Commentary on the State of the Union
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The State of the Union
Last night, President Joe Biden gave what many pundits across the ideological spectrum consider to be the best speech of his long political career.
Today, Ol' Hobbs will issue a few points and counter-points to the president's address:
President Biden: "...Six days ago, Russia’s Vladimir Putin sought to shake the very foundations of the free world, thinking he could make it bend to his menacing ways. But he badly miscalculated. He thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over. Instead, he met with a wall of strength he never anticipated or imagined. He met the Ukrainian people.”
Ol' Hobbs: Yes, Vladimir Putin was gravely mistaken if he thought that the Ukrainian people would roll out the red carpet for his troops. Despite having an enormous numerical advantage, the Russian Army has stalled across Ukraine and encountered stiff resistance from Ukraine Army regulars and armed patriots alike! Such is why Putin has shifted to attacking hospitals, apartments, memorials, and schools—and killing over 2,000 Ukrainian civilians in hopes of lessening their resolve to fight!
President Biden: "...We will ban Russian planes from American airspace...agreed with our foreign partners to release 60 million barrels of oil from strategic petroleum reserves to curtail gasoline price increases..."
Ol' Hobbs: What I liked the most about last night's speech is that it was the first time in nearly 20 years since there was bipartisan cheering for the President as he laid out point by point why Putin is a coward, and what America is doing to counter his cowardly attack of Ukraine.
It's kind of sad when you consider that the last real State of the Union where thunderous unity occurred was after 9/11 as then President George W. Bush laid out America's plan to beat back the terrorists, but it is what it is and the simple truth is that Putin is a threat to humanity—period—and must be checked!
On that last point, checking Putin, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell noted today that Mr. Biden will continue to receive Republican support for his decisive actions to fight Russia without firing a single shot, which includes sanctions on Russia itself, its billionaire oligarchs, and Putin himself in the days ahead! These sanctions, coupled with the fact that private companies are fleeing from Russian markets, including technology giants like Apple that are cutting off services and supplies, and movie studios like Universal and Paramount that are chucking the deuces and leaving as well—all in an attempt to make Russia suffer for its dictator's foolish choice to invade Ukraine.
Still, Mr. Biden stopped short of calling for the American military to intervene or even using American warplanes to establish the “No Fly Zone” that Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky has asked for repeatedly, which is a wise choice considering that unless Putin rolls into a NATO ally like Poland's territory, most Americans are not itching to fight yet another war on foreign soil.
President Biden: "Two years after the pandemic transformed American life, we’ve reached a new moment in the fight against Covid-19...Our kids need to be in school...Let’s use this moment to reset, so stop looking at Covid as a partisan dividing line. See it for what it is: a God-awful disease. Let’s stop seeing each other as enemies and start seeing each other for who we are: fellow Americans.”
Ol' Hobbs: For the second time, Biden scored a hit with his calls for unity on the Covid Pandemic and the reopening of America. With reports suggesting that new cases are down nearly 90 percent since January, the national mood is far less frightened at this time than it was since last summer, right before the Omicron variant became the latest phantom menace.
I caution that Covid has not gone away, and further caution that new variants could arise at a moment's notice. But the simple reality is that unless a variant takes the infection and death toll numbers back to 2020 levels, federal, state, and local government leaders will catch living Hell from a public that has grown tired of mandates of any sort.
Cognizant of this reality, I have not grown weary of masks, but I am wary of those who may be infected, thus, my choice to continue to wearing masks and observe social distancing in the near future. But such is a personal choice, not one that's forced upon me; my sincere hopes are that others will remain wary and act responsibly until the death toll becomes negligible—which it is far from at this present time!
President Biden on the return of "Made in America and "the rebirth of pride” and “the revitalization of American manufacturing:” “Lower your cost, not your wages...make more cars and semiconductors in America. More infrastructure and innovation in America. More goods moving faster and cheaper in America. More jobs where you can earn a good living in America. Instead of relying on foreign supply chains, let’s make it in America...Ford is investing $11 billion to build electric vehicles, creating 11,000 jobs across the country.GM is making the largest investment in its history—$7 billion to build electric vehicles, creating 4,000 jobs in Michigan. All told, we created 369,000 new manufacturing jobs in America just last year."
Ol' Hobbs: You will never, ever, hear me disparage the concept of making goods and returning jobs to America. Never! Kudos to Biden and his administration on their strides this past year—strides that got bipartisan applause last night, too!
But another sad reality is that for decades, corporate leaders have cared primarily about one thing—making profits for themselves and their shareholders. Such is why manufacturing plants moved from Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana to Taiwan, Vietnam, and China, because the powers that be realized that they could pay less to produce more products to sell to the American people!
