Welcome, friends. It’s been a year of Trump’s idiocy. A year of watching the Republican party provide excuses and free passes for all that he has done. They have proven beyond any question that they are interested in one thing and one thing only: Power. Trump is obstructing justice as baldly as Nixon did, but instead of being determined to find the truth, the GOP is trying to come up with means of diminishing the FBI. Idiots.
I will say right now that if you are expecting this coverage to be unbiased: No.
I’m watching on CNN. At the moment everyone is milling around and wondering if Trump will go off script. That would be interesting.
Feel free to sound off with your own comments. That way I know someone is reading this.
9:07: Sheeh. What the hëll happened to his hair? It’s a lighter shade and incredibly flat. It’s like he’s completely bald and they put a hair helmet on his head.
9:08: I’m wondering if someone will shout “Liar!” There will likely be enough openings to do so.
9:09: Christ, this speech is supposed to be an hour long. I’m going to want to shower my brain.
9:09: Ryan stumbled over the word “Presenting.” It sounded like he almost said “preventing.”
9:11: A clear vision? Is that why his people constantly contradict him?
9:12: I wonder if he asked Ashleigh if she voted for him.
9:14: Yes, we’ve seen all these things. We’ve also seen Trump throwing paper towels at the Puerto Ricans and then insulting their leaders.
9:15: “And since he was shot, I have done everything I can to make guns unavailable to shooters. Oh, wait. No I haven’t”
9:17: And the majority of the people advocate gun control. So you should be making it a top priority if you want to represent them.
9:18: But are we strong enough to survive Trump?
9:19: Yes, these figures are correct. But the jobs have been rising for the past 75 months. Things are still improving because of all that Obama did, not what Trump did.
9:20: Tax cuts that tremendously benefit Trump and the one percent.
9:22: Yes, it looks great for the first year. But the following years, taxes are going to start increasing and people will wind up paying more in taxes.
9:23: I have never in all my years seen a president applauding himself in a State of the Union address. Never.
9:24: Meanwhile we are going to stop giving out food and water to the people in Puerto Rico because supposedly they are becoming “dependent” on the help.
9:26: It’s nice he’s talking about jobs. Remember the Carrier factory that he swore he would save their jobs? Gone.
9:27: That’s not necessarily happening. Walmart announced they were giving out bonuses but then closed a ton of stores.
9:28: Can we achieve his impeachment? Because I’m down with that.
9:29: We never lost the American way. Meanwhile “In God we Trust” was not a part of this country from its inception. It was added in the 1960s. “Under God” was added to the pledge in the 1950s.
9:31: This 12 year old kid didn’t start that. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have been putting flags on the graves of Vets in Long Island since the 1960s.
9:32: And he takes a swipe at the football players.
9:33: He wants judges who will interpret the Constitution the way that conservatives do. And he is fighting to protect religious liberty…for white Christians. And yes, fight to keep the second amendment. Screw the kids in Kentucky and the people of Vegas.
9:34: All the VA thing is a punishment for people. It doesn’t wind up providing money for the Vets.
9:36: Whoa, did you see the looks on those army guys? Boy, did they look pìššëd.
9:37: Why in the name of all that’s holy is eliminating regulations a GOOD THING?!
9:38: Clean coal does not exist. In the meantime he put Tariffs on the panels required for solar energy. He managed to kill solar energy which was the fastest growing means of power.
9:38: The Alabama plant was in place before Trump was in office.
9:39: I have no idea if the FDA thing is true, but I tend to doubt it.
9:40: STOP GØÐÐÃMN APPLAUDING YOURSELF.
9:41: Yes, medicine is cheaper in other countries because they have socialized medicine.
9:42: He doesn’t understand free trade. It’s that simple Economists must be tearing their hair out.
9:44: Obama actually started the infrastructure repair. And naturally the red states will benefit most of all because they have the worst infrastructure. Meanwhile he’s also trying to get rid of the studies for environmental protection. That would mean that wetlands, nature preserves, all of them could be built upon.
