The Frankish Reich

That part is true. He clearly viewed it as an 81 year old's marathon. He was gonna linger in the aisle as long as possible, before and after the speech, and then deliver the speech itself at 90 db. Hey, even when you're reading it's hard to do that for over an hour. So he passed that test, which even his critics concede when they are saying he was amped up on stimulants. I used to say that every time Gronk caught a pass, but we still kept losing to them.

Not in my experience. It's gobbledygook because the immigration laws need a total rewrite. Not the type of the immigration bill that the Repubs just rejected, but a total rethinking so that we don't have so many quasi-legal statuses. Post of the year!

As Marx famously said: History repeats twice, the first time as tragedy (RFK Sr.), the second time as farce (Jr.) The old commie had a way with words.

What is "Nimbra?" Her name is pronounced exactly how it's spelled - Nim-ahh-RA-ta. Sound it out. Presumably you think "Nimbra" was meant as an insult, but I have no idea who or what a "Nimbra" is (I know what a "Nimrod" is, but he didn't call her that), so it makes no sense as an insult. Whatever. Is the point that Biden is old and mangles names? Gotcha. Is the point that he wasn't practicing saying her name over and over again like a mantra until it is burned into his two remaining neurons? I don't see why that's relevant. Is it that her name wasn't mentioned in the prepared text? Yeah, that would be a valid point. So make it. Say Their Names about all the non-George Floyd victims of unjustified police shootings. Other than Breanna and George, I doubt you can come up with one. Let's stop these silly games. Just saying that that is confusing too. Maybe (probably) immigration law should be simpler. Legal or illegal, no gray area. But that Venezuelan killer was in a gray area - authorized to come in and stay, but without valid immigrant or nonimmigrant status. Back in the Reagan amnesty days there was an awful bureaucratic acronym: PRUCOL. For "permanently residing under color of law." Yeah, it's really messy. And it is fair to blame Biden for allowing it to get even messier. Irv himself would recoil in horror at the mess.

Off point, but a little info from someone who's worked on cases involving crimes committed by "illegal aliens." We don't use the term "illegal alien." We really never did. Not out of fear of being called a racist (nobody complained about racist implications until fairly recently), but because it is too vague for lawyers to use. There's the classic "illegal alien" - sneaked across the border undetected. They are usually called something like EWIs ("eewees," for "entered without insepction.") There's visa overstays, which the general public wouldn't call "illegal aliens" but that's what they are. (In the trade they are called, not surprisingly, "overstays") There are people like the Venezuelan who apparently killed Laken Riley. He was "paroled in" to allow him to apply for asylum. He's not a classic "illegal alien," so people in law enforcement would probably call him a border parolee or something like that. Just if people are curious. There's many flavors of aliens present in the United States, many of whom were authorized to enter and to stay until something happens (an asylum application is finally decided) or for a period of time (until they complete a degree, or for 90 days, etc.)

And when did Trumpies get all worked up about the silly "say her name" thing? I thought that came from the other side. They goaded him to say it. He took their sticky thing and said it, stumbled over it, but said it. Get over it.

If your point is that old men stumble over unfamiliar names, well, you got me. Sometimes they even do that in writing where they have time to check their work! In a post on his Truth Social account, Trump repeatedly referred to Haley, the daughter of immigrants from India, as “Nimbra.” Haley, the former South Carolina governor, was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, as Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. She has always gone by her middle name, “Nikki.”

