More pro Biden than I would like of mother jones but a good read. I will have to watch the actual State of Union today. Tell me what you think about his address? Personally I like the Dark Brandon caricature lol

For over an hour on Thursday night, during the State of the Union address, President Joe Biden energetically presented a vibrant progressive agenda and repeatedly stuck it to Donald Trump. Yes, there were stumbles and linguistic slips, but Biden portrayed a vigor at odds with the caricatures that are constantly promoted by Trump and Biden detractors in the conservative media. Caricatures focusing on his age are then bolstered by seemingly endless coverage by the mainstream media. The president was aggressive from the git-go; Dark Brandon was in the room.

Biden opened strong, calling for congressional support for Ukraine and slamming “my predecessor” for bowing before Russian President Vladimir Putin and telling him to “do whatever the hell you want.” Biden then vowed, “I will not bow down.” Tying the fight against Russia in Ukraine to the battle to protect democracy in the United States, Biden pivoted to the Trump-incited insurrectionist riot on January 6, 2021, which occurred in the same room in which he was speaking. Staring at the Republicans present, Biden proclaimed, “My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth of January 6th.” He called on all in the chamber to say no to political violence. Democrats stood up and cheered; Republicans sat on their hands. Sitting behind the president, House Speaker Mike Johnson rolled his eyes.

In these opening minutes, Biden cornered the Trumpists: They were foes of democracy abroad and at home, a theme he returned to throughout the speech, as he relentlessly pounded “my predecessor.” MP “brags” about killing Roe v. Wade. MP, and “many of you in this chamber,” are “promising” to pass an abortion ban. During the Covid pandemic, MP “failed the most basic duty…the duty to care.” MP wants to end the Affordable Care Act and take away coverage for pre-existing conditions for a hundred million Americans. MP torpedoed the bipartisan immigration bill that included proposals from conservatives to bolster security at the border. MP did nothing on gun safety and after a recent school shooting in Iowa said that we should “get over it” and move forward.

Biden didn’t merely highlight the differences between himself and King MAGA and his comrades, he shoved it in their faces. After the speech, while delivering a predictably hyperbolic and fear-mongering GOP response, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) derided Biden as a “dithering and diminished leader.” Had she not watched him? Biden’s blistering assault on Trump was vigorous and fierce. When he was heckled by Republicans, he shot back sharp one-liners. (“Oh, you don’t like that bill?” he jeered at Republicans who booed his remarks about the immigration bill that was negotiated by Republicans and then killed by Trump loyalists.)

Biden still looks and moves like he’s 81 years old, but he was engaged and engaging, bantering with and goading the Republicans. Biden talked policy details like a pro. He was far more cogent than Trump ever is during his rambling rants at campaign rallies.

As expected, Biden highlighted positive economic indicators and cited a long list of his accomplishments: the infrastructure bill and the 46,000 new projects it has generated (including removing lead pipes and bringing broadband to rural communities), the CHIPS Act, the revival of manufacturing, reducing the price of insulin, tax credits that lower the costs of health care premiums, $12 billion in funding for women’s health research, a reduction the student debt burden for millions, cutting credit card fees, and a wide variety of climate change initiatives.

The speech also featured a lengthy wish list of progressive proposals: ending Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy, lowering the price of prescription drugs and capping the annual costs of such medicines, tax credits for first-time home buyers, increasing affordable housing, establishing universal access to pre-school, increasing Pell grants, raising taxes on billionaires and corporations, upping pay for public school teachers, boosting the minimum wage, enhancing voter rights, protecting transgender rights, banning assault weapons. (There was plenty more!)

Recognizing the rift within the Democratic party over his support of Israel, Biden noted the horrific loss of life in Gaza and told the Israeli government that “humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority.” The US military, he said, would lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine, and temporary shelters for Palestinians. Meanwhile, he vowed to keep working for a ceasefire that would include a return of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas. “The only real solution is a two-state solution over time,” he declared, a position at odds with that of the current Israeli government. This is unlikely to calm the protests against him for supporting Israel’s assault in Gaza, but he highlighted the horrendous civilian casualties in Gaza more than he has done in the past.

you think theres a “left” in america? where the hell have you been?

Donald Trump is coasting to victory in Super Tuesday primaries across the country—a decisive, if not unexpected, showing that follows his overwhelming wins in GOP nominating contests in states like Iowa, New Hampshire, and Michigan earlier this year.

The former president—who tried to overturn the 2020 election and illegally hold on to power—is facing four indictments covering a whopping 91 criminal counts, and he owes half a billion dollars following multiple civil judgements handed down this year alone. But on Monday, the US Supreme Court gave him a key legal victory, ruling that he could remain on state presidential ballots despite his involvement in inciting the January 6 insurrection. And on Tuesday, he was once again dominating the GOP primaries, leading former UN ambassador Nikki Haley in nine of the 10 states reporting results as of 8:45 pm ET—in most cases by huge margins. (Haley held a narrow lead in deep-blue Vermont.) Prior to Tuesday, Trump has won every GOP contest with the exception of Washington, DC, where Haley received the support of roughly two-thirds of the 2,000 voters who participated.

Tuesday night’s results reaffirm what poll after poll had already shown: Trump wields a seemingly ironclad grip on the party, even as his first criminal trial is slated to begin later this month.

Haley has, up until now, nonetheless stubbornly refused to drop out, claiming that she has “no fear of Trump’s retribution.” But it remains to be seen if or how her crushing losses in Tuesday’s primaries will affect her campaign; she told reporters last week she was only “thinking about Super Tuesday.”

Tuesday’s results, if they hold throughout the evening, will all but guarantee that Trump will be the GOP nominee—though he won’t formally receive the party’s nomination until the national convention in July. Regardless, polls suggest it’s (basically) official: November’s election will present voters with a 2020 rematch—between Biden and Trump, and between democracy and authoritarianism.

dems missing an opportunity to do something? now theres a new thing. /s

You must be some Russian/MAGA spam bot!! How dare you encourage them to just hand over the election to trump!

/s

Yes, defend current atrocities now because “the past was worse”. Wait, people couldn’t own things before America? There have always been docile people as well so I think you may just be exaggerating on those points.

America isn’t the only superpower though. And why do you think they are such a superpower? Could it be because of all the free prison labor we have and all of the unpaid labor that went into US infrastructure both during and after slavery was abolished?

The world doesn’t have to be half terrible and if the US is such a good powerful supernation, why doesn’t it fix the very problems that it causes? I think its because the US is an ultra-capitalist empire and requires all of the suffering it takes to maintain that empire.

did you know that the US is illegally occupying hawaii?

tell that to the natives. tell that to the slave population it held. tell that to the current incarcerated population.

good bot

12ft link for anyone that needs it:

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Ftheintercept.com%2F2024%2F02%2F28%2Fnew-york-times-anat-schwartz-october-7%2F

I guess you haven’t heard of the arab spring https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mohamed-Bouazizi

That’s not protest. It’s submission.

Yea sure, tell that to people who still celebrate the man that started the arab spring by committing self-immolation:

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2020/12/17/remembering-mohamed-bouazizi-his-death-triggered-the-arab

deleted by creator

yup the US was an apartheid state from the start as well

you mean the US?

I agree.

don’t like Biden’s messaging

but that message is he’s not willing to call a permanent unconditional ceasefire and is willing to let more children die. am i supposed to like that message?

its never been livestreamed like this though. people are seeing this happen in real-time. instead of taking days to even years to reach people, its getting to us in our hand in minutes if not seconds.