Huh, I've been trying to stay away from places where the news is more people complaining than news, but I sure got a very different take on the hockey brouhaha than I see here. My understanding is that the women's team turned down the sour grapes invite. The men should've done the same, honestly, but I will not fault them for having other priorities in the world and not being able to stop being used like cheap tissues. It was not an easy position to be in, and frankly, it's unfair that they won gold and got immediately roped into the Make Rape Legal Again movement by the President of the USA. What a crappy thing to happen to anyone. I'm ashamed.
I'm not sure how to feel about a speech I didn't watch that most commentators are saying prominently described Trump's bloodlust and physical enjoyment of describing scenes of violence. He's exactly who we all said he was. What else is there to say? I sure hope his carnal enjoyment of violence isn't contagious (yeah, I know full well that it is, but I got nothing but hope these days).
Kate, I love the 'cheap tissues' shot. Reminds me that the Epstein survivors were utterly ignored. No Medals of Freedom for them...yet. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if three or four years down the road, Virginia Guiffre is award one poshumously.
Unfortunately, the world did not see clips of the men in the audience applauding the women when the women won gold. What they did see was the teen cavorting with Patel, adorning him with their medals, and the sniggering at the President’s comment. The average age of these men is twenty-eight, and there are nine players in their thirties. They acted like fifteen-year-olds.
When DJT told the men's team that he'd have to invite the women or he'd be impeached, they all, over whatever video was capturing the exchange, yucked it up with him like it was an inside joke they shared. Disgusting! I don't care how much this men's team says they support(ed) the women, that moment made me feel ashamed of them!
And even if it was just a groupthink moment, they have had plenty of time to reflect on it since then, and to apologize for not standing up for their sisters. The silence is complicity.
Jeremy Swayman apologized. Extend some grace and take him at his word. Even if they didn’t like Trump’s joke, he is the President and the most powerful moron in the world and he put them in an uncomfortable spot during an emotionally charged moment. I believe the two teams do like and respect each other. Trump, on the other hand, is incapable of building somebody up without tearing someone else down; in this case, he only succeeded in pulling down the men’s team.
"That gender gap was most pronounced in the 2024 presidential election, when young women favored Kamala Harris by 17 points, while young men favored Trump by 14 points. Beyond elections, the gap shows up in social media, in pop-culture, and, yes, sports."
Color me, a guy, pink. I mean these creepy, rascist Groypers are mostly men. These idiots have no idea how important broad based civil rights are to the functioning of our country. I could go on and on abt the Holocaust etc but enough said. Morons, just like our president.
The bit about the mens and women’s teams and trying to bring them together felt rather forced and inauthentic. I have appreciated the writer when Sarah has had her on the Focus Groups Podcasts and she has come across as very smart, but this didn’t feel comfortable or maybe she is still finding her voice.
I thought it was an excellent, well-thought-out piece. I so wish more of the men's team wouldn't have went to the SOTU speech, but five chose not to. I don't blame them as much for what happened in the locker room after the victory. They were in a celebratory mood and had not the time to react with reflection they might have had if they had time to consume what happened. I blame them more for the decision to go to the SOTU.
And I blame them for laughing with the king of snark when he said he'd have to invite the women or he'd be impeached. Lots of yucking it up at the expense of the women's team. Shame on these men!! Someone commented recently that monsters (read DJT) will be monsters; they can't help themselves. But those who follow them have a choice. This team had a choice not to laugh at his misogynist joke. They chose to follow his lead.
I'm with you on the laughing. Think of what that must have been like. This is the pinnacle of your career so far. You just won a Gold Medal at the Olympics. You're in the locker room right after. The President of the United States is on the phone telling you and your teammates that the whole country is celebrating with you and that you're heroes. You're, what, 25 years old?
That's heady stuff. If Trump had said, "Y'know what I like? Lima beans! I like lima beans! And turnips, too!" They would have laughed their heads off. The adrenaline alone would have caused it.
I don't blame those guys for that one bit. Upon reflection, later, after watching the video, then maybe, but not in the moment.
Laughter is a stress response. The president was the predator, and a bunch of guys coming down from an adrenaline high, while drinking, were the target. Truly unfortunate for them, and the audience, that had to witness the assault. I can cut them some slack, though I am highly disappointed in their SOTU appearance.
I don't think the team got roped into the speech, Kate. I read some of their remarks about attending. Frankly, they seem a bit narrow in their thought process.
They're hockey players. They're kids. They just won a Gold Medal at the Olympics. They got invited to the State of the Union by the President of the United States. C'mon. Cut them some slack.
The problem here are the "adults" that put them in that position in the first place.
The “kids” range in age from 23 to 34, average age of 28. While I understand being caught up and mindless in their celebrations, they are not kids at the mercy of adults.
They're adults. However, they were physically flooded with adrenaline and in the throes of strong emotion and physical exhaustion when Trump reached out with his sexist remarks, so Trump decided to turn the screws when they were at a point when one could not expect passionless, logical thought from them. Emotional manipulation. Abusers like that.
Kash Patel inserted himself into that locker room due to his government position — he had no business being there and no other FBI head has done that. No president but Trump would call and make that classless crack about the women’s team. We have malicious and deliberately divisive “leaders” who selfishly inserted themselves into what should have been a simple moment of euphoria for the men's hockey team and for the country, and ruined it. Not saying the men's hockey team doesn't deserve criticism and anger too, just a reminder of who the real villains are.
Still not an excuse. Flooded with adrenaline and drinking alcohol are defensive arguments used in rape cases too. This is why "locker room talk", literal and figurative, should be addressed.
Like I said, criticize and hate the players all you need to. Never said they don't deserve it. But my point is that if anyone but Trump was president, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. We would just be enjoying a gold medal win. This is perhaps what I hate most about Trump, how he always manages to make America divisive, even after something like a US team's first Olympic gold medal in 47 years. It might be the only thing he's really good at. And I hate it.
I caught the part where he vividly relived the murder of the Ukrainian woman. I had to wonder how much her mother regretted reliving that trauma as Trump's guest.
My recollection of dictators past is that they give very long speeches. Is there a direct correlation between narcissistic authoritarianism and droning on endlessly?
In Cuba, they used to say that Castro's speeches were excellent for saving energy, because every TV would be turned off for the usually interminable duration.
There are so many takeaways from the extended glorification of the self (er, State of the Union) speech last light, and our skillful posters here will note them in due course. But what I keep coming back to, after sleeping on it, is how uncomfortable I was with the people who were recognized for achievement. Usually I feel good about them, but last night they struck me as mere props in one man's self-promotion campaign and a particularly calculated and painful effort to redirect the attention away from what we've all seen with our own eyes for the past thirteen months.
Ostensibly a moment of national pride, instead I cringed at the men's hockey team standing there and how (and how long) they were being used by a bad actor to prop up his lame stage act and deflect the spotlight away from his own very poor track record of failure. I'm genuinely surprised that they went along with what felt more like a publicity stunt than a heartfelt tribute, from someone who never is known for taking a back seat to anyone else. The more I saw, the more I felt certain that the women's hockey team made the right call in not allowing themselves to be used that way.
