The Witness Chronicles, 1/17/25

A frigid day in DC

Photo by Yohan Marion on Unsplash

The Big Chill: The Trump Inauguration is Going to Be Really Cold

The symbolism is too perfect

Watch the thermometer. Or, more realistically, your weather app. It is going to be extremely chill in DC on Monday, Don Trump’s day of redemption. Like ice cold. As it should be.

My favorite woman in the world, after my mom, is Michelle Obama, because she is throwing the finger at that guy at every opportunity. She is not coming to his party and she would not sit anywhere near him at Jimmy Carter’s funeral. In fact she did not go.

Who decides they must go out into the chill on Monday will tell us a lot. The loyalists. Here’s my take on that. The resistance is also taking names and we will not forget who you are. It’s time we started realizing we are also powerful and we have a weapon they hate. The truth.

Human beings have an innate sense of the truth. We know when we are being bullshitted, if we are paying attention. If we are paying attention. Because a lot of people are not. They even seem to take pride in their ignorance. But that has a way of catching up to you.

I’m glad I’m not a historian of current events. It would be overwhelming and, as a student of history, I know that we don’t have context for events when they are taking place. Not even close. For example, the lens we use to look at today’s events, years from now, is going to be very different.

I suspect the overriding thing we will see is the lack of climate change as being a major driver of political choices and popular mood changes. But that may be my current bias. History will tell. But right now it looks like President Trump will be faced with some very difficult climate issues, like the burning of major cities.

We know he sees disasters as distractions that take eyeballs away from him, not as humanitarian problems. He only sees these catastrophes as opportunities to attack his perceived enemies, including those who might have recently been friends. The man trusts nothing and no one.

So, the cold. On Monday we know the size of the crowd will be on Trump’s mind but the temps will be in the low twenties and the wind chill or Real Feel or whatever will be half that. So maybe MAGA will stay home where it’s warm and Don will have a non-event.

I’m pretty sure there won’t be any poetry readings. Which tells us a lot about the near future. Not a lot of poetry ahead.

And that may be the failure of this incoming administration. All of their plans are based on fear, anger, and revenge. Nothing forward looking, nothing positive for the American people. Just greed and retribution. And paranoia.

Honestly it’s exhausting to think about. And that is another possible path to their downfall. They may just wear out their welcome by exhausting us with their constant victimhood. We all know those victim people where everything is someone else’s fault and how quickly that gets tiresome.

The best resistance DC can offer on Monday is Michelle’s resistance and Nancy Pelosi’s resistance: simply don’t show up. Don’t show any respect for the office. Don’t empower a rabid dog. Simply ignore him. For a narcissist and a sociopath that is the worst response.

Donald Trump needs to know, on day one, that he did not win big, he just pulled off another con. And not by much. And the Democrats need to grow some balls and realize they still have a lot of power. Trump’s ‘mandate’ is razor thin and he is not making friends. Only toadies.

Ass kissers have no loyalty. You’d think Trump would know that by now but he needs them, on any terms. Those who are pretending his choices for the Cabinet nominations are competent are telling us how well he has played his game. No GOP congressperson has shown any independence, but I refuse to believe every one of them is mesmerized by this fool.

Though I may be a hopeless optimist. That optimism is my resistance, along with these writings. I hope Don freezes his ass off on Monday while seeing a tiny crowd of toadies and chumps cheering him on.

I won’t be watching the inauguration but I will be curious to hear who from the Democrats shows up. If we have one fault right now it is we are too nice and that has to stop. Trump has done nothing to earn anyone’s respect, yet there are those in Congress that feel that because he is the incoming President he should get some.

We know he would not return the favor.

Yesterday we saw Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket have a successful unmanned flight. We also saw Elon Musk’s launch fail and blow up over the Caribbean. And we heard MAGA king Steve Bannon launch more attacks on Musk while Musk refers to MAGA as ‘subtards’. So great to see them getting along so nicely.

Maybe they will get seated together on the big day. As I watched the SpaceX rocket blow up, the metaphors began flying. It seems inevitable that the Musk/Trump partnership do the same. The first stage got off the ground but the second…

We officially start a new era in American politics on Monday. This is not the first Trump administration. They’re organized this time around and we need to step up in opposition every chance we get. During these last days, Biden is trying to lock in as much policy as he can in an attempt to protect some of his accomplishments from the Trump guillotine.

But that blade will fall and fall indiscriminately.

The Bannon/Musk feud offers a ray of hope because it tells us that there will be a lot of infighting amongst Trump’s supporters. Another sign was Trump ordering House Speaker Johnson to kick the Republican chair of the Intelligence committee, Mike Turner, off the team. Apparently Turner is a fan of NATO and a Ukraine hawk. The move shocked a lot of old school Republicans. And it showed a stunning disregard for competence and experience in a critical role.

During the first Trump term we saw a revolving door in the White House as he gradually kicked out anyone with ideas of their own. But it took years to chase away all the competent people. This time around they will be cleaning house and making enemies left and right, from day one, a cold day in January.

There will be a lot of cold days ahead in DC.

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Martin Edic