# 2020 State of the Union speech **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 5, 2020, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516 "2020-02-05T01:46:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/41 "2020-02-05T03:46:08Z")
All I could think of watching this was how divided the Congress was. Remember when Obama asked people to pair with someone from the opposite party? Remember when the Congresspeople did it? Also, am I the only one who suspects that some strings were pulled to get that little girl skipped ahead in line to get her school choice, or to get that soldier home at just the right moment to surprise his family? What about all of the other children waiting in line for school options who watched somebody skip ahead of them by agreeing to be a feel good moment for the President. I have nothing against feel good moments but not if they take away from the lies in the speech. I lost track about 3 minutes in. Everything is the best ever. Meanwhile, I have seen patients with Trump’s new “better” insurance which BTW does NOT cover preexisting conditions, and limits patients to three doctor visits a year. Good luck if you need weekly chemotherapy. Also, I hope that the mother with the extreme premie had good insurance to cover what must have been a multimillion dollar bill. I worried I’m going to have a stroke. Why did I watch this? ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/42 "2020-02-05T03:54:05Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I did find her shuffling papers and pretending to read them while ignoring the president to be silly. Too obvious with no upside. > > Tearing the papers…meh. Not classy but…meh. A minor “fuck you” towards the president. Given the circumstances it was the best she could manage. (Remember he refused to shake her hand at the beginning…tit-for-tat.) Well, he didn’t shake Pence’s hand either and was in the process of turning around before she extended her hand. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/_aC9zQX01T8/maxresdefault.jpg "Trump snubs Pelosi handshake") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aC9zQX01T8) ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/43 "2020-02-05T03:56:49Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > Also, am I the only one who suspects that some strings were pulled to get that little girl skipped ahead in line to get her school choice, or to get that soldier home at just the right moment to surprise his family? What about all of the other children waiting in line for school options who watched somebody skip ahead of them by agreeing to be a feel good moment for the President. Certainly these were all staged moments. Limbaugh’s “shock” at getting the Medal of Freedom, the soldier and whatnot. All staged events. The whole thing is managed down to the littlest thing, there are no real surprises in the SOTU address (true for any president). Hopefully the soldier was due to come home anyway. If he was cherry picked and jumped the line for a photo OP moment then, if I were him, I would be deeply embarrassed and upset. As nice as it is to go home and see his family explaining it to the other soldiers in his unit who didn’t get to go home would suck. That said, as a soldier he has no say in it. Not his doing at all. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/44 "2020-02-05T03:58:48Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > Why did I watch this? I didn’t. I suggest you don’t. Don’t normalize this sonofabitch. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/45 "2020-02-05T04:01:39Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Pelosi fully showed her ass tonight. Will make for a good number of campaign commercials. It’s the SOTU. Sit there and applaud or don’t, but don’t shuffle papers and look around like a sniper is after you. The ripping up of the speech was low class. Well, it would have had more impact if she had wadded it up, doused it with lighter fluid, set it on fire, and lobbed it into the Republican side of the chamber, while laughing maniacally. If he makes a 2021 address, she ought to do just that. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/46 "2020-02-05T04:04:37Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Certainly these were all staged moments. Limbaugh’s “shock” at getting the Medal of Freedom, the soldier and whatnot. All staged events. The whole thing is managed down to the littlest thing, there are no real surprises in the SOTU address (true for any president). > > Hopefully the soldier was due to come home anyway. If he was cherry picked and jumped the line for a photo OP moment then, if I were him, I would be deeply embarrassed and upset. As nice as it is to go home and see his family explaining it to the other soldiers in his unit who didn’t get to go home would suck. That said, as a soldier he has no say in it. Not his doing at all. I very much agree. I don’t like these human interest stories in the SOTU but that barn door was left to the goose and the gander who struck while the iron was running out the door striking the horse who was made to drink the water. However, I thought that was one of the most stunningly powerful arguments for school choice ever made, even though the use of the little girl as a prop was in poor taste. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/47 "2020-02-05T04:05:30Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Pelosi tearing up his speech! LMAO Sinead O’Connor called. She wants her gimmick back. Or at least a fist bump when the Speaker has time. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/48 "2020-02-05T04:10:30Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Who decided that “war fighters” was an acceptable synonym for “soldier”? Sounds like something that someone with a limited grasp of English would come up with out of desperation. That term has been in common use for at least the past ten years, and I think it probably has to do with the fact that the military has become more professional and thus more of a “warrior caste” and less of a commonly shared rite of passage as it was in the past. Also, Marines are equally involved in combat as the Army, and they’re not soldiers. And Navy SEALS who have been more involved in military operations in the past decade, are technically sailors, but the term “warfighter” seems to be more appropriate for them as they do not spend their time literally sailing on the seas. Only members of the Army are considered “soldiers.” If you’re referring collectively to members of all the branches of the military, your options are basically “troops” and “warfighters.” And I guess they figured the latter sounds cooler. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/49 "2020-02-05T04:14:54Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Pelosi fully showed her ass tonight. Will make for a good number of campaign commercials. It’s the SOTU. Sit there and applaud or don’t, but don’t shuffle papers and look around like a sniper is after you. The ripping up of the speech was low class. Totally low class. Trump should have moved on her like a bitch. Grabbed her by the pussy. Or maybe [he should have just shown how good he is at mimicking the physically disabled](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PX9reO3QnUA). Or maybe he should work harder at [making fun of his opponents’ hard-to-pronounce names](https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/480814-trump-mocks-2020-democrats-during-iowa-campaign-rally?amp). If there’s one thing that describes the Dem. party, and Pelosi in particular, it’s “low class.” She should take a lesson from Trump or Medal of Freedom winner Limbaugh on how to be classy. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/50 "2020-02-05T04:31:15Z")
Remember that young woman who testified before Congress that she felt that health care insurance should cover contraception? Rush Limbaugh took to the airwaves and make the repugnant (and logically dubious) connection that this made her a whore. This is the guy who just got the Medal of Freedom. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/51 "2020-02-05T05:26:09Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Remember that young woman who testified before Congress that she felt that health care insurance should cover contraception? Rush Limbaugh took to the airwaves and make the repugnant (and logically dubious) connection that this made her a whore. > This is the guy who just got the Medal of Freedom. Sandra Fluke, a 21-year-old Georgetown law student. Limbaugh called her a slut and a prostitute on-air after she testified to congress regarding the need for mandated contraceptive coverage in health insurance reform. ---
**Author:** ![mundylion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundylion/32/3604_2.png) [@mundylion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mundylion)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/52 "2020-02-05T06:09:44Z")
Most comments here feel otherwise but I think Trump was very good tonight. He didn’t go wacko about anything (his MO) nor did he gloat over succeeding in the impeachment drama. The non-handshake was not a snub, just how the first moments went (as mentioned earlier, no one felt that Pence was snubbed and he didn’t get a handshake either). I didn’t understand the ladies in white thing, somehow related to the ladies in black during the impeachment vote? I don’t get it. Pelosi’s speech rip will cost her party many votes in the next election, maybe the whole thing. Such an easy snip to put in a commercial of a very juvenile, bush reaction in what should be a dignified event. Shameful. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/53 "2020-02-05T06:20:27Z")
> [@mundylion](#): > > Pelosi’s speech rip will cost her party many votes in the next election, maybe the whole thing. Such an easy snip to put in a commercial of a very juvenile, bush reaction in what should be a dignified event. Shameful. Right, Trump’s really got the “dignified and mature” vote sewn up thanks to this. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![mundylion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundylion/32/3604_2.png) [@mundylion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mundylion)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/54 "2020-02-05T06:22:00Z")
Indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/55 "2020-02-05T06:22:26Z")
> [@mundylion](#): > > Most comments here feel otherwise but I think Trump was very good tonight. He didn’t go wacko about anything (his MO) nor did he gloat over succeeding in the impeachment drama. The non-handshake was not a snub, just how the first moments went (as mentioned earlier, no one felt that Pence was snubbed and he didn’t get a handshake either). > > I didn’t understand the ladies in white thing, somehow related to the ladies in black during the impeachment vote? I don’t get it. > > Pelosi’s speech rip will cost her party many votes in the next election, maybe the whole thing. Such an easy snip to put in a commercial of a very juvenile, bush reaction in what should be a dignified event. Shameful. Let’s go to the quarry and throw stuff down there! That’s prolly the stupidest, most poorly-reasoned thing I’ve read today! And I was browsing stuff on Reddit today! > [@Miller](#): > > Right, Trump’s really got the “dignified and mature” vote sewn up thanks to this. > > :dubious: ikr ---
