SOTU

I had originally intended to watch alternative SOTU videos, but by the morning after, I didn't feel like doing that, or even listening to anyone's assessment of it.  I didn't even read these article.  Be my guest.

This one might be good...

And good for them!

 What will he call them besides "nasty women"?

Sure.  Whatever works.  Maybe they'll avoid nasty names this way.

In related news...nobody likes him.

UPDATE 02/23/2026:  Oh, heck, I missed this:

In a congratulatory phone call with the U.S. men, who took gold at the Winter Olympics for the first time in 46 years, Trump suggested using military aircraft to fly the team out to his State of the Union address on Tuesday before sharing a “very cool” pitch for the team to visit the White House the following day.

“And we have to — I must tell you — we’re going to have to bring the women’s team,” said Trump, who went on to chuckle as the American men burst into laughter in a clip circulating on social media.

He added, “[If I don’t] do that, I do believe I probably would be impeached, OK?”

[...]

Critics on X called the men in the video “spineless” and characterized the clip as “dispiriting” and “inexcusable.”

One top comment on Reddit described the joke as “absolutely shameful.”

“I wish I was surprised… but gd it still turns my stomach knowing I was cheering for them just yesterday,” the commenter wrote of the men’s team.

  HuffPo

UPDATE 07:21 pm:

 I hope they accept.  Too bad it's too late to do it tomorrow on the date of the SOTU.

State of the Union is disunity and crumbling

 

Every Democrat should follow suit, except for the handful that would stay and shout, "You're lying" every time Trump lies.  Which is, as we all know, every time he opens his mouth.

SOTU 2024

The speech:

More fitting for a campaign speech than a SOTU address.

Okay, that's fair.

Joe Biden did what was once unthinkable: directly challenge Supreme Court justices about one of their opinions, addressing them personally.

Biden brought up the conservative majority’s landmark reversal of Roe v. Wade. He had begun to read an excerpt of the decision when he began a brief aside, looking right at the justices sitting in the front row.

“With all due respect, justices, women are not without ... electoral or political power," he said.

Then, in what appeared to be an ad-libbed moment, he added, "You’re about to realize just how much …” before Democrats in the chamber jumped to their feet and cheered.

  NBC

With all due respect, Joe, what can women do about the Supreme Court at this point? Nada. And they know it.

It rare to see any interaction between a president and the Supreme Court justices, but in 2010, conservative Justice Samuel Alito appeared to mouth "not true" or "simply not true" when President Barack Obama criticized the court's ruling in Citizens United, removing corporate campaign spending limits.

Alito has not attended a State of the Union address since then.

Baby.

That accounts for only eight, Kyle.

Was Coney-Barrett there?  And why is Brown-Jackson in the row behind the others?  

And who is in a robe beside her?  I think it's retired justice Anthony Kennedy.  A little ridiculous to wear his robe.  Could be Breyer.

Five or six.  Count 'em yourself, I guess.

Biden comes into the speech with an exceptionally low approval rating of 37%, according to recent NBC News polling. That's lower than the approval rating of his predecessors Trump in 2020 (46%), Barack Obama in 2012 (48%), George W. Bush in 2004 (54%) and Bill Clinton in 1996 (46%) in January of their re-election bid years.

[...]

Biden didn't take long to zero in on one of his central campaign themes: protecting American democracy. And he looked at Republicans in the crowd and confronted them.

"The insurrectionists were not patriots. My predecessor — and some of you here — seek to bury the truth about Jan. 6. I will not do that," he said. "This is the moment to speak the truth... Here's the simple truth. You can't love your country only when you win."

"As president, my predecessor failed the most basic presidential duty that he owes to American people: The duty to care," he said. "I think that's unforgivable."

[...]

Biden also pitted President Ronald Reagan's famous "tear down this wall" line against Trump's recent promise to let Russia "do whatever the hell they want" to European countries that don't pay their dues to NATO.

  NBC

Again, not strictly SOTU info, but OK.

He took on Republicans and Trump directly, saying that "many of you in this chamber — and my predecessor — are promising to pass a national ban on abortion" that could amount to "forcing survivors of rape and incest" to carry the pregnancy to term.

