SOTU

Disappointed that the usual suspects didn’t start a thread on this. I think Biden is doing well tonight, despite a shaky start.

Thoughts?


FWIW, I thought he kicked ****!


Curious where everybody was? 

Is?


I saw Bono sitting in front of Jill Biden.


Can't Bono go anywhere he wants?


great SOTU - Not sure what Sanders was responding to,


jamie said:

great SOTU - Not sure what Sanders was responding to,

The response is always at a disadvantage because someone is writing a speech that ostensibly is responding to something about which they have no details. I assume at some point they get a copy of the SOTU, but not in enough time.

That's why the opening line was "what that guy just said? all lies."

Even still, the response failed on mere speech writing grounds, disregarding it's ridiculous content. It had no focus, it had no theme.

I wonder who wrote it.


Joe's extremely slow exit from the House floor pushed the opposition's response time way back.  "Strategery," as W would put it.

As to who wrote Huckabee's speech, I'd guess her "generational change" consultants.


dave said:

Joe's extremely slow exit from the House floor pushed the opposition's response time way back.  "Strategery," as W would put it.

As to who wrote Huckabee's speech, I'd guess her "generational change" consultants.

She is going to have a hard time finding her own positions after being a trump mouthpiece.  But this Democrat also wants generational change, to be honest.  I want to see Stacey Abrams, Katie Porter, and AOC more than I want to see Sanders, Warren, Biden, Pelosi, etc.  It is starting, but 15 years late.


The overall decline in civility in American politics today is worrisome to me. It’s like we’re becoming a banana republic quickly, way too fast for our own good. 


It's evident that Biden was not only anticipating, but counting on disruptive behavior from some of the GOP. He wound up with near-unanimous applause for keeping Social Security and Medicare out of the "cut spending" discussions.


nohero said:

It's evident that Biden was not only anticipating, but counting on disruptive behavior from some of the GOP. He wound up with near-unanimous applause for keeping Social Security and Medicare out of the "cut spending" discussions.

the country's rational people believe Social Security and Medicare are now saved from being cut in the near term. But the Republican Party has untethered itself from facts and reality a long time ago. What happened last night will have no bearing on what cuts they try to demand for raising the debt ceiling. More than likely they'll just act as though last night didn't happen. Or they'll do what they likely were going to do all along -- demand cuts to "entitlements" and then go on right wing news to say they aren't doing what they're doing.


and speaking of GOP alternate reality -- was a huge portion of Huckabee Sanders' response written in right wing code? I had no idea what this was referring to:

Most Americans simply want to live their lives in freedom and peace, but we are under attack in a left-wing culture war we didn’t start and never wanted to fight. Every day, we are told that we must partake in their rituals, salute their flags, and worship their false idols…

I can guess that maybe she's referring to Pride flags. Not sure what the rituals and idols are. And of course the first sentence is pure unadulterated projection on her part.

and does anyone believe this story to be true?

Shortly after, that young soldier came up to me and said, ‘Sarah, you have a tough job.’ I told him ‘What I do is nothing. You take bombs and bullets. That’s a tough job.’ And in a moment that I know I’ll cherish for the rest of my life, that soldier reached up, and pulled the Brave Rifles Patch he wore on his shoulder and placed it into my hand, a sign of ultimate respect, and said, ‘Sarah, we are in this together.’


ml1 said:

and does anyone believe this story to be true?

Shortly after, that young soldier came up to me and said, ‘Sarah, you have a tough job.’ I told him ‘What I do is nothing. You take bombs and bullets. That’s a tough job.’ And in a moment that I know I’ll cherish for the rest of my life, that soldier reached up, and pulled the Brave Rifles Patch he wore on his shoulder and placed it into my hand, a sign of ultimate respect, and said, ‘Sarah, we are in this together.’

No, because if it was true the soldier would have had tears in his eyes and called her "Ma'am". 


ml1 said:

and speaking of GOP alternate reality -- was a huge portion of Huckabee Sanders' response written in right wing code? I had no idea what this was referring to:

Most Americans simply want to live their lives in freedom and peace, but we are under attack in a left-wing culture war we didn’t start and never wanted to fight. Every day, we are told that we must partake in their rituals, salute their flags, and worship their false idols…

I can guess that maybe she's referring to Pride flags. Not sure what the rituals and idols are. And of course the first sentence is pure unadulterated projection on her part.

It's hate speech, pure and simple.

And it's enabled by "progressives" who don't blame the haters, but think the problem is "being woke".


I thought he could have made a bigger deal about his record on cutting the deficit (even though I think it's a b.s. issue)

I mean, the current discourse is absurd. Biden has brought the deficit down faster than any President in history, and the R's are blathering about how Biden is exploding the deficit. 

Certainly a clever speechwriter could have done something with that.


ml1 said:

the country's rational people believe Social Security and Medicare are now saved from being cut in the near term. But the Republican Party has untethered itself from facts and reality a long time ago. What happened last night will have no bearing on what cuts they try to demand for raising the debt ceiling. More than likely they'll just act as though last night didn't happen. Or they'll do what they likely were going to do all along -- demand cuts to "entitlements" and then go on right wing news to say they aren't doing what they're doing.

Oh, they wouldn't be that phony, would they? 

