Right on schedule, Trump actually went.  I’m at least a little surprised.  So now that it’s actually over, let’s look back a bit at the Trump regime, and then take a look at what’s to come.

I will give credit where credit is due. Much as Obama had 3 1/2 good things in his 8 years (rapprochement with Iran and Cuba, having the DOJ prosecute corrupt cops, and being around when the Supreme Court handed down Obergfell), Trump had, by my reckoning, 1 and 2 small fractions good things. The tax code is slightly simpler for a lot of people. There was a bit of rapprochement with North Korea. And, though it probably pained him to tell the truth about something as much as it pains me to admit it, Trump was more or less right when he said he started no new wars. This makes him the first US president since Warren G. Harding not to do so-and before that it was Grover Cleveland.

And the fact that this is actually a major, not-in-a-century accomplishment says a lot about just how far we’ve fallen.

Now let’s look at the awful. While not a completely comprehensive list, some of the especially egregious lowlights include, in no particular order…

• escalating current wars, and continuing to fund other countries’ terrible wars, most notably the increase in drone strikes and funding Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen
• a completely botched response to Covid, including denial and using it to sell cheap racism. And yeah, we can argue over what the response should have been, and there’s plenty of systemic garbage in the US that artificially constrains supply and drives up prices of healthcare, but Trump still completely bumbled this one.
• using federal troops on protestors multiple times
• not pardoning whistleblowers and those who revealed corruption and war crimes (Trump, Manning, Assange, and Reality Winner, and we’ll honorarily throw Ross Ulbricht on that pile)
  • and on that note, egregious use of the pardon power to protect some of his worst cronies
• xenophobia, and making our insane, inhumane immigration system even more insane and inhumane
• the stupidest trade war in United States history
• massive amounts of corporate welfare (and making me agree with Robert Reich)
• increasing the national debt
• a level of venal corruption that would make Harding or Grant blush
• openly praising racists and literal Nazis, and giving cultural sanction to some of the worst instincts of the American polity
• the trans ban in the military
• inciting an insurrection for reasons completely divorced from reality and having no moral legitimacy
• and implementing more gun control than Obama

Worst president ever? Eh. As I’ve said before, we still have Wilson and Jackson in our history, so maybe not. But Donald J. Trump, you were still complete shit who did a lot of things that ranged from awful to outright evil. You will not be missed, please let the door hit you upside the head on your way out, and I hope against hope that you were the one that was finally egregious enough to convince a Senate or a jury to convict your sorry ass and set a precedent of accountability for all of your successors.
@#^! you, and good @#6!ing riddance.

So with Trump actually out of the way, how about the new boss?  I hope I’m wrong about Biden. I hope he decides not to be a warmongering jackass with a cop sidekick. I hope his immigration proposal goes through. I hope he backs off/forgets about/gives it up in exchange for money to prosecute corrupt cops/is defeated in court his gun control plan. I hope he ends the trade war. I hope he ends the drug war. I hope having a president that only votes for racist legislation and says racist things on occasion improves things over someone who signs racist legislation and says racist things every day. I hope he magically decides to tear down the insane system of subsidies, bailouts, and other corporate welfare that strangles our populace. I hope that talking to other countries in complete sentences again might increase the chance of peace in the world and reduce the US’s elected class’ appetite for war. I hope that maybe someone will be able to sneak pardons for the most important whistleblowers of our age past him. I hope that someone around him will say something to the effect of “Hey! 27 trillion in debt is kind of a bad idea!”.

I had similar hopes for Obama too. But much like Obama’s record made me very skeptical about the reality to come (and I was essentially 100% right), Biden’s record does not inspire.

Sure, @#^! Trump, I’m glad he’s gone, and I’m glad peaceful transfer of power is still a thing around here. But expecting much different from Biden where it counts? I’m not holding my breath.