Throughout the past four years of Donald J. Trump’s performance as cartoon-President of the United States of America I regularly expressed the native curiosity to discover what shenanigans Trump had been up to on that particular day. His distortions and absurdities have however since taken a nose-dive following the election of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. In plain terms Trump is no longer funny or amusing; rather he is singularly puerile and innately threatening to good government. His perversions and psychotic behaviour are manifest. Giving Trump the benefit of the doubt – and to acknowledge his entitlement to dispute the election results – we shall endure a further period of anxiety as he fulfills his investigations and piteous law suits. Meanwhile I am not impressed!

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When I think back upon what I’ve heard and seen of Donald J. Trump  – beginning with his outstandingly distorted comment about his inauguration crowd, his lasciviousness, his psychotic proclamation of genius and wealth, his history of litigation and bankruptcy, his relentless devotion to negativism, his constant denial of fact and perpetuation of lies – there is nothing, absolutely nothing which appeals to me. I say this with great care and purpose. I am mindful of what to me is the peculiar attraction of Trump’s vulgarity to what he himself has insinuated are his incapable or inadequate supporters – what Hilary Clinton astutely observed were the so-called “deplorables“. Though I recognize the historic division between “Country Mouse” and “City Mouse“, the distinctions are normally confined to the members themselves. Heightening the separation of people with comic-like leaders shown holding a flag on a tank leading a charge into war is perhaps entertaining – even stimulating for some – but decidedly childish in the circumstances. Most importantly Trump’s theatrics – while impressive to a circus scout – have done nothing on the legislative scene to improve the lot of his supporters.

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Sporadically throughout the past eight months since our precipitous and unfavourable return from Longboat Key to Canada on March 21st last we’ve canvassed journeying as far east as the Atlantic Ocean in Nova Scotia and as far west as the Pacific Ocean in New Zealand. For the moment – at the very least until our medical insurers agree to cover our aging and pandemic needs – we’re resigned by default to linger here. As romantic or exotic travel may normally be, the current situation makes adventure far less appealing and maybe perilous.

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Someone asked me today, “What kind of lawyer?” to which I replied, “Oh just a country lawyer“. Anyone who knows me recognizes in an instant that there is nothing either humble or dismissive about my response. Typically the inquirer was himself from the city and therefore had little if any acquaintance with or sensitivity to the deliberate disparagement of country people generally. This is especially so for one such as I who, being originally from the metropolis, graduated to the bucolic Town of Almonte over 44 years ago. Soon thereafter I hung out my shingle for the practice of law. I quickly learned from my predecessor Raymond A. Jamieson, QC that the local economy was governed by the “trades” not businessmen. Aligned with this intelligence was the discrete annotation that there was frequently considerable capital involved, a vulgarity which common decency insisted be naturally avoided.

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The relief worldwide is palpable! No sooner did we ring off a celebratory call to American friends in Wisconsin than other friends emailed from Maine with the succinct observation, “Amen!” Though it is extraordinary to react with such universal liberation it is nonetheless an inarguable achievement to restore society to an elevated and less hostile agenda.  Getting rid of Trump, his grovelling family and the sycophants who have licked his boots for the past four years is like unplugging a blocked toilet. The stench will no doubt linger momentarily but eventually it will be exhausted and carried away like any other windblown contaminate.

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Whenever I see an equal split of opinion I am at first inclined to guess – as Donald J. Trump himself has said when defending White Nationalist protesters – that there are some very fine people on both sides.

President Trump defended the white nationalists who protested in Charlottesville on Tuesday, saying they included “some very fine people,” while expressing sympathy for their demonstration against the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It was a strikingly different message from the prepared statement he had delivered on Monday, and a reversion to his initial response over the weekend.

Speaking in the lobby of Trump Tower at what had been billed as a statement on infrastructure, a combative Trump defended his slowness to condemn white nationalists and neo-Nazis after the melee in central Virginia, which ended in the death of one woman and injuries to dozens of others, and compared the tearing down of Confederate monuments to the hypothetical removal of monuments to the Founding Fathers. He also said that counter-protesters deserve an equal amount of blame for the violence.

“What about the alt-left that came charging at, as you say, at the alt-right?” Trump said. “Do they have any semblance of guilt?”

“I’ve condemned neo-Nazis. I’ve condemned many different groups. But not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me,” he said.

“You had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists,” Trump said. “The press has treated them absolutely unfairly.”

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Last night for the second in a row we wearied ourselves until late in the evening hoping for an immediate determination of Joe Biden’s presidential bid. Again this morning as soon as I arose I pored over my iPhone in search of news from CNN, BBC, FOX NEWS, MSNBC and CBC. As might be expected there was nothing of material consequence anywhere to be found. Instead the networks have lapsed into the identical tarsome refrain as apparently has the rest of the world. The trenchant test of this otherwise paralytic state however is that my routine today unraveled pretty much as it always does – breakfast, cycling and a road drive. But when I launched myself onto the ribbon of highway which chronicles my circular route to Renfrew County and back, there was a decided wintry backdrop to the expansive barren fields.

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The US presidential election is not ending like a Christmas story! Nor by any measure is it ending as I would have hoped. From the moment I went to bed last night – after seeing the looming signs of a dog fight – I have been filled with despondency. My anxiety was instantly fuelled again this morning when I discovered the fearsome trend of the ballots. Never have I felt so thoroughly estranged from our American neighbours. The reputed inadequacies of Bell Canada (and every other telecommunications company for that matter) come nowhere near approaching the misfires and blunders of the citizens of the United States of America. My erstwhile alliance with and romance for USA is being incrementally battened down and deserted. Clearly neither I nor anyone else is capable of reading the democratic purpose, ambition or self-image of about half of American citizens.

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Can’t recall ever having been so thrilled about an election day as we – and (I’m guessing) the rest of the civilized world – were from the moment of awakening this morning. It is no accident the popular television channels are carrying films like “Air Force One” and “Dr. Strangelove” which highlight the possible horrible repercussions of a poor choice of leaders.

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It is not entirely unwittingly that I confess a decided partiality to the Town of Almonte. May I first say that my failure to have identified my beloved home as what is now part of the Town of Mississippi Mills is not meant to diminish the other members, namely the former Townships of Ramsay and Pakenham. The predominance of my bias has arisen over the past forty-four years as a resident whose social and professional activities were largely confined to the boundaries of the Town of Almonte. Beyond those limits I have been privileged (thanks to the suggestion many years ago of my law school crony James Allen MacEachern) to have read, re-read and relished each time E. F. Benson’s creations Mapp and Lucia.

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