So far, so good

‘Like never before’ — Donald J. Trump

Donald Trump has been President for two hours and fifty minutes as we post this missive and the Head Groundskeeper has not been dragged off to a detention center. Perhaps all the fear mongering is unwarranted.

Luckily, the presidential inauguration fell on a federal holiday, M.L. King Jr. Day. Workers could watch from home if they weren’t invited to the Capitol rotunda. Prediction: Henceforth, all presidential inaugurations will be held indoors. We don’t need the dignitaries shivering through their Fargo parkas outside like Bernie Sanders four years ago.

We enjoyed the introductions made possible by the controlled environment: seeing all nine justices file in wearing their robes. The military bands. The former Presidents. Doesn’t it look like W is always trying to suppress his inner middle-school rascal? Gave a mischievous wink to someone. Noted that Barack and Pence entered without their wives. Michelle must still be in Hawaii. Surprised to see John Boehner; not surprised at Paul Ryan’s absence.

 Celebrity watching

Have a little heart for poor Hillary; you know she’s got to be thinking she should have been the one sitting next to Trump in “The Beast” leaving the White House at the conclusion of her second term. Bill could have ridden with Melania!

Bill Hemmer of Fox News got off a good line. Of a camera shot of the likes of Vivek Ramaswamy, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Tim Cook, he asked, “What do you suppose the market cap of that picture is?” Couldn’t Tucker Carlson have been ushered into the overflow room?

At just one minute after noon as required by the Constitution, Trump took the oath and the cannons fired. We clocked the 47th President’s address at an economic (for him) 29 minutes and 48 seconds. Not as long as his GOP convention harangue in Milwaukee. Much shorter than poor William Henry Harrison, who orated for two hours on a bitter cold and wet day and died three weeks later.

 No Ode to Joy

President Trump’s address was all fuselage and no wings. The speaker himself had a curiously dead affect. Read like a warning notice affixed to the barbed wire at Gitmo. “Drill baby, drill” doesn’t sing like “We have nothing to fear …”

Trump’s campaign-like address was packed with more policy than a congressional aide’s briefcase. Renaming it the Gulf of America is a cheap shot at Mexico. Sending the military to the border to repel “the disastrous invasion of our country” and designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations is long overdue.

Ending the Green New Deal and electric car mandates? Check. Ending “the engineering race and gender into every aspect of public life?” Check. For all his palaver about avoiding endless wars, Trump did rattle sabers. About the Panama Canal, “We’re taking it back.” Even used the term “Manifest Destiny.” Will Latin America form its own NATO?

Elon Musk grinned largely when his man in the White House promised a U.S. Flag on Mars. Robotically, we’re guessing.

 He didn’t start the fire

DJT was correct that “We cannot manage the simplest of crises at home while stumbling into a cascade of catastrophes around the world.” We spend billions to defend foreign countries but can’t put out our fires at home. (Joe Biden and Kamala Harris kept stiff upper lips.) After the catalog of particulars, The Donald’s writers had a few good lines: “Sunlight is pouring over the entire world.” He read it but couldn’t make us feel the warmth. 

Whereas, the Rev. Lorenzo Sewell of Detroit sent the event soaring into the dome above. “Let freedom ring … from the snow capped Rockies of Colorado  … to Stone Mountain in Georgia. Free at Last! We expected John Belushi to do somersaults down the aisle. Even Donald J. Trump seemed energized. What to make of the scheduled Moslem imam never showing?

→ If you missed it.

Four years ago, an idiot wearing bear skin and bison horns pranced over broken glass as the government took cover. But America’s family feud started eight years ago when Democrats greeted Trump’s first inauguration wearing pussy hats.

Their elected reps urged true believers to harass Republicans in the coffee shops and at the workplace. Off the bat, Democrat financed a bogus conspiracy, fed it to the FBI and a sedulous news media. Within Trump’s first year, the impeachment farce was under way.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Sen. Amy Klobuchar was one of the President’s congressional escorts. (Has a winning smile.) She urged Americans to “view others with a generosity of spirit despite our differences. … but stand our ground when we must and find common ground when we can.”

Any chance of that?