This is not Normal

 

How do you confront a man who has done a lot of damage in a very short period of time, and promises to get up in front of the American people and lie about everything? Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D., NM) chose to hold a simple sign: "This is not normal."  (It was snatched from her by Republican Rep. Lance Gooden.)

What the folks who attended or tuned into this speech beheld was a long rally speech--not really like a State of the Union speech at all. Trump called out the head of DOGE, Elon Musk (who isn't supposed to BE the head of DOGE, allegedly, for some sort of legal reason). He dwelled on the ideas of immigrant crime and trans people in sports for some reason. (Divisiveness. Feeding the bigotry beast.)

There will obviously need to be heroic fact-checking. This is a speech where Trump blamed Biden for the economy that he has actually contracted, threatening higher prices and a recession. Economists were not predicting a recession with Biden's policies--only with what Trump has been doing so far. 

But we aren't new to this game. Trump lies. Trump blames other people. Trump comes up with proposals that might just be a puppet show in a madhouse. We are in a trade war with our North American neighbors. Trump has openly sided with Russia in the Russo-Ukrainian war. 

This is, in fact, not normal. A ketamine-fueled megalomaniac with poor sleep habits is Peter-Panning his crazy ass through our government with his Lost Boys, looking to move fast and break stuff--not really understanding what he's breaking, just hoping to get the contracts to fix whatever it is. Daddy Ourbucks rose for a little applause during the speech. 

One could almost wonder why he didn't give speech himself. Shy? 

Biden's State of the Union: Earning Four More Years

 

President Biden gave one of the most dynamic State of the Union speeches I think I've ever seen. It was part pep rally and part revival meeting for Democrats. It was an expression of the good done by his administration, and a repudiation of the man known as "my predecessor". There was give and take with the crowd, flashes of humor, great sincerity, and most importantly, hope and faith in what this country stands for and can accomplish.

Biden addressed with seriousness our investment in the future of Ukraine, the need to resolve the crisis in the Middle East, he addressed immigration and crime explaining what has been done and what can and should be built on. He drew a sharp contrast between his work and his predecessor's talk. He highlight the success of his record--Republican's might not have like looking at those facts, but he got those fact out there, at one point saying he knew they could read. 

Can't they? They could learn what was successful for themselves. They could even look at legislation before passing on it. 

This speech was about effective government versus stagnation, steady improvement versus just constant useless bitching. It showed President Biden as a man fully aware of the concerns Americans face, and willing to engage with them, and to engage with people across the aisle who might not agree with him. 

What he did not seem was either "sleepy" or "senile". He responded to his hecklers in the audience of supposed grown people with jobs like a comedian who has worked this kind of crowd many a time before.

And of course, there were the chants of "Four more years!" 

Biden Knocked 'em Dead in the Old SOTU

 

After Biden's claim that some Republicans want to end Medicare and Social Security provoked GOP anger, the president responds, "I'm glad to see it, I enjoy conversion."

"Social Security and its bookend, Medicare, are off the books now, right?," Biden adds. "We have unanimity!" pic.twitter.com/3aymKQlf1d

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) February 8, 2023

Now, after that, are the GOP feeling like they want to try to introduce something about so-called "entitlement" (paid-benefit) programs and be made liars? 

Joe Biden foxed them. He got them rolling. He just set up the ad against whenever they want to roll that idea out. He decided to go off message to use the GOP's contrary energy against them, like political aikido.  This is what Joe Biden does best--he gets people. His EQ is outstanding. And he knew how to bait the hook. 

Now you know: Democrats and the Biden Administration will protect your Social Security--and the GOP, not so much. But they might leave it alone for now. He also called out opposition to his infrastructure plan, saying he would meet his opponents at the ground breaking. Because you know goddamn right Republicans will vote against things and then take credit for them like butter would not melt in their mouths. 

And I don't care what nepo-baby Sarah Huckabee Sanders has to say in response, because she is going to pretend like the culture war fell on her, not like she and her inappropriate-length dresses fell on the culture war and like she maybe did not lie for a former president and therefore has no standing whatsoever to call out anyone else's supposed factual shortcomings. 

The story is, Democrats perform in office, and the GOP performs like a madhouse--incoherent and signifying their delusions. 

I have nothing better to say about what I saw. 

Four Women and a SOTU

 

Behind President Biden at the State of the Union Address this evening were Vice-President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, two women on a stage that for so long never had us. In the audience were Republican Representatives Margorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, who behaved in a way that made me ashamed for them. They were without dignity; they were partisan hecklers at a solemn event. They were there to be seen and we saw them. 

I am so ashamed for them that we saw them, because I don't know that they know how to be ashamed for themselves. Maybe they could be taught shame, as if they were still toddlers and the experience of being seen by others in public was still new. 

They tried to start a "Build the Wall" chant. It's an affront to sense. FYI: the wall was always stupid. It's a material, not a legal barrier, that can be easily thwarted by such things as "over, under, around, and through. " Anything that might costs millions if not billions to maintain across a thousand miles and can still be overcome by cheap ladders, by pick and shovel, by a flotilla of fucking inner tubes on the water  at the edges, that is made of steel but has feet of clay and gets toppled by a hard rain, is a stupid tribal fetish, not an immigration solution. 

Sticking with it is appalling dopiness. It's just sad. 

Torn

.@SpeakerPelosi tears up of State of the Union speech.#SOTU #SOTU2020 pic.twitter.com/sIpi4G7KsL

— CSPAN (@cspan) February 5, 2020

I'm not one for that GIF-y kind of "yas queen" political gesture, but I easily get the sentiment behind tearing up a copy of Trump's campaign speech delivered in the place of the State of the Union. It was, indeed, better than the alternative which, one can assume, was shoving the packet of self-serving lies and stage-dressing back down his nasty throat. The White House comms team responded to her action with pure absurdity.

