Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Here is a short column about Barack Obama. In nine weeks, our long national nightmare will be over. Historians will call this the Era of Bad Feelings.

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To the editor:

Like many stunned progressives, I’m struggling with grief. I’m fearful for the economy, the environment and the message we’re sending about values and compassion. But perhaps a President Trump won’t be apocalyptic after all. (“What to make of Trump one week in: He's unpredictable and keeping his options open,” Nov. 16)

Trump now plans to keep some of the important parts of Obamacare and improve upon it. He’s promoting infrastructure spending to stimulate job growth. He won’t cut Social Security and Medicare.

Unfortunately, he also wants tax cuts for the wealthy, exacerbating our massive federal debt. He’s undeniably our climate change denier in chief. Years from now our grandchildren will look back at our generation, incredulous over why we didn’t do more when we could.

Trump is more of a populist than a traditional conservative who wants to please the moderate majority. I’m optimistic the millennials will continue moving the ball down the field, and time is on their side.

Steve Vigil, La Jolla

Note from KBJ: Poor Steve Vigil, "struggling with grief." Many of us struggling to contain our joy.

Two days ago, my ride of 34.3 miles put me over the 90,000-mile mark for all-time riding. (I've been riding since August 1981.) Today's ride, which gives me 5,601.2 miles for the year, pushed it to 90,062.3 miles. The Earth is 24,901.55 miles in circumference at the Equator, so you might say that I've ridden around the world 3.61 times. Today's ride was wonderful. The cool temperatures (54º to 57º Fahrenheit) and high wind (22 miles per hour when I left the house and 21 miles per hour when I returned) kept most cyclists off the trail. The sunshine was glorious. I can't wait to ride again tomorrow.

A player on a fourth-place team (12th-best of 15 teams in the league) won the Most Valuable Player award. Disgraceful.

Here.

Here.

This column by Monica Crowley is brilliant. I completely agree (and have been saying) that Barack Obama is an aberration in American politics. He was elected not because he was experienced (or even competent) in governance, but because white people wanted to prove to themselves and their friends that they weren't racist. "How can I be racist when I just voted for the dark-skinned guy?" Obama, a narcissist, mistook the self-loathing white vote as support for his beliefs and values and proceeded to transform the country. Thank God he failed in many of his attempts. Donald Trump will return the country to its fundamental principles and values, the main one being the rule of law, which for Obama was an obstacle to be overcome rather than an ideal to be realized.

The maps in this story are pretty cool.