MS Speaks

March is MS Awareness Month. If you already have MS, you're probably far more aware of MS than  you'd like to be, but here is the National MS Society's announcement:


https://view.email-nmss.org/?vawpToken=7NFUZG7ESHVEPDI4EP2RH3NFZM.70248

Just for a change, let's see what Giphy comes up for the first of March:

Boycotted by a group of Democrats, President Trump's first State of the Union address of this term seemed to have been greeted by almost unanimous applause. You could glimpse a few Democrats sitting the occasion out with very somber expressions on their faces.


The speech lasted an hour and 40 minutes, reportedly the longest such speech ever.


Except that he wasn't speaking for a considerable amount of that time. He was summoning applause, inviting people to stand, and especially singling out human interest stories to highlight, even involving the First Lady in bestowing an honor on a 100-year-old veteran.


There were many of these stories, and some of the people being honored were in tears.


Why so many of these this time? He has done this in the past but my guess is that there were fewer of them.


For one thing, each time he pulled out another such example of heroism/patriotism/suffering under pressure or hardship, he got a break, a rest period. At his age, he may need rest breaks though the public hasn't been told as much.


For another thing, he didn't say much or anything about (a) Greenland, (b) Gaza, (c) Ukraine, or (d) the problems with ICE's methods. It was as if these mammoth issues had vanished.


Instead we got instance after instance of human-interest stories.  His account of each one was probably meant to show how caring and compassionate a person he really is--just in case anyone has been opining that lately (and in the past) he's been looking vindictive and bloodthirsty.


In other words, we were fed an hour and 40 minutes of distraction designed to pump up the public's image of Donald Trump as the savior we've been waiting for.


I'm not sure that a boycott of the speech by some Democrats was the best course. Most people viewing it on the screen would not have noticed a huge gap in the audience. We saw a unanimously appreciative crowd assembled there.


It might be all too easy to take away the impression of unanimous support for the MAGA agenda and to forget that the President's approval ratings in polls lately have been at an all-time low.


From Politico (February 23, 2026):


https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/23/trump-state-of-the-union-polling-00793017