The strange state of the union

And on that day, there will be dancing in the streets.

God bless the people who watched Trump's Sate of the Union address and live tweeted.

Aaron Rupar, who adds video clips to his tweets.

Trump is trying to rebrand himself as positive and unifying and it doesn't even seem like he's buying it.

Trump's transition from abortion to national security could've used some more work.

"And let us reaffirm a fundamental truth: all children born and unborn are made in the holy image of God, the final part of my agenda is to protect American security." What happened? That surely wasn't how it was written for him.

TRUMP takes a shot at Ralph Northam, says he's "asking Congress to pass legislation to prohibit the late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in the mother's womb." Republican men cheer, women mostly stay seated.

After bragging about pulling US out of a nuclear treaty with Russia, Trump vows that if a new agreement can't be reached, America "will outspend and out-innovate all others by far."

Democrats groan as Trump talks about how he thinks we'd be at war with North Korea if he hadn't been elected.

Democrats boo as Trump says "here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country." Bernie Sanders in particular is having none of it. Republicans cheer and chant "USA! USA!"

Trump says "the next major priority" for him is "to protect patients with preexisting conditions." (He's spent 2 years trying to take away protections for those people.)

Trump shamelessly tries to take credit for the fact that "we also have more women serving in the Congress than ever before." (They're almost all Democrats who are not fans of his.)

TRUMP on the wall: "This is a smart, strategic, see-through steel barrier -- not just a simple concrete wall." (He doesn't bother to discuss how he thinks he's going to get funding for this!) He then uses a false talking point about how El Paso became much safer thanks to a wall.

Trump struggles with the word "scourge".

He pronounces it "skorge". He probably doesn't know what it means.

Republicans audibly groan as Trump starts trying to stoke fears about migrant caravans.

Republicans?  Actually, it's Democrats.  Nancy holds up her hand to settle them.  Maybe just a typo.








Great clip.


Daniel Dale, who apologized earlier for needing to meet a deadline for an article, shortening his time to live-tweet the SOTU, and nevertheless did an excellent job, as always.  His remarks, unlike most of his live-tweeting of Trump speeches, are mostly fact-check corrections of what Trump is saying without the actual quote.:

Trump warns against "vengeance." He loves vengeance! He is America's leading vengeance advocate.

There have not been 600,000 manufacturing jobs added during Trump's presidency: 12,822,000 as of Jan. 2019, 12,368,000 as of Jan. 2017, an increase of 454.000 jobs. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MANEMP 

Unemployment hit a 49-year low in September, but it's now up to an 18-year-low. It was lower than 4.0 in 2000, during the end of the Clinton era. African-American unemployment has ticked up nearly a full percentage point, from 5.9 to 6.8, since it hit a low in 2018, but it's still a low compared to pre-Trump eras. Asian-American unemployment hit a low of 2.0 in May, but it's now a non-low 3+.

Trump did not eliminate the estate tax, virtually or otherwise, merely raised the threshold at which it has to be paid. Also, it affected a tiny number of family farms and small businesses even before this change.

Trump: "An economic miracle is taking place in the United States -- and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics, or ridiculous partisan investigations. If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation." This is a good example of what Trump himself means by "unity": Democrats uniting with Republicans in letting him do what he wants.

That "in the largest numbers ever" on legal immigration was either ad-libbed or added to the speech late. The prepared text says only, "I want people to come into our country."

Trump has recently dropped the "duct tape" thing. It is true that some women are trafficked through open areas, just not in the way he has vividly described in the past; many of them cross willingly, having been deceived.

This is a similar speech to last year's: a call for unity, various boasts, various policy proposals, lots of graphic talk about the dangers of illegal immigration.

Democrats haven't voted in the past for what they understood to be a "wall." The 2006 law was called the Secure Fence Act; last year's funding was for fencing Trump didn't call his wall then. That is a straight-up lie about El Paso [being one of the most dangerous cities in the country], which was one of America’s safest large cities for violent crime before the fencing was erected and did not immediately see crime fall after the fence was built. I'd call this Trump's biggest lie of the speech so far. It's not an exaggeration or an outdated stat or hyperbolic rhetoric - it's the president, joined by Texas's Republican attorney general, just making something up.

"The catastrophe known as NAFTA" is overwhelmingly preserved in Trump's USMCA deal, though it contains some significant changes.

It is almost comical how different Trump sounds in this one speech a year than in every other speech and appearance that does not follow a tragedy.

The speech text emailed to media said, "For years, the United States was being treated very unfairly by NATO." Trump made it “...very unfairly by friends of ours, members of NATO.”

There is no apparent basis for Trump's opinion - though I won't call an opinion "false" - that the US would've been in a big war with NK without him. He initially claimed, falsely, that Obama told him Obama was close to a war, then started scaling it back to opinion.

Some Republican boos for "socialism." Trump: "Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country. America was founded on liberty and independence –- not government coercion, domination, and control. We are born free, and we will stay free."

Trump, being Trump, keeps saying that the Afghanistan war has gone on for "19 years" or "nearly 19 years." (He didn't specifically say Afghanistan this time.) It is 17 years, 4 months old.

I wonder if that's just a Trump being Trump, or if he says 19 years to put its inception into Bill Clinton's presidency.

Trump's "$7 trillion" claim about Middle East war spending is still inaccurate. He was extrapolating from a Brown University estimate, the latest version of which is $4.9 trillion; $5.9 trillion including estimated future health care obligations.. https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/ 

As you may have guessed, "bad, bad things" was an ad-lib.

You could feel which sections of the speech were authentically Trump and which ones were aides' attempts to get someone on TV to declare that today was the day Trump became president

And pourmecoffee.

Bringing guests to work that reinforce my grievances. Really excited about this.

Nancy Pelosi appears to be grading Sean McVay's play card.

Why has he stopped talking about Buzz Aldrin? Why would a person start talking about Buzz Aldrin and then stop right away? It just doesn't make sense.

Now is when he shows everyone the check from Mexico. An intern should be putting up the easel any minute. ... That's weird, there must not be room.

God bless Speaker Pelosi, she is throwing off enamel dust like a woodchipper.

Is Bernie hitting the Juul pipe?

Wilbur Ross should be the Undertaker General.

Minute 75, he's talking about the best drywall for sea-facing cabanas.

"From the majestic peaks of the Rockies, to the luxurious rooms of Trump International DC..."

"Thank you for the sun and the moon and the stars Mr. President." "Thank you for the grass under our feet on a summer's day Mr. President." "Thank you for the feeling of fullness after a meal Mr. President." -- Republicans lining the aisle.

By 9 am he will tweet that Cryin' Chuck can suck his balls.

Nancy's treating him like the toddler he is.  "Good job!"  Watch her in that clip.

Someone predicted he'd give the speech with Nancy behind him as the "plaid shirt guy".  They were right!  Almost all of the pictures showing Nancy behind him reveal a smirk or look of some disgust on her face.  Here's a good one in video:






He is logically impaired.  He can't pick out contradictory statements. 


And here's that kid that's supposedly bullied because his last name is Trump:




...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:



He doesn't get irony.



Gee, I wonder what they thought of it.