This speech was perfection. McCarthy tried to droop his eyes like he was bored, listening to "Sleepy Joe." But President Biden was anything but sleepy, and he knocked it out of the park. And apparently Social Security and Medicare are safe, too!
This speech was perfection. McCarthy tried to droop his eyes like he was bored, listening to "Sleepy Joe." But President Biden was anything but sleepy, and he knocked it out of the park. And apparently Social Security and Medicare are safe, too!
I noticed that too. McCarthy looking ‘bored’ but snapping awake to so much of what President Biden was saying! Fun to watch ... on my cell in Ca the whole speech and his long celebratory exit was on camera for us to celebrate with him!
I was not sure he was bored, be he sure looked like he was suffering, perhaps listening to the subtle and compelling bite of Biden's rhetoric and thinking:
He definitely was not bored, JL, though he sure tried to look like he was. What was hilarious was to watch him catch himself sitting up straight, wide eyed and listening attentively at times, then force himself back into his "bored" act. The guy just ain't that bright.
He was dejected. He could see and hear what was happening. His party was being played for the fools they are. The hecklers were on national television. The President didn't take the bait, rather he turned their bad behavior back on themselves, securing an assent to preserving Social Security and Medicare from budget cuts. I think McCarthy knows he has nothing to bring to a negotiating table come budget time. He is facing no confidence votes from the hecklers and that's enough to depress anyone.
When Biden called on the audience to "stand up for Medicare and SS", repeated, I think, most members of Congress stood up, even the majority of the shamed Republicans, knowing that their constituents were watching. The cameras panned the audience and showed those who were not standing, a telling moment that should be used in future campaign advertising and current media commentary. We know who you are. Your actions or inactions speak for you and are loud and incriminating. Seniors and seniors-to-be and family members of seniors, be alert.
Yes, and McCarthy had asked Biden to not use the term "extremist MAGA" in the SOTU and probably other requests. He may have promised to keep his party in line during the speech. And then Biden keeps his promise and McCarthy clearly has no control over his party.
Laurie.....nothing is safe in regards to the Republican Party. They did not agree to not raising the age to receive Social Security or changes to Medicare. The number of sane Republicans is diminishing.
I agree. I wouldn’t trust any of them as far as I could throw them. I said this before. There are no good Congressional Rs. After all that has happened with them, Trump and January 6th etc ,any conscientious and honest R would have retired or switched parties to Independent.
Yes, but their VOTERS saw them agree to protect Social Security and Medicare. And most of the Republicants have already been informed by their donors that it's political suicide.
I posted this one recently before, but about a year ago Romney, seeming as close to "sane" as they have right now propose shafting the young on SS;
"In comments to the Senate budget committee on Wednesday, the Republican senator from Utah said that the spiraling costs of retirement programs had to be tackled to bring national debt under control. Romney raised the politically controversial idea of cutting benefits, but only for younger generations before they reach retirement age." https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/31/mitt-romney-cut-back-retirement-benefits-younger-americans
Also this clueless, contextless gem a few years ago:
"I got to go to the Olympic Games in China. It's pretty impressive over there how quickly they can build things, how productive they are as a society. You should see their airport compared to our airports, their highways, their train systems. They're moving quickly in part because the regulators see their job as encouraging private people. It's amazing. The head of Coca-Cola said the business environment is friendlier in China than in America. And that's because of the regulators. That's because of government."
For a Republican, the whole universe is a validation of Reaganomics, no matter how cognitively dissonant. It seemed to me that Cheney and Kinzinger were the sanest Republcians left, and they were publicly drummed out of the party.
BTW, speaking of cognitive dissonance, there is an absurd, painful irony to hear Romney admiring Chinese trains when Republicans fought all out war to sabotage fast, usable trains in the USA. I have never been to China, but I have spent about seven weeks in Japan (and my daughter lived there for a year). Shinkansen. and all of the trunk train system in Japan is fast, clean, extensive, and timely. Rural commuter trains are more USA-ish, but work well. They made travel, even to off-the-beaten-path places pleasant and easy. The "bullet train" is pricey, but so is air travel. (Peach Airlines is crazy cheap but packed like a sardine can). I also rode a very cool fast train in Sweden. Because we booked it too late, we "had" to ride in the pet car, where nearly everyone had some kind of animal. It was a bonus.
