) is only saying what we are all thinking”. I never thought that there were that many people who did not find him offensive. I am 76 years old and Trump probably will not be able to hurt me much, but will hurt the next generation. But if they were stupid enough to vote for him they deserve what he dishes out!
W.Ryan says
Sadness has enveloped my world. Knowing that so many American’s has allowed hate and cynicism to thrive. This election takes us back to the sixties. We’re destined to go further back as the body of the highest court in the land will take us back even further. This election has reintroduced “Mad Men” ideals of male white supremacy thwarting our upward climb to the best civility we’d ever had as a culture. Too bad! I applaud this article Pierre. You have more than uttered what I could not!
Anonymous says
The only good thing about all this will be watching the Republicans squirm and distort themselves like the spineless Gumby characters they truly are once their supposedly “brilliant businessman” (who has declared Bankruptcy several times)–and who is so for the working man that he refuses to pay his own contractors, forcing them to accept pennies on the dollar for what their contract originally called for, if that much–starts flushing all that they value and depend on down the toilet. While tripling the deficit like St. Ronald Reagan did and raising their taxes like most other Republican leaders end up doing.
footballen says
To say the media did their job is a joke. They called everyone who would not vote for Hillary a racist, homofobe, misogynist. blah blah blah… They focused on Trump and nothing about Hillary and her “issues”. It was a no win situation for the liberals. And Pierre you need to get over your butt hurt.Your still playing the game of lumping the people who did not vote for HRC into one group. I do not have a lot of confidence in the president elect but the message has been sent by the people. Obama’s path has been rejected and Washington you need to get your shit together or you will get voted out too.
REPLY
jersey exit 82 says:
November 21, 2016 at 12:37 pm
I am either a VERY liberal repub or a slightly conservative dem. Anyone who can not vote against party lines needs to check into a clinic somewhere. Our leader (no matter who he/she is) will never be right/wrong on every issue. We need to stop being SO partisan on every issue and start using common sense. Cheer a good policy and LOUDLY protest a bad one. If Everyone would do this, the people at the top would have to listen to the vocal majority. Do not accept anything less. I am glad the press can voice all opinions. You should be too.
W.Ryan says
It’s hopeless! These Republicans on here are without common sense and have a really really short memory. Eight yrs of “Hell No” and a further sabotage of progress so that they can say what they are saying and the sabotage “Obama Care”. Birtha-isms and racist behavior. What the hell!!! They must be insane!!!
Chris says
Obama is not the “leader of the Free World”; Trump will not be the “leader of the Free World”; there is no “leader of the Free World”. Stop using that ridiculous phrase.
Pogo says
The Republicans are pulling each other’s fingers and setting their farts on fire to celebrate stealing the presidency again. Smelled this before. Who paid for the theft in 2000? Everyone except the greedy money grubbing criminals that got away with it.
Any of these blowhards notice Trump cave on the Trump University scam? If it’s not on sludge they don’t know.
All the hate and lies about immigrants they voted for; they voted for a blowhard whose grandpa immigrated here as a draft dodger. Their homepage (the sludge report) missed it:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3956968/Trumps-grandfather-pleaded-stay-Germany.html
Final irony – Nazis love a blowhard ranting about making Amerikkka hate again:
http://www.vice.com/read/heil-trump-this-is-the-alternative-right
karma says
Everyone on here has just reaffirmed the REAL Obama legacy. I have never seen this country so divided. He surly keep on promise in “fundamentally transforming” this country.
Ben Hogarth says
I had to return to this article to thank Geezer for his kind words – although I feel as if rational discourse like ours may be drowned out by the deafening void of ignorance on this comment forum.
Do Republican voters actually know how childish they sound when they use words like “libtard” or repeat overly used rhetorical phrasing like “sit down, you lost.” They seriously don’t even have enough wit to insult good people with something intelligible and creative. It’s sad really. Total broken records like a bunch of 22 year old know-nothings.
I hate to be insulting and condescending, but it’s ridiculous that Americans actually buy into the game of liberal and conservative.. when these titles separate groups of people on only a few moral issues. Most Americans see eye to eye on most economic and foreign policy issues regardless of party affiliation and more often than not, our parties actively work against the best interests of the people.
So congratulations to all of the people whom think they “won” this election – I hope your fantasy lasts as long as this elections has seemed. Because when cold reality strikes… it’s usually harsh and unmerciful.
The last time we had an incompetent man elected President, the United States suffered the worst terrorist attack it has ever known. And I can only imagine what terror may wait for us by a man who actually has malicious intentions
Geezer says
Dear Cuban joe:
You huckleberry! You got me in the mood for a cafe con leche.
I’m going to my trusty cafetera, and pumping out some Bustello
for a good strong one.
Be well consorte!
Edith Campins says
Thank you Pierre for another excellent piece.
Can any one tell me what was so disastrous about the Obama Administration? Unemploymentt down, housing starts up, healthcare for millions, previously uninsured, climate change treaty with China the Iran nuclear deal and so on…What exactly was so disastrous?
In spite of the constant obstructionism from Republicans, the slander, the lies about his birth, he represented our nation to the worl with dignity. He never insulted women, gays, the Pope, the military, Blacks, the handicapped, the members off Congress, other candidates…
You reap what you sow. So far, Trump has already bactracked on many of the promises he made to you, loyal supporters. The wall is now a fence,(already there) gay marriage is ok, he won’t prosecute Mrs. Clinton (she hasn’t been found guilty of anything, duh!), Obamacare is not so bad, maybe Climate change is true, etc. And is spite of saying he picks the best people for jobs, so far he has picked inexperienced people whose only qualification is that they are loyal to him, not to our country, to him personally.
It is Trump, not obama who has stirred up hate and discord in this country.
Anonymous says
Trump has only deigned to attend less than a handful of intelligence meetings/briefings. He has already stated that he only intends to occupy the White house part-time, whenever the whim strikes, I presume. He has proven to be nothing more or other than a Neo-political Carnival Barker. Say hello to Presidents Rence, Preibus and Bannon. Only one of their names was actually printed on the ballot to any degree but they are the ones in charge. All you fools on Medicare who chose to believe, despite all relevant evidence to the contrary, that the mere idea of Affordable Healthcare for all is somehow a personal slap in the face and threat to you–say “Hello” to your Medicare vouchers. You deserve them. The rest of us are just along for the unfortunate side-effects of your paranoid-induced ride
Geezer says
Dear Edith Campins:
Being correct is oft-times a lonely place, yet still there is no better place.
I hate crowds anyway.
Nice comment….
markingthedays says
Every time someone says Republicans accepted Obama as President without protest, I have such a good laugh.
popularvote says
Trump was so right….it was rigged…in his favor! In the end, how many more people will have voted for Clinton? One million plus? The people spoke loud and clear but the system failed, and look what we will now have to deal with. UGH
Good article Pierre. Say it like it is.