WE LET THIS HAPPEN, WE BROKE IT, WE FIX IT, STAY TUNED

Did you get yours? The Trump Inauguration invitation from the Trump National Committee 2024? The email is headlined “The Greatest Celebration in American History.” Imagine! The accompanying photo, beneath gold formal lettering reading “Join President Trump at his Second Inauguration,” shows a silhouette of Trump from the backside as he walks toward the podium on the viewing stand, with crowds of attendees stretching out across the Capitol Ellipse as far as the eye can see, and maybe farther than the eye can see! But wait! What’s this at the bottom of the photo…a link that says, “ENTER TO WIN.” You’ll have to scroll down, and squint, to read the tiny legalese in the paragraph at the bottom: “Contributions to Trump National Committee JFC are not deductible for federal income tax purposes, blah, blah, blah…It’s because of the commitment and support from real Patriots, like YOU, that we will SAVE AMERICA! Thank you again for your generous support.” And, the winner will get…it doesn’t say, no promises made, though the implication is that you will get to attend the the greatest inauguration…seated behind the podium?…or in the cow pasture beyond the Ellipse where even Sean Spicer will never see you? Just send money to find out!? Just remember that selecting that link puts you into the Grifting Arena!

Assuredly, it’s simply another grift! Remember all the previous ‘contests’ to win an onstage appearance with Trump at one of his rallies? Or dinner at Mar-a-Lago with the candidate? Or a flight to the RNC convention with the Trump Team? Just ask for a list of those winners (it’s already been done with zilch offered by The Team). It only took three weeks after Election Day (almost two months beyond the required October 1 signing)  for Trump to reach an agreement with the outgoing President Joe Biden’s administration to initiate the official transition of power, but he is NOT signing the agreement with the General Services Administration to unlock federal funding for the transition. In lieu of the government money, his changeover will be backed by private donors, operating as a “self-sufficient organization.” The so-called ‘memorandum of understanding’ between Trump and Biden will enable Trump and his team to access non-public government information, receive government briefings and deploy personnel inside the federal agencies and departments they will soon control. Trump has concern about the mandatory ethics pledge in the ‘memorandum,’ which was left unsigned, that included avoiding conflicts of interest in the White House; so instead, The Team announced it will use its “existing ethics plan for those involved,” which meets federal requirements and will be posted on the General Services Administration’s website. Questions still remain from the first Trump transition, with an accurate accounting of funds raised still hidden away from the feds…hard to believe, eh?

Trump’s vow to dispense with using taxpayer funding for the transition costs leaves his financial arrangements obscure, with donors being kept secret, despite a promise: “Donors to the transition will be disclosed to the public. Consistent with Transition policy already in place, the Transition will not accept foreign donations.” To date, Trump’s Cabinet nominees have not undergone FBI vetting, prompting Senator Elizabeth Warren’s response, “[the team’s announcement] fails to answer key questions about national security threats and FBI vetting of nominees, and increases concerns about corruption. There appear to be serious gaps between the Trump transition’s ethics agreement and the letter of the law. The reliance of private donors to fund the transition is nothing more than a ploy for well-connected Trump insiders to line their pockets while pretending to save taxpayer’s money.” In a November 13 meeting at the White House between Biden and Trump, Biden welcomed the president-elect and promised a smooth transition.

Trump’s refusal to accept GSA funds in the transition is a first, which means the GSA’s ability to ascertain transparency that individual donations don’t exceed $5000 or that foreign influences are kept at bay…a concern since there are no restrictions on international donations for transitions, as are in place for presidential campaigns. In shutting out FBI background checks, The Team is conducting private checking…call it ‘Trump gets a pass to pass?’ NBC News’s Chuck Todd has taken issue with Trump’s cabinet selections, questioning whether he has taken moral character into consideration…however a low-lifer might venture into that realm is yet another question…while suggesting that the picks are a “low-character crowd.” Todd says, “He knows he’s behaved badly over the years…he has civil judgements against him to prove it…in his drive to achieve fame and fortune. So, following that logic, nothing makes his success look more mainstream and acceptable than surrounding himself with people who have never let their moral compass get in the way of their own ambitions. No one is saying that someone who is accused of sexual misconduct but isn’t charged with a crime should be cancelled from society or be impacted in their ability to get a job.” He laments that ‘character’ shouldn’t be a partisan attribute, that there are many supporters in each party with good character, but that perhaps we have gone from being “a bit too puritan” to “a bit too permissive.” Continuing, he says, “The minute you start making an exception for character flaws on your side of the political fence, you’ll regret it, because one day it will be coming from a political opponent and not a political ally; and, wouldn’t it be a shame if the electorate decided that politics now belongs to the low-character crowd. This is the moment I fear we are now facing.” Jimmy Kimmel summed it up pretty well when he said on his show, “The President is a criminal. 34 times over, he’s a convicted criminal. Truth be told he’s not even looking for a cabinet…he’s looking for cellmates. Okay?”

