#republican response to the sotu

[thecursivej]

Okay, so I'm watching the Republican Response Now:

This lady is giving "I'm a freshman in acting I class trying to give a monologue".

He literally tried to get more border funding to keep it closed, but this crazy lady is one of the MANY who followed Orange Man(TM)'s order to note vote for the bipartisan border bill.

This girl is crazy.

Also, here backdrop has got to be cardboard. This shit barely looks real.

There are so many red herring falacies in this speech.

The amount of unnamed "examples" proves to me that NONE of these things happened.

GIRL; PEOPLE NOT BEING ABLE TO AFFORD THEIR MEDICINE IS DUE TO REPUBLICAN EFFORTS TO DEFUND MEDICARE.

This shit is bonkers and just... making me roll my eyes into oblivion. This is so fake. This is so empty.

"Your word is your bond" girl you ain't done shit for your community but follow Trump, why don't you stop calling the kettle black, you pot.

Yeah, and you're preventing funding to Ukraine to help combat Putin.

WHAT PROPOGANDA IS CHINA SHARING THROUGH TIKTOK!? WHERE IS IT!?

This is the most over-the-top response. This is a whole lot of fear-based pathos with a HEFTY LACK of credibility. She'd get like a 2/10 on delivery in my Public Speaking Class.

I am 1000 times better off now than I was three years ago.

Now how the FUCK is the Republican party the home of parents when they ban IVF, take away gender affirming care, ban books, propose school vouchers, and harm lgbtq+ folks?!

This girl just shouted a whole bunch of bullshit.

I HATE THAT WHISPERING SHIT. GIRL SOUNDS CREEPY AS FUCK.

Can someone in Alabama PLEASE run against this lady and send her back to Alabama permanently?

STEEPED IN THE BLOOD HELLO!? WHAT!? Girl sounding most facist by the second.

Well, that was interesting. A whole lot of nothing was this response. A whole lot of fallacies. A whole lot of acting. Girl needs some lessons tho.

SOTU - 2024

Well, I'm forcing myself to watch the State of the Union while I grade speeches, so I figured I'd record my reactions and thoughts here.

Do I hope for the words "Immediate Ceasefire"? Absolutely. Will we get them? Looking at the track record, probably not. But I remain optimistic because otherwise I'd be six feet under by now; ANYWHO here is a list of my reactions/thoughts/general feelings of the evening's watch.

I do want to give a point of clarity: I technically am identified as a democrat; truly, I'm a socialist, but seeing as how the U.S. is stuck in this godforsaken two-party-system, that is where I am. Though both sides have me feeling very french-revolutionary-esque.

Of course the first thing I see if MTG rifling through her purse on screen. I quite literally despise her.

AP is discussing Ukraine's need for weapons and funding; I would truly rather us align with Ukraine than Isr@el. I will stand unapologetically firm for Palestine and Ukraine.

Who is actually in the cabinet? I know Blinken, Garland, and Buttiegeg. Damn, wish he was running again. Would rather have him than Biden.

How insane is it that the Sec. of Defense didn't even let the White House know that he had to go in for surgery because of cancer. Like, that's just bonkers to me.

Republicans truly look like fucking robots right now. No warm greetings, no hellos, simple nods.

Republicans out here wasting fucking time with that impeachment of Mayorkas. Like how about we house the homeless populations with the money they wasted on this circus.

Oh funky fresh look at the Ultra-Mormon(TM) Mitt Romney.

MTG with that stupid fucking MAGA hat on is just... disgusting. Like this bitch is crazy.

Okay Joe, speed it up down the fucking aisle please. I got papers to grade.

Lowkey Joe looks like he might have had a five-hour energy drink with that big-ole look in his eyes.

I do appreciate that Joe still smiles and is kind to MTG. She truly doesn't deserve it.

Okay this is getting just a wee bit too monarchy for me.

