Random Thoughts 4/27/26: More Ballroom!

I was up too today.  We have the loudest cat in the history of domesticated felines, and she doesn't take my "stop yelling!!" instructions seriously, at all, at any time of day, particularly during the wee hours of the morning. 

After getting up and trying to appease her with her favorite cat food (which she didn't want to eat today) and getting myself some coffee, I scrolled through the latest news about the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) dinner, which I'm sure by now everyone knows was interrupted and ultimately canceled because a lone gunman who had issues with the FOTUS and/or members of his administration decided Saturday night needed some violence to shake things up. 

While there have been lots of stories about the bad guy's 'manifesto' and about the security and how close he didn't actually get to anyone in the room, and some 'tales from the crypt' from reporters who were there, I spent my time trying to wrangle my random thoughts on statements from the FOTUS and the CoolAide Cabinet (that's the MAGA influencer horde) about how the incident at the WHCA event was a reason why we need the One Big Beautiful Ballroom the FOTUS is dead set on having, whether anyone likes it or not, into something at least somewhat coherent. So, without further ado,

Just THINK of the many benefits that would flow to ALL Americans if we were able to host conventions at the new White House Ballroom and Casino!! Oh, crap - sorry, that last part is top secret. Pretend we're in a Satirical Comedic Information Facility (SCIF).

We NEED a giant ballroom at the White House - what a wonderful way to get Americans into 'our house! I mean, most of us will never get to make a separate trip to take the tour because of our social media history, or our voter registration info (Wrong Party? No Tour for You!), or (especially for the married ladies) the mismatch between our birth certificates and our LinkedIn 'Yes, that's really my resume, not one I pulled off ChatGPT' profiles. 

Now that I think about it, the way things are going, I soon won't know a single person who could pass a security check - and damn proud of it, frankly. But I digress; that's the nature of random thoughts.

Back to the task at hand: think of the activities that could be held there, if only they made the darn thing big enough! A YUGE ballroom is what we need. I mean, if the billionaires who are donating to pay for access to the administration - er, sorry, I meant to proudly pay for the facility - want more ballroom (don't they all?), they just need to spring for a bigger ballroom!! Not this four- or five-story-tall, 90,000-square-foot thing that's proposed, but one that has five, six, or even 1000% more floorspace! Just think of it!

A bowling convention, with temporary lanes, hundreds of teams, and weeks - yes, weeks! - of activity, bringing REAL Americans to the People's House! Or, the NCAA's March Madness Final Four, with boatloads of gamblers who could spend their downtime in the casino wing - darn it, pretend I didn't say that. If I'm not careful, I'm gonna end up in trouble!

CPAC! TPA! NRA! The Union of Out-of-Favor Dictators! Huge Crypto-TikTok-National Security Conferences! The Association of Former White House, Pentagon, and Local News Correspondents! The Billionaire Boys Club - their membership is growing by cheats and bounds, almost daily! Plus, they could probably help out with bunker design! Big Pharma - those conventions are massive, and I've heard they give out lots of free samples! Research Scientists - they don't have anything else to do anymore... why not let them convene at the glorious facility to commiserate, instead of having to do that via Zoom from their basement labs? Gatherings of white South African farmers, or Scandinavian Trump Card holders! The possibilities are endless!

Farm equipment displays all over the White House lawn, and inside the ballroom, especially those from Case and New Holland; after all, they make stuff in red and blue, true American colors! Sorry, John Deere, that green and yellow just don't cut it anymore - Bad Boy Mowers can handle it from here, as long as nobody brings any of those electric and battery models - just the good old 'drill baby drill' kind (insert that famous John Dean scream here). Heck, we could even have a real Tesler car sales floor, not just a couple of cars! And how could I forget military equipment? We have the best of the best, once we replenish our supplies - and we could even have the Trump family drones on display! My patriotic heart is practically beating out of my chest! 

Boxing matches! UFC cage fights! Cornhole Championships! Heck, we could even bring back Jarts, in celebration of our country's glory days when kids were kids and ERs were plentiful! And what a wonderful place to hold the new annual Congressional Paintball Tournament? Much safer than that outdoor baseball tournament, right? 

And medal presentations, in a room full of gold!! The FIFA Peace Prize! The Trump Epstein Prize! The Melania Einstein Prize! And what better place to host ceremonies for Olympic Gold Medals Won by Men! Maybe even the Noble Prize folks would want to come here for their annual festivities! And, oh, for heaven's sake, I almost forgot Pardon Parties! Woo hoo!

And just think of how cool the State of the Gold-Plated Union speeches would be! Lots of political speakers; patriotic music (yes, Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood, I'm talking about you!); miniature statues and representations of some of our wonderful national parks and monuments; merch tables - can you even imagine?! Dozens of DoorDash Grannies, legally-present farmworkers, many more relatives of crime victims, and so much more! And don't forget the Democratic and Republican Party conventions! How fun!

Between the room rental, banquet setup, media setup, catering and bar fees, entrance fees, and the money spent in the casino (oops, I said it again...), we could probably fund Social Security for another few years, or shave a few thousand percentage points off the National Debt! Not to mention that we'd need thousands of low-paid AMERICAN workers to staff the facility, and if we just hurry up and build the darn thing, they won't have to pay taxes on their tips, OT, or Social Security - honest!

