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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let me file that under fuck it.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

In my day, never was longer.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Come on, man.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

I really should read my own blog.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

The willow is too close to the house.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Post-SotU Open Thread

Post-SotU Open Thread

by Anne Laurie|  January 20, 201510:17 pm| 234 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Your thoughts?

Per Cole’s Twitter feed, he’s watching the Penguins play hockey, so if you want more puppy updates you’re gonna have to wait for the game to finish.

ETA:

Some fun on the floor, as Gillibrand makes a "come onnnnn" hand gesture when the Repubs around her didn't stand for pay equity #SOTU2015

— daveweigel (@daveweigel) January 21, 2015

The “Gillibrand 2016” train starts there…

Ernst: "rather than respond to a speech, I¹d like to talk about your priorities."

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 21, 2015

OK, so "I know because I won both of them" wasn't as good as "impeach THIS motherfuckers." But it was something.

— Billmon (@billmon1) January 21, 2015

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Previous Post: « State of the Union Open Thread
Next Post: Late Night GOP Bad Ideas & Lies Open Thread »

Reader Interactions

234Comments

  1. 1.

    Thoroughly Pizzled

    January 20, 2015 at 10:18 pm

    Mein Gott, Chuck Todd is a moron.

  2. 2.

    Corner Stone

    January 20, 2015 at 10:18 pm

    Cole is a caricature of a caricature at this point.

  3. 3.

    Thoroughly Pizzled

    January 20, 2015 at 10:19 pm

    But it was a great speech. Cynicism only helps the conservative cause, ultimately. It’s good that our President understands that.

  4. 4.

    Karen in GA

    January 20, 2015 at 10:19 pm

    Speaking of morons, I’m looking forward to this Ernst creature.

  5. 5.

    ShadeTail

    January 20, 2015 at 10:19 pm

    Didn’t watch it, don’t care.

  6. 6.

    Anne Laurie

    January 20, 2015 at 10:20 pm

    @Corner Stone: Think of it as performance art.

  7. 7.

    Suzanne

    January 20, 2015 at 10:21 pm

    I love him so much.

    I hope Ernst makes an ass of herself, in keeping with GOP tradition.

  8. 8.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 20, 2015 at 10:21 pm

    Did Tweety get a thrill up his leg, or is he troubled that Obama “spiked the ball”?

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    January 20, 2015 at 10:21 pm

    Obama just autographed someone’s tie. Heh.

  10. 10.

    lamh36

    January 20, 2015 at 10:22 pm

    GOP thought they’d be cute by applauding when POTUS said he wasn’t running again. Then he dropped the BOOM, the ad-lib about winning two of them.

    Of course totally went over the heads of most of the “older” talking heads.

  11. 11.

    slag

    January 20, 2015 at 10:22 pm

    On wh.gov, Dan Pfeiffer laughs at the idea that Rmoney poses a “political vulnerability” on poverty. Or possibly on anything, I suppose.

  12. 12.

    Violet

    January 20, 2015 at 10:22 pm

    I wish we could keep him for a third term. I love this president. Love him.

  13. 13.

    jl

    January 20, 2015 at 10:23 pm

    When is the Ernst GOP response thing on?

  14. 14.

    Pogonip

    January 20, 2015 at 10:24 pm

    I’m going to bed, to dream of pupdates in the morning.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    January 20, 2015 at 10:24 pm

    @jl: A couple of minutes, I think.

  16. 16.

    Valdivia

    January 20, 2015 at 10:24 pm

    @Suzanne:
    same here. Best SOTU so far. He was really going for the Village too

  17. 17.

    Helen

    January 20, 2015 at 10:24 pm

    @lamh36: Yeah – they are so stuck on the “he can’t talk without a teleprompter” talking point that when he does something like that they are stunned.

  18. 18.

    Corner Stone

    January 20, 2015 at 10:24 pm

    @Anne Laurie: About now it’s more like a boardwalk caricature hack doing an impression of a Big Eyes Keane work.

  19. 19.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    January 20, 2015 at 10:25 pm

    And Steve Schmidt reminds me why I quit watching MSNBC months ago. Isis! Isis! Isis!

  20. 20.

    Davis X. Machina

    January 20, 2015 at 10:26 pm

    Did you notice? Not a single mention of the public option.

    Not one…

  21. 21.

    Helen

    January 20, 2015 at 10:26 pm

    George Will is already apologizing for Ernst. Before her speech.

  22. 22.

    Karen in GA

    January 20, 2015 at 10:26 pm

    Five Republican responses?

    ETA: She’s on. She’s as creepy as I expected. And she’s not responding to the speech. Of course not.

    ET also A: “I will sell this house today!”

  23. 23.

    Corner Stone

    January 20, 2015 at 10:26 pm

    I’m Huh Huh Joni Ernst.
    Huh Huh.

  24. 24.

    janeform

    January 20, 2015 at 10:26 pm

    Matthew Dowd on ABC: Obama hasn’t shown humility. Yeah, he’s uppity.

  25. 25.

    Suzanne

    January 20, 2015 at 10:27 pm

    Someone should tell Ernst that the fake smile makes her look SHIFTY.

  26. 26.

    mdblanche

    January 20, 2015 at 10:27 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Tweety’s fee-fees are hurt that Obama dissed cable news by mentioning people who think they benefit from division. Since Obama didn’t mention cable news that sounds like a guilty conscience on Tweety’s part.

  27. 27.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    January 20, 2015 at 10:27 pm

    This is Immediately dreadful.

  28. 28.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 10:27 pm

    As a mother, a soldier, and a newly elected Senator from the great state of Iowa ….

    Iowa! What did we ever do to you?

    And what’s she doing in fluorescent blue? Red state, lady.

  29. 29.

    Corner Stone

    January 20, 2015 at 10:27 pm

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Not a single mention of the public option.

    He folded on that years ago. Why would he mention it now?

  30. 30.

    Corner Stone

    January 20, 2015 at 10:28 pm

    Those teeth…Huh Huh.

  31. 31.

    lamh36

    January 20, 2015 at 10:28 pm

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: yeah, I appreciate what Chris Hayes basically said ISIS would like to think it’s as “epic” as the Nazi or cold-war Russia, but the admin is trying to keep ISIS exactly in the true “value” they have in comparison.

  32. 32.

    Dexter

    January 20, 2015 at 10:28 pm

    Twitter tells me that Rmoney thinks that Obama SOTU is “disappointing” and “a missed opportunity to lead”.

  33. 33.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 10:28 pm

    The morning biscuit line at Hardee’s.

    Rainy morning.

    Oh Gawd. It’s the bread bag shoes.

  34. 34.

    Corner Stone

    January 20, 2015 at 10:28 pm

    OH FUCK! NOT THE PLASTIC BREADBAGS AGAIN!!

  35. 35.

    piratedan

    January 20, 2015 at 10:28 pm

    @janeform: dear Matthew, please get back to me when millions of Americans vote for you… to do anything. Asshat.

