Tag: Donald Trump

What I don’t understand…

On By EstherIn In the news18 Comments

How can it even be that the race for US president is this close? As I type this, Biden is about 3.5 million up in the popular vote (71.6 million) but Trump has 68 million of the votes and I’m thinking: after four years of his disastrous presidency, how can 68 million people still think it’s OK to vote for this narcissistic man who is a proven liar and a racist?

My son was up with me until 4 am our time on election night, looking at first results come in, and was disappointed with me that this wasn’t turning into a clear landslide victory for Biden. Then yesterday evening my daughter came home from her side job and heard that Trump and his supporters were calling to stop the count in the states where they are still in the lead. Mini-me laughed out loud at how ridiculous that is. She said, “It’s like when I play football and my team scores and then immediately says, ‘OK, we’ve won, let’s leave now.'” Yes, it’s exactly like that! How come a 16 year old girl can see how ridiculous this is and 68 million grown up Americans can’t? One candidate respects the democratic process, the other candidate doesn’t (yet again) and still people support him?

Results in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina have not been called yet as the race is so close (Biden only needs Nevada to win) but how is this election not a landslide for Biden? I can almost understand that someone is fooled by Trump and would vote for him the first time around but after his record these past four years, how can anyone who is not an extremist still vote for him (again)? It really baffles me. It’s as if someone you thought was your friend turns out to be a jerk after all and the disappointment is huge. I felt that disappointment after the UK voted for Brexit, thinking “but… I thought we were friends!” and I feel that disappointment again now, maybe even more acutely after the disappointment I felt when Hillary lost four years ago.

I thought America could learn from the Trump years and reject authoritarian almost-dictators, but I guess America is not as freedom loving and caring as I had hoped. 68 million Americans tell me that.

Two people in comments on either my blog or other blogs have mentioned the David Bowie song “This is not America” to me and for the past two days that song has been running through my head. “A little piece of you, a little piece in me will die,” he sings…

Things are looking favourable for Biden and I will be ecstatic if he wins, but this election leaves me with a very bitter taste in my mouth. America is not what I thought it was.

Dear America

On By EstherIn Actors, In the news8 Comments

I can only comment from an outside view but please, America, do what’s right today and vote for Biden/Harris!

Don Jr. tweeted this earlier (just sharing an image, don’t want to link to his delusional account)…

In what universe would the Trump family even think they had this much support around the world? I know it’s not a universe I live in because I know the Europeans would NOT vote for Trump (click on image below for source)…

In addition to those results in Europe, a Dutch newspaper recently reported that in my country, two thirds would vote for Joe Biden. In fact, in another European analysis only Russia would actually vote for Trump! That’s telling, no? So yeah, Donald Trump is not popular in Europe at all and even around the rest of the world he is generally viewed very negatively. The current president has very clearly diminished the US’s standing in the world, so it’s more than time for a change!

Along with the whole world, I am waiting with bated breath, watching this election, hoping fervently that a new president will be chosen. I don’t think I have ever in my life been as nervous for a US election outcome as I am now. My daughter even asked Mr Esther this afternoon if the US election results would soon be in. Alas, he had to tell her that we have some more time to kill before we find out. Thankfully, Mandy Patinkin and his wife Kathryn can help calm me down a little…

I hope that when I wake up tomorrow, an early landslide victory for Joe Biden will be reported and that at least some of my confidence in America can be restored.

US election ‘meddling’ from a Dutch woman

On By EstherIn In the news24 Comments

I am Dutch, I have no say in the US elections and yet I am at the edge of my seat here following the US elections. I have always followed and been interested in the US elections but this time it’s different, it’s far more intense for me than it’s ever been before. Even when I was rooting for Obama with all my heart back in 2008 it wasn’t as intense as this year’s election feels to me now. I find myself sharing campaign videos on Twitter, like this one today by Will.I.Am and Jennifer Hudson.

I ask myself, why do I care so very much who wins this election? In 2016 I wasn’t able to believe that Trump could win and yet he did. Now in 2020 I have such fear that he will pull it off again and I find myself doing everything I can from across the pond to support and promote Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

I would have rooted for any democratic candidate, just to get Donald Trump out of office, because what that man is doing does not only create hate and division in his own country, he’s emboldening hate and division abroad as well. I can’t speak to how it is in other countries but I certainly see the effects here in The Netherlands.

