GOD BLESS AMERICA

The U.S. Senate met yesterday, a rare Saturday, and today, Sunday, ever more so, not to end the government shutdown, but for Republicans to get on TV news programs to blame Democrats for shutting down SNAP benefits and cancelling flights.  President Donald Trump returns to DC today.

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  But not to help work on opening up the government, but to attend the Washington Commanders vs Detroits NFL game in Landover, Maryland.  Ah, I still remember back 43 years ago when I cheered on the Redskins in RFK Stadium, in walking distance of my office, when I toiled in the U.S. Senate.
• Trump plans to meet with the Commander's leadership group to name their new $3.7 billion stadium, to open in 2030, after him.

I bet many of you are somewhat confused by the term, SNAP benefits.

• First came the Food Stamp Program in 1939.
• The Food Stamp Act was passed in 1964.

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  Electronic Benefit Transfer, or EBT cards, were introduced around 1990 to replace paper food stamps
• Then in 2008, to reduce the stigma associated with the name, the Farm Bill replaced the food stamp program with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

I've long wondered why American presidents end their speeches with God Bless America.

• Well, I still learn something new everyday.  
• There was no use of God Bless America by presidents until Franklin D. Roosevelt used the term when he was first inaugurated in 1933.

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  This practice was inauspiciously re-introduced on 30April1973 when Republican President Richard Nixon tried to extricate himself from the Watergate break-in.

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  Then on 17July1980, Ronald Reagan accepted the Republican nomination for president, going off script, and at the end, bowed his head for 13 seconds, debating in his mind whether to do this or not, but went on so say God Bless America to terminate his acceptance speech.
• From Reagan's inauguration and six years of George W. Bush's presidency, they used God Bless American 49 times in 120 major speeches.
• Quoting from  this phrase has become politically expedient, a simple way for presidents and politicians to pass the God and Country test.  Even Democratic presidents have largely used this ending.
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  David Domke and Kevin Coe wrote an article in The Huffington Post on this topic.
• Abstract of Domke/Coe's The God Strategy:  How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America.

Religion has always been a part of American politics, but something profound has changed in recent decades. This book demonstrates that, beginning with the election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980, US politicians have employed religion as a partisan weapon, using it in a no-holds-barred calculus designed to attract voters, identify enemies, and solidify power. The book reveals this political approach by identifying four crucial religious signals used by leading Republicans and Democrats, from Reagan to Bill Clinton to George W. Bush to the front-running candidates for the 2008 presidential election. In their emphasis on God and faith in public addresses, commemorations of tragedies and requests for divine blessing for the nation, the issue agendas pursued, and even the audiences addressed and the nature of Christmas celebrations, today's political leaders use religion for partisan gain in a manner distinct from those who came before. These signals become apparent through analysis of thousands of public communications by American politicians over the past seventy-five years, the tracking of public sentiment on several topics during the same period, and the perspectives of interest groups and political strategists. The result of these developments is an environment in the United States in which religion and politics have become almost inseparably intertwined - an outcome which benefits savvy politicians but endangers the vitality of church, state, and the entire American experiment in democracy.

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  Although the First Amendment prohibits the establishment of religion in our laws, there is a free speech clause that allows broad freedom of religious expression.  For example, In God We Trust is our national motto and the term is placed on our currency.
• President Donald Trump has pushed Christian nationalism, is fond of Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA, and at the end of his second inaugural address said God Bless America.
• Watch this video of President Donald Trump expressing his belief in God.  From Time magazine.

I end with the story behind the song written by Irving Berlin, God Bless America.

• Was born Israel Isidore Beilin in 1888 in Siberia.  He arrived in America at the age of five as a Jewish immigrant with his parents and siblings.
• First hit was Alexander's Ragtime Band in 1911, the year he changed his name to Irving Berlin, as a response to rampant anti-Semitism in the New York entertainment world.

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  He wrote God Bless America while serving in the Army in 1918 for his military revue, Yip Pip Yaphank, but did not use it because he thought it was too solemn.  Ironically, he himself did not believe in God. That's his photo in 1918.

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  He was in London to see the opening of his picture, Alexander's Ragtime Band, when Chamberlain visited Hitler, and on his way back home, began to revise the original version of God Bless America.
• Kate Smith's manager, Ted Collins, came to him in New York, and wanted a patriotic song for her to sing on her Armistice Day program.

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  On 10November1938  Kate Smith sang this song on her CBS radio show.  
• This became the most popular version, although Deanna Durbin also is known for her version from the 1943 film Hers to Hold.  Click to watch the whole movie. 

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  Remember Marni Nixon, whose voice was used for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, Deborah Kerr in The King and I, and Natalie Wood in West Side Story?  Nixon is who you hear dubbing Margaret O'Brien, in the 1948 film Big City.

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  Said Berlin, God Bless America would never have been made public if not for Ted Collins.
• In 1940 Berlin established the God Bless America Fund,  trust that over the years has turned all income for the song over to the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of America.
• During World War II, attempts were made to replace The Star Spangled Banner as our national anthem, but he discouraged that effort, for his had no history to validate such a move.
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  Berlin, on his 80th birthday, sang it on the Ed Sullivan Show on 5May1968.  His final public appearance was in 1974 in honor of returning Vietnam War prisoners.  His portion was a tiny snippet, but God Bless America was of course sung.

Typhoon Fung-Wong made landfall in the Philippines at 114 MPH over the Aurora province of Luzon.  Much damage, but only a relatively few deaths caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi of 200 earlier this past week.

Heading next to Taiwan for landfall either Wednesday or Thursday.

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