Can we skip to Stacey Abrams?

So sorry Unindicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio but I find the hidden mysteries of Masonry (which I’m happy to talk about any time with anyone excepting the grips and words because if you can’t be trusted to keep something stupid and silly secret, what exactly can you be trusted with?) and the secrets of Oak Island far more fascinating than anything you could possibly say.

Have I mentioned we’ve found the 90 Foot Stone? Yep, in the basement of a Book Bindery in Halifax. Hasn’t been seen in over 100 years. We have French Drain Flood Tunnels in Smith’s Cove with Coconut Fiber Filters!

I’ve been to Oak Island, last Eclipse, the one Unidicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio squinted at, ruining his retinas for the rest of his life. He doesn’t read anyway, even Teleprompters. With my Macular Degeneration and Cataracts I take my eyes seriously (oh, I am also literate in case you haven’t noticed) and I had the good fortune to bump up against a member of the Film Crew who had salvaged a piece of Welder’s Glass and it was in fact the best live view of an Eclipse I’ve ever had. Even more gratifying was that I met the Mom of a different member of the Film Crew who had no idea what was happening.

Do you want to talk about Gilbert du Motier’s influence on the Revolution of 1776, 1789, or 1830? Oh, I’m not typically ignorant? Interview someone else. I also know what the parts are on a Corvette better than the Ensigns assigned as Guides.

The funny thing about Oak Island is that I read exactly the same Reader’s Digest in the basement of my Grandmother’s house in Michigan (mere blocks away from Roger Moore) that Rick and Marty did at about the same time and almost the same place, and if I had Oil Drilling Services money I would have bought the whole Island too and I’d be hiring Parker Schnabel to ask me, “So, how deep do you want the hole?”

Well, probably bedrock would do.

Parker is not known for archeological finesse so I’m prepared for a slower reveal, but with any luck at all I’ll be back this summer and in addition to good beer they’ll have solved their marijuana supply problem (takes a while to work out the logistics).

What? You’re going to punish yourself despite my advice? Well, as soon as it’s up on YouTube I’ll probably post Stacey Abrams’ and Bernie Sanders’ responses as an update but until then I give you Jennifer Rubin (who is not a Liberal or a Lefty).

Can we skip to the State of the Union response?
By Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post
February 4, 2019

State of the Union speeches were boring, long-winded and ultimately irrelevant long before President Trump arrived. I got my hopes up when Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offered Trump the alternative of submitting his State of the Union remarks in written form. No such luck — Trump is set to deliver his address Tuesday before a joint session of Congress.

Trump’s State of the Union is even less significant than the State of the Unions offered by recent presidents. Trump lies more than past presidents and has a greater gap between rhetoric and action than most. In other words, it does not matter what he says Tuesday night. In a nanosecond, the words evaporate and we return to Trump tweets, fabrications and attacks.

Trump’s State of the Union also suffers because he has become a bore — regurgitating the same points, incorporating no new ideas or information (for he is incapable of learning) and spouting the same know-nothingism. He is drearily predictable.

With near-certainty, Trump will utter repeatedly debunked lies, lots of them. He’ll talk about national unity but take no responsibility for the deep divisions he has caused nor for the racism and hatefulness he has exhibited. He’ll make a slew of unfounded foreign policy pronouncements attributing newfound (and nonexistent) respect in the world to his own brilliance. (He seems not to notice that he is the subject of international derision and an endless source of frustration to allies.)

At least with a teleprompter, he can avoid the kind of word salads — or as Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) calls them, “word vomit” — he tossed up in his interview with CBS’s Margaret Brennan.

It’s frightening to hear his stream of consciousness patter but entirely understandable given his aversion to reading and his hours upon hours of executive time wherein he gets information from Fox non-News hosts and other sycophants.

Pundits will find a platitude here or there in his remarks to praise, identifying this as the source of hope that he’s — wait for it — becoming more presidential. In fact, like his syntax, his presidency is unraveling before our eyes; his attachment to reality becomes more tenuous by the day.

Nevertheless, there is some anticipation, even excitement, about Tuesday night. It derives from the selected politician to respond to Trump, losing Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. Unlike Trump, her message, her arguments, her priorities and her rhetoric will be new to the vast majority of Americans. (As with the president’s weak Oval Office speech on the border and the Democratic leaders’ response, one wonders if Abrams’s ratings will be higher than Trump’s.)

Abrams can remind the country that we aren’t consigned in perpetuity to a president entirely lacking in intelligence, empathy and decency. About a year from now the presidential primary voting process begins. Voters will have a chance to find Trump’s replacement — someone new, interesting, grounded in reality, personally decent and inspirational. When we see the Trump vs. Abrams contrast on Tuesday, we’ll get a taste of what it might be like to have a president we can respect, maybe even admire. Abrams’s appearance should underscore that 2020 will be the ultimate change election.