Friday, January 20, 2017                                          10:58 AM

Excerpt from a friend’s email: “….Have a good day. I’m paying for a friend’s moped repair today. I who live on disability’s low end will help a fellow human in need on this day with no expectations of repayment. To me, this is how to spend inaugural day by helping a fellow citizen.

—Min”

Dear Mindy:

Is there a high-end to disability?

Yes, DeVos is a piece of work. Sen. Franken asked her if she and her family had donated $200-million to the Republican party over the last few years and she said yes. Then he asked her if she thought that had anything to do with her being appointed to a cabinet post and she very haughtily replied that she didn’t see any connection. Then he asked her some technical questions about modern educational methods and testing—and she had no idea what the hell he was talking about.

And all of Trump’s picks, really, seem to be that ‘special place in hell’ for each of the departments of government they’re being assigned to run—it’s Opposite Day at the White House. On the other hand, they match very well with the President who should never have been. And the Congress refusing to do full ethics reviews on his appointees jives nicely with the voters failing to disqualify Trump for his own ethics—or, I should say, lack of ethics. I have no special plans for today—Trump’s inauguration coverage will simply be of a piece with all the news coverage I never watch anymore.

It all reminds me of when I was a programmer—people respected me, at first, because they needed my help with a talking/printing machine that helped them all make money. But when I had made all the programs very easy to use and very reliable, people began to take me and the computer for granted—and all they ever did was bitch about the little inconveniences that came up—or they asked me to make the computer do things that a machine can’t do, etc.

America, in the same way, has run pretty smoothly for a long time—and we have taken it so for granted that we’ve elected a man who doesn’t understand the nature of government, the point of public service, or the importance of the Constitution. And I have to agree with you about doing a favor for someone today, as a form of protest—at this dawn of an era of blatant corruption and incompetence, a humane act of any kind is as much a protest as if you marched down Fifth Avenue with a sign on a stick.

And a lot safer, too. If you recall, one of Trump’s campaign promises was to shoot a man on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight.

Love,

Chris

ttfn