Trying to blog about The Donald

Wow they say a week is a long time in politics, the last 12-18 months have been that ram packed with headlines all of us have polarised to either extremely interested or lost all respect and interest in governance. Yet the headlines keep coming, check out one of this weeks offerings in President The Donald's mudslinging. The inaugration cake is a copy !

So what do I think of all this and what do I blog about?

The first week of his presidency is coming to an end but the protests aren't. I do have to say I wonder what his 10 year old makes of all this, the inaugaration and the support and protests.
      The american voting system has elected Donald Trump as the 45th USA President and there is nothing the 2 months of protesting can do about it, Donald Trump is the president of America. As I wrote at the time of his election in a similar way to the UK voting for Brexit the vote was for change and not for continuation of the norm. One thing that I still haven't quite worked out is the burning of the limo we all watched as the president was sworn in just around the corner, was this a display of power against the wealthy and elite? if so surely the same limo would have burnt if Clinton had won or was it jut vandalism with a convenient excuse?
    Donald Trump's campaign was for change and he pitched it in a tangible way the finest example the wall. To be honest I didn't actually believe he was 100% literal and serious. but hold on he was serious and it was not a metaphor for increased border controls he is deadly serious and has signed the orders.
      Before I comment on his executive orders I want to comment on the relationship The Donald is developing with the press and mass media, I have for a long time had concerns about the influence journalist can wield particularly when they allow their personal opinions to take objectivity out of their writing and the boundaries between an opinion column and reported news continues to blur, but I am not The Donald and I will not take on the whole press. I will however be watching closely to see how he continues to try and manage the media and their links to the establishment. This is going to be fascinating.

Right so executive orders,
You can not deny that Donald Trump has one what many politicians fail to do and that is act immediately, He made campaign promises and whilst I expected him to water these down , do U-turns or hope that some may be forgotten he has came out of the traps running and has started to deliver on his promises. so what have we had so far.
He has signed the papers to change the Obamacare health insurance, complete the trans continental oil pipe lines and withdrawn from the TPP. These alone can stimulate some huge debate as there are arguments on both sides but they are no where near the level of the two I've saved for last. If you thought the women's protests and inauguration protests were large enough as I type this the world is desperately trying to comprehend the impact of the executive orders to build wall along the Mexican boarder and as the protests begin again we all look and wonder what ill be the impact of his securing the US borders and what I would call the xenophobic racism of travel bans for certain people and nationalities.

To be honest compared with the last one the wall seems quite normal and sensible.

Today Donald Trump has allowed Islamic state terrorist a victory, he has allowed them to change the way the free world and in doing so he has punished many many innocent people.
I am willing to allow a bit of benefit of the doubt that he might just be putting down a marker and give himself some breathing space, but there are better ways of doing this, the US was not under immediate attack from these groups but a small number of terrorist hiding behind someone else's flag.
Islam is a religion and Muslims believe in there religion in the same way Christians and Sikhs do. but that doesn't mean they support the splinter group who are using Islam as an excuse to create terror for their own benefits.
The countries Trump has banned travel from do have majority Muslim populations but that doesn't mean every person is an IS fighter.
I could keep going but I wont. The bottom line is that any executive power that tries to deal with a problem by demonising particular groups based on nationality or belief system is completely wrong.
America came a long way during the civil rights movements of the 60's, 70's and 80's please don't let it slip back, We know there are still issues in the US but this is a massive step in the wrong direction for racism.

I am pretty much speechless by the travel ban.

Cheer up it's Blue Monday

This morning I woke up late and had to rush to get to work on time.
My first thought as I left the house was "oh it's still raining"

Little did I know until I turned the radio on that today was "Blue Monday", the most depressing day of the year apparently. Now I have got few things done this morning and I feel quite pleased with my achievement satisfied even but the mass media and social media are telling me I should be depresses. Well not telling me more making me feel alienate by not being depressed.

Yes the weather is grim outside, it is winter,  but I'm inside !  so that's not affecting me.

I thought I'd Google this day of depression and see whether it was born from a particular alignment of astronomical bodies playing havoc with or magnetic fields or aura or linked to ancient druid or pagan ritual or even earlier....

  NO of course its not !!!!

The third Monday in January has been known as blue Monday since ...2005 !!!! yes that date a long time ago when the world as very different place you remember before Donald Trump was elected, before Brexit entered our dictionaries. Facebook was less than a year old, Twitter was possibly conceived but had not been born,

And guess who or what type of company created it, Yes you've got it a Travel agent selling holidays. Sky Travel,

Yes i need to make a payment on my holiday. There are many many times throughout the year that I look out of the window and think I'd love to be out of this office and on a nice hot beach and those thoughts are generated by all sorts of things from the weather to a crappy email to just feeling tired, not because we've just had Christmas and now we are a bit skint. I think I wrote a blog entry about not pending too much at Christmas.

So what can I do to  resist the drive of a marketing ploy and now the mass media not to become depressed on blue Monday ?

First thing I have have to do is say every time I write blue Monday i think of the New Order tune Blue Monday, so I no have that playing in the background on Youtube as I write this. actually that has lifted my spirits.

   There we go get a 1980's disco going where ever you are, go on click the above link I dare you.

I often wonder how much the media guides and controls us as individuals.

I use the example often of the channel 4 program "Kill it Cook it Eat it". which i am sure was aimed at not educating but attempting to produce repulsion of the met industry, turned out it was quiet interesting and amazingly clean process. Then there was the horse meat scandal, was this about labelling or as this about eating leaner higher protein meat but judges by a couple of journalists and once the story gathered momentum others had a choice join in or be out in the cold. HOLD ONE I'm beginning to moan again , see its that bloody Blue Monday again.

I will acknowledge mentally those who are struggling with all sorts of challenges from wars to illness and when we talk of Blue Monday and feeling down remember those who are actually depressed ad have something to be down about.

Today I am going to do the things I need to, have a good day achieving things and organising the rest of the week being grateful for the good health and well being of my family and friends,

Enjoy..

I'm off to make a brew x