Decline and Fall

L

ooks like it’s time to say goodbye to freedom and greatness and all things good and beautiful as we bid a fond farewell to the last president of our republic and welcome in the first Kaiser of our new Amerikan Empire. As the Groper and the Golddigger take possession of the White House a host of stunningly incompetent people likewise prepare to move into positions they are manifestly unqualified for. A governor who ran his state into the ground is to ride herd on the Empire’s nuclear arsenal, a woman whose ignorance knows no bounds will take charge of educating Amerikan youth, a guy who doesn’t know if lead in drinking water is dangerous will keep our environment safe—what does this tell you? When the guys who’ve just taken over your airliner turn out to have no knowledge of how to land a plane it’s kind of a clue that they have no intention of bringing the thing down safely.

Given the level of incompetency in the incoming administration it’s a fairly safe bet that their Empire is not going to have the shelf-life of the Roman version, let alone the juggernaut that the Confucian bureaucrats kept going for century after century. How long before our favorite pussy-grabber flies the airship of state into the Trump Tower is anybody’s guess, but I’d guess sooner rather than later. Our best hope as passengers, I suppose, will be to go out like Flight 93 rather than (say) Flight 77, but it isn’t going to matter much to those of us who don’t survive the debacle. Personally I hope, like the anonymous reporter watching the Martian machines wade across the Hudson, to cover the whole terrible spectacle until I drop dead from the fumes, but I doubt I’ll be so lucky. Euthanasia’s too good for the likes of us. No, in the Groper’s Amerika it’s going to be a lingering dysthanasia—or a quick and painful oblivion.

This is the Old Rational Ranter, reporting from Sheol, signing off. Good bye—and good luck. We’re all going to need it.