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Republicans in disarray!

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

The willow is too close to the house.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

You cannot shame the shameless.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

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

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Another SotU Open Thread: The Democrats Respond

Another SotU Open Thread: The Democrats Respond

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237Comments

  4. 4.

    Betty Cracker

    Instead of watching Teleprompter Trump read lies off a screen or paying any attention at all to the phony spectacle, I cooked a lasagna, made some garlic bread and watched a godawful movie with some college kids. Time well spent!

    My impression from a brief glance at major media outlets suggests that most folks aren’t falling for the “pivot” nonsense this time, which is progress. I’ll read the transcript and catch up on the commentary here now.

  7. 7.

    WereBear

    @Betty Cracker: My impression from a brief glance at major media outlets suggests that most folks aren’t falling for the “pivot” nonsense this time, which is progress.

    It can take a long time for people to realize vast shifts are taking place. I think I started in 2000, but of course, not everyone got on board right away.

  10. 10.

    raven

    This obit is worth sharing again.

    https://tinyurl.com/ycz38xpl

    “I was a journalism professor at the University of Georgia for over 26 years, teaching basic and advanced reporting classes and, at the graduate level, public opinion. I never allowed my students to write their assignments in the first person, so it’s ironic that my very last piece of published writing is in, of all things, first person. We’ll come back to this in a moment.”

  11. 11.

    Bruuuuce

    With the racist living in the White House being so fond of equating immigrants (of color) to gangsters, with MS-13 his favorite straw men, I wonder what would happen if they renamed themselves (or a rival gang formed using the name) DJT-45 :-)

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    In like a lion weasel, out like a lamb another weasel.

    The barely veiled call to legislate approval for a political purge of federal workers was especially gaspworthy. (Imagine Jeff Session found himself in sudden urgent need of some tissues upon hearing that one.)

  17. 17.

    bystander

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Looking forward to enjoying the fruits of your labor, BIG. We’re not getting the moon show on the East Coast.

    Finding out that it is really is Jackie Gleason’s face on the moon would make my day.

  18. 18.

    ThresherK

    @WereBear: I got on board when someone in a position of punditry wrote how Bill Clinton had to go over the head of the cameras (the media coverage of him) to get voter appeal.

    This was in 1991 when there were six t.v. stations in every market and only CNN, so… Someone who coulda said “I see a charismatic, energetic person who voters take a shine to”, full stop, instead coded “the media doesn’t like him as much as people do, and we’ll let you know how untrustworthy we think he is”.

  19. 19.

    CarolDuhart2

    @NotMax: It will wreck the Civil Service. One of its proudest and most secure aspects is that one can serve regardless of politics and one is entitled to one’s own opinions on the subject. That meant the work was done regardless of who’s President. I was hired under Clinton and retired under Trump. I was never asked to even slightly alter things because of who was President. We were required to do our jobs impartially with no political bias. If more Democratic people serve, its a result of Republicans bashing Civil Service workers and Government, and demographics (more urban and minority workers have an easier path to employment and managerial positions than in the private sector)

  21. 21.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @bystander: I doubt my pics will be detailed enough to see Jackie, I’m shooting with a 200mm(~300mm full frame) lens. The good news is that I’m getting a low res feed on my phone so I can upload some crappy but quick pics.

    I’m also processing the sunset time lapse I took yesterday evening(watching the sun set was more interesting than watching Trump).

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    @CarolDuhart2: Maybe a lot of folks in the civil service will vote accordingly in the midterms. I would suspect the civil service peeps already vote rather heavily? Anyway, Trump can … inspire them.

  27. 27.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: I’m sure madame’s family appreciates that(being that they all live in Seoul, except her late brother’s family who’s here).

    ETA: While I couldn’t see a bite taken out of the moon, it did seem a bit darker outside. I’m adjusting the exposure every 15 minutes as needed.

  29. 29.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Victor Cha, who will NOT be the US ambassador to South Korea, published a piece in The Post that seems kinda like a cry for help. Lends credence to the theory that he was passed over because he disagreed with Trump’s belligerent stance.

  31. 31.

    Kay

    I was struck by how the speech seemed to be geared toward people who will retire in ten years, at the youngest. I think it was the least “forward-looking” SOTU I’ve ever heard.

    In a way Trump’s whole thing is to tell people they can go back to 1980 and rewind Reagan, except it turns out better for them.

  33. 33.

    gene108

    Going to a meet and greet for Andy Kim, on Saturday, who is looking to unseat the odious Tom MacArthur, in NJ’s 3rd Congressional district. It’ll be a tough slog. In the 20 years I have lived hear a Democrat only won in 2008 and lost again in 2010.

    My mom, who votes regularly*, and thinks NPR is pro-Democrats**, but usually doesn’t get more involved than voting wants to come. She is so disgusted with Trump and Republicans.

    * In the summer of 2012, she was thinking of not voting at all. She was upset with the slow pace of the recovery, and she felt was a lack of attention to jobs. She found Romney so repulsive, she changed her mind and decided to vote.

    ** There are a lot of liberals, who are not plugged into the liberal blog-o-sphere, who do not understand the conservative bias inherent in our media. There is so much work to do to pierce through the right-wing media noise that bleeds through all of our media.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    @gene108:

    There are a lot of liberals, who are not plugged into the liberal blog-o-sphere, who do not understand the conservative bias inherent in our media. 

    I agree. Other than drilling into people’s head that a lot of media is garbage, I don’t know what to do about this.

  37. 37.

    p.a.

    @Baud: That’s the bar now, isn’t it! Trump really is a miracle worker. Or are unmiracle, antimiracle words? Lowest Common Presnomident.

  40. 40.

    Kay

    @CarolDuhart2:

    (more urban and minority workers have an easier path to employment and managerial positions than in the private sector)

    This came up when Kasich went after public employees. It’s really interesting. Public sector hiring was bounded by metrics- they had a set of requirements and tests one had to pass in Ohio. It was supposed to reduce political patronage hires. If they set requirements then the mayor couldn’t hire his unqualified brother. What it ALSO though did was add a check for subjective bias in hiring – hiring based on race or gender- it was fairer because based on more objective factors than the private sector, so more minorities were hired and promoted. That’s why it was the foundation for the AA middle class. That’s where they could get in with a test or a set of qualifications instead of running into subjective bias at one or another stage of the process.

