After a day of nothing-burgers slathered in mayonnaise, other things did actually happen this past week.
The core of the Democratic party response to the SOTU featured the contrast between the zero-sum, win-lose policies of the GOP and the core notion of Democratic politics as communitarian.
This is where the contrast is as usual between some libertarian subjugation of the weak versus the collective action of actual human communities.
“So here is the answer Democrats offer tonight: we choose both. We fight for both. Because the strongest, richest, greatest nation in the world shouldn’t leave any one behind.” Joseph P. Kennedy III
You serve. You rescue. You help. You heal.
That – more than any law or leader, any debate or disagreement – that is what drives us toward progress. Bullies may land a punch. They might leave a mark. But they have never, not once, in the history of our United States, managed to match the strength and spirit of a people united in defense of their future. Politicians can be cheered for the promises they make. Our country will be judged by the promises we keep.
THAT is the measure of our character. That’s who we are.
Out of many. One.
Ladies and gentlemen, have faith: The state of our union is hopeful, resilient, enduring.
Thank you, God Bless you and your families, and God Bless the United States of America.
Needless to say many would have preferred other respondents, and more attention to specific SOTU rebuttals like on the lack of conern for climate change.
My current guilty pleasure is the action series on Cinemax a Sky TV series Strike Back, which has been in marathon mode in advance of a new season. It does feature central women characters and occasional moral dilemmas consistent with counter-terrorism, insurgency, espionage, state-sponsored covert ops and mercenary armies. It’s fairly realistic and has what seems to be the de rigeur firefights, betrayals, rogue terrorism, criminal enterprises, and cinematic deaths of main characters during a series.
Now, she has finally broken her silence, revealing that the gift was in fact a picture frame in an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
The former First Lady said in the interview:
It was a lovely frame.
She added:
There’s all this protocol. This is like a state visit. They tell you you’re going to do this, you’re going to stand here.
Never before do you get this gift, so I’m sort of like, ‘OK, what am I supposed to do with this gift?'
She continued:
Everyone cleared out and no one would come and take the box. I’m thinking, do we take the picture with [it]? Then my husband saved the day. He grabbed the box and took it back inside.
So, thankfully, it seems the box does not in fact contain the world's evils, unlike the Greek myth equivalent – though some people on Twitter remain unconvinced.
“My bad, the President is right about Mika,” Mr Wolf wrote, referring to Mr Trump’s Twitter attacks on the co-host last year. “To be invited on a show with the purpose of being thrown off...is the new television.”
“The last time I was on Morning Joe off camera Joe and Mika eager to gossip about who Trump might be sleeping with,” he later added.
Interpreting the identity and the number of the beast usually falls into three categories:[1]
- Using gematria to calculate the number of a world leader’s name, in order to match it with the number of the beast.
- Associating the number of the beast as the duration of the beast’s reign
- Corresponding symbolism for the Antichrist and antichristian power.