Trump, State of the Union speech 2018

This is an impressive speech. If you care to watch it, allow me to suggest Right Side Broadcasting on YouTube. They have a great deal of commentary, longer than the speech as they wait for it, that you can skip past. The other videos are from legacy networks with their own narrative to propound on top of their presentation. For example, NBC informs twice that Trump is under investigation for obstruction of justice with the investigation to his collusion with Russia to get elected. Misinforming, mal-informing their viewers right to the bitter end, even as all that is exposed for coordinated coup that it is, even as the other more important investigations about real corruption that they are part of boil over to public awareness behind these scenes. They are simply intolerable.

If you don't care to watch it and would rather read it instead here is the full text on Bloomberg.

If you don't care to watch it, nor read the full text, please allow me to describe what I saw. In no particular order.

First, whoever wrote this is a poet.

Over the last year, we have made incredible progress and achieved extraordinary success. We have faced challenges we expected, and others we could never have imagined. We have shared in the heights of victory and the pains of hardship. We endured floods and fires and storms. But through it all, we have seen the beauty of America’s soul, and the steel in America’s spine. 

Each test has forged new American heroes to remind us who we are, and show us what we can be.

My favorite parts of Trump's speech are the people Trump introduced to the nation. We met them before online and now we see them honored by being invited to Trump's speech. Just standing there with the eyes of the world upon them gives us insight into how these remarkable people behave, how they are. They are gorgeous.

For viewers accustomed to hearing "me, I, me, me, me, mine, myself, I, I, I, I, I, me, me, I, I, I, myself, me, me, me, mine, you didn't build that, it's a blast of fresh air having attention directed outward onto the country. To the people who make up our country, who do such amazing stupendous outstanding things. Oh, my God. I love this so much. My country is populated with the most amazing people. It's humbling. They make me feel small. Small, with more gratitude than my smallness can hold.

Immediately, Trump mentions the Cajun Navy. Strangers shielding strangers under gunfire in Las Vegas. Coast Guard Petty Officer Ashlee Leppart who braved live power lines arriving in Houston to help save forty lives. She stands up. Firefighter David Dahlberg who also stands up to applause, who rescued sixty children.

Trump acknowledges people are still recovering in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, California and assures them we'll pull through together.

Trump acknowledges the work of emergency responders in specific places and he expresses his gratitude.

* American exceptionalism
* 2.5 million new jobs, 200,000 in manufacturing. (And this, by contrast, after we were told otherwise fatalistically by previous administration, "Those jobs are gone. They're not coming back.")
* After years of stagnation, finally seeing pay raises.
* Unemployment at 45-year low.
* African American and Hispanic unemployment also at record low
* Small business confidence.
* Stock market smashing records, $8 trillion gain in value.
* As promised, biggest tax cuts and reform in American history
* Repealed the individual mandate.
* Slashed business tax rate.

I wondered, hey, where's Barron? That kid sitting up there standing near Melania is too short to be Barron. Turns out to be Preston Sharp, a twelve-year-old who organized to have forty thousand flags placed on Veterans grave.

I'm humbled all over again.

* Sought to restore bonds of trust between citizens and government
* Appoint judges who interpret the Constitution as written
* Defending Second Amendment
* Serving veterans with healthcare choice and decisions, landmark VA Accountability Act.
* Ended war on clean coal. Now we export energy.

Clean coal? I climbed around a coal bin onetime, and boy, was that ever filthy. I get it. But come on. Coal itself will never be clean.

* Something about car manufacturers building plants.
* Something about access to new generic drugs and medical devices

Oh! I meant to mention this. Last week I had to see the doctor for a stick (that's euphemism for sticking a needle into your elbow and drawing out five vials of blood. Just seeing it is enough to make you pass out. So I don't ever look.) I must do this every fourth order of bulk medication to guarantee I'm not running some sort of scam. I guess. My co-pay for ninety day supply has gone up steadily over the years. But this time, for the first time in history, my history, the cost went down by twenty dollars. Not much. But it's a first. And that's just the co-pay. The total cost went down a lot more. I'm not so sure Trump had anything to do with this. But it did overlap with his administration.

One of my greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs. In many other countries, these drugs cost far less than what we pay in the United States. That is why I have directed my Administration to make fixing the injustice of high drug prices one of our top priorities. Prices will come down.

So, how 'bout them apples?

That is the biggest communist thing that our country does; prorate the cost of prescription drugs based on the numbers behind a nation's ability to pay for them. Naturally, we pay the most. So that drugs that cost my insurance company $2,500, cost an African country 5¢. I'm making a point, okay?

On to goals of this administration.

* Re-negotiate trade deals. For now on, we expect trade deals to be fair and to be reciprocal.
* Rebuild crumbling infrastructure.
* Reduce time fro permits.

