'The man is not rich because he is honest'

So I've started following the news a bit more regularly now, even though I know it is going to be full of awful things that mostly revolve around Donald Trump. As it's only been a couple of weeks since his inauguration, I was a little naïve and did not expect the amount of shit that has cropped up over the past few days in such a short space of time.

Anyway following the news that Trump is reducing the funding for Family planning, I expressed my extreme disappointment on Facebook. I got a couple of responses. The female response was supportive of my disgust. The male response was to point out to me that Trump was kindly not making abortion legal, instead he was just reducing funding. But that was okay, because charities could pick up the slack from the government would not provide. He followed the argument with the fact that he hoped there would be an exception for cases involving rape victims. I pointed out how impossibly ridiculous this was. He concluded that a large percentage of rapes do not end in pregnancy anyway. Surely it cannot be just me that thinks this is the wrong attitude to have? Perhaps it is my own fault for sharing my views, and posts, on social media outlets like facebook. But to say that cutting funding for something as essential as abortion was okay because most rapes do not end in pregnancy? Utterly ridiculous!

Additionally, this was the picture that was tacked on to this headline across facebook. Why is it okay for seven white men to decide anything about female reproductive organs?! I keep coming back to that interview I watched between Emma Watson and Caitlin Moran a couple of months ago, in which it was stated that because women are no longer being burnt at the stake there is no better time to be a woman. It is easy to argue that because of this, it is not a good time to be a woman at all and before I thought about it I had resided myself to that point of view. But when I thought about it, I realised that being a woman is pretty damn good right now. I think about all of those women that marched last week, across the world! All of those women that stood up for equality. That makes me proud to be a woman. I am just so sorry that we are still being attacked like this.


Then we have a Muslim ban that is meant to last for 90 days in favour of protecting American's from terrorism. He has banned people from seven mainly Muslim countries entering America, halts refugee admissions for 120 days and his actions are also preventing Syrian refugees seeking asylum in America for the foreseeable future. Now my favourite reaction videos and posts across the internet are the ones that question what all of the fuss is about. They state that it is 'only 90 days', suggesting that it is nothing to worry about. You are wrong if you think this will stop at 90 days. Instead, this feels like just the beginning. Yesterday I came across posts from people like Mo Farrah, a hugely influential figure that was afraid that he would have to inform his children that their parent may not be able to return home for a while. This was heartbreaking! Obviously his voice was heard, because he is Mo Farrah. But god only knows how many more people we have not heard in the wake of this disaster. The people that will be prevented from going back to their jobs, and face losing their homes as a result. President Trump stated that he wished to make America great again. I just wonder if this is what classifies as great? Fear does not equate to greatness, and I would have thought that was self explanatory.

At this moment in time there are more people across the world, not just Americans, that are more afraid of Donald Trump than of terrorism.

Additionally, protests are occurring within the UK once more in order to prevent Trump arriving in the UK on a state visit. I watched an interesting debate, that was streamed on Facebook yesterday, from the houses of parliament in which one lady compared Trump's actions to that of the basis for the holocaust. There were comments from facebook users adjoined to the video and they continued to flood in as I watched. The general consensus was that Trump should be banned from the United Kingdom, because of everything that he has done thus far. But I was surprised by the odd comment that drifted in that suggested this debate was not only pointless, but pathetic and childish. People suggested that the issues shouldn't be debated at all, that we should just let him enter our country on this state visit. I wondered about these individual reasons for feeling as though there should be no debate.

She states that 'the holocaust did not begin with the gas chambers'. But Boris Johnson responded with the fact that comparisons such as these trivialise the holocaust. However I don't think she was necessarily comparing the holocaust and the sheer magnitude of it. But she did make a valid point that the holocaust started long before gas chambers were involved. It started with prejudice, discrimination and segregation, which is a fair judgement. She simply expressed a fear that this situation could escalate, a fear that I am sure many of us are beginning to share by now.

However, Theresa May still refuses to prevent Trump from entering the UK due to a belief that a visit is in our best interests. I am not so naïve to think this is not the case. I am able to see why she believes it may have some benefit. But when one million people are petitioning online to prevent something, and more protests are taking place outside of Downing Street, you have to wonder what is more important.

Ellen DeGeneres put the Muslim Ban into terms that even Trump may actually understand, using the plot of Finding Dory.

I hope that despite all of this, you have a lovely week.