Post 217

Blogger Watches the News

I stayed up late on November 8th to wait for the results of the United States election. I also wanted to hear Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump speak.

Trump’s speech was very good; he hit all the right notes and delivered it well. Clinton, as you know, didn’t show.

Oh well.

I spent more time staring at a map of the United States than I had ever done in my life, as I watched Fox News and their commentators. I liked Megyn Kelly but almost all of the men were deathly boring and contributed very little, except for that Tucker guy. It was live, so sometimes they tried to fill up empty air time. They’d speculate about things that were going to happen within minutes. For example, one of the questions was, “What do you think Trump is going to say?” and then you’d have to listen to a commentator’s predictions. Good grief. Some questions just ain’t any good.

I went to bed while Trump was trying to wade through the crowds after his speech (now there was a man looking for the exit). People were holding cameras up to his face and he was trying to keep smiling, as was his wife.

Oh well; I’m going to bed. We common folks have been awake long enough.

Since the election, I’ve made some all-important detours into some subtopics, and I’m sure you want to know all about them.

I know you’re out there, after all. I know I have many readers, even without checking my statistics. My blog is one of those blogs that people read while pretending not to have the faintest idea that I have written anything at all. They keep up the charade until they finally get frustrated enough to complain about post number such and such and post number such and such, either to me or someone else. One woman accused me of referring to her as “Grandpa Godzilla,” when the truth is, I wasn’t thinking of anyone at all. It just rhymed with Vanilla, kind of.

But anyway, back to my research, I was wondering, for instance, who this Ivanka person was — he thanked someone by that name in his speech and I was wondering whether he was thanking his first wife. I know, I know — everybody knows who everybody is. Oh well. I’m up to date now, and I know that Melania doesn’t have a degree and that he’s had a total of three wives and he’s got five children.

Barron looks like he’d be great as an innkeeper in a nativity play. He’d have more fun doing that than standing on stage listening to a speech at whatever o’clock in the morning.

I’ve also now watched a YouTube video from 2011 of Mr. Obama ridiculing Donald Trump while Donald Trump sat in the audience. His jokes at the expense of his citizen and guest went on for a painfully long time and were unseemly for someone in Obama’s position.

And on that topic, it was quite icky to see President Obama repeatedly criticizing Trump while Trump was campaigning. It struck me as undignified, kind of like watching Father Kris do a variation on the bird dance to cheesy lyrics following a catechism class. Avert your eyes, folks. And where’s that exit anyway?

I also researched the list of American celebrities who had threatened to move to Canada if Trump were to be elected. Barbara Streisand, Cher and Whoopi Goldberg were on the list.

Do we want them here?

Ah, I wrote about flighty Americans in post 71 (March 9, 2016), so I won’t say more now.

I was also interested in reading about the reaction of different government leaders from around the world. So many people will be wanting Trump to do so many things. He’ll be a busy boy.

There are so many pleasant things about the election results from this week. The main thing I like is the last-minute reversal quality. Trump was so soundly rejected by those who Knew Better prior to his ultimate victory. I don’t know if any politician has been more ridiculed on his way to the presidency than he has been. Consider the compounding effect of all the social media in place during this election. Indeed, there was a Cinderella flavour to it all, and I think it is important to note that sometimes even the rich suffer from unjust attacks. Wealth doesn’t provide immunity from everything, and sometimes the underdog is the rich guy sitting over there.

I was happy that all the ‘experts’ had to revise their predictions, and I was glad that so many assumptions about the American public were proven wrong. It struck me as strange that so many people assumed that all the Hispanic people would think the same way as each other, and it struck me as strange that so many people assumed that women like voting for women. Are we that one-dimensional? And I agreed with the commentator who pointed out that many unfair labels were applied not only to Trump, but to everyone who supported him. So many stereotypes and so much condescension!

Oh well.

I don’t know how Trump will perform as a president, but I hope that he is able to accomplish good for the United States. I don’t like hearing about Americans (or anyone else, for that matter) being on food stamps and being unemployed or even under-employed; I hope that can be turned around, and I hope that those Americans protesting in the streets will make their way home, instead of heading north towards the Canadian border.

The election is over, and there is no need for anyone of good will to have any fear. No matter who reigns as the visible head of any country, God is always in charge. He always has the final say.

So rest easy. Go to bed if you’re tired. Stay awake if you’re not. Drink lemonade and eat gingersnap cookies. Go online and try to figure out what the people in Paraguay or Ukraine think about the election results. Decide what you’ll do for Remembrance Day tomorrow. That kind of thing.

Life goes on, and very little of your life hinges on the election results, unless, of course, you’re Donald Trump (another one of my readers).

Hi Donald! Congratulations. You did it.