MTG holds up a button saying "Laken Riley..." (couldn't read the rest). Riley was a 14 year old girl murdered by a man who was an illegal immigrant of venezuela, and instead of handling this situation with grace, empathy, and love; MTG and others seem to be capitalizing on her death to push their anti-immigration rhetoric.

Okay, cool selfie skills Joe, but let's get on with it.

ALSO HOW IS JOE BIDEN GONNA BE SO IN DEPTH WITH TECH AND "Savvy" WITH IT WHEN MOTHERFUCKER WANTS TO BAN TIKTOK!? Hello?!

BERNIE AND RAPHAEL! I feel like I haven't seen these guys in 10 million years.

Oh thank god we're starting.

Aww the little hand shake thingy he does with Kamala makes my heart happy.

Did Joe just yell "tony"?!

Wow, even got some republicans clapping for him (probs not a good thing but here we are)

Okay, good bit of humor at the top; and a throwback to the 40s. Funky fresh.

Yeah we ain't living in ordinary times for damn sure.

Interesting point of democracy being attacked here in the U.S. AND Internationally. (Mentions Ukraine and Putin; no word on Gaza yet).

Someone busted out a Ukrainian flag and shook it; rock on.

OH SHIT HE GOT MIKE JOHNSON TO CLAP!

Appreciate the insistance that the U.S. won't send troops to UKR.

Good use of Reagan to connect with the Repubs; and compare to the predecessor (aka Tr*mp).

Mike Johnson nodding instead of clapping about the predecessor comment, trying to save his ass in Orange Man's eyes.

Welcome to NATO, Sweden!

If there is one thing that should connect Democrats and Republicans; it's hatred for Putin. Yet there's a mix of Repubs standing in agreement and sitting to back up the predecessor's comment on Putin doing "whatever the hell he wants"

Talking about Jan 6. What breaks my heart? My parents still believe it wasn't an insurrection. Yikes on Bikes for me.

The line "You can't love your country only when you win" hits hard and even got Mike Johnson to applaud in agreement.

Foreign AND Domestic. Need a hefty focus on that with the right-wing republican group (@ MTG, Gaetz, Cruz, etc.)

Discussing IVF in Alabama; good connection to the overturning of Rowe v. Wade. It sucks that Republicans HAVE THE POWER to protect IVF nationally but shot the damn bill down not even a week ago.

ABORTION IS A HUMAN RIGHT. BODILY AUTONOMY IS A HUMAN. FUCKING. RIGHT. (@ The Missouri Senators who support taking away bodily autonomy).

WOMEN AREN'T WITHOUT ELECTORAL AND POLITICAL POWER; WE ABOUT TO TURN UP IN FORCE MOTHERFUCKERS!!! Bring back the strats from the 1900s; time to use our power and go bonkers.

Someone get Joe a glass of water please. Motherfucker looks a bit parched and keeps coughing. I get that when my throat goes dryyy

Can Biden not restore RvW? Can he not by an executive order make RvW the law of the land already?

Revisiting COVID's start from 2020 (Next week is the four year anniversary since the global pandemic).

PFFT idk who just yelled "LIES" but that was comical AF.

Well, the pandemic still controls a big part of our lives... so...don't agree with that shit.

Man, everyone sitting-and-standing must be getting a HELLA calf work out.

Sure, unemployment is down and new jobs are built; but corporate greed is quite literally killing us. Can Congress or Biden do something, damn it?!

Are we beginning to feel it, though? Are we feeling good economics? I doubt we are.

Good job pointing out how both parties have failed to buy american products, but how this admin has established that.

There's a good two rows of Republicans who stand in applause; but the rest just... sit there. Like robots. It's freaky as fuck.

Joe is actually doing pretty great with the flow of this speech. Only a couple of stumbles, but overall pretty gucci. (He'd get a 9/10 on delivery in my public speaking class).

God these fuckers are really gonna make me run for office at this damn point.

Removing poisonous lead pipes... but there's still a water crisis in Flint, Biden. Like, what the fuckeroni do you mean?

Yes, let's invest in family farms; lets stop selling our farmland (especially in Missouri) to foreign countries (@ China buying up TONS of Missouri Farmland).

