State of the Union

So, what did you think of the State of the Union Address? Rather than pontificate with my opinion, below are some of the highlights of proposals.  I may have missed some, so feel free to add or opine on the below.

7-days Paid Sick/Maternity Leave
$3000 Childcare Tax Credit
Equal Pay for Equal Work
Free Community College
A Bipartisan Infrastructure Plan
Presidential Trade Promotion Authority
Precision Medicine Initiative
Re-energized Space Program
Fund Infrastructure and Basic Research
Close Corporate Tax Loopholes
Authorization for Use of Force against ISIL
End Cuban Embargo
Bipartisan Cyber Security Bill
Close GITMO
Reform the Criminal Justice System

Some proposals are fairly concrete, others fairly vague.  What did you think of the overall message and the highlights outlined above?

I'll go ahead and get you started: Equal Pay for Equal Work

How can you guarantee women equal pay for equal work when you can't guarantee equal pay for "equal work" between two male employees since you can't guarantee equal performance?  In my experience no two employees produce equal work, some frankly are quite better than others.  Of course we're not talking assembly line work here, we're talking exempt salaried technical professionals.  Some folks in ostensibly the same job require far more supervision, quality control, and intervention than others.  

In the company I work for, each employee negotiates his or her own starting salary based on education, experience, and expertise and while there are some across the board pay raises for such things as cost of living adjustments there are also incentive pay raises based on individual performance.  There are women that make more than their male counterparts and vice versa.  How do you equalize pay when you can't equalize performance?

With GOP Help, Obama Confident of Reelection

I'm not talking about the the president's STFU speech that kicked off his reelection campaign last night. Someone pulling a Joe Wilson by shouting "You Lie!" would have been gratuitously stating the obvious.

Yeah, he got off some good one-liners, like how he wants to create jobs, and his deadpanned "everyone plays by the same set of rules" jape had 'em rolling in the aisles.  Believe it or not, there still are some boobs on the left who actually believe that crap...

But critics believe he was serious when he rolled out his proposal to squeeze the nation's wealthy non-liberals in giant California wine presses until every last drop of filthy lucre is drained from their lifeless husks.

So far the GOP is on track to reelect Obama...

Newt’s now like one of those nuked Japanese film creatures that not only was not destroyed but is back, bigger, badder and more cheesed off than ever.

Gingrich alone finally figured out that if it’s red meat that’s wanted, you might as well rip chunks of it from the flesh of the unctuous moderators and throw it right at the ravenous studio audience. (Michael Walsh)

Many of my conservative friends are dying to see Newt take apart Obama face-to-face in a presidential debate but it aint.  gonna.  happen.

If Newt wins, which is what the press wants, and if Obama decides to debate him (No rule says he has to, and it's easy to invent a few crises as a dodge. Hell, Obama's entire administration has been one long crisis)... 

 OK, to start again, if there is a debate, the rules will be so gentlemen's kabuki, no looking at one another or addressing one another, it will be a big flop, a Newtus Interruptus that leaves rightwingers deflated, Newt looking his old churlish self, and Obama emerging more presidential than ever.

Newt is a volatile admixture of kooky ideas, phony conservative populism and outsize self-regard. He is a rambling, voluble mountain of operatic bloviating rhetoric, with hot steam and progressive demiurges straining just below the surface, building up pressure at the certainty of an eventual explosive escape.

Newt is an over-inflated hot air balloon, and the fire is raging.  Team Obama is just waiting for the opportune moment to needle him and enjoy the spectacular explosion.

Romney is a board-stiff middle manager full of platitudinous twaddle and Ron Paul's coalition of neo-nazis, dope smokers, AOW rabble and the curiously confused will never hold together. Oh, yeah, and then there's that Santorum guy, what's his name...?

But still...

We may end up saddled with a half-assed presidential candidate, but the dems’ problems are legion.  First and foremost, they are stuck with the worst president in the history of the United States. Having Gaffmaster Joe on his crew doesn’t help matters. Everybody hates Obamacare, and finally people are waking up to his using the constitution as toilet paper. Even legal scholars in his fan club think his recess appointments could be overturned by a judge.

So, we're facing a craptacular election year, and we'll all be sick of politics and we'll all hate each other by the time it's all over.  That's what politics does, and state-sponsored progressivism that confiscates it all, throws it in a public pot and encourages us to fight over it just makes the rancor extra spicy.