As far as State of the Union speeches go, President Donald Trump's was pretty good last night.
The guests he invited represented the best of America and her people.
The President made a direct frontal assault on socialism.
"We stand with the Venezuelan people in their noble quest for freedom -- and we condemn the brutality of the Maduro regime, whose socialist policies have turned that nation from being the wealthiest in South America into a state of abject poverty and despair.
Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country. America was founded on liberty and independence --- not government coercion, domination, and control. We are born free, and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country."
This prompted leftists to bombard social media with memes about how America is already socialist - what with our Social Security and Medicare programs. Here's a good take down of that argument.
Socialists complained that Trump was using their bankrupt philosophy as a "scare tactic."
The President also made a full-throated defense of life and a call to ban late-term abortion:
There could be no greater contrast to the beautiful image of a mother holding her infant child than the chilling displays our Nation saw in recent days. Lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother's womb moments before birth. These are living, feeling, beautiful babies who will never get the chance to share their love and dreams with the world. And then, we had the case of the Governor of Virginia where he basically stated he would execute a baby after birth.
To defend the dignity of every person, I am asking the Congress to pass legislation to prohibit the late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in the mother's womb.
Let us work together to build a culture that cherishes innocent life. And let us reaffirm a fundamental truth: all children -- born and unborn -- are made in the holy image of God.
If you told me Trump would be the President to do this in a State of the Union address, I would've said you're crazy.
Come to think of it, I probably did.
The President spent a lot of time talking illegal immigration and the need for a wall on the southern border.
No issue better illustrates the divide between America's working class and America's political class than illegal immigration. Wealthy politicians and donors push for open borders while living their lives behind walls and gates and guards.
Meanwhile, working class Americans are left to pay the price for mass illegal migration -- reduced jobs, lower wages, overburdened schools and hospitals, increased crime, and a depleted social safety net.
Tolerance for illegal immigration is not compassionate -- it is cruel. One in three women is sexually assaulted on the long journey north. Smugglers use migrant children as human pawns to exploit our laws and gain access to our country.
Human traffickers and sex traffickers take advantage of the wide open areas between our ports of entry to smuggle thousands of young girls and women into the United States and to sell them into prostitution and modern-day slavery.
Tens of thousands of innocent Americans are killed by lethal drugs that cross our border and flood into our cities -- including meth, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl.
The savage gang, MS-13, now operates in 20 different American States, and they almost all come through our southern border. Just yesterday, an MS-13 gang member was taken into custody for a fatal shooting on a subway platform in New York City. We are removing these gang members by the thousands, but until we secure our border they're going to keep streaming back in.
Year after year, countless Americans are murdered by criminal illegal aliens.
Bernie Sanders called that part racist .
Pelosi's awkward clapping became a meme - as Democrats saw it as a YAS, SLAY QUEEN CLAPBACK in-your-face ridicule of the President.
Here's that paragon of journalisming - the Washington Post - with a celebratory compilation video of all the times the Democrats acted like petty angst-ridden teens:
By the way... CBS/YouGov polling shows 76% of watchers approved of the speech.
Here's Mediaite's list of weirdest things from the speech.
You can read the full transcript here .
You can watch the entire speech here:
Pete's Prep: Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019
When US Sen. Elizabeth Warren filled out her Texas Bar card in 1986, she claimed to be a Native American . In related news, her campaign for President is probably over.
From the Carolina Journal : " The state panel that determines how much money North Carolina can prudently borrow over the next 10 years rejected an appeal Wednesday by Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget director to triple the state’s debt ceiling from $2.03 billion to more than $6 billion."
Buncombe County Commissioners hired a new County Manager yesterday. Avril Pinder comes from New Hanover County, which also had a controversy over compensation for top level managers.
12 Bones in South Asheville is open !
A jogger in California was attacked by a mountain lion, so he choked it to death .