I love that the UAW president is here, because he straight up is my kind of people. Dude wears eat-the-rich shirts and calls out the unethical-ness of billionaires.

UAW President pointing to Biden saying "It's you!"; nah dawg, it's you Sean.

MIDDLE CLASS DID BUILD THE COUNTRY AND UNIONS BUILT THE MIDDLE CLASS MOTHER FUCKERS!!!

Yes we get back up but right now...we might be getting more french revolutionary-esque if y'all don't stop PLAYING WITH OUR LIVES.

Oh jesus not the 4-more-years chants.

Oh now we talking about the future

YES PLEASE END TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMIES.

Says he's not anti-corp; but points out how trickle down economics has only helped the wealthy.

Yeah, how the fuck does it hurt the wealthy to pay just a weeee bit more in taxes? Like dawg, what are you gonna do with another million? What's the point?

Ooooh is Biden about to rope the repubs into some bipartisan shit? Please do.

What is Republicans huge issue with capping insulin? Truly? Who does it harm? Billionaires still get billions.

[tomorrowusa]

Republicans really wanted to spotlight Sen. Katie Britt by having her give the GOP response to the State of the Union. Their plan succeeded wildly – though not in the way they had hoped.

As for the SNL sketch, a YouTube commenter called @shehulking posted:

Scarlett Johansson plays Katie Britt better than Katie Britt plays Katie Britt.

[randyite]

SOTU Response

[fhear]

Cenk Uygur Reacts To BAFFLING Republican SOTU Response

[ralfmaximus]

Karla Jacinto Romero, the woman whose story Sen. Katie Britt appeared to have shared in the Republican response to the State of the Union last week, slammed the Alabama senator for inaccurately using her story to highlight Joe Biden’s immigration policies.

Republican Senator shares tragic sex crime story on national TV, saying it happened because of Biden's lax border policies

Tearfully recounts how when she visited the Texas border, this brave woman told her PERSONALLY how she was raped & beaten up to 12 times a day while held captive by Mexican drug lords in Texas

Journalist discovers it had nothing to do with Mexican drug lords

and occurred between 2004-2008

So not recently, like not even close

It happened during the George W. Bush administration

You know, George W Bush, the Democrat Republican president

who was running things at the time

also it happened in Mexico, not Texas

AND THEN THE ACTUAL WOMAN WHO SURVIVED THE ORDEAL COMES FORWARD and boy is she pissed about being used as a political prop

So to recap: this poor woman endures a horrible experience decades ago, but while no doubt still having nightmares & PTSD, has managed to put her life back together. AND THEN this absolute shitweasel of a MAGA Republican drags her story back into the spotlight, ON NATIONAL TV as a cheap attack on a political foe.

I'd be pissed too.

[pscottm]

Sex trafficking victim says Sen. Katie Britt telling her story during SOTU rebuttal is ‘not fair’ | CNN Politics

The woman whose story Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) appeared to have shared in the Republican response to the State of the Union as an example of President Biden’s failed immigration policies told CNN she was trafficked before Biden’s presidency and said legislators lack empathy when using the issue of human trafficking for political purposes.

Said Karla Jacinto: “I hardly ever cooperate with politicians, because it seems to me that they only want an image. They only want a photo — and that to me is not fair.”

“Jacinto said she met the senator at an event at the southern border with other government officials and anti-human-trafficking activists, instead of one-on-one as Britt stated.”

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Nick Anderson

* * * *

SOTU DEBRIEF - DARK BRANDON BRINGS IT!

TCINLA

MAR 8, 2024

The Party of Class and Integrity celebrates another ass whipping - look at all those around the Dumbest Congressional Bimbo Ever as they realize how bad they got their asses kicked

Last night’s State of the Union was a punch in the face not only of the heckling MAGAT Morons, but the Otherwise-Unemployables of the DC Press Corpse. As well, the Democrat’s Professional Pearl Clutcher’s Caucus can join the others in officially retiring “He’s too old” once and for damn all. The Press Corpse stands today beside their MAGAt buddies, trying not to admit to the exact nature of the material covering their faces.