  36. 36.

    Suzanne

    January 20, 2015 at 10:29 pm

    Are we seriously talking about whether or not child Joni was embarrassed by the bread bags on her shoes?!

    I know, because I won both of them.

  37. 37.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    January 20, 2015 at 10:29 pm

    Settle down, Breadbag feet.

  38. 38.

    debbie

    January 20, 2015 at 10:29 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    Has she brought that up before?

  39. 39.

    jl

    January 20, 2015 at 10:29 pm

    So far the Ernst response would make a great inspirational after school special.
    I started laughing at the opening. Not sure why. I felt a little mean about letting that happen.

  40. 40.

    dedc79

    January 20, 2015 at 10:30 pm

    And the Penguins lost again (woohoo!)

  41. 41.

    JPL

    January 20, 2015 at 10:30 pm

    What hairspray do republican women and men use? They need to sue the company cuz it really makes them look like barbie and ken.

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 10:30 pm

    @Suzanne:

    SHIFTY.

    You’re nicer than me. I would have skipped the F.

    Failed policies like Obamacare.

    Factual, as always.

    She’s speaking slowly so the slow-minded can follow her,

    The Keystone jobs bill?

  43. 43.

    Suzanne

    January 20, 2015 at 10:30 pm

    #breadbags needs to become a hashtag for stupid, off-topic shit.

  44. 44.

    Corner Stone

    January 20, 2015 at 10:30 pm

    Sorry. She absolutely spooks me right the fuck out.
    Good Christ but she is awful.
    Is she a robot?

  45. 45.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    January 20, 2015 at 10:30 pm

    Keystone will benefit nature.

  46. 46.

    CaseyL

    January 20, 2015 at 10:30 pm

    The GOP seldom, if ever, responds to the actual speech. Their speechwriters can’t work that fast. They have a boilerplate and go with that.

    It was a fine speech. I love that he threw down the veto gauntlet, and really loved the digs he got in. He’s got two years to fuck with the GOP without having to worry about the effect it’ll have on Dems running for office; I hope he takes full advantage of the opportunity.

  47. 47.

    MomSense

    January 20, 2015 at 10:31 pm

    Just listened to a Republican woman call in to C-Span upset that the Republicans didn’t stand up for equal pay for women and added that she would like to see them try and live on $25,000 a year. The host asked again if she was a Republican.

    Democrats made a big mistake not campaigning with the President in 2014. Big. Fucking. Mistake.

  48. 48.

    AnonPhenom

    January 20, 2015 at 10:31 pm

    @Karen in GA:
    She’s on now. Dispensing talking points like a vending machine.

  49. 49.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 10:31 pm

    I like to think the camera will pan down.

    And there she is.

    In her bread bag shoes.

  50. 50.

    pseudonymous in nc

    January 20, 2015 at 10:31 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    Iowa! What did we ever do to you?

    Home of Steve Racist King, also too. So, fuck Iowa, mostly. Sorry about that.

    I’m not watching Senator Wonderbread Pigdeballer.

  51. 51.

    Violet

    January 20, 2015 at 10:31 pm

    @JPL: It looks like she’s wearing a helmet.

  52. 52.

    Corner Stone

    January 20, 2015 at 10:31 pm

    MSNBC. Drop that stupid fucking Bing Pulse poll BS.

  53. 53.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 20, 2015 at 10:31 pm

    So the guy from Florida who’s giving the Spanish language GOP response and is just going to give a Spanish translation of Joni Ernst’s speech — he’s going to talk, in Spanish, about riding the Iowa school bus with plastic bread bags on his feet? Is that how that’s going to go down?

  54. 54.

    piratedan

    January 20, 2015 at 10:31 pm

    @Corner Stone: I believe the correct term is “Stepford Senator”

  55. 55.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 10:32 pm

    @AnonPhenom:

    A really slow vending machine.

    With false talking points.

  56. 56.

    Karen in GA

    January 20, 2015 at 10:32 pm

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: Wonder Toes?

  57. 57.

    Anne Laurie

    January 20, 2015 at 10:32 pm

    @Corner Stone: It’s like she didn’t need that castrating tool Lindsey Graham gave her.

    (Still not sure why Graham had an antique castrating tool on hand… )

  58. 58.

    jl

    January 20, 2015 at 10:32 pm

    Keystone Jobs Bill? Is that the official name?

    Keystone pipeline is the first issue the GOP wants to talk about by name?

    Now trade issue platitudes?

    Tax reform generalities?

    BTW is my feed skipping for is she repeating words?
    Edit: video stream problems making it sound like she is repeating words, seems to me.

  59. 59.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 10:32 pm

    @piratedan:

    Yes! Stepford is the word.

  60. 60.

    JPL

    January 20, 2015 at 10:32 pm

    So my TV is on mute because I’m still fixated with the hair. Republican hair doesn’t move.

  61. 61.

    pseudonymous in nc

    January 20, 2015 at 10:32 pm

    @Old Dan and Little Ann:

    Keystone will benefit nature.

    Is there anything in Iowa that a lake of shale slurry will despoil? Or is that Nebraska that wants the shale-slurry lake if there’s a leak en route from Canada to China?

  62. 62.

    Corner Stone

    January 20, 2015 at 10:32 pm

    Can-u-duh and Aus-trail-ee-uh.

  63. 63.

    Suzanne

    January 20, 2015 at 10:33 pm

    @JPL: Neither does her face. Sooo much Botox.

  64. 64.

    Violet

    January 20, 2015 at 10:33 pm

    Joni Ernst is setting herself up to be a VP pick.

  65. 65.

    beth

    January 20, 2015 at 10:33 pm

    @Elizabelle: I saw earlier on twitter that she’s wearing cammo heels. With that suit?

  66. 66.

    Karen in GA

    January 20, 2015 at 10:34 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Con breadbags en mis pies.

    Gracias, Google Translate!

  67. 67.

    Helen

    January 20, 2015 at 10:34 pm

    OMG – Once again look at the “agree” “disagree” She is at 29% republican “agree”

  68. 68.

    Davis X. Machina

    January 20, 2015 at 10:34 pm

    @Elizabelle: When your target market views the world in bumper-sticker terms, that’s how you roll…

  69. 69.

    Corner Stone

    January 20, 2015 at 10:34 pm

    @debbie: No?

  70. 70.

    JPL

    January 20, 2015 at 10:34 pm

    @Suzanne: It’s really amazing to watch her on mute. She could be selling cosmetics.

  71. 71.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 10:35 pm

    “Just look at my parents and grandparents.”

    And I look at them. And they’re wearing bread bags too!

  72. 72.

    Valdivia

    January 20, 2015 at 10:35 pm

    btw she’s wearing camo high heels. saw that on twitter. no bread bags

  73. 73.

    beth

    January 20, 2015 at 10:35 pm

    Wow nothing above her eyebrows moves.