  41. 41.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: If I had my way they’d dump my body in the Mississippi for the turtles, crawdads, and gar to feast on. I have a feeling that would be against a law or 2.

  42. 42.

    Immanentize

    @raven: That obit kinda hit me hard.

    ETA By that I mean I really ought to stay away from obits about people who die of cancer way early — before they are finished giving. I will raise a bourbon as suggested…

  44. 44.

    NotMax

    For those keeping score at home (ha!), FedEx dropped off the package with the Instant Pot Mini on Monday. When discovered it on the front porch, it was soaking wet, so much so that water dripped from the bottom of the package when lifted. No, no rain at the abode that day at all. Box and even the styrofoam packing materials disintegrated while opening. (Don’t begrudge FedEx running their trucks through a car wash, but keeping doors and windows shut while doing so ought to be a no-brainer.)

    Anyhoo, toweled everything down (there was even water on the exterior of the pot, inside the plastic bag surrounding it) and called Amazon to let them know and make a notation on the order, telling them I was going to let it sit for a full day to dry out before testing if it worked at all, arranging for the same customer service person to call me back at a specific time the next day to check. Ran it through the ‘before first use’ protocol as outlined in the instruction book and it seems to be fine (albeit also arrived with a visible dent on the side of the unit – cosmetic damage which I can reluctantly live with). Haven’t yet tried using it for cooking or running for a more extended time.

    Upshot is that received notice from Amazon, both via the return call and e-mail confirmation, that they are waiving the usual 30 day return policy and should it crap out, possibly from residual moisture within the innards of the electronics, it will remain fully returnable for replacement.

  46. 46.

    Kay

    More Sahil Kapur Retweeted Yashar Ali ?
    Stormy Daniels basically confirms on Kimmel’s show that this statement denying her Trump affair is fake — she says the signature isn’t hers.
    “I do not know where it came from.”

    Okay, now that seems like something that should be followed up on, right? That someone forged President Trump’s GF’s signature on a statement?

    That seems sort of…newsworthy.

  47. 47.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Baud: Thing is, the people who are most vulnerable to this propaganda are white. African-Americans and other people of color are subjected to the same hateful nonsense masquerading as news but are able to recognize it for what it is and ignore it. Which explains why the usual suspects work so hard to make voting as difficult as possible because most non-whites aren’t fooled. The only way to change things for the better in this country is to stop trying to reach to the white folks who have already make up their minds and make voting easier for everybody else before it’s too late.

  48. 48.

    CarolDuhart2

    @Elizabelle: We probably do. For one thing, we can get paid time off to vote depending on our shift and local polling times. Most of us are union as well, and they remind us when elections are. Also we are the few professional groups that can actually vote on who our bosses are as well. (If only the private sector could do the same)

  49. 49.

    Betty Cracker

    @gene108 & @Baud: I’ve noticed that too in discussions with friends and relatives who were mostly reliable Democratic voters but not into politics before the Trumpocalypse jolted them off the sidelines. They blithely assume the Beltway press is fairly evenhanded and accept a lot of both-sides bullshit. I try to gently disabuse them of these notions when it comes up. Not sure what else to do.

  50. 50.

    Baud

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    That doesn’t surprise me, but I think believing in propaganda is different from having it affect he vote. I suspect a small portion of Hillary voters bought into some of the propaganda but were smart and moral enough to realize that Trump was worse. Gene108’s mom seems like that sort of person.

  52. 52.

    NotMax

    @raven

    My main concern was/is the circuit board, as it really is as if the entire box was dunked. The large round international orange sticker attached to the heating base inside the pot which one has to remove? Soaking wet.

  55. 55.

    clay

    @Kay: It was pretty obviously not hers since it was signed with her stage name, not her legal name.

    Who’s going to prosecute, though? That’s the problem for 80+% of the shit Trump does. The people who care lack the authority to pursue it, and the people with authority don’t care.

  57. 57.

    debbie

    @raven:

    I read it last night. I think I like self-written obituaries. More about what mattered to you than a laundry list of achievements. Was he a friend?

  61. 61.

    Kay

    @clay:

    Well, TRUMP cares about it a lot, or he wouldn’t have gone to such elaborate lengths to hide it and then deny it.

  62. 62.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Karmus: There was reading from a teleprompter. Didn’t watch it but I’ve seen tweets from Conservatives, including David Duke, praising it so I know it was awful.

    Former Governor Huckabee couldn’t help himself and tweeted a racist comment about Senator Warren in response to the reading. **rolls eyes**

  64. 64.

    danielx

    @rikyrah:

    Good morning!

    Has the am tweetstorm from the shitgibbon started? About how that was the greatest speech ever and people are insufficiently appreciative of his genius?

  67. 67.

    danielx

    @NotMax:

    Can’t really blame him; have you ever tried patting yourself on the back for an extended period? It’s brutal, or so I hear.

  70. 70.

    Patricia Kayden

    Democrats need to emphasize every chance they get that Dreamers are not criminals and that you cannot benefit from DACA if you have committed a crime. Republicans shouldn’t get away with conflating immigrants with criminals such as MS-13. They don’t do the same with White Conservatives and skinheads/White Supremacists.

  71. 71.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: Nice. I have thought of doing that but the truth is that once I’m dead I won’t really care what happens with my body. Besides, funerary rites aren’t for the dead, they are for the living who remain behind. If there is anyone who actually cares after I am gone, they can do whatever gives them comfort. My only request would be no embalming.

    Had never heard of the Georgia Guidestones. “Be not a cancer on the earth – Leave room for nature.” Sounds like a place I need to take a pilgrimage to.

  73. 73.

    danielx

    @Baud:

    I’m so old I can remember when the deficit was THE WORST THING EVAR, and only responsible (Republican) leadership would get us out of it.