Over.

Done.

Finished.

The official Democratic response to this collection of clucks from now to November is, “You saw that State of the Union speech. Joe Biden is sharper than Donald Trump will ever be and is ready for the fight.”

You can tell November’s Losers saw their coming loss clearly when their majority criticism of President Biden was “He was too mean and talked too fast!” You know he left a mark. That was the most perfectly tuned-in SOTU speech I have ever seen, delivered with fire and energy by a man as far from the Press Corpse’s concept of a doddering old man, diminished in drive and energy as possible. The New York Times Opinion Section got hit in the face by a freight train of ideas and energy.

Joe was Old Man Strong. Dark Brandon. Killer Joe.

Biden delivered.

It was the best center-left populist presidential speech ever. Less technocratic than Obama; less curated than Clinton - a solid knock-it-over-the-outfield-fence.

As many Republicans feared, Biden was more than able to “spar with the disruptors,” as one observer reported, using their jeers to make his own policy points. (“Sparring with MAGAts” is also known as “shooting fish in a barrel”). It’s hard to believe the GOP could be so stupid with their heckling that they walked straight in to a second SOTU trap, that went off when Biden maneuvered them perfectly into taking their proposed $2 trillion dollar tax cut off the table. But then again, they are Republicans, and it’s well-known you have to score an IQ lower than ambient room temperature to get your party card there nowadays.

Biden’s speech was combative and sharp, the solid punch in MAGA’s face they’ve been asking for every day for so long. The “senile” narrative went flying into the dumpster fire. Once again, Republicans set the bar too low, and got knocked on their collective fat ass.

Joe argued forcefully from the strong side about America’s destiny, security, and purpose, laying down a fierce bright line against Putin and the forces of autocracy.

He more than made it through the SOTU address. That moment his supporters always fear never came. Politico, demonstrating that most real political knowledge is 20/20 hindsight, called the speech the “turn-the-tables SOTU.” They go on to report that the Biden campaign had their best two hours of fundraising so far in this cycle from 9 to 11 p.m. last night. A CNN flash poll finds that 62 percent of viewers thought the policies Biden laid out would move the country in the right direction.

The New Republic’s Osita Nwanevu wrote: “That overall impression—of a vigorous president, strong enough to take the fight to his detractors —will linger more deeply in the minds of most who watched than the substance of anything he said.”

But what was really interesting to me was watching the political midget behind Biden’s left shoulder. Mike Johnson’s histrionic facial expressions demonstrated everything wrong, idiotic, dangerous and treasonous about MAGA Republicans.

Johnson was both ridiculous and politically smaller than he actually is. He did applaud Biden’s call for aid to Ukraine early in the speech, which he does seem to support personally, even though doing so demonstrated how he’s too afraid of his crazy caucus to allow a straight-up vote. He is likely to go down in history as the one person who more than any other handed Ukraine to Vladimir Putin.

His mugging for the camera was more obviously overdone than what passed for “emoting” in silent movies. He nodded that solemn “more in anger than in sorrow” nod. He rolled his eyes more than a teenage girl listening to her elders.

What was really sad was noting what he rolled his eyes at! The most important was January 6 (of which he is a noted participant in the attempted coup). When Biden said: “We must be honest. The threat to democracy must be defended. My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about Jan. 6. I will not do that.” MAGAMike gave his most sustained eye roll. Close runner-ups were his responses to abortion rights and freedom, and the border bill that he killed when told to by Dear Leader. And he did that last one while Senator James Lankford - the chief GOP negotiator on the bill - listened to Biden lay out its provisions and nodded on camera, clearly mouthing “That’s true.” Mikey even shook his head at “buy American”!

His eye roll over “The very idea of America is that we are all created equal, deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives. We’ve never fully lived up to that idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either,” was the real demonstration of just how dangerous he really is.

