# SOTU ~ Your unvarnished responses here **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [March 5, 2025, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144 "2025-03-05T02:22:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/81 "2025-03-06T14:58:33Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > And to be clear, _this is not hypothetical_. This is a _proven, winning strategy_. Slotkin is one of a number of Democratic senators who won state-wide elections that Kamala lost by appealing to these voters. Agreed, and thanks. It’s nice to be backed up in my defense of Slotkin’s Dem response. And RE: this: > [@Babale](#): > > > [@dougrb](#): > > > > $8 million saved from making mice transgender. NOT on my bingo card. > > Did he mean transGENIC? Or animal trials for gender affirming care? Not sure what else that could refer to. @Rebo posted this in the other ‘Address to Congress’ thread (full post contains a link to a Rolling Stone article): > [@Who's watching trump's Address to Congress tonight (3-4-25)?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-watching-trumps-address-to-congress-tonight-3-4-25/1015123/104): > > The Idiot in Chief mistook cancer research in mice for fucking transgender mice. Link goes to the Rolling Stone. Even among the many lies and distortions in [President Donald Trump](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/donald-trump/)‘s never-ending [address](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-speech-congress-tariffs-disturbance-1235288729/) to Congress on Tuesday evening, one claim stood out. The chief executive of the United States told the country that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency ([DOGE](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/doge/)) had uncovered an outrageous expenditure authorized by the previous administration: a whopping $8 million “for making mi… We are truly living in bizarro-world right now. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/82 "2025-03-06T15:09:13Z")
> [@solost](#): > > We are truly living in bizarro-world right now. So true. My cousin and I used to have discussions about how bad DJT is. Long talks. But now, there is just no where to even start. How do you even discuss or approach such absolute stupidity? ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/83 "2025-03-06T15:19:48Z")
“Dipshittery paralysis.” ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/84 "2025-03-06T15:49:27Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > How do you even discuss or approach such absolute stupidity? I know. Experiencing this second term, like watching the Zelenskyy ambush, or listening to the absolute batshit-crazy or just plain stupid shit trump said in his address to Congress and seeing Repubs clap, cheer and chant “USA! USA!” in response, leaves me dumbfounded. The old things we used to say in his first term to express the dichotomy between the adulation of trump vs. the venality and absolute ignorance he displays, like “the Emperor has no clothes” seem too mild and inaccurate to convey the absolute bugfuckery of it all this time around. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/85 "2025-03-06T16:02:11Z")
> [@solost](#): > > …listening to the absolute batshit-crazy or just plain stupid shit trump said in his address to Congress and seeing Repubs clap, cheer and chant “USA! USA!” in response, leaves me dumbfounded. If video captures Republicans not appearing sufficiently enthusiastic and adoring during a Trump speech, it can be used by primary opponents in the next election as evidence that they don’t sufficiently worship the Dear Leader. That short-term effect is all that GOPers think about. Plenty of time to make feeble attempts at restoring their reputations later on. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/86 "2025-03-07T16:36:11Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > I wish the Democrats would interrupt and get tossed by Johnson one by one so the entire thing grinds to a halt. Start yelling, get removed and then the next person starts up. > [@Monty](#): > > This is not a Congress either, in reality. It’s essentially a supreme soviet. > [@Coriolanus](#): > > He’s passed the point where the Dems should have all got up and left. > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > They showed up. Jesus. > [@Smapti](#): > > Primary your local Democrat next year. > > It’s the only way they’re going to get the message that this milquetoast shit isn’t going to save democracy. > > (Unless your local Democrat is Al Green.) Fuck me! _Nearly half of Congress_ stays sitting, doesn’t clap, and holds up signs calling the president\* a liar and his remarks false during a presidential\* address. There’s no precedent for that. I’ve seen SOTU and other Presidential addresses over the years, and everybody stood and clapped, though one side often clapped a lot less enthusiastically than the other for certain things. One person yelling “you lie!” got _major_ attention one year. But every Dem sitting in unison and waving heckling signs is milquetoast worthy by itself of being primaried!? Fuck that noise! First, the “should’ve stayed home” critique. It’s Congress, a joint session of Congress! It’s their floor, their chamber, their fucking workplace! Not showing up is like the parties who sit out elections they claim are irregular or improper, which ends up with the party they’re opposing getting even more seats. 🤨 They feel pure, but the outcome is _at best_ no better. How do you know Trump wouldn’t have taken advantage of a joint session of Congress with network television cameras running (not just the usual CSPAN) to put forward shitty Project 2025 legislation that, with every GOPer present and no Dem present, a bare quorum would have passed unanimously? I wouldn’t put it past him and his sycophants in Congress, who’ve played similar stunts (no vote tonight, you can go home/snap vote tonight) in this session. Also, if the Dems simply didn’t show up, the GOP would’ve just spread its members across the chamber and it would look full enough for the television cameras. Would Fox have told its viewers that no Dems were present and all the people clapping and cheering for Trump were GOPers, or would they have omitted that tidbit? Everybody leaves? First, even leaving’s not enough for Smapti, because he wants us to primary _everyone_ but Al Green. Second, does anyone really think Trump would stop if Dems had walked out in larger numbers? He would have rolled with it, ad-libbing that they were afraid of the truths he was telling. 🤨 He’s not the smartest tool in the shed, but “what to do if all the Dems walk out” is right up his rhetorical alley. Never mind, I must’ve gotten it wrong. The problem in that chamber that night wasn’t the sycophantic party standing to give frequent ovations for idiotic and lying remarks, it was the party that protested that idiocy in unison but simply not hard enough. 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/87 "2025-03-07T17:37:56Z")
