You’ve. Got. To. Be. Kidding.

This morning (Madrid time) I tried to put a little humor into the situation resourcing to the old meme, but the simple truth is that today brings terrible news. The most important country in the world has elected as its leader a psychopath, somebody who represents the very definition of populism, a man who many of us thought was a bad joke that would soon go away.

What’s more, he’s been given pretty much omnipotence: not only is Donald Trump now the 45th president of the United States, but he also has the Republican Party, which if not his party, is now his partner in crime, behind him with a majority in both the House and the Senate. This is no laughing matter. This psychopath homophobic, racist, inmoral and arrogant lunatic who mocks the most important problem of our time, climate change, now has, among many other things, control of the nuclear button, what’s more, he can’t wait to get his hands on it.

A few days ago, talking to a Spanish-American friend who works in the tech industry, he told me that the only thing that could actually slow down technological progress was … Donald Trump in the White House.

This is not some Nassim Taleb’s black swan: this is the entire sky filled with them, along with all kinds of other birds of ill omen. I can’t think of anything good that might come out of this. I’m sorry to have to fall foul of Godwin’s Law, also known as reductio ad Hitlerum, but this tweet says it all.

This is one of those situations when you see somebody about to make a terrible mistake… only in this case, it’s 324 million people. Hillary Clinton, who beat?—?not in a very clean and transparent way?—?a Bernie Sanders who may have had a better chance of winning, did at least garner more votes, like Al Gore, but that is little consolation, a bit like losing a soccer match despite having more possession and shots on goal…

In rapid succession the Anglo-Saxon world has made two huge mistakes, one on either side of the pond: Brexit and electing Donald Trump. Both will have very important global repercussions, both question our democratic systems, showing that populism is the cancer of democracy, and both are major missteps and indicators of some serious problems coming up. I wonder if we fully understand the gravity of the situation. The world is today a worse place.

If Elon Musk finishes that rocket in time to go to Mars … I’m buying a ticket now!

(En espa?ol, aquí)