THE STATE OF THE UNION 2018

     So tonight was the much-anticipated State of the Union Address. As a rule, I tend not to like watching these spectacles; there's usually too much political theater for my taste. I get a copy of the text and read it afterwards. Sort of like reading the box-scores instead of watching the game. 

       The speech was reportedly a huge success in spite of the Media Hyenas' attempts to distract everyone. Even the Deep-State shilling CBS producers were forced to choke back their bile and confess that the speech had a 75% approval rate. The numbers are probably much higher given the way that CBS conducts such surveys. 

        But on to the Address itself.

        The President mostly recited facts and policy-positions fairly familiar to most of us; but---because of the duplicity of the aforementioned MSM---many viewers tonight were likely exposed to this information for the first time. The economy is making tremendous progress and (official) unemployment is down to its lowest level since the Ford Administration. According to Trump, some demographics are seeing their highest employment rates in recorded history. 

         Make no mistake about it though, our growth-rate is still sluggish. But the Recession which lasted during the entirety of Obama's term is close to its end. Trump predicted that his tax cuts will accelerate this growth---and it likely will. The key though to sustaining that growth will be to curb inflation. The President hinted that he's working to lower healthcare costs---hopefully this a stepping-stone to a full deflationary policy.

          Trump then talked about Social Justice, eliding into the subject after a discussion of patriotism. He spoke of upholding the Constitution and religious liberty in particular. This in my opinion was one of the highlights of his speech. We haven't seen these principles actually applied equally in a long time. Though Trump didn't mention it, his Administration has taken an active interest in fighting things like reverse discrimination. 

           Also, he noted the reforms in the Department of Veterans Affairs and called for a $1.5 trillion investment in national infrastructure. Regular readers here need no explanation about the state of our infrastructure. A trillion dollars is probably a good start, at best. Trump also called for welfare and immigration reforms. 

              The President also addressed the Opioid Epidemic: a topic that we've discussed here at length as well as his positions on Foreign Policy. On the latter subject, he mentioned the regimes of Cuba and Venezuela before speaking of more distant trouble-spots. The sense that we got from his foreign policy remarks is that he intends to concentrate more upon regional threats than on the failed Pax Americana policy of the Deep-State Era. 

               The one new policy that Trump announced tonight was reversing Obama's commitment to closing the Guantanamo Naval Base and its prison facilities. Commitment might be a bit of a stretch---considering that Obama seems to have forgotten Guantanamo shortly after his Inauguration ceremony. This is going to be a developing story because Trump didn't state in detail why he intended to keep open the base. Could it be a crackdown on terror cells? Hopefully so. 

                Overall, the Address wasn't too bad; though not really a landmark speech either. The best part of it all was its optimism, appeals to faith, and Trump's achievements which were largely commonsense solutions to (what seemed to be) insoluble issues. At one point he referenced a family who named an adopted daughter Hope. Hope was the central theme of his whole speech---a genuine belief that things can and will improve. 

                 And very likely his 2019 Address will speak of even better things yet to come.