This is a brilliant idea - we REALLY need that ballroom, dammit! Let's end the lawsuits, end the petty bickering, think way more bigger, and get this thing built! 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.

Sunday School 3/6/22: Extra Credit

In your Sunday School, we heard from people who don't get a lot of air time. 

For your Extra Credit, let's dive in with Fiona Hill and Adm. James Stavridis (Ret.) who talked with what's-his-name on Meet the Press. Hill, of course, is a Russia expert - and, more importantly, one of the good people in the Trump administration. Stavridis is a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander. 

Hill was asked to compare Trump's towards Russia with the Biden efforts. While she did say there "was an awful lot" done under Trump, she said

I think there's just the one point that sums everything up... that President Trump at a pretty critical period, withheld military assistance to Ukraine that was desperate for it at that particular junction, basically to get Volodymyr Zelenskyy to do him a personal favor.

That sent a message to Vladimir Putin that "Ukraine is a plaything for him" and for the US, too, and she said that was "ultimately a sign of weakness."

It’s our political divisions, our parties are infighting, which was on full display there, that Putin I think is quite shocked now that we've got some collective action together.

Stavridis talked about the possibility of a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which President Zelenskyy wants and the West is resisting. The admiral knows more about this than most people; he implemented one over Libya. And it's not a good idea in this instance. 

It's quite obvious that if we put US (and) NATO jets in the air enforcing a no-fly zone, they'll be going nose to nose with Russian fighter aircraft. Down that path, the potential for miscalculation and a war between NATO and Russia and a war between Russia and the United States rises significantly.

The better alternative is to help Ukraine to "create a no-fly zone" by getting them the Russian-made jets they need, and "more stingers, more missiles that can go higher than stingers." He also said that our allies have enough Russian jets to give Zelenskyy "a chance at air superiority." NATO collectively outnumbers Russia five-to-one in combat aircraft, and four-to-one, so Putin is "not going to cross a NATO border in anger," he said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-Hoping Donald Trump Still Likes Him) recently suggested that the world doesn't need love, sweet love - it needs someone in Russia to assassinate Putin. Hill says  

We have to be extraordinarily cautious about how we talk about this conflict. We need to stop the war in Ukraine, but we have to be very careful about talking about war with Russia, regime change, about these other things because then he absolutely will double down further.

Seems that's the last thing we'd want, right? 

Switching gears, I dropped in on the group chat on Fox News Sunday, hosted by Shannon Bream. On the panel: Jonathan Swan of Axios; Catherine Lucey of The Wall Street Journal; Mo Elleithee from Georgetown University; and Katie Pavlich of "Town Hall." 

Bream asked who President Biden was talking to with his State of the Union address. Swan thought it was "independent voters who have abandoned him in numbers that no one could have believed at the start of his presidency," and said Biden's trying to find "opportunities to not just contrast himself with Republicans, but to contrast himself with the left flank of his own party."  Swan's assessment is spot on, I think.

Crime is one of the opportunities - Biden's got to counter the "defund the police" nonsense, which is the gift that keeps on giving for the Rs. Immigration was an unexpected topic, one that Bream said drew a "huge bipartisan response" but she wondered if anything was going to happen on it.

Pavlich acknowledged Biden's approval Bump after the SOTU, and that he's doing well on Ukraine, but said there's an issue of sustainability with the numbers. That requires policy change, which may or may not happen. She pointed to the midterms as a driver of his message.

The midterms pose another problem for the Dems, according to new ABC News/Washington Post poll which Bream referenced. The poll asked

would you rather see the next Congress controlled by the Republicans to act as a check on Biden, or controlled by the Democrats to support Biden's agenda. And Republicans lead that by ten points.

Elleithee said that kind of polling "usually foreshadows a 'big wave election' in a midterm," but he said the Dems still had a chance to "mitigate some of the expected losses." Biden's SOTU was a big part of that; he suggested he was reminding voters why they voted for him - or, for the Biden that campaigned closer to the middle than many of his opponents. And, he added,

I think it was him sort of reorienting the public perception of the Democratic Party, which, for many months now has been defined by a fight between the left and Joe Manchin, you know, and Kyrsten Sinema over the Build Back Better, right? That was what was defining the Democrat Party in the eyes of many voters. And I think Biden said, let me remind you what you got when you voted for me.

It's not just the Dems who are having issues ahead of the midterms. Sen. Rick Scott (R- Florida Man) is pushing his own 31-page agenda which includes naming the (completed) border wall after Donald Trump, sunsetting all legislation after five years, stopping "left-wing efforts to rig elections" (I assume right-wing efforts in that regard are still fine), requiring  income tax from all Americans, including those living miles below the ridiculous federal poverty level, and more. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Nobody Respects Me Anymore) isn't happy about that, saying

And let me tell you what would not be a part of our agenda. We will not have, as part of our agenda, a bill that raises taxes on half the American people, and sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years. That will not be part of a Republican Senate majority agenda. 

Bream wondered if the Rs can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat; Lucey thinks they can.

