2017 Jan 21^st

I know almost nothing about popular bands. To me they are too loud, produce cacophonous sound and they can’t stand still once they start to play. So I am a poor judge of the bands playing to honor President Trump at his inauguration. I’ll rely on some delightful and insightful comments from The New Yorker.

“Trump’s people may not have been able to arrange a better slate of performers, but the result was a bizarre kind of perfection. What better way to spurn America’s élite than to host a concert on the National Mall with a bunch of aggressively mediocre performers? Hillary Clinton had Beyoncé, Jay Z, Bruce Springsteen, Katy Perry, and Lady Gaga out on the campaign trail. Trump had Lee Greenwood, and look who ended up as the President.” We all know irony when we see it.

 Regardless of the musical value of the groups, the behavior of the principle watcher and his family  was instructive…or maybe curious is a better word. They were seated on folding chairs with Trump on the far right closest to the camera, then, to his left sat his wife, sons and daughter Ivanka. Trump’s children and his wife were looking at the musicians and looking rather fixedly. Trump, on the other hand, had his attention focused variably, he would look to his right toward the camera, then turn and look behind him, then wave to someone and in short, seemed to fidget unmercifully. Friday was a new and I’ll bet very unwelcome experience for him. He was not in control at that concert…nor indeed at any of the events of that day. Regardless of the God-awful noises coming from those bands Trump couldn’t leave, he had to sit there for all intents and purposes, his high and mightiness chained to a folding chair. Welcome to high office, Donald.

Another thought about this fidgeting: Every day our local paper carries ads for various forms of employment. In many ads, the applicant is advised that drug testing will be part of the application. Why is there no drug testing requirement for people seeking elective office? It seems to me that the person ascending to the presidency, or any elective office, should be willing to prove he isn’t a meth or cocaine addict.

Of course we have elected a president who refuses to release his tax returns and provides evidence of his health from a physician whose appearance inspires no confidence in his medical ability. Trump’s claim that he cannot release his tax returns because he is being audited is a lie. The IRS specifically said that being audited is not a barrier to releasing returns. Trump must believe that no one listens to announcements like that from the IRS.

I wonder how Kellyanne will handle the fact that the women’s march on Washington protesting Trump has produced participant numbers closing in on Trump’s inauguration numbers. Someone will ask her about that eventually.

Sean Spicer, the new press secretary has just addressed this. He tells us the dishonest media is at fault once again. There was white plastic laid on the ground to protect the grass from the inaugural crowds. This means that the blank spaces where there were no people showed up much better during the Trump inaugural than would have been the case in the Obama inauguration when no plastic covered the ground. Is that grasping at straws or what? Who in the world thought that one up?