Euphoria, Entreaties and Despair

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"It's weird, but it's great, and for the first time ever Russians are applauding the victory of a U.S. presidential candidate. It's a sign of the times."
Stanislav Byshok, political analyst, Russia

"We are ready to do our share of the work in order to improve the relationship."
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Facebook entry

"Canada and the United States have built one of the closest relationships between any two countries in the world."
"This enduring partnership is essential to our shared prosperity and security."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"Congrats to my friend President Trump. Look fwd to working closely with you to make the alliance between Israel&USA stronger than ever."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Twitter

"Germany’s ties with the United States of America are deeper than with any country outside of the European Union."
"Germany and America are bound by common values — democracy, freedom, as well as respect for the rule of law and the dignity of each and every person, regardless of their origin, skin color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, or political views. It is based on these values that I wish to offer close cooperation, both with me personally and between our countries’ governments."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel 

"[U.S. President Donald Trump] recognizes the importance and significance of NATO."

"I'm also confident the USA will recognize the importance of the cooperation we have in Europe to ensure our collective defence and collective security."

"From our conversations to date, I know we are both committed to advancing the special relationship between our two countries and working together for the prosperity and security of people on both sides of the Atlantic."

British Prime Minister Theresa May 

Credit Evan Vucuup

Quaking with trepidation, yet expressing confidence in a future that threatens to be derailed through the direct verbal expressions of the new President of the United States of America, traditional allies take hope in their vision that it will not be simple for anyone to promote wholesale rejection by this new administration of all the instruments of multi-national agreements in the promotion of intelligence gathering, mutual defence, and advantageous trade, along with open borders.

While world leaders express their limited confidence in phrases carefully gauged to mask their uneasiness over the unknown in dealing with a  volatile egocentric whose own pronouncements have made it abundantly clear that he basks lovingly in the multitudinous spheres of  his own ignorance, supremely satisfied that his views born of flighty attention spasms cannot be anything but accurate since he is, at the very least, infallible.

You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time is being highlighted once again through the agonizingly predictable unfolding of the present into the future. Protest marches are the latest indication, erupting all over the world, that fear has struck deep and promises to remain entrenched for the next four years over the uncertainty and perceived diminished prospects for humanity with this man at the helm of the world's superpower.

Theresa May's chirrupingly hopeful interpretation of the future is belied by Londoners outside the American embassy chanting "Dump Trump!", while in Mexico City people discuss the gravity of their country's future under the bad-tempered slander of a neighbour's vented spleen. "I listened to Trump's inauguration speech dubbed on an Arabic channel -- it could easily have been Saddam, Assad or Sissi", Mohamad Bazzi, professor of journalism at New York University tweeted through Donald Trump's favoured social media medium.

Protesters in Manila, the Philippines, burned an American flag, urging their redoubtable President Rodrigo Duterte to distance himself from the new American President, yet why he should, since they appear to have so much in common in their personal traits, declarations, mode of communication and intentions is puzzling. 

In contrast to the relief felt in Israel, banking on the pre-election promises that flew into the atmosphere like freshly-released doves, hundreds of residents of the West Bank city of Nablus marched with Palestinian flags, responding to their concerns over the new president's support of Israel, including his jaunty assurance that the U.S. embassy is soon to be moved to Jerusalem.

They have company in the scores of Americans who were arrested on charges of attacking police and trashing property. Signs reading "Resist Trump Climate Justice Now", "Let Freedom Ring", and "Free Palestine", were hoisted high in the hands of the outraged. Protesters smashed windows of a Starbucks, a Bank of America and a McDonald's, denouncing capitalism and its greatest symbol of capitalism's excess, the new President of the United States.

Protesters increased as the day of the inauguration went on, with some among the protest crowd  wearing gas masks. With arms chained together inside PVC pipe, they demonstrated their solidarity and their rejection of the man who they said was "Not My President!" Over 200 people were arrested, charged with rioting and for having caused "significant damage". 

"Get a job. Stop crying snowflakes. Trump won", countered one man among a Bikers for Trump group from Philadelphia.  In the final analysis, no one can truly foresee that the coming administration can be all bad all the time. They can and they doubtless will, get some things right, some of the time. Of a certainty the administration that preceded this one got quite a lot of the things wrong, too often. Can things get worse? Stay tuned.

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