    That was in, like, 2013.

  75. 75.

    Kay

    Jonathan Swan‏Verified account

    @jonathanvswan
    Follow Follow @jonathanvswan
    More
    A GOP source texts: “As a Republican I love how at the end of the day, after all their years of crap about identity politics…Democrats picked a white dude from one of the most privileged families in America to do the response.”

    Some Democrat should explain to political media that “identity politics” is a Right wing smear of the Democratic position and not the actual position.

    What this means as a practical matter is that white politicians can and do advocate for Latino immigrants, because the point is NOT that they are Latino, specifically, but instead the opposite- that they should not be discriminated against with a “white’s only” immigration policy.

    Also! Rich people can advocate for poor people. Men can advocate for women’s rights. This is THE POINT. That these are SHARED values of this political party.

    Because Republicans and media labeled the actual Democratic policy platform “identity politics” as a smear does not mean that’s what it is.

  76. 76.

    kd bart

    Imagine the shrieking from the right wing if Obama ever spent an entire speech clapping for himself?

  77. 77.

    MomSense

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    I always loved how Republicans invoked Greece yet got the problem so wrong. Greece’s is a cautionary tale about the wealthy not paying their fair share, Goldman Sachs fuckery, the banal evil of austerity, and the prejudice of Northern Europeans.

  78. 78.

    randy khan

    @kd bart:

    Most memorable thing out of DC last night was the Alex Smith Trade.

    Yeah. Nobody here will be talking about the speech today. For once I have to thank Dan Snyder for something.

  79. 79.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Some Democrat should explain to political media that “identity politics” is a Right wing smear of the Democratic position and not the actual position.

    It’s also a left wing smear.

  81. 81.

    Chyron HR

    @Kay:

    As a democrat I love how at the end of the day, the Republicans picked a mentally incompetent neo-nazi sex offender to give the State of the Union address.

  84. 84.

    aimai

    @Betty Cracker: Mr Aimai and I began binge watching something new to us: Mozart in the Jungle. Despite the ridiculousness of the manic-elven-pixie-indio-lead and the other absurdities it was wonderful,, just a love note to a multi-cultural New York, to people who care about art, to old union guys grumbling about their ten minute pee breaks. It was such a respite.

  85. 85.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    True. Glenn Greenwald believes that the actual position of the Democratic Party is “identity politics”, so therefore supporting a white male means they are hypocrites.

    “Where’s your identity politics now, Democrats?” Well, no, that’s the smear, not the position.

  87. 87.

    Elizabelle

    @MomSense: Thank you, thank you, thank you re your comment on Greece. Yes. Hardly the simplistic case rightwingers make, and definitely cautionary re the wealthy evading taxes (or not being taxed in the first place).

  88. 88.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Chyron HR: But in their defense, Republicans have gotten a lot out of this very incompetent President. He has appointed judges who will sit on the bench for decades to come. He has reversed many of President Obama’s initiatives on the environment, regulations, DACA, etc. Plus, Republicans got their precious tax cut legislation passed.

    The only thing that saves the Left is that Trump is such an odious person that the majority of Americans can’t stand him which bodes ill for Republicans in November.

  90. 90.

    Baud

    @Kay: Right. Obviously, we value diversity, but I’m voting for Adam Schiff over Nickie Haley 10 days out of seven.

    To be somewhat fair, there are usually about 5 percent of liberals who learn how to be liberal from conservative stereotypes, and they thus tend to reinforce those stereotypes. But for the most part it’s all a caricature.

  91. 91.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    Ever go to a high school debate and see that one kid who thinks his rhetoric is sooo superior and clever but his argument doesn’t make a bit of sense if you actually think about it for a minute? That’s Glenn Greenwald.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Exhibit A:

    @maggieNYT
    9h9 hours ago
    More Maggie Haberman Retweeted Chris Hayes
    A Kennedy speaking Spanish is … not the same as a Hispanic politician delivering this response

    True! Not the same. Now follow that thought and see if you eventually figure out that “identity politics” is not actually the policy goal here, nor was it EVER the policy, but instead was a smear by GOP operatives and morons who parrot them.

  95. 95.

    danielx

    @Betty Cracker:

    Well, yeah. But why should Trump give a shit? He doesn’t have thousands of North Korean artillery pieces within range of his house, after all. Threats to other people aren’t real to him.

  98. 98.

    aimai

    @Betty Cracker: I stumbled on it last night and it was just so different–not cops, not robbers, not sci-fi, not murder mystery, lots of soap opera (of course) but still, dreamily disconnected. Unlike the other shows about ballerinas or new york it also lacks horror/cruelty or that exploitative vibe.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I don’t know. Spanish makes me sad because I tried really hard and I never got good at it. Apparently you can’t just beat it to death with flashcards, which was my approach. The plan was I would memorize this whole language, because I am a good memorizer!

    I have Spanish-speaking clients and it’s right beyond what I can understand at their normal speech speed. It’s incredibly frustrating. If they would speak 3X times more slowly I could get the whole thing.

  101. 101.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: Once again, it’s “You’re not behaving like the absurd strawman in my head–such hypocrisy!”

  103. 103.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    @Kay: My DIL’s school district runs a grade school program with half native Spanish speaking students and half whose native language is overwhelmingly English. Half their work is in Spanish. It’s extremely competitive for English speakers to get into the program. There’s a waiting list.

    I am so jealous.

  105. 105.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: Take a trip (or 2 or 3 or infinite) to a Spanish speaking country. After a week or so the brain adjusts to the different sounds and one will begin to hear the language with increasing clarity (by which I mean, even if you don’t know a specific word, you will know you just heard a word and can probably even spell it). Or at least, that is the way it always works for me.

  107. 107.

    Obdurodon

    @Kay:

    Democrats picked a white dude from one of the most privileged families in America to do the response.

