I expect many of you are like me: having said your morning prayers and switched on the radio, you are now clutching your head and saying “WTF??? I mean, What The Trump???” Then, having wandered around the kitchen in a daze, bumping into things and staring out at this wet November morning, you’ve fallen to your knees and beseeched whatever God you believe in to please, please, please make it all go away.
But it won’t. Trump has won. Think about that. Trump. Has. Won. Not just a man who has no political experience: a man who everyone said would lose, maybe heavily. I watched CNN early last night and one of the wiseacre panel was asked if parties had a sense, the day or two before an election, that they were going to win or lose. “Oh yes,” he said. “They know. They can tell.” I smiled when he said that, because when Hillary Clinton was voting, she was all smiles, as was Bill. When Trump – sorry, President-elect Trump (no, Virginia, it would not be convenient to wash my mouth out with carbolic soap right now) – when President-elect Trump was voting with his wife, the First Lady-to-be, both looked tired, hang-dog, beaten. Which goes to show what I’ve always said: the people who tell us what is going to happen politically know less than nothing. First Brexit, now this. If Trump is to be the dictator some fear he might become, let’s hope he lines up the pollsters and pundits against the wall first.
One of the things I’ve always liked in political leaders is a calm authority. An equanimity in their manner, a dignity you might call it. JFK had it, Obama had it. As you don’t need reminding, Donald Trump comes loaded with squirm-inducing comments by the shed-load that make dignity an impossibility: Mexicans are rapists, he will build a giant wall and make Mexico pay for it, he will halt the immigration of all Muslims, he likes war heroes who, unlike John McCain, are not captured, he enjoys mocking handicapped people, he thinks women reporters are at the mercy of their menstruation cycle, he thinks his opponent Hillary Clinton should be locked up…Oh, I nearly forgot. He enjoys the fact that he can do anything he wants with women, his key romantic overture being to grab them by the pussy.
How is the future going to pan out? No one knows but lots of people fear. Philip Roth wrote a novel in 2004 called The Plot Against America. In it he gives an alternative history of the US, with the aviator Charles Lindbergh defeating Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the presidential election of 1940. Prejudices and hatred against minorities, among them Jews, are allowed to surface and become common currency. And of course Lindbergh has a different take on Hitler and Mussolini. You should read it, because the American people have now, in their wisdom, embarked on an alternative contemporary history.
Two final points. One, entertainers carry a lot, lot less political clout than they think: Bon Jovi, Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen – they all threw their weight behind Hillary. Nice one, guys. And two, there is a single shaft of light in the darkness of this doomy, gloomy November morning. Just think of the surge in jobs for brickies, as they respond to their President’s call and begin to build that 2,000-mile wall.
What’d I say? If you believe in a god , he’s got to be the most ornery old bugger that ever existed…..or he’s got one hell of a sense of humour.
Here’s what he’s saying now ….”Okay , Donald …about this wall you want Mexico to fund and build across the country….that’s where you’ve got to start!” …”I want to get that one off the ground first….it’ll be some geg, eh?”….”Let’s do it !….You know we’re a “can -do, “team!” As you say , Jude “the Wall” comes first….will it be built from the American side or the Mexican side …that’s the question.
The Wizard of Oz has entered the White house.
.the wall comes first..no the deportations come first,he promised they would start from his first day in office.if mexico refuses to fund the wall he will just have to tax all mexican workers in the usa to fund it.
Or maybe offer Mexico a mutual incentive to build the wall in return for legitimate controlled free movement of labour.
Who knows, perhaps Mrs May could get EU immigrants to build a similar wall around the border in Ireland? Maybe MT could volunteer to help
Somewhere, Esteemed Blogmeister, between the Democratic Candidate’s sweeping to victory in quick succession in the Big Apple over her Orange-tinted opponent and taking an unassailable lead in the Sunshine State of Florida, one turned away from the CNN loverage and stumbled bleary-eyed to the sanctuary of one’s favourite neo-classical Faux Four Poster.
Not exactly blessing the pollsters for their tendency to discard the proprieties of the spoiler alert. But not before going into automatic Limerick mode.
To one’s surprise, this is a discarded ball of pencilled paper which one found on the floor of the penthouse suite this morning.
THE STAR SPANGLED BANSHEE
The Fat Lady well, finally gets to sing
And not to spend a spell in Sing-Sing;
The Dworkin Class
Gets critical mass
To the Clinton name will Hill still cling ?
Does it belong, one wonder, to the file containing:
-Dewey defeats Truman !
wonder what hes paying a block…great news to wake up to this morning,another few quid of paddy power to collect,trump as president,brexit going ahead with more support now,whats not to like.
As some astute commentator said this morning: Trump didn’t win the race, Clinton lost it. Remember Big Ian and the foolishness he used to come out with? He settled down eventually.
We will have no knee jerk reactions. Take a read at this and things might become clearer:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/24557-prominent-black-americans-including-progressives-loathe-clinton#
Btw Jude I am beginning to wonder if you are a jinx as everything you back seems to go the wrong way eg brexit, Martin McGuinness not meeting queenie Windsor and now Trump!