She was tearing up none of the things alluded to in the White House's hackish Tweet, but rather the contempt Trump showed for any positive thing at all that might have been discussed or celebrated there by lying, by smearing immigrants with racist assertions, and by hanging a medal around the neck of an infamous hate-spreader, Rush Limbaugh.

I'll level with you, cancer is a horrendous disease and I could and would wish it on no one. But suffering doesn't change what a person has done with their platform in the course of their highly-lucrative career, and watching this virulent racist be awarded a high honor on a night when we could celebrate the service of the Tuskegee airman, watching this soldier in a culture war be rewarded for his divisiveness against fellow Americans instead of focusing on our shared patriotism--this was an affront. In Rush Limbaugh's entire career, he has heaped vilification on feminists, calling a reproductive health care activist a "slut" on his platform for days on end, and generally referring to feminists as "Nazis" while offering up rape apology and misogyny on a regular basis. Whatever charitable things he's ever done (possibly for PR) are nothing compared to the harm he's done for the discourse--and of course, this Birther, this showman of the bizarre and bent opinion, is a hero to Trump--Trump's presidency is based on Limbaugh's act!

But who is he to be so celebrated? A person anathema to the values of millions of us?

The state of our union is, we are torn. A divisive president has highlighted the ways in which we are divided. The Republicans who enthusiastically applauded his deeply partisan speech, the GOP Senators who mean to acquit him later this week for things they even admit he has done, can't unite us. Our disunion is strong. And that is how Trump has liked it, and that is how he now has it.

So say what you will about Speaker Pelosi tearing the speech up. Trump tears at the Constitution and at whatever still exists of our national comity. You figure out for yourself who is more to blame--the one who errs, or the one who points it out.

Stacey Abrams Made My Evening

Stacey Abrams in Democratic response to #SOTU: "Even as I am very disappointed by the president's approach to our problems, I still don't want him to fail. But we need him to tell the truth." https://t.co/eOKGnWx6l2 pic.twitter.com/aS5UwJIvjj

— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 6, 2019

Watching the SOTU is kind of a perfunctory thing for me because, well, I do this thing on the internet where I talk about politics stuff. But I don't think I've ever had the experience of feeling like a SOTU response actually merited more of my time--usually, these are deeply awkward at best! Sometimes they seem like just a litany of negativity aimed at the current POTUS and don't so much respond to what the POTUS said, as state "I'm agin' him!"  They can go long, the speaker has the unenviable spotlight of following the actual President, and the venue, lighting, etc. all seem so less-imbued with dignity and all that. And they are so often remembered for their awkwardness! Rubio's water-grab and Jindal's walk and Kennedy's Chapstick.  Ernst's bread bags--although in retrospect that anecdote was not as corny as it could have been.

But I think what Abrams did exceptionally well was keep her message short, relatable, on point and pleasant.  (Here's a transcript and fact check via Politico--my reference to refresh my memory, but not my entire source for what I think about her speech.)

I was worried with her upfront personal anecdote about her parents that she was about to launch into a basic stump speech that made the response more about her than about US--the United States, and how and what we are doing. But what she was laying out was a vision of shared responsibility to be good to one another because we can afford to be generous and kind when we know someone is there for you. When you know someone has your back also, you will stick up for the other. When you know the government will protect your rights and safeguard you when you need it--you can excel.

She was critical of the shutdown, because it did not reflect our values, but she did not let her criticism overwhelm the bigger message of responsible government and civic participation. Her speech was a call for elected representatives of the people to be honest and do what was right, not just what was ideologically correct. She was able to use her personal narratives to illustrate what ordinary Americans are facing all of the time, regarding the cost of health care, for example. Or even ballot access for legitimate voters.

She spoke up also for the rights and value of immigrants and for the necessity of access to health care options for everyone. She addressed climate change.  Her expression of the value of civil rights was brief but said everything.

I don't really have anything to say about Trump's speech, because it had nothing to say to me. She spoke to me. She demonstrated she understood the issues, she was positive and hopeful and smiled. And I will state for the record, she is a million times more graceful about being robbed than I am about her being robbed, and I don't even live in her state.

Here's what gives me hope--the same thing that Trump acknowledged to get the biggest applause of his own speech--the women politicians who are making history and bending this arc of justice.

I don't want every politician I love to run for President, but I totally think she belongs in the US Senate because this is a stateswoman and natural leader. I just want every good thing to come her way because her speech lifted me.

Bedbugs and Bread Bags

Sometimes I think us East Coasters are a little sort-changed when it comes to the SOTU speech and the rebuttals--it's late by the time all the coverage is done. I have to get up for my paying gig the next day, and I usually have to get to bed before I've been able to properly ruminate on the President's speech, let alone the rebuttal. Especially not if there are five rebuttals.

What is a blogger to make of five rebuttals from the opposition party? Given that there's an "official" GOP response, I have to guess that the "takes" from different "rebuttals" have to be taken individually, on their own merits, and not view them cumulatively. I mean--would that be fair--five against one? (Well, yeah. I did think Obama did a heckuva job. Easily worth about five of those other speeches.)

See, I'm not what you'd call a pro, like Ron "No 'I' in Leadership, well, except that one" Fournier. And the benefit of blogging for seven years is that my regulars pretty much know where I stand on the major points President Obama brought up (raising the minimum wage--for it, equal pay for women--for it, addressing climate change--for it, land wars in the middle east--against'em), so I just feel like a point by point of the SOTU itself is pointless. In general, he looked more at home giving the speech this year and his zinger about winning two elections himself took some of that expectation that Dems losing the midterms overall would leave him "checked out" and lame-ducking it until January 2017 away. He's still "all in" as far as I can tell. But that's just my opinion.