Here's where the speech bogs down. The poetry evaporates. It's all this serious stuff about lifting citizens from welfare to work, independence, shifting from poverty to prosperity. Tax cuts, vocational schools, crafts, reaching full potential, support for families, extending opportunities, prison reform, struggling communities, immigration policies, borders, low-wage competition.

Trump introduces the parents of two teenage daughters killed by immigrant gang members. They're very sad. The women cry. The whole place is brought down.

And the whole time the Democrats sit like stones. Throughout the whole thing they're thinking, "God, I hate this guy. I'd impeach his ass in a New York second. He's tear-ing my world A-P-A-R-T !11!!11"

The vibes from the room are bizarre. Half the room people jump to their feet and clap after every sentence,  Metaphoric balloons float from the ceiling and confetti floats around in the air. Inspiration shines as light upon them and crisscrossing like Hollywood Kliegs. Their collective vibes radiate outward in pulsating bands carrying  joy, and love for all mankind, while the other half of the room has a pall cast over it edge to edge with clear boundaries. Their half is grumbling, they listen half-heartedly and for the wrong things, their facial expressions are pained, They groan among themselves in zombie intonations, their vibes are malevolent and dark and foreboding, their thoughts are in shade and poisoned. Their worrying and their disordered plans are like gears, mismatched and not oiled, not working smoothly and grinding down their psyches more as millstones. They are heavily weighted with foreboding and their hearts filled with revenge. They wear black to match their dispositions and their mourning. Their  looking-glass world is cracked, it's being exposed to their horror, they do not like the unreflected world that's not their creation. So much is lost to them in this speech. They ponder to themselves, as we all do, why are they even there?

Evelyn, Elizabeth, Freddy, and Robert: Tonight, everyone in this chamber is praying for you. Everyone in America is grieving for you. And 320 million hearts are breaking for you. We cannot imagine the depth of your sorrow, but we can make sure that other families never have to endure this pain.

No they're not. Over half the people in that room don't pray. And if they do pray it's for themselves and it's to a government god. Not everyone is grieving for them. More millions of hearts are hearing this for the first time than are breaking for them. Let's be real. Dislike being contrarian but that is simply not real. That is a political move.

* Trump wants loopholes closed that allow MS-13 and other criminals to break into our country. He wants specific legislation.

Trump introduces ICE agent  Celestino Martinez who has four hundred arrests.

Trump presents four pillars to his plan for immigration reform.

* committed to fighting drug epidemic.

Trump introduces Ryan Holets with Albuquerque police, and his wife, the couple who adopted the child of heroine addict.

Trump keeps showing these people and I keep being humbled. If this goes on any further there'll be nothing left of me. I can't take it. They're beautiful.

Trump continues with his plans

* He wants Congress to end the defense sequester.
* Rebuild nuclear aresenal
* Continue the fight with ISIS until they are exterminated

Trump introduces Army Staff Sergeant Justin Peck who did something unspeakably heroic. He went into a booby trapped hospital and rescued a fellow soldier by extraordinary means.

* Keep Guantánamo Bay open

Off of plans now, highlighting accomplisment

* Recognized Jerusalem as capital of Israel.
* Use vote against U.S. in the U.N. to re-appropriate U.S. aide away from countries who do not support us.

As we strengthen friendships around the world, we are also restoring clarity about our adversaries.

And right there is more clarity.

Trump rags on Iran and on North Korea.

Trump mentions Otto Warmbier the student who died shortly after his return from being tortured for stealing N.K. propaganda poster. Trump introduces his parents.

Trump introduces Seong-ho a North Korean citizen with the most gruesome story ever describe in a State of the Union address. (That I know of.)

The poetry returns. We sense the conclusion. It's a long conclusion that describes an idealized United States as a special place with unique history and extraordinary citizens that light up the world.

Atop the dome of this Capitol stands the Statue of Freedom. She stands tall and dignified among the monuments to our ancestors who fought and lived and died to protect her.

Michelle Obama would remind us that statue was put up by a slave.

Monuments to Washington and Jefferson -- to Lincoln and King.   

Memorials to the heroes of Yorktown and Saratoga -- to young Americans who shed their blood on the shores of Normandy, and the fields beyond. And others, who went down in the waters of the Pacific and the skies over Asia. 

And freedom stands tall over one more monument: this one. This Capitol. This living monument to the American people.

This received great applause from the gallery. Well, half the gallery.

Tremendous speech. Very well done. He left out all the stuff about to explode. Such tremendous restraint.

The speech is concluded.

--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*

I understand the Democrats put on six of their own contrary State of the Union addresses. I suppose to fact check and to poke holes, and to contradict, and to offer their own points of view. As they do every minute of every hour of every day, year in and year out. There is no shortage of Democrat points of view.

Immediately after this speech ended the networks aired some guy named Joe Kennedy from some historic American family or other. A ginger with Irish genetics. I listened to him very carefully and concentrated on the things that he said. Here is Joe Kennedy's rebuttal. I took careful notes.

The guy looked exactly like this. And I mean exactly.