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State of the Union 2022: Angster’s Paradise
Sterica
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
Hey kids! We’re having a state of the union tonight!
What’s that, you ask? It’s when the President of the United States of America addresses both houses of Congress and the country as a whole on how things are going. And the answer is always “Peachy keen” because in today’s cutthroat, late-stage capitalist hellhole no politician will admit to things being bad on their watch. It’s gives us some insight into the president’s agenda, how they plan on tackling that agenda, and the opposition party’s response to each. Also clapping. So much clapping.
Joe “Lesser of Two Evils” Biden
President
Address Presenter
Biden is currently president, and he’ll be the one giving the speech. So how is Joe doing? Well it depends on who you are. If you conservative, we are now a communist nation being invaded by illegals while inflation dooms us all. If you’re a centrist then everything is amazing because Trump is gone and America is Normal Again. And if you’re anything left enough of that, then you’re just very very sad.
Expected Topics: Ukraine will obvious dominate the evening, with Russia’s invasion just a few days ago grabbing international attention. Will Biden continue non-military means, such as continued sanctions and attempts at diplomacy? Or will he get American boots on the ground? Probably the former with some aggressive military aid thrown in, but this guy voted for the war in Iraq so anything is possible. Especially if he wants to look strong in light of the midterms.
COVID is next, although with the Omicron variant dying down we’re entering that phase of false security before another variant hits us. Or maybe the pandemic will actual end this time! Haha, it’s to have hope. Either way, Biden will likely use this lull in the pandemic to take a victory lap as the CDC eases guidelines and uses Funny Math to make the numbers look better than they are. Cue the “but you didn’t do anything” memes.
Biden will likely crow about his accomplishments, including the woefully underfunded infrastructure bill, but that’s the nature of the game. Republicans refuse to fund needed maintenance to appear fiscally responsible (while blowing the money on tax cuts and war), balk at the high price of fixing shit neglected for decades as a way to frame democrats as reckless spenders, and then smugly deride the government’s inability to Get Shit Done when things inevitably collapse. Oh sorry, got editorialized there for a moment. Whether Biden will continue to push for the Build Back Better bill or pivot to another agenda item remains to be seen, but the rumor mill suggest the later, as Manchin is unlikely to budge.
He will also likely discuss his SCOTUS nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, whom will likely be confirmed as this doesn’t change the makeup of the court in any meaningful way, and the GOP has bigger fish to direct its propaganda beam at. Biden could mention transgender protections in response to monstrous action states such as Texas which make it more or less illegal for trans kids to engage in any kind of treatment, even with parental consent. Buuuut with the war dominating the headlines, I’m not holding my breath.
Kim “Literal Porkbarrel” Reynolds
Governor of Iowa
Republican Party Response
Reynolds is likely a cynical choice by Republicans to appear vaguely feminist despite their draconian abortion laws. Nobody tends to fall for this, but that’s my armchair analysis. You can expect endless lies and whining about energy independence, illegal immigration, and showing weakness in front of Putin.
Rashida “Squadmate” Tlaib
Congressional Representative of Michigan
Working Families Party Response
Tlaib is giving a response too, I guess. Speaking behalf of the Working Families Party, she will likely call out Biden on not doing enough for the people. How harsh or gentle she’ll be remains to be seen. Naturally, other democrats are complaining about this, but whatever.
There’s other responses, such Rep. Allred giving the Congressional Black Congress’s response and I imagine the Democratic Socialists will have something prepared. But I’m sick and don’t have the energy to keep going. Being a political thread, I’ll shut this down some time tomorrow. Be nice!
What’s that, you ask? It’s when the President of the United States of America addresses both houses of Congress and the country as a whole on how things are going. And the answer is always “Peachy keen” because in today’s cutthroat, late-stage capitalist hellhole no politician will admit to things being bad on their watch. It’s gives us some insight into the president’s agenda, how they plan on tackling that agenda, and the opposition party’s response to each. Also clapping. So much clapping.
Joe “Lesser of Two Evils” Biden
President
Address Presenter
Biden is currently president, and he’ll be the one giving the speech. So how is Joe doing? Well it depends on who you are. If you conservative, we are now a communist nation being invaded by illegals while inflation dooms us all. If you’re a centrist then everything is amazing because Trump is gone and America is Normal Again. And if you’re anything left enough of that, then you’re just very very sad.
Expected Topics: Ukraine will obvious dominate the evening, with Russia’s invasion just a few days ago grabbing international attention. Will Biden continue non-military means, such as continued sanctions and attempts at diplomacy? Or will he get American boots on the ground? Probably the former with some aggressive military aid thrown in, but this guy voted for the war in Iraq so anything is possible. Especially if he wants to look strong in light of the midterms.
COVID is next, although with the Omicron variant dying down we’re entering that phase of false security before another variant hits us. Or maybe the pandemic will actual end this time! Haha, it’s to have hope. Either way, Biden will likely use this lull in the pandemic to take a victory lap as the CDC eases guidelines and uses Funny Math to make the numbers look better than they are. Cue the “but you didn’t do anything” memes.
