I just got back from the future.

Here's what happened, Part I

Lots of people hated Hillary and voted for Trump just because they couldn't stomach Hills. Lots of others voted for Jill Stein and some guy named Johnson. It turned out Nate Silver was right. In a close election Trump actually won. Maybe it was because it was revealed that the Clinton Foundation was a front for all sorts of crooked activity, mostly money grabbing. Maybe it was because people found out that the Clintons personally profited from deals made while she was Secretary of State. That was an interesting turn of events as Hillary supporters shrugged it off, saying "everyone knew about it. That's old news and besides, Colin Powell made money, too, off of being Secretary of State". When it was pointed out that Powell made his money after his stint, the Hillbots continued to insist it was the same thing.

Whatever caused it, it translated into Trump taking Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. Those additional electoral votes gave Trump a 273-265 win. There was immediate panic in some circles. Although Clinton had had her share of scandals it was Bernie Sanders who got most of the blame, along with "JtC", a formerly little known blog adminstrator. Stocks fluctuated wildly from November through January as we all waited to see what would happen in a Trump Presidency.

True to his campaign, the new President sent legislation to Congress calling for reduced taxes for businesses. He took his time about that "wall" thing, though. He mentioned it a few times, then let it slide. He also realized that the religious test he'd talked about, restricting Muslims from entering the country, was too unwieldy, and so that was abandoned.

Still, the economic policies, President Trump's real objective, put a strain on ordinary working people. As their share of available cash fell they were unable to pay mortgages or their new, recently raised rents. Homelessness got way out of control, even worse than it had been in 2016. Crime rose, especially burglary. President Trump called out the National Guard, leading to the infamous "Springfield Incident". That sparked national protests, culminating in the New March on Washington. The media, safely behind the Guard (supplemented by the US Army), described the homeless, hungry marchers as "rioters" who "needed to be stopped" as New York Times writer, Paul Krugman, said.

Things continued to get worse. Marches and rallies seemed to be going on all the time. The new poor were angry because they could no longer afford their SUVs. The auto companies became nervous because their sales plummeted. The banks owned more and more property after the foreclosures but could only sell them to foreigners. Rightwingers grew irate that their hero, who'd promised to make America great again, had caused so much real estate to fall into foreign hands.

When Trump lost the rightwingers he lost the Army. Seeing that there were three more years of this still to come, the Army took over. A frightened Congress reversed many of the new policies. Trump himself languished in jail, believing himself to be Napoleon.

Here's what happened, Part II

There wasn't much of a contest for the Presidency. By the time October came around Trump's numbers were so bad that no Republican except Mike Pence would appear with him. Hillary cruised to victory, 448-87. With her easy win the Democrats retook the Senate which was expected, but also the House, which was not. However, true to form, the Democrats declined to take advantage of this situation, explaining that it "wouldn't be nice" to push their agenda as long as anyone in the country disagreed with it.

Madame President's first act was to re-nominate Merrick Garland, Obama's choice for the Supreme Court. The Republicans, overjoyed that she didn't have a new pick, one more liberal, jumped at the opportunity and confirmed Garland. Next, in a "bipartisan spirit", she reduced taxes on multimillionaires. When it was pointed out that she and her husband were in that group she shrugged it off and kept talking about something else. That "something else" was the danger that Iran was posing to the rest of the world. When Hassan Rouhani objected to the tone of Hillary's talk she used it as an excuse to bomb the Bushehr nuclear power plant. Unfortunately the whole thing exploded in what became known as "The Foreign Workers Swimming Beach Incident".

Meanwhile, at home, those who'd supported Sanders, or even Trump, were labeled "treasonous" for disagreeing with the Iran bombing. Just as at the Democratic Convention, when those who'd had Sanders signs were threatened with arrest, so too were demonstrators now if they carried signs against Madame President's policies. Many who had been through the primary campaigns of 2016 believed that "the revolution had to continue". The Clinton Administration seized on the word "revolution" and had thousands thrown in jail. The new Attorney General, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, called the protestors "un-American" and said "we should treat them as we would any other mongrel dog who needs to be put out of his misery".

Those opposed to the reckless foreign policy looked to the US Army for help but the military liked what was happening and prepared to lock up more "lefties".

Meanwhile, Russia had had enough. Furious over the Iran bombing, Putin, working behind the scenes, formed an alliance with China and what was left of the European Union. Realizing that simple retaliation (i.e. bombing an American power plant) would only lead to an American attack, the new alliance went straight for the target and blew up Washington, DC. Unfortunately the plan didn't work out the way they'd hoped, as the US then blew up the rest of the world.

However, the survivors were at last able to assert local control.

Here's what happened, Part III

Either Hillary or Trump won, doesn't matter which. The country prepared for disaster. The new President entered office and found it easy to get legislation passed that helped rich people but he/she was unable to build a wall/make college free for those households making less than $85,000 a year. Our military was either "our brave heroes" or "a great bunch of guys and gals. I love 'em!" and was allowed to pursue whatever adventures it wanted.

Eventually the next deep recession hit. It was the fault of either Democrats or Republicans. We got through it, though, and entered the winter of 2019 excited about the possibilities of the next election. This time, for sure, we'd elect a true Conservative....or a real Liberal. For after all, hadn't the 2016 election shown that the candidate of our party (R or D) was the wrong choice? Surely that was a lesson learned and we'd win the next time out.

And now, on another topic....Bernie's super-secret plan:

As we know, Bernie had a secret plan to win the nomination that began with his acknowledging defeat in the primaries. His clever "false endorsement" was his way of making sure he could get to the convention where he'd wrest the nomination with his speech. That speech, as we figured, would rip Hillary. Finally Bernie would care about those emails! And since Comey was going to indict Hillary it would be no problem getting those superdelegates to swith.

And when he told us that Hillary shared many of his views and that he'd pushed her leftward we knew that it was a way of holding her to it. No way she could backtrack on this now! Bernie kept silent about Kaine and the TPP and all that because of his super-secret plan! And here it is....!!!

Bernie knows that Julian Assange has lots more emails. Bernie knows that when it was revealed that Thomas Eagleton had had shock therapy, that even though Eagleton had been nominated (!!) he was still replaced on the McGovern ticket. Bernie, realizing that the worst is yet to come for Hillary, knowing that he came in second at the convention, knowing that the Democratic Party has to turn to him when it gets too hot for Hillary, is saving his money for the October Blitz, once he replaces her. He knows that he has to accept Kaine as his VP but that's ok. He can replace Kaine for the 2020 race. And he won't pick that no-good Elizabeth Warren either! His super-secret VP pick for 2020 will be (I've been told) JtC, a relatively unknown blog administrator.

And now, some liquid refreshment...

The Kingston Trio

Jimmy Rogers

The Kinks

The Fireballs

Squeeze