If we truly are "The richest country in the world" why are so much of our societal facilities second or third class? It's not Amtrak's fault, by trips on it in last 20 years were just horror stories. I get the impression that some routes are OK, and others just plain broken.
In this wonderful "Christian " nation , it seems the only thing we really care about is the profit and abandoning our female population and many people of color and migrants who are fleeing persecution and poverty.
We have never needed someone more than President Joe Biden, his wisdom. experience and goodness. Our country needs to make more like Joe and others who have good character and truly love freedom. "Building Back Better" is such a great slogan. We need to examine that on a personal level as well!!! each of us!
As long as we allow drugs of any type to fill the emptiness of our souls we are running toward an even deeper path of self destruction,. Power and money will never create peace within.
Our houses of worship are shrinking. The huge churches built around "we've got the greatest paster", we do so much for the world and for our neighborhood or city.....look at what "we" built.....well, as happens in the real world.....the THINGS are crumbling. ....
But there is "HOPE" ....... Emily Dickenson
"Hope" is the thing with feathers-
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all
And sweeter -in the Gale- is heard
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm
I've heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest Sea
Yet never in Extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
There is "HOPE" itself, working within us to produce good as we are directed. How will we answer...it is not a demand.
I find religion complicated, and a broad category for many different things. I think that there is an immense difference between those encouraging each other to explore "How can I be a better person?" "We're better that you" is a cult talking. I am aware that my some of many of my posts here smack of that, and I know from some personal experiences that people can be consumed by ideology yet have another side to them, as perhaps we all do. I certainly do; the point made by Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde. But I don't force my will on others, at least not (I hope) in a bullying way. I support arresting and prosecuting people who significantly harm others, but I also know it will take more than that to get a handle on our humanity-wide epidemic of malignant narcissism. Ironically, that seems to me to be the a dominant theme in what Jesus (and other faiths) were talking about, but the focus of the leadership and membership of organizations too often has a tendency to primarily serve their own positions.
JL Graham, thank you for your comment. It is much easier for me to critize than to push forward in the power of Christ's love. I believe, His life on earth was filled with love, pain, sorrow and joy, and as Emily Dickenson expressed so well.....Hope.
Biden won last night with forceful statements and big grins at the hecklers whom he shot down very adroitly. He knows how to act, and he deserves "happy warrior" status. And I have never before seen such a sequence as the one that wound up "Stand up for seniors". It should go into the Smithsonian! (Did not watch Sanders, but I know which side she's on.)
I have been waiting 40+ years for Democrats to say in no uncertain terms that Reaganomics is a transparent swindle. That the "Reaganomic" policies that have hung over US politics for decades, patently reversed economic justice in America, not furthered it. I had hoped Obama would focus on that, but he really didn't. Biden has.
I wouldn't trust Republicans no matter how much they clap. We can't relax about SS and Medicare, just because they got caught up in the moment. If they feel tricked by Biden, they'll double down.
They will attack Biden and "the general welfare" no matter what. They always do, and are doing so. They can't let a good word be said about anything apart from their own ideology. Biden boxed them into a corner though. They will go on trying every trick in the book to tear down democracy and deliver the spoils to their wealthy patrons, but now they are on record angrily defending Social Security, a made for TV and perfectly honest "gotcha" moment if they stray.
I think there are a TON of recorded "Gotcha" issues for in-your-face comparisons of what the say and what they do. Their lies have proved very destructive, and should never have been tolerated as much as they have been. The J6th Committer seemed to me the first landed sucker punch to the major corpus of the evil lies. Now an upper cut by Biden.
This speech was perfection. McCarthy tried to droop his eyes like he was bored, listening to "Sleepy Joe." But President Biden was anything but sleepy, and he knocked it out of the park. And apparently Social Security and Medicare are safe, too!
I noticed that too. McCarthy looking ‘bored’ but snapping awake to so much of what President Biden was saying! Fun to watch ... on my cell in Ca the whole speech and his long celebratory exit was on camera for us to celebrate with him!