The MAGA Republican Party doesn’t believe we’re all equal. MAGA, and MAGA Mike, knows that if you’re not a right-wing Christian, you are not a good American.

Of course, there was also Marjorie Traitor Goon, whose ridiculous getup and MAGA hat elicited a “WTF?” look from Biden when he first saw her - and which was in apparent violation of House rules (but then, she IS a violation of House rules). Lindsey Graham’s pasted-on embarrassed smile at least demonstrates he has more self-awareness than his fellow MAGA cockroaches, as he considers how far he has fallen. Watching the MAGA screamer in the gallery get arrested was nice. It came down to just how dumbstruck the Republicans were as this man who - according to the Volkischer Beobachter, er, I mean Faux Snooze - can’t remember his own middle name or string two sentences together, zingered them repeatedly as he publicly exposed their un-American extremism.

Overall, Biden’s speech showed how he can win, and how MAGA, being on the wrong side of history, will lose.

And then, savoing the speech, just when I had forgotten there was going to be an Official Response, there was “America’s Mom,” sitting on a stool in her kitchen, there in East Buttfuck, Alabam-bam. Katie Britt had the most scenery-chewing response to a SOTU speech I’ve ever seen, and given that her competition was the ever-thirsty Marco Rubio and the ever-hapless Bobby Jindal, that was quite a win. Just another example of The Rising Young GOP Star, Cursed Forever by the SOTU Response.

The kitchen setting was the perfect metaphor for what MAGA intends for women: put them back in their place - “Kinder Kirche Kuche,” as their wonderboy Adolf put it.

I’ve spent enough time in Hollywood to be completely conversant with serious failure in public, and Britt’s performance didn’t even rise to the local-dinner-theater overacting you see from those who never had talent to begin with. With a Republican candidate for governor in her state of Alabambam campaigning on revoking women’s right to vote, and all the other MAGA moves to make the Handmaid’s Tale a documentary, delivering her speech in a kitchen was…

A choice. One of those tiny moments that completely illuminate the larger reality.

And then…

Appropos of nothing other than I love it when a Real Asshole gets punched really hard in the face, the news this morning that Doctor Feelgood Ronny Jackson has “Gotten His” brings a smile to my face that might last the weekend:

After the Defense Department Inspector General report on the White House Medical Unit found “Doctor Feelgood” had engaged in “inappropriate conduct” when he was the top White House physician for Presidents Obama and Trump, the Navy removed him from the Rear Admiral list last June. Yes, Jackson, who was a rear admiral when he retired in 2019, is now listed as a captain.

A spokesperson for the Navy stated that the “substantiated allegations in the DoDIG investigation of Rear Adm Ronny Jackson are not in keeping with the standards the Navy requires of its leaders and, as such, the Secretary of the Navy took administrative action in July 2022.”

Hurrah!

The losers just keep on losing. It’s what losers do.

[whatbigotspost]

Oh god. I just listened to all of 20 seconds of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Republican response to the SOTU last night on the NPR Politics Podcast and nearly crawled out of my fucking skin.

[cmesinic]

I think she needed a few more rehearsals, but this is a good take.

[eltristan]

The oddest thing about the Republican Party and their response across all channels to the SOTU (last night) is how Republicans suddenly care so much about Haiti... About how sleepy Joe needs to "look to Haiti" (most common n-gram)... (Context: Haiti 🇭🇹 is currently an incredibly violent place with armed gangs engaging in a civil war to overthrow the PM -- who isn't in Haiti at the moment -- currently much of the fighting is their attempt to take Port-au-Prince's Toussaint Louverture International Airport.)

iirc the last time the most Russia-aligned political party used "Look to ———" as a talking point, it was "Look to Libya" 🇱🇾 in the 3 months prior to the Benghazi attacks, after Republicans uniformly decried Obama's use of military force in Libya as "an affront to our constitution" (another n-gram).

