By Carol Lucas
Somehow I have managed to douse the fire that overrode my hair last week (and the week before, and the week before that). If it isn’t extinguished entirely, I think I can safely call it a controlled burn. The outrage, and indeed the rage, was greatly tempered by the number of countries coming forth with their support of President Zelenskyy.
As those numbers increased in the days after the “Friday Morning Ambush,” more and more heads of state stepped forward to embrace, literally and figuratively, the “ill-dressed” (thereby disrespectful) man who had unknowingly walked into one of the most embarrassing public displays of ignorance our country has witness in decades.
So, yes, the flames began to die down. Thank God, those in other countries, our allies (hopefully they continue to be), came to the fore, but sadly, that left the U.S. holding the bag, so to speak. By default, we became aligned with Russia, North Korea, Iran and other dictatorships.
Is this really where we want to be? Have we become that blind to what a dictatorship can mean for our country? Or is it that we simply don’t give a damn? I’ll leave that to you to decide, dear reader.
Moving along to the next MAGA highlight, the Presidential speech to Congress and the nation; I need to put it out there that I refused to watch. All of you who force yourselves to read my column with your sense of disgust firmly in place, this is where you hoot and holler, and maybe toss the paper aside; perhaps you need to grab a fire extinguisher as well.
You are perfectly entitled to ask how I can possibly write about something I did not observe, and in most cases, I would agree. However, my mental health is very important to me. Knowing what I know about No. 47, I wasn’t about to be self-inflicting. After all, I had just extinguished a fire; why would I venture near the flames again? And when I later saw it was 90-minutes long, I was glad my masochism hadn’t kicked in.
Thus I relied on blurbs that arose in the coming days. Please know I accessed a cross-section of sources, including FOX news.
Basically, 47’s speech focused upon what he has accomplished (or thinks he has) in the few weeks he has been in office. While that is the usual approach of any president when addressing Congress, not all include so many statistics that are verifiably incorrect, lies one might say.
For instance he stated, “Illegal border crossings last month were, by far, the lowest ever recorded. Ever.” He continued on Truth Social that Border Patrol apprehended 8,326 people last month. However, U.S. government data shows that Border Patrol routinely averaged below that number in the 1960s.
He went on to elaborate “Over the past four years, 21 million people poured into the United States. Many of them were murderers, human traffickers, gang members.”
That figure, which Trump cites regularly, is highly inflated. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported more than 10.8 million arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico from January 2021 through December 2024.
While much of his speech focused on the border “crisis”, including victims of the ‘mass’ murders, he did manage to address his beloved tariffs. He stated, “Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again. And it’s happening. And it will happen rather quickly. There’ll be a little disturbance, but we’re OK with that. It won’t be much.”
Interesting how, with the dramatic drop of the DOW Jones, those tariffs were quickly withdrawn and put on hold.
As for the take offered by FOX News, they too, focused on the “illegal alien” aspects of 47’s speech, but at no time did I see any evaluation or opinion put forth. This I took to be much better than their “business as usual.”
The second aspect of that 90-minute speech came with what I am going to call “A Tale of Two Greens.” I see this as a cross between “A Tale of Two Cities” and “Anne of Green Gables.” You may see it differently.
Democratic Rep. Al Green was censured for his outbursts during the President’s address to Congress. Green, of Texas, stood at the very beginning of Trump’s speech after the president boasted about his electoral victory, calling it a mandate. Green yelled, “You have no mandate! You have no mandate to cut Medicaid!” while pointing his cane at the president to punctuate his point.
It’s worth noting that House Speaker Mike Johnson justified the censure on Wednesday by saying Green “chose to deliberately violate House rules in a manner that we think is probably unprecedented in history — interrupting a message of a president of the United States, who is an honored guest.”
Sorry, Mikie, but you have a very short memory, and I will provide support for that contention. As an afterthought, that comment reminds me of the old commercial, “Give it to Mikie, he’ll eat anything.” But I digress.
Backtrack to Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address in 2022.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. repeatedly interrupted and interjected soon to be accompanied by her sidekick, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
Greene was heard grumbling through the entire part of Biden’s speech about COVID policy before she shouted a remark about women’s sports when Biden mentioned new laws targeting transgender Americans and their families.
Greene and Boebert then tried to start a “build the wall” chant — a reference to former President Donald Trump’s calls to construct a wall across the southern border — when Biden referred to securing the border and reforming immigration law.
It’s worth noting that MTG had previously been condemned for her appearance at the America First Political Action Committee conference, which was organized by a prominent white nationalist and where attendees chanted in praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Enough said. Meanwhile, I’ll keep the extinguisher close by.
Carol Lucas is a retired high school teacher and a Lady’s Island resident. She is the author of the recently published “A Breath Away: One Woman’s Journey Through Widowhood.”