(Speaking of cringeworthy, does anyone else feel like the occasional chants of "USA!" on the right side of the aisle felt more like a trained seal act at a waterpark than genuine patriotism?)
It's sad to say, but I wasn't proud to be an American last night, and for more reasons than just those. It was merely the tip of a rather large iceberg.
JF - yes this gets me too. Maybe ties into his mobster/abuser m. o. of getting you to do one very small at his bidding then keep pushing you down the slippery slope till you’re too far downhill to catch yourself? So, start by co-opting something positive for HIS purposes, not really for the honor of the athlete or the veteran or the grieving family. Exploitation in service of dominance, overcoming your resistance to his brainwashing
Not for the first time, I wonder if these antisocial “skills” are innate, or somehow learned. Which ever, I know I don’t have them even when sometimes I could have employed them; it never crosses my mind. But I’ve witnessed children use those tactics of manipulation.
Agree that the men’s hockey team took what could have been a golden opportunity to bring Americans together, but instead chose to dim it with MAGA bro dude lust dust. Thankful to the brave players from MN who declined, and the other Olympians who invoked their love for the American people, but made clear their distain for the regime.
I watched the alt. programming last night, and was honestly inspired- Mayor Frey’s speech in particular:
Props, all of them. I felt really bad for that poor kid who was congratulated for not transitioning. She looked so unhappy to be there. Whole thing was pitiful.
I served as a Marine - no need to thank me for service, as I thank the Corps for putting up with me every day! And never I felt more love, gratitude and pride for my country than the day I landed on the tarmac after a long period overseas in SE Asia many moons ago. But it’s been quite a long time since I felt my heart swell with pride for my country. I could acknowledge how wonderful it felt for a brief period when we elected a man of color as our President, but the horrible treatment he and his family received from a significant portion of our country quickly put a damper on that!. I say this with not a little shame. I wish our country was better. I wish we could do a lot better w/regards to whom we choose to run for office and who we elect to serve our country. I wish we stood more closely to the ideals expressed by our forefathers, who were not without their own shortcomings. When I look at those elected to higher office in our land, there is a more cringe than there is pride. But - but there are ideals we can all seek to live in balance with. I am always amazed by how F’n selfish we are, how we as citizens of this country are so penurious we are, how we just don’t realize how fortunate we are to have by chance been born in one of the wealthiest and geographically secure locations on the planet. So I try to live by the credo, ‘do the next right thing’. And when I look in the mirror, I know I have often failed myself in living up to that credo. Sorry for blabbing up against your comment. Just had to unload and as our current leader often says, ‘fortunately or unfortunately’, you ended up as the lottery winner today.
I've always felt the callouts to people in the gallery by any president in the State of the Union address just used those people as props. I've disliked the practice ever since Reagan did it which coincides with my 18 year old self voting for the first time.
Regarding the "people who were recognized for achievement": To me, a huge part of the "speech" felt like he was hosting a game show. He kept talking about things, would bring someone out who had not been in the gallery and then present them with an award or allow them to meet/embrace someone and be applauded. Many were worthy of recognition, some not. But this supposed State of the Union that had nothing to do with the actual state of the union.
I'll note that I rarely watch SOTU addresses even from eloquent presidents and regular presidents because I find the interrupting applause too much and prefer to read the speech or a recap the next day. I was semi forced to watch this one, and I just couldn't get over how this sounded nothing like a regular speech, in general, and more like a "come on down, you're the next prop I have to draw attention to something that has happened."
I thought most SOTU's recognized two or three people/groups and maybe one person received an award or honor. And that the speech was focused on some good things already accomplished (with no snide remarks) and a plan for what the president wants to see happen in the next year. This was a lot of venting and boasting and only at the very end did it sound like he was reading maybe a page from a speech writer's words to wrap things up. But no where did I catch anything else resembling a true speech. Maybe I missed something.
I'm with you ! " w" pulled that sort of bs during his administration , I had hoped never to see that again. the repubs must be exhausted from all the ridiculous jumping out of their seats ! all in all, a pathetic sotu !
Regarding the men's hockey team? There is a bigger picture here that goes beyond Trump alienating the women's hockey team. Why didn't Trump extend an invitation to the gold medal winning figure skating team? Or to individual medalist Alyssa Liu? Figure skating, especially women's figure skating, is the most watched winter Olympic sport. Yet crickets for the accomplishments of our highly successful figure skaters. Is it that in MAGA Trump world only those sports that involve pushing and shoving and big brawny men count?
Alysa Liu is not only not a big brawny man, but she is not white. In fact, her father fled from China to the U.S. after being part of the Tiananmen Square protests. So that would make her not only not white, but also the child of an immigrant, and maybe even a birthright citizen, a three-fer on the hate-list for MAGA. I doubt Trump would even invite her to the SOTU. Possibly partly because it would be pretty embarrassing for him if he did and she declined.
I read, maybe on the Bulwark, that observing the opening ceremony at the Olympics was interesting because every other country's team pretty much all looked like each other, while the American team was strikingly diverse. "America is made up of Immigrants" was on many of the signs I've seen at recent protests.
Plus, as so many have noted, Alyssa Liu skated with joy and her own determination to do things for herself her way. Trump/MAGA are not about joy (unless it's money or dumping on people they dislike, and even then, it's seems very unjoyful) and doing what they tell/force/bully you to do. She embodies the opposite of their goals.
Figure skating is girly. Hockey is manly (unless you are the US Olympic gold women's hockey team, seemingly). How many of the hockey players are not white males (I actually do not know as I did not watch the Olympics).
MAGA is rather poisonous when it comes to anyone who isn't a white male, for some reason. Especially when it comes to recognizing ability--because you apparently cannot recognize ability (other than, maybe, in looks) in anyone who isn't, as a minimum, male and preferably a white male.
From the MAGA perspective, it seems rather obvious that any woman or minority that succeeded only succeeded because of DEI, given the inherent superiority of the white male. Which is why they have worked hard to eliminate DEI, successful minorities, and actually worked against minorities and women,
Sure they use some women as mouthpieces or in visible positions, but they are properly submissive women (to Trump) with the right look (mostly botoxed to hell and back or the stereotypical white, blonde female that Trump seems to prefer).
I really don’t know anything about the members of the US men’s hockey team. I have a tendency to think less of anybody who willingly associates with Trump, but that is more a reflection of my mindset than those individuals. So it is very plausible—maybe even likely—that those men are not misogynists.
But I have been saying this about Trump voters since 2016. They may not be racist. They may not be misogynistic. But they are not bothered by racists and misogynists. And I am. Deeply bothered as a matter of fact. And that is why I think less of those people willing to associate with Trump. Until those people who identify themselves as not being hateful of others stop associating with or supporting the people who are hateful of others, we are going to continue down the path we are on. And I will just point out that we are at the point in that path where we are building concentration camps.
I'd give the men's team a pass for almost everything they did, being roped into things while on the ultimate high of winning gold.
But the whole locker room getting a hearty chuckle at Trump's joke about "having" to invite the women's team -- including the Hughes brothers, who were bent over with laughter -- was awful, at least optically. Quinn and Jack Hughes (who scored OT goals in two of the elimination games) mother literally works for USA Women's Hockey.
