The usual Open Thread rules apply: be concise, be charitable and, above all, be amusing!
I will be live blogging the State of the Union address tonight. It should be livelier than most, which, admittedly, is a low bar.
- The Justices of the Supreme Court are coming in for the speech. Retired Justice Kennedy is present. The three liberal justices are not present, and Justices Alito and Thomas have skipped these speeches for years.
- Everyone is now waiting for President Trump who, by tradition, enters last.
- And here comes the Big Guy, preceded by his Cabinet.
- The Democrats look like mourners at a funeral.
- Trump has his virtues but being punctual is not among them.
- And at 8:13 PM he arrives.
- Republicans chanting USA.
- And so the speech begins.
- “America is back!”
- Swift and unrelenting action to usher in a golden age for America.
- American dream is bigger and better than before. The come back of America.
- Trump celebrates his electoral victory.
- Democrats erupt in boos and catcalls.
- The Speaker of the House announces that the Sergeant at Arms will remove Congressman Al Green from the chamber.
- Trump notes that illegal border crossings last month were the lowest ever recorded.
- Trump calls Biden the worst president in US history and compares his record on the border with what Trump has accomplished.
- Trump notes that nothing he does will ever please the Democrats in the chamber.
- Hopes that both parties can work together.
- Notes the accomplishments of his administration thus far.
- Trump notes that he has ordered that for every new regulation ten old regulations must be removed.
- Trump states that all Federal workers must come to their offices or be fired.
- Mentions that English is now the official language of the US.
- War on DEI. Country will be woke no more. Hiring should be by merit only.
- Only two genders.
- Mentions his Executive Order banning males from participating in female sports. Introduces girl injured by a male, pretending to be female, volleyball player.
- Common sense revolution.
- Talks about his efforts to revive the economy and combat inflation.
- Will act to reduce energy costs. National Energy Emergency. “Drill Baby Drill!”
- Hails Doge. Salutes Elon Musk.
- Reads a long list of wasteful government projects.
- Talks about Social Security having lists of millions of individuals above 100.
- Mentions the gold card program by which US citizenship can be purchased for 5 million dollars.
- Attacks unnecessary regulations.
- Draining the swamp. The days of rule by unelected bureaucrats is over.
- Calls for his tax cuts to be made permanent.
- No tax on tips, overtime or social security.
- Interest payments on car loans to be tax deductible if the car is made in America.
- Reciprocal tariffs on countries that impose tariffs on us.
- New investments in America of one trillion, seven hundred million.
- Tariffs will encourage companies to build plants in the US.
- Tariffs will protect American farmers.
- Attacks Biden’s Open Borders Policy and praises expulsion of illegal aliens. Mentions Laken Riley who was murdered by an illegal alien. Introduces the mother and sister of Laken Riley.
- Hits the immigration issue hard and at length, and notes that illegal border crossings have slowed to a trickle since he sent troops to the border and unleashed ICE.
- Has sent to Congress a request for funding to complete the largest deportation operation since President Eisenhower’s deportation of millions in the fifties.
- Return to law and order. Introduces the widow of a cop murdered in the line of duty, leaving a one year old son.
- Mandatory death penalty for anyone murdering a cop. Show stopper with a kid fighting brain cancer who wants to be a cop, being sworn in as an honorary Secret Service agent.
- Democrats really look bad with their constant outbursts.
- Speaks about transgenderism being pushed in schools. Executive order banning the promotion of transgender ideology in schools and the use of Federal funds for the hideous attempts to change someone into the opposite sex.
- Eliminating wokeness from our military.
- In January the US army had its best recruiting month in 15 years. Introduces Jason Hartley who will be going to West Point, carrying on a family tradition of military service.
- Golden Dome to protect the US from missile attacks.
- Reviving ship building. Tax cuts for those building ships. The Chinese companies controlling the ports on the Panama Canal have been chased out and will be replaced by an American company.
- Greenland: We support the right of the people to determine their own destiny and welcome them to the US if that is their choice.
- The mastermind of the Afghanistan withdrawal bombing has been arrested and is now on his way to the US to face American Justice.
- Announces a letter from President Zelensky agreeing to sign the agreement on minerals and has agreed to negotiations with Russia under the leadership of the US.