**Author:** ![steatopygia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steatopygia/32/3132_2.png) [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/56 "2020-02-05T06:26:24Z")
> [@mundylion](#): > > Most comments here feel otherwise but I think Trump was very good tonight. He didn’t go wacko about anything (his MO) nor did he gloat over succeeding in the impeachment drama. The non-handshake was not a snub, just how the first moments went (as mentioned earlier, no one felt that Pence was snubbed and he didn’t get a handshake either). > > I didn’t understand the ladies in white thing, somehow related to the ladies in black during the impeachment vote? I don’t get it. > > Pelosi’s speech rip will cost her party many votes in the next election, maybe the whole thing. Such an easy snip to put in a commercial of a very juvenile, bush reaction in what should be a dignified event. Shameful. There is a total disconnect between Trump supporters and the rest of the country. You call what Pelosi did shameful. Yet you are congratulating Trump for not lying excessively. You are congratulating Trump for not being “wacko”. Like he usually is. You forget that he was JUST IMPEACHED for trying to use our money to influence the election. Yeah, Pelosi is the one who is shameful. ---
**Author:** ![mundylion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundylion/32/3604_2.png) [@mundylion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mundylion)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/57 "2020-02-05T06:29:28Z")
Whoa. Stupidest and most poorly reasoned. At least I’m at the top of something. Not looking for a huge argument, just trying to give an opinion that is different from the pack yet not ridiculous. Apparent you feel otherwise. Sorry about that. We’ll chat again when Trump wins again. “How did that happen!!!” ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2020, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/58 "2020-02-05T07:35:25Z")
My bold prediction is that just like every other State of the Union, none of this will be remembered in a week. Not the speech, not the handshake, not the ripped papers, and not the response. (Sometimes the response is remembered, but only if it gets mocked. Gretchen Whitmer’s response was admirably boring and forgettable, which is the most you can really hope for.) Just cancel the whole thing forever, it’s the most pointless event there is. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516/59 "2020-02-13T22:04:27Z")
[There’s been some follow-up reporting on the SOTU; it turns out that Trump told some lies.](https://apnews.com/2722fe07cc220914f6772272e15b0c6d) > [@](#): > > Tony Rankins, a formerly homeless, drug-addicted Army veteran, got a standing ovation at the State of the Union after President Donald Trump described how he turned his life around thanks to a construction job at a company using the administration’s “Opportunity Zone” tax breaks targeting poor neighborhoods. > > But that’s not completely true. > > Rankins, who indeed moved out of his car and into an apartment since landing a job refurbishing a Nashville hotel two years ago, doesn’t work at a site taking advantage of the breaks and never has done so. In fact, he started that job four months before the Treasury Department published its final list of neighborhoods eligible for the breaks. And the hotel where he worked couldn’t benefit even now because it’s an area that didn’t make the cut. > [@](#): > > Trump also praised Rankins’ employer, R Investments, for “working to help 200 people rise out of homelessness every year by investing in opportunity zones.” > > That is also not quite true. > > CEO Travis Steffens said he has hired hundreds of homeless to work at the 400 buildings the company has owned over the years, taking advantage of various tax breaks. But when it comes to Trump’s Opportunity Zone breaks, he said, the company has only one building tapping the program now, a warehouse in Cincinnati where no one seems to be working, homeless or otherwise. > > “We’ve not really worked there,” Rankins said, “but we’ve stored things over there.” How about the 200 people a year that R Investments helps escape poverty? > [@](#): > > Steffens suggested that when Trump said R Investments was helping 200 people rise out of homelessness he was referring to the number the company hopes to teach construction skills to at the warehouse once it has been converted to a training academy. > > The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But that’s not all; there’s more! > [@](#): > > Trump dramatically announced that a Philadelphia fourth-grader, Janiyah Davis, would be getting a scholarship that would allow her to transfer from a “failing government” school to a charter school of her choice. But The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that she had already been attending a charter school for months and that students there don’t have to pay tuition. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2020-state-of-the-union-speech/847516.md?page=2)