Good afternoon, my friends!  As you might expect, the events of the last two days – Iowa caucus, impeachment trial, State of the Union address – have my hackles raised and have left me filled with snarky angst.  And you know what that means, right?  Snarky Snippets!

The economy is … what???

Trump claims the economy is so great, but I see signs to the contrary.  One of the largest and oldest retailers, Macy’s, plans to shut down 125 stores over the next three years, 30 in this year alone.  They will also be cutting some 2,000 corporate jobs.  Hmmmm … that doesn’t sound like a sign of a booming economy to me.

Yesterday it was announced that the number of homeless students in the U.S. is at its highest number in over a decade – 1.5 million!  Most are staying with friends or other family members, but some 7% are living in abandoned buildings or cars.  It begs the question, for whom is the economy so great?

As I mentioned in a previous post, there is more to the economy than just the stock market and employment rates.

Time for her to go

The self-serving senator from Maine, Susan Collins, lost part of her vertebrae and found it impossible to stand for what is right, once again, so she plans to vote to acquit Trump on both charges today, along with all but two of the other republican boot-lickers.  But Sue had an interesting spin … she is convinced that because of the impeachment, Trump will be a better president going forward …

“I believe that the president has learned from this case.  The president has been impeached. That’s a pretty big lesson.  He was impeached. And there has been criticism by both Republican and Democratic senators of his call. I believe that he will be much more cautious in the future.”

Oh, sure, Sue … he’s going to stop calling people names, stop using vulgar language, start acting like a human, stop throwing away OUR money on his damn wall, start supporting humanitarian causes, and treat our allies like friends instead of like enemies.  Perhaps we should all sit in a circle and sing Kumbaya?

Susan Collins wasn’t alone in her blind stupidity, though.  Senator Joni Ernst was equally sycophantic …

“I think that he knows now that, if he is trying to do certain things — whether it’s ferreting out corruption there, in Afghanistan, whatever it is — he needs to go through the proper channels.”

Are these people really so utterly clueless, so stupid?  No, I don’t think so … I think they know full well that Trump has broken just about every law in the book in his efforts to first get and then hold the center of power that is the Oval Office.  I simply think they care more about their own future than ours.

A few had courage

Kudos to four members of Congress who skipped the campaign rally/State of the Union address last night:

• Ayanna Pressley: “The State of the Union is hurting because of the occupant of the White House, who consistently demonstrates contempt for the American people, contempt for Congress & contempt for our constitution. I cannot in good conscience attend tonight’s sham.”
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “After much deliberation, I have decided that I will not use my presence at a state ceremony to normalize Trump’s lawless conduct & subversion of the Constitution. None of this is normal, and I will not legitimize it. Consequently, I will not be attending the State of the Union.”
• Maxine Waters: “To think that I would attend the #SOTU to hear the message of an IMPEACHED president is a thought that in no way would be consistent w/ my fight and struggle against this dishonorable president. I will certainly NOT be there!”
• Bobby Rush: “It would be painfully hypocritical of me to endure 90 minutes of unrelenting lies and all types of distortions and untruths, while at the same time watching his Republican apologists cheer. I cannot honor this man in any way.”

I’m told that several other democrats did walk out during the speech, once they realized that it was being turned into little more than a campaign rally.  What, I wonder, kept the rest of the democrats in Congress from doing the same?  I’m sure they will claim professionalism, but frankly the time has come for them to show the nation that this “president” is not legitimate, that he deserves no respect.  At least House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave him the proverbial finger when she ripped up her copy of his speech, later explaining that she couldn’t find a single page that contained truth.

A slap in the face

I do not know of another time in the history of the nation that the Presidential Medal of Freedom was awarded to such an undeserving person as Rush Limbaugh.  Mr. Limbaugh is a racist, a misogynist extraordinaire, a hypocrite who calls abortion “murder”, yet fully supports the death penalty.  He is a climate denier and referred to the 2017 Women’s March as “”Deranged Feminazi March”.  While not of the same caliber as Alex Jones, Limbaugh has engaged in a number of his own conspiracy theories, and his statements have an 84% “untrue” rating.  He has done not one damn thing in his entire adulthood that would qualify him for the Presidential Medal of Freedom … not one!  

And yet, during his State of the Union address, Donald Trump awarded him that honour.  Why?  No doubt because Mr. Limbaugh has been such a strong supporter of Trump’s, has defended the indefensible time and time again.  This, my friends, is a slap in the face to the people such as Rosa Parks and Mother Teresa who have received the medal for acts of bravery and humanitarianism.  In fact, this is a slap in the face to every person in this country.  The medal no longer has any meaning, any value.  It is naught but a trinket, handed out for political favours.

There will no doubt be some who tell me that I shouldn’t criticize Limbaugh, who has recently been diagnosed with lung cancer, but let me make my position clear from the outset:  being ill does not suddenly erase all the evil he has perpetuated.  He is not a good man, not a kind man, not deserving of any honour, let alone the freedom medal.