Awaiting a night of political theater on Capitol Hill
Which is why I won't be watching.
It's hard when you have seen through the state of delusion coming from this hack.
"Obama’s last State of the Union will try to counter electorate’s anger" by Greg Jaffe Washington Post January 12, 2016
WASHINGTON — President Obama will deliver his last State of the Union speech at a moment when the fear and anger in the US electorate seem to have caught even him by surprise.
His challenge as he takes the biggest stage in American politics Tuesday is whether his message can rise above the election-season vitriol.
I've heard this before.
Obama has promised a speech that, in his words, cuts through the ‘‘day-to-day noise of Washington’’ and celebrates America’s capacity ‘‘to come together as one American family.’’
Instead of a to-do list of policy proposals that have little chance of passing Congress, he has said he plans to deliver a speech that will describe ‘‘who we are’’ as a nation, or perhaps more accurately, who Obama in the last year of his presidency would like us to be.
The problem for the president in his seventh year in office is that the gulf between his vision of a unified America, one that he has trumpeted from his earliest days on the national scene, and the current political reality has never seemed wider.
Unless it comes to whatever Israel wants and the $700 billion in tax loot giveaways, Iran deal notwithstanding.
This final address from the House chamber represents one of his last, best chances to frame the November election.
Yeah, he is goping to set the tone for the 2016 election.
Obama faces a deeply divided public. Some of his signature political victories from 2015, such as the Iran nuclear deal and the opening to Cuba, have provoked a GOP backlash.
The divide is perhaps deepest on issues of war and terrorism, which are likely to dominate Obama’s last year in office as well as the upcoming election.
In the battle against the Islamic State, Obama has struggled to balance intense fear of terrorism after last fall’s attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., with his conviction that there are no fast fixes to the problems in either Iraq or Syria. The Islamic State occupies parts of both countries.
There are if you include Russia and Iran, and speak for your f***ing selves regarding fear. I'm not buying that narrative. I think the people are apathetic and ignorant to it now. They aren't paying attention. Heads are buried in their social media bubbles.
The United States is counting on local forces, backed by US air power, to slowly take territory from Islamic State fighters. A bolstered counterterrorism effort will seek in the coming months to kill the group’s senior leaders through drone strikes and raids, officials say.
Whatever, WaPo.
Only a year ago, Obama used his penultimate State of the Union address to declare the end of an era marked by 15 years of terrorism and continuous war. ‘‘Tonight we turn the page,’’ the president began last January.
Then he turned it back again.
Today there are fewer than 15,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the president’s ‘‘turn the page’’ metaphor already seems dated.
As is he.
In the last few weeks, seven US troops have been killed in Afghanistan, and the president’s top commander there has said he does not think further cuts to the current force of 9,800 US troops are realistic anytime soon.
Say what?
The president has struggled of late to calibrate his remarks to match the country’s mood. ‘‘So much of his legacy was built around ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Julianne Smith, a former Obama White House official and senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. ‘‘We all expected to be in a different place, and we’re not.’’
Isn't that a Clinton outfit?
Obama has responded with a campaign that emphasizes the limits of American power to repair the Middle East and seeks to keep US forces from being drawn too deeply into chaotic quagmires. Obama initially mocked the heated Republican rhetoric as fearful, weak, and politically craven. A few weeks later in a prime-time address to the nation, Obama took a different course.
‘‘The threat from terrorism is real,’’ he acknowledged. ‘‘But we will overcome it. Our success won’t depend on tough talk or abandoning our values or giving in to fear.’’
This is all such garbage once you realize the "terrorists" are for the most part U.S.-created, funded, and directed entities.
Obama also faces a challenge on domestic issues, and he has sought to appeal to universal American values.
What would those be?
Torture?
Mass murdering wars based upon lies?
Record-setting wealth inequality?
In his State of the Union address, the president will use silence to make his case.
I wish he would shut up.
One seat will be empty in the first lady’s guest box to highlight the toll of gun violence on the country.
I don't know who he invited, and are they going to leave half the chamber empty in honor of all his drone victims?
On no issue has the country’s growing division been more shocking to the White House than on immigration. The debate has veered sharply to the right. Obama, meanwhile, has tried to make the case that new immigrants are an essential part of the American story.
Yeah, they are needed to deliver Globes if nothing else.
In December, the president presided over a naturalization ceremony at the National Archives for immigrants from 25 countries.
‘‘In these new Americans we see our own American stories — our parents, our grandparents, our uncles, our cousins,’’ Obama said.
‘‘They set out for a place that was more than just a piece of land, but an idea: America — a place where we can be a part of something bigger.’’
That's actually the opposite of it. The country was founded on the right to be left alone from a tyrannical government.
--more--"
Maybe there is a different kind of theater I could take in tonight.
I did in fact see the new Star Wars and it was okay. The review is right to a certain extent. It had the feel of the first one with the action scenes and not-too-deep plot that took the logical path forward. The person I went with even said it felt like being with old friends, which is what the Globe said. I'll have more to say about it in an official review and I don't want to spoil it for any who have yet to see it.
As for the other theater, didn't see a second and don't want to.
UPDATE:
Angry Leftist Translates Obama: Final State of the Union Address
7 ways to tell if ‘cancer moonshot’ is legit, or political rhetoric
Here is the first....
Rocket fuel for the fight against cancer