  74. 74.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 20, 2015 at 10:35 pm

    Hardee’s?

    anybody seen a live blog from Pierce? I could’ve sworn he said he was gonna

  75. 75.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 20, 2015 at 10:35 pm

    My grandparents had nothing to call their own except the sweat on their brow and the dirt on their hands.

    Mmmm. Okay.

  76. 76.

    Karen in GA

    January 20, 2015 at 10:35 pm

    @JPL: I was just staring at that. It’s amazing how Republican women are sprayed, shellacked and botoxed into immobility, aren’t they? Almost like they have to look like everything about them is completely controlled.

    Oh, wait — big finish, Joni!

  77. 77.

    TR

    January 20, 2015 at 10:35 pm

    Say what you will, but for a Westworld robot, Joni Ernst really seems lifelike.

  78. 78.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 10:35 pm

    @beth:

    Are they Naughty Monkey camo heels?

  79. 79.

    GregB

    January 20, 2015 at 10:36 pm

    When you get to school you can keep your freshly cut hog nuts in a bread-bag.

  80. 80.

    AnonPhenom

    January 20, 2015 at 10:36 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    Is she a robot?

    I think I see a turn key behind the helmet hair. Maybe they just wound her too tight?

  81. 81.

    MomSense

    January 20, 2015 at 10:36 pm

    @JPL:

    Republican hair doesn’t move.

    It’s made by Playmobil.

  82. 82.

    slag

    January 20, 2015 at 10:36 pm

    Pfeiffer: “Theoretically, there should be common ground” btwn Dems and Reps. Heavy emphasis on “theoretically”.

  83. 83.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 10:36 pm

    And C-Span has a visual of the Capitol dome.

    Which looks incarcerated. The scaffolding.

  84. 84.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    January 20, 2015 at 10:36 pm

    Gawd, Joni Ernst is just awful. How did this women ever get elected to the Senate.

  85. 85.

    Corner Stone

    January 20, 2015 at 10:37 pm

    @JPL: Or the Ninja Bullet, or Bum Bum exercise workouts!

  86. 86.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 20, 2015 at 10:37 pm

    @Karen in GA:

    ¡Gracias!

  87. 87.

    AnonPhenom

    January 20, 2015 at 10:37 pm

    @TR:
    Yeah. Look, she just moved her hands.

  88. 88.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 20, 2015 at 10:37 pm

    @Anne Laurie: @Corner Stone: It’s like she didn’t need that castrating tool Lindsey Graham gave her.

    I think people in Vienna heard Freud scratching on the top of his box to get out and comment on that

  89. 89.

    Suzanne

    January 20, 2015 at 10:37 pm

    Make another hashtag #rictusgrin .

  90. 90.

    Violet

    January 20, 2015 at 10:37 pm

    She sounds like the concerned mom down the street. The one who you know is stabbing your mom in the back at the PTA or who is making your junior high Sunday school class memorize extra Bible verses.

  91. 91.

    mdblanche

    January 20, 2015 at 10:37 pm

    I don’t think she passed the Turing test.

  92. 92.

    jl

    January 20, 2015 at 10:37 pm

    Strike out a few words and that response would be good for the next hundred years. A response for the ages.

  93. 93.

    donnah

    January 20, 2015 at 10:38 pm

    I called her the Bootstrap Bitch, til now…She’s the Breadbag Bitch!

  94. 94.

    Corner Stone

    January 20, 2015 at 10:38 pm

    Oh, McCaskill…you suck hog nuts.

  95. 95.

    piratedan

    January 20, 2015 at 10:38 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: sounds like the beginning of the “four Yorkshiremen” sketch, next thing you’ll know she was living in a brown paper bag at the bottom of the lake….

  96. 96.

    Jim C

    January 20, 2015 at 10:38 pm

    I went to school in Iowa from grade 6-12, riding a bus in grade 6, and I never once saw a kid wearing bread bags over their shoes. (And would have been a contemporary of hers, age wise)
    I must have lived in a super-posh area of Iowa.

  97. 97.

    slag

    January 20, 2015 at 10:38 pm

    @donnah: Classy.

  98. 98.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    January 20, 2015 at 10:39 pm

    @pseudonymous in nc: It will be minimal in either case. Any leaks can be cleaned up by helpers wearing breadbag shoes.

  99. 99.

    pseudonymous in nc

    January 20, 2015 at 10:39 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    How did this women ever get elected to the Senate.

    She was sufficiently non-awful in public to avoid the fate of previous batshit GOP Senate nominees, nobody in Iowa was willing to point out that she was batshit because civility, and the Dems didn’t really show up as they never fucking do in off-years, because the national party and Senate candidates seem to want to lose those damn elections and then whine about it and beg for money over the next couple of years.

  100. 100.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 10:40 pm

    @Jim C:

    You apparently aren’t hard-working enough.

    Taker!

  101. 101.

    Corner Stone

    January 20, 2015 at 10:40 pm

    @Jim C:

    I must have lived in a super-posh area of Iowa.

    Is there such a thing?

  102. 102.

    MomSense

    January 20, 2015 at 10:40 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    It looks like the Deathstar just in time for the Republicans.

  103. 103.

    Roger Moore

    January 20, 2015 at 10:41 pm

    @AnonPhenom:

    Dispensing talking points like a vending machine.

    So, who’s been putting the money in her talking points machine?

  104. 104.

    Karen in GA

    January 20, 2015 at 10:41 pm

    @Jim C: Bread bags, though. It’s so specific.

  105. 105.

    pseudonymous in nc

    January 20, 2015 at 10:41 pm

    Also, who knew that Iowa would provide the nation with its first cyborg senator?

  106. 106.

    jl

    January 20, 2015 at 10:41 pm

    The GOP is close to perfecting the Generic GOP Response Speech.
    They could rerun this one next year. Maybe have to edit the Keystone line, depending on how things develop.
    And Ernst will be there for the first HRC or whoever Democrat gives their first, SOTU, so can rerun it then too.

  107. 107.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 10:41 pm

    C-Span: A Republican from West Virginia was expecting the President to eat some crow tonight, given the drubbing in recent elections, and he didn’t hear that at all.

    He was surprised. And re overtime: why not for our military?

  108. 108.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    January 20, 2015 at 10:42 pm

    @Jim C: My dad grew up during the Great Depression, I heard lots of stories how difficult life was then. Wearing bread bags was not among them.

  109. 109.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 10:43 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Care of our professional press. They were so busy applauding her hog-castrating and — get this — she appeals to men! — that they didn’t cover her craziness.

    She’s so refreshing!

  110. 110.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 20, 2015 at 10:45 pm

    @piratedan:

    If you tell that to youngsters these days, they won’t believe you.

  111. 111.

    Ira-NY

    January 20, 2015 at 10:46 pm

    Braley ran a gutless campaign.

