Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

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

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

In after Baud. Damn.

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

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

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

Consistently wrong since 2002

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Shut up, hissy kitty!

Reader Interactions

168Comments

  2. 2.

    stinger

    I checked in a few times, but she was so hissingly emphatic, I couldn’t tell what she was so intense about. Every so often I’d unmute her, but only for a few seconds. Yikes.

  4. 4.

    Shalimar

    I know her.  She isn’t as bad in real life as she has to be in political life. I won’t watch her embarrass herself reading the talking points it takes to be a MAGA in good standing these days.

  5. 5.

    Ramona

    The CSPAN commenter just said that for the first time in memory, the President outlasted a Congressional session staying in the chamber a half hour after concluding his State of the Union report.

  6. 6.

    jackmac

    I gave up a few minutes in as she repeatedly sounded like she was about to burst into tears. Britt was in over her head.

  7. 7.

    Almost Retired

    That was profoundly creepy.  It’s like she was auditioning for a soap opera or a reality show.  No casting agent would hire her.  Too over the top.  Although she might be ready for her close up, Mr. DeMille.  Ick.  Just yuck.

  10. 10.

    Captain C

    Over in the SOTU thread below I described it as such:

    The reply Senator is on now.  She sounds like she’s part Valley Girl, and like she’s giving a high school speech.  Also, her voice sounds like Trump-bait, with weirdly-placed giggles.  I’m in the other room, so I’m listening to her speech without seeing her face/bearing.

    It’s like mirrorverse Elle from Legally Blonde, where she’s a mean girl who’s not that great at faking emotions.

    Sister Golden Bear pointed out that it’s Christian Fundie Woman little girl voice.

  11. 11.

    Argiope

    @Shalimar: So that begs the question, as always: if you choose to be an asshole for your political career, are you, in fact, an asshole? I’m feeling like yes, no matter how nice you are when not onstage

  12. 12.

    TaMara

    @ElieNYC
    Katie Britt is the kind of person who saw Goody Proctor sleeping with the Devil.
    Elie Mystal
  13. 13.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Argiope:

    Bernie Birnbaum: “Look deep in your heart”

    Tommy: “What heart”

    There’s no heart.  There’s only what we do in this world.

  14. 14.

    Gretchen

    Ugh. She’s just a wife and mom, here in her kitchen, using her soft baby voice so she doesn’t scare any of the menfolk into thinking she has ideas or demands or anything. I can’t even think of how she could carry the stereotype any further without dressing entirely in pink sparkles. She does have the great big cross to let us know she’s a Christian as all good Americans should be.

    She does the reflexive smile with every sentence, including how the future of our nature is in danger (smile) we’ll have less freedoms than previous generations (smile) the American nightmare (smile) Southern border (smile) small business (girlish giggle).

    Her kids are Bennet and Ridgeway.

  16. 16.

    Leto

    @TaMara: if you’ve seen Avatar: The Last Airbender, then you’ll know she’s giving Joo Dee “There is no war in Ba Sing Se” a run for her money.

  17. 17.

    Sure Lurkalot

    She sounded breathy like the narrator of that commercial for abandoned ailing pets, I kept expecting her to break out into “and just 29 cents per day will…”

    And bonkers (h/t Quinerly).

  18. 18.

    Shalimar

    @Argiope: I don’t like her in real life, so I am not the best judge.  She isn’t an asshole to people that I have ever seen.  She’s actually the opposite, always polite, like life is a constant customer service job.  She has always seemed superficial and fake to me.

  19. 19.

    Captain C

    @Argiope: Given that your (notional your) assholery has real world results, I’m going to go with Popehat’s Law of Goats, to wit:

    He who fucks goats, either as part of a performance or to troll those he deems has overly delicate sensibilities is simply, a goatfucker.

    (Warning:  Urban Dictionary Links)

  20. 20.

    Argiope

    @Gretchen: she’s the voice of all the PAC ads: just a mom, asking why things are so bad.  Rep Britt, please fuck all the way off and take all the seats.

  21. 21.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Alabangelist, Stepford, Handmaid. But as I said in the thread downstairs, I guarangoddamtee she’s going to run for President in 2028. I promise you.

  24. 24.

    Argiope

    @Shalimar: Honestly these are the ones who scare me most.  The nice, polite fascist-enablers.  They are legion.

    ETA and will not be suspected of goatfucking by the credulous.  Who are even more legion.

  25. 25.

    MomSense

    Andrew Weissman just posted “I don’t think Katie Britt is going to get the lead in the school play this year”

  26. 26.

    Captain C

    Someone (Nicole Wallace?) pointing out that the Senator from Alabama did not mention the IVF decision at all.

  27. 27.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Shalimar:

    I know her. She isn’t as bad in real life as she has to be in political life.

    Well, that’s a relief. Sweet Jesus beating a leper with a gavel, the GOP is a fucking clown show and that shit is not funny. She’s a pretty face for the worst of this country.

  28. 28.

    clay

    @SiubhanDuinne: It won’t matter.  If Trump is still alive, he’ll run again for the Republican nomination, and he’ll probably get it again (despite being a two+ time loser).

  32. 32.

    Kristine

    From Threads: Someone edited Britt’s Wikipedia entry:

     

    Katie Elizabeth Britt (née Boyd; born February 2, 1982) is an American politician and attorney who is a member of The Handmaid’s Tale and not one of the good ones. She is also somehow the junior United States senator from Alabama since 2023.

  33. 33.

    Lyrebird

    @Argiope: I think she is a senator not a representative, but I don’t want to give her clicks even via Wikipedia to find out!

    And totally agreed!  I hate the fakeness and I hate the endorsement of oppressing and endangering others.  the current Squeaker of the House, too.  We gotta vote ’em out of power for sure!

     

    ETA: Oh I didn’t  know I was missing an epic WIki edit!  Thanks Kristine!

  35. 35.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @clay:

    Ah, had failed to consider that possibility. [Sighs.]

     

    [Cheers up.] But maybe he’ll pick her as his running mate!!!

  38. 38.

    Argiope

    @Lyrebird: my bad.  SENATOR Babyvoice-just-asking-questions-PAC-ad narrator.  Still an asshole.

  39. 39.

    Shalimar

    @Argiope: It’s Alabama.  Britt is arguably our least-worst Republican politician.  The only other one I can think of who isn’t consistently horrible to people is Kay Ivey.  Who I really like personally and have lunch with occasionally when she is in town (with a group of regulars, not just me).  I do not talk politics with Kay Ivey or I would yell at her for being a public bigot.

  43. 43.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Shalimar: i had a friend once who was very kind to me, and to everyone I knew.  As far as I know, he was very kind to gay people too.  I’m pretty brown and he was kind to me, i’m fully willing to believe that he was very kind to black people too.  But as far back as Dubya He was the right-wing nut job who quoted from NRO; And of course when the time came he voted for the white supremacist racist misogynist Russian agent TFG.

    It did not matter that in person he was very kind and gentle and a really nice guy.  You vote for a white supremacist, you caucus with a white supremacist, you’re white supremacist.  He was really butthurt when I told him I couldn’t be friends anymore.  Accused me of making him an unperson and other kinds of things.  notably, he didn’t recant his vote for TFG.

  47. 47.

    Almost Retired

    @Captain C:  That’s it!  I forgot about the concept of the Christian little girl voice.  That’s exactly what that was.  It’s all just so creepy.

  50. 50.

    Steeplejack

    Katie Britt was 😦. It was like Trump’s “American carnage” speech remixed by Serena Joy from The Handmaid’s Tale, with autotune set to “baby girl voice.”

  51. 51.

    Shalimar

    @Chetan Murthy: Eh.  We’re not really friends so that isn’t necessary.  It’s a group of old people who get together and tell stories about what it was like 30-40 years ago.  Probably the most harmless thing Kay does with her life now.

  52. 52.

    Argiope

    @Shalimar: My dad is the coolest, most fun 81-year-old, not-personally-bigoted, decent Republican around.  But he’s an asshole.  He’s MY asshole, so I stay in contact and love him, but I’m clear he’s an asshole by Chetan’s definition above, to which I subscribe.  It’s disappointing since he raised me to be suspicious of flimflammery but bought it hook, line, sinker and half the boat when served up by Fox etc. I do think it’s worth preserving relationships with these folks simply because it makes it harder for them to demonize us.

  54. 54.

    Easterbunny

    Mood stabilizer STAT. Definitely a Stepford, totally off the rails and out of touch with actual data. I’m glad she’s had a pretty good life thus far and hope for her kids sake she isn’t dragged too hard for the theatrics. And yes, I’m doing much better than 3 years ago.

  56. 56.

    AlaskaReader

    @Shalimar: What that woman does in her political life is her real life.

    Just ask the people who end up on the wrong end of Republican policies she enables.

  60. 60.

    Shalimar

    @Steeplejack: I am actually tempted to watch now that I read about how terrible and over-the-top it was.   I have seen her speak before.  She’s very boring.

  62. 62.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Shut up, hissy kitty!

    Back in the day, we spelled it “Get back, honky cat!”

  63. 63.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Shalimar: The “most harmless thing he ever did” was probably every interaction he and I ever had.  Of course they’re going to be harmless in their personal interactions with you: it’s their political acts where they do their real harm.

  65. 65.

    Jackie

    @jackmac: She brought back flashbacks to the MAGA woman running to unseat Patty Murray for senator. Same wispy tearful voice… instead of sobbing up over her disabled veteran husband, it was her children… it works for Alabama, but not for WA.

  67. 67.

    Bokonon

    @Steeplejack:

    But … but … wait!!  Katie Britt is young!  She’s YOUNG!  YOUNG YOUNG YOUNG!  You mean it isn’t working?

    [It’s kind of fun to watch the GOP’s cynicism and attempts and media manipulation blow up in their faces. ]

  71. 71.

    B1naryS3rf

    The worst part is you know Fixed Noise and all the rest will be reaching for the Kleenex when they re view and talk about her speech. And only some of them will be for their faces.

    GQP = extreme personality disorder of a Party that ignores restraining orders.

  73. 73.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    She sounds like she is breathlessly reading a really shitty horror novel while someone is holding a bloody dildo to her throat.

    Holy crap, is this all they got in response? No wonder they had a woman deliver it.

  75. 75.

    Argiope

    @AlaskaReader: believe me when I tell you I’ve considered it, but he has found YouTube and the rest of the Internet plus all the alternative medicine supplement pusher newsletters so I think that ship has sailed.

  76. 76.

    Ramona

    @SiubhanDuinne: He was fucking AWESOME tonight!

    I’d taken a dislike to Biden in the eighties watching the way he handled Anita Hill’s testimony about Clarence Thomas sexually harassing her. But in my eyes, the good he has done now outweighs his bungling then.

  77. 77.

    Argiope

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: perfect description.  It’s this strange obsession they have with sexualized violence.  Pedophiles, trafficking……. The prurience is so clear to anyone who isn’t them.  I’m telling you, some of these evangelicals truly NEED Jesus.  They absolutely require a sky daddy to keep them in line.

    ETA and that is NOT an invitation for any perpetually chafed trolls to pile on.  Begone in advance!

  78. 78.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Ramona: You’re right about all of that.  I’d add the way he was on the wrong side of the issue when Professor Elizabeth Warren tried to wise him up about student loans …. back when Biden supported making ’em nondischargeable.  So long ago I can’t find it with a quick search.

    Yeah, that long ago.

    But yes, like you, I find that what he’s done since becoming President has made up for all that shit.  And then some.

  79. 79.

    Gretchen

    @Almost Retired: Jess Piper of Blue Missouri calls that the fundie baby voice. Michelle Duggar and Mike Johnson’s wife have it. They don’t let women be adults.

  80. 80.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I try and listen to stuff like this on the radio rather than watching it. Britt sounded awful on the radio. She sounded like a HS student trying out for a role on a HS play.

  82. 82.

    rk

    She named her kids Bennett (girl) and Ridgeway (boy). Good grief! I stopped watching at that point. Tells me all I need to know about her. White woman with an obvious cross hanging around her neck from the reddest of the red states. This is what they want to contrast with Biden’s age. I’m sure the youth of America will absolutely relate to her. Republicans have lost their minds.

  83. 83.

    AlaskaReader

    @Argiope: I’m so sorry.

    Anytime I visit relatives and I get their remotes I always go into the channel selections and remove as many as I know are deleterious.

    On return visits I’ve even noticed some have not been put back in circulation. Warms my heart when I see that…..

    Might be worth a try, even if it’s just a temporary thing.  Any little bit has to help.

    Just as ‘parental controls’ are a thing regards children, controls ‘for’ one’s parents ought to be a set piece in preferences too.

  85. 85.

    ArchTeryx

    As usual, late and stupid. Being chronically ill sucks. However…

    … in response to some commentary between @Sister Golden Bear and @MomSense, we’ve got several trans folks in our circle of friends here in New York State and we’re prepared to have our own little Anne Frank shelter if it comes to that. I’m truly hoping that there are a lot of folks like us if Ragnarok occurs and Trump is re-elected despite tonight’s barnburner of a speech.

    We’re not letting people like Micki (transmasculine) and Rayne (transfeminine) get hauled off to the camps without an armed fight if it comes to that. We’re all hoping it doesn’t.

  86. 86.

    Jackie

    Oh, good grief! We wondered why Santos attended the SOTU…

    “Three months after former Rep. George Santos’ colleagues expelled him for a staggering array of alleged crimes and ethical violations, he has apparently decided that man cannot live by Cameo alone—and he wants his job back,” the Daily Beast reports.

  89. 89.

    Captain C

    I just saw Britt described as a “Mandy Pepperidge lady” on a Facebook comment.  Though she really seems more Babs Jansen to me.

  96. 96.

    Jackie

    BAHAHAHAAA!

    Truth Social, the social media platform launched by Donald Trump in 2022, suffered a widespread outage on Thursday. And it’s unfortunate timing for the former president. He was right in the middle of furiously tweeting (or Truth-ing, to use the site’s tortured parlance) about President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech.

    Trump sent a flurry of posts before the outage, expressing anger about things like Biden pointing out the treasonous nature of the January 6th insurrection and the fact that Republican judges were responsible for putting IVF in danger as a legal procedure in Alabama.

    snip

    Curiously, Truth Social’s own status page never showed any problems even though Down Detector had thousands of reports of the site being down. The site appears to have come back online just as Biden was ending his speech.

    https://gizmodo.com/truth-social-down-outage-trump-biden-state-of-the-union-1851318732

    I didn’t include all the malarkey TIFG was spewing in his “rebuttals” during Biden’s speech before the outage cut him short. The link above will fill you in, if you’re curious.

  102. 102.

    Jackie

    @Ramona: Absolutely! Some learn and have the wisdom to evolve and adapt and admit they were wrong as they get older, while others refuse to budge – even if they silently know they’re wrong.

    Thankfully, Biden is of the first category.

  105. 105.

    Captain C

    @piratedan: “I’m saying that Mandy and Dark Brandon are having an affair!  But, I love you, Donald. That’s why I had to tell you.”

  108. 108.

    Ramona

    @Jackie: I really do admire that capacity in a person to truly change for the better. I regret that I can’t do that since I started out perfect ;-}

  111. 111.

    Ramona

    @Chetan Murthy: I found myself clapping along even though I was completely alone. Felt a little foolish at first and then realized I could go right ahead and enjoy applauding since there was nobody to see me. I didn’t render any standup applause though being an unreconstructed lazybones!

  112. 112.

    Bill

    @Captain C: ​
     She did a big IVF endorsement right at the end. The weird thing for me was that she paused between almost every word, and gave almost every word a big emphasis like she couldn’t tell which ones were more important than others. Not the only inexperienced teleprompter reader with this tic, but it was especially pronounced.

  113. 113.

    NotMax

    She was unmistakably in a kitchen, although no way to tell if she was also barefoot.
    //

  114. 114.

    JWR

    @Steeplejack:

    It was like Trump’s “American carnage” speech

    Speaking of which, from Politico:

    The former president put up roughly four dozen posts on his social media site Truth Social during the State of the Union, ranging on everything from immigration and inflation to Biden’s coughing and his hair.

    “That may be the Angriest, Least Compassionate, and Worst State of the Union Speech ever made,” Trump wrote when Biden was finished. “It was an Embarrassment to our Country!”

  116. 116.

    different-church-lady

    I was unable to watch or follow due to work: was it a heckle-fest?

  118. 118.

    JWR

    @HumboldtBlue:

    allowing Biden to box them in during his speech

    Oh man. Did you see how much Harris was enjoying that moment? That was a joy to watch.

  120. 120.

    Jackie

    I am looking forward to Morning Joe in the morning! A lot of great clips will be replayed!

  121. 121.

    Tony Jay

    Ridgeway? JFC, that poor kid.

    For the record, a Ridgeway is something you bike or hike or excavate looking for prehistoric burial mounds. It’s not something you call someone, especially if you’re supposed to love them.

  122. 122.

    Wil

    For people who don’t encounter evangelical nutjobs much IRL it’s really hard to watch that level of creepiness and realize that they are really like that, all the time, and they mean all of us harm.

  125. 125.

    JWR

    On the “Joe’s too old” front, here’s how Biden handled that little gremlin (Politico):

    Aides acknowledged ahead of the speech it was a topic on voters’ minds and something the president was prepared to address, if not dwell on, in his speech.

    His argument on that front – that Trump is almost the same age, but with an antiquated and vengeful outlook – sought to defuse the issue and turn it around on his opponent.

    “When you get to be my age, certain things become clearer than ever,” Biden said in his speech, to some laughs.

    He went on: “The issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are, it’s how old our ideas are,” adding later we “can’t lead with ancient ideas.”

  127. 127.

    Mel

    @Chetan Murthy: Absolutely true. They let the monsters that they vote for and the horrible organizations and groups that they donate to do the overt dirty work that they don’t want to be seen as doing.

    A degree of separation buys them exemption from blame, in their minds, because they want to think that they are “good” people.

  131. 131.

    Aussie Sheila

    Just caught up with the speech in the last hour (AEST). Excellent.

    A really excellent example of populist and progressive plain speech.

    I look forward to following the Campaign.

    I think the Centre Left might be learning. Let’s hope so.
    Our ALP government rejigged an appalling tax plan configured by the local Tories and adopted by the ALP in the run up to the election in 2022.

    The reconfiguration gave working and lower middle class families a lot more, and the well off a lot less. The government won a by-election last week.

    It works when you dance with the ones that brung ya.

  132. 132.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Aussie Sheila: It has been said that Joe Biden has always inhabited the centroid of the Democratic Party.  Dead-center in the party caucus.  If where he’s standing today is the center, imagine where the left-wing *of the caucus* is!  Ha!  Just thinking about it gives me happy feelings!

  133. 133.

    Tony Jay

    @Aussie Sheila:

    It works when you dance with the ones that brung ya.

    Aye. That’s the way it’s supposed to work. Unfortunately it’s a lesson our (not really very at all) centre-left are determined not to learn. As far as they’re concerned, they owe their impending turn in the saddle to generous corporate donors, a mutually productive deal with right-wing media magnates and the intensity of the hate-fuelled fire that burns in their chests when even the thought of ‘The Left’ casts its shadow there.

    And when they shed millions of votes from the base they’ve declared war on, and even more votes from the normie majority who are going to be furious when nothing much changes and they continue seeing their lives dipped in shit, they won’t learn it then either. They’ll just blame ‘Trots’ and purge a few more members.

    Meh. Wankers.

  134. 134.

    JWR

    Ha ha! The home page at HuffPo looks like Drudge. Just a splash page that says:

    JOLTIN’ JOE
    BIDEN ON FIRE

    Which I think means they liked the speech. ;)

  135. 135.

    Aussie Sheila

    @Tony Jay:

    I hear you! But don’t give up hope.
    I really think the unlovely combo of Starmer and strangled adenoidal vowels Reeves, might have some fiscal tricks up their sleeves. And at the moment, that’s all we can hope for.

    Always always, the worst social democratic government is better than the best Conservative one.

  136. 136.

    trnc

    @SiubhanDuinne: I guarangoddamtee she’s going to run for President in 2028. I promise you.

    The last republican SOTU responder who went on to be elected president was Bush the elder in 1968. Most others who tried to make the jump flamed out in the primaries.

  137. 137.

    AlaskaReader

    “Unfortunately, this employee is the subject of focus on social media and other media platforms. We have reviewed the relevant information and found that the communications are malicious and harassing in nature, and were taken out of context,” Johnson-Harris said.

    Libs of Tik Tok, Chaya Raichik the MAGA mistress of hate, attacked an Alaska teacher this time.

    This MAGA consort needs deplatforming. At the least…

    And did you know Raichik, despite being linked to school bomb threats in Oklahoma, was appointed as an adviser to the Oklahoma State Library Committee, this despite not being an Oklahoma resident, a librarian, or an educator.

  138. 138.

    Noskilz

    That was one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen in the context of a state of the union.  I’m going to assume there was no screening process or rehearsal, because I’m hard-pressed to imagine someone green-lighting a train-wreck like that intentionally.

    I thought it was unintentionally very funny, but I doubt her colleagues will find it very amusing.

    Josh Marshall had a fun take: “This was a great night for Glenn Close because after 37 years she’s finally off the hook for being the stock reference for an emotionally disregulated woman who might be about to kill you. #steepedinblood“

  139. 139.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Noskilz: Either here or at LG&M, a commenter said that they felt this would go over precisely as intended with The Base.  And since that all these fuckers know how to talk to, maybe this was vetted, etc, etc.  I mean, if you think about it, the whole affect of her speech was designed to be consumable by evangelicals, right?

    I was convinced, but hey, I don’t know any evangelicals (anymore, thank goodness).

  140. 140.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    I’ve been enjoying the enlarged colon known as Free Republic and their takes on the evening. The men are not impressed by the Alabama Valley Girl. Some noted her smiling after delivering a line, even ones about how horrible everything is for air-brained zealots like herself. One commenter pointed out her problematic delivery and another responded that she can do that every day and keep her job because it’s Alabama, “see Kay Ivey” for reference….lol! I can spot the Ruzzian trolls real fast as they are the “Biden just declared civil war” morons largely being ignored while many rage about how lame their side is.

    Except for God Emperor Rump, of course. He’s the awesomestest!

  146. 146.

    Baud

    I read the transcript of the SOTU. The line that stood out in the reading was this

    My God, what freedoms will you take away next?

    Sounds like the speech was a hit.

  147. 147.

    Princess

    @Chetan Murthy: The thing that’s so difficult for many immigrants to get about the US is that kindness does not necessarily correlate at all with decency. People will be perfectly kind to you who would just as soon see you driven out of their town on a rail. It’s confusing,

  148. 148.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Princess: Ehh, I think it’s just as hard for native-born, too.  For the longest time, even the real nutters kept their freak flag hidden, and there was so much smarminess it was suffocating.  It’s only since TFG (OK, since that rage-gasm when Obama got elected) that they’re really showing us what they are.

    ETA: I mean, remember when that lady said she was mad at TFG b/c “he isn’t hurting the people he needs to be hurting” ?  People were really, really surprised, b/c we’d never heard somebody be so open in their hatred.

  150. 150.

    Princess

    @Jackie: wow, there’s enough projection in those tweets to operate every cineplex in the country (does cineplex still exist? Never mind). I especially loved the one about how being angry in speeches makes you look like a loser. And “the drugs are wearing off!!” Clear evidence of what so many here have said before — Trump does every speech juiced to the gills. He can’t cope with the fact that Biden is more healthy and mentally sharp than him.

  151. 151.

    JWR

    NPR found the ever elusive “Undecided” voter! (and talked with it, even!)

    We watched the State of the Union with one undecided voter. She wasn’t that impressed

    […] “She tries to watch the State of the Union every year, usually with popcorn and wine. This time she watched it with an eye to how she’ll vote in November.

    But at the end of the evening, she was still very much undecided.

    “I wanted to say that I could have come away from this saying: ‘I’m ready to vote for this guy for president,'” Seagraves said.

    “But what I feel like I took away from it is that I feel the same way that I did before: that he’s really just a nice guy.”

    I’m undecided on the “is she really this stupid?” question.

  152. 152.

    zhena gogolia

    @Captain C: I only watched clips on the NYT, and she said they were going to make IVF available to people all across this great land.

  154. 154.

    Another Scott

    I watched Biden’s speech after a delay and thought it was great.  I didn’t and won’t watch her’s.

    We know how Jindal and Rubio and others did in the past. It’s not that important.

    I think Trump still feels burned by being forced to pick Pence.  He’s going to use his own broken brain to pick someone, and loyalty to him will be paramount.  Tim Scott would seem to have positioned himself well…

    The giant donors will do what they want.  They know that no VP pick can counteract his negatives.  I suspect that they will give whoever it is, like hedging an investment – not giving freely and joyfully.  Maybe small MAGA donors will be impressed, but I kinda doubt it.

    Forward!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  156. 156.

    evodevo

    @Wil: Spot on.  THIS is what they are like in “normal” life when they interact with their peers.  Especially the creepy Stepford smile – the women are told from an early age to “smile more”.  Otherwise you are accused of being not happy enough, and that is a no-no in their world.

  158. 158.

    Ruckus

    @JWR:

    “It was an Embarrassment to our Country!”

    He’d be the one to know about embarrassing an entire country. All of humanity even. I’m sure he has a mirror in his residence.

  159. 159.

    Ruckus

    @rk:

    Republicans have lost their minds.

    One has to have something to lose – to lose it. In a decision to be less human one chooses conservative. Because that is a decision to be far more controlling of others. Otherwise the concept of we are all the same falls apart. Sure we are all human but it’s not as easy as it may be for relatively short lived herd animals. Because in the modern world we are not heard animals. Yes we may want to be a part of one group or another but we don’t become part of a herd, unless we are just followers – herd animals, rather than actual, at least semi independent, animals. For all our faults – and  yes we ALL have them, we are part of groups, and possibly not, because we do need to work together in various ways to live, conduct business, have nutrition, relationships, medicine, especially in a modern world.

  161. 161.

    Ruckus

    @Chetan Murthy:

    The original concept of student loans was that anyone could get a higher education – get ahead, provide a service to others, be successful at something they liked rather than something they survived. And student loans were intended to help, to cover costs so that we could have higher education for all and move all of us ahead. And one didn’t have to be rich to do that.

    However. The cost became too high for many people lower down the economic scale and paying back loans at a not unreasonable level could take nearly a lifetime. When my sister died at 66 she still owed on her student loans. And she was very successful, with her own highly successful business, and highly regarded in it. She taught her specialty part time at a private, highly respected, well known college. When she passed the college held a service for her that so many people attended that there was standing room only.

    My point is that at one time a person should have rather easily been able to pay them back, but the loans, to be successful had to rise with the cost of the education. That changed but the concept of student loans didn’t keep up with the costs. So the loans got much higher and while it was good for the students as students the end result was that many could not pay them back and eat and have  any place to live. Higher education has been and is very good for the country and the people that live in it. But those loans ballooned into unserviceable debt that for many would never be discharged. The government was just behind in the change in cost, in value, in the inability to repay and eat/live.

    Uncle Joe’s early position was the normal, original concept of repayment. One of his good points is that he is capable of learning and changing his concepts. Many politicians never learn that. They want to conserve their original concepts no matter happens in the current world. And we ALL suffer for their inability to learn, to see, to change.

  162. 162.

    Ruckus

    @Mr. Bemused Senior:

    When all one has is half a mind – that’s all they have to lose.

    And when all one has is half a mind – it’s much more difficult to see more than half a minds worth of anything.

  163. 163.

    Ruckus

    @Jackie:

    even if they silently know they’re wrong.

    Most of them refuse to know that they can be wrong. It’s humanity, some of us really work at stopping learning as we get older. It may be an ingrained concept to stop learning, it may be just plain ignorance, but a lot of people seem to stop seeing the world, at least more than a 5-10 foot circle around them. As we age (and yes, while I’m not the oldest here, I am close to it) we have to sometimes work a bit harder to learn, to continue to grow the mind when the body stops growing and just continues to get older. But of course it’s worth the effort to learn, for the mind to grow, to change. Some just seem to not want to do that. And unfortunately it’s not a small percentage of humanity.

  164. 164.

    Ruckus

    @Jinchi:

    Unless they’re acting on stage, if someone chooses to be an asshole, they are one.

    This needs to be among the rotating tag lines at the top of the blog. 

    It is very much a truism of humanity. Possibly all animals.

  165. 165.

    Ruckus

    @rk:

    Republicans have lost their minds.

    They have minds? Who’d a known?

    Most of them are followers, they want to get in line, to join something, to be part of something.

    They just make bad decisions.

  166. 166.

    Ruckus

    @Chetan Murthy:

    I don’t think he necessarily is in the center of the party.

    He’s been in politics a long time, he knows that to get things done, especially things with asinine opposition, one has to be an actual politician, to understand the crowd, to work the crowd, to bring the crowd around, to build support, to be an actual leader. An actual leader leads people, but does not berate them into following. It is a learned premise for many, many people, many of whom don’t, can’t, refuse to get the concept.

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