SOTU 2023 - Judo Masterclass
Welcome to Joe's Dojo
Washington DC 8 Feb 2023
In Judo, strength is not as important as skill. The key is to use the opponent’s attack momentum against him. As they lunge, grab their arm, leverage the force of their movement, step out of the way, and watch as they tumble helplessly to the mat. Then follow through with a surprise coup de grâce.
Sensei Biden took all the angry negative energy of the extremists screaming at him, challenged them to deny they would destroy social security and medicare and like circus animals they had no choice but to stand and applaud. In one deft stroke, he out maneuvered them, and got them on the most public record there is in American politics to reject their announced plans. Then, he followed through with the coup de grâce, claiming “we’ve got unanimity”.
Forcing them into an appearance of unanimity was a devastating blow to their agenda of disrespect, disinformation, and division. It was the smart-mans smack down using facts against lies, provoking the stupidity of the opponent to trigger them to make an string of unforced errors.
How did he pull it off? If any member of congress went to an election trumpeting plans to cancel social security and medicare, that candidate would lose. Bigly, to use the vernacular of the intellectually impaired. Even Trump is cunning enough to know not to attack pre-paid programs upon which almost all will come to depend. He has been telling his allies to shut up about their plans - at least until they take power.
Biden’s speech was leadership versus circus antics. Biden overwhelmingly won the night.
3 times a winner
He did this not once, but three times. The second time was over Ukraine. Biden knows the extremists are working in the service of Russia and will do what they can to stop US support of people fighting for sovereignty and freedom. Having been crushed by the Ukrainian military, Putin’s unprovoked war has turned against the people of Ukraine. Putin’s policy of war crimes and genocide against civilian targets is a stain on humanity. Like the Nazi’s before him, Putin and his servants need to face a war crimes tribunal, including Tucker Carlson, the modern Lord Haw-Haw (also an American to our national shame).
Biden skillfully called on the old Reaganesque traditions of patriotism, pro-democracy and anti-dictatorship, and forced the GOP to its feet applauding continued support of the winning side in the war against genocide. When the extremists inevitably move to end support of the war in an attempt to pull Russian victory out of the jaws of defeat, at least this footage can be shown. Of course, the problem is they are shameless. But the American public will know that by voting for these degenerates they have blood on their hands.
The third time was when Biden told America that in Trump’s 4 short years, he was solely responsible for adding 25 percent of the entire national debt, the rest of which “took over 200 years to accumulate”. So much for Republican small government! In the next breath, yet again Biden cornered them, and reminded them that the debt ceiling was passed without question by Democrats working with the GOP to pay for Trumps historic tax cuts for the super wealthy. They did this to protect the most vital national interests of the United States. Again, all but the clowns had no choice but to stand and applaud. Setting down yet another vitally important marker against which their avowed plans to tank the world economy can be measured.
When he said “And we must give hate and extremism in any form no safe harbor” the entire GOP sat motionless. Their response said it all. They are un-American.
What are the extremists learning in the cold light of day?
Performative howls of shock and outrage do not work too well against facts. The SOTU is perhaps the final place where the public are not stuck in their information silos, can be exposed to facts, and can judge claims for themselves. This is vitally important for a healthy democracy.
Better yet, Biden did all this with grace, humor and a twinkle in his eye that let the GOP extremists know he knew he owned them on the biggest stage in American politics. He was having fun, thinking on his feet, enjoying the thrust and parry, showing them up for what they have become - policy free windbags of hate and destruction whose only purpose is performance of fake outrage to get attention in social media silos.
From Mourning in America to Morning in America
Biden channeled the Gipper. He projected optimism and hope that we are finally coming out of the darkness that descended on us after 2016. His upbeat presentation of his vast and significant legislative agenda (that so well serves the middle class) was the fact-base for his optimism - it was not just empty sounding rhetoric.
Capping insulin at $35.
Empowering the biggest medical buyer in the country to negotiate prices, that substantially lowers the deficit.
Ensuring those who pay no tax at all, pay something. Namely, corporations earning hundreds of millions +, billionaires, and those earning over $400k.
Encouraging entrepreneurship - supporting small companies and corporations.
Insisting that federal government purchases be made in America.
Incentivizing computer chip manufacturing to return to the US (vital for national security and the economy).
Ending foreign supply chain dependencies (also national security and economic wins).
These are common sense bred and butter issues anyone can understand and support. They show a coherent plan for improving the lives of the greatest number of Americans.
Lies are now policy
The GOP does not have a platform. They dispensed with it in order to protect the party from criticisms that under Trump they were doing the opposite of party policy. Thereafter, whatever Trump said, was official policy. This is of course how dictatorships are run. The rule of one man, not the rule of law.
When Biden called them out on their destructive plans, they screeched like hyenas. Except for one little problem. They are on the record clearly outlining how they would do away with programs we all pay into throughout our careers. It’s our money, not some government handout, as their propaganda wing paints social security and medicare.
So when Sen Rick Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, produced a glossy pamphlet “A 12 point plan to rescue America” it was akin to a national party platform in the absence of one. In it he used lawyerly language to attempt to mask the real agenda - “sunsetting” social security and medicare.
Scott:
“All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.”
This is ludicrous on its face.
First, it is impossible in practice. For just one example, Scott is proposing that all criminal laws be repealed every 5 years. That body of law is then supposed to be reintroduced piece by piece and go through the entire legislative process from committees to floor, to the other house, to joint session, to the Oval? What about the Tax code and related regulations that are 75,000 pages long?1 Or Title 10 dealing with the Department of Defense, and so on.