I do not share your sympathy and justifications for the men’s hockey team. This is exactly what every woman here will recognize as “locker room culture” (quite literally in this case). Behave and speak one way in public and then pour on the misogyny in private. It’s the private stuff that creates a culture of acceptance of abusive conduct. Further, there were three members of the Minnesota Wild in there yuckin it up with Patel, a person who refuses to investigate the murder of two people from their own city. F them all. Send mommy in for clean up on PR, give me a break.
Ann Coulter?!?! Shes’s still around? I can’t remember the last time I heard her name — was it back in the Obama era. She didn’t add anything to the conversation back then and hasn’t added anything now, other than her lack of knowledge and to try and relive her highlights and diss Obama. I guess that white giraffe is still aimlessly galloping about the savannah trying to find meaning for what no one wants.
Al Franken always seems to say it best. His quote about Ted Cruz is one of my favorites: “I like Ted Cruz more than most of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz.”
Not surprising that FBI agents are getting fed up with the BS and starting to leak. Reflecting on yesterday's news from the Epstein files - that a woman reporting abuse by Trump was interviewed 4 times by the FBI but only one of those interviews (which doesn't mention Trump) is in the released files - causes me to wonder if some agents are being intentionally less than fastidious with redactions. I mean, if you were an agent working on a case for years and direction came from the top to cover things up, might you be motivated to leave bread crumbs for journalists to trail?...
Vance and Johnson, seated behind Trump, were laughing it up at Trump's bloviating insults, exaggerations and self-promotion. They looked genuinely happy with Trump's performance, and so I got asking myself: are they serious? Or are they performing? There's really no good answer.
JD will spin on a dime, and land where his perceived self interest lies, as he has done too many times to list in his life. For Johnson, just follow the trail of saliva.
IT didn't matter one bit what Trump said. They were going to stand and applaud at the end of every sentence. And since "owning the libs" is the second highest aspiration of any true MAGA (getting to play the victim being #1), they laughed when he harangued the dems and dropped his "gotcha" moment.
Your style, maybe. Clearly not hers. Her three questions and the clearer responses showed what is on the line, rather than going down to his gutter-level.
Is he working for you? That's a good question. And I think it can be built upon. Have your kids, Mr. Michigan voter, benefited from Trump's crypto-scams? Nah. His kids did, though.
Have you, Ms. Wisconsin voter, gotten to fly on a government plane with Kash Patel to drink beer with the US Olympic Hockey Team? Didn't think so. You paid for him to do that, though.
When you went out to dinner last time, did you skip dessert to keep the bill low? Probably did. Don Jr. didn't.
When you saw that picture of little Liam Ramos in his bunny hat, did it make you feel proud of America? Me neither.
Did those tariffs help you, Mr. Iowa farmer? No they did not.
When China stopped buying American soybeans because of Trump's trade war, did you say, "that's what we need more of!" Kinda doubt it.
I think that's what could make this work, though. Ask the right questions to the right audiences. Ask about Iowa farm problems in Iowa. Ask about how much Kentucky bourbon is being sold in Canada in Kentucky. Ask about rural health care costs in Nebraska. Ask about eliminating USAID in Indiana where USAID was a major customer.
Do the voters in any of those places really think he's working for them when it comes to things that matter to them??
Who knows what the right approach is? I do think, though, that this one could work.
But I do think the order is a valid critique too. Start with the masked goons. I think everyone can get behind stopping that, regardless of where you live or what other regional concerns you might have.
Isn't that speech written before the SOTU? It always seems silly to call it a response, but most people would probably embarrass themselves with an off the cuff response.
Seemed to me that some of her reported points were almost quotations of what he had said earlier. Are you suggesting she had a copy of his "Weave" up front?
If so, then she clearly picked the points she wanted to make. A famous architect was known for the phrase, "Less is more". Her 12 minutes will probably be quoted and repeated more than his 100+ minutes of blather.
I hadn't given it much thought. I always wondered how much of a "response " could be given on short notice. Now I have a bit less sympathy for Spanberger. I admired her as a representative, though I don't live in Virginia. Watching her (from Maryland) campaign for governor, I did find her less inspiring than I had hoped.
From what I read the State of the Union speech was a retread of his same speech that he's been giving. It wouldn't take a crystal ball to figure out the points he would make.
Playing into his exchange of insults game would have been counterproductive. She contrasted Donald's chaotic bloviating with calm and coherent responses and drew a big contrast with what he had to offer.
Stephen, can we be sure that "US citizens" will not soon be amended to "Legacy Americans"? I ask because Trump went out of his way to tar about 100k US citizens last night: citizens of Somalian ethnicity.
The president's duty is to the Constitution, period.
Re "the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens": Alex Petri and Rene Good were American citizens. ICE attacks Americans; it doesn't protect them.
My enfant terrible namesake could at least get the name of the party he despises right. It's the Democratic Party, not Democrat Party. His anti-immigrant rage is not going to go down well with most Americans. There will soon be a shortage of workers in many industries, including construction, health care, and agriculture.
I've always thought that if someone referred to the Dems as the "Democrat Party", the response should be to refer to their party as the "Republic Party", or maybe even just the "Repub Party". Kind of like when a man I don't even know calls me "sweetheart", or "dear" when telling me something, I tend to want to call them "honeybunch" or "sweetie-pie" in response. But I am unfortunately kind of a hit-em-back kind of a dear woman.
I was also thinking about that particular line ("the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens", and what the appropriate response might be.
Where I landed: "the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens FROM THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT." In fact, that's the whole point of the Declaration of Independence -- the government is afflicting us, therefore we secede.
Obviously, there's lots of nuance to be explored, but that's the ball game, no? If the US government were to, say, defend us from an external threat but at the same time shred the Constitution, end the rule of law, enact a dictatorship --well, then they didn't actually protect us. You have to be able to do both, protect Americans from others AND protect them from yourself. The War on Terror / Patriot Act / surveillance state was a major stress test, and we did NOT do well. But it didn't completely kill off our democracy. Trump 2.0 just might. After all, his administration thinks that harming Americans (murdering them, to be precise) in the midst of "protecting" us from the scary illegal immigrants is just fine.
Well, in reference to Ann Coulter's assertation that you have to have been here for multiple generations to be president, I guess that also means none of t****'s stupid children qualify. Aren't ALL of their mothers immigrants?
If Coulter's family has been here for generations, they certainly have not produced Presidential material. Perhaps she should do a little research on the fate of the Hapsburg dynasty before bragging about her inbred racial purity.
Ha, that's gold. The whole breeding stock thing is silly, as if humans were pea plants. If the Irish potato famine occurred 50 years earlier or later than it did, you've completely changed the makeup of our illustrious "heritage Americans." The makeup of our "heritage Americans" also owes a lot to the British crushing the Scots. Wait, this whole "heritage American" scam is made up of the castoffs from the British Empire. What if you're Black and your family has been in America since 1600, do you get to be a "heritage American"? What about the fact that the Spanish were here first, then the French, and then the Dutch? Should we all speak Spanish or Haudenosaunee?
But yeah, this stuff appeals to the crowd who duly submitted their family's DNA without their family's permission along with their hard-earned cash to a soulless corporation just so they could hear "You have Viking blood!"
