The days we go without a Trump Dump on this site are generally days when I stay off political and news sites. Something needs to be written that day for what I jokingly call my writing career and I decide that thinking too much about Donald Trump will distract me and maybe put a dent in my sense of humor…so I avert my eyes. Today is not one of those days…
- As we all expected, Trump is congratulating himself on the fabulous, record-setting ratings for his State of the Union address. He was going to do that no matter what the numbers were and, of course, they weren't that great. You get the feeling that after Trump eats a bowl of Froot Loops, he tells everyone, "No one has ever eaten a bowl of Froot Loops better than I just did"?
- There are certain lines of political hyperbole that I never believe…like when someone vows to pass a Constitutional Amendment to right what they see as some egregious wrong. That almost certainly means they are not going to raise a finger to do anything about passing a Constitutional Amendment. By the same token, saying something is "Worse than Watergate" pretty much guarantees that it isn't. But Lucian K. Truscott IV (not to be confused with all the other Lucian K. Truscotts out there) says that's what's going on with Trump and Obstruction of Justice is "Worse than Watergate" and he makes a good case that it is.
- Sean Illing on why the effort to discredit the F.B.I. is so unprecedented and dangerous. It makes you think that Trump and his mob are terrified of what may come out about their self-dealing and double-dealing.
- Matt Yglesias explains what we know of Trump's proposals on Infrastructure. We don't know much because apparently Trump doesn't know much except that it sounds good in a speech to say he has some. And he must figure there's some way to shovel a lot of government money to him and the people with whom he does business.
- Jonathan Chait on the empty promises and fibs that filled Trump's State o' the Union speech. Note what Trump says about "clean coal." Contrary to what some people think, there actually is something called "clean coal" and it's very expensive and difficult to produce. When Trump talks about "clean coal," he's not talking about that stuff. To him, all coal is "clean coal."
- Daniel Larison explains why it would not be a good idea to launch a military strike against North Korea. And isn't it horrifying that such a piece even needs to be written these days?
- And finally, you can find a lot of fact-checks of the State of the Union speech online. Here's Politifact's.
I thought Stephen Colbert's post-speech live broadcast was pretty good…and kudos to his writers for assembling that monologue on a tight deadline. Once upon a time, major speeches were followed by much better "instant analysis" than we now get from our newspeople. Maybe the networks should turn than job over to their late night comedians.