  112. 112.

    mai naem

    January 20, 2015 at 10:46 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA: She replaced Tom Harkin. Jeezus Christ. Aaron Schock looks like Neal Patrick Harris.

  113. 113.

    Jim C

    January 20, 2015 at 10:46 pm

    @Corner Stone:
    Well, compared to where I live now, no. But back then, certain parts of Ames, or West Des Moines, or Iowa City had their upper income areas. Then again, I was never in Red Oak back then, maybe it was all “level B maintenance” roads.

    I do know that we qualified for reduced, if not free, school lunches, and we qualified for the free cheese program when I lived there. My parents didn’t take advantage of either, but we certainly qualified, and we had shoes, plural, *and* boots.

  114. 114.

    JPL

    January 20, 2015 at 10:47 pm

    My dad use to walk miles to school in two feet of snow, or that is what I was told.
    btw .. The NY Times has a picture of Julianna Margulies and Michelle Obama wearing the same suit. Michelle wore it better. link

  115. 115.

    TS

    January 20, 2015 at 10:47 pm

    @CaseyL:

    The GOP seldom, if ever, responds to the actual speech. Their speechwriters can’t work that fast. They have a boilerplate and go with that.

    They could find the speech on the internet – pick up the clues from the last 2 weeks of the President talking – but the reality is they do not want to talk against all the positive things the President is doing – so they make stuff up unrelated to his speech.

  116. 116.

    Corner Stone

    January 20, 2015 at 10:47 pm

    Talking points are so awful. Why do people listen to someone saying there’s no difference between $7 and $10 an hour?
    “Why not $50 an hour, then?”
    These people are just fucking crazy.

  117. 117.

    AnonPhenom

    January 20, 2015 at 10:48 pm

    TeaParty’s White Man’s Take is on now.
    Damn, that is one creepy dude. Giving off a really weird vibe. Gonna need a shower before bed.

  118. 118.

    BD of MN

    January 20, 2015 at 10:48 pm

    Maybe the bread bag thing is midwest, I have cousins who did that as kids, although they wore the breadbags inside the boots, to keep the socks dry from the old holey boots…

  119. 119.

    Jim C

    January 20, 2015 at 10:49 pm

    @Karen in GA: I would call what I’m saying an “Iowa Nice” way of saying, “Oh, bullshit, lady.”

    And piratedan’s invocation of the “Four Yorkshiremen” sketch seems particularly apt.

  120. 120.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    January 20, 2015 at 10:49 pm

    I wore snow boots with grocery bags over my socks when playing in the snow as a kid. I could be a Senator!

  121. 121.

    Mike in NC

    January 20, 2015 at 10:49 pm

    @JPL: Standard issue GOP hair helmet from the 1970s. Why mess with what works?

  122. 122.

    mai naem

    January 20, 2015 at 10:51 pm

    @Jim C: Your parents had already pulled themselves up by their bootstraps unless they were black or non-white, in which case, the gubmint gave you the shoes.

  123. 123.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 20, 2015 at 10:51 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Did bread even come in bags then?

  124. 124.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 20, 2015 at 10:52 pm

    @BD of MN: I’m having flashbacks… yup. Sandwich bags (pre-ziploc, red box with a smiley alligator) and bread bags, my parents had that children of the depression frugality. And we weren’t poor, and my recollection is it was pretty common in our leafy suburb in the early to mid-seventies

  125. 125.

    Mike in NC

    January 20, 2015 at 10:52 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Ever been to Iowa?

  126. 126.

    GregB

    January 20, 2015 at 10:53 pm

    IF Joni Ernst and the Republicans get their way a lot of Americans will be using bread bags for contraception.

  127. 127.

    Central Planning

    January 20, 2015 at 10:53 pm

    @BD of MN:

    I have cousins who did that as kids, although they wore the breadbags inside the boots, to keep the socks dry from the old holey boots…

    We did that as kids, but that was because we played outside all morning and got snow inside the boots which got them nice and wet. We didn’t want to put dry socks/feet back in, so we wrapper our feet in plastic bags.

    My kids do it but they use the plastic bags from the grocery stores. Same thing – they are soaking wet because the snow gets in them, not because of holes.

  128. 128.

    debbie

    January 20, 2015 at 10:53 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I’m guessing her grandparents lived through the Depression, in which case they survived due to the federal government’s efforts. Reconcile that with your philosophy, Joni.

  129. 129.

    lamh36

    January 20, 2015 at 10:54 pm

    Even Micheal Steele had to give it up for that Obama ad-lib…I expect his GOP brethren though to call it uppity or boastful…

    @MichaelSteele
    Follow
    Obama “I have no more campaigns to run.” GOP applauds. “I know because I won both of them.” GOP silent.

    https://twitter.com/MichaelSteele/status/557738154380525570

  130. 130.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 20, 2015 at 10:54 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Yeah, well, replying to myself, cause that’s cool, but the Google tells me that plastic bags weren’t invented until 1957, and didn’t start being used for bread until the late 1960’s. Ernst was born in 1970, so maybe wearing bags was new and trendy then.

  131. 131.

    lol

    January 20, 2015 at 10:55 pm

    @pseudonymous in nc:

    Because Braley utterly and completely shit the bed, slept in it and then went out campaigning. He was that bad.

  132. 132.

    mai naem

    January 20, 2015 at 10:55 pm

    @BD of MN: Not to get nitpicky here, but Ernst wouldn”t be able to see the bread bags inside boots that she saw on the bus.
    Tweety’s being Tweety today. Making me laugh.

  133. 133.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 20, 2015 at 10:56 pm

    @lamh36: I saw Michael Steele on the Hayes show yesterday, basically saying that Republican talk of poverty and inequality was hollow because they had no meaningful plans. He also, without a trace of irony, said lobbyists have too much influence in Washington. Hayes was much too nice in not reacting.

  134. 134.

    elftx

    January 20, 2015 at 10:56 pm

    I don’t know about the breadbag story. Hell if her mom was as spendthrift as she claims, no way they would have bought bread. She would have made her own.
    Otherwise I laughed like hell at her

  135. 135.

    Helen

    January 20, 2015 at 10:56 pm

    @JPL: Yeah. Michelle looked awesome tonight. I don’t always say that about her. When she goes casual she sometimes misses. But when she gets dressed up and when she gets dressed up for a formal event – va va voom!!!

  136. 136.

    lamh36

    January 20, 2015 at 10:57 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I find Hayes much to nice alot of the times, when he should be firmer. Maddow is very good at firm, yet still mannerful (sp?)

  137. 137.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    January 20, 2015 at 10:58 pm

    @JPL: My dad did as well; uphill, both to school and back home.

  138. 138.

    danielx

    January 20, 2015 at 10:59 pm

    @JPL:

    Evidently they’ve been taking notes about Callista Gingrich’s helmet hair; you couldn’t dent that woman’s do with a fire axe.

    I won’t even get into the ‘Republican woman with the craziest eyes’ contest.