Really sorry but it’s the action—the mean, reflexive laugh of 99% of the hockey boys when Trump made his little slight—that conflicts with and cancels out what they and their mommies say in public.
Showing up to the speech while they are murdering people in the streets is support of the fascism, not “the office.”
And please don't be so hard on them. These are young men that just performed admirably in a difficult sport. Hockey is the politest professional sport and also the one that shows the most genuine sportsmanship. They were being polite as they had been taught.
They are professional athletes, and apparently clueless ones at that. I don't buy the whole "they are young men" thing. Also not sure if you were being sarcastic about hockey being the "politest" professional sport? "I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out" comes to mind.
I hope your comment is sarcasm. They're grown men who play professional sports Don't make excuses for them! 1. Patel shouldn't have been allowed in the room. That's on the coaches, who by the way are supposed to be the adults in the room. 2. That player should have never put his medal around Patel's neck. 3. They never should have laughed at trump's misogynist "Joke". They were not being polite! I have yet to hear any of them apologize to the Women's team.
The sport where they're not only allowed, but encouraged to start fist-fighting each other mid-game is the politest professional sport? I don't know about you, but rug sweeping of sexual assault and disparaging female NHL fans doesn't scream sportsmanship to me. The NHL has long had a toxic bro culture that suits MAGA just fine. These guys are adults who have been in the public eye for some time, they know better.
I watched the SOTU speech and my main takeaway was that the Trump administration and the GOP are hollow. There was just grievance and delusional looking-back (both expected). There was nothing for the future, other than the usual vague statements. There is just nothing there. From what I saw, the GOP members stood up and applauded almost perfunctorily. The GOP truly has nothing to offer the American people.
I've known this for a long time as well, since all the GOP has to use is fear, which I just can't buy into. It was just so very apparent last night. The GOP is a dead party. They truly have nothing to offer. I would guess that they can't use fear too effectively in the future given the idiot in office.
In the last year the Republicans have unplugged a remarkably large number of environmental regulations impacting the auto industry. I would imagine that top executives and their PACs will show their gratitude when it comes to the 2026 mid-term elections. And let's remember that Trump's tariffs have generally been popular with big labor in the auto industry. Might that help Republican congressional candidates in swing states such as Michigan?
The auto industry already has its manufacturing plants and specs for constructing cars set up to meet the regulations. To take advantage of this weakened or absent regulations they'd have to retool and change plans. All that would take years. I increasing believe that only political types even care about environmental regulations because they can score short term political points in their campaigns against Democratic candidates.
Yeah Ford will stop making their electric pickup...but they're doing that because the target audience for those mega pickups wasn't interested in electric anyway. For the everyday gas powered cars and trucks they sell the change in regulation won't help them much because they've already adapted to the regulations in the first place.
That's all true, but the industry has always been wired Republican -- and has had a decidedly knee-jerk, anti-regulatory bent. When the latest round of deregulatory moves were announced, Detroit executives were effusive about them.
I remember back during Trump 1.0 when GM, under post-bankruptcy management, sided with California over Trump on a climate change issue. Automotive News, the industry's leading trade journal, treated that as a huge violation of tribal rules. GM appears to have learned its lesson.
I wonder. I can see that, but I have read that a lot of other businesses are taking the hits from the tariffs. Can they, with environmentalists, make a compelling countercase against Trump?
I hope they can. My point is that Trump hasn't been clueless in trying to build a winning coalition. And in at least some ways he has managed to bring home the bacon. This illustrates how the Republicans do have something to offer certain people -- it's just that we may strongly disagree with it.
I agree with your point about building a winning coalition. He has done that. I just wonder if, given the OBBB, capturing Maduro, placing a large naval presence near Iran, and the like, will limit or diminish the effect of this.
Every time trump mouth-farted something inane-insulting-demented-nonsensical, vance and holy mike bounced up out of their chairs, like toddlers on a sugar rush. I bet they were exhausted by the long evening's end.
Huh, I've been trying to stay away from places where the news is more people complaining than news, but I sure got a very different take on the hockey brouhaha than I see here. My understanding is that the women's team turned down the sour grapes invite. The men should've done the same, honestly, but I will not fault them for having other priorities in the world and not being able to stop being used like cheap tissues. It was not an easy position to be in, and frankly, it's unfair that they won gold and got immediately roped into the Make Rape Legal Again movement by the President of the USA. What a crappy thing to happen to anyone. I'm ashamed.
I'm not sure how to feel about a speech I didn't watch that most commentators are saying prominently described Trump's bloodlust and physical enjoyment of describing scenes of violence. He's exactly who we all said he was. What else is there to say? I sure hope his carnal enjoyment of violence isn't contagious (yeah, I know full well that it is, but I got nothing but hope these days).
Kate, I love the 'cheap tissues' shot. Reminds me that the Epstein survivors were utterly ignored. No Medals of Freedom for them...yet. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if three or four years down the road, Virginia Guiffre is award one poshumously.
Unfortunately, the world did not see clips of the men in the audience applauding the women when the women won gold. What they did see was the teen cavorting with Patel, adorning him with their medals, and the sniggering at the President’s comment. The average age of these men is twenty-eight, and there are nine players in their thirties. They acted like fifteen-year-olds.
When DJT told the men's team that he'd have to invite the women or he'd be impeached, they all, over whatever video was capturing the exchange, yucked it up with him like it was an inside joke they shared. Disgusting! I don't care how much this men's team says they support(ed) the women, that moment made me feel ashamed of them!
And even if it was just a groupthink moment, they have had plenty of time to reflect on it since then, and to apologize for not standing up for their sisters. The silence is complicity.
Yes! I saw on another platform somebody make the same exact point.
Even if they were caught up in the moment because of emotion and being drunk... They should have been more aware the next day.
I'm not sure if I'm using the term correctly but it's performative to say " well we had lunch with them all the time".
That's not truly being a friend and supportive if you are having lunch with somebody in the afternoon and then laughing at them at night.
Yes, another example would be to claim you are not racist because you have a black friend when you have a Confederate flag on your pickup.
Exactly!!
They were complicit in Trumpworld's misogyny.
When it mattered most, they didn’t support them.
Jeremy Swayman apologized. Extend some grace and take him at his word. Even if they didn’t like Trump’s joke, he is the President and the most powerful moron in the world and he put them in an uncomfortable spot during an emotionally charged moment. I believe the two teams do like and respect each other. Trump, on the other hand, is incapable of building somebody up without tearing someone else down; in this case, he only succeeded in pulling down the men’s team.
Trump destroys anyone who comes within twenty feet of him. Everyone’s rule should be “stay away and survive.”
"That gender gap was most pronounced in the 2024 presidential election, when young women favored Kamala Harris by 17 points, while young men favored Trump by 14 points. Beyond elections, the gap shows up in social media, in pop-culture, and, yes, sports."
Color me, a guy, pink. I mean these creepy, rascist Groypers are mostly men. These idiots have no idea how important broad based civil rights are to the functioning of our country. I could go on and on abt the Holocaust etc but enough said. Morons, just like our president.