 -- the real thing here is the context, right, which is, as we just talked about, the fact that Republicans are going into midterms that they feel pretty good about. There's a lot of strong indicators for them. Their candidates are feeling pretty optimistic. And Senator McConnell definitely does not want the distraction of a conversation about taxes and Rick Scott's plan.

We'll have to wait and see how that power struggle works out; it might be fun to watch.  For some real extra credit, read Scott's agenda, mull it over, and drop your thoughts in a comment. 

See you around campus.

Email of the Week (v9)

Thursday is 'Email of the Week' day, when I plow through a hundred or so emails from the handful of Democratic presidential candidates I'm following to see what's going on.

I received 160 emails this week from the gang of eight candidates I'm following.As usual, Mayor Pete led the way with 48 emails,  followed by Elizabeth Warren (29) Amy Klobuchar and That Guy From Vermont (24 each), Andrew Yang (20) the new guys, Mike Bloomberg and Deval Patrick (7 each) and Tom Steyer (1).

Fundraising, Iowa (pre- and post-caucus), upcoming debates, and New Hampshire were hot topics, as were pointed barbs at each other. 

There were even a couple of emails from Cory Booker, who's now running for his Senate seat instead of for President.  Here's one of them, with the subject line Trump is tearing our country apart.

I just walked out of the President’s State of the Union address.

What we heard from Donald Trump tonight was more of the toxic division that we’ve become accustomed to. He’s tearing us apart instead of bringing our country together.

I’ve always believed that the ties that bind us are stronger than the lines that divide us. As we work to elect a President and members of Congress this fall, it’s important that we choose candidates who will help unite us instead of pushing us further apart.

That’s where you come in, Sue.

I’m running for re-election to be one of those leaders. Please send in a donation now so I can keep a message of unity at the forefront of our national politics.

Our country is deeply hurting right now -- and the past three years of Trump’s hatred and bigotry have only added to the pain that millions of Americans are feeling.

As I said often during my campaign for president, defeating Donald Trump is only the floor -- not the ceiling. Once he’s out of office, we’ll then have to begin the hard work of healing a country so wounded that it elected someone like him in the first place.

I’m ready for the challenge before us, but I’m going to need your help. Invest in our campaign today to send me back to the Senate for another term.

Let’s also do everything we can to ensure that this was the last State of the Union address Donald Trump will deliver as our president.

Sincerely,
Cory

That was almost the winner, but since Booker is no longer running for president, I went back through everything, and that's when I found this one Andrew Yang. Short and sweet, it earned the coveted Email of the Week recognition.

Sue --

Last night during the Iowa caucuses, the entire nation realized something the Yang Gang has known since the beginning -- we desperately need a president who actually understands technology.

This is a HUGE opportunity for our campaign to win over every single voter who saw what happened in Iowa last night and is now looking for a president who is ready to lead us into a future that is already here.

If we act now, we can make sure all these voters know that Andrew will be that president. So make a rush donation before the end of the day to help us reach these voters!

Sure, he's asking for money - but in that first sentence, he hit the nail on the head.

We don't need someone who merely knows how to tweet and who thinks that Rudy 'The Butt-Dialer' Giuliani is a tech security expert - we need someone who understands that whatever the heck ends up being the result from Iowa, whenever we get it, we can't have leaders who don't understand how critical it is that our election technology is both world-class and works as intended.

And, honestly, that whatever we do, it cannot fall victim to something as simple as a bunch of goofballs calling in, jamming the lines, and preventing votes from being reported.

Users on a politics-focused section of the fringe 4chan message board repeatedly posted the phone number for the Iowa Democratic Party, which was found by a simple Google search, both as screenshots and in plain text, alongside instructions.

"They have to call in the results now. Very long hold times being reported. Phone line being clogged," one user posted at about 11 p.m. ET on Monday, three hours after the caucuses began.

"Uh oh how unfortunate it would be for a bunch of mischief makers to start clogging the lines," responded another anonymous user, sarcastically.

Some users chimed in, posting alleged wait times on hold, imploring others to “clog the lines [and] make the call lads.”

Because if the goofballs can take us down so easily, can you imagine what the professionals can do? 

Wondering on Wednesday (v196)

Ready... Set... Wonder!

So, we heard from #IMPOTUS last night about the State of the Union - and what a production it was. 

It started out with Trump not shaking Nancy Pelosi's hand, moved to her not giving him the  traditional introduction, and then got into the heart of Trump's real or imagined accomplishments, many of which the Republicans have never been in favor of before, and really aren't in favor of today. But those things, including all that talk about women and blacks and Asians and stuff- and sucking up to the president, or course - keep them in office, so it's all good. 

At the end of it all, after some 90 or so sniff-free minutes,, there was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tearing up her copy of Trump's speech. 

People are unlikely to remember the numbers and lies and misstatements and alternative facts, and even the truths he recited, They'll be unlikely to remember the guests, including Venezuela's Juan Guaido, a Philly fourth-grader, the obligatory families of crime and terror victims, and a family reunification in the balcony? No, not *that* kind - don't be silly. It was a four-times-deployed soldier and his family. People will probably remember the centenarian Tuskegee Airman and his great-grandson. But will they remember 

• chants of "four more years" and "USA USA USA" but surprisingly, not "Lock Him Up" - I wonder if that's because there could be confusion on who 'him' was, Trump or Biden? Nope.
• Lots of women in suffragette white (ADD fact: Bowie's 'Suffragette City' was recorded on 2/4/72);  some walked out; others chose not to attend at all. Maybe, but not for more than a couple of days.
• chants of "H.R. 3" from the Dems, telling the Senate to do something with their bill on prescription drug costs instead of waiting for Trump to do one? Again, probably not, since that's just one of some 400 bills that the Senate is ignoring;
• or a Parkland parent being escorted out, and later, apologizing. I hope he gets remembered. 

