One of the best moments this week came as President Biden played Republicans like a uke:
- Nan’s Notebook really wants President Biden to retire after this term.
- Max’s Dad was impressed with the State of the Union, but especially enjoyed the State Of Joe Biden.
Key beginning:
Hey I thought that octogenarian cognitive declining Sleepy Joe Biden was President but what we got the other night was Scranton Joe, who rolled up his sleeves and told the screeching spider monkeys of the GOP to put up their dukes.
- Republicans heckle the SOTU.
President Biden has fun playing them like a musical instrument.
And YellowDog Granny has her share of hilarity.
- At The Onion, President Biden engages the new Republican Congress by reading from the Illustrated Children’s State Of The Union.
- In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson commits accuracy, quoting Mike Pence advocating the privatization of Social Security.
- The Palmer Report connects three facts.
- Republicans are attacking Medicare
- 28.4 million Americans rely on Medicare
- Most of those 28.4 million Americans do not follow politics
So…
What would happen if more discovered what Republicans plan? - driftglass goes SOTU fashion hunting.
- Iron Knee at Political Irony takes a look at the Republican response and detects a whiff of hypocrisy.
- Biden’s call to ban assault weapons brought to mind an office discussion. Decades ago, a co-worker mocked the standard NRA position of Good‑Guy‑With‑a‑Gun:
I’m definitely for arming 2md graders with handguns.
One horrified co-worker thought she was serious.
Here in Missouri, the land beyond parody, Scotties Playtime covers the legislative vote to allow kids to carry deadly weapons.
Key quote about a minor change that Republicans voted down:
Democratic Rep. Donna Baringer said police in her district asked for the change to stop “14-year-olds walking down the middle of the street in the city of St. Louis carrying AR-15s.”
“Now they have been emboldened, and they are walking around with them,” Baringer said. “Until they actually brandish them, and brandish them with intent, our police officers’ hands are handcuffed.”
- As Biden promotes action to counter climate danger, tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors shows us the path that France is showing us that California has been showing on a quick opportunity for solar power.
- The President had as guests the bereaved parents of Tyre Nichols.
Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger has some numbers. Most Americans in pretty much every demographic group see police violence as a problem.
Most groups see police violence as common against Black people, with one predictable exception.
- Donald Trump Jr. chose a lamentable attack on the President’s SOTU:
- Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson responds to a whitewash with typical reserve:
— James Wigderson (@jwigderson) February 8, 2023
- Disaffected and it Feels So Good reports as Republicans fight for free speech by threatening social media employees with arrest.
Key observation:
As they did with Religious Liberty, Rightwingers & Republicans have turned the concept, implementation, and very idea of Free Speech into its opposite.
Continue reading “SOTU, Hecklers Played, Ex-Balloon, Guns, Debt Ceiling, Mental Health”