Wow!  These past few days, beginning with the inauguration of President Donald Trump have been something, have they not?  With all the speeches, interviews, marches, protests, riots and everything else going on, it’s hard to get a grasp of all that has happened, let alone understand all of it.

I won’t even begin to try to recap all that went on, but I did make a few observations I would like to share.

First off, Donald Trump, despite all the crying and wrangling going on since the election in November, is now the President of the United States, although there are an awful lot of people saying he isn’t their president.  News for those, yes he is.  You may not like it, and you may not like Trump personally, but according to the law of the land, he is President of all citizens of the US, and you may hide your head in the sand, or scream at the top of your lungs, but he will still be the President when the sun comes up tomorrow.

You had your chance, you voiced your opinions, you went to rallies and conventions, and hailed your candidate’s virtues over Trump’s, but when the votes were counted, and in accordance with the national law in place for over 200 years, Trump won the job.

Then we had the controversy over the size of the crowd at the inauguration, as if that somehow was a measure of upcoming success.  Mainstream media kept hammering the point that the Trump crowds were small when compared to Obama’s, some even appearing to doctor photos to drive the point home.

I will concede that the crowd was smaller, but there could be any number of reasons for that, including the weather, the extra security surrounding the event, and even the fact that many of Trump’s primary supporters, hard-working middle class wage earners, valued the day’s pay over the expense to travel to Washington to stand a mile from the podium to see something that was being broadcast live of dozens of TV channels.  Those are the ones who Trump’s message of jobs and economic growth struck a nerve and gave them hope, and sent them to the polls.

Following that, the Sunday morning talk shows were still discussing which president had the biggest, and an interview with Trump adviser and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway prompted her to defend the White House version by citing “alternative facts.”  This term, heretofore mostly applied to climate research, we can presume will now be part of the spin doctors’ routine going forth.  Loosely defined, it simply means taking the same facts as everyone else and presenting them in a manner that supports your preconceived notions.  It has been in use for years, but now we have a term with which to identify the practice.