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| Misanthropic Boomer |
Set
the barrier as low as one can and Trump will still manage to crawl under it. I
wouldn’t begin to call the spectacle Trump put on Tuesday evening a State of
the Union Address. Trump stood in the People’s House and told lies, embellished
what few truths he told, and stooped to making threats against the opposition. And,
I wouldn’t call his cohorts in Congress, Legislators. The Republicans in
attendance applauded and stood for the Orange Buffoon like so many Pavlovian
dogs, while having done nothing of note for the two long years of His Majesty’s
Presidency.
As
the title of this pieces indicates, Trump never disappoints. He is a vain, egotistical,
narcissistic, misogynistic, self serving blowhard who began the evening by
stepping all over tradition and insulting Speaker of the House Pelosi when he
ignored her at the podium, and just began to bloviate without introduction, or
the accustomed acknowledgement of a new Speaker. When he did deign to acknowledge
Speaker Pelosi it was with a condescending smirk and remark about how the past
must be put aside in favor of cooperation and compromise if anything is to get
accomplished as we move ahead (a theme he would regurgitate in the form of
jingoism later in the speech). What Trump failed to notice was the way the
Speaker applauded with arms outstretched and hands turned horizontal, along with
a slight smirk of her own that said, “say what you will little boy, your
spanking still awaits.” It was like watching a Mother dealing with a
recalcitrant child in public…we all know what awaits said child at home.
Trump
then launched into bragging about his economic successes for the nation,
completely ignoring the facts that the nation already had eight years of tremendous
growth thanks to President Barak Obama, prior to Trump’s ascendancy: taking
full credit for something with which he had little to do. Since this was the
economic portion of the Address he then touted his tax cuts (they were really
Mitch McConnell’s tax cuts). Again he moved into mendacious territory as much
as his tax cuts were supposedly to help the middle-class, but did little for
them while making the wealthy richer, and providing huge sums of revenue for
corporate America, both through the outrageous tax cuts for corporations, and
the allowed repatriation of taxes owed but unpaid and stashed offshore by these
same corporations: money he promised would help the American worker through
wage increases but instead went for corporate dividends and stock buybacks, greatly
enhancing their bottom lines. He was also pleased to brag about eliminating the
estate tax; a tax that really only significantly effects the wealthy (people
like Donald Trump and Family). He has apparently forgotten that he promised
that the changes in the tax code would not help the wealthy, and especially not
him.
The
next portion of the speech was probably the truest part of the evening’s
entertainment. Trump bragged about slashing Government regulations…in this he
did not lie. His lackeys have all but destroyed Senator Warren’s Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau, along with jeopardizing the environment by allowing coastal
oil drilling, and the opening of the protected Arctic Wildlife Refuge to drilling
as well. While the media have been distracted by his potential illicit ties to
Moscow, he and his merry band of maniacs have been suborning environmental
laws, public school requirements and banking regulations.
Having
gotten warmed up, he next bragged how under his aegis the United States is now
the world’s largest energy exporter. Here again Trump avoided the truth; we
have been the world’s largest energy producer and exporter for the last seven
years…President Obama even mentioned this fact in a speech which he gave in
2015; before Trump was even a Presidential candidate. Trump then regaled the
audience with his success as the commander in chief who rebuilt the U.S.
Military to be the strongest military on the planet. This is not necessarily something
to brag about, especially since he took away the rights of transgender military
personnel. In addition he lied to the rank and file Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines
when he told them he fought the hard fight and won them a ten percent pay
increase (the truth here is that he: 1)
had nothing to do with getting them an increase, and, 2) it was only three
percent, not ten as he told them.
He
also gave himself a great big pat on the back for his negotiations with the
North Koreans and his new friend Kim Jong Un: who has played Trump like a
Stradivarius violin. Trump got nothing from their first meeting where he signed
an agreement with Kim, while Kim became a major player on the World’s Stage;
something his family has been shooting for since the fighting stopped in July
of 1953. And additionally Vladimir Putin convinced his good friend Donald J.
Trump to forgo the military maneuvers held in the region every year with South
Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Trumps actually claimed that were it not for his
Presidency the world would have witnessed a nuclear war between the U.S. and
North Korea; apparently forgetting the exchange of threats between Kim and
himself prior to the meeting where Kim made a fool of him.
Then
came the fun part of the evening, Trump told the Congress in no uncertain terms
that he would allow none of the People’s business to get done as long as there
was what he termed a partisan investigation. He made it very clear with his
jingoism that there would be “no peace and legislation while there is war and
investigation.” He apparently has no use for Madisonian Democracy: no checks
and balances needed. The truly galling aspect to that blatant additional misuse
of the perceived powers of the President is that the Republican side of the
House and Senate stood and applauded these remarks; all the while knowing that
now that Nancy Pelosi is Speaker and the House is controlled by Democrats he
will not get a pass as he did for the two years Speaker Paul “no backbone” Ryan
and Devon “Gollum” Nunez ran the show for the Republicans.
Following
a few remarks about the successes of minorities and women in the workplace and
implying that he had something to do with it, he moved on to red meat for his base. It was definitely time for his
favorite subject…immigration. He stood in the Well of the Peoples House and
described an Orwellian scene where hordes of filthy, undesirable immigrants
with the help of the Mexican government were prepared to storm the borders and
destroy his beloved nation. Nothing, as everyone knows is further from the truth.
He then touted the only solution he pretends to believe is viable…THE WALL. He
told America how a wall was the salvation of El Paso, Texas. He said that El
Paso was one of the most dangerous cities in the United States until the wall
went up between Mexico and El Paso. It turns out that this is big news to the
residents of El Paso, whose city has been considered as one of the safest since
around the year 2000. The only time the city of El Paso’s crime rate went up
significantly since then was following the installation of a barrier in 2006/2007.
The Border Patrol Chief in the El Paso area said that border fencing helps, but
not a barrier wall. He points to the ultimate failure of the Berlin Wall as an
example.
Trump
then went on to say that his border wall will prevent drug smuggling (a lie
since ninety percent of illegal drugs come in to the U.S. through legal Ports
of Entry), hospital closings (no one knows where that one came from), human
trafficking, and the import of MS13 gang members (does he even know or care
that MS13 was a Los Angeles based gang that incorporated, so to speak, and went
worldwide?).
All
in all Trump’s supposed State of the Union Address was merely more of the same
pernicious mendacity that got him a base in the first place. This was just
another stump speech. The only reason he wanted to give the speech before
Congress was so he could publicly threaten the Legislators. Once again it shows
how little Trump knows about his own nation. We don’t succumb to threats. And,
although he has managed to do a great deal of harm, I am now firmly convinced that
These United States will survive both Trump and Putin. As Japanese
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor
would reportedly write in his diary, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a
sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” These are words that
Donald J. Trump, Vladimir Putin, and any other despots who have the misguided
notion that we are about to fall had better take to heart.