  139. 139.

    kc

    January 20, 2015 at 10:59 pm

    What is this breadbag shit? (I wasn’t watching)

  140. 140.

    lamh36

    January 20, 2015 at 10:59 pm

    hmmm, so NYT is first up with the butthurt…

    “In much of President Obama’s State of the Union speech, he discussed unifying themes.

    But in one off-script moment, he flashed his notoriously competitive side.

    Mr. Obama likes to remind voters that his days of running for office are over and he did so on Tuesday night, offering, “I have no more campaigns to run.”

    The Republican side of the chamber broke out in cheers and Mr. Obama, cracking a sly smile, responded: “I know because I won them both.”

    After that, it was back to bipartisanship.”

  141. 141.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    January 20, 2015 at 11:00 pm

    @Mike in NC: Actually, I have been to Iowa.

  142. 142.

    Anne Laurie

    January 20, 2015 at 11:02 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: We used the plastic-bag trick in the Bronx in the early-to-mid 1960s, mostly because slush puddles at the curbs would soak your socks coming over the tops of your boots.

    Also, they made those one-piece molded rubber boots easier for little kids to slide on & off, because we had to switch in & out of our navy-oxford uniform shoes at parochial school. You needed three bags per kid, though — the extra was for shoe transport.

  143. 143.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    January 20, 2015 at 11:03 pm

    @Anne Laurie:

    mostly because slush puddles at the curbs would soak your socks.

    What’s a “slush puddle”?

    ETA: Oh, and while you’re at it, what’s “Freezing Rain”?

  144. 144.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    January 20, 2015 at 11:05 pm

    @BD of MN:

    I was getting ready to say the same thing. Joni, honey, the other kids made fun of you because U WERE DOING IT RONG! Plastic bags go inside the boots.

    (Also, my mom usually used sandwich bags for my boots, because I don’t have big feet. What does she wear, a size 12?)

  145. 145.

    Anne Laurie

    January 20, 2015 at 11:06 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA: You lucky California bastid!

    Don’t know if they have slush puddles in Ernst’s Iowa, but there’s plenty of pig slurry to spare.

  146. 146.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    January 20, 2015 at 11:06 pm

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): You know what they say about the correlation of shoe size and…

  147. 147.

    Gus

    January 20, 2015 at 11:07 pm

    Her smile is weird. Couldn’t help thinking of this http://bit.ly/1yIAZxz

  148. 148.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 20, 2015 at 11:09 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA: what’s “Freezing Rain”?

    DIAF.

  149. 149.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 11:09 pm

    The Daily Show.

    Jon Stewart decrying the lack of exciting candidates for 2016. If only someone exciting would run ….

    Clip of Lindsey Graham.

    Out comes a small marching band.

    Graham tells Chuck Todd he’s thinking of running for president because he feels he’s been more right than wrong on issues.

    Stewart: “Because you’re delusional!”

    Cue the marching band.

    ETA: edited!

  150. 150.

    tazj

    January 20, 2015 at 11:10 pm

    The reason that I remember that children wore breadbags with their boots was because the boots that they made for kids went over your shoes and the bags made it easier to pull your boots off.

    I was poor child in the 70’s and wore plenty of those boots with bags from kindergarten to second grade.

  151. 151.

    Violet

    January 20, 2015 at 11:10 pm

    @Gus: Her entire face is weird. And her hair is bizarre.

  152. 152.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 11:10 pm

    @Gus:

    On point.

    What is that photo? From a movie?

  153. 153.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    January 20, 2015 at 11:11 pm

    And as many others have said, you didn’t put plastic bags over your socks because you had holes in your boots, you did it to keep your feet dry when snow and/or slush got into your boots. Every kid did it, rich or poor.

    Have I mentioned lately how much I don’t miss dealing with all of that cold weather shit? It’s chilly tonight — meaning it’s in the 50s — and I like it that way.

  154. 154.

    scav

    January 20, 2015 at 11:12 pm

    @Anne Laurie: Well, many Californians would actually recognize same as there’s also the pointy bits, where one does a lot of the slidey on long sticky bits, but let that pass. Many Californians at present might have trouble recognizing water in the wild as they’ve gotten out of the habit.

  155. 155.

    Helen

    January 20, 2015 at 11:12 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    What’s a “slush puddle”?

    Awww you have lead such a deprived life. When you’re 6 years old there is nothing better than a slush puddle.

    I am with Annie Laurie on this. I grew up in the 60’s in a blue collar (then “middle class”) home. We wore plastic bags on our feet in our boots to keep our socks dry. It had nothing to do with being poor.

  156. 156.

    Gus

    January 20, 2015 at 11:13 pm

    @Elizabelle: One of the Poltergeist movies.

  157. 157.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 11:13 pm

    I vaguely remember wearing breadbags maybe once, on a snowy day in Hoosierland.

    Not a successful experiment. My mom desisted.

  158. 158.

    Violet

    January 20, 2015 at 11:13 pm

    I’m wondering why she wore her “good shoes” to school on snowy, slushy or rainy days. There’s no way a child growing up on a pig farm in Iowa wouldn’t have some type of boots. Put those on for the messy trip to school and change into the nicer shoes once you got there.

  159. 159.

    Bill Arnold

    January 20, 2015 at 11:14 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Ernst was born in 1970, so maybe wearing bags was new and trendy then.

    Could have been a homemaking tip in a popular column or magazine, then. I vaguely recall bags-as-shoe-covers in the late 60s (NY suburb) but it wasn’t a regular thing. Bread bags were however saved, and repurposed. My folks (depression babies) were saving them through the 2000s.

  160. 160.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 11:16 pm

    @Bill Arnold:

    Housekeeping tips like rinsing out your coffee filters so you can reuse them depress me.

  161. 161.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 11:17 pm

    #No more breadbags.

    #F*ck Joni Ernst.

  162. 162.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 20, 2015 at 11:18 pm

    Well, there’s nothing inherently wrong with wearing breadbags as a prophylactic against slush, snow, and freezing rain. But what exactly was the point of turning it into the centerpiece of a high-profile SOTU response?

  163. 163.

    jl

    January 20, 2015 at 11:19 pm

    @lamh36: Gawd almighty. The pundits and the corporate press are such a bag of prissy pompous jackasses. No wonder only oldsters, and repressed frightened oldsters at that. pay any attention to them anymore.

    So, the GOP thought they would wise ass, and Obama had a come-back.

    Or, did the NYT think that joke was written into the speech before hand, and it was just a coincidence that the Congressional GOP dissed him just before he said it. Or what?

    Some stuff you see in the corporate media, its like a damn cartoon or something. Hard to believe it’s real sometimes.
    Or maybe the Onion is hacking news sites.

  164. 164.

    Helen

    January 20, 2015 at 11:19 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Cuz she was trying to show that she pulled herself up by her breadbag boot straps!

  165. 165.

