The State Of The Union

Bob Lefsetz’s Original Post – “The State of the Union”

Of course, you can’t waste your time with something as trivial as the State of the Union speech. That’s for the “hoi polloi” and the riff raff of flyover country. Besides, you already know all there is to know about politics in the United States.

“I normally don’t watch it. But I was on my iPad just as it was beginning and watched the video on the “Wall Street Journal” app while I skimmed the Apple News.

And I was impressed. With what Biden was saying, as well as his sense of humor.”

Well, of course you were. Biden has some of the best speech writers in the business. But they weren’t HIS words and it was not Joe Biden’s “sense of humor” – he was reading his script from the teleprompter.

“But then he was heckled by Marjorie Taylor Greene.”

True, she called him a liar. But was she right?

Ms Greene said Mr Biden “did lie” when he “talked about Republicans and Social Security and Medicare”.

“We have not talked about cutting Social Security and Medicare, Joe Biden has been claiming that we’re going to cut Social Security and Medicare – but we’re not,” Ms Greene said. “So we called him out on the House floor, I called him a ‘liar’ because that’s what Joe Biden is.”

“Now in light of Trump, commentators have reached back in history, to the 1800s, to point out similar craziness.

I wasn’t alive back then, and neither was Biden.” 

Are you sure about that? Biden is as old as the hills and as incapacitated as a senior citizen in a memory care unit. Former special counsel Robert Hur reported to Congress:

Robert Hur appeared before Congress on Tuesday to explain his investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents – which led to no charges against the president but plenty of consternation among Democrats when Hur described Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” in his report.

“And I lived through the sixties, and I protested, but my parents taught me how to behave, how to have respect, or to not show up at all.” 

Like when you write stuff such as:

“Sharon, you self-hating meeskite”, “They’re even standing up for the Republican dimwits”, “It’s the tyranny of the ignorant, and the misinformed”, “their prostates are too enlarged!”, “BECAUSE WE’RE PUSSIES!”, and “Don’t argue with me, you’re just gonna appear to be an old fogey.”

It’s so nice to see that YOU show such respect for the people you disagree with…  

“Everyone has their turn, let the other speak and then you’ll get your chance. But if you keep shouting out while another person speaks it devolves into chaos, and the people watching the shenanigans wonder where you’re coming from, who you are, what your motivation is.”

Kinda like the George Floyd riots across America, that killed at least 17 people and “arson, vandalism, and looting that occurred between May 26 and June 8 caused approximately $1–2 billion in insured damages nationally, the highest recorded damage from civil disorder in U.S. history”?

You wrote on 7/28/20:

“So, the people protesting/rioting/whatever believe they are powerless and the only way to stand up to the oppression is to take to the streets. They don’t care about the consequences. They’re willing to be gassed, get arrested, have their bones broken. They’re the last line of defense. This is the history of revolutions, if you studied them you’d know, and if Trump steals the election, or refuses to accept the vote, these protesters are going to go berserk and will be joined by many more, and the protests will not stop and it will not be business as usual.”

“But if you keep shouting out while another person speaks it devolves into chaos…”

You keep shouting and demonizing and insulting anyone to the right of Mitt Romney several times a week. You seem like an unlikely and unqualified person to be demanding civility – everyone in flyover country is a “wanker” in Bob Lefsetz’s view of the world! And what is Bob Lefsetz’s world like?

“What kind of crazy, fucked-up world do we live in where…““And then the internet came along and blew apart everything. Suddenly not only did everybody have an opinion, but they could express it.”

And you built a career on analyzing, reporting on, and critiquing the entertainment industry, and now have more than 275,000 subscribers. Good for you – well done!  But now you consider yourself to be a political pundit and use your subscriber base to proselytize on behalf of the left wing liberal Democrat party several times a week. No documentation, no facts, no legitimate statistics. Just your angry left coast opinions, attacks and rants against Republicans, conservatives, and President Trump.

“So how are we supposed to bring the nation together, when it is separated into so many parts?

Even worse, there are winners and losers. And the winners live in a rarefied air the hoi polloi are not privileged to experience. And just because Elon Musk bought Twitter that does not mean he’s an expert on every subject he pontificates about. Free speech? This guy doesn’t even know what it is!” 

And just because Bob Lefsetz has 275,000 subscribers to his music and entertainment blog that does not mean he’s an expert on every subject he pontificates about – like politics. First you tell us:

“Now the chaos of the sixties evolved into the somnambulance of the seventies and then when taxes were lowered in the eighties, all the boomers switched sides, stopped being concerned with their brother and focused only on themselves. And as opposed to admitting this, they fought back, saying they deserved their success and their accoutrements.”

Then you whine:

“It used to be a badge of honor to be educated, to work hard and move up the ladder, but in the past decade or so the script has flipped, you’re a chump, the enemy if you’ve worked hard and made it.”

Which is it, Bobby – “stopped being concerned with their brother” or “a badge of honor”?