Would they? 


ml1 said:

and speaking of GOP alternate reality -- was a huge portion of Huckabee Sanders' response written in right wing code? I had no idea what this was referring to:

Most Americans simply want to live their lives in freedom and peace, but we are under attack in a left-wing culture war we didn’t start and never wanted to fight. Every day, we are told that we must partake in their rituals, salute their flags, and worship their false idols…

I can guess that maybe she's referring to Pride flags.

Nah -- given the frequency with which the Confederate battle flag shows up at right-wing events (such as the Jan 6 coup attempt), I'm comfortable accepting that the flag she opposes is the U.S. flag.


drummerboy said:

wowie

If the State of the Union remains a tradition in future years, I think all of the members of Congress should dress like that, as if they were attending a Metropolitan Museum Gala.


drummerboy said:

Biden has brought the deficit down faster than any President in history, and the R's are blathering about how Biden is exploding the deficit.

It may be the largest decline in history in dollar terms, but it isn’t the fastest. In 1946, for instance, the deficit dropped to $16 billion from $48 billion. There was a big reason for that, just as there’s a big reason this time.

(In 1997, the deficit fell to $21 billion from $107 billion, on its way to a $236 billion surplus by 2000.)

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/hist01z1_fy2023.xlsx


DaveSchmidt said:

drummerboy said:

Biden has brought the deficit down faster than any President in history, and the R's are blathering about how Biden is exploding the deficit.

It may be the largest decline in history in dollar terms, but it isn’t the fastest. In 1946, for instance, the deficit dropped to $16 billion from $48 billion. There was a big reason for that, just as there’s a big reason this time.

(In 1997, the deficit fell to $21 billion from $107 billion, on its way to a $236 billion surplus by 2000.)

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/hist01z1_fy2023.xlsx

oh poo,


nohero said:

ml1 said:

and speaking of GOP alternate reality -- was a huge portion of Huckabee Sanders' response written in right wing code? I had no idea what this was referring to:

Most Americans simply want to live their lives in freedom and peace, but we are under attack in a left-wing culture war we didn’t start and never wanted to fight. Every day, we are told that we must partake in their rituals, salute their flags, and worship their false idols…

I can guess that maybe she's referring to Pride flags. Not sure what the rituals and idols are. And of course the first sentence is pure unadulterated projection on her part.

It's hate speech, pure and simple.

And it's enabled by "progressives" who don't blame the haters, but think the problem is "being woke".

here's another bit of projection from Ms. H-S:

The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left.  The choice is between normal or crazy.

anyone outside of the Fox News/Newsmax/OANN bubble who just watched the speech would certainly have agreed with that. But not the way Huckabee Sanders meant it of course.

maybe she didn't have enough time after Biden finished to rewrite her speech.


drummerboy said:

oh poo,

I thought he could have made a bigger deal about his record on an issue that can be defended with “oh, poo.”


The goons and gavones on the far right never disappoint in their quest to perform as such. 

All the recent press about MTG had been her efforts to "go mainstream" in her "alliance" with Kevin. Yet, there she was, lookin' like a Real Housewife, trying to splash Joe with her wine glass. 

Who TF elects such people? Lauren, Gaetz, Ron Johnson, et.al.?

Satisfying to watch Kevin cringe. Did he think he was in control of his caucus and could appeal to them to be civil?

Hope Joe can find it in his heart/ego to just say he's righted the ship and retire. He done good.

 


The utter hypocrisy of today's GOP is captured by the GOP response to the SOTU, which cites something which was accomplished because of Federal pushing back on "States' Rights".

In other words, "woke".

"“Down the street from where I sit is my alma mater, Little Rock Central High. As a student there, I will never forget watching my dad, Governor Mike Huckabee, and President Bill Clinton hold the doors open to the Little Rock Nine, doors that forty years earlier had been closed to them because they were black. Today, those children once barred from the schoolhouse are now heroes memorialized in bronze at our statehouse."


DaveSchmidt said:

drummerboy said:

oh poo,

I thought he could have made a bigger deal about his record on an issue that can be defended with “oh, poo.”

defended with?


drummerboy said:

defended with?

Sure.

Biden: To Americans who care about the deficit, I’d like to emphasize that I brought it down faster than any president in history!

Americans who care about the deficit: That’s not accurate, and there’s a big, built-in reason it went down as much as it did.

Biden: Oh, poo.


ml1 said:

the country's rational people believe Social Security and Medicare are now saved from being cut in the near term. But the Republican Party has untethered itself from facts and reality a long time ago. What happened last night will have no bearing on what cuts they try to demand for raising the debt ceiling. More than likely they'll just act as though last night didn't happen. Or they'll do what they likely were going to do all along -- demand cuts to "entitlements" and then go on right wing news to say they aren't doing what they're doing.

What you will hear--what we have already heard--is that they fully support Social Security and Medicare, but that they want to "improve" them to make sure they will be here for the long-term.  The solution will be to privatize Social Security by turning all the funds over to people to invest on their own in 401-k like vehicles; and to turn Medicare over completely to the States to be dispersed however each decides to disperse the funds--including to not disperse at all but to instead divert to the general fund and reducing state and local taxes.

In other words, they are going to kill the programs procedurally while claiming to be saving them.


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