[...]

"In its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court majority wrote, 'Women are not without electoral or political power.' Clearly those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women in America," Biden said as several justices who wrote the Dobbs decision watched. "If you the American people send me a Congress that supports the right to choose, I promise you, I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again."

[...]

What Biden didn't specify was that if Republicans hold control if either chamber, it's a lost cause. At a minimum, codifying abortion rights nationwide would require a Democratic trifecta and 50 votes to pierce the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster rule.

Again, not exactly SOTU info, but I don't recall how previous presidents addressed the country in this event during an election year.  And, as Dan Pfiefer says, this way the speech will get more coverage.

The most regular shouter was the far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who yelled “Laken Riley!” as Biden discussed immigration.

[...]

At another point, Greene yelled “liar” as Biden spoke.

[...]

Riley's murder has been taken up by conservatives pushing for stricter immigration policies. The 22-year-old woman was killed while jogging at the University of Georgia last month; an undocumented immigrant has been charged with her murder.

We can always count on Marj. Did Boebert help at all? I didn't watch.

I tried to give some immigration and crime facts to a person on Facebook, and the response I got was, "Tell that to the woman in Georgia." One case they can point to, and it justifies their entire immigrant hate stance.

Biden called her “an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal” — a term generally avoided by Democrats — and told Republicans to pass the bipartisan border security bill to resolve the situation at the border. He said they’re blocking it on orders from Trump to deny him a political win.

[...]

Democratic women wore white outfits and pins reading "Fighting for Reproductive Freedom." Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other Republicans wore white ribbons that included Riley's name.

[...]

“No billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a teacher or a sanitation worker," Biden said, as Democrats broke out into applause and Republicans barely reacted, many of them looking bored and or staring at their phones.

He also accused Republicans of wanting to cut Social Security, which prompted a few shouts and boos.

Not so much an accusation as just pointing out a fact.

He also mocked Republicans in the audience, saying he notices some of them voted against his infrastructure package but are “cheering on” the money that it brings to their districts.

“You don’t want that money in your district, just let me know,” Biden said, to laughs from his allies.

Toward the end of his speech, Biden alluded to his age: “I know it may not look like it but I’ve been around a while. When you get to be my age certain things become clearer than ever. I know the American story. Again and again, I’ve seen the contest between competing forces in the battle for the soul of our nation.”

Good to tackle the elephant in the room.

“Israel has an added burden because Hamas hides and operates among the civilian population like cowards — under hospitals, day care centers and all the like."

Some of that is propaganda.

There’s also a fundamental responsibility, though, to protect innocent civilians in Gaza,” he said. “Thirty-thousand Palestinians have been killed, most of whom are not Hamas,” he said, adding that they’re “ministers, women and children, girls and boys,” while many more are without food or medicine. “It’s heartbreaking.”

Yeah, so how about you pressure Bibi for a ceasefire?

The rebuttal:

Sitting in a kitchen, Alabama Sen. Katie Britt — a rising star in the Republican Party — delivered an intense speech hammering Democrats on immigration, abortion, crime and other issues.

She talked about how "we are steeped in the blood of patriots" and called Biden "a dithering and diminished leader" who is "not in command."

Which he had just disproved.

“[Nursing student Laken Riley] was brutally murdered by one of the millions of illegal border crossers President Biden chose to release into our homeland,” Britt said. “As a mom I can’t quit thinking about this; this could been my daughter. It could’ve been yours.”

And your daughter has a far, far greater chance of being murdered by a native-born American. And in elementary school.

Katie was wearing her cross necklace and giving off "creepy Sunday sermon vibes." (h/t Stephen) 

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

UPDATE 09:03 am:

UPDATE 03/09/2024:

Under George W Bush.

What happened

Did the State of the Union speech go too well for Biden?

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

UPDATE 02/17/2023:

State of the Union sideshow

Mitt Romney had words with George Santos.

MTG treated it as the circus she lives in and creates every day.

“People stand up and clap for the president. I think we can stand up and oppose things he’s saying,” Greene said. “Just like a sports team, right?”

