In the land of never enough

Kareem Abdul Jabbar knows what time it is:

The worst president in U.S. history is about to be sworn in again because, as philosopher George Santayana said, those who cannot learn from history are condemned to repeat it. The fact that Trump is even more doddering, rambling, and incoherent than before is an even greater cause for concern. His selections so far are incompetent loyalists for his cabinet, for diplomats, and key administrative posts are beyond cause for concern, they are cause for trembling.

... At the last Trump inauguration, there was a very public controversy as his press secretary lied about the size of the crowd in attendance. Trump tried to claim the crowd was larger than Obama’s but news reports and photos comparing the crowds proved otherwise.

This time around, Trump wants to make a big public splash to show how extensive his support is because that’s important to people who choose their morals based on popularity. 

To help bolster this inauguration, tech billionaires have donated millions (to pay people to show up?). These wealthy business tycoons have read the room and realize Trump’s favor is for sale (“Tech moguls Altman, Bezos and Zuckerberg donate to Trump's inauguration fund”). Their billions make them untouchable to the concerns of the people or the threat to democracy. At one point in the past, I had hopes that these men would be opposition leaders, but they turned out to be collaborators. 

Because no matter how much money they have, it’s never enough.

Kareem is a man of principle, of convictions hard elaborated on the basis of experience and rational thought. 

For the time being, we've chosen to be led by another kind of people (mostly men) -- shallow figures awed by wealth including especially their own. However powerful, the oligarchs celebrating today form a brittle assemblage of ignorance and greed which will shatter on contact with reality. (How many of them had homes in Pacific Palisades?) Let's do what we can to protect who we can from the trail of carnage they will leave in their wake.