I am a pure light shining against the darkness of the world, WT
Aye maybe you should campaign for a no vote in any future Irish unity elections? Reverse psychology and all that.
maybe now all this political correctness talk will be done away with and people can express themselves without these lefties shouting racist.as nigle was saying this is a turning point the world over,may should call a general election now and along with ukip hammer corbyn into the history books.trigger article 50 and get on with it.
Sorry Billy, I beg to differ. If Corbyn has learnt anything from recent polls then he needs to call a spade a spade. Shine a light on the corrupt lying establishment. 50 odd million Americans are not racist, bigots etc. There is plenty of blacks,Hispanics etc who voted Trump simply to poke the eye of the lying establishment, just like brexit. Whilst the average person just wants to earn a few quid to get by, they have been simply told tough when whatever they own was squeezed by the establishment and its banksters. Allthewhile the culprits who committed the banking fraud are excused and even rewarded. Don’t forget Obama appointed one of the culprits to his government so there was to be no change there. Trump may be as bad but the evidence pointed to the fact Hilary was not going to change the system so you would have to be mad or dumbed down by jay z to elect her. The issues of racism,misogyny,Putin were distractions to mask the real Hilary Clinton issues.
I for one will take great delight watching the great and the good of the free state establishment and its cheerleaders in the media(who so often sneer at us nordies) squirm and grovel to Trump now that he’s the main man. The coverage and lack of investigating Clinton within the free state media was appalling(North Korea is often ridicule for its bias but it has nothing on the free state media cabal). Btw the annual paddys day stampede to the White House will be hilarious although Gerry Adams has played a blinder as he said nothing. You can’t teach and old dog new tricks.
“Don’t forget Obama appointed one of the culprits to his government so there was to be no change there………”
==================================
Not strictly true….. The bankers told Obama who would be in his cabinet…Obama didn’t so much appoint as rubber stamp it.
See the Russia Today interview between John Pilger and Julian Assange.
Yes Oz I agree with you but you have to keep it simple at times as once you allude to the bankster control etc , people refuse to believe it is true. They start throwing tin foil hats at you, bless them.
corbyn or any of his cronies havent commented yet(prob all still in bed)they had their chance and blew it with their open door policy hes learnt nothing.trump as leader of the free world changes all this if he sticks to his promises.france,holland,and germany next hopefully.
Trump won, it was not an Irish election, really we ought simply offer our congratulations and move on.
Good to see brexit two though.
not even funny. his rhetoric is hateful, he will do for the US what Hugo Chavez did to Venezuela – there will be a collapsed economy, isolationism and people looking for food
Well the good news is that if Trump can get elected.
Who’d bet against Gerry or Marty for Taoiseach now.
Is that the collective unionist spinchter I hear going in spasm???
Hilary lost it right at the finishing line when she chose to surround herself with pop stars, actors and everyone but the ordinary working person.
Trump may be a totally unsavoury character but the one advantage he had was that he was not a career politician, and people are sick of politicians who only look after their own interests.
Donald will only have 4 years and will be moderated by his advisors and by the senate and congress. As regards foreign relations I wouldn’t worry as Hilary would have been a lot more dangerous and interventionist.
On Nov. seventh Hillary knew she was not going to win, she withdrew her application for a NY fireworks display.
Heard Ian Og on radio telling us how much of a personal friend he is of Trump’s. He believes the emails he gets are typed by Donald himself, bless.
If Don were to join the ranks of the DUP he’d very soon be viewed as some kind of Ghandi fella.
But maybe if Trump’s presidential career goes south, Ian may only admit to ‘knowing of him’, as he referred to his personal (and business) friend Seymour Sweeney!
We are living in changed times, no question about it. I felt really disappointed in 2000 and 2004 when Al Gore and then John Kerry lost to W. In really dodgy elections. To be fair to Trump (stop that sniggering at the back…) his foreign policy sounds pretty good, no more stupid illegal wars, no more blowing the crap out of middle eastern countries, that must be a positive. Russia and China have no love for Hillary, she was a neocon, criticising Trump for daring to suggest America tries to improve relations with it`s traditional bogey men. As for his terrible racist attitudes towards Mexico, maybe Mexico should crack down on some of the people sneaking into America, why should a country dictate it`s policy by how it`s neighbour thinks? Muslim immigration IS a problem, Obama and Hillary won`t even use the term Islamic terrorism. Clinton called half of Trump`s support a `basket of deplorables` then she backtracked, rather like Gordon Brown did with the BNP loving Mrs Duffy during the 2010 UK election. Trump is a hideous gargoyle, a WASP with no class, but the world will keep on spinning and who knows, maybe he won`t be all bad? By the way Jude, please campaign for a NO vote in any future united Ireland referendum…..
Just realised, it s going to be fun watching Trump`s dodgy dealings (let`s face it he has to have several skeletons in many closets) being exposed to the world now he is President. I think he might be beginning to regret ever winning!