  The Hill

Thus voicing my biggest complaint about American politics today: people treat it like a sporting event instead of the thing that allows them to have a voice in their own government.

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said that the Republicans responded appropriately in some areas, such as to Biden’s Social Security comments. But he said that Greene, who stood and pointed at Biden during her jeers, went too far.

“It’s inappropriate because it then can hurt,” Cramer said. “Our brand is moral authority.”

Not for decades, pal.

Apparently, one of the biggest stinks GOP members made was when Biden said some Republicans want to get rid of Medicare and Social Security. (One would expect them to shout the loudest denials there, because it's true.)

I’ve never seen anything like it in a State of the Union speech – they ran at him like a pack of lemmings and, with a wink and a grin, he politely directed them to the cliff.

  USA Today

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

The whole shebang:

Highlights:

UPDATE 10:17 am:

Any time there is a televised event at the House, you can count on Sinema and Greene to be wearing an outfit sure to capture the camera's eye.

UPDATE 02/17/2023:

Jesus, he couldn't even find true stories for his SOTU show

Tony Rankins, a formerly homeless, drug-addicted Army veteran, got a standing ovation at the State of the Union after President Donald Trump described how he turned his life around thanks to a construction job at a company using the administration’s “Opportunity Zone” tax breaks targeting poor neighborhoods.

[...]

Rankins, who indeed moved out of his car and into an apartment since landing a job refurbishing a Nashville hotel two years ago, doesn’t work at a site taking advantage of the breaks and never has done so. In fact, he started that job four months before the Treasury Department published its final list of neighborhoods eligible for the breaks. And the hotel where he worked couldn’t benefit even now because it’s an area that didn’t make the cut.

[...]

Trump also praised Rankins’ employer, R Investments, for “working to help 200 people rise out of homelessness every year by investing in opportunity zones.”

[...]

CEO Travis Steffens said he has hired hundreds of homeless to work at the 400 buildings the company has owned over the years, taking advantage of various tax breaks. But when it comes to Trump’s Opportunity Zone breaks, he said, the company has only one building tapping the program now, a warehouse in Cincinnati where no one seems to be working, homeless or otherwise.

  AP News

During [his] State of the Union address, President Donald Trump introduced Philadelphian 4th grader Janiyah Davis and said she would receive an “opportunity scholarship” to attend whatever school she wanted. He pointed to her experience as an argument for expanding school choice.

[...]

During the State of the Union, President Trump spoke about Davis, who was in attendance with her mom. He said she was one of the “tens of thousands” of students on a waiting list for an opportunity scholarship.

“For too long countless American children have been trapped in failing government schools,” Trump said.

He then announced that he was “please to inform” her that her “long wait is over,” and she would receive a scholarship. “You will soon be heading to the school of your choice,” he said. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos reportedly personally funded this scholarship; she’s known for being a strong advocate for the school choice movement.

[...]

However, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday that Davis already attends a competitive charter school, Math Science and Technology Community Charter School III (MaST III).

The Inquirer reports that her school is part of a charter network so competitive that it received 6,500 applications for 100 spots in the next school year. The school reportedly opened in the fall with about 900 students, one of whom was Davis. MaST III is funded by taxpayers and does not charge tuition, per the The Inquirer.

  Time

It doesn't say a lot for the people receiving the awards, either.  They knew it was bullshit.

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

Nancy can be sharp

They do sedate him, I think.

Nancy can be clever

State of His Mind Address.

Podcast recommendation

I highly recommend this intelligent and interesting discussion.  Keep in mind, this is a conservative website/podcast.

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

Pearl clutchers, please

In response to the GOP talking point that is saying Nancy Pelosi broke the law by tearing up an official document...

Pretty sure that was Nancy's personal copy to do with as she pleased.  Mike Pence got one at the same time.  There's an official copy that will be preserved.

and...

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

The SOTU shitspiel

I've wanted Nancy Pelosi to step aside for a long time, but I have to admit, I'm enjoying her presidential rebukes.

Go Nancy.

An emboldened Donald Trump bragged about the “great American comeback” in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, in a speech resembling an 81-minute re-election rally that prompted the most powerful woman in Congress to rip up her copy of the speech on national television.

[...]

