Monday was a weird day. I knew I was possibly putting my mental health at risk by watching Trump’s inauguration, but I did so anyway. He seemed subdued and didn’t really have many applause lines, but he also was deadly serious about doing the things he said he would do if elected. As soon as he finished speaking, I closed my laptop and went outside.
Rather than listen to the reactive news cycle voices hash over the meaning of all this, I traveled down to San Jose where I spent the day watching my eight grandchildren, ages 3-18, play in a park.
My youngest granddaughter, who is six, asked me to go with her to the monkey bars. (Somehow I find it comforting that they still call them monkey bars.)
As I watched her swing her small frame bar to bar, her blond hair blowing in the breeze and her pink dress capturing the sunlight, I mulled over how this country may change over the next few years in ways that could alter her fortunes permanently, but of course she has no idea about any of that yet.
After the monkey bars she said she was hungry so we went back to our picnic table where she grabbed a croissant. After tearing it in half, she pointed to the inside and said, “Look Grandpa, it as a secret tunnel.” Before long, she had concocted an entire tale about a girl archeologist exploring the secret tunnel in her croissant, which definitely, I thought to myself, showed more imagination than any of Trump’s tired policy pronouncements.
Also, her rights as a young woman growing up in a post-Roe society will be markedly fewer than those of her grandmother’s generation.
Soon afterwards, my oldest grandson sat down next to me on the bench and told me about his latest college applications, which include his interest in environmental science plus engineering, hopefully working on projects like EVs that could guard against climate change and make our society a more sustainable one into the future.
I didn’t have the heart to mention to him that the new president had just denounced EVs and promised to roll back support for them in favor of gas guzzlers, while proclaiming, “Drill baby, drill!”
So it went, my day in the sun. I couldn’t escape the chill emanating from the nation’s capital from a small man who explicitly rejects the dreams of my grandchildren and millions of other young, idealistic Americans.
But I hope our young people will continue dreaming those dreams, because we need girl archeologists and boy engineer-scientists and besides, this regime — built entirely on hate, fear, resentment, xenophobia and imperialism — this too in time will pass.
***
The scope of what Trump was able to accomplish on his long-promised “day one” may look impressive on paper, but for now much of it is purely symbolic. Changing the name of a mountain or the Gulf of Mexico does nothing to help reduce inflation or make housing more affordable, for example, but it could make them worse.
On the other hand, imposing 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada as of February 1st, is the equivalent of an act of war, not upon our enemies but on our friends. What I fear most now is not the immediate autocracy at home that’s implicit in many of Trump’s vows but imperialist expansion abroad.
Trump told the rich and powerful gathered for his speech that he is going to “take back” the Panama Canal.
We all have to remember that imperialism abroad is closely linked to xenophobia at home. That is what will fuel the establishment of an autocratic oligarchy of the billionaire class cohering around Trump.
This is a real and present danger.
HEADLINES:
Convicted Felon Sworn in as President (Rolling Stone)
Trump signed slew of executive orders on Day 1. What are his priorities? (AP)
Trump commutes sentences of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders as he pardons over 1,000 January 6 US Capitol rioters (CNN)
The new American imperialism (Economist)
Trump’s First Day in Office: Signing Orders, Spinning Yarns, Settling Scores (WSJ)
Executive order will attempt to end birthright citizenship (WP)
Trump signs order to withdraw US from World Health Organization (Financial Times)
Trump's inauguration billionaires, CEOs: Ambani, Zuckerberg, Bezos attend church, ceremony (Reuters)
Trump rescinds Biden's census order, clearing a path for reshaping election maps (NPR)
Elon Musk appears to make back-to-back fascist salutes at inauguration rally (Guardian)
Designating Drug Gangs as Terrorist Groups Risks Ties With Latin America (WSJ)
Donald Trump jolts markets with threat of tariffs against Mexico and Canada (Financial Times)
Trump targets transgender protections in new executive order (Axios)
Donald Trump’s Inaugural Day of Vindication (New Yorker)
TikTok Ban Live Updates: Trump Halts Ban For 75 Days—After CEO Attends Inauguration (Forbes)
American TikTokers Get a Taste of Chinese Censorship as They Rush to RedNote (WSJ)
Local meteorologists could face layoffs amid new initiative with The Weather Channel (NPR)
Pentagon removes portrait of Mark Milley, former top US general (Reuters)
Timothee Chalamet talks about playing Bob Dylan in the new movie 'A Complete Unknown' (NPR)
The second wave of AI coding is here (MIT Technology Review)
Earth Explodes (The Onion)
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Who Killed Betty Van Patter?
(Photo courtesy of the Baltar family)
Welcome, readers of Berkeleyside, The Oaklandside, and Richmondside who are looking for the rest of the ten-part series, “Who Killed Betty Van Patter?” Just click on the links below to read each part.
See also: Betty Van Patter, the Black Panthers’ bookkeeper, was murdered 50 years ago. Who killed her? Investigative reporter David Weir and others have spent decades searching for answers. (Berkeleyside) (Richmondside)
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