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On February 7, President Biden delivered his State of the Union address. His handlers must have gotten the memo about how creepy and weird half the country thought his big speech in September was because, this time, Biden obviously wanted to sound more upbeat. Not once did Biden say the phrase “MAGA Republican.” He never mentioned Trump. He made a few references to “previous administrations” but actually spent way less time complaining about Trump than he has in the past. I suppose, halfway through his own presidency, he’s realizing that that only goes so far.
However, if you actually listen to what he’s saying, despite the friendlier packaging, there was still plenty to dislike in this speech, too.
Let’s just start with the phrase Biden kept repeating.
Speechwriters always pick some stupid little phrase and then attempt to hammer it into the heads of the citizenry. And I know that this works with the vast majority of the population, but I’m not going to pretend that this blatant manipulation is okay. Or that none of us notice.
“Let’s finish the job!” was the catchphrase of the day. What kind of job, you might ask? Well, Biden has been passing all kinds of new laws since getting into office, and his phrase “finish the job!” really just refers to doubling down on the kinds of initiatives already in place.
Biden’s passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, a variety of gun control laws, including the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the Equality Act, and the Cancer Moonshot Initiative. As of right now, the Junk Fee Prevention Act is still in the works but promises to bring a lot of changes to businesses and consumers, as well.
Every one of these bills involves sweeping new government powers. I’m not going to say every idea is 100% bad (I can see the benefits in providing more clarity on fees, which is what the Junk Fee Prevention Act promises), but in general, Biden promises ever more growth for the federal government.
Many of our readers may be thinking, well, we’ve got a Democratic president, so what? How is this different from what we expected?
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I’d still like to make a few observations on the State of the Union.
Many statements were some combination of false and misleading. For example, Biden claims that gas prices are going down. Maybe in some parts of the country, but not mine.
Gas prices here went down a few months before the midterms when the government started releasing oil from the Strategic Reserve, but prices started rising a few weeks ago, and I’m now seeing gas above $4/gal again. Not only is this a lie, but it’s one that’s pretty easy to verify.
Biden’s claim that take-home pay is its highest ever may not be an outright lie, but it is misleading.
Sure, paychecks are big, but even a relatively liberal paper like the Austin Statesman admits that pay raises have not kept up with inflation. And this article doesn’t even take into account the way in which our inflation calculations are manipulated.
In case you’re curious, over the past few decades, more weight has been given to the costs of items like phones and TVs and less weight to the true necessities of life, food, and energy prices. So if prices on new iPhones go down slightly while your cost of eggs triples, inflation will be masked.
And again, like the gas prices, this is something most people instinctively feel right now, even if they can’t conjure up exact numbers. Okay, so phones and TVs are cheaper…but I can’t eat a phone. And a TV won’t keep me warm.
Likewise, the hubris about beating Big Pharma is silly.
Biden spent time talking about the Inflation Reduction Act, and from approximately 46:50 to 49:20, he boasted that this will force pharmaceutical companies to negotiate lower prices for seniors. However, at 1:10:53, he promises to fund new vaccines, which are a total windfall for pharmaceutical companies, because people can be forced to take them or risk losing their jobs or admission to schools. And thanks to the PREP Act, pharmaceutical companies can’t be sued for any adverse reactions.
No one is going to beat Big Pharma, and Biden knows it. Seventy-five percent of television advertising revenue in the U.S. comes from pharmaceutical companies; Biden’s theatrics about taking them down doesn’t really mean anything. Biden talks about how he wants to “finish the job” by giving seniors everything they want. In reality, he’s just finishing the job of pumping more money into pharmaceutical companies.
Biden also announced that the Covid health emergency is about to end. He takes credit for Covid deaths being down 90%. Great! But does he mention the fact that, in 2021, the CEO of a major life insurance company said that deaths among working-age people are up 40%? No, Biden conveniently forgot to mention that. And the situation has not improved since 2021. Dr. John Campbell’s been regularly posting very thorough updates about excess mortality in developed countries for months now, and his most recent update was only two weeks ago. You can view it here.
Some of Biden’s claims in the State of the Union were just bizarre.
At about 1:12:00, he blames Covid for the spike in violent crime in 2020. I live not too far from an area that was consumed with violent crime in 2020, and personally know a police officer who was physically attacked on multiple occasions. This had nothing to do with Covid; this was a “mostly peaceful” protest about the tragic death of a mentally ill young man. Were mistakes made? Yes, though, in this case, the EMTs screwed up, not the police. Was it Covid? Nope.