He spouses crap like Covid 19 not being so bad and a few days later we have people here in The Netherlands protesting and saying the same thing. He calls all media fake news and we now have people here in our streets heckling our press as well. Just the other week our main TV news broadcaster NOS issued a statement they’d be taking their logos off their news trucks because they were constantly being attacked. When Trump denies climate change, we have people here repeating that crap as well. Even QAnon is gaining a following a here, suddenly we’re hearing about pedophile rings conspiracy theories and such crap, something completely not known here before. This is the crap he’s pulling that influences ‘regular people’ over here but he also influences our country in other ways. He’s pulled out of important agreements, such as the Paris Climate Accord or the WHO (in the middle of a pandemic!), he’s emboldening crooked people like Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel at the cost of Palestinian human rights (what happens in Israel also affects me as I once lived there) and relations between the US and Europe are at a historic low.

So, this election is not only about the USA, it’s about getting such an ill-informed hater out of a position of power and back into the ranks of crazies where he belongs. I’m not one to tell other countries how to vote. I will always oppose populist racist bullies in power but it is not up to me to say who is to vote what in which country. I will, however, oppose things that effect us here in The Netherlands as well like Brexit and like Donald Trump. This US election has become more personal to me than ever before and in that sense I feel it almost as an obligation to speak out and yes, meddle through sharing my view. I have a tiny platform here that is also read internationally and so I am using that as the only way I can to voice my support for Biden and Harris.

It’s about policy but also about character. I can never understand how someone so under-qualified and nasty can become the leader of a such a big and important nation.

There is so much more at stake here than just internal US policy. For the sake of the world and for the sake of sanity, I hope with all my heart that US election results on November 4th will very clearly and unmistakably be in favor of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

How low can the US go?

On By EstherIn In the news22 Comments

This morning I switched on the news with trepidation and it turned out the feeling of trepidation was not unwarranted. Reporting on last night’s debate between Trump and Biden was flabbergasting to watch. It was a clusterf—, really awful, and I cringed to see even snippets of it. Really, how do you shut up a bully that is the current US president? The man doesn’t know how to debate an issue, he can only shout and interrupt and rant. There was a repeat of the whole debate on CNN and after seeing news coverage on Dutch TV and on the BBC, I could only take about three minutes of the repeat before deciding to switch it off and spare myself even more seething anger than I already feel towards Donald Trump. I have two take-aways from this:

1: Confirmation yet again (how many times do we need to see this confirmed?) that Donald Trump is a racist, endorsing and emboldening racist, neo-Nazi organizations…

2: The man is a bully and after only watching clips here and there of the debate, I totally agree with Joe Biden here… I so do not like name-calling but really, what else was there left to do than ask Trump to just shut up? Maybe the moderator could’ve had the Trump microphone cut off when it wasn’t his turn to talk but I guess that doesn’t make for sensationalist TV.

I literally feel like I am witnessing the collapse of the US here. How sad and awful is that? I was talking to my brother in London over the weekend and he was telling me too that, like my own teenage kids, my 16 year old niece is also completely disillusioned with the US. A racist bully in the White House is responsible for that.

How can anyone even endorse such an openly racist man as the current US president? How can 40% (or more) of Americans still stand with this guy? There is always a basic extremist percentage that will support a hate monger but 40%? Really? After last night, I hope the Trump approval ratings plummet but I don’t think they will, I even think he has a real chance of getting re-elected and I just don’t understand it. This man has to be stopped! Vote him out.

I probably shouldn’t post all of this but I can’t not do it; it’s the only thing I feel I can control and contribute in a world that feels like it’s spinning out of control. The standing of the US in the world is crumbling further and further and will continue to do so if Trump stays on for another 4 years creating even more chaos before the US implodes completely, leaving a dangerous vacuum. So, to anyone who can: vote this man out in very clear and unmistakable numbers and vote Joe Biden, the decent guy with constructive plans who does listen to experts, in!

This was my rant. Over and out.

Sarah Cooper’s parodies

On By EstherIn Comedy13 Comments

I came across this about a week or two ago, these videos have gone viral, and I think it’s my favourite parody of that guy in the white house ever.

This next one is a pretty accurate portrayal of someone talking out of his ass during a staff meeting. I’ve been in meetings like this before…

I am totally fascinated, I can’t stop watching and grinning at these videos. In a way these are tragic too as it beggars belief that these are the actual words of a world leader. It’s not just the words she mimics, it’s the added body language, the gestures, the looks. She’s so good.

Here an article about her in the LA Times, in case you’re interested, and she has a satirical blog too. I’m actually considering getting her 2021 calendar called Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings, seeing as I am in meetings pretty much daily and these tricks could really come in handy.

I’ve been thinking in terms of crushes for the last fortnight or so due to the fictional crush challenge I just finished and I think Sarah Cooper has just become my latest crush. I am so glad she’s not fictional.