People should long remember the gag-inducing presentation of the Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh, misogynist-racist-birther-rude guy extraordinaire - because that should go down in history as one of the worst moments in SOTU history, I think.

But people will definitely remember Pelosi's stunt. About that, I don't wonder a single bit.

Because every Republican running for re-election will have that video clip in their ads. The president will be showing it at his rallies, probably with unlicensed music blaring in the background. He'll mention it in his daily calls to his personal news network. 

It will be tweeted hundreds of thousands of times, in this kind of context, ludicrous as it is. 

Trump's base is in an uproar, and will continue to be, especially since he was just officially acquitted on both counts of impeachment, and because they are looking for red meat to chomp on until November. And he's got way more advocates - and money - and experience - for that kind of thing than anybody else. 

The Dems and Independents and non-affiliateds? Well, no surprise there - three camps:

• "Whoo hoo, Pelosi rocks, that was awesome!" Or
• "Well, she probably shouldn't have done it, but come on, Trump has torn up the Constitution and is a con man and just invited election interference from a foreign country and and and...", Or
• "What the actual hell was she thinking?" 

No need to wonder where I stand on that.  Or where this guy stands.

A couple of other things this week? First, you don't need to wonder if SecState Mike Pompeo watches The Simpsons. Clearly, with his hopelessly wrong tweet, sent from his personal account, the answer is no. 

Trying to clap back at Pelosi for her speech-tearing move, he thought this was a good meme. Sadly, for him at least, she tore up her speech because, as she saw in person, 

The city of Washington was built on a stagnant swamp some 200 years ago, and very little has changed. It stank then and it stinks now – only today it is the fetid stench of corruption that hangs in the air.

And finally, on the day that Utah's Senator Mitt Romney became the first person to vote in favor of convicting his own party's president in an impeachment trial, you don't have to wonder - at all - what the reaction would be from said party. 

It seems they're calling for him to be kicked out of the GOP. 

#MAGAMA

Wondering on Wednesday (v164)

The weeks, they go by so fast, don't they?

Just last Wednesday, we were reviewing the president's SOTU (something I never really finished doing, I realize - so I'll get to that soon, I promise), and worrying about the potential for another shutdown, and a bunch of women in white and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's random standing around.

And here we are a week later worrying about the potential for another shutdown, we've got more Dem women running for president, and well, the Speaker is  - well, the Speaker is the current Queen of the Meme for her clapback of the president.

On the possibility we'll have another #Trumpshutdown, which his team has said remains on the table, we know that a bipartisan agreement was reached the other day, and we hear that the president is "not happy" with the compromise that was reached, but is expected to sign it if it gets to his desk. He's suggesting that there'll be some $23B for border security when all is said and done, some part of it to be found by juggling money from department budgets that may keep him from having to declare a national emergency to get at funds.

He's also proclaimed that no president has ever worked harder and I have to wonder, where's the data for that? Bueller? Anyone?

Sunday School 2/10/19

Strolling through the hallways this morning, doing a little eavesdropping on people, including jack-of-all-trades Mick Mulvaney at Fox News Sunday and a couple of voices on  CNN's State of the Union: South Bend mayor and presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY).

Take a listen, starting with Buttigieg, the youngest person running for president in 2020, at age 37. He's also openly gay, a Rhodes Scholar, and a veteran of the war in Afghanistan.

Jake Tapper asked about his call for a "new generation" in American leadership, and whether that mean the old folks should get out of the way, and out of the race. Buttigieg mentioned a recent campaign trip he made to Iowa.

The only group that was more interested in generational change than the youngest voters I met were the voters who were about my parents' age...if you're from an older generation, you care about the world you're leaving. If you're from my generation, you're thinking about the world that we're going to continue living in... 

He also mentioned how interesting it was that, from a policy perspective, everyone's talking about something submitted by someone even younger than he is - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of course, and her Green New Deal, which Buttigieg called "the right beginning."

Obviously, the Green New Deal, as we have seen it so far, is more of a plan than it is a fully articulated set of policies. But the idea that we need to race towards that goal and that we should do it in a way that enhances the economic justice and the level of economic opportunity in our country, I believe that is exactly the right direction to be going in... the question of what the world is going to look like in 2054, which is when I'm going to reach the current age of the current president, that's not a rhetorical question - that's a personal question. 

He has an interesting perspective which might be fun to watch.

Let's see what the others were talking about.

Wondering on Wednesday (v163)

Taking a look at the president's State of the Union - let the wondering begin.

Here's what he said, according to the written transcript, to open his speech (there were some ad libs throughout the night):

As we begin a new Congress, I stand here ready to work with you to achieve historic breakthroughs for all Americans. Millions of our fellow citizens are watching us now, gathered in this great chamber, hoping that we will govern not as TWO PARTIES but as ONE NATION.  The agenda I will lay out this evening is not a Republican Agenda or a Democrat Agenda. It is the Agenda of the American People.

