If You Can’t…

“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull.” – W.C. Fields

That’s pretty much what Obama tried to do in the State Of The Union.   Sadly, he failed. 

The night is not a total loss though.  I remembered why I usually skip Obama speeches and read the cliffs notes. Lesson relearned.

The speech started with a rundown of how well we are doing.  Obama managed to take credit for everything good but the sunrise, and apparently we are all doing really well.  He even accepts our gratitude for it!

After that he proposed a laundry list of domestic programs that will be dead on arrival in Congress. (In my opinion the most insulting of these was the promotion of the very same space program that he gutted like a fish.)  All of which would be not even close to paid for by closing some tax loopholes.  Essentially he was wasting his breath and our time.  He knew it too.  That man likes the sound of his own voice way too much methinks. 

On the international front – Did you know we are done in Afghanistan?  The Afghan government can now apparently handle things all by themselves!  Did anyone tell them that besides Obama?  I don’t think they know.  We are “Making a difference” in the war on terror.  I suppose losing is making a difference, yes?  Also we are “Stopping ISIL.” (ISIS) That must be why they now control more territory than ever.  Damn we’re cool.

He did request a use of force vs. ISIL (ISIS) bill.  He’s going to get it too, because we aren’t actually suicidal.   I still believe that he has no idea what to do with force, authorized or not. I am hoping he accidently does something right.

He also threatened to veto any legislation that got close to his sacred cows.  We knew this, but I suppose it was only polite to tell us AGAIN.

Finally we had the “Can’t we all just get along?” moment.  He promised to “not only seek out Republican ideas” but to “Work with (Republicans).” I am somewhat skeptical.  He’s going to need to PROVE that one.

I’m not baffled, but I DO need a shower.

SKIN

Oh, I don’t give a damn about the color of it.  What gets me is how it seems to be getting thinner and thinner all over the damn world.   And that somehow lots of people are OK with that.

The Charlie Hebdo attacks were a direct result of this thin skinnedness – which is viewed as appropriate in the Koran apparently.  At least enough Muslims support this with their own thin skins, that terrorists feel comfortable acting in the open.

Then there’s the inability of the White House to say the words “Muslim” and “Terrorist” in succession.  Screw the body count –somebody might get their feelings hurt! 

And my personal last straw today – Lena Dunham of “Girls” fame, announcing that “Deranged Neo-Cons” make twitter an unsafe emotional space.  Twitter is about free speech, not emotional safety.  That’s something adults are expected to provide for themselves or if they can’t, to ask for and ACCEPT help.

Freedom you see, seldom has much to do with safety.  It’s more important than that.  And if anyone else wants the freedom to be an idiot, they have to let me be an idiot in turn.  That’s it, my whole argument.  But many, many people can’t handle that anymore.  Including the President, apparently.  It’s sad. 

How it is that being so thin skinned that any idiot can goad you into fits is somehow safer than working up a little tolerance and self-control is beyond me.  If you run around wearing a sign that says “PLEASE – DON’T KICK ME” sooner or later someone is going to kick the hell out of you for their own personal amusement.  Might even be me.  I’ve had a few less than noble moments in my life. 

Seems European Muslims are finding themselves in this spot now.  It’s probably overdue because the longer it goes on, the bigger the price for stopping it.  No go zones and separate laws will not fly.

Anyway, we ALL could use some thicker skins.

“I Know a Way Out of Hell.”

It’s my favorite line In Gandhi. Who’da thunk Mayor Bill de Blasio would be the one who’d actually give me a chance to use it.

It’s even apology free, he should jump at the chance.

All he has to do is to make clear to the cops and everyone else that he will honor the social contract that exists with all law enforcement officers everywhere all over the world.  That nobody gets to physically fight the police.  At this point the police can’t trust him to do that and that is the WHOLE problem.

He needs to make clear that anyone whom physically assaults the police will and should be, stopped, arrested, tried, and hopefully serves a prison term.  This simple arrangement is how 35,000 police can survive long enough to protect a city of 16 million.  They know it too.  Without that it’s hopeless.  Even if de Blasio were able to fire them all and hire a completely new force he’d STILL require that arrangement with the new cops if they were going to be able to police the city. 

I believe that most people have had bosses that they neither like nor respect, and that it’s probably worse in public service.  I also believe the police can deal with that if they believe they have a reasonable expectation of going home at the end of their shift.  Right now they do not believe that, and whether it’s true or not that belief is exactly the problem. 

That specifically is exactly what the police mean when they say de Blasio does not have their backs.  It’s a simple fix – and will thus most likely be ignored.  Politicians rarely attack the real problem. 

Even if I’m right about being ignored there is an upside for the mayor though – by turning their backs on him at public functions (and by the way, those who claim to misunderstand are full of it) they have allowed de Blasio to lead from behind, just like Obama.  I’m sure he thinks that’s a win.