The bit about the mens and women’s teams and trying to bring them together felt rather forced and inauthentic. I have appreciated the writer when Sarah has had her on the Focus Groups Podcasts and she has come across as very smart, but this didn’t feel comfortable or maybe she is still finding her voice.
I thought it was an excellent, well-thought-out piece. I so wish more of the men's team wouldn't have went to the SOTU speech, but five chose not to. I don't blame them as much for what happened in the locker room after the victory. They were in a celebratory mood and had not the time to react with reflection they might have had if they had time to consume what happened. I blame them more for the decision to go to the SOTU.
And I blame them for laughing with the king of snark when he said he'd have to invite the women or he'd be impeached. Lots of yucking it up at the expense of the women's team. Shame on these men!! Someone commented recently that monsters (read DJT) will be monsters; they can't help themselves. But those who follow them have a choice. This team had a choice not to laugh at his misogynist joke. They chose to follow his lead.
Yeah and the fact that they chugged with keystone kash tells me everything I thought about this group.
You know people by the company the keep.
Do you think they asked the players if it'd be okay if the head of the FBI came in after the game?
I kinda doubt it. And Kash doesn't strike me as the "see if this'd be okay" kind of guy.
Well, one of them hung his medal around Patel's neck, and none of them looked uncomfortable that he was there.
I'm with you on the laughing. Think of what that must have been like. This is the pinnacle of your career so far. You just won a Gold Medal at the Olympics. You're in the locker room right after. The President of the United States is on the phone telling you and your teammates that the whole country is celebrating with you and that you're heroes. You're, what, 25 years old?
That's heady stuff. If Trump had said, "Y'know what I like? Lima beans! I like lima beans! And turnips, too!" They would have laughed their heads off. The adrenaline alone would have caused it.
I don't blame those guys for that one bit. Upon reflection, later, after watching the video, then maybe, but not in the moment.
Laughter is a stress response. The president was the predator, and a bunch of guys coming down from an adrenaline high, while drinking, were the target. Truly unfortunate for them, and the audience, that had to witness the assault. I can cut them some slack, though I am highly disappointed in their SOTU appearance.
I don't think the team got roped into the speech, Kate. I read some of their remarks about attending. Frankly, they seem a bit narrow in their thought process.
They're hockey players. They're kids. They just won a Gold Medal at the Olympics. They got invited to the State of the Union by the President of the United States. C'mon. Cut them some slack.
The problem here are the "adults" that put them in that position in the first place.
They are adults who play _professional_ hockey, and some of them are making more than $3 million/year. Not "kids".
Thank you. My thoughts exactly. The 1980 team was "kids". The 2026 team was "guys who play professional hockey for big bucks".
Sorry, do not agree. I don't care who they are. Showing any support to this vile pedafile reeks of bad judgement.
The “kids” range in age from 23 to 34, average age of 28. While I understand being caught up and mindless in their celebrations, they are not kids at the mercy of adults.
They're adults. However, they were physically flooded with adrenaline and in the throes of strong emotion and physical exhaustion when Trump reached out with his sexist remarks, so Trump decided to turn the screws when they were at a point when one could not expect passionless, logical thought from them. Emotional manipulation. Abusers like that.
Kash Patel inserted himself into that locker room due to his government position — he had no business being there and no other FBI head has done that. No president but Trump would call and make that classless crack about the women’s team. We have malicious and deliberately divisive “leaders” who selfishly inserted themselves into what should have been a simple moment of euphoria for the men's hockey team and for the country, and ruined it. Not saying the men's hockey team doesn't deserve criticism and anger too, just a reminder of who the real villains are.
Still not an excuse. Flooded with adrenaline and drinking alcohol are defensive arguments used in rape cases too. This is why "locker room talk", literal and figurative, should be addressed.
Like I said, criticize and hate the players all you need to. Never said they don't deserve it. But my point is that if anyone but Trump was president, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. We would just be enjoying a gold medal win. This is perhaps what I hate most about Trump, how he always manages to make America divisive, even after something like a US team's first Olympic gold medal in 47 years. It might be the only thing he's really good at. And I hate it.
I caught the part where he vividly relived the murder of the Ukrainian woman. I had to wonder how much her mother regretted reliving that trauma as Trump's guest.
Kate - “stop being used like cheap tissues” - so I just learned that poetry can make me go, “ewww”
My recollection of dictators past is that they give very long speeches. Is there a direct correlation between narcissistic authoritarianism and droning on endlessly?
Trump loves the sound of his own voice.
The voices in his head are a close second.
...and his reflection in the mirror runs neck-and-neck, but third.
David - so you’re saying he HAS a reflection? Huh… 🤔
Also: I see what you did there 😉
He loves the sound of his voice in the morning, (noon and night) it s the sound of victory! ( apologies to the late, great Robert Duval)
In Cuba, they used to say that Castro's speeches were excellent for saving energy, because every TV would be turned off for the usually interminable duration.
Ha! The worst offenders have been Lat Am, but the tendency is certainly not limited to them!
Is the Pope Catholic? ;)
Does a bear shit in the woods?
And does the Brain Worm Host add it to his haul of fresh food like the depositor?
Damn you got in there ahead of me ! 😁🌊
You may have hit on another symptom for narcissistic individuals in general, exacerbated by an authoritarian streak.
Hugo Chavez would also deliver interminable harangues.
So did Hitler and Mussolini.
I don't know how long Stalin used to go on, but I love the story about nobody wanting to be the first person to stop applauding him.
That's dangerous...
Better to clap your hands into bloody stumps.
Yes.
Narcissists tend to start projects but can never finish them ...
Oh yeah, see Castro Fidel .
Yes!
Yes, they revel in the sound of their own voices.
Well, the SotU address length record he broke was Clintons.... Read into that as you like.
No, I believe Trump broke his own record (2017).
There are so many takeaways from the extended glorification of the self (er, State of the Union) speech last light, and our skillful posters here will note them in due course. But what I keep coming back to, after sleeping on it, is how uncomfortable I was with the people who were recognized for achievement. Usually I feel good about them, but last night they struck me as mere props in one man's self-promotion campaign and a particularly calculated and painful effort to redirect the attention away from what we've all seen with our own eyes for the past thirteen months.
Ostensibly a moment of national pride, instead I cringed at the men's hockey team standing there and how (and how long) they were being used by a bad actor to prop up his lame stage act and deflect the spotlight away from his own very poor track record of failure. I'm genuinely surprised that they went along with what felt more like a publicity stunt than a heartfelt tribute, from someone who never is known for taking a back seat to anyone else. The more I saw, the more I felt certain that the women's hockey team made the right call in not allowing themselves to be used that way.
(Speaking of cringeworthy, does anyone else feel like the occasional chants of "USA!" on the right side of the aisle felt more like a trained seal act at a waterpark than genuine patriotism?)
It's sad to say, but I wasn't proud to be an American last night, and for more reasons than just those. It was merely the tip of a rather large iceberg.
Shout out to the five players who chose not to attend, four of which were from Minnesota.
Trump’s biggest skill in life; blow up people’s unity and replace it with uncomfortable division.