He also noted

There is a new opportunity in American politics, if only we have the courage to seize it. Victory is not winning for our party. Victory is winning for our COUNTRY.

And, there was this

But we must reject the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution - and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise and the common good. Together, we can break decades of political stalemate. We can bridge old divisions, heal old wounds, build new coalitions, forge new solutions and unlock the extraordinary promise of America's future.

The decision is ours to make. We must choose between greatness or gridlock, results or resistance, vision or vengeance, incredible progress of pointless destruction...

Members of Congress: the State of our Union is Strong.

Let's look at what he put on the table to entice people to join him.

Seeking Unity in the State of the Union

News has it that the president is seeking to give us a message of unity in tonight's SOTU, which will be coming your way at 9PM eastern time.

He's tried giving us that message before - think Charlottesville, for example - with limited success. Usually that's because he's not able to restrain himself - and his handlers are not able to restrain him - from tweeting nastiness, lies, or self-defeating misinformation within hours of giving a speech. He's hampered by that whole, "I'm talking to you, not to myself" trap that ensnares so many people in public life, but maybe tonight will be different.

For example, we're told in this report recapping an appearance by Kellyanne Conway on Fox and Friends, that the president will focus not only on unity, but on an "end to retribution and  resistance politics"- but Conway was not optimistic that his "rivals.. will respond well." And, she said,

It's a very uplifting address to celebrate milestones of American greatness, including those that have anniversaries coming up in 2019... When he is calling for unity and he is talking about actual portraits of Americans who have achieved greatness on behalf of all of us, including our brave men and women in uniform... (if there is) anybody sitting there with their arms folded, looking like they're sucking lemons, he is calling for unity and working together. They will need to decide if they're serious about that as well. 

She also added that the president wants the legislature to "do its job" including "meaningful immigration reform" with a physical barrier that "you can't crawl under, climb over, drive through or walk around."

(As an aside, I noticed that the president's advisor didn't mention the pole vaulting option; she might want to look at that, now that Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker again.)

Finally, Conway noted, he'll tout his many accomplishments, which bad people deny, and he'll address late-term abortion, a topic that will delight his base and antagonize people who believe that the government doesn't need to be between the patient and her doctor. You'll recall that was a huge rallying cry for the Republicans on why the Affordable Care Act was a horrid idea for the country.

Go figure.

TGIF 1/25/19

Wow -- what a week this one was!

I don't know about you, but I got a little tired trying to keep up with who was staring down who, and who was or wasn't blinking, and stuff like that.  Let's take a look.

Covington Catholic had a down and up week when a video appeared to show their #MAGA hat-wearing, women's rights-protesting students engaged in what appeared to be a racist, tomahawk-chopping, chanting in the face of a Native American elder and Vietnam War veteran.

Even their diocese pounced on them, promising a full investigation of their behavior.  And then, more video cropped up, and the race to condemnation turned away (somewhat, but not completely) from the kids and onto the vet, and more particularly onto the media.

There was lots of condemnation to go around on this one, for sure. In the end, the kids were not the instigators; the veteran was of the Vietnam War era, but never served out of the country, and the media? Well, yeah, there's still plenty of condemnation for them, all around: for the original reporting, for being too slow to respond when additional videos were made public, for their treatment of the Native American elder, for their interview with the start of the protest, and for their explanations and apologies, or the lack thereof.

No one was happy, I think - or, maybe I should say no one should be happy.   I expect the students will be invited to the White House, as survivors of the war on religion AND the war against the #fakenews.

But someone definitely had a worse week than the entire city of Covington, Kentucky.

Trump in Transition (v27)

Last night, president Trump gave his first State of the Union address.

He let us know that, in his opinion, the state of the union is strong, even as he left unsaid anything about the American carnage he spoke of so ominously just a year ago.

He touched on a lot of stuff in the relatively sniff-free hour and twenty minutes or so, after moving very quickly to the podium, almost as if he couldn't wait to get started so he could get back to the residence to watch the playback on his personal news network.

What did he tell us? The usual suspects: stock market, economy, jobs, unemployment of all kinds - those numbers that he repeatedly declared to be face while on the campaign trail are now truer than true, because he claims them as his own. He spoke of the tax cuts, and tax reform, and the increase in take-home pay we'll be seeing, and of course the corporate tax cuts, sold as a 14% reduction but in reality, barely half that in terms of what most companies actually paid. And of course the bonuses, but not the layoffs and the closings. The American Dream is a dream of dollars, plain and simple, he would have us believe.

In America, we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the center of the American life. Our motto is "In God we trust."

Some of us are old-school and remember the motto that came from our founding fathers: E Pluribus Unum, the one that includes all of us and binds us to each other in a way that IGWT does not. Like I said - old school.

He told us about the "bonds of trust" between the people and their government, including deregulation, new judges and support for the Second Amendment and "historic actions" to protect religious freedom, even if it steps on the rights of other Americans to participate freely in society, within the confines of our laws and regulations.