Its a great sound bite and sounds reasonable, if you have no clue how government works. Otherwise it is a recipe to destroy the administrative state from within. If that sounds familiar that's because it is the Trump agenda.
Their only plan is destruction. Remember repeal and replace Obamacare? They had years to come up with something better. Then they had a vote to repeal knowing they had no replacement. Only the courage of Sen McCain, dependent on healthcare in his dying days, prevented catastrophe for millions of his fellow Americans.
Second, sunsetting all legislation plays to the obstructionism of the GOP. When the old legislation is presented for renewal they will engage in hostage negotiations demanding ludicrous concessions just to maintain existing laws? If that sounds familiar that is because it is their new legislative strategy for everything. It is why the vote for Speaker took days - they even did it to themselves which was pretty epic. They have zero interest in bipartisanship. Instead, they have clearly stated from Administration to Administration that their policy is clear - obstruction today… obstruction tomorrow… obstruction forever… to paraphrase one of their thought leaders.
McConnell openly stated his plan of obstruction for Obama and Biden.
"One-hundred percent of our focus is on stopping this new [Biden] administration," McConnell said,
As Civil War II has documented in detail, politics is dependent on compromise. It cannot happen if one side views the others are traitors and enemies who need to be shot.
The consequence of all this will be when the GOP extremists destroy the world economy by defaulting on the debt ceiling. They will call a snap speaker vote right when the debt ceiling vote comes up. As happened last time, the second speaker vote circus will take however many days needed to default. At that point the people who voted them into office will discover their 401k’s have disappeared and the world will enter an economic hellscape.
Third, the shamelessness of attacking medicare by Rick Scott is simply dumbfounding considering he was CEO of Columbia/HCA about a decade ago, when the hospital company was fined $1.7 billion for Medicare fraud.
Boldface Liars Caught in the Act
Not to be outdone in the shamelessness and hypocrisy stakes, Mike Lee got last night’s trophy.
I put that comment on the Midas touch twitter feed and got 100k views.2 Hours later they produced this
Likely, the Midas work was picked up by Morning Joe. They added a video of Lee after the SOTU bold face lying his face off about his enthusiasm for destroying social security and medicare.
This is a remarkable phenomenon in modern politics. There are VIDEOS of words coming out of their mouths that they pretend never happened. How can they get away with this nonsense?
Information Silos
It’s called a “feed” for a reason. Like a feed bag that is placed on a horse. The animal has no choice but to consume what’s literally stuffed down its throat. The same applies to cable news (clips mostly consumed via Facebook or YouTube) and social media generally. The algorithm is the feedbag.
This has facilitated totally isolated information silos that never cross contaminate - except when the opposite is shown for condemnation.
This ‘evolution’ of the infoscape has created George Santos. His genius was to mirror Trump’s propaganda plays. He appeals equally to left and right because neither sees the other side of Santos. Trump himself was a master of this technique. He would say completely contradictory things that would be sifted and sorted, with only what a side wanted to hear being played. This also enabled him to scoff at criticism and point to the contradictory statement and say “see you didn’t understand” or “you misquoted me, you lying enemy of the state”.
Bill Maher perfectly captures this phenomenon using Santos as the gateway.
The only antidote to all the lies is the truth. The SOTU is the only remaining platform where people of all backgrounds meet on an even information playing field. Sure the President has the advantage, but the behavior of the other side and their response messages are all on the same plane unmediated by anyone else.
Norms collapsing
The SOTU used to be a respectful affair. Of course that was before the shock and horror of the first black President. Joe Wilson sent us down the path of the destruction of civilized norms when he yelled “you lie” at Obama. That set the stage for ever more outrageous behavior. Last year Biden seemed shocked at the conduct of the extremists. As well he might. Remember this? As Biden talked about his dying son and his plan to address burnpits, these two fools acted like howling monkeys.
Still, it was only them and their conduct was obviously embarrassing for the rest of the country. They used this rubbish for fund raising. Showing their “courage” to obstruct a constitutionally mandated activity of the government (sound familiar).
This year the entire GOP jeered the President from the floor. It was completely out of control and outrageous. However, it completely backfired in their faces. Biden came prepared. They set their own trap, he just led them to it. When it slammed shut, their shrieks of outrage gave Biden an opportunity to school them 3 times on the one night.
Joe Biden, Judo sensei.3
This is a humorous take on what Joe did. I love it.
According to the Public Law 117-154(06/23/2022), the U.S. Tax Code is 6,871 pages. When you include the federal tax regulations and the official tax guidance, the number of pages raises to approximately 75,000. This will take an average reader about 14 weeks to finish.
Time stamps and stats.
Civil War II does not believe is supporting a president no matter what. I have been severely critical of Biden over the withdrawal from Kabul, which was a total debacle and avoidable had sensible planning been followed. I have also been full of praise over his handling of Ukraine. His success in the SOTU 23 self evident. I am reporting it as such not because I blindly worship the man.
I actually detest blind-faith political hero-worship in American politics and try to show where it has created failures in critical thunking that have gotten the country into trouble. Trump instigated a coup; committed endless crimes sprees (plural; stole, refused to return, and obstructed justice to keep (not forgot) classified documents; and is on the record wanting to destroy the constitution.
Whatever Biden’s faults, he and all elected representatives of his party believe in elections. Trump and his terror network avowedly do not. It’s that simple. Its not partisanship to support the party that wants to maintain the constitution.