JF - yes this gets me too. Maybe ties into his mobster/abuser m. o. of getting you to do one very small at his bidding then keep pushing you down the slippery slope till you’re too far downhill to catch yourself? So, start by co-opting something positive for HIS purposes, not really for the honor of the athlete or the veteran or the grieving family. Exploitation in service of dominance, overcoming your resistance to his brainwashing
Not for the first time, I wonder if these antisocial “skills” are innate, or somehow learned. Which ever, I know I don’t have them even when sometimes I could have employed them; it never crosses my mind. But I’ve witnessed children use those tactics of manipulation.
Thanks for that factoid, Colleen.🥂
Three from the Wild
Mmm, interesting fact.
Agree that the men’s hockey team took what could have been a golden opportunity to bring Americans together, but instead chose to dim it with MAGA bro dude lust dust. Thankful to the brave players from MN who declined, and the other Olympians who invoked their love for the American people, but made clear their distain for the regime.
I watched the alt. programming last night, and was honestly inspired- Mayor Frey’s speech in particular:
https://youtu.be/4MryfVzA1Kg?si=NS2npwvYOKuuDBDt
We have a lot of work to do.
Props, all of them. I felt really bad for that poor kid who was congratulated for not transitioning. She looked so unhappy to be there. Whole thing was pitiful.
I haven't heard about that. How awful!!
her parents are disgusting , I can't imagine using my child like that . family values ? not so much .
I served as a Marine - no need to thank me for service, as I thank the Corps for putting up with me every day! And never I felt more love, gratitude and pride for my country than the day I landed on the tarmac after a long period overseas in SE Asia many moons ago. But it’s been quite a long time since I felt my heart swell with pride for my country. I could acknowledge how wonderful it felt for a brief period when we elected a man of color as our President, but the horrible treatment he and his family received from a significant portion of our country quickly put a damper on that!. I say this with not a little shame. I wish our country was better. I wish we could do a lot better w/regards to whom we choose to run for office and who we elect to serve our country. I wish we stood more closely to the ideals expressed by our forefathers, who were not without their own shortcomings. When I look at those elected to higher office in our land, there is a more cringe than there is pride. But - but there are ideals we can all seek to live in balance with. I am always amazed by how F’n selfish we are, how we as citizens of this country are so penurious we are, how we just don’t realize how fortunate we are to have by chance been born in one of the wealthiest and geographically secure locations on the planet. So I try to live by the credo, ‘do the next right thing’. And when I look in the mirror, I know I have often failed myself in living up to that credo. Sorry for blabbing up against your comment. Just had to unload and as our current leader often says, ‘fortunately or unfortunately’, you ended up as the lottery winner today.
Critical thinking? Something you’re considering signing up for?
5th graders chanting U S A , stolen valor, blood and gore - All I got out of it
was Trump's family matters, ours do NOT
I've always felt the callouts to people in the gallery by any president in the State of the Union address just used those people as props. I've disliked the practice ever since Reagan did it which coincides with my 18 year old self voting for the first time.
You get a medal, and you get a medal, and you get a medal!! Apologies to Oprah.
Regarding the "people who were recognized for achievement": To me, a huge part of the "speech" felt like he was hosting a game show. He kept talking about things, would bring someone out who had not been in the gallery and then present them with an award or allow them to meet/embrace someone and be applauded. Many were worthy of recognition, some not. But this supposed State of the Union that had nothing to do with the actual state of the union.
I'll note that I rarely watch SOTU addresses even from eloquent presidents and regular presidents because I find the interrupting applause too much and prefer to read the speech or a recap the next day. I was semi forced to watch this one, and I just couldn't get over how this sounded nothing like a regular speech, in general, and more like a "come on down, you're the next prop I have to draw attention to something that has happened."
I thought most SOTU's recognized two or three people/groups and maybe one person received an award or honor. And that the speech was focused on some good things already accomplished (with no snide remarks) and a plan for what the president wants to see happen in the next year. This was a lot of venting and boasting and only at the very end did it sound like he was reading maybe a page from a speech writer's words to wrap things up. But no where did I catch anything else resembling a true speech. Maybe I missed something.
This so spot on. I couldn’t help feeling the same way myself.
I'm with you ! " w" pulled that sort of bs during his administration , I had hoped never to see that again. the repubs must be exhausted from all the ridiculous jumping out of their seats ! all in all, a pathetic sotu !
Regarding the men's hockey team? There is a bigger picture here that goes beyond Trump alienating the women's hockey team. Why didn't Trump extend an invitation to the gold medal winning figure skating team? Or to individual medalist Alyssa Liu? Figure skating, especially women's figure skating, is the most watched winter Olympic sport. Yet crickets for the accomplishments of our highly successful figure skaters. Is it that in MAGA Trump world only those sports that involve pushing and shoving and big brawny men count?
Alysa Liu is not only not a big brawny man, but she is not white. In fact, her father fled from China to the U.S. after being part of the Tiananmen Square protests. So that would make her not only not white, but also the child of an immigrant, and maybe even a birthright citizen, a three-fer on the hate-list for MAGA. I doubt Trump would even invite her to the SOTU. Possibly partly because it would be pretty embarrassing for him if he did and she declined.
I read, maybe on the Bulwark, that observing the opening ceremony at the Olympics was interesting because every other country's team pretty much all looked like each other, while the American team was strikingly diverse. "America is made up of Immigrants" was on many of the signs I've seen at recent protests.
Especially love that Alysa Liu’s dad is an immigration lawyer!
Plus, as so many have noted, Alyssa Liu skated with joy and her own determination to do things for herself her way. Trump/MAGA are not about joy (unless it's money or dumping on people they dislike, and even then, it's seems very unjoyful) and doing what they tell/force/bully you to do. She embodies the opposite of their goals.
In Trump’s world women are subservient acolytes; otherwise they are irrelevant at best.
Exactly this!
Figure skating is girly. Hockey is manly (unless you are the US Olympic gold women's hockey team, seemingly). How many of the hockey players are not white males (I actually do not know as I did not watch the Olympics).
MAGA is rather poisonous when it comes to anyone who isn't a white male, for some reason. Especially when it comes to recognizing ability--because you apparently cannot recognize ability (other than, maybe, in looks) in anyone who isn't, as a minimum, male and preferably a white male.
From the MAGA perspective, it seems rather obvious that any woman or minority that succeeded only succeeded because of DEI, given the inherent superiority of the white male. Which is why they have worked hard to eliminate DEI, successful minorities, and actually worked against minorities and women,
Sure they use some women as mouthpieces or in visible positions, but they are properly submissive women (to Trump) with the right look (mostly botoxed to hell and back or the stereotypical white, blonde female that Trump seems to prefer).
It's partly that, but it's also many other medalists weren't enthusiastic in their support of the Trump administration.
Very perspicacious. Kudos.🥂
Because he has more support among males.
I really don’t know anything about the members of the US men’s hockey team. I have a tendency to think less of anybody who willingly associates with Trump, but that is more a reflection of my mindset than those individuals. So it is very plausible—maybe even likely—that those men are not misogynists.
But I have been saying this about Trump voters since 2016. They may not be racist. They may not be misogynistic. But they are not bothered by racists and misogynists. And I am. Deeply bothered as a matter of fact. And that is why I think less of those people willing to associate with Trump. Until those people who identify themselves as not being hateful of others stop associating with or supporting the people who are hateful of others, we are going to continue down the path we are on. And I will just point out that we are at the point in that path where we are building concentration camps.