    They’re just upset that someone’s stealing their schtick. Trump is a bit of a privileged white dude too. Ditto Pence, Ryan, 90% of the others in the room, damn near 100% of the people they’re trying to appeal to. Apparently it’s OK for them, but a crime for anyone else.
    @Kay:

    Trump’s whole thing is to tell people they can go back to 1980 and rewind Reagan, except it turns out better for them.

    Also this. One of the best summaries I’ve seen of the GOP agenda. You’re on a roll today.

  110. 110.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: I tried to learn Spanish too — took classes in high school and college. I can usually get the gist of conversations between Spanish speakers, and I can communicate about very basic things, though I’m sure I sound like an idiot. But that’s it. Some folks seem to have a knack for picking up languages. I do not.

  111. 111.

    ThresherK

    @Baud: ID politics is a leftier-than-thou smear against the neo-libs like me?

    Baud! 2020! I genuinely didn’t know that. I guess I haven’t swam in the bilgewater the way a good prez candidate needs to.

  114. 114.

    NotMax

    @OzarkHillbilly

    As well, watching Spanish language programs with English subtitles whose plot/premise one finds entertaining can aid in attuning the ear (and helps to resuscitate public school Spanish for those who took it). Some pretty good ones on Netflix.

  115. 115.

    Chyron HR

    @ThresherK:

    The junior senator from Vermont frequently derides “identity politics” as a distraction from the concerns of the white working class.

  116. 116.

    sherparick1

    I for one will welcome our Cetacean overlords. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jan/31/orcas-killer-whales-can-imitate-human-speech-research-reveals

    And the way this country is being run, the sooner the better.

    “For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.”

    ― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

  118. 118.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker:

    Instead of watching Teleprompter Trump read lies off a screen or paying any attention at all to the phony spectacle, I cooked a lasagna, made some garlic bread and watched a godawful movie with some college kids. Time well spent!

    Great minds and all that…I whipped up some chicken cordon bleu and sides for extended family and everyone had a good ol’ time catching up. The heck if I’m going to watch president* jackhole and stress myself into a rage when I already know he’s going to lie for an hour straight.

    My impression from a brief glance at major media outlets suggests that most folks aren’t falling for the “pivot” nonsense this time, which is progress. I’ll read the transcript and catch up on the commentary here now.

    My impression too – most of them are noting that the entire last year basically consisted of Trumpov-created stresses and bullshit and abuse. There also seems to be a fair amount of reporting on how there is no crime wave, and certainly no immigrant crime wave. Sure would be nice if those facts got out to the entirety of the 73%…

  119. 119.

    ThresherK

    @Betty Cracker: I live suburban CT and always have. I can pronounce many things in Spanish (or French) from the written word nicely. Its a blessing and a curse. I read something more than five syllables aloud and someone thinks I can cogitate the spoken word s they say.

    A Montrealer, who married a good friend form Boston, said “Your French is much better than your last trip here” and I had to break it to him that it was a party trick my brain does.

    No idioms, awfully formal. Unlike in English, everyone (and me) says hoo WIZ it, inserting a W, I have no idea in other languages when that “gliding” is done.

  121. 121.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Eclipse here in Philly came and went before 7. I think it has something to do with not being in the path of totality.

    Still, it was pretty cool to actually see the shadow moving. And it was pretty darn close to total.

  122. 122.

    Jeffro

    Okay, SOTU bullshit and lies over, now back to the ‘real’ war. Me likey this reporting: The Real Aim of The Secret (Nunes) Memo Is The Mueller Investigation

    (double standards noted in bold)

    Republicans are pushing the narrative that a cabal of politically biased law enforcement officials set out to sabotage Mr. Trump. And they are portraying a dossier written by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent, which laid out unverified claims that Russia had compromised Mr. Trump and was conspiring with him, as the fountainhead of the Russia investigation. That assertion disregards unrelated evidence that Russia sought to influence the election and the pattern of contacts between Russians and Mr. Trump’s associates.

    Mr. Nunes’s three-and-a-half page memo bolsters conservatives’ story line. According to people who have read it, the memo centers on a fall 2016 application for a wiretap order targeting Carter Page, a onetime Trump campaign official who had visited Moscow that June and was preparing to return there in December. The memo is said to criticize law enforcement officials for including information provided by Mr. Steele in the application without adequately explaining to the judge that Democrats financed Mr. Steele’s research.

    Democrats have pushed back. Representative Adam B. Schiff, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, who has seen the underlying classified materials on which the memo is based, has said the memo contains both inaccurate assertions and material omissions to misleadingly impugn law enforcement officials. Other people familiar with it say, for example, that Mr. Steele’s information was only one thread in a tapestry of evidence from various sources that the memo ignored, exaggerating its relative importance.

    Democrats on the committee produced their own classified memo that they said pointed out and explained inaccuracies in the Republican memo and filled in the missing context. But on Monday, the committee voted along party lines to make the Republican memo public and rejected a request to simultaneously make public the Democrats’ rebuttal.

    Asked on Tuesday about why it would not be more appropriate to make both memos public at the same time, Mr. Ryan was evasive. He said the Democratic memo first had to go through a process in which House members outside the Intelligence Committee could read it. Pressed on why the Republican memo should not be held back until that process was done, he said a reporter had asked enough questions.

    Mr. Ryan then began remarks he said he had prepared, stressing that he respected the F.B.I. and the Justice Department as important institutions for “keeping the rule of law intact.” But on Monday, Intelligence Committee Republicans signaled a widening attack on both institutions — informing Democrats that the committee has opened an investigation into them, according to Mr. Schiff — as they voted to make their memo public.

    We – and our Dem leaders – really need to ramp up the messaging about Ryan’s complicity here in particular. They should publicly put him on notice: “Trumpov’s not the only one who should be facing obstruction of justice charges”, etc

  123. 123.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Yeah, he’s changed his tune lately, a bit. I was thinking maybe he wouldn’t run again because, Christ, why would an 80-year-old person run for president? But now I’m convinced he will run, due to adjustments he’s made in outreach. So we have that to look forward to. Le sigh.