As Trump came up to the podium, Pelosi reached out to shake his hand. In a striking moment, the president declined to return the gesture. She had the last laugh, though: the moment he finished speaking she calmly tore in half her copy of his script.

[...]

[She] said she tore up the address, which he delivered on the eve of the verdict in his impeachment trial, because she couldn’t find “one page with truth on it”.

[...]

The president delivered a speech rippling with jingoism, xenophobia and untruths just feet away from the Democratic leaders who inflicted on him the impeachment trial that he has tried so hard to dismiss as a “witch-hunt”.

Several Democrats, including Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, walked out during the speech. One senator, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, compared it to a “2020 campaign rally”.

“It was a total mistake for Democrats to be there. That was a 2020 campaign rally; that was not a State of the Union,” he said. “I regret stepping one foot inside.”

  Guardian

You could have walked out with the ladies, and the others: Tim Ryan (Ohio) and Bill Pascrell (NJ) .

Several Congress critters boycotted the speech altogether:  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Al Green (Texas), Steve Cohen (Tenn.), Earl Blumenauer (Ore.), Hank Johnson (Ga.), and Frederica Wilson (Fla.)

Republicans quickly seized on the moment, with former speaker Newt Gingrich accusing Pelosi of “childishness”.

[...]

Trump’s advisers and senior Republicans had been pleading with him to take the high ground and focus on positives rather than unloading on his Democratic rivals in the joint chamber of Congress before him. As the White House counselor, Kellyanne Conway, put it: “Success is the best revenge.”

Hewing to that advice, Trump devoted a lengthy part of his speech to what he called the “roaring” US economy, boasting that it was “the best it has ever been”.

[...]

But in common with his three previous State of the Union addresses, Tuesday night’s was packed with misleading statements, exaggerations and blatant untruths. In one of the most memorable passages, Trump claimed that he was increasing social mobility in America.

“The vision I will lay out this evening demonstrates how we are building the world’s most prosperous and inclusive society – one where every citizen can join in America’s unparalleled success, and where every community can take part in America’s extraordinary rise.”

In fact, income inequality has reached its highest level since the Census Bureau began tracking the data 50 years ago.

Not to mention the plight of immigrants and people of color under Trump's term of office.

Trump also repeated several of his favorite falsehoods in other areas. “We will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions,” he said, when in truth he has encouraged numerous Republican attempts to overturn President Obama’s Affordable Care Act and abolish protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

Without naming his presidential rivals, Trump unleashed a ruthless attack on several of them. In particular, he tore into the healthcare plans of Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who narrowly came second to Pete Buttigieg in the early results out of the Iowa caucus on Monday.

Switching from State of the Union to political rally. All Democrats should have left the room at that point.

The “radical left”, he said, wanted to “take away your healthcare, take away your doctor and abolish private insurance entirely”. To ecstatic cheers from his Republican enablers, Trump addressed “those watching at home”, telling them: “Tonight I want you to know we will never let socialism destroy American healthcare.”

We'll do that ourselves.

He hailed a “man beloved of millions of Americans” – the controversial rightwing radio talkshow host Rush Limbaugh who has been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer – awarding him the presidential medal of freedom.

Among other treats for the ranks of Trump supporters was his pledge to protect second amendment gun rights, backing of the right to pray in public schools, and his name-check for Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, the two conservatives he appointed to the supreme court. Most significantly, he returned to the toxic issue with which he initiated his presidential bid in 2015 – his attack on “criminal illegal aliens”.

On foreign policy, Trump was no less contentious. He was self-congratulatory about his “peace plan” for the Middle East, no matter that it has been universally rejected by Palestinians.

Nancy Pelosi was right to tear up the speech.

He did some more bragging about the assassination last month of Qassem Suleimani, Iran’s top military leader, without referencing the Iranian counter-attack on US troops in an Iraqi base that it provoked.

Among the exceptionally rare moments of concord within the chamber was when Republicans and Democrats stood together to applaud the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó who attended as a guest of the White House.

Democrats can still be counted on the support foreign interference and the spread of capitalism.

Here's Nancy's reply to Trump's rally speech:

"Manifesto of mistruths."