That’s the ticket ,AJ. Cheer up everyone . Think of all the entertainment coming down the line. Threat of assassination not an outside possibility when he doesn’t deliver everything he’s promised to the nutjobs with guns; impeachment a possibility on a whole raft of scenarios involving sex…Can he keep his trousers on while in the White House? When are you going to start building that Mexican wall Mr Trump? ; half the population coming out to laugh and boo at the most powerful person on the planet every time he makes another speech…and that’s only in America….the KKK rallying around the White House….it’ll be better than Arlene’s photoshoot with her terrorist buddies…..you ‘ll never be able to make up comedy like it …Arlene and Marty have already congratulated the big dummy.It can only get better, folks!!Yes folks we will double our growth …easy peasy!!
Would you not prefer to see Trump dump Hillary in jail first?
I have never heard of the Irish dream, the French dream, the African dream or even the English dream, but I have heard often of the American dream. Trump has promised the American dream to many, millions of jobs, a greater America, keep Muslims out. He has promised the sun. the moon and the stars. Will the dream crash and burn when real politic kicks in………………….wait and see.
I listened online to Irish Americans praising the day that was in it and convinced that Trump was the man to make America great again. They were less explicit on what exactly that meant , although toughng up on immigrants seemed the perfect start. 50 years ago, I spent some time in the University of Deleware; one weekend, I was the guest of an Irish American in Philadelphia. He was outrageously racist and anti-Semitic. Plus ca change……..
I don’t know why so many people are surprised that Trump won, I could see it coming from a mile away and have said so on this blog previously. The reality is people in the West have had enough of Globalisation, Mass immigration and intervening in Wars worldwide and losing billions in the process. Its wrong to think only the White people of America/Europe are sick of this, its also the minorities too, including Blacks, Latinos, etc. Florida has a huge Latino/Hispanic population and was a key state, who won that? Trump.
The reason why Brexit occurred is because the Left leaning, Pro-Immigration people shouted down any voice that spoke against their views instead of listening and taking valid concerns on board. The silent majority cast their vote and now Brexit is inevitable for England/Wales.
The reason why Trump will be President is because yet again these Left Leaning, Pro-Immigration people were arrogant and over confident, they refused to listen to valid concerns instead they accused anyone who didn’t agree with them of being a racist, a fascist, etc you name it, they shouted it. Now the silent majority cast their vote and Trump will be President and the Republicans have control of Congress too.
But have these Left Leaning, Pro-Mass Immigration Globalists learnt their lesson today? By the looks of it: No. They still insist people should agree with THEIR views. They still don’t listen.
What next? Brexit has happened. Trump is President. I’d say the next thing we’ll see is Marine Le Penn becoming President of France. I’d say Geert Wilders will make even bigger gains in the Netherlands. I’d say Angela Markel will be on her way out thanks to her flooding Germany with immigrants, over a million Syrians last year alone. This is a Revolution, a right wing Revolution, who do we have to thank for it? Ironically, the crazy multicultural utopia experiments from the Left. Thanks a lot!…..
PS: Whether you love or hate Trump, you cant deny St Patricks Day in the White House is going to be a lot more interesting lol
PPS: At least the new Vice President will be a strong Irish American like Joe Biden. Mike Pence apparently even spent many a Summer in Ireland in his childhood and his family are of traditional Irish Catholic Democratic Party stock. Donald Trump himself is very friendly to the Irish and there’s even a picture of him in the 1990’s at a Sinn Fein fundraising dinner, shaking Gerry Adams hand…..
Ryan
“I don’t know why so many people are surprised that Trump won, I could see it coming from a mile away ”
Don’t tell me that was in Susan McKay’s book too?
“Don’t tell me that was in Susan McKay’s book too?”
Now now, Gio, I’d expect bitter little jibes like that from MT, not an upstanding Unionist like you, more culture?……..but you, Robert and MT obviously aren’t the biggest fans of Susan’s book….not surprising, given it tells the truth, straight from the horses mouth…..
The only thing worse than Trump winning the election would have been Hillary winning!
I agree with all the criticisms of Trump, but when you think the American people believed him to be the lesser of two evils, it shows she is the most hated person in the US.
But the nadir of her annus horribilis may yet be her arrest and jailing for her skulduggery over the Clinton Foundation.
She was speaking today about not being able to break through the ‘glass ceiling’ – but I thought her loss was very little to do with the ceiling.
Says it all when Willie Frazer, Jamie Bryson, Jim Allister, Ian Og and David Vance are Trump supporters.
“Says it all when Willie Frazer, Jamie Bryson, Jim Allister, Ian Og and David Vance are Trump supporters.”
So are you saying that if unionists have a view, we, that is ‘the other side’, should, as always take the opposite view? That’s just genius!
“Which goes to show what I’ve always said: the people who tell us what is going to happen politically know less than nothing”.
i don’t agree. They know a lot more than nothing. They know about the psychological pressure exercised by constant advertising.
pollsters and political pundits in national newspapers/magazines (yourself excluded of course jude) are used by the establishment to “nudge” voters along a certain path.
if we are constantly told establishment candidate X is winning, the hope is that people will think voting Y is a wasted vote – might as well just agree with the majority who are voting X.
This is obvious in all the various Irish unity polls which appear at regular intervals – just to remind us all that only a tiny minority want irish unification and nationalists/republicans are secret closet unionist supporters.