  124. 124.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Kay: Isn’t Trump a “white dude from one of the most privileged families in America”? The Kennedys (for all their faults) are liberal stalwarts loved by many people of color for Robert and John’s actions supporting Civil Rights in the 60s. They have used their privilege to advocate for good causes which help those outside of their class.

  126. 126.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker: I always believed he would run, absent health issues. I don’t think he’ll win, but we need to be prepared to deal with the fallout when he doesn’t.

  127. 127.

    ET

    Trump: “That is why, tonight, I am asking the Congress to pass legislation to help ensure American foreign-assistance dollars always serve American interests, and only go to friends of America, not enemies of America,” he said.

    Translation: Disagree with tRump = enemy

  129. 129.

    sherparick1

    @Kay: Well, at least the Trump Presidency has boosted someone’s career. I must admit she is playing it well and for all its worth, as well as keeping the $130,000 well in hand. Great negotiating Orange One, ha, ha, ha!!!

  130. 130.

    Spanky

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: And what a kick-ass totality it’s been! Can only see it on TV from here on the East Coast, but my last glimpse at 6:52 was with it about 3 degrees off the horizon and through a lot of cirrus. Still, I could make out about 30% in shadow and that the shadow was deeply colored – something I’ve rarely seen that early in an eclipse.

  132. 132.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    Well, you would be more familiar with that than I.

    :)

    Wilmer is assiduously working his way from being an irritant to becoming a full-blown irrelevance.

  133. 133.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @ThresherK:

    I have no idea in other languages when that “gliding” is done.

    All the time in Spanish. When I’ve asked how my accent is, I’ve been told the pronunciation isn’t bad but I “cut” my words apart.

  135. 135.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):

    That would be good. My youngest seems to be fairly good at it. He’s only second year and he sounds right.

    We have a substantial Latino population here, in terms of Ohio (which is not a state with a high percentage over-all) – they were sort of coming to us for legal services anyway and I had taken Spanish courses in college – a lot of them, I’d get an A for effort if that were the measure- so I figured I’d use my regular brute force learning method and re-memorize the hell out of everything to actually understand what they’re saying. Not working. The older people bring a younger relative to translate, but that’s so weird for them, this lag. I;m actively jealous of that easy switching Spanish to English they do. I want to do that.

  137. 137.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Puetro Rico, I can’t help but think it’s less Trump’s a racist and more him and his staff are to stupid to understand Puerto Rico is part of the United States. Like they seem to think Hawaii is a foreign country. I mean we are talking about a man who is such a twit he claps at his own speech and has to have cheerleaders in the crowd.

    Then again, racist, idiot, is there really a difference?

  138. 138.

    NotMax

    @Kay

    One verb in Spanish you’ll never forget after hearing it (and have scant use for, ever): to zigzag = zigzaguear.

    ;)

  140. 140.

    NotMax

    re: foreign languages

    A fun test for people who boast proficiency or fluency in another tongue is to innocently ask them how to say fingernails in [insert language here].

    Anecdotal experience is that upwards of 90% don’t know.

  142. 142.

    HAL

    You can tell when someone is getting 2020 buzz when the justice “democrats” hit squad starts up:

    Lee Fang
    @lhfang
    Joe Kennedy’s largest donors this cycle include Goldman Sachs, Raytheon, and Cardinal Health, the opioid distributor company.

  143. 143.

    Brooklyn Dodger

    @NotMax: Ha! One I heard in Mexico City in the 90’s – “chequear” = to check. Don’t know if it’s conjugated though.

  144. 144.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: Sometimes when I am talking to husband kitteh we will converse in more than one language at a time. I don’t even realize that I am doing that. As for learning Spanish, full language immersion is the way to go. Go to a place where they speak Spanish and stay there for a few months. Using the language in everyday situations will make your skills sharper.

  145. 145.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @schrodingers_cat: When my wife get’s tired she will still speak in English but Spanish grammar slips in. She talks in her sleep and I can hold conversations with her, at least when it’s in English. If it’s in Spanish I can pick up some of what she is saying but when she is dreaming in Mallorcan, fuhgedaboudit.

  147. 147.

    clay

    @HAL:

    Lee Fang
    @lhfang
    Joe Kennedy’s largest donors this cycle include Goldman Sachs, Raytheon, and Cardinal Health, the opioid distributor company.

    That “include” is doing a lot of work here. Are those the largest donors, or aren’t they? What are the actual largest donors, huh?

  148. 148.

    schrodingers_cat

    @OzarkHillbilly: Husband kitteh’s mother tongue is Tamil, but he grew up in Mumbai, so we have Marathi in common and English. I can’t understand Tamil at all except for a few proper nouns ( Tamil belongs to the Dravidian language family a totally different language from the Indo-European one that both Marathi and English belong to). Isn’t it crazy that the northern Indian languages have more in common with the languages of Europe like German or English than the ones in the south of India.

  149. 149.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Hunky Tory? Attractive people more likely to be rightwing, study finds

    They said a connection between an individual’s physical attractiveness and political beliefs could be revealed. They found that attractive people faced fewer hurdles navigating the social world and were more likely to be conservative due to the blind spot theory.

    “In a sense, attractive individuals have a blind spot that leads them to not see the need for more government support or aid in society,” Palmer and Peterson argue.

  150. 150.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Isn’t it crazy that the northern Indian languages have more in common with the languages of Europe like German or English than the ones in the south of India.

    Huh. My first thought was “A silk road effect?”

  151. 151.

    Matt McIrvin

    @bystander: I saw the very beginning of the eclipse from Massachusetts right as the moon was setting. Got some terrible phonecam pictures shot through the trees.

  153. 153.

    clay

    @clay: Yeah, just as I thought. Goldman Sachs has only given slightly more than the Teamsters, or the electrical workers’ union, or the food workers’ union.

    Clearly evidence that Joe Kennedy is a neo-liberal sell-out corporate shill!

  154. 154.

    Doug R

    @NotMax: Was it shipped air? Sometimes snow blows in when the plane stops, or there might have been some snow in the trailer when it was transported from some warehouse to your local FedEx center.