Surprisingly, Trump has not yet tweeted anything about Nancy's performance.  (7:45 am Eastern)*

He gave a shout-out to Melania in the middle of his rally speech.

He had a big show of a military homecoming.

He also held a ceremony awarding Rush Limbaugh (who recently announced he's dying of cancer) the Medal of Freedom, an honor that has become meaningless in any form but to provide pets of presidents with baubles to show off at parties.

This is definitely not a State of the Union speech.

The elevator pitch for the 2020 SOTU was Fantasy Island meets Make-A-Wish meets Oprah.

[...]

All of it was so jarring that, as Pelosi manically flipped her speech script papers back and forth in desperation, you almost wondered if something would suddenly be revealed from behind Curtain Number 3.

[...]

Trump’s speech also included some perfunctory presidential stuff about freedom and aspirations and terrorists killed. There were the standard mistruths—12,000 new factories no one can locate, a boast about “restoring our nation’s manufacturing might,” despite the fact that experts claim manufacturing is officially in recession.

There was breaking news that Trump is building an inclusive America “where every community can take part in America’s extraordinary rise.” Not mentioned in the fine print was that there will be a few exceptions—like those communities riven by anti-Semitic violence, or those that welcome refugees, or those that never got their healthcare repealed and replaced, weren’t helped by the tax cut, and never saw a new factory—either real or imagined—come back to town.

[...]

Though, of course, tucked in between the traditional passages we expected on late-term abortion and economic growth and trade, there was some creepy stuff Stephen Miller wrote.

[...]

The highlights of the show were the red-carpet guests, and the parts about ICE agents, and the dangers of socialism, and then the section he delivered with gusto about how much he has protected coverage for pre-existing conditions, which is bull. But whatever. Remember: This isn’t reality. It’s reality TV.

[...]

Meanwhile Senate GOP sources have spent the last few days insisting to reporters that Republican senators did not want the president to talk about impeachment during the SOTU, even though we all know that they don’t care what he does anymore.

[...]

On Wednesday, Trump will be lauded for his address for as many hours as he is willing to sustain praise for it—and then, as surely as the sun sets in the west, he will blow everything up in his usual cycle of self-destruction that always follows his good days.

  The Bulwark

And, speaking of parties, Senator Krysten Sinema (D-Arizona) came dressed for one.

 She may know what she's doing considering her constituency, but I wouldn't bet on it.  And check out the two senators flanking her - Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris when she does it.

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed during a 2018 school shooting, was removed from House chamber on Tuesday night after yelling at President Trump during the State of the Union.

[...]

Guttenberg's comments were partially drowned out by GOP lawmakers who were applauding Trump's line. But some reporters in the gallery characterized him as speaking about "victims of gun violence."

Guttenberg was at the State of the Union as a guest of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

  The Hill

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), in delivering the Working Families Party response to President Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, referenced an article arguing “the cruelty is the point” for Trump and his administration.

“For Donald J. Trump, the cruelty is the point,” Pressley said, quoting a 2018 essay written by The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer. “Over the past year, I’ve seen the bigotry and hatred from this administration firsthand. I visited a detention center on the border and sat with immigrant mothers separated from their children and denied the basic necessities of life.”

[...]

“Every day … we see the impact of an administration that emboldened white nationalists and promotes bigotry,” Pressley added. “Tonight, I want to remind Donald J. Trump that I see right through him, the American people see right through him.”

  The Hill

Aside from the many factual inaccurcies, aka lies, Trump showed his increasing difficulty speaking at all:

Remember when Bill Clinton talked to Loretta Lynch on the tarmac and Republicans lost their shit?

Freedom unifies the soul? What does that mean?

*  8:30am   He's on it now.  But instead of actually tweeting anything himself, he has retweeted twenty-four separate accounts that express some variation of the last one:

Come on President Asshat, you can do better than that.

UPDATE:  In response to the GOP talking point that is saying Nancy Pelosi broke the law by tearing up an official document...

Pretty sure that was Nancy's personal copy to do with as she pleased.  Mike Pence got one at the same time.  There's an official copy that will be preserved.

and...

UPDATE:

UPDATE: