February 6, 2020

TV ratings declined for Trump's State of the Union speech. Viewership on Tuesday was a 20% decline

TV ratings declined for Trump's State of the Union speech. Viewership on Tuesday was a 20% decline from Trump's State of the Union last year, and well below the audience for his speeches in 2017 and 2018.

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1225243995187634177?s=20

February 5, 2020

"SOTU is pure, weapons-grade, uncut fucking chaos & I am both unhinged & unbound from consequences"

Rick Wilson at the Daily Beast:

Trump’s Speech Was a Bataan Death March of Bullsh*t
And it was a wakeup call for Democrats, who have acted as if 2016 was a fluke and Trump’s personal sh*tshow, corruption, and idiocy all but ensure an easy win in November.


It wasn’t the speech that Trump wanted to give, which we’ll hear soon enough.

“The state of the union is pure, weapons-grade, uncut fucking chaos, and I am both unhinged and unbound from any consequence, ever. All the pretty words my speechwriters worked so hard on are a thin veneer over the seething mass of coming horrors. I have gambled our economy, compromised our security, and shredded our dignity, and I’ll do it again. My message to the American people: bend the knee. To my enemies: vengeance is coming.”


https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-state-of-the-union-was-half-american-carnage-half-morning-in-america

February 5, 2020

Democrats shouldn't be chumps. That's why this liberal is giving up on compromise for now.

The time for give and take has passed

Those days are gone. Our current political impasse runs so deep, and one would-be compromise partner is so recalcitrant, that I've given up hope for the near term that the Democrats and Republicans can work together on the country’s urgent challenges. With the fate of our democracy and planet at stake — sorry, that's not hyperbole — would-be conciliators can't afford to continue extending olive branches only to have them shoved back in our faces.

............

more:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/02/04/saving-democracy-earth-more-important-than-compromise-column/4645462002/

February 5, 2020

Pelosi on Why She Ripped Trump's Speech: "It was the courteous thing to do considering alternatives"

Speaker Nancy Pelosi on why she ripped up President Trump’s speech: “Because it was the courteous thing to do considering the alternatives.”

VIDEO:
https://twitter.com/jason_donner/status/1224901568425857024?s=20
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/watch-nancy-pelosi-rips-up-trumps-state-of-the-union-speech-with-him-standing-right-in-front-of-her/


MORE:

Pelosi trashes Trump address: 'He shredded the truth, so I shredded his speech'

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday trashed President Trump’s raucous State of the Union address while huddling with rank-and-file Democrats and explained why she dramatically ripped up his speech as he wrapped up his remarks.

“He shredded the truth, so I shredded his speech,” Pelosi told House Democrats during a closed-door caucus meeting, according to sources in the room. Like she did the night before, she called his 90-minute address “a manifesto of mistruths."

“You are supposed to talk about the state of the union,” Pelosi continued, “not the state of your alleged mind.”

Democrats, expressing support for Pelosi’s gesture, erupted in a standing ovation, lawmakers said.

“She ripped it from top to bottom,” said Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), speaking metaphorically of Pelosi laying into Trump’s speech.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/481604-pelosi-trashes-trump-address-he-shredded-the-truth-so-i-shredded-his-speech?userid=57999

February 5, 2020

The Strangest State of the Union Ever

John Harris: “President Donald Trump likes his superlatives and you have to give him credit: He definitely earned them this time. This was the most defiant, most boastful, most ostentatiously theatrical, most overtly campaign-oriented, most am-I-hearing-this-right? outlandish — the most flamboyantly bizarre — State of the Union Address of All Time.”

“It was also the most disorienting, and hard to categorize through the prism of conventional political analysis. That prism already had lost much of its utility during the Trump Era, and the president seemed to shatter it completely in a 78-minute speech to a congressional audience whose fealty and contempt toward Trump were on display in equal and vivid measure. Trump long ago lost the capacity truly to shock, but he still has tricks up his sleeve: The speech showed he still has ability to surprise.”

“In particular, his speech was notable for the unapologetically zig-zag quality of the messaging. The usual rubric is that national politicians face a choice of mobilization or persuasion. One choice is to energize the partisan base with sharp-edged rhetoric and cultural and ideological scab-picking. The other choice is to blur lines with round-edged appeals to voters who aren’t on board but might yet be coaxed there. Trump refused the choice. In keeping with the more-is-more spirit of the speech, he did both.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/05/trump-sotu-analysis-110803
https://politicalwire.com/2020/02/05/the-strangest-state-of-the-union-ever/

February 5, 2020

Alan Dershowitz, Brain-Genius-At-Law

?1580843984

February 4, 2020

Oaths matter

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EP8kvcgX0AAovkb?format=jpg&name=small

https://twitter.com/DavidCornDC/status/1224743772401078273?s=20

February 4, 2020

This is a real-life post by an anti-abortion activist. You can't make this shit up.

https://twitter.com/hayleyfarless/status/1224388586323222533?s=20

February 4, 2020

I demand to see this buddy film!

A coyote and a badger use a culvert as a wildlife crossing to pass under a busy California highway together. Coyotes and badgers are known to hunt together.

:large

https://twitter.com/weswpg/status/1224538087222583296?s=20

February 4, 2020

He Alone Is What They Serve.