Wow -- It Really WASN'T a Movie

So yesterday I had a phone conference set for 11, and decided to stay home to attend it.  Turns out it was the right move, as the day ended Downtown with a monumental traffic jam as nice, Lefty kids protested the Trump inauguration by marching onto I-95, effectively shutting down the city during the evening rush hour.

Wifey and I watched a lot of the festivities.  She kept making disgusted sounds.  I simply thought -- wow -- somehow this guy really made it to be president.

Like most of my peers, I thought Trump's entire campaign was a silly diversion during the otherwise serious season.  I wasn't even really shocked that he beat the rest of the GOP field -- they were a collection of losers, in one way or another.  Marco Rubio?  A wimpy guy who changed like the wind.  Jeb Bush?  He couldn't even gain admission to Miami's top WASPy country clubs anymore.

Still, I figured Trump's nomination was simply the end of the GOP as it exists today.  Hillary staved off the Larry David looking liberal from Vermont -- really Brooklyn.  Other than silly kids thinking everything is free -- Sanders wasn't a real candidate, either.  So Hillary would coast into office -- the smartest girl in class who nobody really liked, except the dumber girls who wanted to cheat off her exams...  A HRC presidency would be tolerable -- hopefully Obamacare would be tweaked and made better, and she would be tougher and not be afraid to say "radical Islamist" like Obama was.

And then, damn -- the reality tv guy -- the cartoon character -- won.  It didn't seem real.  He said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue in NYC and still win.  And he was right!

Truth is, for my family and me, Trump is probably better for us.  Our taxes will be lower, and he'll be better for Israel, which, as Jews, we care a lot about.  My lefty friends kept forgiving Obama all his anti-Israel moves -- sort of like battered women forgiving the latest slap by their husbands -- but his act was wearing thin on me.

Not Trump.  He and Bibi are buds.  Together they'll be large and in charge.

Of course I voted for HRC.  I think it's right to vote for the country, even if it goes against selfish interest.  But the truth is, the poorest folks, the ones who are going to get most royally screwed by Trump and his incoming administration, couldn't be bothered to go out and vote.  Blacks voted for Obama in record numbers, but largely stayed home for HRC.  So now they get to see how it works out for them...

I get a kick out of my lefty friends on FaceBook.  They go on and on as if the Trump gestapo is about to invade their large houses and take them prisoner.  As for me, I like Dave Chappelle's approach, when asked by some friends if he was moving to Canada now that a "racist pig" was POTUS.  "Nah -- I'm gonna stay right here and see how those tax cuts work out for me."

And so it shall be around here, too.

I guess I learned early on to not take presidential elections too seriously.  As a teen, I truly thought Jimmy Carter was going to be the best ever.  After the scandal of Watergate, and boredom of Gerry Ford, Carter would bring greatness.  Turned out he was probably the worst president of modern times -- in 4 years made the US a laughingstock, internationally.  I remember meeting some European kids at UM in '79 and them telling me how when someone saw a US passport, it was a big deal.  With Carter, the customs guys laughed.

And, history has now judged Ford much better -- took a broken nation and healed it, like a kindly, and prudent grandfather might heal a fractured family.

So you never know.  Maybe Trump will turn out to be just fine -- cutting great deals for the US, being a steward of a rising economy.  Probably not.  But he's our guy -- Queens born, like I am, as Dr. Barry reminded me.  Dr. Barry's a Queens guy, too.  He wants to start the betting pool for impeachment.

Some very interesting times, like the Chinese curse goes, are upon us.