Is That State of the Union Speech "Out of Touch"?

 We all know Donald Trump is "out to lunch" but we'll deal with that issue another day

Shawn Hannity said he was going to give his take on Obama’s state of the union message.  Hannity failed to do this during the hour instead reverting to his pre-set laundry list of gripes against the President.  It’s the same thing as when I wanted to know how Pastor Bill Halliday felt about one of my letters and wanted feedback.  But Bill Halliday was working off a different sheet and had a pre-set agenda of attack mode and showed virtually no evidence of having read any of my letters.  In fairness- - the best grade I would give him if he were a student of mine- would be an F, because his comprehension was near zero, just as Hannity’s comprehension level of the President’s speech was near zero.  He too talked about how the President “Isn’t serious about ISIS”.  He talked about the two PT boat captures by Iran yesterday.  He said “If I were the President and this event happened on my watch, I’d just bomb the hell out of Iran”.   His response to almost every conflict is to bomb the hell out of somebody.  But it dawned on me that Washington’s blog is another, different source which claims the President is leading a phoney war on ISIS and that the whole war stance seems to be playing to the media with no actual substance behind it.  It does seem strange to me that Saudi Arabia would execute 46 people who were high ranking ISIS officials.  If that’s true that means we have 46 fewer high ranking ISIS officials to worry about.  I don’t see how Hannity can continue to regard the Saudis as our second must trusted allies in the region - - and at the same time condemn mass executions and mistreatment of woman and religious hyper orthodoxy.  Either Hannity is in love with Wahabiism or he isn’t.   Because basically there is no daylight between Al Qaeda, ISIS, and the Saudi government on this issue. 

Last night was the State of the Union address.  They had ABC network news on at five thirty.  I went to Glen’s room at five thirty and tried again at five to six and again when the speech was over at 7:15 and none of those times did Glen answer his door.  As promised it was a different sort of speech.  But rather than look to the future as I thought, it was basically looking back to a rather rose tinted glasses past of the past seven years.  A lot of the speech was basically a pep talk for America taking on at times the quality of a sermon.  It almost sounded like a major endorsement of Bernie Sanders for President because it alluded to programs like free college education and getting the money out of politics that Bernie Sanders endorsed.  But it turned into a major attack on Donald Trump right there from the lectern.   It was agreed seemingly by everyone in the chamber that assaults on one’s race or religion or creed have no place in national politics.  It was not a “shorter speech” as promised.  The speech began at ten after six and continued right on to ten after seven.  As for the speech of Nicky Haley- - this too continued the attack on Donald Trump theme.  There was lots of rosey talk about how the United States is a beacon of hope with opportunity for all.  There was talk of all the forgiveness exercised by Blacks in the South Carolina church shooting and agreement that the Confederate flag should have come down.  However she leaps from there into the old stand by’s.  Yes the Statue of Liberty extends the torch of freedom to all races and peoples, but hey, won’t that Trump wall look really good when it’s finished- - a grand and beautiful wall to keep the wrong kind of people out.  Yes we need more educational opportunities- - but lets bash those teachers unions every chance we get.  No we don’t want to be paranoid- - - but we can all agree that despite all the droning and bombing of ISIS people we’ve done that basically “The president has shown no inclination to want to take ISIS seriously at all”.   In short, her message was scitzophrenic.

 I listened to that man and woman on KFI till the first commercial break there and then I switched to Sean Hannity for the rest of the hour.  That was a better show.  He talked about the State of the Union speech from various aspects, playing old Obama clips.  Stephano is to be left under a building that is to be demolished, buried under a bunch of rubble.  Eva said the baby in the photographs was hers and Patches.  The other was teenage chatter in front of bright blue school lockers.  Jennifer began calling names for Money Draw at one thirty and at two there was almost no line and I got in quickly.  I asked for and got fifteen dollars from Jennifer.  The dog was lying around. 

Alabama defeated Clemson for the national championship 45 to 40.  I would only add that this is one time when betting favorites wouldn’t have worked, with that seven point spread.  In other news there was a suicide bombing by a Syrian in a tourist area in Istambul.  I watched video on that.  Two US ships were briefly detained in Iran till John Kerry intervened to set them free.  And according to Sean Hannity, Joe Biden is thinking of getting back in the Presidential race and is even saying nice things about Bernie just to stir up controversy against Hillary.  And I think we know from 2008 that Hillary doesn’t react that well to pressure.  She lashes out.  To make things worse Bernie Sanders has been endorsed by Moveon.org, a group that was founded after the Clinton impeachment trial.  Bernie Sanders is really close in Iowa and has moved back ahead in New Hampshire.  Whatever Sanders is doing now he needs to keep it up.

There are implied and perhaps overt threats against witnesses against the Chicago cups in the Mc Donald shooting.  They are taking to holding rooms and kept there for hours and brow beaten saying “you are- - going to tell the story the way we want you to, or else”.   A similar thing happened in the Ferguson jury.  This behavior violates the Rico act or something.  Isn't that what they call racketeering or strong-arming businesses or people?  But now the plot thickens because we learn Governor Bruce Rouner and Mayor Rom Emanuel are members of the same exclusive country club and are good friends.  But now Governor Rouner is turning on his old friend and wants to have Mayor Emanuel recalled.  But Governor Rouner is power mad anyhow because of how many things he wants to strip from the state budget.