Republican Party

Disappointed with President Trump’s State of the Union Address

In general, I was pretty disappointed with President Trump’s State of the Union address. It was one of the longest State of Union addresses, but failed to mention climate change. You would have though the President would have thought to given it a little thought when he delivered his address. I didn’t expect the President, as a conservative Republican, would promote a radical pro-regulation take on climate change, but he should have at least been pushing for market-based solutions, and noted the progress we’ve made in recent years in decarbonizing the economy as we’ve moved from coal to natural gas as a primary source of power generation. Maybe not enough, but he should have dropped a remark in favor of climate action.

Listening to his immigration portion of his speech, the best way to describe my attitude to his remarks was disgusted. We shouldn’t be turning our backs on our immigrants, especially those who have spent most of their lives in America. There is very little evidence that immigrants take American jobs, indeed most of the jobs they take are at the bottom of the spectrum not widely sought after by Americans. Many immigrants work incredibly hard, as they know what alternative is to not working — going back to a life of poverty in places that don’t offer the freedom or dynamic economy that America has. Immigrants are bringing us new foods, new cultures, new ideas, and are working tirelessly to make our country a better place to live. It’s absurd that we can’t find a solution to fully integrate long-term immigrants — the dreamers into the fabric of our society.

The solution to the tough times that many people in rural America and urban ghettos is not to turn out backs on the immigrants or dig more coal. It’s make the the strategic investment in education, and to work tirelessly to create the jobs of the future. Coal is not the future, renewable energy is the future. Tourism and recreation are the future. As leisure time expands for Americans, we need to make sure we have the parks and recreational facilities of all types for the public to enjoy and take advantage of. We need to make sure rural areas are welcoming, that they are producing the high-value foods and commodities sought out by the increasingly discriminating tastes of urban consumers.

While regulation costs jobs in legacy industries, the truth is regulation often spurs new jobs in compliance with regulations, all while improving the quality of life of millions of Americans. Air pollution controls for automobiles are classic example, but in every industry there are cases of regulation for the public benefit improving the quality of life. Millions of Americans build automobile pollution control devices, including many highly paid engineers and scientists. Certainly government should never interfere with free markets or competition, but it should set up regulations to ensure orderly competition so that all players have fair access to the market and that the market produces products that do as little harm as possible to the public. Trump’s blanket attacks on regulation are foolish and serve no public purpose.

His whole speech wasn’t that bad. Certainly I appreciated his one liner about protecting the second amendment. But he was silent on how he planned to protect the rights of gun owners and hunters like myself. He said nothing about acquiring new public lands, about increasing training and knowledge of sportsmen. He didn’t talk about ways we can protect our public lands for generations to come, or how we can limit the incredible amount of climate change gases and other toxic substances coming out of our big cities and great places of industry.

Maybe I gave Donald Trump too much of the benefit of the doubt during his first year in office. I thought he could have proven to be a good president, somebody who could have brought his business knowledge to the White House to make government work efficiently and promote job creation. But after hearing the president’s speech, I am throughly disappointed with his leadership, and hope we can take our country in a different direction starting in 2018.

Donald Trump just asked Congress to end the rule of law.

Donald Trump just asked Congress to end the rule of law.

I heard this remark last night, and said, aw-shit. I doubt Congress would give up this amount of power, and I'm sure unions would have a problem with this as it would essentially end civil service as we know it.

β€œI call on the congress to empower every Cabinet secretary with the authority to reward good workersβ€”and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people.”

Looking Forward to Trump’s Speech

I am quite interested to hear what President Trump has to say this evening. Most presidents rarely get much of their State of the Union policy proposals through, and we can guess what Trump will be calling for, it should be interesting to hear what he was to say.πŸ“£ I like how Trump has made it a priority to downsize government, although admittedly much of his talk on scaling back government has been more rhetoric then policy.🌎 I want to see a society where there are fewer, simpler laws and less government inference in every day life.

One thing I hope he talks about is climate change and the need to invest in renewable energy. Granted, this hasn’t been a priority in his first year, but I am still hopeful he can change his mind. ⚑Renewable energy has the ability to spur new industries, to help out areas previously left behind by economic growth. Coal may have been Applachia’s base industry, but now renewables like wind, tourism, and new forms of value added agriculture are it’s future.πŸ” The old America was about making basic materials, the new America is about making experiences.

I hope the president also puts a priority on immigration and embracing diverse groups of new Americans.πŸ‘¬ We should value hard-work, we should be encouraging people to move to our country who have the dedication and wiliness to fill positions that Americans don’t want. We need to fix situation that DREAMERS are in, and open our borders to people who share our values.

Criminal justice is another issue he should address. I hope the president calls for an expanded death penalty, that is fast and effective. We are overcrowding our prisonsπŸ”« and releasing too many ex-felons to the street, rather using a fast, humane way of executing criminals after being found guilty of felony.πŸ’‰ We need to get people off the street that are panhandling and harassing people as they pass on by doing their business.πŸ‘Ί Rather then focusing on gun control, we need to focus on killing off criminal class that are destroying our society.

The president should also address healthcare. πŸ₯The short-comings of the Affordable Care Act are widely covered in the media, but he should address how we will provide affordable healthcare to all Americans. Maybe he will put forward a Single Payere the government will help subsidize healthcare to make sure it is affordable for all Americans.

Making college more affordable should also be a priority the president, and not just throwing more money at the problem.🍎 We should find ways to help colleges economize, slim down costs, make tuition more in line with the amount of aid that is currently available. New York’s Tuition-Free is a good idea previously adopted by Rhode Island and Tennessee, but it doesn’t do enough to constrain costs. πŸ“š

There is much that the president can say in his address for our country. I look forward to seeing what he has to say.

Trumps wanted Van Gogh for White House; Guggenheim offers gold toilet instead

Trumps wanted Van Gogh for White House; Guggenheim offers gold toilet instead

"The emailed response from the Guggenheim's chief curator to the White House was polite but firm: the museum could not accommodate a request to "borrow" a painting by Vincent Van Gogh for President Donald and Melania Trump's private living quarters. Instead, wrote the curator, Nancy Spector, another piece was available, one that was nothing like "Landscape with Snow," the lovely 1888 Van Gogh rendering of a man in a black hat walking along a path in Arles with his dog. The curator's alternative: an 18-karat, fully functioning, solid gold toilet - an interactive work entitled "America" that critics have described as pointed satire aimed at the excess of wealth in this country."