All Americans deserve accountability and respect -- and that is what we are giving them. So tonight, I call on the Congress to empower every Cabinet Secretary with the authority to reward good workers - and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people.

Yep - that's what he said. Cabinet Secretaries, prepare to mobilize to remove those who fail the people president...

He talked about energy and trade of course - and about lower drug prices and coverage for clinical trials for the terminally ill, but did not talk about how these would be paid for or by whom.

Tonight, I am calling on the Congress to produce a bill that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment we need. Every federal dollar should be leveraged by partnering with state and local governments and where appropriate, tapping into private sector investment - to permanently fix the infrastructure deficit. 

There is no question we need to do a ton of work on infrastructure - and there's no question that this will require foreign private sector investment - lots of it; how the administration will handle that remains to be seen. Just as a for instance, are we going to be in the position of having a foreign country control one of our airports?

He called for a massive military buildup - "unmatched power" is how he described it, and we can see

He called for moving from "welfare to work, from dependence to independence, and from poverty to prosperity." We should all agree on that, for everyone - just not sure how Congress is going to make it work. Drug testing, probably. That's the answer to everything, right?

Gangs, gangs, gangs - gangs were all over the speech. Well, MS-13. Not the rest of them. Immigrants committing crimes, or acts of terrorism committed by 'chain' immigrants. He spoke of his four pillars for immigration which include a path to citizenship for 1.8 million illegals, border security, ending the visa lottery and chain migration and moving to a merit based system, which will bring in skilled workers only. And fighting opioids, although the administration has been slow to provide any significant funding for this effort.

Guantanamo will remain open, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and we're moving our embassy there, there rest of the world be damned. Trump claimed that the move was "unanimously endorsed by the Senate" just months before, ignoring the other part that was, in the same bill, unanimously endorsed: that the Senate

reaffirms that it is the longstanding, bipartisan policy of the United States Government that the permanent status of Jerusalem remains a matter to be decided between the parties through final status negotiations towards a two-state solution.

And then, this, after talking about the UN resolution which condemned us for our interference in the two-state solution:

That is why, tonight, I am asking the Congress to pass legislation to help ensure America foreign-assistance dollars always serve American interests, and only go to America's friends.

Like many people - most, probably - I have no idea exactly what that means - but we are already withholding $65M of aid passed through the UN Relief and Welfare Agency to Palestinians. Who might be next? And how is 'friendship' defined, and by whom?

After a long discussion about the horrors of North Korea, he closed by talking about monuments to our heroes, and to freedom, including the Capital building as a monument to us.

Americans fill the world with art and music. They push the bounds of science and discovery. And they forever remind us of what we should never forget: the people dreamed this country. The people built this country. And it is the people who are making America great again. 

As long as we have confidence in our values, faith in our citizens and trust in our God, we will not fail.  

Our families will thrive. Our people will prosper. And our nation will forever be safe and strong and proud and mighty and free.

The blended poll of Trump's approval today?  39.5% approve, 54.9% disapprove.

Preparing for the SOTU

Tomorrow we'll hear from the president for the first time in a State of the Union (SOTU) address.

This will be a new experience for the president and it may be a new experience for some viewers - for example, those folks who wouldn't have been caught dead watching an Obama SOTU. With that in mind, I thought I'd provide some helpful hints for the newbies.

• There's going to be a lot of yelling and hooting and hollering, but it's nothing to be concerned about. It will sound weird, for sure, but just think of it as a bunch of bad cheerleaders doing separate but equal versions of their college stadium cheers, and you'll be OK. 

• While some will be yelling, others will be sitting, sullenly, waiting for the noise to fade so the president can get back to the speech. You'll know these people as Democrats by their hissing dark demeanor and dark clothes.

• The First Lady will be sitting with a bunch of people the president thinks are helpful to his message. You can count on a heart-tugging story about a veteran or veteran's family; there'll almost certainly be some people victimized by gangs; there'll be a hard-working middle-class guy, usually a tradesman of some kind, and/or a small businessman or two. These are standard categories of guests, so don't think it's something new and different this time around. This president is merely following the script.

• Speaking of the First Lady, she'll be cheered by the people of the president's party; pitied by the people of the opposition party ("how hard it must be for her to be married to him..."), and fawned over by the press. 

• In the case of this First Lady, she'll likely be accompanied by the children of her husband, but not her own child, because, at least so far, she's been pretty successful in keeping him out of the mix. You should all hope that continues, for his sake - and hers. 

• At some point, it will look like the Speaker of the House and the Vice President are about to hug, maybe even kiss, they'll be so giddy about what the president is saying. I can assure you, without the slightest hesitation, that there will be no kissing between these two gentleman, and so there's no reason for you to avert your eyes. 

• I don't recall there ever being a televised playing of the national anthem during a SOTU - frankly, that would leave less time for the clapping and almost kissing - so you do not have to stand, and no one will yell at you if you take a knee. You can even leave your hat on; I won't tell.

• You can pretty much count on the president using several buzzwords during his speech; again, they all do this. Here are several you might anticipate: carnage, MS-13, crime, America First, drugs, rapists, murderers, infrastructure, obstruction, bipartisanship, tax cuts, ISIS, opioids, Ivanka, Supreme Court, FBI, collusion, Russia, Putin, North Korea, Jerusalem, religious freedom, military, the wall, immigration, racism, jobs, My Generals, DACA, middle class, and so on. Feel free to add others you'd like to hear. 

