Election Day!

 

Garden pano, looking East. Through Siena Park

4 November. 07:30 HKT. Sitting here at home in Discovery Bay, Hong Kong, listening to live stream radio covering the election. About to shift to cable — I’ll flip…to BBC to CNBC to Fox to CNN, to Bloomberg to CNA to DW. (It’s 18:30 on 3 November on US East Coast).

Strapping in.

I’m so excited I’m going to have a couple of soft boiled eggs.

09:00: listening to YouTube livestream and a Democratic Strategist quotes Trump’s Charlottesville “fine people” comment to show how much of a white supremacist Trump is. Two things: 

1. The anchor, Cristo, doesn’t challenge her, so presumably doesn’t know the rebuttal (which is that in the very next sentence of said quote, Trump says: “I’m not talking about Nazis and white supremacists who must be condemned totally” which is always excised. He was talking about “some people” protecting statues as being “fine”). 

2. Did the Dem strategist either (a) not know this, in which case why not? Or (b) did she know and repeat the lie anyway?(As does Biden about this*). In short is she a fool or a knave? (What’s the feminine of “knave”?). Is she ignorant or deceitful?

*Biden says he entered the campaign because of the “fine people” comment. In other words, he entered the race on a lie. Or, at the very best, on a mis-characterisation which he surely must have known.

10:13 HKT. Well, I’ve decided to do the opposite. I’ve turned off the radio, not watching TV, reading a novel, “All That Is” by James Salter. In the background I hear the sound of the brook bubbling through the park, the wind rustling the leaves of our Flame Tree (Phoenix in Chinese), the Banyans, bottle brushes Michaeleas, Travellers palm, Tea Tree. Our whistling monogamous Crested Bulbuls, a lone male Magpie Robin high in the Flame, calling, calling… how much more relaxing than the febrile fluff on cable.

We’ll know the winner soon enough. 

11:30 HKT: I decided to make some fresh pasta instead. Tagliatelle:

19:24 HKT: My prediction Trump wins with 280 Electoral Votes. Trump has reliably gone on media to claim victory, with no basis. Which drives lots, including supporters, crazy. Why do this? And that there’s been fraud. Again with no evidence. He really is the big dickhead. Meantime Dems have lost seats in the House and Senate remains GOP. Nasdaq and Dow jump, despite uncertainty. 

09:45 HKT, 5 November: still waiting final results. Four states to report. Last I saw, last night, Biden was 234 and Trump 213, win both having paths to victory. I’m still in self-imposed news blackout. Listening to  KDFC Classical on the Internet Radio. One thing for sure again: the polls were way out, especially in some of the swing states. Also, I’m pretty sure they got Florida wring, comfortably won by Trump.