Stephen Colbert said it best last night... he couldn't tell if the dems, with their little paddles, were protesting or buying an antique tea set... bravo to Al Green
I saw an ENT yesterday. The very nice doc stuck a teeny tube with a light up my nose and down my throat to look around and told me I have a globus, a narrowing of my esophagus that leads to a kind of lump-in-the-throat feeling. Know what causes it? Stress and anxiety. It started after the election. Hence the expression, "I can't swallow that." I canceled my subscription to the wimpy, complicit New York Times, preferring to read Stephen's take on things.
"it was nauseating to witness the numerous times that JD Vance and Mike Johnson were laughing—laughing about invading Greenland, laughing about Trump’s slurs, laughing about all the 'appalling waste' in foreign aid that they’re ending." What HORRIFIED me was the UTTER PASSIVITY OF THE DEMOCRATS. Don't they get it??? It's WAY, WAY, WAY PAST TIME FOR SUCH PASSIVITY!! We're so close to the edge now, I don't know if democracy will survive.
It seems they don't get it, except for Mr. Green and a few others. By showing up to this spectacle, to let a tyrant spit all over you, is a profile in cowardice. No modicum of respect for this thug is warranted.
I called my Representative, James Clyburn, and begged him not to go -- and to urge others to do the same. He went. He sat there looking very tense. But he went.
Every day, everything he does brings an unprecedented instance of lying, violating norms, breaching protocol, outright aggression, unhinged ideation, and a complete abrogation of what America has stood for. He is an unmitigated disaster of a proportion "like no one has ever seen."
There are no political parties any longer, they both recently died. One of over aggression, the other of lack of aggression. We now have SIDES, Democracy and Tyranny. Eventually everyone will be forced onto a side. Right now we still have the luxury of choosing which side we want to be on.
Yes, Lynn. The barriers of liberal versus conservative no longer have meaning. Pro democracy versus fascism is the reality. Why don't the elected Dems see this?
How can anyone listen to this liar for 100 minutes when he doesn't say anything of substance just "the best/worst" of who knows what the world has ever seen. And now he compares himself to George Washington? We are truly in a nightmare state
The gleeful malice trickles down until acceptance of hate becomes hateful acts papered over with red, white and blue. And then Kristallnacht comes to America. Unless decent people like you (all of you) and me refuse to be cowed. So I will continue to be visible, join the protest on the corner, and call and write to my elected representatives.
The felon projects every time he speaks, the spineless Republicans cheer him on, and the shameful female Republicans fawn all over him using their tradwife voices.
I'd say that they've all sold their souls, but they have none to sell.
I wonder how much Putin is paying them to gain access to our computers and data?
It is difficult to say you are the opposition if you are not present. I understand what Al Green did. I also could see the Speaker was well prepared to deal with disruptions. Competing with a three ring circus has its own hazards.
I am more disturbed that so little attention is given by Dems and the media to the great response to the president by Elissa Slotkin. I think it is the best I’ve ever heard from either party. Both in tenor and message. She covered a lot of ground without lecturing from he is “going to make you pay in every part of your life” to how people can be involved.
But no flashing lights, screaming or funny clothes. No missteps, nonsense or fodder for social media. So I guess we’ll turn out collective heads and pretend it didn’t happen.
Mary L. Trump makes the same point in her Substack this morning: “The Democratic Party had no coordinated stance. Once again, they failed to understand the mission. When Rep. Al Green (D-TX) stood in protest, he refused to stop even after Speaker of the House Mike Johnson threatened to have him removed by the Sergeant-at-Arms. Some Democrats also raised their voices, but not enough. And when the Sergeant-at-Arms did indeed remove Rep. Green, all Democratic voices went silent. I don’t know that I have ever been as ashamed of my party as I was tonight. Instead of vocal and unrelenting opposition, they held up sophomoric signs and sat stony-faced as if they couldn’t even be bothered.”
Democrats needed to be at the speech last night. It is their job as elected representatives. We would err in ceding the space to the Republicans and MAGA guests. That is not to criticize Rep. Green and his decision. We can also note that many Republicans engaged in much more disruptive behavior when a Democratic president addressed Congress and were not removed.
We are not a lockstep party, so protest took various forms, from not attending, to walking out, to speaking up, to showing paddles. Maybe there should have been a paddle raised every time Trump lied, although I'm sure people's arms would have gotten tired.
We are in unprecedented times and still finding our way toward what will be effective. Instead of criticizing actions we see as ineffective, let us work on formulating strategic ones. While I'm sure Colbert wanted the joke, it reinforces a vision of Democrats as ineffectual, which is not warranted.