• Tradition has it that every time the president says one of the buzzwords, you are supposed to take a drink. That's why media coverage, especially on Fox, seems somewhat disjointed; it may even seem like the reporters were watching a different speech than you were. You can solve this by participating in the drinking game - it helps, it really does. 

• Kiefer Sutherland will not be attending the SOTU - as the Designated Survivor, he'll be left behind to save the world in the event of a national emergency. 

• This president has a habit of sniffing when he reads from a teleprompter; I believe it's an allergy or something. If you've only watched his rallies or followed him on the Twittery thing, you may not have experienced this before. Don't worry -- he's still your president, even if he sounds like one of those people who is causing our crime wave. 

• With any luck at all, he will keep his remarks short. I've never been lucky, but hey - you never know.

• After the president's remarks, a Democrat will give a speech that no one's expecting you to watch. Most of the networks don't usually cover the other party's response but this year they might, because the speech is going to be given by a Kennedy. It won't be anything you're interested in, but it might be fun to  see how it play out.

I hope you find this information helpful. If you have any questions while you're watching the speech, I believe the phone-a-friend lifeline will be turned on for the duration.

Wondering Anew

I know, it's Thursday, and I usually do my best wondering on Wednesdays.

But I've got to tell you, catching up on the reactions to President Obama's last SOTU has made me full of wonderment.   Here's just one example.

POTUS said last night that we ought not to target each other, or others because of race or religion.  In that section of his speech, he referenced comments from Pope Francis, who was invited by former Speaker Crying John Boehner to speak to Congress a few months back. The Pope spoke, and Boehner, who cried through the whole thing, and cried even more when Pope Francis went on out Boehner's balcony and acknowledged the massive crowd below.  And then, seemingly immediately, Boehner retired.

And we now face a House led by the young family man Paul Ryan. And where I saw nothing wrong with Obama reminding everyone of the Pope's simple message, Ryan thought very differently.

Here's what Obama said:

We need to reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion. This isn't a matter of political correctness. It's a matter of understanding what makes us strong. The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith.

His Holiness, Pope Francis, told this body from the very spot I stand tonight that, 'to imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to take their place.'  When politicians insult Muslims, whether abroad or our fellow citizens, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid is called names, that doesn't make us safer. 

That's not telling it like it is. It's just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals. And it betrays who we are as a country.  

And here's what Ryan thought about it, in an interview with USA Today.

I think it sort of degrades the presidency to talk about primary politics in the other party, during primaries. That's not what presidents ought to be talking about in State of the Union addresses. Speaking up for our values and speaking up for our beliefs is one thing. But kind of wading into the primary politics of the other party is just not really what Presidents ought to do.

You know, if  Paul Ryan and Reince Priebus and other 'leaders' of the Republican Party had any cojones, they would have stood up to Donald Trump already - in fact, they would have stood up to him weeks, no months ago, and told him that he's hurting the party and embarrassing America.

They would have told him that they would not support him if he were the party's nominee, and they would have told him that they would not support him if he were elected.  They would have told him to go away, and they would have accepted the consequences of their actions, should there be any.

Instead, Ryan says we can't have a religious test for immigrants, we need to have a security test. Which, by the way, is already in place for folks, causing 15, 18, 24 months or more to pass before we allow most folks in from suspect areas. Unfortunately, trying to define a difference between a religious test and a security test doesn't address what Obama was talking about: the diminishing of America in the eyes of the world, and the betrayal of us as a country.

If the Republicans won't address it themselves, whether from Trump or from any other Republicans in state or federal office, why not the President?

And what's not Presidential about defending our country, I wonder?

Wondering, on Wednesday (v44)

I watched with interest President Obama's State of the Union (SOTU) address last night; I was curious about what he was going to say in his lame duck address, especially since there had been news in the days leading up to last night's speech that he was going to be 'unconventional' or 'nontraditional' this time around. And to an extent, that was true.

Gone were the call outs to Americans sitting in the guest boxes, veterans or teachers or plumbers or the like, folks who lived a story that touched on an issue close to the President's heart (or that of his speechwriters). The people were still there, of course. Even less-than-special guests, like Kim Davis, the government employee who refuses to do her job down in Kentucky. Seems she was 'invited' by a representative from Ohio who, until he was tracked down by someone today, was not even aware he had invited her. I wonder, this Wednesday, if he would have asked her to come along on purpose, instead of donating a ticket to a foundation that ended up in her hands?

Gone, too, from this SOTU, was any pretense of trying to get any major work done this year; Obama opened the speech noting that

Tonight marks the eighth year I've come here to report on the State of the Union. And for this final one, I'm going to try and make it shorter. I know some of you are antsy to get back to Iowa.  I know -- I've been there.

I also understand that, because it's an election season, expectations for what we'll achieve this year are low...I want to go easy on the traditional list of proposals for the year ahead. 

Generally, he kept to his legislative-light approach, and focused more on our country and our American ideals.  He made many references tor our past and how we need to somehow regain what we used to be, if we are to be successful in the future.

