Last night the President of the United States gave a speech to a joint session of Congress and the nation as a whole. . It is an annual affair, known as the State of the Union Speech. The tradition began with the nation's first President, George Washington. Washington's first state of the union address was reportedly 900 words long. It's unknown at this time how many words Donald Trump's speech was, but it had to have been a bunch because it took him one hour and 48 minutes to deliver them. That's a mere one hour and 40 minutes longer than it took Franklin Roosevelt to ask Congress for a declaration of war against Japan.
Of course, Roosevelt had a distinct advantage on December 8th, 1941. He didn't have to tell any lies, shade the truth, or introduce the U.S. men's ice hockey team.
The truth is, Donald Trump's State of the Union speech was, in large part, mind numbingly boring. He lies so often about so many things some, including myself, no longer have the capacity for outrage any longer. They are like that stiff northern wind during Oklahoma winters. It's a pain, but it is a part of life you have to put up with. In the end all you can do is hunker down and pray for spring. Or in this case, hope to God, people will realize Donald Trump is lying out his ass when he tells them they are paying less than $2.36 per gallon--because they aren't. It says so right on the fucking pump.
One of the more interesting parts of the evening began before Trump even showed up. A chunk of the democrats had the good sense not to show up, so there were a bunch of empty seats on their side of the aisle. A number of republican lawmakers took some of those seats which gave the visual illusion a good sized portion of democrats whole heartedly agreed with Trump, no matter what he said.
The other, was his use of guests in the gallery. He brought in some victims of violent crime, then after detailed, gore filled, descriptions of what happened to them had them rise. He also handed out three combat medals--blood-soaked details of their accomplishment's included--including two Medals of Honor. One can't help suspect it was all designed to force the democrats to their feet. I mean, who doesn't applaud a guy receiving the Medal of Honor, even if it was for action in the Korean War 75 years ago. For those who wonder about such things, yes, everyone involved with the introductions were white, especially the hockey team and the victims of the crimes were white women who were assaulted by men who are not.
There was one group in the chamber last night, Donald Trump didn't speak about at all. Some of the victims of his old pal, Jeffrey Epstein were there. The President studiously ignored them and the subject. Just as he ignored the three U.S. citizens murdered by Homeland Security personnel as they exercised the right to demonstrate. He also glossed over the war in Ukraine he was going to stop in a day. All he said of it was the United States was now getting paid for the weapons it is providing NATO, which then funnels them to Ukraine.
While as near as I could tell, Trump defied the odds and stayed on script. Although a couple of times that raging ego got the better of him. First was when he declared, "I don't need Congress to levy tariffs." (Really? Obviously, the man hasn't read the Supreme Court's recent ruling, or the Constitution.) The second time was when he said, "I won't allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons." (Notice he didn't say we, or the United States, it was I and I alone. Mighty imperial of you, Mr. President.)
Still, one supposes the ego is the least we have to deal with when Donald Trump tells us the only way democrats can win an election is by cheating. One of the few firm proposals he made during the speech was for Congress to pass the toughest voter restrictions since the, "grandfather clauses." (You had to prove your ancestors voted before 1867 or face nearly impossible polling place tests--a tough nut to crack if all your ancestors were slaves.)
At about the same time he talked about the SAVE act (it's already passed in the House.) Brother Don casually mentioned last night's State of the Union should be the first of his third term, not the first of his second. That despite there is still, six years after the fact, not one piece of evidence large scale voter fraud took place anywhere in the nation during the 2020 election. He and his people keep promising they'll produce it soon, but they haven't yet.
But hey, you know what Adolf's buddy, Joe Goebbels said once, "If you repeat the lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself."
Late last week a friend told me I should skip Trump's address and watch the progressive, People's State of the Union rally held simultaneously on the mall in Washington last night. I decided not to. I wanted to see if Donald J. Trump would completely jump the rails on national TV. (I'm so jaded, these days it takes the truly weird and monstrous to impress me.) Sadly, Donald Trump didn't go off those rails last night. Oh, he was a liar, ambitiously seeking authoritarian rule, not to mention insufferably self-congratulatory, but it wasn't anything we all hadn't heard, or seen before.
In short, he was--to alter a lyric--the same crazy as he ever was. The same crazy as he ever was. Over and over again and again for nearly two endless hours.
Ladies and gentlemen, the bar is most definitely open.
2-25-26
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