It is discouraging Dems don’t know how to take a win. As I commented before, Elissa Slotkin is not even getting a shrug. Her delivery & talking points were spot on - talking to ‘regular’ people. Contrast it with Alina Habba’s comment on veterans being fired not being fit to work or not showing up. It is unreal to me.
Things are getting bizarre when the most important thing to complain about is not acting like magamaniacs that Dems complained about and mocked not long ago. I’m beginning to think the country has lost its soul to TikTok mini-moments.
Exactly! As Elissa Slotkin's remarks show, there is plenty of fodder in Trump's speech for attacking the despicable aims of Trump and the quisling Republicans' acquiescence. Several Democrats have already announced their campaigns for congressional seats held by Republicans, even though most of those seats (a Florida one coming up for a special election in April) are for the November 2026 election. Now is the time to start hitting the Senators and Representatives who are enabling Trump. Don't wait until closer to the election, when they will do a few token actions and hope people forget.
Trump's narrative last night was so completely and proactively counterfactual that it reads (I could not watch, but read the transcript) like a spoof of how an authoritarian might speak-- one who has studied Orwell carefully. And now, Trump and Co. clearly no longer have a vested stake in the American economy or in our 80-year pact with friends abroad. They have no fear of becoming unpopular with their base, there is no more pretending to honor the Constitution, or to care about the working poor. Why is that?
Let's imagine we are at a Derby. Last week, Friday to be precise, a horse (let's call him "Dictator"), broke out of the barn and started racing around the track. Dictator rounded the bend, with last year's favorite horse (let's call her "Democracy") lagging behind. Nearly every news outlet, even the so-called liberal ones, has called last night's debacle a victory lap, which always comes after the race has been won.
Meanwhile, those supposedly betting on Democracy sat mute and passive*, with their auction bidding signs held half-heartedly in the air.
I'm an optimist, and there is the next race, and the next. But right now, bleak storm clouds hang heavy in the air.
I could not watch the entire fiasco. The leader and Vance reminded me of two low-ability, grinning, pathetic, wealthy, frat goons. The person elected as president, was all buffed-up and excited to list story after story of his delightful savings. The facts need to state how many 200 y.o. people recieved social security? As the facts indicate names were on the list, but no money was sent. If so, the president was guilty of sending out social security checks wrongfully in his last term, as well. It is time to follow the law and remove people who are not confirmed by congress. All workers should be background checked along with a drug clearance, like all federal and state workers.
It’s a set up to condition people to believe Social Security is a corrupt program full of fraud and waste. This is how they plow the field, plant the seeds before cutting programs. Not too hard to get a lot of younger people on board don’t want to pay into it because they believe it won’t be there or costs too much.
It is a straight up lie, as is the story about federal payrolls being full of dead people & fake workers. It conditions people to associate “federal” or “government” with “bad”. The jackals will jump onboard & spread it.
The trump appointee currently over Social Security said it was not happening. Wired (a tech publication) explains it. — Basically anyone who works/worked with databases should be familiar with “default” settings. If you enter certain things a field is automatically filled. In this case, if what you enter for a DOB is not recognized or you leave it blank, a date of birth 150 yrs in the past is entered. It creates the file but *prevents* payments. A lot of this could be fixed by updating computer systems but no one wants to pay for it.
Nixon said “If the President does it it’s legal” (paraphrased). Trump says it and it must be the truth? No! That’s why we need an energized “press” and citizenry to start raising hands whenever possible to staunch the downward spiral in which our country finds itself. Perhaps the Democrats should invest in a widespread advertising campaign: Trump appears in a darkened image over one of his recent spewings as an audio beneath his image. And then there’s the word “Liar” set over the image.
(Nixon and trump became pals to some extent. Wrote one another. Nixon rode on his plane. Their letters are in the Nixon library. He seemed to study the Nixon debacle.
I point this out because Trump also said Nixon’s biggest mistake was not destroying the tapes. He also said after his impeachment that the difference between him and Nixon was Nixon left and he (trump) wasn’t leaving.)
Stephen Colbert said it best last night... he couldn't tell if the dems, with their little paddles, were protesting or buying an antique tea set... bravo to Al Green
Thank you for running the risk of making yourself sick by watching the series of lies last night so I didn't have to.
Ditto!
I saw an ENT yesterday. The very nice doc stuck a teeny tube with a light up my nose and down my throat to look around and told me I have a globus, a narrowing of my esophagus that leads to a kind of lump-in-the-throat feeling. Know what causes it? Stress and anxiety. It started after the election. Hence the expression, "I can't swallow that." I canceled my subscription to the wimpy, complicit New York Times, preferring to read Stephen's take on things.
