Address to a Joint Session of Congress

This blog is fiction. The links are mostly to real news, though at this point, the real world has diverged enough from an ordinary world that some of the links are back to this blog, which is still fiction.

Note: This blog was written before the biggest news story of the week, North Korea's test of four ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan. This topic is too big to cover in a single day, and both it and President McCain's response will be included in next week's blog. Note: this blog also does not respond to the updated Muslim ban.

John McCain gave an address this week to a joint session of congress this week, and it was rather bleak, describing a "World on fire". Russia is still in Crimea. North Korea has tested a missile which may one day be able to carry a nuclear bomb to Japan, and allegedly murdered Kim Jong Nam, the estranged brother to Kim Jong Un. There's a bird flu epidemic in China, likely to become a pandemic. ObamaCare Repeal, the TPP, and a supreme court nominee are all languishing in congress. Russia hacked our elections.

There were some bright spots to the speech, however. McCain did briefly talk about domestic issues, which are largely doing well! Unemployment is near an all-time low, prompting the fed to look at interest rate hikes. The stock market keeps setting record highs. Hate-based crime is down. Other than small spikes in a couple cities, violent crime as a whole is down. The dollar is strong, so Americans can travel and enjoy the world. Also, the war against the Yemenese Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is going well. Private prisons are emptying. California is nearly free from drought. The Great Lakes are improving in water quality. Even climate issues are doing well, with current emissions almost down to Kyoto Protocol levels!

One of the most pressing issues on President McCain's mind is Russia's 2014 invasion of Crimea, which prompted NATO to freeze relations with Russia two years ago. The US Secretary of State, former ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute, spoke with Vladimir Putin on behalf of the United States and NATO. It was a tense conversation, in which increased sanctions were threatened.

Immigration has become a contentious issue in the past two weeks since President McCain's controversial order to enlist the aid of local law enforcement in deporting undocumented immigrants. This program is voluntary, so sanctuary cities like Los Angeles and Boston are not participating, but places like Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico are ramping up enforcement, sometimes having local police officers knock on doors first, so that the less trusted ICE officers can arrest the immigrants.

Indiana Governor Mike Pence is under fire this week for using an AOL e-mail address. The Indiana legislature threatened impeachment, but President McCain actively stepped in to protect his fellow Republican. President McCain pointed out that a uniform secure operating system is being built by some of the best minds in silicon valley, in response to the Clinton e-mail scandal.

Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein is pushing the investigation into Russian hacking of the election, and has found some disturbing results. Russia successfully hacked the voter registrationsystems, which led many states to issue provisional ballots for voters who HAD been registered to vote. It is unclear at this time whether this would have led to Secretary Clinton being elected president, had these ballots been counted correctly.

Though slow, progress is being made in repealing Obamacare. President McCain continues to receive pressure from the left to maintain the law, but has stated that he is in favor of replacing it with a law which does not have an individual mandate.