    Adam

    January 20, 2015 at 11:20 pm

    When Ernst (hopefully) loses in a couple of years, she could always have a second career staring in a David Lynch movie, So creepy.

  166. 166.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 11:20 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    “The president was arrogant and the GOP respondent was in bread bags.”

    There. Did your hard punditing for you.

  167. 167.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 11:21 pm

    Now another Keystone pipeline ad on The Daily Show.

  168. 168.

    Violet

    January 20, 2015 at 11:21 pm

    Wow. #breadbags is trending on Twitter.

  169. 169.

    Elie

    January 20, 2015 at 11:23 pm

    I turned the teevee briefly to MSNBC and found Tweetie and Andrea Mitchell wringing their hands about “the reality” of the failed Obama foreign policy — that ISIS is not in control, that oh mercy me, what are we going to do, things are not solved there yet and there is no plan. I had to stop myself from screaming. There is a plan — you just don like it! And that Richard Engel is another neocon. I guess they all want the US back hip deep in the ME — fixing it — supposedly — AGAIN. I HATE THESE PEOPLE!!!!!

  170. 170.

    SatanicPanic

    January 20, 2015 at 11:23 pm

    This breadbag thing is a common wingnut whine, like someone else mentioned it’s like saying they walking uphill to school in the snow. I have listened to wingnut radio about 3 times in the last 5 years, and one of the times I listened to it (for like 5 minutes) the radio wingnut brought up this very thing. That can’t have been coincidence.

  171. 171.

    Elizabelle

    January 20, 2015 at 11:24 pm

    @Elie:

    Tweety and Mrs. Greenspan are part of why I don’t watch MSNBC. Much happier without it.

  172. 172.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 20, 2015 at 11:25 pm

    @Adam:

    Ernst is just starting a six-year term.

  173. 173.

    JPL

    January 20, 2015 at 11:25 pm

    So my son missed the state of the union but caught the republican response… this is his chat

    who is this lady talking she sounds like an idiot sounds like a bad infomercialand if you donate only 2 dollars a day you too can help a child in need wow that was bad

    btw.. the son is quite successful but this is chat.. and that is response

  174. 174.

    Violet

    January 20, 2015 at 11:25 pm

    Speaking of the NBC family, how’s Chuckles Toddler’s “Meet the Republicans” going? Ratings got any better?

  175. 175.

    John M. Burt

    January 20, 2015 at 11:26 pm

    @Corner Stone: There probably is a minimum wage which would depress economic activity. All I know is, it’s never happened. I know that because if it ever had, every GOPer would be saying, “Yeah, sure, just like Rhode Island in 1979” or “like Copenhagen in 1987” or wherever it was — and since they aren’t, it has never happened.

  176. 176.

    Violet

    January 20, 2015 at 11:29 pm

    GOP economic plan: a breadbag on every foot!

  177. 177.

    JPL

    January 20, 2015 at 11:32 pm

    @Violet: Mock me if you will, but I have been known to use home depot bags on my head, if it started to rain when I left the store.

  178. 178.

    jl

    January 20, 2015 at 11:34 pm

    I’m avoiding the pundit spew on the SOTU, but did notice this item

    Rep. Steve King calls Obama’s SOTU guest a ‘deportable’

    “Obama perverts ‘prosecutorial discretion’ by inviting a deportable to sit in place of honor at #SOTU w/1st Lady,” the Iowa lawmaker tweeted. “

    http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/steve-king-calls-obama-sotu-guest-deportable

    I hope King gives the GOP response next year. No more nice-guy cheap soft focus Hallmark card knock-off feelgood schlock pablum platitudes for King, I bet you.

    I love GOP outreach. I want more.

  179. 179.

    Corner Stone

    January 20, 2015 at 11:34 pm

    Richard Engel seems to be quite a kook.
    And that’s kind of sad, I think.

  180. 180.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 20, 2015 at 11:35 pm

    @Elie: I don’t know if Engel is a neocon so much as a liberal interventionist, he’s horrified by what he sees and he believes that the USA has a duty to do… something! A lot of journalists seem to have fallen in to this, Lara Logan, Michael Ware, Dexter Filkins to some extent.

  181. 181.

    Violet

    January 20, 2015 at 11:35 pm

    @JPL: I’m a hippie commie liberal because I use the recycled, reusable bags over my head when it starts to rain. They’re bigger and work better anyway.

  182. 182.

    SatanicPanic

    January 20, 2015 at 11:36 pm

    @John M. Burt: I love this logic and I am going to add it to my list of responses to people who oppose minimum wage.

  183. 183.

    Elie

    January 20, 2015 at 11:37 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    I generally don’t but was flipping around. What a bunch of assholes. Add EXPERT RICHARD ENGEL, sockpuppet neocon itching for a war that he can believe in to that list along with Chuchtodd- the short ugly troll

  184. 184.

    MomSense

    January 20, 2015 at 11:39 pm

    What bothers me about Joni Ernst is that she uses being poor to lend herself credibility but I betcha that she will vote against food stamps for poor kids.

    Ain’t no breadbags for your feet if your family can’t afford to buy bread.

  185. 185.

    jl

    January 20, 2015 at 11:39 pm

    @John M. Burt: The size of the hikes proposed are small enough so even if they did have some adverse effects on labor market, would be hard to detect without lots of fancy statistics (which is why the research is so inconclusive and controversial).

    Most evidence for adverse effects is for entry level effects for teenage workers.

    Thing is, IMHO, proper macroeconomic management more important by an order of magnitude for real wages and job growth than bickering over very small bore microeconomic policies like restoring real minimum wage to what it was a couple of decades ago. But, economists are increasing obsessed with fancy statistics to do extremely ‘marginal’ analysis.

  186. 186.

    Elie

    January 20, 2015 at 11:40 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Lara Logan is a bonafide neoncon.. a fave of the Bushistas.

    Sorry, I do not buy that Engel is not a neocon either. He doesn’t like the way things are and his solution is to make more and deeper war. Smells like a neocon to me.

  187. 187.

    Corner Stone

    January 20, 2015 at 11:40 pm

    Welp, a Sen from ND talking up oil production?
    SHOCKING!

  188. 188.

    Corner Stone

    January 20, 2015 at 11:41 pm

    @MomSense:

    but I betcha that she will vote against food stamps for poor kids.

    Shit. That’s a no breadbagger bet right there.

  189. 189.

    MomSense

    January 20, 2015 at 11:45 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    Wow I just went back and looked at her campaign statements and sure enough she wants to eliminate food stamps. We should start a campaign about all those breadbags that won’t be able to keep kids’ feet warm and dry because they will be too full of bread.

  190. 190.

    jl

    January 20, 2015 at 11:47 pm

    @Elie: Huh? I’ll be damned. I heard about a plan to deal with ISIS in the news several months back. Congressional hearing. generals talking all serious about it. So far, seems to have worked. I don’t hear about rapid ISIS advances anymore, and in some areas they have been pushed backed, and have received at least one significant military defeat that set them reeling.