Biden's burden now is to assuage the angst of an American public that's angry about inflation, including rising gas prices, prescription drug prices that include the nearly $600 per bottle I used to pay for insulin before I lost enough weight to get taken off the drug, and the reality that sausage is $7.00 a pack, milk is well over $5.00 a gallon, and a fact that has probably made my Grandma Arilla Hobbs turn in her grave—oxtails that are $60 and $70 dollars a pack!
Indeed, if the prices don't get better, Biden's burden will become harder than the mythological Hecules's 12 labors...
President Biden on Criminal Justice Reform: "..the answer is not to defund the police, but to reform their practices..."
Ol' Hobbs: Sorry sir, but I take some issue with this statement!
Now, I agree that police reform is necessary, but I disagree with the President in semantics; while "defund the police" sounds like piss-poor branding, what it has meant (and still means) is that local civic leaders should allocate law enforcing funds in a way that ushers in true reforms by focusing on deescalation training—and the social and mental health of "suspects."
You see, far too many police encounters that turn deadly in the streets stem from poorly trained or timid officers who shoot first and ask questions later if an unarmed suspect of color is acting bizarre, menacing, breathing, looking, holding his phone, etc. Far too often, the bizarre acting, menacing, breathing, looking, phone holding white person gets taken in alive, while the Black or Brown person gets shot, choked out, Tasered, or beaten to death. That's the problem, and whether you call it defund, refund, or un-fund, a change needs to be made in order for "equal justice under the law" to be more than a talking point!
President Biden: "America used to have the best roads, bridges, and airports on Earth. Now our infrastructure is ranked 13th in the world. We won’t be able to compete for the jobs of the 21st Century if we don’t fix that. That’s why it was so important to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—the most sweeping investment to rebuild America in history.This was a bipartisan effort, and I want to thank the members of both parties who worked to make it happen. We’re done talking about infrastructure weeks. We’re now talking about an infrastructure decade."
Ol' Hobbs: Political policy making is much like sausage making; it is an ugly and smelly process, but once concluded, the product hot out of one's stove or boiling pot is A-1 and palatable!
Similarly, while progressives did not get all that they wanted regarding infrastructure, nor did the conservatives, but their compromises will soon lead to jobs repairing our aging roads, bridges, and electrical grids that are worn and out of date!
Conclusion
There were some criticisms on social media that President Biden "didn't mention Black people," and to me, such is unfair, untrue, and damned myopic.
From introducing soon to be Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson for a second time, to calling for more investments in America's Historically Black Colleges and Universities, both were direct nods to the important Black voting bloc. But lest we forget that neither Biden nor his predecessors Trump, Obama, Bush, or Clinton always singled out racial demographics on initiatives that impacted the health, wealth, and safety of ALL Americans.
Thus, when Biden spoke of defeating Putin, implied within that segment is that both Black soldiers and Black civilians will die if World War III erupts! When Biden talked of new jobs and Covid improvements, such are to the benefit to many Black people as well.
Yes, it is important to criticize our politicians, but it is also important to criticize them about errors (such as "Defund the Police"), not because there was no specific shout out to “The Blacks.”
Distraction Barbies at the Capitol (Common sense sold separately)
I pondered not saying anything about the two Republican blowhards, Rep. Lauren Boebert (Co.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (Ga.), but their decorum last night during Biden's speech was beyond indecent.
Listen, I get it, America's politics are as divided as they have been since the Civil War. Trust, I GET IT! But there is still such a thing as respecting the Office of the President—even if you detest the man or woman sitting in the Oval Office. I disagreed with just about everything that former President Trump said, wrote, or Tweeted during his term, but if I was in the audience of a speech that he gave, I would have let my powerful pen do the talking afterwards—not my loud mouth and deep baritone voice while he was presenting!
I could not help but wish that Congressional security had come over and escorted those two Distraction Barbies out of the building, much like Distraction Ken doll (Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) should have been put out of the building for screaming "You Lie" at President Obama over a decade ago during a State of the Union.
But what's even worse is that while most of their Republican colleagues didn't egg them on last night, none stood and said "sit your simple asses down," as I would have been tempted to do had I been within earshot.
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Well said Mr. Hobbs. I too watched the State of the Union address. You are absolutely right in your point to exercise decency, even if it means respecting the office. I served under many leaders as an active duty Airmen. Some I cared for, some I say, I detested. However, they were in charge, so I listened.
I definitely can understand what Zelensky must be feeling when crying for help, and no one is giving the support which he actually needs (impose a no-fly zone). The U.S. playing that thin line trying not to engage, and risk drawing a direct confrontation with Russia.
I will keep a watchful eye to see how far Putin will push this senseless war.