Don’t let them get you! Stay healthy.
I don't want to ignore what's going on. I have to eat that owl in small bites.
The lies, the nastiness, the robotic and unconvincing performance … this is the real state of the union: America has become a petulant child.
"it was nauseating to witness the numerous times that JD Vance and Mike Johnson were laughing—laughing about invading Greenland, laughing about Trump’s slurs, laughing about all the 'appalling waste' in foreign aid that they’re ending." What HORRIFIED me was the UTTER PASSIVITY OF THE DEMOCRATS. Don't they get it??? It's WAY, WAY, WAY PAST TIME FOR SUCH PASSIVITY!! We're so close to the edge now, I don't know if democracy will survive.
It seems they don't get it, except for Mr. Green and a few others. By showing up to this spectacle, to let a tyrant spit all over you, is a profile in cowardice. No modicum of respect for this thug is warranted.
I called my Representative, James Clyburn, and begged him not to go -- and to urge others to do the same. He went. He sat there looking very tense. But he went.
If you needed a definition of “Confederacy of Dunces,” there it was for the world to witness.
Every day, everything he does brings an unprecedented instance of lying, violating norms, breaching protocol, outright aggression, unhinged ideation, and a complete abrogation of what America has stood for. He is an unmitigated disaster of a proportion "like no one has ever seen."
His speech was the self-fulfilling “disaster” to which he stupidly refers all too often.
There are no political parties any longer, they both recently died. One of over aggression, the other of lack of aggression. We now have SIDES, Democracy and Tyranny. Eventually everyone will be forced onto a side. Right now we still have the luxury of choosing which side we want to be on.
Yes, Lynn. The barriers of liberal versus conservative no longer have meaning. Pro democracy versus fascism is the reality. Why don't the elected Dems see this?
Not seeing it was their suicide pill.
Ex-repubs have muddied up the word democracy until it has limited meaning to people.
Ex-dems need to change their name to Life-Liberty-Happiness Party to counter the Tyranny Party.
How can anyone listen to this liar for 100 minutes when he doesn't say anything of substance just "the best/worst" of who knows what the world has ever seen. And now he compares himself to George Washington? We are truly in a nightmare state
The gleeful malice trickles down until acceptance of hate becomes hateful acts papered over with red, white and blue. And then Kristallnacht comes to America. Unless decent people like you (all of you) and me refuse to be cowed. So I will continue to be visible, join the protest on the corner, and call and write to my elected representatives.
Yes, please.
The felon projects every time he speaks, the spineless Republicans cheer him on, and the shameful female Republicans fawn all over him using their tradwife voices.
I'd say that they've all sold their souls, but they have none to sell.
I wonder how much Putin is paying them to gain access to our computers and data?
It is difficult to say you are the opposition if you are not present. I understand what Al Green did. I also could see the Speaker was well prepared to deal with disruptions. Competing with a three ring circus has its own hazards.
I am more disturbed that so little attention is given by Dems and the media to the great response to the president by Elissa Slotkin. I think it is the best I’ve ever heard from either party. Both in tenor and message. She covered a lot of ground without lecturing from he is “going to make you pay in every part of your life” to how people can be involved.
But no flashing lights, screaming or funny clothes. No missteps, nonsense or fodder for social media. So I guess we’ll turn out collective heads and pretend it didn’t happen.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/read-sen-elissa-slotkins-full-democratic-response-to-trumps-joint-address-to-congress
Slotkin was excellent. Agreed.
I am very proud of Elissa Slotkin, first as my Representative, now as one of my Senators
Same here, on both counts!
Thank you for the link!
Mary L. Trump makes the same point in her Substack this morning: “The Democratic Party had no coordinated stance. Once again, they failed to understand the mission. When Rep. Al Green (D-TX) stood in protest, he refused to stop even after Speaker of the House Mike Johnson threatened to have him removed by the Sergeant-at-Arms. Some Democrats also raised their voices, but not enough. And when the Sergeant-at-Arms did indeed remove Rep. Green, all Democratic voices went silent. I don’t know that I have ever been as ashamed of my party as I was tonight. Instead of vocal and unrelenting opposition, they held up sophomoric signs and sat stony-faced as if they couldn’t even be bothered.”
It's like letting someone beat you up in the schoolyard without fighting back.
Democrats needed to be at the speech last night. It is their job as elected representatives. We would err in ceding the space to the Republicans and MAGA guests. That is not to criticize Rep. Green and his decision. We can also note that many Republicans engaged in much more disruptive behavior when a Democratic president addressed Congress and were not removed.
