Coming at the nation fast in the wake of the most boring Super Bowl of our lifetimes, President Donald Trump is set to deliver the State of the Union address tonight, long delayed by the lengthiest federal government shutdown in history.
Generally speaking, the SOTU is a must-watch for every American with an interest in national politics, with supporters tuning in to be energized and opponents to lampoon. Today, though, there is a significant movement afoot on social media to boycott tonight’s speech, with the goal of making it the least-watched State of the Union address in modern history. The thinking is that this would make a choice dent in Trump’s prodigious ego.
A poll follows: what’s your evening looking like?
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I would literally rather pop my eyes out with a spoon than watch, but will be following the countless online fact-checks afterwards, and might start an office pool as to how many lies will be told.
How about an office pool on when the first laugh out loud response happens, and how many times the audience reacts to the unintended laugh lines?
I think LOL lines are extremely likely in bars and informal gatherings. In the live audience, I'll guess most people will be too sad when they hear certain things to laugh, but we might get a couple!
I'm old enough to remember the Watergate class of '74. When Ford gave his 1975 SOTU address, two Dem freshmen hissed at him and walked out. Any chance that will happen tonight?
Several Representatives have already said they will not attend, suggesting their response to the *resident would not be appropriate for the occasion. Others still provide a chance of a break in decorum. Optimistically, it could be more creative than hissing or booing. And it can't adopt the "You Lie!" of the one Republican Representative to President Obama — accuracy would no doubt require too many repetitions throughout the speech.
One idea I saw mentioned was throwing paper towels if he mentioned Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands.
The other extreme is an over/under pool of how many members of Congress will nod off during the speech.
I will watch it on the telly afterwords. Reduced to 2 minutes of sound bites by some nasty commie pundits.
I might watch Stacy Abrams' speech IFF she keeps it under 5 minutes.
I have never watched a full state of the union speech. Why would I start now? I also try to avoid the clips and commentary since it has zero impact on what the government actually does. They are always distractions from important things like which bills are actually advancing or not.
SOTU? STFU.
(I won’t even ever listen to the 3-minute NPR news on KUVO — my go-to station while driving because of the non-commercial format, plus I like jazz. I’ll switch to my I-whatever for a few minutes, precisely so I don’t have to hear anything related to whatshislyingassclown.)
Nope. Smokin Cubans and drinkin rum in Cozumel, aka the fun side of Trump’s wall.
No one gives a fuck what Jared Polis's candyass bloggers think.
The butch look really doesn’t work that well for you, Fluffy. Just sayin’ . . .
Dear Moran,
It is Polis' and not Polis's.
An additional apostrophe s is OK to show possession by someone whose last name ends in s. It's an alternate usage. The rule generally is that if you pronounce the extra syllable ( Cletus's ride) then go ahead and add apostrophe s. If you don't pronounce the extra syllable (because it's already pluralized with an es, usually), then just tack on an apostrophe. (Barnes' grammar, the dresses' collars, the princesses' crowns)
You use the terminal apostrophe when you have a plural subject ending in S and you want to show possession. And, of course, you keep the traditional apostrophe in It's contracting It is.
So it's Polis's candyass bloggers' emails. And Moderatus’s sockpuppets’ pronouncements.
You're welcome.
http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000131.htm
Ooh, someone’s a little cranky. Maybe because he’s a loser?😭
Do not plan on being near a video source tonight. It's more peaceful that way.
I’m in Cactus, Texas this eve so my choices are limited and none of them ideal! I wish I had a Pelosi shirt to wear to the cantina.
Vehicle breakdowns suck!
This one was intentional (place, not day). People in Cactus are interested in cannabis. While they beat their chests about ‘Lone Star State’ freedom, the real freedom lies just north of the Cimmaron County, OK line. #Cannabis may soon be the new #Cotton in these parts.
Sounds like a great occasion for a drinking game.
"Wall" , "Fake", "Best", "Beautiful" = one shot
"Collusion" , "Danger", "Bad People" "Democrats" "ISIS" = two shots
Now those shots don't have to be alcoholic- but it will probably help.
Yee Haw!
… and a rusty spoon at that.
So I'm not watching the SOTU, will tune in for Abrams response and the fact checking.
I can just barely watch POTUS's SOTUSes anymore.
Haven't watched a single second of any SOTU address since the year Shrub went on for 15 solid minutes about how steroid use was ruining major league baseball, as the country was suffering in the grips of a recession and people were dying in droves on account of the abomination known as the Iraq War.
Fuck SOTU addresses. Written SOTU messages were good enough for every president from Jefferson to Taft. Given the fact that President Sundowner will be up and babbling way past the time he usually crawls into bed with Fox News and a bag of Big Macs, there's some entertainment potential here. Enough entertainment value to consider watching? Oh, hell no.
Rick Perry is the designated survivor.
That makes me feel much, much safer.
Wow. We got kids with cancer, Dachau survivors and liberators, heroic police officers, prison pastors, etc. in the House. $rump must have asked for anyone with a guaranteed applause line to attend his SOTU. Very little policy, though.
Just "clap for these people if you like my wall and my trade policies." And people obligingly clapped. Who's not gonna clap for a cancer survivor?
He does have a much better speechwriter and must have practiced reading that teleprompter for hours.
Maddow just said that they had a transcript of his remarks, and words like Dachau and chemo were spelled out phonetically so he wouldn’t mispronounce them.
Every cliche possible. Keep America First. Keep Freedom Alive.
Yeah, I watched it. Oh My Didn't He Sound "Presidential". What exactly the fuck did he say anyway? I think it was he's going to build a wall, keep crashing the economy with his trade policies, and declare war on Iran. Or maybe Venezuela. Hard to tell. And he's gonna meet with Kim Jong Un. And get out of the nuclear non proliferation treaty with Russia because they don’t keep their promises. Just roll with it – don’t parse the logic. Oh yeah, and the "Ridiculous Partisan Investigation" might stop all of those glorious plans so um don't do it.
…Cadet Bone Spurs is finally going to get to Vietnam.
MJ, just so you know, phonetic spellings are quite commonly used in speeches and news scripts, both radio and TV. Maddow knows this. The cheap shot was beneath her.
I've written some speech texts (and read more) and have talked with some working in television. In the cases I know, the actual word is followed by a parenthetical insert of the pronunciation following the word: e.g., Mr. Thomas Beyr (bare) from Versailles (ver-sales). It is done sparingly, for names and other words the speaker could confuse (location name is different in France and Kentucky) or are unfamiliar with.
When I prepared speech scripts, the parenthetical inserts happened only AFTER the speaker had rehearsed the lines, showing an error. In TV, there often isn't the luxury of a full run through, so clarifications go in with some sort of indicator to alert the news reader.
I'm not certain it is a cheap shot to comment on someone not knowing how to pronounce "chemo."
Nicole Wallace said the same, gertie – that she had prepared many statements for public figures with phonetic pronunciation inserted.
For myself, I was really astonished that $rump managed to get through all of the "big words" in his speech, reading almost fluently. My theory is that he has a reading or learning disability, covered up and compensated for decades by his parents to allow him to graduate with a degree.
So he must have rehearsed – a lot. If only he would dedicate that kind of preparation to governing as President.
Watched 3 episodes of Downton Abbey Season 2.