I was not sure he was bored, be he sure looked like he was suffering, perhaps listening to the subtle and compelling bite of Biden's rhetoric and thinking:
"Oh $#*% , Oh $#*% , Oh $#*%"
He definitely was not bored, JL, though he sure tried to look like he was. What was hilarious was to watch him catch himself sitting up straight, wide eyed and listening attentively at times, then force himself back into his "bored" act. The guy just ain't that bright.
He was dejected. He could see and hear what was happening. His party was being played for the fools they are. The hecklers were on national television. The President didn't take the bait, rather he turned their bad behavior back on themselves, securing an assent to preserving Social Security and Medicare from budget cuts. I think McCarthy knows he has nothing to bring to a negotiating table come budget time. He is facing no confidence votes from the hecklers and that's enough to depress anyone.
When Biden called on the audience to "stand up for Medicare and SS", repeated, I think, most members of Congress stood up, even the majority of the shamed Republicans, knowing that their constituents were watching. The cameras panned the audience and showed those who were not standing, a telling moment that should be used in future campaign advertising and current media commentary. We know who you are. Your actions or inactions speak for you and are loud and incriminating. Seniors and seniors-to-be and family members of seniors, be alert.
He was monitoring the upstanding behavior of his army.
Yes, and McCarthy had asked Biden to not use the term "extremist MAGA" in the SOTU and probably other requests. He may have promised to keep his party in line during the speech. And then Biden keeps his promise and McCarthy clearly has no control over his party.
Many of the monsters Plutocracy created are out of control, from MTG to global heating.
LeMoine, “Dimmer than a small appliance bulb”, right?
Not the sharpest marble in the bag, Dave :-)
DEFINITIY! ....He is NOT VERY " Swuft !"
He knows where the cameras are. He wanted to look appalled but ended up looking bored. He also knew the cameras were on MTG and he didn't like it.
I thought he was daydreaming about being behind the podium as President McCarthy.
Laurie.....nothing is safe in regards to the Republican Party. They did not agree to not raising the age to receive Social Security or changes to Medicare. The number of sane Republicans is diminishing.
I agree. I wouldn’t trust any of them as far as I could throw them. I said this before. There are no good Congressional Rs. After all that has happened with them, Trump and January 6th etc ,any conscientious and honest R would have retired or switched parties to Independent.
Yes, but their VOTERS saw them agree to protect Social Security and Medicare. And most of the Republicants have already been informed by their donors that it's political suicide.
Some of the cult may have seen them, but few will remember!
Yes THEIR VOTERS saw them agree to protect SS & Medicare. Priceless!
I posted this one recently before, but about a year ago Romney, seeming as close to "sane" as they have right now propose shafting the young on SS;
"In comments to the Senate budget committee on Wednesday, the Republican senator from Utah said that the spiraling costs of retirement programs had to be tackled to bring national debt under control. Romney raised the politically controversial idea of cutting benefits, but only for younger generations before they reach retirement age." https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/31/mitt-romney-cut-back-retirement-benefits-younger-americans
Also this clueless, contextless gem a few years ago:
"I got to go to the Olympic Games in China. It's pretty impressive over there how quickly they can build things, how productive they are as a society. You should see their airport compared to our airports, their highways, their train systems. They're moving quickly in part because the regulators see their job as encouraging private people. It's amazing. The head of Coca-Cola said the business environment is friendlier in China than in America. And that's because of the regulators. That's because of government."
For a Republican, the whole universe is a validation of Reaganomics, no matter how cognitively dissonant. It seemed to me that Cheney and Kinzinger were the sanest Republcians left, and they were publicly drummed out of the party.
BTW, speaking of cognitive dissonance, there is an absurd, painful irony to hear Romney admiring Chinese trains when Republicans fought all out war to sabotage fast, usable trains in the USA. I have never been to China, but I have spent about seven weeks in Japan (and my daughter lived there for a year). Shinkansen. and all of the trunk train system in Japan is fast, clean, extensive, and timely. Rural commuter trains are more USA-ish, but work well. They made travel, even to off-the-beaten-path places pleasant and easy. The "bullet train" is pricey, but so is air travel. (Peach Airlines is crazy cheap but packed like a sardine can). I also rode a very cool fast train in Sweden. Because we booked it too late, we "had" to ride in the pet car, where nearly everyone had some kind of animal. It was a bonus.
