Media Observer 1/31/2018 AM

  • I forgot to mention Stephanie Ruhle and Velshi. For anything money-related, they're the best. Morning Joe does have Steve Rattner who also tells it like it is succinctly.
  • Rep Joe Kennedy III's speech got short shrift, imho. I personally hung on his every word.
  • The Presidents SOTU speech, in retrospect, seemed to be orchestrated. I've never seen so much clapping almost with every sentence uttered. That the President lives off applause was apparent by the way he himself applauds to encourage more applause and the way he turned to the Dems to ask them to applaud because he had said something they should like.
  • Mr. Brokaw on Hallie Jackson passed a comment that U.S. residents speaking Spanish irked English speakers. That may be so but it must be understood (I speak as a bilingual) that Spanish is an easy language to learn and to speak. Going to English--at least for a first generation resident--is like being forced to use a backhoe when a spade would do. That is, English is a rich language but it has so many grammatical rules that Spanish speakers cannot be blamed for sticking to Spanish. Subsequent generations will embrace English and, for the most part, abandon Spanish, and that is unfortunate because bilingualism is benficial to the thinking process.
  • Geting back to SOTU, a few things POTUS said were encouraging: training for future jobs, path to citizenship, infrastructure, Prison Reform. However, because of his propensity for lying and other reasons, pessimism reigns supreme. DACA, and prison reform is very possible because the President intends to run again and he has to play to hispanics and African-Americans but where's the money coming from for infrastructure and training?
  • Hallie Jackson and at least one of her guests made fun of Kennedy's rebuttal--apparently, they didn't think the venue was "presidential" enough? Are they so in love with their own chit-chat style that they failed to see a world-class orator and speech-writer? I'm disappointed with Jackson.
  • I'd like to thank the Media for alerting me to the Super Blood Moon. I got up earlier to photograph it and froze my butt off but I documented an event that hasn't been seen in the U.S. for 150 years.

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