The State of the Union, Such as it is

Well, that wasn’t a typical SOTU, was it? It may be on the way to being the “new normal,” however, as long as one side feels bold enough to heckle from the peanut gallery. More on that later.

These are a few of the thinks I thunk as I was watching President Biden deliver the annual address to Congress.

·       I’m sure there was a contingent of Fox “News” viewers who tuned in to see an old man stumble around and drool on himself because that’s how conservative media portrays him, all evidence to the contrary. Watching him up there taking shots and dodging bullets must have been a big surprise. Of course, this is where conspiracy theories come from… when reality doesn’t meet expectations. There has to be another angle involved, to keep someone’s deeply held beliefs from being considered untrue.

“It was a body double. He’s getting a feed from an earphone. George Soros is under the podium, working him like a Muppet.” All theories are more believable than them being wrong.

Yes, there were some times that Biden tripped on his words, or elided others. Fox will likely play each instance all mashed up in a loop for the next week. But as far as I’m concerned, that’s a non-issue. Public speaking is hard. YOU try to read for an hour straight without tangling some words. It’s tough under the best of circumstances, let alone when you’ve had to overcome a stutter. It is certainly not an indication of diminished capacity.

·       Speaking of Fox, I saw one of their headlines this morning:

I say Fox “News” doesn’t get to talk about misleading claims coming from the presidential pulpit, not now, not ever. Not after they embraced the outright pants-on-fire falsehoods that spewed forth from TFG. It’s a given that all politicians distort data to suit their needs. It’s the cost of doing political business. But their guy was an unfiltered torrent of verifiable bullshit and Fox lapped it up and pushed it out every night. We felt the effects of it on 1/6/21 and they are still echoing today. Fox should STFU about anyone’s “misleading claims” until they atone for their own role in the dumbing of America.

·       I wonder who’s tracking the standing/sitting/clapping data from the SOTU. That seems to lead most discussions after the fact: who stood for what, who sat when, and who applauded. It all seems like political theater. People in prominent camera positions, like Speaker McCarthy, have to be cognizant of what they’re doing at all times because the base is watching. It makes for an interesting experience watching the guy squirm. He has to decide how to react to widely agreeable items, proposed by his political enemy. He can’t be seen applauding much of anything, even though if one of his guys said the identical thing, he’d have more clap than a Texas cat house.

They panned to Ted Cruz several times amidst the raging applause, as he sat there with a look on his face like someone was holding a turd under his nose. (Although I do recognize that it could well be his regular Resting Turd Face.)

But it’s telling because those who refused to stand or applaud positions that are so favorable to so many, have to explain why such popular items are not worthy of support. 

I hope the media provides aggressive follow-up on those who sat on their butts and hands when the President was talking about lowering drug prices and supporting the middle class. They need to seek explanations on why they don't support ideals that are so obviously beneficial to average Americans.

·      Once again, I sat in stunned amazement as members of the GOP thought it would be a good idea to heckle a president giving the SOTU address. MT Greene was especially vocal, reminding me of the guy who goes to comedy clubs to heckle the comedian because he thinks the rest of the crowd would really rather hear him than the act they paid to see.

Cruella Taylor Greene in action. The look on the faces of the two people in front of her says, "Won't this broad ever shut up?"

This woman isn’t a legislator, she’s a performance artist. Her only asset is the ceaseless mocking of her opponents. Maybe one day her constituents will realize that owning the libs isn’t really making their lives any better. But I doubt it.

·       One such bone of contention was the statement (of fact) that TFG spiked the deficit. The Republicans reacted like he just blamed them for a fart in the room. That’s how well-trained they are to do their donor’s bidding because the data on the deficit is crystal clear. TFG’s tax cut for the rich ballooned the deficit, with little to no residual (or trickle-down) benefit for anyone else.

It’s bad enough that they all went along with it. The least they could do is own up to their actions.

·       I loved Biden’s comments on the infrastructure bill, which Republicans voted against, but still tout their own imaginary involvement to their constituents when the investment pays off at home.

If Biden had nothing better to do, I’d love to see him show up at every ribbon cutting made possible by the infrastructure bill. Just to highlight who got things done and who voted against them.

·      The jewel of the night was the Social Security issue. I don’t know if this whole thing was intentional from the outset, or just wound up this way with Biden flying by the seat of his pants. But the end result is that he just got all the Republicans in Congress to publicly come out against cutting Social Security and Medicare. They were so aghast that he mentioned their (previously announced and well-publicized) plans to curtail Social Security and Medicare, that they jumped right into the trap.

The thing is, they DO want to cut back and/or privatize Social Security so that their donors can get their hands on all that money and all the inevitable processing fees that would come with managing it on behalf of American citizens. But they don’t want to be seen doing it.

I guarantee that this issue comes up again, just as soon as the Republicans can come up with a way to blame the Democrats for it. I expect it will be something like, “Because the Democrats blah blah blah, we are now forced to take action on ‘entitlements.’ Not because we want to, heaven forbid, but because the Democrats are making us.” Just like what every abusive douchebag says, "Look what you made me do."

·       Just a note on that “Junk Fees” bill the President was flogging. It’s a nice idea but I can’t see that it will ever happen. Added fees are the lifeblood of modern business, from banking, to entertainment, to utilities, to travel, and more. Corporate America will find a way to kill this bill in its sleep. They will never give up such a cash cow, ever.

Obviously, they will have the Republicans on their side. All they’ll need to do is lock down Manchin and Sinema, which is not exactly a reach.

And even if it were to pass, affected businesses would just add that much more to the cost of service. All it would really be doing is managing consumer expectations.

·       I saw a conservative friend’s response to the SOTU on Facebook this morning, complaining that Biden did nothing to unite the country. Seriously.

Remember, this is coming from people whose standard-bearer’s inaugural address is known as the “American Carnage” speech. How uniting was that?

The only way to unite Republicans with Democrats in 2022 is for Democrats to become Republicans and embrace their positions completely. (And even then, it would be iffy.) What could the President possibly have said that would move Republicans to unite with the sane part of the country? He already offered lower drug prices, a stabilized Social Security, money for border security, money for infrastructure, and so on. Modern Republicans don’t negotiate, they demand complete capitulation and threaten to bring down the whole show if they don’t get it. There’s no uniting with this, there is only outnumbering them.