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Thanks, Obama: The 2014 Presidential State of the Union Address
Sterica
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
Hey, everyone! It's been a while, hasn't it? Well, here's a little treat for you all in the mood tonight: a discussion of tonight's State of the Union Address! However, there are some ground rules to go over real quick, so give 'em a read so you don't get in trouble for anything.
- This thread is temporary. It will be locked at an undisclosed time after the address is over. Do not take it upon yourself to make a new thread: this is a one-time deal.
- People exist out there with opinions different from yours. This is unfortunate, but such is life. It is difficult to have a manageable discussion if people are yelling back and forth at each other, so please keep a calm head when engaging with people. Spirited debate is fine, but posts full of catty insults and huge posts that dissect another's person post with 50 quote tags makes for a thread that is almost impossible to read for all but a handful of people.
- Do not engage with assholes. If someone is spouting off shitty rhetoric (racism, sexism, transphobia, etc.), then report them. Replying to their nonsense just derails the thread and, honestly, they're most likely shitty trolls with no interest in discourse. Don't waste your time on them.
- This thread is about the State of the Union. While I know this is SE++, going into too big of a derail could get the thread closed prematurely.
What is the State of the Union?
For non-Americans or people with poor grades in Government, it's basically a speech from the President to all of Congress about how the country is doing. The answer is always "Peachy keen." because no president is going to undermine their administration by being honest, so that's not the real reason to tune in. The reason you tune in is to see what the president has planned for the year, what issues he seems to be prioritizing, and whether or not any criticisms levied at the administration are addressed. Sometimes things will be announced like a bill being worked on with Congress, initiatives being started, and all that jazz. It's a way for the president to really publicize his agenda to Congress and the nation, making it one of the perks of the office. Well, assuming you're not a terrible public speaker.
The address is typically followed by a response from a member of the opposition party (in this case: Republicans), which has a been highly entertaining these past few years. The opposition response has killed off a bunch of promising up-and-comers in the GOP, notably Bobby Jindal who was seen as something of a Republican Obama right after the 2008 elections, but you probably don't remember this because he crashed and burned when he went up to bat. Last year we had Marco Rubio fuck up drinking water of all things, so cross your fingers for a grand old time from the grand old party.
Giving the speech this year is, unsurprisingly, the 44th President of the United States of America: Barack Obama. After crushing his enemies in reelection, seeing them driven before him, and hearing the lamentations of their bankers, Obama looked poised to have a pretty good second term. However, a variety of problems both real and pretend have plagued the first year of his second term. Important issues are things like the NSA, Obama not doing anything to shrink the amount of executive power his office has, our issues in the Middle East including our inability to stop sticking our nose (and drones) in everyone's business, the poor roll-out of the Affordable Care Act, and economy still being poopy. Other "problems" under Obama last year were Benghazi, having to play chicken with Republicans every time a budget issue comes up, Benghazi, the IRS targeting political groups, and Benghazi.
The State of the Union is one of the highlights of Obama's presidency, at least from a sort of superficial perspective. The man can give a rousing speech when he wants too, which will make it all the more painful when he reneges on half of the shit he promises, and then waters down the rest to make Republicans happy.
Cathy McMorris Rodgers will be playing the role of the GOP's sacrificial lamb this evening. She is the Chair of of the House Republican Conference, making her the highest-ranking Republican woman in Congress (if Wikipedia is to be believed). I don't know much about her, but I get a fundamentalist Christian vibe by reading up on her. I suppose we shall see. There's been periodic talk about how Republicans have declared a "War on Women" by trying to undermine Roe v. Wade and just being generally shitty about women's issues in general. Calling on Rodgers to give the response might be a move to convince people that the Republican Party really does care about women.
They fucking don't.
Coming back once again is the Tea Party, who are doing their own response via Mike Lee, a Senator from Utah. Technically the Tea Party is not a political party (though they do have a caucus in Congress), but they're a strong, principled group of conservatives that they feel the mainstream Republican Party will mince words and not deliver a proper response to Obama's address. Thus, it is up to true patriots such as Mike Lee to deliver a scathing retort that will inspire the nation to return to its proud, independent roots. Mike Lee seems like a fiscal Tea Party Conservative through and through, so I expect his response to be a serious criticism of the President's Address and will in no way be a farcical descent into incompetence that will undermine the Republican response.
8->
Okay, so Rand Paul is also doing a response tonight, which will be on behalf of...uh...Rand Paul, I guess. I don't even know if this will get broadcast on television, but it's a definitely a must-watch as Rand Paul is definitely a special sort of politician.
I don't even know what the hell is going anymore. So...Ted Cruz decided that he ALSO wanted to do a response, but I guess he was afraid of the suddenly very crowded field of people that want to publicly whine about Obama. So Ted Cruz made a speech LAST WEEK, which means only one thing: Republicans possess time travel technology, and we should all fear for our lives.
Where I can see this?
You could be less lazy and just google "State of the Union" and get ten livestreams, but here ya go:
- http://www.whitehouse.gov/live Might be slow because a lot of people are going there the White House is carefully editing the feed to make Obama look good.
- http://www.youtube.com/show/stateoftheunion I dunno how the quality will be, but you can be sure that Google will give data about your viewing experience to the NSA.
- Just about every major news website on the planet. Seriously, how lazy are you?
Have at it!
Sterica on
+2
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
fuck da police
no its just another excuse for bullshit, as it was and forever shall be sadly
I'd say it's still pretty relevant to hear from the horses mouth what he intends to pursue for the next 12 months.
A lot of stuff that sounds good, probably.
I feel like it got worse after he was elected.
I'm holding out for South Dakota
Secret Satan 2013 Wishlist
3DS: 2981-5304-3227
Florida?
Florida is the kid who will do anything you knew in high school just to get people to pay attention to him. Negative attention is still attention.
Secret Satan 2013 Wishlist
At the very least, you can get a lot of cheap laughs from the response(s). Republicans always surround themselves with military.
5ish hours from now.
By "occur" I assume you mean "guy will suddenly yell about Benghazi and be immediately tackled and tased by secret service"?
After the great "You Lie" debacle, I'm seriously expecting republicans to be waving foam middle fingers while throwing batteries at Obama.
Secret Satan 2013 Wishlist
Republicans come from Philadelphia now?!
I would expect him to almost ignore the topic entirely. I have very little doubt he would prefer decriminalization but he also can't support state legislatures blatantly violating federal law on controlled substances. The president taking a hard line stance in favor of legalization/decriminalization would be a bit premature in my opinion and with more states leaning the way they are it might just be best to let this ball continue to roll downhill. Once a few more states legalize and it doesn't lead to the end of civilization it would be safer for a president to call upon Congress to revisit federal statutes.
Highly doubt it.
It'll be minimum wage, immigration, foreign policy and the economy. Maybe the ACA, but I'm not sure even he wants to talk about that anymore right now.
Basically his only job for the next four years is to help elect democrats to congress, and I'm not sure marijuana is safe enough in the places where those democrats need help.
then pantomime a slam dunk motion
then walk out calmly to silence
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
I don't think, now that I really give it some thought, that it'll be addressed, but I do absolutely think it'll be a monumentally important issue in the coming years, especially since Washington and Colorado set the precedent of "haha neener neener you can't stop us"
Fear will keep the local states in line - fear of this battle station.
Say whatever you want about Florida and how awful they are (all of the criticisms true and justified).
They will always be able to say they arrested Justin Bieber before any other state.
Steam
They should do a ratings competition
hate boners all around I would suspect
At least the ratings will be good.