America has been through big changes before - wars and depression, the influx of immigrants, workers fighting for a fair deal, and movements to expand civil rights. Each time, there have been those who told us to fear the future, who claimed we could slam the brakes on change, promising to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control. And each time, we overcame those fears. We did not in the words of Lincoln, adhere to the "dogmas of the quiet past." Instead we thought anew, and acted anew. We made change work for us... and because we did - because we saw opportunity where others saw only peril - we emerged stronger and better than before.

 A bit later, as a preface to four questions he wanted to get us thinking about, he posed this question:

Will we respond to the changes of our time with fear, turning inward as a nation, and turning against each other as a people? Or will we face the future with confidence in who we are, what we stand for, and the incredible things we can do together?

Here's the gist of his four questions:

1. How do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security?
2. How do we make technology work for us and not against us?
3. How do we keep America safe, without becoming the world's policeman?
4. How can we make our politics reflect what's best in us, and not what's worst?

The last question is by far the one I'm most interested in. The first three can be filtered down into ideological issues - small government vs. big government, trickle down vs. bubble up, and so on, but the last one? That one can cross, even obliterate, party lines.

Regular readers know I often find myself wondering how the heck we got into such a pickle with our political process, with more money than all of the Supreme Beings from all the world's religions have between them corrupting the process, with corporations being equal to living, breathing people with individual rights, with efforts to restrict voting, and sham political districts, and politicians openly supporting those who bald-face disregard our laws, such as the aforementioned Kim Davis, and the Bundys, and people who refuse service to people who are not like them... I could go on and on.

President Obama hit on those topics last night. And then, he challenged us, people from both major parties and all of the other official parties, the almost parties, the special caucuses and even the loosely affiliated. He challenged us one and all.

The future we want - opportunity and security for our families; a rising standard of living and a sustainable, peaceful planet for our kids - all that is within our reach. But it will only happen if we work together It will only happen if we can have rational, constructive debates.

It will only happen if we fix our politics.

I wondered, as he wove his way through this part of his speech, looking out an an audience unburdened by term limits, many of them beneficiaries of the very practices he was describing, if he really thought the people in the room would go home thinking even a tiny bit differently about how they personally are perceived, or how what they do is perceived?

Changes in our political process - in not just who gets elected but how they get elected - that will only happen when the American people demand it. It will depend on you. That's what's meant by a government of, by, and for the people.

What I'm asking for is hard. It's easier to be cynical; to accept that change isn't possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe our voices and actions don't matter. But if we give up now, we forsake a better future.  

I wondered, would people believe him when he said it basically didn't matter whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, the only thing that matters is that you participate?

And so, my fellow Americans, whatever you may believe, whether you prefer one party or no party, our collective future depends on your willingness to uphold your obligations as a citizen. To vote. To speak out. To stand up for others, especially the weak, especially the vulnerable, knowing that each of us is only here because somebody, somewhere, stood up for us. To stay active in our public life so it reflects the goodness and decency and optimism that I see in the American people every single day. 

Because, ultimately, it doesn't matter what your beliefs are. What matters is that your participate.

Will we answer the call, I wonder?

State of the Union Poetry, Part 2

The Future.
We are the nation
of Google and Facebook.
It's how we make a living.

This is our generation's Sputnik moment.
We're not just handing out money.
We're issuing a challenge.

I'm willing to eliminate
whatever we can honestly afford
to do without.

But we're not doing it
on the backs
of our most vulnerable.

It may feel like you're flying high
at first, but it won't take long
before you'll feel the impact.

Our success in this new and changing world
will require reform, responsibility,
and innovation.

The future is ours to win.


Bipartisanship.
At stake right now? Whether we sustain
the leadership that has made America
Not just a place on a map, but a light to the world.

We measure progress by the success of our people.
by the opportunities for a better life
that we pass on to our children.

It is time to move forward as one nation.
None of this is easy. All of it will take time.
And it will be harder because we will argue about everything.

That's the project the American people want us to work on.
Together.


The State of the Union.
And yet I know there isn't a person here
who would trade places with any other
nation on Earth.

This is a place where you can make it if you try.
this is a country where anything's possible.
We do big things.

We are a nation.
I'm not sure how we'll reach that better place
beyond the horizon

But I know we'll get there.
I know we will.
We do big things.

The idea of America endures.
Our destiny remains our choice.
The state of our union is strong.

State of the Union Poetry, Part 1

Tucson.
The debates have been contentious;
we have fought fiercely for our beliefs.
And that's a good thing

Amid all the noise
and passions
and rancor.

We are part of the American family.
We believe that in a country
we are still bound together as one people

We share common hopes and a common creed;
That, too, is what sets us apart
as a nation.

What comes of this moment is up to us.
We will move forward together
or not at all.


Change is hard.
The change has been painful. I've seen it
in the shuttered windows and the vacant storefronts
of once busy Main Streets.

I’ve heard it in the frustrations of
proud men and women who feel
like the rules have been changed.

What do you think of that idea?
What would you change about the world?
What do you want to be when you grow up?


Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
We must never forget that the things
we've struggled for, and fought for,
live in the hearts of people everywhere.

And we must always remember that
the Americans who have borne the greatest burden
are the men and women who serve our country.

And we know that some of them are gay.