I want to see the orange clown's tax returns so we can tell if there is a conflict of interest

Fair enough, Lee, except the "none other" part. Indeed, where have you been all these years? A university professor, I watched a half dozen colleges and universities devolve into Animal House with nary a peep from Donald Trump. In 1965, my university had curfew for both men and women. Our curfew went first, and then the women's, followed by co-ed dorms soon after I graduated.

Now, I am supposed to believe that these very same institutions, led by the Democratic Party, want to "protect" their women from the likes of Donald Trump? Don't make this old professor laugh.

As for consensual sex, you can't have that, either, that is, not without the permission of some bureaucrat. In 1999, I sued the University of Washington for age and sex discrimination, followed by my case for tenure fraud. In its defense, the university immediately reached for the sex card, accusing me of having slept with my students. I did sleep with one--the one I married, who was both 29 when I met her and lived with her parents at home. But no, the university claimed the right to be her parents, in which case I was just a common philanderer rather than a professor with the right to marry.

Sex is not the issue here; power is. The Democrats are not mad at Trump for his indiscretions, all of which their leaders share. They are rather mad that he survived them no matter how hard they "reported" it. After all, in reporting it they hoped to discount the fact that a newspaper is not a court of law. The American people saw that style of reporting for what it is--another media witch hunt. No doubt, the witch was guilty--and in part admitted it. OJ finally admitted it, too [If I Did It]. But did you really want either verdict coming from the press?

We're not a reality show? But we are, and finally, enough Americans saw past the screen. Peggy Noonan is right about Trump; she's just only half right about the country. We're all insane--obsessed with "winning," no matter whom or what that brings down.
Ted Van Dyk is not telling us to "like" Donald Trump. He is simply reminding us that the greatest threat to our democracy is institutions pretending to be courts of law. As I recall, President Trump stepped back the moment Washington state sued his immigration directive in a real court of law. I only wish a similar court had protected me, but then, every white male is guilty of something. So why not just cut to the chase?

Because I am a Democrat, I find all of it despicable. That is not how any side--and especially my side--is supposed to win. One day, the rock-throwing students at Harvard, Yale, and Berkeley will realize they have been duped, as well. They did not get the educations they deserved--or paid for. They were simply rewarded for being pawns of professors too lazy to teach.

It is not that we Democrats are wrong, per se. It is rather that we keep reliving the 1960s as if only we have a proper take on events. All you say about Trump is true, at least, true insofar as there is proof. But then, that remains for a court of law. As for the claim that we Democrats may be biologically different--above all sexual and moral sins--history does assure us that we aren't.

I agree with much of what you say, Alfred.  I've been entirely disgusted with much of the devolution of American common sense and morality.

But I also think you have fallen for at least some of the nonsense that rattles around inside the echo chambers on both sides of the fence.

We all need to make sincere efforts to read and listen to everything we can from as many divergent sources and points of view as possible.

Too many take the easy way out and listen or read only a few favorite sources.  That's like gluing a one pound weight to one blade of your propeller and trying to take off.  You'll crash as soon as your wheels leave the ground -- if you even make it all the way down the runway.

"We all need to make sincere efforts to read and listen to everything we can from as many divergent sources and points of view as possible."

To be sure, this statement is every historian's creed, that is, if he or she hopes to write definitive histories. I spend half my day doing research, the other half trying to make sense of it, including at least three hours of uninterrupted writing. My current project, a second edition of my history of Yosemite, is again proving no easy task. My God! Have you seen all of the environmental impact statements that place has produced in the past 15 years? And yes, they have to be read and analyzed. Computers help with finding the documents, but you still have to read them, or else your book will not be definitive.

My point is to assure you that we agree. Don't think for a moment that I ignore any source just because I quote a few of my favorites. On the contemporary scene, Peggy Noonan remains one of my favorites because she so frequently nails it on the head--and does so in the highest traditions of effective writing, relying almost exlusively on nouns and verbs. Early last year, when she started analyzing why Trump had a chance, I started paying attention. Ms. Noonan, you said it. No one in the Establishment, Republican or Democrat, understands why the middle class is hurting. You can't give their jobs away and expect them to keep voting for you based on slogans they know have failed.

I read the New York Times, but I don't think they get it. They're not the paper they were in the past. As for the television networks, well, pick your $15 million hairdo. What does he or she know about a diversity of sources? I've been interviewed by all of the big television networks, including NIGHTLINE, THE TODAY SHOW, and 48 HOURS. It was fun, and very ego-building, but first and foremost it was meant to be a show. If the ratings slip, the show is gone.

In Ted Van Dyk's article yesterday, he further reminded us that the press made Donald Trump. They gave him all of the attention because their ratings soared. It was Peggy Noonan who kept explaining why. If you live in The Swamp, you just might get the Swamp Thing. If you don't start paying attention to who is hurting again, the backlash will be severe.

Having been personally hurt by people living in the swamp called universities, I could smell it coming a mile away. This time, the political parties don't mean a thing. You can talk about race, class, gender, and diversity, and march on Washington all you want. It's too late. You went to the swamp once too often, and now the people are angry.

Tell you what, Lee. Let's change places. You move to Washington State and I'll move to Utah. Do you think "conditions" are any better here because we pretend to be a "liberal" state? We're blue, all right, but in the end, our government, too, is just another bureaucracy. When confronted with a choice between what is good for the people or the bureaucracy, the bureaucracy chooses itself every time.

So, we'll keep tilting at the windmills, right? After all, we're retired now with nothing else to do. Ha!

Yup, Alfred.  There ain't any place that's safe any more.  (If there ever was one.)

Us retirees need to lead the charge.  If nothing else, it helps fill empty time.

But those darned windmill paddle wheels sure hurt when they knock you off that poor ol' horse time and again.

Thank goodness for Excedrin.

"Young Scholar," is it? What have you written? Probably nothing but a plagiarized term paper, right? Okay, you bought it on the Internet, so it wasn't technically plagiarized. But I still doubt it was your own work.

How can I tell? You're the one telling me. Not an insult in your post is original to you.

To the contrary, young people have not ruined the Pacific Northwest. But yes, their universities have been ruined for them by a bureaucracy allowing them to escape a real education. Ask those bureaucrats how many classes they teach.

So, pony up your tuition and don't complain. As for your professors, now likely part-timers, they won't be making much time for you. At best, they're getting just $3.000 to teach a course. No benefits or retirement, either. And certainly precious little time to write even second-rate books. In contrast, the president of the University of Washington gets $1 million annually and a state-supported, 35-room mansion. And did I mention the chauffeured limousine?

I haven't counted, but is that 500 words? In either case, write Governor Inslee and ask for your money back, because yes, Young Scholar, you've been had. At least Bernie Sanders knew to make college "free" because most of it is no longer worth a dime. Medical school? Law school? Business school? All themselves are worthless if you never learn to be original, rather to rely on the charge that your critics are "old, white dudes." 

So, dude, what's next for you?  McDonald's or the car wash? Don't laugh, Young Scholar, unless your parents are rich and can afford your living in the basement forever. The point is: That never happened when we "old, white dudes" ran the country. Now that political correctness substitutes for merit everywhere, you are the proof of what we get.

Proud of yourself? For what? If you believed in what you have achieved, and yes, honored achievement in others, you would have opened your post by signing your name.