    But, pundits gotta pundit. And Tweety needs something to get his mind off HRC, who is even more frightening to him, for God knows what reason.

    Edit: never mind. I forgot that US corporate media hack pundits don’t keep track of the news. Gets in the way of opinion mongering and audience pandering.

  191. 191.

    Violet

    January 20, 2015 at 11:49 pm

    @MomSense: There’s zero way that if Joni Ernst grew up poor and had one pair of “good shoes” that her mother would have allowed her to wear those shoes out to wait for the school bus in an Iowa winter. I call bullshit on that. Her mom would have put her in her pig stall mucking-out boots and saved those “good shoes” for church on Sundays.

  192. 192.

    catclub

    January 20, 2015 at 11:49 pm

    I just got a push poll. It was basically Hillary bashing. Bad thing Hillary did -then asking if such a thing would change your vote. The bad things were related to bank bonuses and bailouts. Since I live in Mississippi, I assume all polling is by the GOP. So this was strange. It seemed more like pushing Elizabeth Warren vs Hillary.

  193. 193.

    Suzanne

    January 20, 2015 at 11:49 pm

    Teabaggers and breadbaggers 4 JESUS!

  194. 194.

    Elie

    January 20, 2015 at 11:51 pm

    @MomSense:

    Gawd, I just looked at part of her speech. What a phony! What a terrible delivery! Nothing authentic in the message at all. Phony baloney. This one won’t wear well. Watch..

    And oh by the way, just as I predicted, that miserable piece of shit, Patrick Lynch of the NYPBA is getting his just deserts as the rank and file turn on his creepy ass. Turns out the cops wanted help not apologies from the Mayor… go figure…

  195. 195.

    Suzanne

    January 20, 2015 at 11:54 pm

    @Elie: With any luck, it will have killed her political career before it really started. The SOTU Response is kind of bad for the GOP. McDonnell, Jindal, Rubio, Rodgers…..not so good.

  196. 196.

    Elie

    January 20, 2015 at 11:54 pm

    @jl:

    Yeah, I get most of my news anymore from BBC and AlJazeera on TV with a passing touch of CNN for contrast. I gave up like Elizabelle on MSNBC for the most part but the devil made me look tonight. I NEVER look at Fox.

  197. 197.

    jl

    January 20, 2015 at 11:54 pm

    @catclub: Could be GOP. Just a new edition of their con game. Did you know that the 2016 Model Mitt Romney is very concerned about income inequality and lack of economic mobility, sluggish wage growth and the fate of the middle class?

    I did not know that either, but Mitt Romney said so. White man, stands up on his hind legs in a suit and tie. Can talk nice. It must be true.

    Man, how many times have the gulls fallen for this since the New Nixon?

  198. 198.

    Elie

    January 20, 2015 at 11:57 pm

    @Suzanne:

    Naw — I think its great.. I hope she lasts long enough to effectively minimize any success they have. My guess is that she has zero skills or persuasion .. tonight she was a stepford wife with blank eyes and a fixed phony smile. SU-EEEEEEE — go call those hogs, honey…

  199. 199.

    Cervantes

    January 20, 2015 at 11:58 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Freud was cremated in London, where his ashes remain.

    (And you think you are a foolish literalist.)

  200. 200.

    MomSense

    January 20, 2015 at 11:58 pm

    @Violet: @Elie:

    Why did she feel the need to tell that story as proof of how poor she was? Was it so she can somehow maintain that she cares when she takes food assistance away from families who need the help?

    Just WTF was the reason for telling us that story? I don’t understand how the experience of being poor doesn’t make a person more determined to help those who need help.

  201. 201.

    Mike in NC

    January 20, 2015 at 11:58 pm

    @MomSense: Oh, we can bet at least half of all Republican senators and Congresspersons collect those generous farm subsidies, can’t we?

  202. 202.

    Elie

    January 21, 2015 at 12:01 am

    Well what they hell story would she have told if it wasn’t that? She knew that the President was going to address wealth disparity. The woman doesn’t have a genuine bone in her body but she had to speak to something. Otherwise she would have to talk about her pig castrator. She might actually have been more authentic talking about that…

  203. 203.

    MomSense

    January 21, 2015 at 12:01 am

    @Mike in NC:

    Especially if they are farmers from Iowa.

  204. 204.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 21, 2015 at 12:01 am

    Lizz Winstead @ lizzwinstead · 1h 1 hour ago
    I also wore kleenex on my fucking head when we went to church because we couldn’t afford chapel veils. Take that Joni Ernst! #SOTU #BNRNews

    I hope she gets some kind of royalty from TDS

    @Cervantes: People in London heard an urn rattle….

  205. 205.

    MomSense

    January 21, 2015 at 12:03 am

    @Elie:

    I just hate these Republicans. Is it Omnes who has a rule about assuming Republicans are assholes until they prove otherwise? The thing is that if they aren’t assholes it’s likely they aren’t Republicans.

  206. 206.

    Elie

    January 21, 2015 at 12:06 am

    The media, no matter what network, cannot bear that he is a commander in chief in command of himself, what his administration has accomplished, and what he intends to still accomplish. They can’t stand his confidence, his intelligence and yes, his big black balls.

  207. 207.

    jharp

    January 21, 2015 at 12:06 am

    I want to watch the instant replay of the “I won them both” moment.

    I really liked that.

  208. 208.

    JoyfulA

    January 21, 2015 at 12:07 am

    @Violet: I just stole that for Twitter. Thank you!

  209. 209.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 21, 2015 at 12:09 am

    Jesus, Tweety hasn’t gone to bed yet? I thought Rachel or Hayes would’ve taken over by now.

  210. 210.

    pseudonymous in nc

    January 21, 2015 at 12:14 am

    @jl:

    I hope King gives the GOP response next year.

    Steve Racist King fucked off out of the chamber like shit down a drain, as befits him.

    Engel, Logan, et al. are War Correspondents, and there’s a bit of the war junkie about them, and you have to filter them through that.

  211. 211.

    andy

    January 21, 2015 at 12:14 am

    @pseudonymous in nc: Despoil? In the glorious wonderland of pig manure lagoons? That would be gilding the lily!

  212. 212.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    January 21, 2015 at 12:21 am

    @MomSense:

    That’s the weird thing about the story, though — she’s using something that EVERYONE did as an example of how poor she was. I just checked with G, who also grew up in the Midwest and, yep, plastic bags on feet in the winter. It’s. What. We. Did.

    It’s now starting to come across to me that she grew up comfortably middle-class and is desperately trying to dredge up a story that makes it sound like she was poor.

  213. 213.

    catclub

    January 21, 2015 at 12:26 am

    @jharp: Slate has it.