Biden will likely crow about his accomplishments, including the woefully underfunded infrastructure bill, but that’s the nature of the game. Republicans refuse to fund needed maintenance to appear fiscally responsible (while blowing the money on tax cuts and war), balk at the high price of fixing shit neglected for decades as a way to frame democrats as reckless spenders, and then smugly deride the government’s inability to Get Shit Done when things inevitably collapse. Oh sorry, got editorialized there for a moment. Whether Biden will continue to push for the Build Back Better bill or pivot to another agenda item remains to be seen, but the rumor mill suggest the later, as Manchin is unlikely to budge.
He will also likely discuss his SCOTUS nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, whom will likely be confirmed as this doesn’t change the makeup of the court in any meaningful way, and the GOP has bigger fish to direct its propaganda beam at. Biden could mention transgender protections in response to monstrous action states such as Texas which make it more or less illegal for trans kids to engage in any kind of treatment, even with parental consent. Buuuut with the war dominating the headlines, I’m not holding my breath.
Kim “Literal Porkbarrel” Reynolds
Governor of Iowa
Republican Party Response
Reynolds is likely a cynical choice by Republicans to appear vaguely feminist despite their draconian abortion laws. Nobody tends to fall for this, but that’s my armchair analysis. You can expect endless lies and whining about energy independence, illegal immigration, and showing weakness in front of Putin.
Rashida “Squadmate” Tlaib
Congressional Representative of Michigan
Working Families Party Response
Tlaib is giving a response too, I guess. Speaking behalf of the Working Families Party, she will likely call out Biden on not doing enough for the people. How harsh or gentle she’ll be remains to be seen. Naturally, other democrats are complaining about this, but whatever.
There’s other responses, such Rep. Allred giving the Congressional Black Congress’s response and I imagine the Democratic Socialists will have something prepared. But I’m sick and don’t have the energy to keep going. Being a political thread, I’ll shut this down some time tomorrow. Be nice!
Sterica on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
I know Rubio did one at some point and he's still kicking so not enough.
Switch - SW-7373-3669-3011
Fuck Joe Manchin
If we put people on the ground in Ukraine, and turn this into a hot war with Russia, that’s the ballgame. No one is doing that, it’s not happening unless something really catastrophic happens.
The reason this isn’t turning into wwiii is because everyone involved knows that’s the end. Biden will be very pointed about Putin’s evilness and say how they’re going to work internationally to do everything they can, but I would be very surprised if the Sabre rattling rises to the level of military involvement. It’s an empty threat and Putin knows it.
Yeah but he went from like, young promising future presidential candidate to chump with that whole water thing.
Michele Bachman
The only successful response was Obama’s
May as well be actual Kiefer
EDIT: Missed the very last line, which is indicative. Disregard me.
I'm "kupiyupaekio" on Discord.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
sterica does this as a li'l tradition for herself
That's probably why he won't do anything too drastic about it. After all, what's a little "conquering non-nuclear nations" among friends?
ETA: *Re-reads own post*
Any interesting matches happening in the preshow? They didn't stick the Usos or New Day on there again, did they? Those two teams deserve to be on the main show...
Steam ID XBL: JohnnyChopsocky PSN:Stud_Beefpile WiiU:JohnnyChopsocky
Kennedy and his 5 pounds of chapstick also comes to mind.
Switch - SW-7373-3669-3011
Fuck Joe Manchin
No, he made it clear right there. It's Fund The Police.
Shovel more money in their laps, give them money bins. More training! Choke holds were banned and we use body cams! MoneymoneymoneyNYPDmoneymoney
Also that cops are constantly in danger of being killed by lawless gangs instead of COVID or each other
They absolutely are constantly in danger of being killed by lawless gangs then, since they are one.
The ABQ police whine how they cannot do their jobs while under DoJ supervision
And the police treated it like the old west before the DoJ was sent in
The thing is, they wouldn't be doing all this if they weren't worried about the defund movement actually gaining traction.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I don't think this is true. The defund the police movement is very, very unpopular and its popularity has been decreasing massively since the George Floyd protests. The more straightforward explanation, as IGANTP said, is that Republicans have very successfully tied mainstream Democrats to "defund the police", and that Biden wants to explicitly distance from that because most mainstream Democratic voters hate the idea. I don't know if that's a good strategic call and cementing the "value" of throwing money at the police is absolutely bad for the country, but I don't think Biden is actually worried about Defund gaining any traction. It's already a dead fish.
I remember having all these arguments in the past about whether 'defund the police' was a good slogan/movement, and I feel like it's time to admit that it's not working and to try to pick something else. The average person does actually want a police force to protect them from criminals, and people need to accept that. We either need to plan around that ('reform' the police?) or do a better job explaining why they should be removed ('replace' the police?)
But at any rate, correlation is not causation, and Biden moving away from an unpopular position does not mean that he is causing that position to be unpopular.
NPR: The White House has a new plan for COVID-19 aimed at getting things back to normal.
https://www.npr.org/2022/03/02/1083905865/the-white-house-has-a-new-plan-for-covid-19-aimed-at-getting-things-back-to-norm