United States President Joe Biden "State of the Nation"

United States President Joe Biden gave his second "State of the Nation" speech tonight.
The speech focused on the attempt to unite Republicans and Democrats, the relationship between the United States and China, on improving the American economy and on human rights, including dealing with the prohibition of abortion, LGBT rights and police violence against blacks.

He first opened with a unifying message to Congress, "They tell us Democrats and Republicans can't work together, we proved them wrong." He then addressed relations with China and said he was ready to work together, but Not to threaten American sovereignty.
Biden said, "If we could work together in the last Congress, there is no reason why we can't work together in this new Congress. Conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere." He also added that he promised to be "the president of all Americans".

 

There is zero incentive for the Republicans to work on bipartisanism. There is nothing the Democrats can offer that the Republicans want.

Notice the rhetoric around the debt ceiling. Republicans in the House have threatened to fail to raise it. Some have made vague comments about what they might want in return. But there are zero specific proposals. It's not like they're incapable of coming up with a wish list or to-do list; they are intelligent and capable. It's that they don't want to. They're no longer vested in conservatism. Instead, their electoral future rides on a huge slice of their electorate that feeds on rage and hate--regardless of the veracity of the source or target. (Even having real things to be mad about is optional.) That rage--maintaining it--is the key. It will drive turnout--hopefully for them in sufficient numbers to make up for their minority of the electorate.

 

Definition of "nihilism".

 

About 1/2 of what Biden was saying was TRUMP WAS RIGHT! LOLz.

1. 100% of infrastructure building materials need to come from America.

2. Chips need to be made in the U.S.

3. There is a spike in violent crime. Police need more funding, not less

4. American border problems won’t be fixed until Congress acts. We need a plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border.

5. Fentanyl is killing more than 70,000 Americans a year. So let’s launch a major surge to stop fentanyl production and the sale and trafficking at the border.

6. China is our greatest national security adversary.

7. Social media platforms like Tiktok are dangerous to our children, and any tech from China should be banned.

8. The U.S. debt is too high and has to be reduced to take the burden off our children.

9. Big Pharma has unfairly charged people hundreds of dollars, $400 to $500 a month for Insulin. We capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month for seniors on Medicare. (Trump executive order on insulin in 2020)

10. Covid no longer controls our lives.

 

Is he (Trump or Biden) saying HOSPITALS can't have any, then? They're not doctors.

OK. How is that planned to happen?

I'd like to see that, too. But nobody else makes very many computers etc. I think the last major maker in US was Dell - and they outsourced to China years ago.

Google: "Dell and HP -- which together shipped more than 133 million notebook and desktop computers in 2021, according to data provider Canalys -- have most of their assembly in the Chinese cities of Kunshan, Jiangsu province, and Chongqing, Sichuan province."

And the computers that are assembled outside China (in other Asian countries, mostly) are stuffed with Chinese parts. Does anyone really want to be in a 5-10-15 year lineup for a new laptop?

A lot of this stuff appears to be pie-in-the-sky nonsense, no matter WHO said it. But politics everywhere is FILLED with that. Nil sub sole novum.

 

Could fuel a building boom --- in jails. US already has the largest incarcerated population in the world. Yes - more than China. Only upside: more jobs for CJ grads?

 

I'd like to see a real war on drugs--on the demand side instead of on the supply side. Education, rehab, healthcare, mental healthcare, social work--whatever it takes. But not more policing, incarceration, etc. It serves none of us.

Yes, if people commit crimes related to their drug use--property crimes, fraud, violence--then they should be dealt with criminally. But use? Go after that in other ways and you might just see it becoming less popular. Lower the demand and I assure you the supply will be lowered as well.

Some of us are of a sufficient age to remember the ubiquitous nature of smoking. It was everywhere and it was normal. In fact, not smoking was a little weird. Airplanes, cars, restaurants, waiting rooms in doctors' offices, hospitals, everywhere. Smoke 'em if you got 'em. To finally combat this, we didn't go after the tobacco manufacturers. They still, to this day, manufacture a lethal product with NO redeeming value. None. What changed was the demand. We made it unpopular and inconvenient to smoke. PR campaigns, laws on public smoking, education in schools. And, despite dealing with a product that would have been easy to ban--you can't make tobacco and cigarettes on a small scale and they're really difficult to smuggle--we did it. Oh, we didn't eradicate smoking. But if you started the smoking habit in the last 50 years, that is on you. No one made you do it, and the entirety of society worked to keep you from it.

That's the kind of war on drugs I'd like to see. It will be harder since things like fentanyl are easier to make and ship. But that also means interdiction is almost futile. The more you catch the more they'll make and ship.

Prohibition works only when the proscribed product is (a) hard to manufacture on a small scale and (b) is hard to smuggle. With all of its failures regarding drugs and (briefly) alcohol, you'd think we would have learned that by now.

 

What can I say? That was a GREAT dress!

Conservatives are so uncomfortable in their own skins they project it onto others.

 

Beg to differ, Rich. Here in Ontario, half the cigarettes smoked in the Province (Pop. About 15 million) are contraband. Big money-maker among Natives. Some are made by them legally - for use on the Reserve, where they are not subject to tax. More are available from the Tobacco Allocation system of the Government, which distributes untaxed cigarettes. Somehow, many of those smokes get off the Reserve...

Trouble is, "entrepreneurs," both white and Native, smuggle them. Off the Reserve. t]There are "runners" - poeple who make their living by selling untaxed cigarettes in the cities. Smokers always know who the "runner" is, where they live (especially large apartment buildings). The police make sporadic efforts, around here, to check cars coming out of the Reserve. Small effort - small success. It's a bib, big business.

In Eastern Ontario, they're smuggled by water and much of the traffic is to the US. More often than not, nobody gets nabbed. Here in Ontario, a carton of 200 cigarettes at your local store averages $104.99 Canadian. Around $60 of that is tax -$20 Federal, $40 Provincial. So if you take that out, and some more for eliminating middlemen in the retail chain - they are sold illegally a lot cheaper.

This costs the Ontario Government more than a BILLION dollars a year in lost tax revenue. If smuggling is so hard, why are so many doing it successfully.? Answer - it's NOT hard. Sure, a bit risky, but definitely not hard, for these guys. They know what they're doing.

Article (one of many) here: https://www.taxpayer.com/media/CTF-ChristineVanGeyn-ContrabandTobaccoReport.pdf

 

I don't either. What I DO know is -- COVID is NOT over, where I live. Three significant outbreaks in Nursing Homes in my town since Jan 1. People are still dying. ... Deniers.... #!**

 

Yes. A family member just tested positive and is miserable. Not life threatening due to being vaccine current but definitely sick.

 

Just wait until Big Tobacco gets on the Mary J train. We're going to make all the same mistakes we made with tobacco for all the same stupid and short sighted reasons and the results will be ugly.

 

The cost of a carton of smokes was about $8 when I quit in 1977. Money just wasn't a factor. Yeow!

 

Oh! I guess you don't go back far enough go have paid with pinches of gold dust!

 

Sorry to hear that, Nosborne. I hope your family member recovers well and has no lingering after-effects. Those can be worse than COVID itself.

 

Even further. On a canoe trip along the Ottawa River, I once traded many beads and several knives....