“We’re a country of 330-plus million, with all that entails. But if we stop demanding or attempting to find high-quality character in our elected officials, then how are we going to become a ‘more perfect union’?” Todd asks. “And yet, does anyone believe the current political world is attracting the best and brightest into public service? We as a nation have taken this concept of ‘ends justifies the means’ and essentially turned the country’s North Star of ‘whatever it takes’ for our own success, not just ‘whatever it takes’ for our own survival,” he concludes. A questioner on the Quora website questions why the MAGA cult is still angry after success in the electoral process, even though they were warned what would happen as they feigned understanding.  Paraphrasing an answer by Tiffany Thomas, where she writes: “Because it has never been about actual policy or humanity for them. They’ve treated the fate of the country like it’s the Super Bowl…but they don’t even know who they’re cheering for. This is going to be a hard lesson for us all, but MAGA are going to be blindsided when they suddenly realize that the hate/vitriol/destruction they begged for is going to directly impact them too. No one gets a pass, no one has privilege in a fascist system…all will vanish right alongside the rest of us. Their guilt and accountability will be very difficult for them to embrace and accept. They’ve reached the ‘FIND OUT’ part of ‘FAFO’ and watching them search, ‘How can I reverse my vote?’ is a small consolation. There is nothing anyone can do now.”

So, they want to reverse their votes? Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling in the The New Republic wrote in mid-November that some Trump voters were having “a shocking bout of buyer’s remorse” with the reality of awarding him a second shot at the presidency. She writes that, “On Election Day and in the hours following, searches for ‘how to change my vote’ spiked in states that the president-elect won, according to Google analytics.The searches first surged the morning of Election Day before declining the day afterward. Interest in the phrase was not short-lived, though, with numbers climbing again on Monday…just shy of a week out from the election, and continuing to grow throughout the week. The apparent change of heart comes after Trump allies had admitted Project 2025 was the plan all along, and after women and girls became the target of an overtly misogynistic, far-right campaign claiming ownership of their bodies.” Google Trends registered the phrase at 100 on a scale of 0 to 100, which indicates the peak popularity for a search term. Trump’s significant win in Iowa also generated the highest number of state-by-state queries for the term, however, it is difficult to determine whether the searches were initiated by Trump or Harris voters. Once the voter drops the ballot into the box, a vote cannot be changed, a hard lesson to learn for those who sincerely had voting regrets.

Alton Frye writes in The Hill, “A majority has spoken. A disappointed minority may not admire the judgement rendered, but it must respect the right of the majority to express it. The election was clearly one in which voters’ perceived interests outweighed their professed values. Surely, not all of those supporting Donald Trump were applauding his character and the amoral values he represents. Close analysis of the promised Trump program suggests his voters may soon have second thoughts. Any new administration’s plans are subject to change, but if the next president is supported by the Republican-controlled Congress in executing the proposals set forth in the campaign, the hoped-for escape will lead to greater distress on several fronts. The multiple pledges of tax relief carry predictable consequences for national debt. Massive slashes in the federal work force would entail curtailments in public services. Politics breeds countless temptations, not all of them prudent.” In his wrap-up of the 2024 election, Frye says, “The dynamics invite diverse interpretations. One notable irony concerns the measurable movement of Hispanic voters toward support for Trump, despite his sometimes harsh stance toward immigrants. Some Hispanic commentators have viewed that movement as an importation of the frequent Latino gravitation toward a leader in chief, a ‘caudillo’ on the model of Juan Peron or Fidel Castro or Anastasio Somoza. Never mind that such caudillos have brought great grief to their peoples. Donald Trump has come to embody what one may call American machismo. The durability of that quality’s appeal will now be tested.”

Satirist Andy Borowitz, in a recent Substack post, writes, “In an advisory issued on Wednesday, the American Medical Association urged US patients seeking medical attention to go to Canada. ‘Commencing January 20, 2025, Americans should schedule even the most routine medical appointments north of the border,’ Dr. Harland Dorrinson, the president of the AMA, said. Dorrinson observed that recently announced changes to the nation’s healthcare establishment had already impacted Wall Street, with a boom for companies selling coffee bean extract, raspberry ketones, horse dewormer, and leeches. In the AMA’s gravest warning, he noted, ‘Rand Paul is now the most legit doctor in the US government.'” In a later post, Borowitz wrote, “Donald J Trump raised eyebrows in diplomatic circles on Saturday by naming the former drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman US ambassador to Mexico. Trump told reporters that the appointment of El Chapo was consistent with his policy of surrounding himself with ‘only the best people.’ When asked about El Chapo’s ten felony convictions, Trump said, ‘I wish he had more, but I still think he’s qualified.’ Trump’s plan hit a snag, however, when El Chapo turned down the post, stating that it would be ’embarrassing to serve in the same administration as Dr. Oz.'” Or serving in the same administration as Robert F Kennedy, Jr. who recently confessed to having a heroin addiction in his checkered past.

We can all echo Michael Moore’s final thoughts on November 2024: “Thank God, this month is over! We let this happen! We broke it. We fix it. Stay tuned.”