- Honors Corey Comperatore who, during the first assassination attempt against Trump, died shielding his wife and two daughters with his own body. He introduces his wife Helen and two daughters.
- Americans throughout our history have always defied the odds. Our ancestors carved our country from a perilous wilderness. We saved the world from Fascism and Communism. A paean to America. With God’s help we will take America to new heights. We will fight, fight, fight for our country. The Golden Age of America has only just begun.
- A good speech overall and Trump was quite disciplined. He has great plans for the country and he is clearly going to use every second of his term to carry them out. The Democrats made a huge blunder by sitting on their hands all night and refusing to applaud items in the speech that all normal Americans would applaud. The childish outbursts of some Democrats I am sure left a sour taste in the mouth of many members of their own party. Raw hatred is rarely attractive and that was what the Democrats had on display tonight.
So frustrated that the black and white pattern has become a terrorist badge.
Gives a bad name to the heraldic “field erminy”😁
Is it a State of the Union speech? I’ve seen news outlets say that it isn’t, which is why none of them are reporting it as such. They’re just saying ‘tonight’s speech before congress.’
It would be agreeable if the President returned to the practice followed between 1801 and 1913 and sent a printed text to Congress.
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We’ve got too overwhelming issues. One is the pressure politicians have put on the bond market. The other is the takeover of China by a deeply evil man.
Dave G. – I think traditionally the year-one speech isn’t considered a “State of the Union” speech, because it’s not an update on the administration’s actions.
Like a lot of bad things this began with Jimmy Carter. Normally after an election in which a new President was elected, the old President would forego giving a State of the Union address and the new President would do so. After he was shellacked by Reagan in 80, the Peanut Farmer just had to give a State of the Union address in January 81. To avoid confusion Reagan called his State of the Union an address to a joint session, and that has become the custom in years in which a new President takes office. Too silly for words.
I think what Mr. Carter did was reasonable. The trouble is, it was JC, so likely had an element of spite in it.
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Pet peeve: after 1962, the superintendent of the family business was Billy Carter. Not sure, but I believe one of Billy’s (six) children succeeded him. Only one of JC’s children lived in Sumter County, Ga. past age 20 and (IIRC) he eventually decamped elsewhere; Ruth Carter Stapleton’s children all settled in North Carolina where they’d grown up. Sister Gloria had one hopeless jailbird of a son, who lived his abbreviated adult life in California.
I will pray the Rosary for Trump during his address to Congress. I don’t need to either listen to or see the childish antics of the godless Democrats. I will pray that God gives Trump wisdom (and the humility to use it that he so often lacks) and protects him from the relentless attacks of Satan’s minions in the Democrat Party.
Assault and battery is a prosecutable crime. President Trump is a sovereign person with civil rights. Denying Pres. Trump freedom to do his job is a crime.
The Blessed Virgin Mary is the Seat of Wisdom.
Let President Trump do his job.
The behavior of the dems may prompt a few thousand more swing state changeovers. Republicans should probably sit back and just watch the show going on in the peanut gallery.
The Democrats won’t even stand up for law enforcement?!!? I guess that explains a lot!
Trump Derangement is a hell of a thing. Since all they can do is boo and wail, they end up presenting the image that they are pro illegal immigrant, pro cop killing, pro social security fraud, pro women getting destroyed by men in sports, etc.
I mean they largely ARE for those things, but they usually try to hide those positions from the voters.
That’s odd. I can remember back in 2009, when then-President Obama addressed a Joint Session of Congress and a Republican Representative from South Carolina, Joe Wilson, stood up and shouted “You lie!” at the President. The Democrats were shocked, shocked at the Republican’s ‘lack of respect’ both for the office of President and the decorum of the floor of the House. There was even talk of how such an outrage undermines
the institutions of our republic, and the usual media suspects tut-tutted…
Congressman Wilson soon apologized to President Obama. Even so, the House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.)*** demanded Wilson also tender an apology to the House.
Granted, these things happened only fifteen years ago— but in those fifteen years the Democrats and their media friends have undergone a sea change in their ideas on respect for the office of President and the respect due to the decorum of the House. I suspect they’ll rediscover the need for respect and decorum right around the time there’s another Democrat President.