Earlier this week Biden slipped additional USMC MSCEG into Haiti, including FAST (Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Teams), without telling anyone or making a fuss about it -- or at least Republicans haven't gotten the memo. Expect a Haitian Benghazi-attempt in 3 months, approximately July 4th - August 8th.

While it seems to have been an attempt, Benghazi itself didn't derail Obama's reelection in 2012 (but it kept Republicans distracted and busy for a while). People forget that the future #45 was a presidential candidate for the 2012 elections, using the slogan MAG "Make America Great" (reused in 2016 as MAGA), but that he dropped out (Loser) ...to Mitt Romney! If you look at what Republicans were most mad about, about Benghazi, it's about the purported cover-up and how the attack didn't affect the US election that year!

But the timing and effort that were put in to embarrass the then-Secretary-of-State over Benghazi, at the time maybe paid off and ultimately it was used to great effect in the 2016 election against Hilary Clinton. Current Sec-State is Antony Blinken (who would make an outstanding president), fwiw. (Expect to see Haiti resurface in 2028)

[tomorrowusa]

Apart from comedians, the only person who seemed to like Sen. Katie Britt's Republican response to the State of the Union was Donald Trump. For Trump, who told 30,573 lies during his presidency, lying is a big plus and a useful tool.

Trump’s accolades for Britt should not come as a surprise. After all, Britt took a page from Trump’s own playbook by baselessly stoking fears about Brown immigrants to scare voters into supporting the white supremacist GOP. The most compelling part of Britt’s speech involved her telling the story of a 12 year-old girl who had been sex trafficked by the drug cartels.  Britt began that portion of her speech by blaming Biden for the “border crisis,” claiming he “invited” it with his executive actions. She continued, “I took a different approach. I traveled to the Del Rio sector of Texas. That’s where I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me,” adding, “She had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at the age of 12.” From there, Britt detailed the painful story of this girl, saying, “She told me not just that she was raped every day, but how many times a day she was raped.” After sharing more of the gruesome details of what the cartels did to the girl, Britt declared, “We wouldn’t be okay with this happening in a Third World country. This is the United States of America, and it is past time, in my opinion, that we start acting like it,” adding, “President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace.” Britt’s message was clear: Due to Biden’s border policies, a 12-year-old girl was sex trafficked by drug cartels and was repeatedly raped on US soil. However, that was not even close to the truth. As fact checkers detailed—and Britt’s own staff has now admitted after a backlash—the sex trafficking of the 12 year old girl, Karla Jacinto Romero did not happen during Biden’s presidency. Rather it occurred between 2004 and 2008 during the presidency of Republican George W. Bush.

George W. Bush, AKA: "Dubya", was a big liar himself. He instigated the Iraq War on the false claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction which it was about to use on the West; two years after the war, the CIA reported that there had been no such weapons in Iraq.

And to stoke support for the Iraq invasion among voters, members of the Bush administration would try to link the 9/11 attacks to Iraq by giving speeches where they would intentionally use these words in close proximity to each other: Saddam, 9/11, terrorists, Iraq, Osama bin Laden. This mendacious word salad could deceptively leave the impression that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11 without actually saying so outright. For the record, the official 9/11 Commission (appointed by Bush) in 2004 found no connection between Iraq and the 2001 9/11 terror attacks.

Donald Trump and Katie Britt are just amplifying the 21st century GOP trend of fabricating reality regardless of its relation to the truth.

[ms-cellanies]

I do LOVE Charlie Pierce.

[thesuburbanerd]

I watched the State of the Union speech last night, even though I’m Canadian, because it beats having to go to bed to be alone with my thoughts.

I thought Biden did a good job but it also cemented my thoughts that as a Democrat, Biden is more like an old school Republican in a normal world. But American discourse has shifted so far to the right that he appears lefty by comparison.

Anyway, remember when Obama gave his SOTU and some Republican, whose name is lost to history because I can’t be arsed to look it up, shouted “You lie!”? That guy was universally condemned for such a classless act.

Last night, a whole crowd of them heckled the president and I guess that’s just how things are now.

I guess you could say it’s just … the state of the union.