  155. 155.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: A lunar eclipse looks just as total from anywhere you can see it, because it’s a shadow projected on the Moon. But on most of the East Coast the Moon was setting just as it began.

  157. 157.

    Doug R

    @HAL:

    You can tell when someone is getting 2020 buzz when the justice “democrats” hit squad starts up:

    My standard response “Shut the F*ck up until the midterm’s over”.

  158. 158.

    Matt McIrvin

    @ThresherK: Yes. The whole “dirtbag left” contingent believes that talking about race and gender is a bourgeois neolib distraction from economics and foreign policy.

  159. 159.

    Barbara

    I read the transcript of the response and I don’t know how it was delivered, but the text was extremely good. The difference between it and past speeches is that it was not really a response at all, more of an affirmative message.

  161. 161.

    NotMax

    @Doug R

    Hawaii, so yes on air shipping. Illinois to Memphis to Maui.

    If snow blew in the trailer here, that would be miraculous.

    :)

  162. 162.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: If the High Sparrow cultists who pop up here from time to time are any indication, nothing less than a coronation will do (the irony!). Not sure how we handle the fallout from that, other than to hope the absence of the She Devil from the ticket, combined with the heightened contradictions of our present age, will serve as clue-by-fours upside their noggins.

    Hard to have faith in that, though. The cultists seem eager to transfer their hostility to any Not-Bernie who threatens the High Sparrow’s preeminence. More and better voters is the key, IMO. Register, register register!

  163. 163.

    Barbara

    @Baud: The wild card is the legal predicament of his spouse. I personally think they will have a hard time convicting her because they will need to show that she believed that the statement she signed was false. She will likely defend that she signed because she honestly thought the required matching donations were available, so it wasn’t a lie. And the fact that she did not personally benefit from the transaction should be helpful. Still, bank fraud is a heavy allegation and it will take a lot of resources to work it out.

  168. 168.

    sherparick1

    @danielx: Someone will need to explain it to him that he will tank the market. That will be the only thing that will give him [email protected]ET: This is a nonsense statement. The State Department, AID, and the Pentagon have always used aid as an instrument of policy and as President, Trump can pretty much cut off aid to any country or entity he chooses as the President and Foreign Assistance Laws. I expect this is aimed at the Palestinians with whom Trump and Hayley both threatened with an aid cutoff if they don’t accept the “take or leave it” offer from Netanyahu and Likud.

  169. 169.

    gene108

    @Baud:

    They’re still obsessed with Hillary too, even after they defeated her once and for all.

    Republicans need a boogeyman to run against, and preferably someone aligned with Democrats or not agreeing with Republicans aligns Democrats with the boogeyman.

    They started doing this in North Carolina, when I lived there in the 1990’s, with Bill Clinton.

    They weaponized opppsition to Bush&Co as being Osama’s BFF in the 00’s.

    They then went on a scorched earth attack on Obama, so you were scared to say whether you voted for him or not, if you were running for Senate in Kentucky.

    They lack a boogeyman, who can be easily identified with Democrats, so they are clutching for MS-13 and what not.

    Edit: Hillary is identified with Democrats, but as she is a private citizen, attacking her has limited returns.

  173. 173.

    cleek

    CBSNews:
    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/viewers-approve-of-trumps-first-state-of-the-union-address-cbs-news-poll/

    Views of the speech
    Three in four Americans who tuned in to President Trump’s State of the Union address tonight approved of the speech he gave. Just a quarter disapproved.

    How did the speech make you feel?
    Eight in 10 Americans who watched tonight felt that the president was trying to unite the country, rather than divide it. Two-thirds said the speech made them feel proud, though just a third said it made them feel safer. Fewer said the speech made them feel angry or scared.

  174. 174.

    sherparick1

    @Spanky: I had terrible luck this morning as the sky was overcast at 4:30 am and hid the moon completely (contrary to the the forecast – sucks!)

  176. 176.

    NotMax

    @Doug R

    Locally, FedEx is everyone’s last choice for shipping. Their service and reliability here is abysmal. UPS used to be at the bottom too, but once they revised their terms not all that many years back to permit shipping via UPS Ground to Maui their act improved dramatically (as did, I expect, their volume and share of the market).

  178. 178.

    germy

    its been over a week since ive let everyone who helped me out of prison down, so many of you have helped me thru tough times, i tried too hard to do too much, im sorry im a human being and not a symbol, i have hit rock bottom

    — Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) January 30, 2018

  180. 180.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @sherparick1: Sure seems like someone’s put some money into this anti-Democrat malarkey. Suggesting that it comes from domestic sources is mighty charitable of you ?

  181. 181.

    Jeffro

    Here’s one for Adam or Cheryl’s next (or the one after next) post: Trumpov’s Boring, Utterly Terrifying Warmongering

    We are sleepwalking into Armageddon

    …in the (SOTU) audience was Ji Seong-ho, a heroic North Korean defector who lost his left hand and foot during the country’s famine in the mid- 1990s, and who was cheered as he held his crutches aloft. A Christian convert, Ji has argued that believers have a duty to destroy the regime. A 2010 profile of Ji in The Christian Post, an evangelical publication, said, “Despite North Korea’s cruel imprisonment and murder of anyone who advocates religion in the country, there is a Christian responsibility to tear down North Korea’s wall against Christianity and religion so that North Koreans may begin to worship and find joy, he stressed.” Ji’s presence could signal that Trump is trying to enlist his evangelical base in a crusade.

    America survived the first year of the Trump administration more or less intact. Tuesday indicated that our luck could be running out. If the country goes to war in North Korea, future historians will struggle to understand how we sleepwalked into Armageddon behind a man whose own cabinet considers him contemptible.

  182. 182.

    rikyrah

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Republicans shouldn’t get away with conflating immigrants with criminals such as MS-13. They don’t do the same with White Conservatives and skinheads/White Supremacists.

    tell that truth

  184. 184.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @cleek: Of course they leave out any mention of selection bias and fail to mention the ideological makeup of the audience. More Republicans tuned in than Democrats = more positive reaction from the self-selected audience.

