Pull themselves out of the muck

I was close to ready to post this yesterday, but my computer didn't cooperate. I came home from an evening church event ready to get to work. My computer had gone to sleep as it usually does when I'm not around. I turned on the monitors, pushed the start button to wake it up and … nothing. The monitors remained blank. I killed the power and rebooted. The monitor showed the computer maker's logo and the Windows logo, then … nothing. At least I knew the monitors were connected to the computer. I shut off power and read the newspaper.

This morning I tried again. Computer logo, Windows logo, then nothing. I got out my little netbook computer to get the computer store's website. I searched for the purchase receipts. I looked at the computer's warranty. I tried to use the netbook do a chat with the store's tech support (the "chat" button didn't do anything). After a while the main computer rebooted itself. This time it ran the check disk program as part of the boot. It says it found some problems and resolved them. The boot completed properly and I'm back in business.



I didn't bother to listen to Obama's State of the Union speech. Most of what I heard about it in various media were the broad themes and how the GOP didn't like it (always a good sign!). Yeah, not much of it is going to get far in the next two years. I see it as Obama finally declaring a progressive platform (where was all this six years ago?) and giving Hillary something substantive to run on. The debate for the 2016 election with be over Obama's ideas.

Since I didn't listen I am relying on voices such as Melissa McEwan of Shakesville for listing the high and low points. On the good side:

* Guaranteed paid sick leave.

* Equal pay for women, overtime pay, and higher minimum wage.

* That free community college idea.

* Robust infrastructure investment.

And on the bad side:

* Lots of talk of war.

* A missed opportunity to add his voice to the campaign Black Lives Matter.

* A tepid support for abortion rights and a failure, as McEwan puts it, to recognize that for women abortion is healthcare and until that is done women won't have adequate healthcare. Abortion is not something we can simply agree to disagree.

* Good to hear of plans to tax the rich to support the middle class, but that leaves the poor to pull themselves out of the muck on their own. This is the point that prompted me to write this whole post.