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SOTU has long been a platform for the current president to tout his accomplishments, so of course in an election year, it's going to come off as a campaign speech.

I expect we will hear a lot more about how the Biden White House is awash in speed and Xanax.

Mitt heard the '80s calling.

But the $64 question is, are they going to take the note?

I love this because the Trump running dog media are always hammering Biden for problems with the economy that inevitably struggled to recover from COVID at the time he picked it up, so if it's fair game to hammer Biden for that, then it's at least equally fair game to hammer Trump for the economy tanking in 2020 in the first place.

Not sure what else to expect from a class of “legislators” weaned on reality television and WWE.

See, there you go, and I respect it just as much.

That was essentially the first half of the first sentence I wrote in my first post about all this!

All due respect, this is a "dog bites man" story. Hogan already didn't vote for Trump in either 2020 or 2016.

I don't think you needed to lean on some nobody who doesn't even know Katie Porter to co-opt her opinion. You could have posted the same opinion as your own and we would have respected it just as much.

And I'm not talking about Katie Porter at all. But that's fine. We can leave it there.

Who the everloving **** is Iyawo Negeeb and why should I care who she's met?

I wouldn't have thought that Citizens United and whether billionaires control elections would be debatable concepts here, but, there you go. Or maybe we've just thrown up our hands, given up and let cynicism win. After all, looking cynical does make you super cool.

I’m pulling back from her personal tree and focusing on the “billionaires control the election process with their money” forest. I don’t think that’s wrong. That’s what Citizens United was all about.

Boiling down her tweet to its basic contents, is she wrong?

Yes, it’s this, but also, and it sounds a little weird coming from me in this forum, but: Trump has charisma. By which I don’t mean, everybody loves him. That’s obviously not true. But the people who do love him really, really love him for that. So the question becomes, once the charismatic Trump moves off the scene, who picks up the baton for the movement? I agree that Trump won’t be able to simply wave his magic wand over Ivanka or Donnie or Eric (lol) and make them the equivalent of him, because they just don’t have the charisma. So none of them can be the next leader. But we also know that Trump did not create this way of thinking among his mist fervent fans. It was already there before him, and it will be there after him. If Trump can tap into it with his charisma, then certainly someone else could come along and do so. The next leader of the red hat movement has to be someone in alignment with the thinking, as well as have the charisma all those red hats need to get fired up and act on the leader’s behalf to Make American Great Again. Someone like … Joe Rogan. He may or may not be fully MAGA, but he is certainly MAGA-adjacent, and unlike all the true-red MAGA lieutenants, Rogan has the charismatic reach to move people. I don’t know if he’s next up for sure, but if Trump does shuffle off in the next year or two, I think Joe Rogan could step up and take the wheel if he wants to.

It does come off like sour grapes due to the timing, but boiling down her tweet to its basic contents, is she wrong?

I don’t know if that would apply to Americans, at least right out of the chute. Unlike actual tinpot dictator countries, Americans are socialized to expect to be free and be able to do anything they want. I think it would take at least a couple generations of fascist conditioning and indoctrination to finally break Americans’ spirit, and I’d bet a lot of blood would have to be spilled in the process.

Buried Lede Alert: ”BIDEN IS THE ENEMY. HE IS DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY.” Stayed tuned to Logical Progression Theater for: “Democrat politicians are the enemy. They are destroying our country.” “Democrat voters are the enemy. They are destroying our country.” “Your Democrat-voting neighbors are the enemy. They are destroying our country.” “Your Democrat-voting family is the enemy. They are destroying our country.” “Kill the enemy. Save our country.”

I’m not sure even that GOP candidate is parsing this own thinking nearly as carefully as you are parsing it for him.

“He’s one of the good ones.”

One unfortunate but probably unavoidable side effect of this whole sordid affair is that it is no longer considered deranged and unqualifying to announce that you will go after former presidents on the flimsiest of evidence. In fact, millions will vote for Trump just for vowing that. A high percentage of red hats seek only punishment of people they despise, because take that and see how you like it.

Who’s Joel Reuter?

Shortstop putouts?

Fielding percentage! Man, I haven’t thought of that one for a long time …