Jess Lahitou

The blatant promise of a career in the spotlight has stripped the Bachelor/Bachelorette of its beautiful, benign lie: that we could watch “regular” people navigate the perils and pitfalls of modern dating, that such a quest was in and of itself enough, and that a happy ending was a real possibility.

This last Friday happened to be the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

Last night was the first chance American voters had to hand tangible results to 2016 presidential candidates.

During last Wednesday night’s CNN Republican Presidential Debate, moderator Jake Tapper gave the ultimate softball question: What woman would you put on the ten-dollar bill? Instead, answers ranged from decent to head-scratching to laughable to flat-out embarrassing.

Prejudice against women has existed in this country since its very inception. Indeed, prejudice against women has existed throughout all of history, long predating the presence of America, and sexism continues on unabated today, in most parts of the world. And it goes mostly unaddressed, much less eradicated.

This is the first time I’ve seen a sitting president “spin” a clear military defeat to save his own ego, and use a bereft and heartbroken wife in order to get away with it. Disgust is not the right word. Horror, maybe. Disbelief and revulsion crashing into each other.

It’s early 2008 in Iowa. Hillary Clinton had been leading in the early polls, but her numbers have been steadily dropping when she is suddenly – shockingly – bested by a young, almost unknown senator from Illinois.

Most Likely To Succeed: Carly Fiorina. One word: Yowza! On top of being the only candidate to move up from Fox’s conciliation debate to CNN’s main stage, Carly Fiorina kicked absolute butt. She went after Donald Trump, Chris Christie, every prominent Democrat, not to mention political pandering to women. Pundits agree: Fiorina won it.

Tim Kaine and Mike Pence both showed themselves superior to their presidential ticket counterparts. Ouch.

As Tom Nichols puts it, ignorance has now become a "virtue." And it takes a whole lot of it to claim you can learn 'everything' about a complex subject - like, say, nuclear weapons - in roughly 90 minutes.