If we truly are "The richest country in the world" why are so much of our societal facilities second or third class? It's not Amtrak's fault, by trips on it in last 20 years were just horror stories. I get the impression that some routes are OK, and others just plain broken.
In this wonderful "Christian " nation , it seems the only thing we really care about is the profit and abandoning our female population and many people of color and migrants who are fleeing persecution and poverty.
We have never needed someone more than President Joe Biden, his wisdom. experience and goodness. Our country needs to make more like Joe and others who have good character and truly love freedom. "Building Back Better" is such a great slogan. We need to examine that on a personal level as well!!! each of us!
As long as we allow drugs of any type to fill the emptiness of our souls we are running toward an even deeper path of self destruction,. Power and money will never create peace within.
Our houses of worship are shrinking. The huge churches built around "we've got the greatest paster", we do so much for the world and for our neighborhood or city.....look at what "we" built.....well, as happens in the real world.....the THINGS are crumbling. ....
But there is "HOPE" ....... Emily Dickenson
"Hope" is the thing with feathers-
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all
And sweeter -in the Gale- is heard
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm
I've heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest Sea
Yet never in Extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
There is "HOPE" itself, working within us to produce good as we are directed. How will we answer...it is not a demand.
I find religion complicated, and a broad category for many different things. I think that there is an immense difference between those encouraging each other to explore "How can I be a better person?" "We're better that you" is a cult talking. I am aware that my some of many of my posts here smack of that, and I know from some personal experiences that people can be consumed by ideology yet have another side to them, as perhaps we all do. I certainly do; the point made by Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde. But I don't force my will on others, at least not (I hope) in a bullying way. I support arresting and prosecuting people who significantly harm others, but I also know it will take more than that to get a handle on our humanity-wide epidemic of malignant narcissism. Ironically, that seems to me to be the a dominant theme in what Jesus (and other faiths) were talking about, but the focus of the leadership and membership of organizations too often has a tendency to primarily serve their own positions.
JL Graham, thank you for your comment. It is much easier for me to critize than to push forward in the power of Christ's love. I believe, His life on earth was filled with love, pain, sorrow and joy, and as Emily Dickenson expressed so well.....Hope.
There's that.
Biden won last night with forceful statements and big grins at the hecklers whom he shot down very adroitly. He knows how to act, and he deserves "happy warrior" status. And I have never before seen such a sequence as the one that wound up "Stand up for seniors". It should go into the Smithsonian! (Did not watch Sanders, but I know which side she's on.)
I have been waiting 40+ years for Democrats to say in no uncertain terms that Reaganomics is a transparent swindle. That the "Reaganomic" policies that have hung over US politics for decades, patently reversed economic justice in America, not furthered it. I had hoped Obama would focus on that, but he really didn't. Biden has.
Joni Mitchell….Both Sides Now
https://youtu.be/7cBf0olE9Yc
I think of this song as I gaze at our current representative Congress.
I think President Biden cleared some clouds last night. An indisputable, respectful salute to Democracy.
Salud, Laurie
🗽🌤️
I wouldn't trust Republicans no matter how much they clap. We can't relax about SS and Medicare, just because they got caught up in the moment. If they feel tricked by Biden, they'll double down.
They will attack Biden and "the general welfare" no matter what. They always do, and are doing so. They can't let a good word be said about anything apart from their own ideology. Biden boxed them into a corner though. They will go on trying every trick in the book to tear down democracy and deliver the spoils to their wealthy patrons, but now they are on record angrily defending Social Security, a made for TV and perfectly honest "gotcha" moment if they stray.
I think there are a TON of recorded "Gotcha" issues for in-your-face comparisons of what the say and what they do. Their lies have proved very destructive, and should never have been tolerated as much as they have been. The J6th Committer seemed to me the first landed sucker punch to the major corpus of the evil lies. Now an upper cut by Biden.
Home Run all the way!! Bravo!!