  186. 186.

    Kay

    A year ago, Trump hosted Harley-Davidson executives and praised them.
    On Tuesday, the company announced plans to close a factory and lay off 800 people.
    Its CEO partly blamed Trump’s decision to quit TPP. “That would have helped us a lot.”

    Trump actually did this to himself. Announcing you’re personally responsible for job gains means you’re also personally responsible for job losses.

    If every good thing that happens is attributable to the giant tax cuts for rich people, then it’s fair to say every bad thing that happens is also because of them.

  187. 187.

    Doug R

    @sherparick1:

    Those guys never give it a break, eh. I really do expect they are on the Koch brothers payroll.

    Koch/NRA/FSB/GRU, it’s all the same place these days.

  189. 189.

    rikyrah

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Puetro Rico, I can’t help but think it’s less Trump’s a racist and more him and his staff are to stupid to understand Puerto Rico is part of the United States.

    Bullshyt.
    They are racist, and their racism, in addition to their incompetence and thievery, is literally KILLING American Citizens on Puerto Rico.

  191. 191.

    Kay

    @NotMax:

    Locally, FedEx is everyone’s last choice for shipping. Their service and reliability here is abysmal.

    Maybe because their employees are miserable. Both UPS and Fed Ex had the post office do “last mile” delivery in rural areas when I worked for the USPS. The Fed Ex drivers all wanted to work for the postal service- they complained about their employer constantly. The UPS drivers never did.

  192. 192.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:
    In this respect, I do envy nearly everywhere else in the world.The average educated middle-class person nearly everywhere else knows 2 languages, because they learn English in school. Europeans know 2, sometimes, 3 languages. I have a cousin who moved to Paris and married a German guy. Their two sons speak French, German (because of their father) and English (their mother.) Even though she split from her husband and moved back to the states, she enrolled the kids in a French school here, and they spend summers in Germany. Tri-lingual -I’m totally jealous.

  193. 193.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @NotMax: They found the truthiness the were looking for. T’s good at keeping his marks (both on the couch and in the newsroom) coming back for more. Won’t be enough to save his congressional majorities in November, though…

  194. 194.

    Matt McIrvin

    @cleek: A group pre-selected by those who actually watched: Trump fans and a smaller contingent of political gluttons for punishment. It’s worth remembering that State of the Union addresses rarely move the public opinion needle to any significant degree.

  195. 195.

    schrodingers_cat

    @rikyrah: In most of the world knowing more than one language is a necessity. When you grow up hearing more than one language spoken, you absorb it to through osmosis without any special effort on your part. I for example don’t even remember learning Hindi. I just knew it before I learned it formally.

  196. 196.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    Me too. I told you my son has an exchange student this year. He speaks 3 languages. Really nice kid but I felt like he was a LEETLE bit snobby about knowing our language when we don’t know his :)

    Justified! It is better to know more!

  199. 199.

    ThresherK

    @Matt McIrvin: I hadn’t heard of the “dirtbag left”, so I’m not surprised I don’t know what they’re up to. But the way you speak of them It makes sense that DentyPoltix is their oogedy boogedy dogwhistle.

  200. 200.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Matt McIrvin: This – but don’t expect CNN to EVER concede that a R pol’s big televised speech is not newsworthy. That goes quadruple for shitgibbon.

  201. 201.

    NotMax

    @Kay

    Friend here used to manage a postal shop (now defunct). One of those places where they rent out P.O. boxes, do shipping, offer copy machines and the like. He has FedEx tales aplenty.

  202. 202.

    Matt McIrvin

    @ThresherK: You’re probably better off not knowing. (It’s basically the extreme Berniebro-to-Jill-Stein lot, the people who liked to make cracks about how Hillary supporters were “voting with their vaginas”.)

  203. 203.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Matt McIrvin: Didn’t seem to acknowledge this self-selection aspect in the narrative, though. But whatever – media criticism is like being a food critic at a never-ending buffet of shit.

  204. 204.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    Really nice kid but I felt like he was a LEETLE bit snobby about knowing our language when we don’t know his.

    You could gently remind him that everywhere in Europe there are countries nearby using other languages, which increases the opportunity—and sometimes the necessity—to learn a second (or third) language. In many parts of the United States, you can go a thousand miles without encountering (or needing to speak) anything besides English. Doesn’t mean we’re all bumpkins because we don’t speak a foreign language. (Note: I wouldn’t pursue the “Americans aren’t bumpkins” line too hard.)

    Final point: Isn’t this kid Danish? He can fuck right off, then. Even in Europe nobody picks Danish as their second or third language.

  205. 205.

    Fair Economist

    @Kay: Second OzarkHillbilly’s suggestion to travel to a Spanish-speaking country. You could also watch Spanish language TV. It sound like you have the words, you just need some practice to get up to speed – like learning a martial arts kata.

  206. 206.

    The Moar You Know

    Views of the speech
    Three in four Americans who tuned in to President Trump’s State of the Union address tonight approved of the speech he gave. Just a quarter disapproved.

    How did the speech make you feel?
    Eight in 10 Americans who watched tonight felt that the president was trying to unite the country, rather than divide it. Two-thirds said the speech made them feel proud, though just a third said it made them feel safer. Fewer said the speech made them feel angry or scared.

    @cleek: These numbers are pretty much exactly in line with how Trump fares among GOP voters as a whole. Which is no shock. I doubt many non-Republicans watched it. I certainly didn’t.

  207. 207.

    Fair Economist

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Great pic! I took a walk during the eclipse and took some pics of Orange Moon over Orange but I just have my cellphone and they probably won’t be very good. The last lunar eclipse I took pics with my cellphone and the few that weren’t blurry or hopelessly overexposed were very blah compared to the experience.

  208. 208.