  214. 214.

    lamh36

    January 21, 2015 at 12:27 am

    so apparently Ted Cruz was giving his own SOTU response, but there was a “glitch” . the video was swiftly deleted but Cruz crew, but some enterprising person caught the video…

    https://twitter.com/katherinemiller/status/557751104952623106

    EPIC fail

  215. 215.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 21, 2015 at 12:28 am

    @jharp:

    https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=993943040625726

    Hope this link works.

    The second or third time you watch it, take a look a Boehner sticking his tongue out at POTUS.

  216. 216.

    tazj

    January 21, 2015 at 12:28 am

    @MomSense: I think that many people feel that it’s a badge of honor to have grown up poor and to have never taken government assistance. They believe that they’re stronger and tougher than other poor people. I think that these people for the most part don’t know real poverty and are ignorant of history or they wouldn’t believe in cutting foodstamps.

  217. 217.

    delk

    January 21, 2015 at 12:30 am

    Even these days in Chicago on those “so coldI give a fuck what I look like” days, you can see people with bread bags under their boots. They help keep the feet warm.

    As a kid in the ’60’s we wore them over our shoes to make it easier to get the boots (galoushes) on, and to keep our feet dry. Boot technology sucked back then, all those stupid buckles or zippers.

    These days with my Neo’s I don’t have to worry about getting my shoes wet. In fact, I look for slush puddles to walk through. Bonus points: the Neos have screw in cleats for walking on ice.

  218. 218.

    Anne Laurie

    January 21, 2015 at 12:32 am

    New post up top, with added Ernst truthiness!

  219. 219.

    Randy P

    January 21, 2015 at 12:34 am

    For those curious who speak Spanish, I tracked down the Cuberlo spanish-language response

    I’m not fluent, but comparing to the Joni Ernst transcript (warning: Link to Politico) it did sound, as reported, pretty much a word-for-word translation. Except he did substitute his family story and Miami for hers and Red Oak. And no breadbags.

  220. 220.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 21, 2015 at 12:34 am

    @tazj: perfect timing for Anne Laurie’s new post above

    Relatives of Ernst (née: Culver), based in Red Oak, Iowa (population: 5,568) have received over $460,000 in farm subsidies between 1995 and 2009.

    I turned on MSNBC to see if Tweety had stopped war-gasming, and he’s interviewing Ruth Wilson about The Affair, with Frank Bruni.

    Does Rachel have food poisoning or something? Alex Wagner, Joy Reid? The whole crew taken out by bad sushi?

  221. 221.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    January 21, 2015 at 12:35 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: It’s dry mouth from drinking.

  222. 222.

    slag

    January 21, 2015 at 12:36 am

    I’ll never understand the whole, “I was poor once, so FU,” perspective members of the GOP take.

    To whom is their former impoverishment going to make their current moral bankruptcy more palatable? Is the breadbag the “I have a black friend” of class warfare?

  223. 223.

    Frankensteinbeck

    January 21, 2015 at 12:39 am

    @MomSense:
    Shibboleth. Badge of identification. Given that the primary drive of the current Republican Party is racism, their first goal has to be making the not-rich party members who do the actual all-important voting understand it’s Us vs. Them. This is essential to…

    @jl:
    The phrase is ‘willing mark’. The GOP base wants everything to be black people’s fault. Everything to be liberals’ fault. They’re furious that they’ve been proven wrong about everything practical, and furious that they’ve been proven right that liberal policies improve minority equality. They need only the most token gesture to grab for so they can claim their guy is on their side and putting the screws to poor blacks will make everything better for all whites.

  224. 224.

    Mike in NC

    January 21, 2015 at 12:39 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: No, Ernst is the new Palin, eligible for millions of wingnut welfare payoffs in magazine, newspaper, TV, and book deals. Pity the poor Whore from Wasilla.

  225. 225.

    Roger Moore

    January 21, 2015 at 12:41 am

    @MomSense:

    I don’t understand how the experience of being poor doesn’t make a person more determined to help those who need help.

    Suffering doesn’t automatically give you empathy. Escaping poverty is a good example. An empathetic person who escapes from poverty will remember how awful it is and want to help others escape. A non-empathetic person who escapes from poverty will see their example as proof that poor people ought to be pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and deserve no sympathy if they fail to do so.

  226. 226.

    xenos

    January 21, 2015 at 12:43 am

    @Helen: I grew up in a 1%er household in the 70s and use breadbasket over my socks in snow boots. You could stay out much longer in the snow that way.

    Putting bags over the shoes would not work so well, but I could see a very poor person putting them over their kid’s sneakers in the absence of boots. If that is what happened to her than I can understand her feeling humiliated.

  227. 227.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    January 21, 2015 at 12:43 am

    @Roger Moore:

    At this point, I’m pretty convinced that Ernst was never poor. She may not have been a 1%er, but she sure as shit wasn’t “poor.”

  228. 228.

    Violet

    January 21, 2015 at 12:44 am

    @Mike in NC: Sarah Palin campaigned for Ernst, so she’s got no one to blame but herself.

  229. 229.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    January 21, 2015 at 12:46 am

    @xenos:

    Frankly, I think Ernst is lying (or, more politely, exaggerating).

  230. 230.

    Darkrose

    January 21, 2015 at 12:58 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: That man has absolutely zero fucks left to give.

    Next year’s SOTU is going to be EPIC.

  231. 231.

    cckids

    January 21, 2015 at 2:21 am

    @lamh36:

    In much of President Obama’s State of the Union speech, he discussed unifying themes.

    But in one off-script moment, he flashed his notoriously competitive side.

    Mr. Obama likes to remind voters that his days of running for office are over and he did so on Tuesday night, offering, “I have no more campaigns to run.”

    The Republican side of the chamber broke out in cheers and Mr. Obama, cracking a sly smile, responded: “I know because I won them both.”

    After that, it was back to bipartisanship.”

    Ok, so, when in response to a factual statement, the Republicans were sarcastic jackasses, the President snapped them back a bit; so according to the NYT, OBAMA’s the non-bipartisan one? Uh huh.

    Says soooo much about where journalism is.

  232. 232.

    another Holocene human

    January 21, 2015 at 4:56 am

    @MomSense: Well, they made it And they own it cuz they lost and usually that’s an end to it unless you’re a narcissistic ex-DA who lives in a machine state. Ahem.

  233. 233.

    Patricia Kayden

    January 21, 2015 at 6:48 am

    @jl: “a deportable”? Is he referring to a human being? Wow.

    Never heard of bread bags as shoe covers before — not even in poor countries.

  234. 234.

    JR in WV

    January 21, 2015 at 1:47 pm

    @MomSense:

    I don’t know how she could have grown up poor when her family received nearly $500,000 in support payments from the Department of Agriculture. Other branches of her family also received nearly as much as her immediate family.

    Plus what they really earned, as opposed to what was given to them, they sound more like rich than poor to me.

    You know how to tell when a Republican is lying don’t you?

    Their lips are moving!

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