Everyone Loves Donald

 

No, not the lying, felonious, orange man-baby.

Although it seems a lot of people do love him.

Millions of people in fact.

But I'm talking about Donald Osborne...

...the knowledgeable and dapper vehicle appraiser and regular contributor to Jay Leno's Garage.

I was watching their latest output on YouTube yesterday.  They are clearly great mates and the way he takes Jay's gentle mockery is a pleasure to watch - especially about the concept of their regular segment, "Assess and Caress" in which the idea is for Jay to decide which of three vehicles chosen by Donald has gained most value in the previous 5 years.

Now, I may be wrong, but I suspect that Messrs. Leno & Osborne will not be fans of Donald Trump - unlike the stars of the other American YouTube show I watched yesterday - an episode of Coffee Walk where we were treated to a look around Sean Pettiford's vehicle collection.  Although Trump would call if Covfefe Walk.

What do those millions of fans see in Trump?  He is creepy, he cannot string together a coherent answer to any normal question, he makes up lies and statistics on the spot, he managed to bankrupt casinos.

I see no redeeming credentials whatsoever.

You could argue that it's none of my business being a Brit but happens with America affects the whole World.  There is already talk of him doing a Putin and Xi to change the rules to stay in power longer.  And as Putin has him by the short-and-curlies, it doesn't bode well for Ukraine - and therefore the rest of Europe and NATO.

Meat Loaf was a fan - and I believe that cost him his life as he fell for the Anti-Vaxxer nonsense that Trump liked to promote.

So how can intelligent, articulate, hard-working people such as Dennis & Sean be voting for Trump?

This picture Sean posted on Facebook of the keys his wife had in her pocket imply that he is of the Trump persuasion:

They can't be falling for the Fox News tripe - they're too busy to watch it.

Maybe they are simply life-long Republicans - or maybe they see something in him that very few people outside of the States can see.

I hope they are right - evidence from 2016 to 2020 does not look promising but democracy has declared a winner so we need to accept it and work with it.

Maybe they didn't see a better candidate, over to Jonathan Pie...

Homework

I am a non-believer.  Have been since I think I worked it out in an RE Lesson when I was in the Sixth Form.

But this Coronavirus has had me questioning my lack of faith.

Only a bit though.

The World is in a mess.  We have morons in charge of the US and Brazil.  We have evil people in charge of China and Russia.  We have a habitual liar in charge of the UK.  We have pollution.  We have plastics in the food chain.  We have climate change - ice-caps melting.  We have chaos in The Middle East.  The Amazon Rainforest is being destroyed - that's the lungs of the Earth! 

Nobody in power has taken any notice of Greta.

Even the supposedly good guys like Justin Trudeau have disappointed us:

So what would God do?

 

Invent something to shut down industry and get people to stop using their cars.  Invent something that Trump and Bolsonaro will badly mishandle in a vain attempt to protect their economies.

Invent something to kill off the Gammons?

 

Coronavirus is having an effect - I alluded to it last month.

 

Here is what my exit from the motorway on my way home looks a bit like now: 

Except there are more traffic cones and less Hillman Avengers today than in that 1977 photo I found on Google Images.  Thanks to whoever added that credit to it - I feel slightly less guilty about using it when there are credits.  Is that a motorbike in the exit lane? - I guess it must be but it's very hard to work out.

Anyway, I've digressed.  This whole Blog-Post is inspired by this BBC story about how the AA say "Coronavirus will transform UK work and travel."

They predict "a permanent reduction in the demand for travel because people have learned during the crisis to use home-working technology."

Don't forget videoconferencing.  I would travel to the local hospital for a specific meeting once a month.  For me, it was a 10 to 15 minute drive which isn't a biggie - other attendees had to come in from all over the county - but the parking was a nightmare and as our employers would recompense us for fuel - that recompense would come from NHS budgets.  We used Zoom this time - the only disadvantage was no chocolate hobnobs - we'll probably continue doing it this way.

"The chancellor currently plans to spend £27bn to curb congestion on roads and £100bn on HS2 – but if demand falls, that may not be needed."

Indeed, especially as his magic money trees will have other priorities.  AA President Edmund King agrees, "anecdotal evidence from people lucky enough to be working during the coronavirus-enforced lockdown suggests that infrastructure funds might be better spent on broadband to support home working."

AND - IT ALL HELPS TO SLOW DOWN ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE!

"Other experts are calling for the roads programme and HS2 rail project to be put on hold for a decade so ministers can be sure they’re not wasting money.

They say if commuters spend just one day a week working from home after the crisis - or commuting later - the roads will be as empty as they are in the school holidays."

Now, I know Michael Gove believes we have had enough of experts, but our government does seem to have started quoting them so maybe that's another effect of the virus.

As for HS2, this Jonathan Pie video is an excellent argument for cancelling it - maybe a postponement for a decade would be a step in the right direction - don't watch it if you're easily offended by sweary language:

So, what is going to happen?  God knows.