Biden at the State of the Union: The Master Has Returned
First things first here’s the call in details.
We’re doing the call at 1:30 PM EST. Here’s the link.
Meeting ID: 470 258 9735 Passcode: TfE9JC
Your guess is as good as mine as to how this’ll go but we’re going to give it the old college try after some technical problems in the past. I’ll post some of the recordings here.
Among the more jarring things that I’ve had occasion to observe in our Imperial City is the utter slowness with which decisions are made.
This is evident a lot of the time and totally alien to anyone who has worked in say — tech or finance — where decisions must be made rather constantly. Now don’t get me wrong I understand that the Biden government is moving much faster than it may have in recent years but yeah, I find it unnerving.
Last night we got Biden at a full gallop. He moved so quickly through the speech that I couldn’t help but smile. It was loud, it was raucous, it was partisan—and it sorely was needed. Where has this guy been? I found myself wondering and at times cheering. Oh, he’s been working.
Biden gave everyone — Democrat and Republican alike — face time. One of the more memorable moments was his mocked shock face when he saw Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene festooned in full MAGA garb. She behaved as a clown and he indulged her. Win, win all around. Biden clearly relishes being president.
In recent years it’s become fashionable for the State of the Union to be somewhere between a partisan rally and a laundry list of economic accomplishments. The State of the Union doesn’t have any of the augustness of yesteryear and nor should it. It’s good to see people fight with the President—and for him to give it right back. I’m for this development. This is what democracy looks like. I tire of the sports arena or the UFC stadium having all the fun.
Several years ago I attended the State of the Union—and quickly got smeared by the Israeli assets at the Daily Beast and at the ADL — so I spend a bit more careful attention on these speeches than I might like. What’s said — and what’s unsaid.
You’ll recall that President Biden earned my support after his first State of the Union announced ARPA-H. He fumbled that a bit by having Israeli asset Eric Lander head it up but eventually found his footing, albeit in his arthritic sort of way. When he’s not galloping he’s shuffling, apparently, and nowhere does he drag his feet more than when it comes to the Israeli matter.
Whenever it comes the age question I’m reminded of the critique I had of Barack Obama, who I regarded then—and now—as a fraud and a phony.
Too many people were willing to overcome his obvious shortcomings because he was black and they liked what that said about them rather than what Obama was prepared to do for the country.
If Joe Biden weren’t an old white man how would you think about him?
He’s definitely more accomplished than Barack Obama. If it’s racist to say that, well, I’ve been called far worse and with a lot more bite and punch.
President Biden reminds me of my late grandfather Carl Lundquist who passed away in 2020 at the age of 95 — liberal, patriotic, skeptical of corporations yet capitalistic, well meaning if occasionally prone to anger or frustration. You can easily see the beginnings of a grandfather-grandchild politics forming here and I can’t be the only millennial who sees Biden in that way.
Still, Biden has been too slow to respond to Israeli malfeasance and genocidal behavior in Gaza. He has been too optimistic that liberal Zionism is a possibility — call this the hope of an old man — and we got a taste of that tonight, too, when he repeated the lie about sexual violence allegedly committed by Hamas. No one believes this and it’s a disgrace to the presidency that he has repeated the dead babies line elsewhere. It’s shameful that Biden repeated the lie. Your friends don’t ask you to lie for them lest they make you an accomplice.
America stands for things and one of the things we stand for is a robust inquiry. This means forensics, an essential component of justice. It was technology that helped law enforcement crack down on the unrest around January 6th and it’s technology that America does better than any other country in the world.
America is at its best when technology and justice mesh and make self government possible. This is true with the arsenal and algorithms of democracy being marshaled in Ukraine and on the border and in the inner city. It’s true in Palestine, too.
Speaking of justice, he would do wise to hear the calls for it outside his motorcade. He was delayed because Americans were blocking his entrance to protest the genocide in Gaza. Good. We should be inconvenienced when we have blood on our hands. You can’t arm the Israeli war machine while offering aid on the other hand to its victims.
In a hot mic moment Biden promised Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado that he was going to have a “come to Jesus” moment with Bibi. The choice of interlocutor was key, too. Bennet, born in India to State Department parents, is as Deep State Democrat as it gets. Biden was reassurance the Coloradan. Good.
Can Biden even say that to Bibi? Did he plan it? After all, he told his Obama was “a big f—ing deal” and that “no one f—ks with a Biden” on hot mics.
Our President needs his own Road to Damascus moment as concerns the Israelis. If the targeting of his son didn’t wake him up maybe nothing will.
Let’s hope his “temporary port” and the attendant maritime corridor is the foundation fo something more permanent. From the River to the Sea Palestine may one day be free but maybe it should start on the landing grounds and beach of Gaza. Trump has his Trump Heights. Maybe we should call the port a Bidenport.
The liberation of America begins in ridding itself of its own occupation. Maybe our Turkish friends — who are presently meeting with Secretary of State Blinken — can help us remember us at our best.
After all, the second largest army in NATO sent troops to help us liberate Korea — and not just orange juice.
Update: As soon as I published this piece a friend suggested a far better name than the Bidenport. Let’s call it the Biden Beachhead.
