Dark Brandon Strikes Again ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻 

SOTU: Last night President Biden delivered his State of the Union address to the nation. He exceeded expectations, not because the content of his speech was all that surprising, most, if not all of his planned remarks were the things that you’d expect a Democratic president to say. He exceeded expectations with his forceful delivery, his self-deprecating sense of humor, his adlibs, and his ability to parry back at the crazy (as in MAGA hat Margie Q), and his stamina, stutter be damned.   With a glint in his eye, he repeatedly took on his “predecessor,” without explicitly saying his name and unlike that predecessor he expressed optimism rather than doom, gloom, and retribution. From the start, he turned the emphasis on his age back at the Republicans,  pointing out that unlike most of them he’d been born during the World War II, a time when combating fascism was considered both right and necessary, using that point to emphasize how critical it is for the US to support Ukraine in its fight against Russian expansionism. He went on to highlight the improving economy, pointing out how much better the US is doing in comparison to the rest of the world. He once again expressed his commitment to women’s reproductive rights, a point hammered home by a very smartly dressed Jill Biden whose guests included several women whose lives and fertility have been directly impacted by the overturning of Roe and Alabama’s IVF insanity. He did that while casting shade at some of the SCOTUS Justices in the audience. He called for raising taxes on the super-rich, especially those tax avoiding mega corporations that all good politicians, at least Democratic ones, like to attack for their tax avoiding ways, a contrast to his predecessor who’s bragged about being too smart to pay taxes. He highlighted the differences between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to health care coverage. And, in an effort to bring those “uncommitted” voters back into the fold, he deftly walked the Middle East tightrope, mourning the Israelis killed, raped, and kidnapped on October 7, expressing support for Israel’s right to defend itself but also addressing the need to protect and a way to feed Gaza’s civilians while talking up the aspirational two state solution. For some truly unfathomable reason, Republicans thought that Alabama’s freshman Senator Katie Britt was the right one to deliver the Republican response to Biden’s speech.  Boy did they ever miss the mark.  Sure, her youth stood in contrast to Biden’s age but as Joe pointed out, his age comes with experience.  Staging the whiny, on the verge of tears Britt in a fancy, sterile kitchen gave off Stepford Wife vibes rather than gravity. The ashcan of history is filled with politicians from both sides of the aisle whose SOTU responses dragged them down.  Britt, who probably just lost her place on Trump’s VP list, can now count herself as a member of the ashcan set.  Worth noting, she helped negotiate the border security package that Trump then condemned so she’s not stupid and should have known better than to let herself be used as a Trump tool. As to that border package, last night Biden used its Republican rejection to his advantage, earning a nod of approval from a very frustrated looking Oklahoma’s Senator James Lankford, who’d taken the lead in negotiating it only to have his work and his reputation besmirched by the Trump cult. 

Human Resources:  George of many names Santos was in attendance last night.  During the SOTU his comm’s team or someone with access to his X account announced that he’s running for reelection to Congress, not in his old district but for the NY 1 seat currently held by Republican Nicholas Lalota. That Long Island seat, which Democrats view as a possible pick-up was once held by Republican gubernatorial wannabee Lee Zeldin.  It covers parts of Suffolk County, including the tony Hamptons.  It’s highly doubtful that Santos wins the Republican primary but running gives him the ability to raise money for his legal expenses.  Sound familiar?  While the indicted Santos maybe running, Bob Menendez is not.  Yesterday, the multiply indicted Democratic New Jersey Senator finally admitted that even in New Jersey he won’t be able to pull off a successful run in the face of the ever-growing list of charges levied against him. Absent a forceful shove, he’ll probably remain in office until the end of his term.  Not necessarily a bad thing since Democratic NJ Governor Murphy appointing his wife, Senate aspirant Tammy, as the state’s interim Senator, something he would probably try to do, would be a bad look for the party.  As expected, Nikki Haley has suspended her campaign and though she hasn’t endorsed Trump she kind of implied that she might if he reached out to her voters so don’t be surprised if she eventually does endorse him.  If she does, she’ll be following in the footsteps of the increasingly ashen and zombie like Mitch McConnell who despite not having spoken with Trump since the January 6^th insurrection has now endorsed him.  On the Democratic side, Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips has suspended his run, the run that was going so poorly that he’d been lagging behind “uncommitted” and on again, off again, on again candidate/guru Marianne Williamson.  Phillips bowed out gracefully, endorsing Biden on his way out the door.  Gracefully is not a word that anyone is using to describe California’s Katie Porter who came in a distant third to Democrat Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey in this week’s California primary.  She’s taken to social media to repeatedly call the California race rigged. It wasn’t rigged, she just lost bigly and is a sore loser.  A bigly bad move on her part and judging by the posts on X and Threads, one that has left a lot of people, even some who voted for her, very turned off.  Don’t forget about No Labels, RFK Jr and Cornel West, they’re still out there.  None of them can win, but they can be spoilers. And count Speaker Mike Johnson as one more loser last night.  He looked more than a wee bit pathetic sitting behind Biden last night.  He didn’t do the usual formal introduction and he didn’t even push Margie Q to remove her chamber rule breaking hat, probably out of fear that’s she call a motion to vacate vote to unseat him if he did.    

💰💰 Money Woes:  Trump keeps racking up fines and legal fees.  On Thursday, a London judge ordered him to pay $382,000 in legal fees to the consulting firm founded by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele of Steele dossier fame.  Also on Thursday, federal Judge Lewis Kaplan told Trump’s traffic lawyer Alina Habba that he won’t delay the deadline for posting the $83.3 million award that is owed to E Jean Caroll, a problem because to appeal and Trump is appealing, he needs to post money with the court. The $89.3 million should not be confused with the $400 plus million that Trump needs to post for his NY fraud appeal.  To the extent that Trump thought that Elon Musk would help him out of his financial ditch, he can forget about it.  Musk who met with Trump earlier this week says that he’s not contributing to any presidential candidate this cycle. Presumably, that means he’s also not paying any candidates legal bills or penalties and hopefully also not contributing to any dark money PACs.

Fog:  Sweden is now officially a member of NATO, growing the alliance that Trump and Putin both hate to 32 countries.  Biden is setting up a food bridge to Gaza something that will take weeks to implement but in the meantime Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen, which is already providing meals to Gazans is working with the UAE to expand its operations.  The imminent ceasefire is not so imminent as Hamas still refuses to commit to release hostages.   

#BringThemAllHomeNow