A State of Disunuion

On Tuesday night President Donald Trump delivered his first State of the Union address with 45.6 million Americans tuning in to watch. I'm sure most people viewed to see if he would stick with the teleprompter and he basically did, reciting a nationalistic speech written by Stephen Miller.

The address ran for one hour and twenty minutes due to the fact that Trump dragged it out with a slow cadence and applauded himself every time the audience clapped. He naturally lied the next morning stating it was the most watched State of the Union in history. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all beat his numbers for their first time. Not that it really matters, which is why it matters that he lied about it, a fact that is so simple to check and so ultimately irrelevant continues to reveal his bizarre over the top self absorption. It was fine when he was a private citizen looking for media attention but it is completely unacceptable behavior for a President.

Many Americans tend to skip the State of the Union and that's understandable but it would be a shame if you skipped it because it was Trump, in fact you definitely should have watched it. Yes, like most of these evenings it was filled with yawns but it also was filled with subtle and not so subtle indications of just how much Donald Trump wishes he was Vladimir Putin.

Early in the address he asked that we acknowledge the "State of the Union is strong because our people are strong." This is like saying hot cocoa is good because people like hot cocoa. The state of our union is not strong, it is weak and in it's greatest peril since the Civil War.

Here's a line overflowing with hidden meaning and you can definitely see the maniacal grin on Miller's face as he wrote it, "We are rediscovering the American way." What does that mean? The true and noble American way has always been to move forward and create a better future. "Rediscovering" directly indicates a movement backward to some other point in American history when Trump and his allies believe the country was a better place than it is now. So when might that be? A review of Trump's rhetoric on race, economics and trade are very informative, particularly combined with the gargantuan tax cuts for the rich and corporations that he recently signed in to law. This all combines to reveal that Trump's "better" time and "way" is the Age of the Robber Barons.

Trump used the usual array of guests in the balcony to illustrate good deeds and bravery. There was one glaring exception to this routine, that was the introduction of two sets of parents who's daughters were best friends that were murdered by members of the gang MS13. He used that as an example of illegal immigration and his immigration policy portion of the speech. It was shameful. To so despicably link DACA kids and other productive undocumented workers with murderous thugs who by their very nature would have committed murder no matter where they came from or how they got here. They could easily be fifth generation Americans named Eddie and Bob.

The most important part of the speech and what should send chills down your spine is this, "I call on Congress to empower every Cabinet Secretary with the authority to reward  good workers -- and to remove federal employees who undermine the public interest or fail the American People." This was a direct call for the establishment of loyalty oaths to Donald Trump by civil servants at all levels, including senior appointed positions and the removal of protections for federal employees against unjustified termination and whistle blower laws. This was clearly a shot at Special Counsel Robert Mueller and top officials at the F.B.I. and Justice Department. The Secretaries already have all the necessary human resource tools at their disposal to fairly and efficiently run their departments with honor. But Trump doesn't want that. He wants an authoritarian government created in his name and with an American twist, the twist being we ignore it exists and just look the other way.

Trump also touted trade policy but here's the inescapable truth, in his first year he has not renegotiated any existing trade treaties or began negotiation on new treaties. Meanwhile the rest of the world, including our allies are aggressively moving forward with trade policy, including Canada which just inked a sweeping deal with ten Asian countries. While Trump loves to recount his decisive action to "pull" the U.S. out of the Trans Pacific Partnership, known as T.P.P., it required no action on his part except to say he wasn't interested in pursuing it, incredible Presidential leadership and what a heavy lift. We were never in the T.P.P., it was never finished and submitted for Senate ratification. Leaving China in a powerful negotiating position. Trump's great trade achievement was to place a 30% tariff on Chinese made solar panels and large washing machines made by L.G. Electronics and Samsung in South Korea. In response the Chinese company Jinko Solar announced it would open a factory in the U.S. to sidestep the tariff, but most anylysts agree it will create few new jobs as the facility will be heavily automated. Jinko Solar already has a subsidiary operating in the U.S. but has been tight lipped about it's goals. The Chinese solar giant watches the U.S. market carefully and is prepared to adapt. As to the washing machine, the cost will be past on to the consumer.

Trump proudly proclaimed his administrations historic elimination of all kinds of regulations and that is certainly true, with a large number of those being the removal of worker safety rules, again we see the "rediscovering of the American way", all the bad ways of the good old bad days.

The state of our union is great for the well off but continues to deteriorate for everyone else in a country where 67% of the citizens don't even have $400.00 set aside for an emergency.

Hot cocoa anyone?