State of the Union

I rush to write this because of the ongoing technical issues with the blog. I don't know if the blog might come down for a bit until I get this resolved. I, therefore, will not attempt any "fancy" things with this post; in my limited world, of course, "fancy" means linking and other techno marvels, as I don't want to rile unnecessarily the Gods of the Silicon Valley.

OK. Full disclosure before I turn to Trump's State of the Union address. In case the five or six readers of this humble exercise in pontification don't know it: I like Trump. I think he might be the best president we have had, at least in my lifetime. I am biased in favor of the man. There I said it. I like him because he doesn't fear to say what needs saying; no fancy circumlocution or circumventing. He comes out straight. He is not a Churchill, a Roosevelt, a Kennedy, or a Reagan when it comes to word output. He is blue collar. He talks like an Eric Hoffer. Hell, he talks like the guy sitting next to you in a bar, a very smart and crafty guy, that is.

Most of the address was blue collar common sense.

He did a terrific job laying out the accomplishments of his two years as President, which are considerable, both at home and abroad. The Dems, including the absurd "ladies in white" contingent  (they look like some sort of religious cult or a KKK meeting) could not figure out what to do when he stated, accurately, that we have the highest participation by women in the labor market, and the lowest unemployment rates for black, white, and Hispanic workers. Most of them couldn't bring themselves to clap. Some put on a silly dance routine which was meant to convey . . . who knows what? To the credit of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who seemed to be having denture problems judging from the odd faces she was making, she tried to keep the Dem contingent under control. The Diplowife said Pelosi reminded her of a chaperon taking unruly kids to the art museum. I think that's right, and Pelosi is losing that control, I might add.

Trump was dead on when he discussed the illegal immigration problem, and noted that certain wealthy people and politicians who oppose the border wall, in fact, live in mansions behind walls, gates, and armed guards. The President did a masterful job of using the Reagan tactic of introducing guests who highlighted the points he was making, including some who had relatives murdered by illegal aliens. He stole the Dem's thunder with his proposal to resist the federal prison guidelines (mostly established under Clinton) which send people, disproportionately African Americans, to very long prison stints even when they did not commit violence or had no previous records of violence. His comments on the Dem's blood thirst when it comes to abortion was very accurate. His depiction of the progo mania for late-term abortion was absolutely right, despite the convoluted explanations of the "fact checkers' (see below) of the progo media.

It was sad and unfortunate that a President of the USA has to declare that we are not, nor will we become a socialist country. What have we come to in this country that a President has to say that? I, however, did enjoy seeing Bernie Sanders go bright red as the Republicans chanted "USA! USA!" after Trump savaged socialism. Trump's comments on socialist Venezuela were right on target, too.

That brings me to some funny stuff. Try reading the "fact checking" by the New York Times and others. Hilarious. They try to label things as false or misleading which are neither. Read it. Have a good laugh. Try not to get too angry when you read how they try to explain away late-term abortion, i.e., infanticide.

A few things got left in the ink well. I think a shout out to the Covington teens so maligned by the media would have been nice. I would have liked a specific mention of the coal miners and steel workers going back to work in industries which we were told were dead. But, those are minor quibbles.

The President had a good night.