Triumph of the Trolls

I woke up this morning to the news that Donald Trump is President-Elect.

Fuck.

I haven't looked at any news or opinion pieces about this yet, but I do have some thoughts.

The Blame

• Voter suppression tactics in numerous states, aimed towards minorities.
  
• The media, for trying to make the race "even", by weighing Trump's many many sins, against a lot of manufactured hearsay about Clinton. You hear people say "Crooked Hillary" enough, and you start to believe there's something to it, despite the lack of evidence. Now, the fact that Clinton lost will be cited as evidence that she must have been crooked.
  
• The FBI. Seriously? WTF.
  
• Third-party voters who think that voting is akin to some kind of consumer activity, rather than a civic duty.
  
• Political tribesmen, who think that political parties are like the local sports team, and you have to root for them, because you've always rooted for them.
  
• But most of all, I think we can blame the fact that there are simply a lot of misogynistic, racist, authoritarian assholes, and those people looked at Trump, warts and all, and said "I want him to be president".

Some random thoughts...

The Supreme Court is going to go conservative. The deciding vote is going to be a Trump nominee, and a lot of the Justices are getting old. Maybe Ruth Bader Ginsberg can last another four years, maybe not. Maybe Trump will nominate his sister.

Kiss goodbye to any progressive actions of the last eight years. I fully expect the Affordable Care Act to be effectively abolished in the next two years. Oh, maybe there'll be something called that, and there'll still be a requirement to buy health insurance; you just won't get anything for it. It'll be a tax payable to corporations.

Some pissant little country is going to get thrown up against the wall, just to show the world that Trump means business. I really hope it's not us.

That said, Trump is going to use the political machinery to go after his enemies, of which there are many, because he views anyone who disagrees with him, or makes fun of him, as the enemy. The difference between him and Nixon is that Nixon tried to keep it secret and got impeached for it. Trump will likely be quite open about it, and be praised for it.

I really feel sorry for the women who came forward about Trump's assaulting them. Maybe you'll have a case for immigrating to Canada based on persecution?

The Republican Party still can't stand the guy. They'll be fine with working with him, just like they were fine with voting for him, so long as he signs anything Paul Ryan puts on his desk. If he doesn't, I think they'll be happy to impeach him and get behind Pence. At no point will a fight between Trump and the Republican party mean a relaxation of their being awful to America.

Finally, I really did think "Do you want to write this? You could have jack-booted thugs coming to your door in a few years." Ultimately, I decided, what the hell - If things ever get that bad, they'll be plenty of things I've written over the years that will get me shot. It's too late to worry about that now.

Here's to hoping he's just a Berlusconi, and not a Mussolini.

The Monarch

While I was in Vancouver, othelianna showed me this awesome thrift store frequented by assorted props people. That being the case, it had some great finds. Hell, I could have bought a stuffed Cheetah.

One of the things I walked out with was a little ceramic booze bottle I've decided to add my collection:


Naturally, the whisky is long gone (in the hands of props folk, this is to be expected). But I don't like having empty bottles in my collection, so I figured I'd just go to the liquor store and pick up a full-sized bottle of The Monarch and decant a bit of it into the little bottle. Turns out, that's a lot easier said than done, and discovering that lead me down a fascinating rabbit hole.

First, the Lambert Brothers were whisky merchants in Edinburgh from 1849 to 1993, actually incorporating in 1958. I'm not sure if they just had a liquor store, or if they were some kind of middlemen for the whisky trade. Given they had several varieties of blended whisky, I lean to the latter.

Despite not being around for over twenty years, you can still get full bottles of The Monarch. I saw two recent auctions where a full bottle went for £65, and $49 USD. If I really wanted one, I could get it, though this would mean sticking my toe into the world of liquor auctions.

I'm not really into devoting that much time to this. I might, if I were a whisky drinker, but I really lack the palette for that. I'll stick to rum.

So I figured I'd just buy a bottle of blended whisky. Only constraint: It had to be Scotch, and it had to be blended. I opted for a Dewar's White Label. Later, when doing more research, I found out that Dewar's (actually, Bacardi, who own the Dewar's brand), had a blended scotch called... The Monarch. The difference appears to be 3% and twice the money. So I have a whisky for the bottle. Not the whisky, or a namesake whisky, just a whisky.

About that bottle. It's a gorgeous single serving (or maybe two, it's in the neighbourhood of 50ml) stonewear bottle. And I found out that if you have one in perfect condition, you can sell it for £45! Taking a close look at mine, it's not perfect, but it is very nice. There's a fine lattice of tiny cracks in the enamel. Not that I plan on selling mine
- really, I just want to display it, and I feel that it should be displayed with booze in it.

Having acquired the bottle and the booze, I just need to decant some whisky - and maybe taste test it. ;) Last obstacle is the cork, which has dried up over the years (though it has a nice caramel scent to it). It's soaking in some hot water, and I'll see if it makes a seal tomorrow morning. Once it can, I'll be done.