This just in:  I didn’t watch the State of the Union address live.  There are two reasons for this.  First, I have learned that nothing Trump says means anything and secondly, Guardians of the Galaxy was on another channel.

I did read quite a bit about it and came away feeling unimpressed.  This does not mean disappointed, just…so what.

Here are my State of the Union talking points.

The three biggest winners of the Trump presidency thus far are (1) large corporations, (2) Russia and (3) China.

1. Corporations win because they got a huge tax cut.  They basically saw their profit margins take a big leap and all they had to do was pay for the lobbyists that got the bill passed into law.
2. Russia wins because of the Quid Pro Quo they have with Trump.  They helped him win an election and he does not implement tough sanctions that Congress passed nearly unanimously.
3. China wins because every time we step away from a trade deal, they step in.  The future will record this last year as the turning point: that point in time where the United States stopped leading the world and let China take a shot at it.

The three biggest losers of the Trump presidency thus far are (1) non-super rich tax payers and (2) American security and (3) the truth.

1. Trump says, “I just passed the biggest tax cut of all time.”  What he should have said is, “I just charged the biggest debt to our national credit card of all time.”  He should also say, “The debt would have been even bigger except the states of New York and California will pay higher taxes as a result of my national tax cut.”  Now, if we get the 4% or 5% growth Trump claims we’ll get from this tax deal, I will eat my words.  But he won’t.  Not even close.  This was nothing more than a redistribution of wealth from the middle class and poor to the very richest of the rich.
2. American Security has taken a hit from several fronts.  Trump has alienated NATO.  Trump has allowed Russia into his inner sanctum where they now call the shots.  Trump has attached our FBI and National Security agencies; hurting their credibility.  As we will see by 2019 when we slide into a Trump recession, he has weakened our economy which is the very soul of our strength.
3. As for the truth…that doesn’t seem to matter at all any more.  When I saw that Bush lied about the WMD’s 15 years ago, I left the Republican Party.  Now, Trump does worse than that on a nearly daily basis.  It sometimes feel like “opposite day” has stretched into the infinite future.  Everything Trump does makes absolutely no sense…unless you suspend your belief that the truth matters.

I really wanted Trump to succeed.  I didn’t think he would but I would have welcomed the surprise if he did.

Instead, he has been worse than I could have imagined.

Now, a secret part of me wants him to fail – spectacularly.  I want this because only such a monumental failure will have the potential of turning the heads of those Trump Faithful Forever.  Something needs to happen that slaps some of these blind followers right up side their heads in a way that they can’t help but notice.  Notice that their King has no clothes.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim