Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Good lord, these people are nuts.

White supremacy is terrorism.

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

He really is that stupid.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

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

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

The jury literally has a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. Greatest thing ever!

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Thursday Morning Open Thread: State of the Union Address Tonight

Thursday Morning Open Thread: State of the Union Address Tonight

by | 177 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Official WH livestreaming website here.

(I’m not liable to use the ‘Click or hold an emoji [choice of thumbs-up, heart, or party hat] to share your reaction to any part of the address as it happens live’ feature… but I trust President Biden’s excellent media team to know that other younger people will.)

Alabama Senator Katie Britt, formerly Shakedown Shelby’s press secretary, has been awarded the offical GOP rebuttal, hopefully to follow in the blighted footsteps of Bobby Jindal and Marco Rubio. TFG announced he’ll be live-Truth-Social-ing through it, assuming he doesn’t get distracted / glitch out. And Tucker Carlson will do his own rebuttal, no doubt further trumpeting the virtues of ‘benevolent’ dictatorship, straight from Putin’s dispatches.

The State of the Union isn’t just a speech – it’s my report to you, the American people.

You hired me to get the job done, build an economy that works for working people, and make life better for families.

Tomorrow, I’ll update you on our progress and lay out the path ahead.

My Administration has accomplished more over three years than most presidents have in eight –

From investing in infrastructure and lowering health care costs to abolishing junk fees, making the wealthy pay their fair share, and fighting for women’s reproductive health care.

But there is still so much to do before the job’s done.

That includes lowering prescription drug prices for every American, getting student debt relief to hardworking borrowers, restoring a woman’s right to choose, and banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Tune in at 9 PM ET tomorrow evening for my plan on how we get it done. http://WH.gov/SOTU.


[Gift link]

… Among the guests are a woman from Alabama whose in vitro fertilization treatments were stopped after a state court decision, and another from Texas who was denied an abortion in the state despite what her doctors said would be health complications from the pregnancy. Their presence signals Mr. Biden’s emphasis on an issue that has lifted Democrats in recent elections as he faces a rematch with former President Donald J. Trump, whom he trails in many polls.

They are among a number of guests intended to touch on health policy, including Maria Shriver, the journalist who has become a women’s health advocate.

Also on the list are the head of the United Automobile Workers and a number of union members, as the president seeks to burnish his labor bona fides. Other guests, including a mayor, a police officer and the prime minister of Sweden, represent a range of issues, from student debt forgiveness to infrastructure to jobs programs.

The wars in Ukraine and Gaza that have consumed so much of Mr. Biden’s time in the past year received scant representation. The White House had hoped that Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, and Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, would attend, but both said they could not make it. The only guest connected with the Middle East crisis will be a U.S. Navy commander who earned a Bronze Star protecting ships from Houthi rebels…

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Reader Interactions

177Comments

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I’ve never watched a SOTU, I expect the tradition will hold tonight. I’ll catch the highlights and the lowlifes in the AM.

  7. 7.

    NotMax

    Ah, Bobby Jindal’s turn in the spotlight. May as well have been sporting a cone of shame.

  8. 8.

    Cacti

    @Baud: I guess you’ll have to comfort yourself with everything else being based around the eastern time zone.

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    inorite? How incosiderate.

    (If it were after the time change this coming weekend it would be 3 p.m. here.)

  11. 11.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    For some reason I have it in my head that these were always done on a Tuesday.

    I stopped watching them sometime during the Clinton administration which might explain why I totally forgot that Jindal once did a rebuttal. Heh heh, and who says those rebuttals don’t serve a purpose? They allow supposed up-and-comers in the GQP to fall flat on their face.

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    Hey jackaldom. Near as I can tell from so far away Mom’s computer (my old one I lugged to NY for her several years ago) has given up the ghost. It may be a kaput power supply but that’s only a guess. Presumably dead one maybe 10 or so years old, certainly no less. Nothing of import on the hard drive to transfer.

    Light web browsing, checking e-mail and train schedules, attending Zoom lectures, infrequent Skype and playing solitaire about the extent of her requirements. What y’all think of this as a shiny replacement?

    Crappy (as in non-major holiday) time of year to go shopping for one.

  16. 16.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Will the media portray the heckling as rude and inappropriate or as a valiant defense of the economically anxious Americans who have been forgotten or left behind or otherwise not given the attention to which they are entitled?

  18. 18.

    Gin & Tonic

    From what I’ve read, Zelenska declined because they wanted to seat her next to Navalnaya. Good for her, if true.

  19. 19.

    wjca

    @Baud: I hate having to accommodate Pacific time.

    Could be worse.  There’s a case to be made for accommodating Hawaii-Aleutian time.

    EDT  NotMax got there first

  21. 21.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @NotMax:

    Just-retired IT person here (former day job) supporting 200+ users over 6 states.

    That model will do fine.

  22. 22.

    Tony Jay

    Should be a pretty short address.

    “We’re doing okay. Could be better, but with all the assholes and traitors sitting over there it’s a God damned miracle we’re not fucked to a fare thee well. Let’s get our shit together this November and we can start rebuilding what they’ve cost us all and make Vlad cry. In short, the State of the Nation is Biden its time.”

  23. 23.

    wjca

    @Gin & Tonic: Zelenska declined because they wanted to seat her next to Navalnaya. Good for her, if true.

    Although, if Navalnaya has opted/been unable not to attend, it’s too bad that Zelenska couldn’t come after all.

  24. 24.

    lowtechcyclist

    Good morning, y’all! I’m still catching up with last night’s threads; my wife and son took me out to dinner to celebrate another trip around the sun, and we had a good time. Tonight, we’ll be getting together with my sisters as well, so I’m looking forward to that. Probably won’t have energy for the SOTU afterwards, even if we get back in time.

  27. 27.

    RevRick

    Good to see that the President will be promoting student debt relief as one of his initiatives, along with lowered drug prices. If we give him the House and Senate, those are two policies that could be passed under Reconciliation. It will be interesting to hear what, if anything, he proposes with regards to Trump’s tax cuts, which expire next year.
    I generally don’t enjoy watching State of the Union addresses since they often sound like grocery shopping lists, but given how we can expect the braying jackasses of the GOP to be jerks, I’m inclined to watch, just to see how President Biden handles them.

  28. 28.

    Tony Jay

    Joe should open with a few shade jokes.

    “I’m so old I remember when all the traitors took their asses off to Richmond.”

    “I’m so old I remember when Republicans wanted to bomb fascists, not bow to them.”

    “I’m so old I remember when Supreme Court judges had to have more qualifications than ‘Chief Brew Chugger’ or ‘Smiling Womb’.”

    Really get them up off their feet.

  32. 32.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Tony Jay:

    Should be a pretty short address.

    “We’re doing okay. Could be better, but with all the assholes and traitors sitting over there it’s a God damned miracle we’re not fucked to a fare thee well. Let’s get our shit together this November and we can start rebuilding what they’ve cost us all and make Vlad cry. In short, the State of the Nation is Biden its time.”

    “And with enough Democratic seats in the House and Senate, we can lay waste to the 2017 GOP Tax Scam!”

  33. 33.

    Kay

    Elon Musk’s pick to be district attorney of Texas’ Travis County lost on Tuesday, hours after the Tesla CEO sent a companywide email urging employees to follow his lead.
    Jeremy Sylestine, a Democratic challenger to the incumbent José Garza, was defeated early on Super Tuesday, with Garza winning by over 30 points. Musk appears to have deleted his post on social media site X endorsing Sylestine.

    From: Elon Musk
    To: All
    Date: March 5, 2024
    This mainly applies if you live in the greater Austin area, but, if you do, please vote today for a new district attorney who will actually prosecute crime. High time for change throughout the world!

    Finger on the pulse of the nation on the Right, as usual. Twitter still isn’t real life, thank God.

  38. 38.

    Tony Jay

    @mrmoshpotato:

    “Infrastructure Week II will begin with the seizure of assets owned fully or partially by agents of hostile foreign powers. Don’t sweat it, Donny, by the time it passes you’ll have sweet fuck all left to seize anyway.”

  43. 43.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Tony Jay: II?  We’re at more like Infrastructure Week 500.  600?  700?

    Oops, thinking days here.  Infrastructure Week 100? 150?

  46. 46.

    Ironcity

    @Baud: Try SIberia.  The bigcity there, Novosibirsk is 12 hours ahead of Eastern.  Good excuse for day drinking maybe, if you need one?

  47. 47.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Well, since nine o’clock in the evening in Washington is stupid o’clock in Athens, I’m not going to be watching live.

    Also, too, I don’t want to be tempted to throw something through my TV screen or my monitor.

    Also old enough to remember when Reagan made a callous joke about bombing the Soviet Union and probably brought us uncomfortably close to Armageddon.

  53. 53.

    dmsilev

    @Tony Jay: He should address the Supremes thusly: “I hear you’re being asked to rule on Presidential blanket immunity. When you’re trying to decide, just remember, I have drones and I know where you live. It’d be kind of cool to have a preemptive get-out-of-trial-free card, know what I mean?”

  54. 54.

    EarthWindFire

    @bbleh: I hope he’s been consulting with a few high-school teachers, although he’s handled them mighty well before.

    He’s got Dr. Jill, Ed.D. to give him tips on how to handle the stages of child development.

  55. 55.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Now they’re all saying that the reason crime is down is because progressive D.A.’s refuse to charge anyone. There’s no winning with these people, for them crime will always be high. I think in many of their minds crime=I see black people or I see homeless people.

  58. 58.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    Permanently broken by covid, BLM and Me Too. They aren’t handling change well – their own aging is a change, too. Brittle. They break easily.

  60. 60.

    JML

    The GOP acting out during the SOTU plays well to their base. Nobody else likes it, but it’s always a little wild how the DC media always lost their minds over Clinton (too much of a cracker) or Obama (too black) not fitting their perfect beliefs of what proper DC conduct was supposed to be and basically gives the GOP a pass on this: one day of “well, that just wasn’t right and they should apologize” before going back to their favorite topics: “why haven’t the democrats solved all the problems of the world yet”, “democrats need to be more bipartisan”, “Joe Biden is old and we’re sure no one likes him”, and “Have you heard about my new book where if everyone would just do it my way America would be better”.

  61. 61.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I think they thought that when they became middle aged they’d all be Masters of the Universe because they’re white guys, and what they’re finding is that women and black and brown people are also large and in charge, and it makes them crazy. They think they have the right to be the only ones telling people what to do.

  62. 62.

    lowtechcyclist

    @TBone: ​
     

    ‘Fighting Irish Girl Tracks Down Rumors’ made me 😊

    These rumors [about Eleanor Roosevelt], which spread primarily in the American South, maintained that Black maids, cooks and other domestic workers were organizing to walk off the job at the first lady’s urging, leaving their white employers to do their own housework.

    Oh noes!! White women being forced to do their own housework. How degrading! ;-)

    The rumor gained such traction that the FBI was called on to investigate it, and the attorney general had to publicly repudiate the claim.

    Too bad – it’s a pity that rumor wasn’t true.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    It’s also interesting how they never look to police or policing to blame for their problems with crime. They must not be familiar with the criminal justice system in the United States. It’s not just prosecutors!

    Police pointed to “liberal DAs” to cover police ineptitude and laziness and the ninnies all fell for it.

  67. 67.

    Ohio Mom

    @NotMax: Ohio Grandma, who is 92, also needs a new computer. Ohio Dad (remember, he is a software engineer) suggested switching to a Chromebook. All she needs is email and Zoom.

    This set off at least a thirty minute discussion of why Ohio Grandma did not want a Chromebook, she wanted a laptop. I think for most of the conversation, she thought it was some sort of actual book. Ohio Dad ultimately prevailed.

    Listening in on the conversation was like watching Gilda Radner do her Rosanna Danna bit.

  69. 69.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I do it all the time! It’s like a tense “joke”. They complain, I say “you keep voting for these people!” and then we fake laugh, then they go vote for them again.

  71. 71.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Haha. I can actually visualize the scene in my head.

    Deep down in what’s left of their soul, they know.

  73. 73.

    JAFD

    @NotMax: May be interested in acquiring your mother’s old computer – did some repair work before I retired, possibly can make something useful out of it…

    You may have my Eddress, ask Ms. WaterGirl if not

  74. 74.

    TBone

    @mrmoshpotato: 🌪️ and, of course, after yesterday’s kerfuffle at the Borough brush recycling center because of the “wrong” hoodie, the Borough truck is now outside doing leaf pickup.  We don’t have any leaf piles in this neighborhood 😆

  78. 78.

    Kay

    jenniferschulzechi

    After getting hammered for minimizing the vile comments by the republican candidate for Gov of North Carolina, the @nytimes has updated it’s ‘meet the candidate’ headline. Gone is “fiery outsider” and in its place is “he appears eager to drive divisions, disparaging L.G.B.T.Q. people and quoting Hitler on social media”

    I think DougJ is partly responsible for discrediting the NYTimes political reporting among liberals.
    They don’t get away with this shit anymore like they used to.

  83. 83.

    p.a.

    @Baud: Next you’ll ask rural white folks to blame their Republican representatives for their problems.

     

     

    It’s unfair to expect people who think the earth is 6,000 years old to be able to formulate solutions to, well, just about anything.

  85. 85.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    They still try though. The only debate is whether it’s a conscious effort or they’ve internalized the behavior because they’ve been doing it for so long.

  86. 86.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: They think they have the right to be the only ones telling people what to do.

    We don’t? Huh… Who’da thunk it?

  89. 89.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I am no fan of brutalist architecture but damn, those are impressive.

    I’ve gotten a better understanding of the form after moving back and discovering that a lot of my fellow historic preservation activists are into it.  Thus, I don’t now immediately go “eeeewwww”.

    Several years back, some of them tried to save this one:

    https://www.westword.com/arts/Brutalism-Denver-Landmark-Architecture-Scripps-Denver7-Pei-11972651

    But no luck.  It’ll probably come down this year.

  90. 90.

    catclub

    @p.a.: It’s unfair to expect people who think the earth is 6,000 years old to be able to formulate solutions to, well, just about anything.

     

    Of course, people who thought the world is 6000 years old could build Chartres Cathedral.  Impressive.

  91. 91.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Gin & Tonic: One way to avoid that “problem” is to be faithful to your marriage vows.

    Jiminy christmas what do you think he is, a penniless schmuck?

  93. 93.

    NotMax

    @JAFD

    Plan to ask her to hold on to it until I visit this summer, just in case there’s anything salvageable on the hard drive I don’t know about.

  94. 94.

    geg6

    @Kay: ​
     
    Too bad they don’t reflect on what the Pitchbot may have to say before they post their bullshit. But that would take a bit of self-reflection on the Times’ part and that might lead them to question their entire careers. Can’t have that!

  96. 96.

    Kay

    @Baud:

     or they’ve internalized the behavior because they’ve been doing it for so long.

    Even my husband, who is basically a normie, was griping about the blanket Biden poll coverage. Not that it was unfair to Biden but that it was boring and repetitive. I figure he drops that subscription shortly. His problem is he likes to read a newspaper and there aren’t any left.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    @geg6:

    It seems like it’s reached a kind of critical mass, so they’re finally, finally responding. I think it’s great. These people on social media may actually save us from another “but her emails” election year.

  99. 99.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Of course. I don’t expect them to hide their poll. But no single poll is all that newsworthy. But they treat it like the story of the century.

  100. 100.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: To me what’s funniest about this is that they believe police stop crime, when the truth is they mostly don’t. Police are supposed to solve crimes that already happened and arrest the people who did the crimes – they don’t prevent crime! Yet the people who think they prevent crime never get mad at them for not preventing it, almost as if they know the truth about the matter.

  102. 102.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    He was telling me what he wasn’t going to read from another room. “Not reading that poll again, not that, not that either, okay done with this paper today”. He’ll cancel if he isn’t getting any value out of it. Tick tock!

  107. 107.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: They called that odious piece of shit a “fiery outsider”? And then they wonder why they get dragged all over the internet. I think DougJ is responsible for a lot of their backtracking, because he constantly points out the absurdity of their coverage. Whenever they have press on a 1A show I’m listening to, I ask on their FB topic why they are always saying Democrats “try” to do things but don’t talk about Republicans that way. I heard it just yesterday, how Biden was going to “try” to do this and that. They definitely don’t talk about TFG that way. I have yet to get an answer to my inquiry.

  108. 108.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @geg6:

    Too bad they don’t reflect on what the Pitchbot may have to say before they post their bullshit.

    You can bet they’re aware of the readership DougJ has.  But they don’t care.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned all these years being friends with a former WH reporter, they can explain away their crapitude with no hint of irony.

  109. 109.

    p.a.

    Salon plagiarizing B-J.  First para from 3/5 article.

    Two things — check that, three things — appear to have gone off the rails at the paper we used to call the Gray Lady. First, whoever is in charge of the paper’s polls is not doing their job. Second, whoever is choosing what to emphasize in Times coverage of the campaign for the presidency is showing bias. Third, the Times is obsessed with Joe Biden’s age at the same time they’re leaving evidence of Donald Trump’s mental and verbal stumbles completely out of the news.

  111. 111.

    Soprano2

    @catclub: Chartres is a beautiful cathedral. I sang in a choir performance there when I was in college. It was so cold, it was in January and they don’t heat those places.

  114. 114.

    Bupalos

    @wjca: i don’t expect Ukrainian politics to be able to overcome expressiveness over effectiveness while their kindergartens are being blown up. But it isn’t good for her or good for Ukraine that this is true.

    I do somewhat question the wisdom of inviting Navalnya from the point of view of Russian politics.

  117. 117.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    My personal theory on why they loathe Biden is because they’re snobs. Biden didn’t go to the right schools and he doesn’t have the super cynical assholeness they all admire. Biden said when he was VP that he couldn’t believe how lucky he was to be a senator every day he was in the senate. I think that’s true. They have contempt for that. They much prefer the mean spirited, nasty Donald Trump. He’s “tough”, like they imagine themselves to be.

  118. 118.

    Kathleen

    @geg6: I think they’re incapable of that type of honest introspection. Introspection period. There is something basic that is very broken about them.

  119. 119.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Soprano2: There’s always some crime in cities, because they are cities and there are a lot of people in them. All you have to do, then, is selectively report and selectively hype. And always look for the level of government that has a Democrat in it, and there’s your scapegoat.

  120. 120.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: It’s also how this silver-spoon princeling codes as “working class”–he’s a brash, aggressive asshole, which is “working class” if you get your ideas from TV.

  121. 121.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Baud:

    That’s OK, we hate having to accommodate the rest of the country so the feeling is mutual.

  124. 124.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: So basically the same reason they hated Bill Clinton. Also Biden’s White House doesn’t leak like a sieve, with staffers constantly stabbing each other in the back and then running to their favorite reporter to tell them all about it.

  125. 125.

    Kathleen

    @Kay: I also think it’s because he had the temerity to choose “that woman” (Black) as VP and the fact that many Black voters support him. Always goes back to race. Also root of media’s visceral hatred of Democratic Party evidenced by their embrace of racist Fascist Rethuglicans.

  126. 126.

    dnfree

    @NotMax: We have an all-in one for our home computers, eliminating the connection between the computer and the monitor and saving space.  Our last ones cost about $599 on sale.  If the monitor is as old as the computer that might be a good way to go.

    If you’re a Costco member they have frequent sales on computers AND they ship and they have a two-year guarantee plus support.  The newer ones have SSD drives and are pretty fast.

  129. 129.

    Bupalos

    @Kathleen: i think we’re losing the ability to see things accurately through over reliance on identity explanatiins for everything. “The media,” outside the openly rightwing entertainment outlets, is roughly as culturally open and left-leaning as this blog. These people are definitely not shocked and appalled by the presence of an ethnic minority woman in the halls of power (if we can even use that language for a vp) nor offended that Biden would have such effrontery to select her.

    The media “hates” Biden because he is not going along with the project to turn governance into a monetized entertainment property. This is a much bigger and more dangerous problem than personal animus and more fluid than systemic racism.

  130. 130.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @dnfree: I second this recommendation…the Dell all in one I bought from Costco 4 years ago has been glitch free for the most part and is so much “cleaner” than a trad desktop set up. I have another monitor connected to it as well because I got hooked on two screens at work.

    Very reasonable price wise too.

    After I stopped traveling for work, I found that a laptop wasn’t as desirable. I use an iPad for reading and travel and the all in one for finances, games, zooms and volunteer work.

  131. 131.

    Bupalos

    @Tony Jay: Good thing I was reading this on a phone so I could quickly pull it out of the way of the coffee spurt that just left my mouth.

  134. 134.

    Jackie

    @bbleh:

    they’re gonna act out even worse this time.  I hope he’s been consulting with a few high-school teachers

    No worries; the strict and stern no-nonsense speaker-in-name-only has issued a “YOU behave! Or ELSE!” warning.

    Everyone will be on their best grownup behavior.

  135. 135.

    JWR

    @Soprano2:

    Now they’re all saying that the reason crime is down is because progressive D.A.’s refuse to charge anyone.

    Here in L.A. one of DA Gascon’s many wanna be replacements said that if you notice that crime has gone way, way up over the past 4 to 5 years, (it hasn’t, it’s gone down), then that’s all on Gascon. They must watch nothing but all the “if it bleeds it leads” stories on local news. One thing I’m thankful for is that, here in L.A. County, we don’t have any Sinclair stations.

  136. 136.

    geg6

    @Matt McIrvin: ​
     
    So much truth! My dad worked in a steel mill full-time and dug graves part-time in order to keep his wife and six kids with a roof over our heads and food in our bellies. He was a very soft-spoken man who almost never got angry or aggressive with anyone. And he was the strongest man I’ve ever known. He would have been disgusted by Cheetolini.

  137. 137.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Matt McIrvin:There’s always some crime in rural areas, because they are rural and there are a lot of meth addled, gun carrying, wannabe tuff guys strutting about. And don’t get me talking about the meth addled women out here…

  139. 139.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    It’s also how this silver-spoon princeling codes as “working class”

    Ha! So true. And true of a lot of east coast MAGAS, actually, who, IMO, are worse than the southern or midwestern variety – nastier and more virulent. I hadn’t considered that.

  142. 142.

    geg6

    @Bupalos: ​
     

    “The media,” outside the openly rightwing entertainment outlets, is roughly as culturally open and left-leaning as this blog. These people are definitely not shocked and appalled by the presence of an ethnic minority woman in the halls of power (if we can even use that language for a vp) nor offended that Biden would have such effrontery to select her.

    Can’t say I agree with this. They did the same with Hilary and she is a white woman. They did this with Obama and he’s a Black man. They lie about Biden, a white man, with undisguised glee but their fear and loathing of Kamala is off the charts. They aren’t afraid of Biden in the same way at all.

  143. 143.

    Jeffro

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’ve never watched a SOTU

    I quit during the first year the orange squatter was in the WH, and I haven’t returned.  It’s so much easier to just read about it the following morning.

  144. 144.

    Bupalos

    Mary L Bilge

    I swear I haven’t smoked a thing in weeks, but this typo sent me on an overly detailed visionquest involving a mock-tribute fusion band that plays off-kilter spoofs of late-motown classics from a grunged-up yacht-rock angle.

  145. 145.

    cain

    @Kay: There is something definitely vile and disgusting happening at that paper. They were more subtle before but minimizing the shit that guy was saying is reproachable.

  146. 146.

    terraformer

    I’d like to think that Biden has zero fcks left to give and will go *hard* against Republican lickspittles

    This is has last election, his last stand in the spotlight – and a no holds barred approach would be refreshing and welcome

  149. 149.

    Bupalos

    @geg6: Obama was overall a media darling. When people do the “tan suit” thing they’re extreme nutpicking 2010’s media.

    Clinton, lets be fair, is just not an engaging communicator or entertainer. She and Biden belong in a different (and similar) basket irt their enetertainment value from say Clinton 1 and Obama.

    None of this is to say the idenity stuff has zero relevance. It’s just to say when we go hyper with it we’re in danger of missing larger dynamics.

  152. 152.

    JML

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’m not as much of a fan of brutalist architecture as it was utilized during a campus expansion at my university and it hasn’t aged well. the buildings look more like bunkers and are thoroughly unattractive.

    Like many public universities, we had a pre-WWII construction phase that looks classic and a post-WWII construction boom out of orange brick that looks meh. The wave of brutalist-inspired construction in the 70’s & 80’s is mostly pretty dire. The major construction and renovation in the last 25 years has been much better than anything since the pre-WWII.

  154. 154.

    Jeffro

    @Soprano2: a good example of the snooze media reporting on Biden/Dems “trying” to do something (and it not being perfect) while remaining silent about the Republicans offering/doing NOTHING is in today’s WaPo.

    “Biden has forgiven $138B in student loans.  Some say it should be more.”

    I mean, seriously?  What are the Republicans doing to help ease the burden (on both the students and the economy in general) of student loan debt?

    Can we get some interviews of those folks who’ve had their loans forgiven?  Let us hear what that new lease on life sounds like!

  155. 155.

    geg6

    @Bupalos: ​
     
    I cannot express how much I disagree with this. Obama was NOT a media darling. They were charmed at first but quickly turned into Birther theorists and tan suit, fancy mustard and arugula hating shills. Clinton was smeared every day for every single thing she did for thirty years by these yahoos. You are mistaken in thinking that identity was a minor thing among the MSM. Identity is a major, major, major thing for them, as much as it is for their unacknowledged avatar, TFG. Much more than it is for any activist, politician or artist who is accused of being obsessed with identity.

  156. 156.

    cain

    @Jeffro: I mean you have biden forgiving debt and then there is Rand Paul talking about cutting Medicare and Social Security.

    That guy always comes back to that – how he keeps getting elected is beyond me.

  157. 157.

    Tarragon

    @Kay: I assume you’ve seen this paper about the California police quiet quitting.  [OK, that’s my phrase, but it fits]

    “Law enforcement agencies need to explain why crime clearances have been falling since 1990 despite police agencies being given more resources and personnel. If, as is widely speculated, officers secretly stopped making arrests to protest reforms and coerce public sentiment against ​“liberal” policies, that would be a criminal dereliction of the police duty and oath that demands disciplinary action. The lawful way for police to protest policy is not to shirk their duties, but to make their case in policy forums or by running for office, like all other community members”

    https://www.cjcj.org/reports-publications/report/california-law-enforcement-agencies-are-spending-more-but-solving-fewer-crimes?fbclid=IwAR0GXcd3UoyYQr8BGiD-96LckPb4AB0dj44Q3EGZKup5t60v7JPagTxBdjE

  158. 158.

    Bupalos

    @geg6: OK, well, we just disagree. And it’s a matter of vibe interpretation and really not falsifiable in either direction. Especially as regards media choices, I don’t think the identity stuff is nearly as salient as is frequently assumed in spaces like this. And I think this over reliance tends to bury other truths that should be much more prominently considered.

  160. 160.

    Kay

    @Tarragon:

    I haven’t seen it but I felt it was fairly clear that’s what was happening. I read a stat on San Francisco police and citations – traffic tickets, so not something they can blame on a “liberal DA” and they were just writing far fewer tickets. They had a years long hissy fit where they refused to do their jobs because AA activists asked that they stop killing black men.

    I don’t respect that and no one should demand I respect it. It’s whiny, resentful bullshit. Go clear some cases. Write some tickets. Catch a few bike thieves in lw income neighborhoods. Get out of your car once in a while. The police salary in San Francisco is 103k a year. They should be able to handle traffic enforcement.

    Police here, in this rural county of 30,000 people, now order people to spread eagle in the road before the police will get out of the patrol car. Probably hampers investigations, huh? Their absolute hatred and terror of the public?

    The survellience is what I want covered. People don’t know this but there is video tape of you now just about everywhere you go. There is so much private security – businesses, homes, parking lots, street views – we don’t even need state security – all police do is demand the video and they get A LOT of video. Yet, inexplicably, this has failed to increase their clearance rate. It’s a mystery to me.

  161. 161.

    Geminid

    North Carolina’s Governor’s race will catch a lot of attention the next few months but so will the contest in House District 105.

    That’s where Democrat Nicole Sidman will try to unseat Rep. Tricia Cotham, the Benedict Arnold of Mecklenburg County. Cotham is the dirty lowdown cheating liar who switched parties last year and helped pass a raft of reactionary bills with a veto-proof majority. They included measures that “gutted women’s rights,” as challeger Sidman’s website puts it.

    A Charlotte Observer reporter described the district as Republican-leaning, but according to WFAE, “Charlotte’s NPR News Source,”

       House District 105 as it’s drawn now is a tossup, meaning that it will likely be one of the few competitive state house races in North Carolina.

    The district now includes Mint Hill, Matthews and south Charlotte.

  162. 162.

    Miss Bianca

    @Gin & Tonic: Ooh. That seems like a real faux pas, if true. I would frankly have expected better from Biden’s State Department people.

    @Tony Jay: And then put on his aviator shades and stroll out to the wild applause of Congressional Democrats and hooting and shit-flinging from the GOP.

  163. 163.

    Miss Bianca

    @Kay: And if so, thank God fasting for DougJ, and I apologize to him and the universe for all the times I got mad at him for his devilishly successful trolling here in the comments section lo these many years ago. Little did I realize he was polishing his act to take it on the road!

    Come back, DougJ! :)

  164. 164.

    Dave

    @Bupalos: You do have a point but I think if you look how Obama was treated it was generally positive (especially relative to most Democrat’s) with a very important exception and that is if he approached any issue race in a way that even acknowledged that the upper middle class urban cohort anyone can be accepted as long as they are just like us; surface level diversity if you will.

    When he did even modestly identify with a racial identity even a bit outside of that the press tended to react with discomfort and hostility.  Similar reaction around economic orthodoxies though they had fewer opportunities for this because he truly seemed to buy into (or at least knew not to let on he didn’t) the pseudo-meritocracy less cruel around the edges than GOP economics that seems to be the baseline of a lot of the upper-middle class and above urban cohort.

  165. 165.

    Dave

    @Kay: Policies like the spread eagle are where I end up extremely critical of police that and the fear and othering of their fellow citizens.  I get that it’s a genuinely difficult job but man is their danger sense completely vibe and right wing cesspool based.

    Wish I had something more to offer this but it drives me nuts.  Vibes should not set policy and approach.  If you as an officer find yourself that afraid of your fellow citizens that should be a red flag and a call for some immersion therapy.

    You are absolutely correct get out of the cars.

  166. 166.

    Geminid

    @Miss Bianca: I wonder if the White House staffers who planned this consulted the State Department first. it’s an amateurish mistake, something that a person with only superficial knowledge of foreign affairs might do

    Someone who does not read Balloon Juice.

  167. 167.

    Bupalos

    @Dave: I can certainly agree with that. The discussion here started with familiar claims that media bias against Biden is in large part driven by an identity-based reaction within the media to his selection of Kamala Harris. I think that viewpoint distorts the reality of media bias in important ways.

  168. 168.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Permanently broken by covid, BLM and Me Too. They aren’t handling change well – their own aging is a change, too. Brittle. They break easily

     

    I never fail to chuckle when I see this from you. Because, you are correct.

    The fragility

  169. 169.

    rikyrah

    @Soprano2:

     

    I think they thought that when they became middle aged they’d all be Masters of the Universe because they’re white guys, and what they’re finding is that women and black and brown people are also large and in charge, and it makes them crazy. They think they have the right to be the only ones telling people what to do.

     

    Absolutely no lie told.

  170. 170.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    he appears eager to drive divisions, disparaging L.G.B.T.Q. people and quoting Hitler on social media”

     

    He APPEARS?

    APPEARS?

    Phuck outta here.

  171. 171.

    Matt McIrvin

    @geg6: The equation of “strength” with tough-guy posturing and machismo is the fundamental error at the heart of fascism and right-wing movements the world over. And centrists and liberals are not even immune to it. It’s convenient fictional shorthand. But it’s confusing something real with an aesthetic, even if it weren’t an obnoxious aesthetic.

  172. 172.

    brantl

    @Ohio Mom: Emily Lattela. “I heard some crustaceans highjacked an airliner; who. Makes their little masks , where do they get their tiny guns?…..”

    News announcer: “That’s Croatians, Ms. Lattela, not crustaceans.”

    Lattela: “Never mind “.

  173. 173.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Dave: What white people wanted to believe about Obama was that his rise to power would signal the coming of a post-racial America. Race just wasn’t going to matter any more and they could stop worrying about it.

    Obama had to tread lightly if he wanted to benefit from that idea. But his second term was really where it fell apart. The intersection of police brutality (and wannabe-police brutality) with a world where everyone was carrying around an Internet-connected camera and there were things that honest people couldn’t deny any more.

  174. 174.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    I haven’t seen it but I felt it was fairly clear that’s what was happening. I read a stat on San Francisco police and citations – traffic tickets, so not something they can blame on a “liberal DA” and they were just writing far fewer tickets. They had a years long hissy fit where they refused to do their jobs because AA activists asked that they stop killing black men.

     

    I mean…just asking that they not kill Black folks makes them all upset.

    You start in CPD at like $72,000.

    Within 18 months, you are making $100,000 – salary.

    We are understaffed at CPD, because they won’t hire more cops because they want that OVERTIME.

    As a COP, you can make your salary IN OVERTIME.

    And, the thing is, I don’t resent paying that.

    What I resent is that the taxpayer has to also pay to settle the police misconduct lawsuits. We’re over HALF A BILLION IN LAWSUIT PAYMENTS IN THE LAST 10 YEARS.

    THAT?

    I RESENT.

    You abuse my community and I have to pay for it? No. That money should come out of the Police Pension fund.

  176. 176.

    Soprano2

    @Jeffro: That’s a good example. Mostly what I hear is when they talk about the Biden campaign and how they’re “trying” to tell people what they’ve accomplished or what they’re going to do. The press talks about it as if they have zero agency as far as telling people what the Biden administration has done. I think when they say “try” or “trying” they are saying it will fail or was a failure without any actual evidence of that. They never say TFG is trying to get a message out or trying to tell people what he will do. It’s a word that implies weakness.

  177. 177.

    Soprano2

    @geg6: As David Broder famously said about Bill Clinton, “He came in here and trashed the place, and it wasn’t his place”. Talk about a glimpse into how the D.C. pundits see things – Washington, D.C. belongs to them and they’ll decide whether or not you belong there regardless of how the American people vote.

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