Pathetic is your thought that BoyChic would
even "understand" !!!!!

Yes, it helps. Doing nothing would leave the field to evil (or ignorance). Thanks, Rich, for caring and doing. Every little bit has value. The future of civilization may depend on one word from you in the right place at the right time--like the butterfly wing effect.

I call and e-mail but often wonder if it helps at all.

Representative government works if enough of the constituents make a row and let their Congresscritters know what the "will of the people" is on all those issues. Besides commiserating with our like-minded fellows here, we need to send our objections to our reps and senators. Write, petition, collar them in person. Remind them (politely, of course) that they are our servants, not our rulers. Don't accept their boilerplate excuses. And keep educating our fellow citizens (nicely, of course) about the consequences of their voting choices.

Mostly CC is a joke. Manufacturers used to have apprentice programs. The investment paid off because even if an apprentice graduated to full employment but then left another employee that went thru apprentice somewhere else could be hired. This was all private. Now CEO's want taxpayer handout to partner with dysfunctional CC and government.

I have very little faith in Congress. The next 2 years are going to be difficult. I'm guessing Obama will follow thru on his veto threats and use Executive Orders and Agency regulations to do as he pleases. Hope I'm wrong.

I generally can't stand to listen to Obama's falsities, but after reading through all the comments on this thread and the shared vitriole of those who did put themselves through the entire speech, I went and listened to it with the cold, clinical curiosity of an anthropologist.

What a masterfully crafted piece of work this was, wrapped in hypocrisy and engineered on the Big Lie model of spinning assertions that turn black into white.

No way that O wrote this all by himself. His most cunning speechwriters concocted this collage of meme distortion to strike every chord, massage every constituency. Like the good puppet that he is, O delivered it with all the nuances bouncing between folksy and intimidating.

His coterie in the background started every applause cycle and standing ovation right on cue. The man's nerve is astonishing; only a psychopath could pull that off.

With a perfectly straight face he announces an end to torture and to Gitmo, as though those had been casual actions with no mark on America's reputation. Now I just wonder when the Congress will get the gonads to indict him for breaking faith with the Constitution, along with Bush and Cheney and their crimes against humanity..

Excellent.

I love it, and I've got another for you:
L_ying
I_gnorant
B_a$tards
E_xtremist
R_adicals
A_nd
L_unatic
S_cum

I hope the "B" gets by the code of conduct review, but it sure fits in my book.

Thanks. I'll put it on my list.

I watched Amazon's new series pilot The Man in the High Castle (from 'alternate history' Hugo awarded novel by Philip K Dick) last night. Looks like it could be a good series and will likely be funded. Forget the hammer, and be entertained instead ;^)

Actually, AG, implementation of the socialist/communist ideology in the last century was quite successful. Consider its main tenet is to make everyone equal. Then consider the only place all mankind is truly equal is in the graveyard. Given the implementation of the ideology resulted in making millions of people prematurely truly equal, then one must conclude it was successful. However, living thinking individuals would rather do without that kind of success. ;-)

Ah so. It's down from its all time high. Now I understand. I guess he got his math education in California. What's 18 trillion give or take a few billion? Still more spending than all of the presidents before him.

Now the tough one. Can you still go to community college free if you dropped out of high school in the 8th grade?

The yearly deficit is down for now. He had to say
it quickly because it is going to skyrocket again soon. I hope they get the pipeline done without strings attached. It just needs to get done.

Ah... finally found it on the WH site with a google search AND fixed the Adobe Flash/IE-11 incompatibility problem AND watched the whole show.

1) App needed that would automatically skip applause-tagged or -recognized sections.
2) The Politics section near the end, around the 54-55-minute marks was actually, to me, quite sensible and could have been inspiring... maybe if he'd spent the previous 45 minutes elaborating on THOSE ideas rather than the partisan crap he was spewing all the way UP TO that point.

The last ten minutes were almost worth wading through 50 minutes of dreck.

And I predict nothing will change.

That's harsh. I thought he had outlawed torture. Or is that only for his close friends the Muslims?

I don't understand why the DNC doesn't see it coming in '16. They took a whupping at midterms. What is it that keeps them from seeing the writing on the wall. Is the delusion that Barry suffers from catching and they all have it?

Lie #37 for the night by my unofficial count.

I no longer believe that there is any Republican "leadership" - since they took the high road and, to be responsible, kept the government open during the last "crisis". Think about Brownian motion: all those atoms, just moving around randomly, bumping into each other, never coming close to each other....it's my current visual idea of the GOP.

me either. If I want to be bored, infuriated, miserable, impatient...etc..... I can stare at the wall and hit my arthritic knee with a hammer. it's be better.

With free college why would you need a 529?...C'mon, he's doing you a great service. (gag)... So, yes he will try to tax it...and the lame republican won't fight it probably either.

I was basking in the shadow of peace in the Mideast, so I have to ask. My hearing has gone bad during my seasoned citizenship but I swear I heard him say that our debt is reduced. Did I?

#2 I heard on the radio today that in exchange for the XL pipeline, the GOP agreed that climate change is real. Did I?

Old people want to know.

Just take a pic of two tea pots, spout to spout and pretend the handles are Allahbama's ears.

yes