9:47: He’s trying to skew us back to the 1950s. America is not an industrialized society and hasn’t been for decades. He’s fighting for jobs that aren’t going to be around in a few years.
9:50: Oh…my God. He has this poor family standing to be props for his incessant determination to cast immigrants as murderers, thieves and rapists. This may well be a new low in the history of this speech.
9:52: But by all means, don’t do anything about the Second Amendment that enables murderers to have ready access to guns.
9:55: And most of the people arrested as part of MS-13 are American citizens.
9:56: Well, so much for him being undercover anymore. They just showed his face.
9:57: Pelosi looks like she’s projecting daggers out of her eyes.
9:57: No, the previous administration instituted the path for citizenship for dreamers that you wound up tossing out.
9:58: Right, the wall he said the Mexicans were going to pay for. He has once again linked the future of the dreamers to getting $25 billion for his dámņëd wall.
10:00: Don’t we already HAVE a merit based system? And chain migration is not what he says it is. He is lying through his teeth, and I’m pretty sure I heard someone yell “No.”
10:02: Mitch McConnell looks horrified at what he’s hearing. He must be sitting there going, “What the hëll am I going to do?”
10:03: Kath just told me I’ve got 444 looks at this blog. So that’s nice.
10:04: I just know that tomorrow Fox is going to claim he seemed so presidential. It’s for sure.
10:06: Boy, this cop and his wife do not look comfortable. They’ve realized he’s using them as another prop. A genuine good deed is just more grist for Trump’s mill.
10:07: Oh, China and Russia are rivals, now. Here’s the thing: they’re not. He has managed to lower our standing throughout the world as other countries realize they can move forward without the US because we have nothing to offer. And now he’s talking about more nuclear weapons even though we can wipe out the rest of the world ten times over.
10:09: Pretty sure that claim about Isis isn’t true. Anyone fact checking that?
10:10: Kath fact checked. Isis’s territory is pretty much unchanged. They had to retreat in a few areas that they had recently acquired, but that’s it.
10:11: And Justin is sitting there thinking, “If Hillary had won I wouldn’t have to be here.” He is definitely not comfortable.
10:13: Does this include the homegrown right wing terrorists? Nope.
10:14: Remember when Obama promised every year to close Gitmo? Bet Trump thinks waterboarding is cool.
10:16: And so set the stage for massive radical assault.
10:17: Christ. So he’s basically saying that if someone says we’ve done something stupid, they’re not our friends. He likely wants to shut down the UN headquarters.
10:18: He can diss corrupt dictators all he wants. But the fact of the matter is that corrupt dictators are constantly emulating Trump, dismissing reports of their horrors as “Fake News.” Dictators love Trump.
10:19: “I will not repeat the mistakes of previous administrations that have managed to avoid the world unleashing nuclear warheads.”
10:20: God, those two people have obviously been crying. Gøddámņ, these are people, not props.Jesus, this is a horror show.
10:22: He’s right. We are a witness to a power that could threaten the world. It’s speaking right now.
10:25: This was supposed to be an hour. It’s now an hour and ten minutes. The longest of my life.
10:28: Christ, I thought he was done.
10:28: Yes. And it doesn’t belong to you. Ever.
10:29: Yes, your job is to serve Americans. It is a task at which you have utterly failed.
10:30: Thank God. Kath was losing her mind. Looking forward to seeing the Daily Show and Colbert live programs deal with this.
• 
Go at it. I’m going to be reading Brandon Sanderson’s Oathbringer. It promises to be more realistic than Trump’s speech.
Trump’s clapping for himself? I’m confused.
Crass enough to applaud himself, and too stupid to know not to clap directly into an open mike.
7:16 (MT) Better than they like you, Mr. President.
7:20 (MT) I like how only 2 African-American’s clapped at that statistic, like they know it’s BS.
7:21 (MT) Any moment now they’re gonna say “Dilly Dilly!”
7:24 (MT) Toldja…
8:28 (MT)
Oops. I was wrong and off by 64 minutes.
A family of four making 75k was only paying 4k in taxes? Is that right?