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*** In fairness to Rep. Jim Clyburn, who is still a Congressman, he warned that any outbursts or disruptions from his fellow Democrats at the President’s speech would be counterproductive and ‘play into Trump’s hands’. Too bad his colleagues didn’t listen to him.
Granted, these things happened only fifteen years ago— but in those fifteen years the Democrats and their media friends have undergone a sea change in their ideas on respect for the office of President and the respect due to the decorum of the House. I suspect they’ll rediscover the need for respect and decorum right around the time there’s another Democrat President.
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Joseph Sobran’s observation: “Behind every double-standard is an unconfessed single standard”. Also, black politicians and the black chatterati have a history of caring a great deal more about R.E.S.P.E.C.T than they do about actual respect.
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There’s been a secular decline in decorum in Congress. The late Robert Bork, comparing his experience in government in 1973-77 to his experience after 1981 thought 1981 a watershed year (“that’s the year liberals turned vicious”). See Mitch Daniels, George W. Bush’s budget director on Bush’s dispositions in office. He had no intention of being confrontational over domestic policy. His foreign policy initiatives were a function of external circumstances and he was careful to seek the approval of a broad swath of the Democratic caucus before deploying troops abroad. You’ll recall the Bush era was when the term ‘the nutroots’ was coined’.
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The behavior of the Democratic Party in the last ten years has been frankly lunatic and quite injurious to the common life. (It tells you something about George W. Bush’s character that he’s dozed right through it); I regret every word I ever uttered in defense of that man.
I regret every word I ever uttered in defense of that man.
You and me both Art.
It’s incredible that the President of the United States needed to issue an executive order declaring that “There are only two genders, male and female.”
The Democratic Party isn’t wandering in the wilderness, they’re lost in a hell that they made.
The Dems with their hand held signs looked like fools playing a parlor game. The old fool of the evening was AL Green shaking his cane. Glad that Speaker Johnson had him removed.
I wished that President Trump had not used Biden’s name. He should have just used the former Administration or former Democratic Administration. Mr President, you won. Biden is not worthy to have his name used from the dais.
Loved the comment about California having all the rare earthes the US needs. The California regulations can be set aside. No problem.
That was a signal to Gov Newsome and President Zelinsky.
All in all a good night.
Personally, I don’t get too invested when ideas and plans are announced by the administration, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t entertained by Pres. Trump’s masterful delivery and maybe even more masterful trolling.
The Democrat Congress creatures, with their little auction bidding paddles, have already been a gift to on-line meme makers. Money and influence could never have procured such perfect raw material for mockery. (Have y’all seen the one where the signs all have “I’m a retard” on them, except Rep. Tlaib’s little whiteboard that says instead, “I didn’t get my ‘Retard’ sign”? I admit I laughed.)
No, some things can only come about (as a wise old priest once said) through “the same old thing: pride and envy, pride and envy.”
It is a certainty that clips of the democrat reactions at certain points of the speech will be presented in Republican campaign ads for at least the next two election cycles.
Why is there no transcript of the speech at the Whitehouse web site? It’s difficult to find an uncommented transcript.
One hour and forty minutes. Stamina and genius.
From the National Catholic Register: When Jimmy Carter was elected but before inauguration, Carter went to Britain and signed away America’s sovereignty in the Trilateral Commission. The U.N., the E.U, The League of Nations did I miss one?
For those of you who “regret every word uttered in defense of” George W. Bush, I understand your profound disappointment with him in subsequent years, but let’s not forget that at the time(s) he was elected, the alternatives were Al Gore and John Kerry, so just what were we supposed to do?
A good point Elaine.
but let’s not forget that at the time(s) he was elected, the alternatives were Al Gore and John Kerry, so just what were we supposed to do?
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Irrelevant to my point. When presented with gross misconduct on the part of the Democratic Party (and it was manifest by May 2013), George W. Bush said nothing (except to slam ordinary voters who were at the Capitol on 6 January 2021, some of whom were treated unconscionably by the handmaiden-to-the-stasi DC courts). We were all just marks to that man. Do not get me started on Richard Cheney, his daughter, and his son-in-law.