“all the boomers switched sides, stopped being concerned with their brother and focused only on themselves”

“It used to be a badge of honor to be educated, to work hard and move up the ladder”

You have no idea – you’re simply bloviating in every direction, trying to impress others in your small coterie of liberal comrades with your never-ending virtue signaling.

“But in truth, Biden has been a great President.  No one is totally clean, but come on. I’m not saying unintelligent, inexperienced, I’m just saying old, which he is.”

So what did our great President say in his SOTU speech last week? 

“If I were smart, I’d go home now.

You know, there are 1,000 billionaires in America. You know what the average federal tax is for those billionaires?  They’re making great sacrifices — 8.2 percent.  I proposed a minimum tax for billionaires of 25 percent — just 25 percent.

The working people — the working people who built this country pay more into Social Security than millionaires and billionaires do. It’s not fair.”

That’s not what CBS News has reported:

“Altogether, the top 50 percent of filers earned 90 percent of all income and were responsible for 98 percent of all income taxes paid in 2021. The other half of earners, those with incomes below $46,637, collectively paid 2.3 percent of all income taxes in 2021.”

“I’m told my predecessor called members of Congress in the Senate to demand they block the bill. He feels political win — he viewed it as a — it would be a political win for me and a political loser for him. It’s not about him. It’s not about me. I’d be a winner — not really. I —

It doesn’t make new, but in a — news — in a thousand cities and towns, the American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told.

It’s time to raise the corporate minimum tax to at least 21 percent so every big corporation finally begins to pay their fair share.”

It was President Obama who lowered corporate tax rates from 35% to 28% – while Biden was Vice President.

“Only the young think they know everything. Their elders know how much they don’t know, which is an asset, they’ve seen so much and know how the pieces fit together. That’s Biden’s advantage, that’s the secret sauce.”

And the Los Angeles Times agrees with you!

“Joe Biden is old. Like each of us, he comes from a particular place in history, in his case the LBJ years. And that’s one big reason why his first term has been so full of accomplishment: His age, often cited as the greatest obstacle to his reelection, is actually his superpower.”

Joe Biden’s Superpower

Once in awhile you get it right!

“So, if Biden is running on personality, charisma, he’s toast. If he ever had those elements, he’s lost them or no longer knows how to evidence them.”

I don’t care how charming our leaders are, but I would like it if they were able to at least think and communicate clearly, without saying nonsense like “we take truth over facts” and shaking hands with imaginary people as he wanders directionless from his podium and teleprompter, and sniffing young girls hair. And it would be nice if his son wasn’t leaving cocaine, pornographic laptops and unacknowledged grandchildren behind him…

“And most people don’t know how much the government does for them.

And everybody hates paying taxes, but that’s what makes our nation run.”

I don’t mind paying taxes – but I don’t like to see more than $100 billion going to Ukraine to protect THEIR borders while ours remain open with more than 10 million people – many from countries considered to be our enemies – coming into the United States illegally since Joe Biden took office.

“And America was going in the wrong direction, but now…

Oh come on, we’re fighting climate change, we’re eliminating hobbling student debt (and if you’re against that, you’re selfish, own it) and so many of the big issues are obscured by the little. Like Ukraine needs money.”

How it is “selfish” if you couldn’t afford to go to college and instead worked a blue collar job most of your life, only to be told that your taxes would now be going to pay off college loans for kids who studied “Entertainment engineering & design” or “Egyptology” or an eight year medical degree that would earn that student hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in his career? In what way is it “selfish” to expect people to pay off the loans they agreed to take to get a higher education so many of us could never afford?

And how are we fighting climate change? And why should we bother, when China and India were given a free pass to build more and more polluting coal power plants at the Paris Climate Agreement: 

Meanwhile, developing countries like China, India, and Brazil got a free pass.  In fact, the Kyoto Protocol exempted 80 percent of the world from GHG emission reductions.China has pledged to start cutting coal consumption over the 2025-2030 period, but developers are building as much new capacity as they can before 2025, the GEM-CREA report said.  China has approved 218 GW of new coal power in just two years, enough to supply electricity to the whole of Brazil.

“Perception is Biden is old and senile. He proved tonight he is not senile, but he certainly is old.

So I wish Biden wasn’t the candidate. The dude is damn old, and every time you say he’s not it makes me believe you’re deaf and blind. I mean come on, can’t you see?”

Once again, you seem to get it and see the truth! So your advice to Joe Biden is:

“He shouldn’t engage Trump, no one ever wins that battle, Trump eats up all the air, like a schoolboy bully.

But if we just focus on Biden’s wisdom and experience…”

Now isn’t that a great idea for our democracy – we are told that Trump is an “existential threat to our democracy” – but Biden should not debate him, because he’d probably lose the debate. Let’s just keep Biden in the basement, like we did during the last election cycle, or better yet, put him in a senior facility specializing in memory care where he can have a presidential walker and people to help him walk without falling over or tripping on stairs.

“But in truth, Biden has been a great President.”

Do you truly believe this nonsense? Are you really that “deaf and blind”? I mean come on, can’t you see?