    The Moar You Know

    its been over a week since ive let everyone who helped me out of prison down, so many of you have helped me thru tough times, i tried too hard to do too much, im sorry im a human being and not a symbol, i have hit rock bottom

    — Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) January 30, 2018

    @germy: Zero sympathy. She sold out the country and then sold out everyone who has ever tried to help her and decided to join the Nazis. She can fight it out under a freeway overpass for a sparrow and shower rod. Which would be still more than she deserves.

  209. 209.

    rikyrah

    Las Vegas Shooter:
    Not an immigrant
    Sandy Hook Shooter:
    Not an immigrant.
    Charleston Church Shooter:
    Not an immigrant.
    Aurora Movie Theater Shooter:
    Not an immigrant.
    Texas Church Shooter:
    Not an immigrant
    Columbine Shooters:
    Not immigrants.#SOTU

    — Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) January 31, 2018

  211. 211.

    Barbara

    @germy: Really, she has mental health issues and people in Maryland would be insane to vote for someone who is basically begging for help even if she doesn’t understand that’s what she is doing.

  213. 213.

    cleek

    @Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:

    no, it’s there.

    Generally speaking do you describe yourself as…
    32% Dem
    12% Independent
    55% Republican

    Describe your political viewpoint:
    19% liberal
    29% moderate
    49% conservative
    3% not sure

    you just have to dig into the details at the bottom of the article.

    (so, yes, it’s wildly out of balance. but you’ll never know it unless you look for the details)

  214. 214.

    Bill Arnold

    @Jeffro:

    We are sleepwalking into Armageddon

    He crossed another line for me with those warmongering statements in the SOTU address.

  215. 215.

    Leto

    @Steeplejack:

    Even in Europe nobody picks Danish as their second or third language.

    Nobody picks up any of the Nordic languages as their second/third unless they absolutely have to. Of course I learned all the Nordic I needed after watching The Muppet Show…

  216. 216.

    Barbara

    @rikyrah: It’s even worse than that. I endured the MS-13 garbage commercials put out by Ed Gillespie in the last cycle, which were analyzed mostly for whether they were effective and not, you know, that they were fucking racist, and then, when a Latino group turned the tables and put out a commercial that featured Latino kids being threatened by a white guy in a truck, it was like an earthquake — how racist it was to “demonize” even a SINGLE white guy for being anti-Latino, blah blah blah. All of this at a time when, for instance, even in my kid’s very diverse school, white students have told Latino students that Trump is going to make sure they have to leave America and I have received three separate letters from the superintendent with the message, basically, that no one should stop sending their kids to school out of fear of immigration enforcement. Who is “allowed” to be demonized without repercussion is itself a strong statement about the racist underpinning of our current political arrangements, and whose death “matters” being a function of the race or immigration status of the perpetrator borders on psychosis. And yet, here we are.

  217. 217.

    Chyron HR

    @Barbara:

    “The hypocritical neoliberals are voting for an old straight white man instead of a neuroatypical woman! Where’s your identity politics now, nyeah?” – Glenn Greenwald, probably

  218. 218.

    germy

    @The Moar You Know:

    Zero sympathy.

    @Barbara:

    Really, she has mental health issues and people in Maryland would be insane to vote for someone who is basically begging for help even if she doesn’t understand that’s what she is doing.

    I’m sort of in the middle. I have sympathy, but I don’t want here anywhere near a democratic primary.

  220. 220.

    Jeffro

    Here’s Fox News dot com, rallying their troops again (headline on their home page):

    Glum Democrats sit, scowl and even walk out during Trump SOTU call for unity in Washington
    They scowled as President Trump touted soaring jobs numbers, sat stone-faced when he honored veterans, and one even walked out after becoming triggered by a patriotic chant.

    Why it’s almost like we aren’t happy about something?

    Also surprised to see “triggered” used by a ‘mainstream’ news organization – it’s the kind of thing I’d expect from Breitbart, but not Fox.

  221. 221.

    glory b

    @Kay: I have a sister who was a Spanish language operator for the phone company when she was in college. If it makes you feel better, it’s probably the most quickly spoken language in the world. She said if you don’t speak it fast enough, the native speakers know immediately.

  222. 222.

    glory b

    @rikyrah: AND, she’s retweeting Chris Hayes, who I like most of the time, but who never misses an opportunity to give Wilmer a tongue bath.

  223. 223.

    Leto

    @NotMax: If there’s one universal constant, it’s that people will always try to learn expletives in the language they’re studying ;)

  225. 225.

    Patricia Kayden

    @rikyrah: It’s no different than Bush’s mishandling of Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina because as Kanye correctly stated, “He doesn’t care about Black people.”

  226. 226.

    Emma

    @Kay: One word: telenovelas. You’ll get exposure to a full range of accents and you’ll learn to think in Spanish just to keep up. As an extra bonus you’ll get plots that make General Hospital and Days of Our Lives seem tame.

  227. 227.

    Peale

    @Emma: I’m working at learning Thai by watching Lakhorn. Sure its bad TV, but you learn about all the important things. Expressions of love. What to to say at the hospital. Words to say a funerals. Rude language. What to say before you slap someone. And rejoinders to a slap.

  230. 230.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: This is the part where I moved from admiration to tears:

    I’m convinced Heaven, assuming I go there, looks a lot like Athens.

    Send flowers if you like, as Edith loves them, but in my memory raise a good glass of bourbon or single-malt whisky. In my memory, tell stories about me, especially the ones that make me sound like an idiot.
    …
    And in my memory, watch out for Edith, the love of my life. I never deserved someone as good as her, and she doesn’t deserve this.

  232. 232.

    Gelfling 545

    @NotMax: or set the language of your dvds or streaming video where possible to Spanish. On a show you know well you’ve got context, which helps.

  234. 234.

    WaterGirl

    @cleek: Yeah, but I notice I haven’t heard about how many millions of people watched the SOTU. Is it possible that (mostly) only republicans watched the speech?

    edit: i should have waited to comment – I see that SC raised the same issue just 2 comments past yours.

  237. 237.

    Matt McIrvin

    @WaterGirl: The article reveals that this was in fact the case: mostly Republicans watched, they liked the speech, the Democrats didn’t. It adds up to a whole lot of nothing.

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