Not at all. And again, the reasons behind the violence in 2020 are easily verifiable and widely known to anyone not living in an upscale community.
The fact that Biden would try to lie about it is strange and insulting to the Americans actually living in the communities affected by crime waves.
At 1:23:20, Biden vows to unite NATO and defend Ukraine “as long as it takes,” whatever that means.
Until the last Ukrainian dies? Until Americans and Russians nuke each other into oblivion? I’m not sure how he plans to unite NATO. Germany’s economy, the EU’s biggest, had been booming for years thanks to cheap Russian gas.
That gas was about to get even cheaper upon the completion of Nordstream 2 until the pipeline somehow blew up. Biden and Nuland had both openly threatened to do this, and just last week, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh provided evidence and a very detailed explanation of how it actually happened.
And I’m not saying the Russians are all great guys, and if Americans had left everything alone, we’d live in a perfect world. If the Russians had had an opportunity to do something like that to us and the technical expertise to pull it off, I imagine they’d take it. I am just pointing out that if you want to unite a group of countries, damaging infrastructure vital to the other countries’ economies seems like a strange way to go about it. The only job Biden seems to potentially finish here is the destruction of the European economy.
Biden went on from there to make promises about making the military better than ever and about how democracy is getting stronger than ever. At 1:29:20, he promises to go after Big Tech, which I think is about as realistic as going after Big Pharma. But he blames Big Tech for the mental health crisis. I’m not in love with Big Tech, but I think blaming Big Tech alone for the mental health crisis is an oversimplification, to put it mildly.
And he finished up by referencing the January 6 attacks and the absolutely bizarre Paul Pelosi attack.
Biden attempts to frame these events as catastrophic for democracy but tragedies around which the country’s been able to rally and pull through. You can tell he wanted to finish his speech sounding upbeat, saying he’s never been more optimistic about the country’s future.
Those were his words at the end. Wanting to sound hopeful and inspiring.
But was the State of the Union hopeful and inspiring?
No. I’ve given examples of the doublespeak, but underneath it all was another vein. Throughout the speech, there was a lot of, “…and they need to pay their fair share!”
There were threats to go after various groups, whether Big Tech, Big Pharma, or corporate America. There was an undercurrent of attacking different groups within American society.
Big government programs always produce winners and losers. I’m not particularly sympathetic to Big Tech, Big Pharma, or corporate America, but the way to get them to pay their fair share is to simplify the tax code, so it’s harder to hide. When there’s one program after another to comply with, the only people that really get hurt are the ones that can’t afford lawyers and accountants. But Biden doesn’t even address this, which makes me think he’s not particularly serious about helping average Americans. He just wants to toss out phrases that will push the right buttons and keep Americans angry at each other.
And this, I think, is the real point. Biden (or, more precisely, whoever currently controls him) wants us to stay angry at each other about the same old junk. Did he touch on the actual, mostly nonpartisan issues challenging most Americans right now, like corporate behemoths buying up huge amounts of real estate, enough to skew markets and make home ownership unrealistic? What about the sociopaths within our government, blowing up the infrastructure of countries that are supposed to be our allies? What about all the steps being taken by Saudi Arabia, China, and India to switch the world’s reserve currency status to something other than the dollar, which will bankrupt just about every American? What about the fact that we’re sleepwalking into World War III over the most corrupt country in Europe, led by a man famous for playing piano with his penis?
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Unfortunately, we can’t prep our way out of everything.
If I had money to invest, I’d probably buy gold, but I don’t. All I feel like I can do, personally, is to keep doing what I’m doing in terms of food production, raising healthy children, and improving my homesteading skills. And then continuing to stay on good terms with my friends and neighbors, to have a good support system whenever disaster does strike.
And that may be the most important thing to do right now, to stay informed while avoiding getting consumed by negativity. If you find yourself listening to Biden or people like him, and getting angry at people you know in your personal life, turn the news off. We can’t control what happens to the dollar’s reserve currency status or how the international situation is going to heat up. But we can control our mental state. Don’t let what you hear on the news turn you against your neighbors. Focus on what you can do to improve your own personal situation, and ignore anyone trying to make you angrier over things you can’t control.
What were your thoughts on the State of the Union? Did you watch it? Were there other things worth pointing out? Do you feel optimistic or pessimistic about the future of America? Tell us what you think below.
About Marie Hawthorne
A lover of novels and cultivator of superb apple pie recipes, Marie spends her free time writing about the world around her.
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