It would have been funny if, after trump told an especially big lie, one of the Dems laughed, then another, until the whole side is laughing at him, and MAGA Mike furiously pounding his gavel. I can dream. They acted like this pep rally was some sort of solemn occasion. Catcalls should have been the order of the day. ---
**Author:** ![TheTooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/919ad9/32.png) [@TheTooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheTooth)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/88 "2025-03-07T18:27:37Z")
And the throwing of things. Rolls of paper towels. Shoes, perhaps. ---
**Author:** ![Tierce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@Tierce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tierce)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/89 "2025-03-07T19:48:16Z")
I would have preferred everyone muttering “bullshit”, gradually getting louder and more in unison with each repetition. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/90 "2025-03-07T19:55:32Z")
We need to do it Parliament/Knesset-style. Let the benches heckle and ask mocking questions. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/91 "2025-03-07T21:00:15Z")
I remember someone saying that the cane guy’s outburst was unprecedented in the history of democracy. They obviously never watched Prime Minister’s Questions on CSPAN. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/92 "2025-03-07T21:16:29Z")
I don’t know if UK Parliament has any event where the opposition parties have two choices: sit and listen quietly to a two hour speech by the PM (I know there are some rare occasions the King might show up) or get up and leave. If Keir Starmer called Nigel Farage and all 5MPs of the Reform UK party “lunatics” they could and would certainly get up and leave. It probably would be way outside of decorum and Starmer would likely be admonished by the Speaker, yet let’s say it happens since he’d be correct in this case. If he then went on to call all 200 Tories “Idiotic morons” you can be sure - again outside of any speaker intervention and if their only other choice is to leave, they are out the door. And the Lib Dems and the rest of Labour would ask Keir, “Would the gentleman Prime Minister please tell the remainder of this house if he has lost his mind” and so would the next, and the next person. The papers would have the field-iest field day ever and the King might actually dissolve Parliament. My point is, the dems massing on the Capitol steps - 259 congressman and senators give or take 2 independents, the story would be more about them than how they were cowed and berated in their Congress by a lunatic. ---
**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:** [March 7, 2025, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/93 "2025-03-07T21:18:30Z")
Great headline from Wonkette: > ### [Democrats Don Hairshirts To Punish Themselves For Lack Of Civility As Trump…](https://www.wonkette.com/p/democrats-don-hairshirts-to-punish) > > A plea to stop being polite and start getting ANGRY. Whole headline: **Democrats Don Hairshirts To Punish Themselves For Lack Of Civility As Trump Tears Down Entire Government** 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/94 "2025-03-07T21:41:55Z")
A lot late for that. > Did you see that ludicrous display last night? - The IT crowd ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2025, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/95 "2025-03-07T22:43:58Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Magas are now saying that Democrats are evil for not standing up and cheering for Cancer Kid. Maybe that is why Trump included him? And now we have a troll here _very_ concerned about it. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2025, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/96 "2025-03-08T03:05:58Z")
“There’s no precedent for that. I’ve seen SOTU and other Presidential addresses over the years, and everybody stood and clapped”–where were you, John, when Boebert and Greene shouted “liar” during Biden’s speech without censure? Shows what sanctimonious hypocrites the GOPers are ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2025, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/97 "2025-03-08T12:08:44Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > Nigel Farage and all 5MPs of the Reform UK party That would be 4 MPs. They had a spat yesterday and removed the whip from Rupert Lowe. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2025, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/98 "2025-03-08T12:12:52Z")
And that other guy who shouted “you lie!” at Obama during the SOTU. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2025, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/99 "2025-03-08T19:58:18Z")
What does it matter if there’s a quorum? It just means more than half so if Trump chose so, he could have all kinds of crazy laws (not that that would be unusual) passed - even if every Democrat was there. It would be highly unusual, esp. with SCOTUS present, yet merely a historical footnote in Trump’s first and to-be-extended second indefinite term. The TV press would likely have a split-screen view of the nearly half of congress outside on the Capitol steps. What does a good “pimp cane” go for. Let’s buy one for all the Dems. Rep. Brooks caned Senator Sumner nearly to death in the Senate chamber in 1868 and was not arrested or jailed. It is near time - certainly when Trump doesn’t relinquish the White House in 2029 - for secession and Civil War. There, I said it. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2025, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144/100 "2025-03-08T20:32:31Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > What does a good “pimp cane” go for. Let’s You can get a decent looking one for about $50 on-line. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sotu-your-unvarnished-responses-here/1015144.md?page=6)