SOTU: Will You Still Believe This Tomorrow?

After a year of controversy and upheaval, President Donald Trump made his first State of the Union address Tuesday before a joint session of Congress and a worldwide TV audience.

For nearly an hour and a half, the President talked of unity in a divisive time, hope in a country that desperately needed it, and pet projects like spending billions on the nation's crumbling infrastructure.  He talked of bringing the best and the brightest to these shores--provided they were born here and not from some terrorist haven, while insinuating that some of those so-called "dreamers" are actually violent criminals like the members of the MS-13 gang from New York City.

Trump interrupted his speech from time to time to acknowledge the people he used as product placements to highlight his agenda (the Democrats did the same thing).  Then he went back to boasting about his "accomplishments" during the past year, some of which (like tax reform) he actually had something to do with.  He also kept it civil, avoiding the insults and name calling that marked his past public comments.

The Republicans in the audience responded to nearly everything Trump said with enthusiastic standing ovations worthy of a game show, while the Democrats in the room mostly sat stone-faced on their hands.  The President's constant hand-clapping into the microphones sounded like a faucet dripping in the middle of the night.

Even before the speech, people in Washington were wondering how long Trump's conciliatory rhetoric would last after it was over.  All it takes to burn it down is an errant tweet or three, an offhand remark caught on camera when he thought no one was listening, or just reacting to something he saw on Fox News.

Of course, the things Trump chose not to talk about in his speech are the ones that are thus far defining his presidency.  Such as the ongoing Russian investigation, with the New York Times reporting that the President tried to fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller last summer, until his lawyers talked him out of it.  Or his battle with Congress over whether to make public classified documents of how the FBI is handling the investigation, while their deputy director Andrew McCabe abruptly quits.  Or the alleged payments made to porn actress Stormy Daniels to cover up her reputed affair with Trump.  Or that his approval ratings are hanging around 40 per cent.

President Trump can paint a rosy picture of the kind of America he'd like to see, and take as much credit for it as he possibly can.  The truth is that the state of this union is divided and anxious, wondering how they're going to survive with a man like this at the helm.

The Grammys 2018: Random Thoughts

Here's what we thought of the 60th Grammy Awards, which were held Sunday night at New York's Madison Square Garden.  Prepare yourselves.

• Wasn't this supposed to be the year the Recording Academy (the new name for NARAS) was going to give Latin and hip hop music its due, with the most diverse lineup of nominations ever for its major awards?  Instead, we get past Grammy fave Bruno Mars, sweeping the top three awards for Song of the Year with "That's What I Like", and Record and Album of the Year for "24K Magic".
• To understand the Grammys' state of mind (with apologies to Billy Joel and Jay-Z), you have to consider how the Academy made the decision to reward Mars instead of someone else.  Our theory:  (A) Taylor Swift's new album wasn't eligible to be nominated this year,  (B)  The voters were probably as sick of "Despacito" as you were, and (C) Would you want to reward your top honor to an album titled "Damn"?   At least Kendrick Lamar was able to take home Best Rap Album for that one.
• Alessia Cara was named Best New Artist.  She also happened to be the only woman to receive a Grammy during the three-and a-half hour CBS telecast.  Janelle Monae called out the music industry for its sexism.  Kesha performed an emotional version of "Praying", her account of  the abuse (sexual and otherwise) she endured--allegedly--at the hands of her record producer.  Academy president Neil Portnow responded to all this by saying women need to "step up" if they want to get ahead in this business.  Like the rest of the entertainment industry, alarm bells have been ringing over the treatment of women and the lack of opportunities that don't involve the casting couch, and they're right to be mad as hell about it.  It's just that the men who've been running the show have been hitting the snooze bar once too often.
• It was a bad night for the "shut up and sing" crowd.  Shout-outs for the #MeToo movement, a commercial disguised as a song promoting a suicide hotline, and a skit of celebrities reading excerpts form Michael Wolff's book "Fire and Fury" including Hillary Clinton were sprinkled through the telecast, with mixed results.  Besides United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, who criticized the skit, was anyone at the White House watching?  
• Classic rockers Sting and U2 came aboard to lend their expertise to the proceedings, as well as to help increase the Boomer TV audience.  So did Elton John, whose "Tiny Dancer" duet with former wild child Miley Cyrus drew positive reviews.  As most of you know, Sir John recently announced his retirement from touring, only to spend the next couple of years performing around the world.  It sounds like one of those movies where the cop or crook who is about to retire gets conned into doing one last job before riding off into the sunset.  What could go wrong?
• James Corden hosted the Grammys for the second consecutive year, and only because he happens to host a late night CBS chat show.  Nineteen million of you watched the awards, which were the lowest in a decade.  Come back, LL Cool J.  All is forgiven.

Trump, Year 2: Digging a Deeper Hole

The following post contains strong language. 

President Donald Trump has been declared fit and healthy by a doctor who's fortunate enough to still have a medical license as he enters his second year in the White House.  Never mind that the President eats too much junk food, plays lots of golf at courses he owns, and considers himself a "very stable genius" whenever questions are raised about his mental health from reporters and anyone who's read the book "Fire and Fury".

Instead, Trump has made the rest of America wonder about the country's mental health under his watch.  Sure, the economy is booming.  But there is enough unrest and divisiveness going on in and out of Washington to make anyone less than sane.

Right now, there's a dispute over whether or not Trump actually referred to certain places in Africa and the Caribbean as "shithole countries" that send their refugees to this country, while at the same time wondering why they couldn't be hardworking white people like those in Norway,  This was allegedly uttered during negotiations with both Democratic and Republican party leaders on what to do with DACA, the program designed to help those born to undocumented parents in this country to stay here.  Since there is no recorded evidence of what the President actually said, we have to go on the word of those who were in the room with him.

No matter if what Trump said was accurate, it just confirms what we've known all along:  The President is a race-baiting isolationist who can't seem to get out of his own way.  And America's reputation suffers because of it.

There's also Trump's ongoing war of words with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, in which the two have resorted to boasting about the size of their respective buttons used to launch a nuclear war.  All this penis-swinging has resulted in somebody hitting the wrong button to warn Hawaiians of a missile attack, leading to the kind of panic not seen in America since Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast in 1938.  Next time, it might not be a drill.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, already on thin ice with Trump, has started his own war on states who have legalized the sale of medical and recreational marijuana.  It's still against federal law, but considering how much people have changed their minds about the benefits of weed, this is like closing the barn door after the animals have escaped.

Did we forget to mention the Russian election-hacking investigation?  Steve Bannon, who left his Breitbart job soon after he dared to criticize Trump and his family in "Fire and Fury", is now telling as much as possible to special prosecutor Richard Mueller--whose own status is being discredited by the GOP and the White House.

All this comes under the threat of a government shutdown, which would be quite a feat since the GOP controls both houses of Congress and the presidency.  You might be wondering why the GOP doesn't lift a finger when it comes to Trump's occasional abuses of power, even at the risk of losing their seats come November.  Because he's family.  And families have to stick together through thick and thin.

Barring nuclear war or impeachment, Trump will keep trying to make America great again for the next three years.  What he might end up doing is to turn a once-proud nation into a . . . really big hole.