WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016
Today’s Good News And Bad News
From Our Local Political Junkie We’ll Call “Cincy Dave”

ONE FOR THE HISTORY BOOKS
History was made last night, but not in a way that people expected. It was the first time that a “Mister” was elected president. A person that had never held any public office, who was not a governor, senator, congressman, cabinet secretary or military general, and therefore had no honorary title other than Mister. What some of his party might call a true “amateur”.

It was a crazy election campaign, ending in a result almost no one expected. The pollsters were wrong, the political pundits were wrong, the bookies were wrong, and we guessed wrong. Even most politicians were wrong. Jeb Bush was probably the most wrong – He told Trump that you can’t insult your way to the White House but it turned out that he could. The army of undereducated, angry old white guys really did exist, and came out to vote. Trump was wrong too – The election was not rigged as he claimed. That’s good news, although almost nobody on either side really believed it was going to be rigged. The old white guys wanted to shake things up and they did, so nobody knows what’s going to happen now. But here’s some other good news and bad news.

BAD NEWS FOR VOTERS
For the second time in the last five elections, the candidate preferred by the majority of voters did not win. The electoral vote system is a relic but will be difficult to change. It is undemocratic to have a small state voters’ vote count way more than a large state voters’.

GOOD NEWS FOR VOTERS
No one had to ask Hillary if she would accept the results of the election.

GOOD NEWS FOR RUSSIA
Putin awoke near the end of last night’s election coverage (morning in Moscow) to discover that he will have a friend in the White House. Now he can get back to work recreating the Soviet Union, a little bit at a time. Our NATO allies are very nervous. Ukraine must be sweating blood right now, as they are likely to become the modern equivalent of a Soviet Republic or be completely absorbed into the Russian Federation. Crimea was just the beginning. Putin also had the satisfaction of knowing that his hackers probably had some effect on our election.

GOOD NEWS FOR COMEY
FBI Director James Comey may get to keep his job for now. He probably had a lot to do with Hillary’s defeat but even if Obama fired him, the Senate would not confirm a replacement and he could be reinstated in January.

GOOD NEWS FOR BREITBART AND WHITE SUPREMACISTS
Breitbart had a lot to do with promoting The Donald in the ranks of white supremacists and now they will probably have one of their own, Steve Bannon, on the inside of the administration. What effect this will have on civil rights or anything similar is unknown.

BAD NEWS FOR THE STOCK MARKET
As expected, the markets were off sharply last night, including global markets, before recovering today. It is unknown what the long term global effect will be. They are very worried that Trump’s promise to slap large tariffs on imported goods, if implemented, is likely to set off a trade war. That is exactly what led to the Great Depression of the ‘30s. Hopefully, congress will not pass such bills, but you never know. Maybe it was just some more of Trump’s empty talk. Some Wall Street people are expecting a recession, just based on the uncertainty.

BAD NEWS FOR THE GUN LOBBY
Now they won’t be able to claim that the president is coming to take away everyone’s guns, just to drive up gun sales. Sales should stagnate as there are already more guns than people in the US.

BAD NEWS FOR OBAMACARE
There’s a good chance that ObamaCare will cease to exist if Trump and the Republican Party follow up on their promise. This will affect a lot of people that may have voted for The Donald. Even those who have employer-paid health care could feel some effects because, although they don’t know it, they have Obamacare too. Under Obamacare, all heath insurance policies have to meet minimum standards of coverage, such as no lifetime maximum, no pre-existing conditions, no dropping clients, etc. Also, they have to spend 80 percent of their income on actual healthcare. With Obamacare out of the way, we will be back to junk insurance were the companies can drop anyone if they file a claim, or pay so little that it is a joke. When the people who have subsidized Obamacare are cut off, there is liable to be quite a bit of buyer’s remorse about the election.

BAD NEWS FOR IMMIGRANTS
They have to worry how soon the immigration agents will knock on their doors, breaking up their families. Many may have to hide in attics during the day.

GOOD NEWS FOR CHRIS CHRISTIE
Being Trump’s gofer may pay off big time if he is indicted over the bridgegate scandal. Trump can now pardon him or quash the indictment.

GOOD NEWS FOR CARTOONISTS
Also for parodies like SNL. They haven’t had such a character in a long time. Their work will practically be done for them.

Thanks to everyone that bothered to read this stuff. It’s been fun writing it. We may be around again sometime later.