We are not a lockstep party, so protest took various forms, from not attending, to walking out, to speaking up, to showing paddles. Maybe there should have been a paddle raised every time Trump lied, although I'm sure people's arms would have gotten tired.
We are in unprecedented times and still finding our way toward what will be effective. Instead of criticizing actions we see as ineffective, let us work on formulating strategic ones. While I'm sure Colbert wanted the joke, it reinforces a vision of Democrats as ineffectual, which is not warranted.
It is discouraging Dems don’t know how to take a win. As I commented before, Elissa Slotkin is not even getting a shrug. Her delivery & talking points were spot on - talking to ‘regular’ people. Contrast it with Alina Habba’s comment on veterans being fired not being fit to work or not showing up. It is unreal to me.
Things are getting bizarre when the most important thing to complain about is not acting like magamaniacs that Dems complained about and mocked not long ago. I’m beginning to think the country has lost its soul to TikTok mini-moments.
Exactly! As Elissa Slotkin's remarks show, there is plenty of fodder in Trump's speech for attacking the despicable aims of Trump and the quisling Republicans' acquiescence. Several Democrats have already announced their campaigns for congressional seats held by Republicans, even though most of those seats (a Florida one coming up for a special election in April) are for the November 2026 election. Now is the time to start hitting the Senators and Representatives who are enabling Trump. Don't wait until closer to the election, when they will do a few token actions and hope people forget.
Trump's narrative last night was so completely and proactively counterfactual that it reads (I could not watch, but read the transcript) like a spoof of how an authoritarian might speak-- one who has studied Orwell carefully. And now, Trump and Co. clearly no longer have a vested stake in the American economy or in our 80-year pact with friends abroad. They have no fear of becoming unpopular with their base, there is no more pretending to honor the Constitution, or to care about the working poor. Why is that?
Let's imagine we are at a Derby. Last week, Friday to be precise, a horse (let's call him "Dictator"), broke out of the barn and started racing around the track. Dictator rounded the bend, with last year's favorite horse (let's call her "Democracy") lagging behind. Nearly every news outlet, even the so-called liberal ones, has called last night's debacle a victory lap, which always comes after the race has been won.
Meanwhile, those supposedly betting on Democracy sat mute and passive*, with their auction bidding signs held half-heartedly in the air.
I'm an optimist, and there is the next race, and the next. But right now, bleak storm clouds hang heavy in the air.
*Thank you Al Green!!
Well said, Jill.
I could not watch the entire fiasco. The leader and Vance reminded me of two low-ability, grinning, pathetic, wealthy, frat goons. The person elected as president, was all buffed-up and excited to list story after story of his delightful savings. The facts need to state how many 200 y.o. people recieved social security? As the facts indicate names were on the list, but no money was sent. If so, the president was guilty of sending out social security checks wrongfully in his last term, as well. It is time to follow the law and remove people who are not confirmed by congress. All workers should be background checked along with a drug clearance, like all federal and state workers.
It’s a set up to condition people to believe Social Security is a corrupt program full of fraud and waste. This is how they plow the field, plant the seeds before cutting programs. Not too hard to get a lot of younger people on board don’t want to pay into it because they believe it won’t be there or costs too much.
It is a straight up lie, as is the story about federal payrolls being full of dead people & fake workers. It conditions people to associate “federal” or “government” with “bad”. The jackals will jump onboard & spread it.
The trump appointee currently over Social Security said it was not happening. Wired (a tech publication) explains it. — Basically anyone who works/worked with databases should be familiar with “default” settings. If you enter certain things a field is automatically filled. In this case, if what you enter for a DOB is not recognized or you leave it blank, a date of birth 150 yrs in the past is entered. It creates the file but *prevents* payments. A lot of this could be fixed by updating computer systems but no one wants to pay for it.
https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-doge-social-security-150-year-old-benefits/
Exactly.
Nixon said “If the President does it it’s legal” (paraphrased). Trump says it and it must be the truth? No! That’s why we need an energized “press” and citizenry to start raising hands whenever possible to staunch the downward spiral in which our country finds itself. Perhaps the Democrats should invest in a widespread advertising campaign: Trump appears in a darkened image over one of his recent spewings as an audio beneath his image. And then there’s the word “Liar” set over the image.
(Nixon and trump became pals to some extent. Wrote one another. Nixon rode on his plane. Their letters are in the Nixon library. He seemed to study the Nixon debacle.
I point this out because Trump also said Nixon’s biggest mistake was not destroying the tapes. He also said after his impeachment that the difference between him and Nixon was Nixon left and he (trump) wasn’t leaving.)