State of the Union Speech? No, thanks, I've got far better things to do with my time.

Real Kabuki Theater

Once again the current occupant of the White House will go before Congress to act out his final role in the political theater of the State of the Union address ("SOTU").

Count me among those who will not be watching.

Not the SOTU and especially not the inevitable gushing commentary that usually follows one of these things, except perhaps on Fox. Instead of political analysts it would serve us all better if the "reporters" and "political commentators" covering these things were replaced by drama critics.

Perhaps they already have been . . .

In recent years I have also abandoned watching things that have turned into political theater - awards shows, for example, in which "daring" people who get paid vast sums of money to pretend to be other people make "statements" most of which reflect a certain level of unreality that seems to have bled over from their acting roles.

I will probably read about the SOTU tomorrow.

Someone else will count applause interruptions and other things I don't care about. After all, the SOTU presentation has the nearly same level of reality as "The Bachelor."

Will there be more verbal assaults on the Supreme Court? Will the Court members attend again after their previous experience with this President? If so, what would motivate them to sit through a session in which response to his bullying is not allowed? If I were one of them, I'd stay home. Only a bully attacks people who are not in a position to answer back, and the current White House resident, in between his many straw man attacks, is a master of this "safe" attack. He does not like an honest debate. Not one bit.

Of course, if I were a Justice, instead of staying home I'd probably be at the office writing decisions trying to undo the harm done by this administration. Even if that meant just ordering the Executive Branch to respond to FOIA requests.

I doubt he will draw more "red lines" against North Korea, Iran, China or salafism because of a bad case of "paper tiger-ism" (except against domestic foes against whom he can deploy the secret power of the administrative agencies).

As it is, I will be doing other things of more interest to me.

You can let me know tomorrow how it all went. I suspect something like "Blah, blah, blah" - but that might just be me. So, if it turns out to be greatest speech ever given, let me know and I'll catch it on reruns.

On the other hand, I would really like to see another headline like this:

But, no, that might require honest reportage.