February 5 Top Stories
Trump’s SOTU address; Pelosi rips transcript
Last night was President Trump’s third State of the Union speech. I provided some commentary on the speech last night during DPAN.TV’s live-streaming of the speech that included ASL interpreters.
Trump gave a speech that was one hour and 22 minutes long, but most of the attention was on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi because she ripped up the speech transcripts at the end of the speech.
There was another moment between the two before Trump started his speech — Pelosi extended her hand to Trump for a handshake, but he ignored her.
So, there’s a lot of bad blood between the two, clearly. A reporter asked Pelosi last night why she ripped up the transcripts and she said “It was the courteous thing to do considering the alternative” and that “it was such a dirty speech.” We don’t know what she meant by “alternative.”
The White House responded by saying Pelosi ripped up people who Trump honored during his address — including a Tuskegee Airman, a premature child, mourning families, and service members.
As I said last night in my post-speech commentary, this represents the divisiveness between political parties in our nation.
Axios reported that President Trump is getting stronger despite his impeachment because he has a Gallup job approval rating of 49% and the Republican party has a 51% favorable rating, the highest it’s been since 2005.
Trump’s speech was a preview of his 2020 re-election campaign — he criticized Democrats’ vision of Medicare for All, touted America’s booming stock market and low unemployment rates, emphasized tough immigration laws, and investments in the U.S. military.
https://time.com/5778099/pelosi-trump-speech-rip/
https://www.axios.com/state-of-the-union-recap-trump-pelosi-polarization-d325c81c-6493-4468-bac8-31f331ce574f.html
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British woman is first deaf person to row across Atlantic Ocean
BBC News did a feature on Mo O’Brien, the first deaf woman to row an ocean by completing a 3,000 mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean. She is 60 years old.
The trip started at the Canary Islands and finished 49 days later on Antigua. Mo rowed with her 32-year-old hearing daughter, Bird Watts, and their 45-year-old friend, Claire Allinson. Their rowboat seems like it’s 30 feet long and it has small, enclosed cabins at either end of the boat.
They rowed in pairs for four-hour shifts, then rested for two hours. They were in a race called the Talker Whisky Atlantic Challenge that included 40 other teams. They finished in 24th place but was the fastest female trio to complete the challenge.
Mo told BBC that her favorite part of the trip was rowing at night because it felt like they were going 100 mph and loved the feeling of freedom and seeing the stars at night. She said they saw orcas and humpback whales.
Mo uses her voice, wears hearing aids, and lipreads to communicate with others.
BBC reported that the British Deaf Association congratulated Mo by saying she is “an example of what deaf people can achieve.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51103423
https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/female-rowers-describe-moment-huge-3806852