I'd give the men's team a pass for almost everything they did, being roped into things while on the ultimate high of winning gold.
But the whole locker room getting a hearty chuckle at Trump's joke about "having" to invite the women's team -- including the Hughes brothers, who were bent over with laughter -- was awful, at least optically. Quinn and Jack Hughes (who scored OT goals in two of the elimination games) mother literally works for USA Women's Hockey.
That was just gross.
Amen, sister Kim!
I do not share your sympathy and justifications for the men’s hockey team. This is exactly what every woman here will recognize as “locker room culture” (quite literally in this case). Behave and speak one way in public and then pour on the misogyny in private. It’s the private stuff that creates a culture of acceptance of abusive conduct. Further, there were three members of the Minnesota Wild in there yuckin it up with Patel, a person who refuses to investigate the murder of two people from their own city. F them all. Send mommy in for clean up on PR, give me a break.
Ann Coulter?!?! Shes’s still around? I can’t remember the last time I heard her name — was it back in the Obama era. She didn’t add anything to the conversation back then and hasn’t added anything now, other than her lack of knowledge and to try and relive her highlights and diss Obama. I guess that white giraffe is still aimlessly galloping about the savannah trying to find meaning for what no one wants.
Al Franken said it best about Ann Coulter: “There’s something wrong with that woman.”
Al Franken always seems to say it best. His quote about Ted Cruz is one of my favorites: “I like Ted Cruz more than most of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz.”
Yeah, that’s one of mine, too.
Oh for the days of Al Franken’s innocence.
Any Native American would take one look at Coulter and think her great grandparents or great great grandparents aren't from here.
when I first encountered one of Ann’s books I thought it was satire. Of course I hear she doesn’t take herself that seriously it’s all for giggles.
She may not take herself seriously but we are in an era her skid marks paved the way for, and DJT did take himself seriously last night.
I bet she has a Candace Owens dart board.
Welcome to the Erika Kirk club!
Brigitte Macron opted for the voodoo doll.
all I can think of whenever she tries to regain relevance: https://youtu.be/tZedcCm4hl8?t=140&si=inIKwYfBIMfVNlsu
Jay on Facebook noted Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO was 1 hr. 48 min.
...and had a better soundtrack.
And better actors.
Not surprising that FBI agents are getting fed up with the BS and starting to leak. Reflecting on yesterday's news from the Epstein files - that a woman reporting abuse by Trump was interviewed 4 times by the FBI but only one of those interviews (which doesn't mention Trump) is in the released files - causes me to wonder if some agents are being intentionally less than fastidious with redactions. I mean, if you were an agent working on a case for years and direction came from the top to cover things up, might you be motivated to leave bread crumbs for journalists to trail?...
Your wish in God's ear.... and the leaks have not yet really started, IMHO.
Vance and Johnson, seated behind Trump, were laughing it up at Trump's bloviating insults, exaggerations and self-promotion. They looked genuinely happy with Trump's performance, and so I got asking myself: are they serious? Or are they performing? There's really no good answer.
I don't believe they know the difference between the two. Serious and performing go hand-in-hand now with this administration
I believe they're serious. They believe all this stuff and support it. Any evidence to the contrary? I can't think of any.
JD will spin on a dime, and land where his perceived self interest lies, as he has done too many times to list in his life. For Johnson, just follow the trail of saliva.
JD spins and spins, but has he ever landed on the side of decency?
Good point. “Decency” isn’t even on his dance card as an option. He dwells on the dark side.
IT didn't matter one bit what Trump said. They were going to stand and applaud at the end of every sentence. And since "owning the libs" is the second highest aspiration of any true MAGA (getting to play the victim being #1), they laughed when he harangued the dems and dropped his "gotcha" moment.
If the Democrats response to the State of the Union speech is all they can bring, we're screwed.
She should have opened with "What the hell was that?" and tore into his sorry ass.
Absolutely right!
She STARTED with "affordability" and only got to armed, masked, untrained, unaccountable Federal goons killing Americans in the streets at the end.
You're right. The first words should have been. "Are you effing kidding me?!"
Your style, maybe. Clearly not hers. Her three questions and the clearer responses showed what is on the line, rather than going down to his gutter-level.
Probably right.
Is he working for you? That's a good question. And I think it can be built upon. Have your kids, Mr. Michigan voter, benefited from Trump's crypto-scams? Nah. His kids did, though.
Have you, Ms. Wisconsin voter, gotten to fly on a government plane with Kash Patel to drink beer with the US Olympic Hockey Team? Didn't think so. You paid for him to do that, though.
When you went out to dinner last time, did you skip dessert to keep the bill low? Probably did. Don Jr. didn't.
When you saw that picture of little Liam Ramos in his bunny hat, did it make you feel proud of America? Me neither.
Did those tariffs help you, Mr. Iowa farmer? No they did not.
When China stopped buying American soybeans because of Trump's trade war, did you say, "that's what we need more of!" Kinda doubt it.
So, is Donald Trump working for you? You tell me.
One can always think of things to say that might bring the point home more. The points were made, and with some examples other than yours.
I think that's what could make this work, though. Ask the right questions to the right audiences. Ask about Iowa farm problems in Iowa. Ask about how much Kentucky bourbon is being sold in Canada in Kentucky. Ask about rural health care costs in Nebraska. Ask about eliminating USAID in Indiana where USAID was a major customer.
Do the voters in any of those places really think he's working for them when it comes to things that matter to them??
Who knows what the right approach is? I do think, though, that this one could work.
But I do think the order is a valid critique too. Start with the masked goons. I think everyone can get behind stopping that, regardless of where you live or what other regional concerns you might have.
Isn't that speech written before the SOTU? It always seems silly to call it a response, but most people would probably embarrass themselves with an off the cuff response.
Seemed to me that some of her reported points were almost quotations of what he had said earlier. Are you suggesting she had a copy of his "Weave" up front?
I think that's the way it works. The person doing the response gets a draft of the speech ahead of time.
If so, then she clearly picked the points she wanted to make. A famous architect was known for the phrase, "Less is more". Her 12 minutes will probably be quoted and repeated more than his 100+ minutes of blather.
I hadn't given it much thought. I always wondered how much of a "response " could be given on short notice. Now I have a bit less sympathy for Spanberger. I admired her as a representative, though I don't live in Virginia. Watching her (from Maryland) campaign for governor, I did find her less inspiring than I had hoped.
From what I read the State of the Union speech was a retread of his same speech that he's been giving. It wouldn't take a crystal ball to figure out the points he would make.
Playing into his exchange of insults game would have been counterproductive. She contrasted Donald's chaotic bloviating with calm and coherent responses and drew a big contrast with what he had to offer.
Stephen, can we be sure that "US citizens" will not soon be amended to "Legacy Americans"? I ask because Trump went out of his way to tar about 100k US citizens last night: citizens of Somalian ethnicity.
The president's duty is to the Constitution, period.
At this point, I'm expecting it to be amended to 'Republicans'.
He just said Democrats are not fit to govern. In the past, he's said that Democrats are all on the regime's enemies list.