The Catholic Church is consistent. It believes that life begins at conception. Human life begins at conception. Therefore, methods of birth control that prevent implantation of a fertilized egg are wrong; they deliberately "end life" by interfering with the natural development of that life. They also believe that IVF is wrong because it necessarily involves the destruction of some fertilized eggs at the embryonic stage. (They think it's wrong for other reasons too, but those reasons are beside the point here.) The Alabama Supreme Court is consistent. The people of Alabama, speaking through their elected representatives, believe life begins at conception. They even accord such life "personhood." The Alabama Supreme Court therefore says that IVF procedures that would include the destruction of embryonic human life is illegal under Alabama law. Mike Johnson believes human life begins at conception. So does Katie Britt, Senator representing the very same Alabama and soon to be forgotten over-emoting SOTU response speaker. Yet Mike Johnson and Katie Britt support legislation that exempts IVF related "deaths" from the standard protections given to human life. Mike Johnson and Katie Britt are inconsistent. Taking an innocent human life is taking an innocent human life. We wouldn't say, "this woman seems to be carrying quadruplets, and to increase the survival chances of the largest two we must abort the smaller two." But apparently we can say "implant only the one or two best looking test tube embryos and dispose of the others." If you believe human life begins at conception and that such life is entitled to all the protections we apply to "persons," then you cannot agree with any IVF procedure that would not result in implantation of every fertilized egg. I am not just saying that Mike Johnson and Katie Britt and their ilk are hypocritical. They are politicians. I am saying that they don't really believe their own position. That strikes me as worse than hypocritical. They are not saying, "Yes, IVF procedures that may dispose of embryos constitute a form of legalized abortion, but politics is the art of compromise, and here we understand that public opinion is against us, so we will allow that exception." No. They are pretending the issue doesn't exist. They are inconsistent, hypocritical, and they are liars.

Look, I'm trying to be nice here. But yeah, weird name, and surely not the first time someone has stumbled over it. LACK-en? LAKE-en? "LOCK-en." That's all you got? It's not like he called her Mitterand.

So you're telling me that that mythical $20 Taco Bell lunch may get a bit cheaper? It's almost as if inflation is no longer a problem!

Yes, because you have so many friends named "Laken." From a quick Social Security Administration search: Laken is not in the top 1000 names for any year of birth beginning with 2020. Please enter another name.

Nice work!

I'm old enough to remember when 800 bucks would get you cutting edge technology.

When the Republican talking points turn away from the content and delivery of the speech to the meta-analysis ("Look at how the liberal media is framing their own talking points"), you know they understand that the speech went well. Where's all their "Katie Britt is a rising star" tweets this morning? She just Bobby Jindaled herself into irrelevance.

I suggest that all of you job reports skeptics do what another great Republican suggested when faced with the same problem. Hint: something about George Soros.

In other words, taking a page from The Donald's book. I'm not saying it's a good thing. I'm just pointing out that such is the state of political discourse in America today. Take the scrip pad away from Dr. Ronny!

I mean, yeah, I guess he blew it (kind of mumbled it), but it is an unorthodox name ... I was actually heartened to hear the ad libbed "illegal" in his speech. I know people in the immigration enforcement agencies who have been told that that word is forbidden in any of their briefs/memos. So too is "alien" - a perfectly normal word that means "foreign national." The term "alien" as used to mean space aliens was just a shorthand way of saying "foreign being from somewhere other than earth." So it was never like we were comparing ordinary foreigners to nonhuman space beings. All of it is silly, and the cranky old man used the proper cranky old man term.

Just because your Bama sorority queen didn't use your "nuke Gaza" talking point in her rebuttal?

I don't necessarily agree with the "Democratic prosperity" thing. But I do agree with the point about globalization and the new era of free trade that began in earnest in the 1980s: it has made the world so much more prosperous than it otherwise would have been. Has globalization been free of problems? Of course not. But on balance, it is the shining accomplishment of the last half century, not something to be decried as it is today by all the ignorant Trumpists.

And, of course, summers off isn't the worst thing in the world.

I watched that live. One of the most unintentionally hilarious moments in TV history.

If the Dems wanted to create a poster child to represent the crazy opposition they never would've come up with anything as perfect as MTG. That was just an own goal for the Republicans. The Democrats had nothing - nothing! - to fall back on when Republicans called Biden out for his epic immigration policy fail. Until Trump killed the deal.

this is why the Eastern Europeans have no interest in communist era nostalgia. That seems to be a purely Russian thing. It ain't selling anywhere else.

Bama student body pres speaking like she's running for Bama student body pres

I forgot that Bush 43 gave us "Axis of Evil" in one of his SOTU addresses. I remember it because it didn't make sense - it was Iraq, Iran, and N Korea, and was really a pitch for his war in Iraq. Too bad he used it, since it would be perfect for Biden's speechwriters today. There really is an Axis of Evil: Russia, Iran, N Korea that coordinates seriously destabilizing/anti-US actions in various parts of the world today.