7:31 (MT) -Another soul corrupted…
7:33 (MT)
ABC just fact-checked the tax cut, saying it’s the 12 largest…
Peter Sez:
9:38: Whoa, did you see the looks on those army guys? Boy, did they look pìššëd.
I think I saw Thunderbolt Ross in their eyes. That’s how pìššëd they were.
He hasn’t killed Solar, but he did it some hurt. The free market will continue fighting his regressive policies.
7:45 (MT)
Is that Nancy Pelosi clenching her jaw almost every time the camera’s on her?
Two families, actually, Peter.
Sadly, the war on intelligence continues with this display of utter, complete bûllšhìŧ.
Sorry I’m late. Was watching something much more believable and realistic, not to mention enjoyable: the CW’s Black Lightning.
Kath here.
How was it? I really like that show
I was watching while reading here. Good episode.
I enjoyed it. Third episode so far, and it’s hit the ground running. No origin story yet, since this is supposed to be about Jefferson Pierce coming out of retirement as Black Lightning.
The actor who portrays Tobias Whale doesn’t really look the part, but that hardly matters because he acts the part really well.
The one thing that jars my sense of suspension of disbelief is the neon-like logo on the front of his super suit. Why have a black costume that blends into the night, only to have neon yellow and blue right over the front of his torso, where most of the vitals are?
@COMALite J: “Why have a black costume that blends into the night, only to have neon yellow and blue right over the front of his torso, where most of the vitals are?”
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I don’t get that either. But I go with the explanation offerred in Miller’s Dark Knight where Batman says he puts a big bright target on his chest because he can’t armor his head
Aw lawdy. good stream of consciousness so far PD!
I’m watching WWE. That’s more realistic.
I’m just avoiding it. I can read transcripts later. I don’t want to feed his ego with ratings and it’ll be less annoying to read the words than hear them in his voice.
“9:27: That’s not necessarily happening. Walmart announced they were giving out bonuses but then closed a ton of stores.”
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Closed a ton of Sam’s Clubs, laid of those workers, laid off thousands of Walmart employees as well. Oh, the dirty secret about the $1,000 bonuses? They were designed on a tiered system so that the vast majority of employees don’t get $1,000. Most will get $200 or $300 before tax at best.
I’m sure those employees were upset about the $200-$300 bonus too.
Some likely were. Walmart makes a big announcement that all their employees are getting a $1,000 bonus and say thank you to Trump and the Republicans. They certainly worked to get that message out in the press as much as they could the day they announced it while closing 63 Sam’s Club stores and giving zero notice to the 11,000 employees cut. Oh, Walmart also announced layoffs for 2018 a short while ago after laying people off in the latter part of 2017. They’re literally laying off thousands of people in the main company as well as in Sam’s.
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I imagine quite a few employees opening their paycheck expecting roughly $600 or more after taxes to be there on top of their usual pay and instead finding maybe $150 after taxes extra with a note to check the fine print were somewhat cheesed off. Maybe not as cheesed off as the people getting pink slips, but if I told you I was giving you $1,000 and only ponied up $200, I don’t think you’d be all glass half full about it.
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Hëll, anyone working there for longer than a couple of years also knows the line about the upcoming raises being due to the tax cut is also full of šhìŧ, so some have more than a little reason to be cranky about it.
Oh hëll, the Democratic Response is being done by Joe Kennedy III? That’s like having Daredevil fight Thanos. Good fight for 4 seconds, then…
Okay, it wasn’t as bad as I thought, but a solid response isn’t enough. This is something, where if it was allowed, Hillary or Former President Obama should have done it and come out swinging. Preferably Former President Obama.
Actually, Peter, maybe this administration is just a bad dream Doc Samson is having…
Yeah… That would have been just wonderful. Hey, here’s the past from our party because we have no ability to get anyone representing the future in any way.
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His is an old name in politics, but he himself is still more representational of the future of a party.
“9:37: Why in the name of all that’s holy is eliminating regulations a GOOD THING?!”
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Someone once pointed out that if we referred to them as “safeguards” (which is really what they are) the elimination of them would be seen for what it is.