Re "the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens": Alex Petri and Rene Good were American citizens. ICE attacks Americans; it doesn't protect them.
My enfant terrible namesake could at least get the name of the party he despises right. It's the Democratic Party, not Democrat Party. His anti-immigrant rage is not going to go down well with most Americans. There will soon be a shortage of workers in many industries, including construction, health care, and agriculture.
“democrat party” is a phrase coined by Rush Limbaugh. I’m glad he’s dead.
I've always thought that if someone referred to the Dems as the "Democrat Party", the response should be to refer to their party as the "Republic Party", or maybe even just the "Repub Party". Kind of like when a man I don't even know calls me "sweetheart", or "dear" when telling me something, I tend to want to call them "honeybunch" or "sweetie-pie" in response. But I am unfortunately kind of a hit-em-back kind of a dear woman.
Repuglican Party
I think it was around before him. He just popularized it.
I was also thinking about that particular line ("the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens", and what the appropriate response might be.
Where I landed: "the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens FROM THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT." In fact, that's the whole point of the Declaration of Independence -- the government is afflicting us, therefore we secede.
Obviously, there's lots of nuance to be explored, but that's the ball game, no? If the US government were to, say, defend us from an external threat but at the same time shred the Constitution, end the rule of law, enact a dictatorship --well, then they didn't actually protect us. You have to be able to do both, protect Americans from others AND protect them from yourself. The War on Terror / Patriot Act / surveillance state was a major stress test, and we did NOT do well. But it didn't completely kill off our democracy. Trump 2.0 just might. After all, his administration thinks that harming Americans (murdering them, to be precise) in the midst of "protecting" us from the scary illegal immigrants is just fine.
Well, in reference to Ann Coulter's assertation that you have to have been here for multiple generations to be president, I guess that also means none of t****'s stupid children qualify. Aren't ALL of their mothers immigrants?
If Coulter's family has been here for generations, they certainly have not produced Presidential material. Perhaps she should do a little research on the fate of the Hapsburg dynasty before bragging about her inbred racial purity.
Ha, that's gold. The whole breeding stock thing is silly, as if humans were pea plants. If the Irish potato famine occurred 50 years earlier or later than it did, you've completely changed the makeup of our illustrious "heritage Americans." The makeup of our "heritage Americans" also owes a lot to the British crushing the Scots. Wait, this whole "heritage American" scam is made up of the castoffs from the British Empire. What if you're Black and your family has been in America since 1600, do you get to be a "heritage American"? What about the fact that the Spanish were here first, then the French, and then the Dutch? Should we all speak Spanish or Haudenosaunee?
But yeah, this stuff appeals to the crowd who duly submitted their family's DNA without their family's permission along with their hard-earned cash to a soulless corporation just so they could hear "You have Viking blood!"
Come to think of it, she has a bit of the “Hapsburg look”.
I think hapless look is more fitting.
Had her family produced anything of note whole being here?
Marla was born here, so Tiffany's in the clear.
Oh yeah right. I always forget about her. Marla and Tiffany.
Really sorry but it’s the action—the mean, reflexive laugh of 99% of the hockey boys when Trump made his little slight—that conflicts with and cancels out what they and their mommies say in public.
Showing up to the speech while they are murdering people in the streets is support of the fascism, not “the office.”
Please don’t delude yourself for these men.
The PWHL resumes play on Thurs with a game streaming free on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@thepwhlofficial
And please don't be so hard on them. These are young men that just performed admirably in a difficult sport. Hockey is the politest professional sport and also the one that shows the most genuine sportsmanship. They were being polite as they had been taught.
They are professional athletes, and apparently clueless ones at that. I don't buy the whole "they are young men" thing. Also not sure if you were being sarcastic about hockey being the "politest" professional sport? "I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out" comes to mind.
Very well paid professional athletes. Not sure they remember the common man anymore.
I hope your comment is sarcasm. They're grown men who play professional sports Don't make excuses for them! 1. Patel shouldn't have been allowed in the room. That's on the coaches, who by the way are supposed to be the adults in the room. 2. That player should have never put his medal around Patel's neck. 3. They never should have laughed at trump's misogynist "Joke". They were not being polite! I have yet to hear any of them apologize to the Women's team.
Um, no.
i think it was sarcasm
The sport where they're not only allowed, but encouraged to start fist-fighting each other mid-game is the politest professional sport? I don't know about you, but rug sweeping of sexual assault and disparaging female NHL fans doesn't scream sportsmanship to me. The NHL has long had a toxic bro culture that suits MAGA just fine. These guys are adults who have been in the public eye for some time, they know better.
If this were the before times, I would totally agree.
I watched the SOTU speech and my main takeaway was that the Trump administration and the GOP are hollow. There was just grievance and delusional looking-back (both expected). There was nothing for the future, other than the usual vague statements. There is just nothing there. From what I saw, the GOP members stood up and applauded almost perfunctorily. The GOP truly has nothing to offer the American people.
Some of us have known that for decades, but it is nice to have a bit of reaffirmation.
I've known this for a long time as well, since all the GOP has to use is fear, which I just can't buy into. It was just so very apparent last night. The GOP is a dead party. They truly have nothing to offer. I would guess that they can't use fear too effectively in the future given the idiot in office.
In the last year the Republicans have unplugged a remarkably large number of environmental regulations impacting the auto industry. I would imagine that top executives and their PACs will show their gratitude when it comes to the 2026 mid-term elections. And let's remember that Trump's tariffs have generally been popular with big labor in the auto industry. Might that help Republican congressional candidates in swing states such as Michigan?
The auto industry already has its manufacturing plants and specs for constructing cars set up to meet the regulations. To take advantage of this weakened or absent regulations they'd have to retool and change plans. All that would take years. I increasing believe that only political types even care about environmental regulations because they can score short term political points in their campaigns against Democratic candidates.
Yeah Ford will stop making their electric pickup...but they're doing that because the target audience for those mega pickups wasn't interested in electric anyway. For the everyday gas powered cars and trucks they sell the change in regulation won't help them much because they've already adapted to the regulations in the first place.
That's all true, but the industry has always been wired Republican -- and has had a decidedly knee-jerk, anti-regulatory bent. When the latest round of deregulatory moves were announced, Detroit executives were effusive about them.
I remember back during Trump 1.0 when GM, under post-bankruptcy management, sided with California over Trump on a climate change issue. Automotive News, the industry's leading trade journal, treated that as a huge violation of tribal rules. GM appears to have learned its lesson.
I wonder. I can see that, but I have read that a lot of other businesses are taking the hits from the tariffs. Can they, with environmentalists, make a compelling countercase against Trump?
I hope they can. My point is that Trump hasn't been clueless in trying to build a winning coalition. And in at least some ways he has managed to bring home the bacon. This illustrates how the Republicans do have something to offer certain people -- it's just that we may strongly disagree with it.
I agree with your point about building a winning coalition. He has done that. I just wonder if, given the OBBB, capturing Maduro, placing a large naval presence near Iran, and the like, will limit or diminish the effect of this.
Every time trump mouth-farted something inane-insulting-demented-nonsensical, vance and holy mike bounced up out of their chairs, like toddlers on a sugar rush. I bet they were exhausted by the long evening's end.