Governing with heart

We've seen SOTU heckling before, but never booing.  Another first!

You can only work so much into a Castro-length harangue, so it's not surprising Trump forgot to mention yesterday's drop of nearly 400 points in the Dow Jones, the only economic metric the Republiklan ever heard of.  Apparently Amazon, JP Morgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway think they can do health insurance better, and investors in the existing companies went into a panic.  Sad.

Eric "Greasy" Trump was on Fox today voicing his displeasure with daddy's less-than-enthusiastic reception.  "When my father mentioned 'In God We Trust,' the guiding principle of this country, no one stood," he pouted.  Well, some people did, but conspicuously not his stepmother the FPOTUS.  Melania couldn't go to Davos because she had to spend the weekend getting them topped up with silicone for the big night, so maybe she was afraid of tipping over.  It's full-time work being a trophy wife at 47, especially when you can be prosecuted for lying on your visa application.  Sleeping in separate rooms is understandable, even commendable -- who wants to wake up with McDonald's ketchup in your hair? -- but all this separate travel is starting to add up.  She wouldn't even ride in the car with him last night.  By the way, Eric, when did "In God We Trust," added to the coinage in the 1950s, become "the guiding principle of this country"?  Unless it concludes "all others pay cash."  Maybe you should stick to running the family plonk factory, picking people up at the airport, and other Fredo duties, hmm?

Tres Gowdy, South Carolina hair model and relentless Torquemada of Benghazi, suddenly decided he doesn't want to be in Congress anymore.  I don't want him there, either.  Unity at last!  In case he misses government work, there's an opening at the Centers for Disease Control in nearby Atlanta.  The director, Brenda Fitzgerald, abruptly quit when it was revealed that she has been investing bigly in tobacco stocks, as well as in Bayer, Humana and Merck Pharmaceuticals.  No conflict of interest!  You're the conflict of interest!  So the CDC  has no director in the midst of a flu epidemic that is killing children and turning hospitals into MASH units.

As of tomorrow, FEMA will cease operations in Puerto Rico, where thousands of people in the rural mountainous areas are still without electricity and safe water.  Because -- get this -- giving out food and water is actually hurting the economy.  If these layabouts get everything free, they won't shop at supermarkets, according to the local FEMA director Alejandro de la Campa.  They spend their money on gasoline to run their generators to keep their refrigerators on.  If they have any money, because many are still out of work.  If they have generators.  Anyway, five months after Hurricane Harvey, FEMA is still in Texas because...well, hell, it's Texas.  Swimmin' pools.  Movie stars.  Electoral votes.

The DACA people who endured last night's love-in weren't arrested at the Capitol, but they're far from secure.  The Big Bad Bald Bastard, whose blog must be read, reports that a Native American named C.J. Bakken has an intriguing proposition:  Welcome these people onto the reservations (most are from Central America and Mexico and have some aboriginal ancestry), and grant them tribal membership in return for the right to tax their income.  Knowing how much Trump hates redskins, it could have the added benefit of making his head explode.

The White House Charm School had some advice for Nancy Pelosi:   "I think she should smile a lot more often.  I think the country would be better for it," said Mrs. Congeniality, Sarah Hockeypuck Sanders.  Then she went back to scowling at April Ryan, who is really uppity and should be home doing Miz Sarah's laundry.  It's not the done thing to comment on people's appearance, but when they hire a makeup artist at public expense, that makes their appearance fair game.  If anyone needs a gay friend who isn't colorblind and will take her clothes shopping, it's Sarah.  Someone who will say things like "Uh-uh, you want to cover up those elephant knees.  Two words, honey -- pants suit."  Stereotype?  Sure.  Sue me.  Yeah, Pelosi needs to smile and Hillary should learn to knit.

At least one public interest group wants Paul Ryan to explain why Trump was allowed to use his speech as a fundraiser.  Just when you thought we couldn't be any more embarrassed, the Trumpanzees were told that for the low low price of $35 they could see their names on the Trump 2020 campaign website.  No response from Ryan, who is preoccupied with the "cleansing" (his word) of all those hostile elements at the FBI.  My word, not to mention Stalin's, would be "purge."  I'm no big fan of what I grew up knowing as Hoover's Gestapo, but they've cleaned up their act and done some good work since the old bastard died, and they certainly don't deserve to be undermined by this confederacy of dunces.  Ironically, if Comey hadn't decided to make a late sortie against Hillary and her emails, he'd probably still be director and none of this shit would be flying.  I'm so sick of irony.

What could be worse than Ryan? you ask.  How about Paul Nehlen, who is primarying him?  Nehlen is the darling of Stormfront and recently treated us to a list of 74 Jews who have "attacked" him on the social media.  (Some have said, echoing Chaplin, that they aren't Jewish but will take the honor.)  It's never good when they start making lists.

In Russia news, Sergei Naryshkin, Putin's head spy, is paying us a visit.  Well, not all of us, but he dropped in on Dan Coats, the Director of National Intelligence.  Naryshkin was banned in 2014 over the invasion of Ukraine, but all is forgiven now.  I guess you heard, Trump is theirs again.

Stupid redux:  Kathleen Hartnett White has been re-nominated to be head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.  The committee rejected her the first time, unimpressed by her theory that carbon dioxide is "the gas of life" (certainly true if you're a green plant) and therefore can only be a force for good in the atmosphere.  I'm not sure where she stands on the flat-versus-round earth controversy, but second time's the charm.

Trainload of Republiklan Congressmen hits garbage truck.  I think I'll leave that to The Onion,which gave us "World's Largest Metaphor Collides With Iceberg."