Instead of watching the State of the Union address, I decided to finish House of Dragons on HBO. I figured what difference could there be, right? The SOTU features an aging president with succession issues and House of Dragons features, well, pretty much the same plot.
Nevertheless, it was good to finish House of Dragons, the prequel to Game of Thrones. It’s slower and not as well done as GOT, but worth finishing to keep my cultural credentials current.
So, I asked my Facebook friends what I missed.
Conservative friend Kathy said: “I skipped it to watch the Kids Baking Championship. Last night it was monkey bread volcanoes. Infinitely more interesting and believable.”
Las Vegas wagster Donn said: “I couldn’t be bothered, that was right during ‘The Curse of Oak Island’.”
Gae, an Episcopal priest pal who sees things a little differently than most of my Friends, said that “The President was terrific. He was articulate and positive. I loved that he used ‘we’ statements.”
Meanwhile, Becky, a native American friend who always keeps me on my toes, offered this: “You didn’t miss anything other than a bunch of lies. The house speaker probably had to take some kind of a drug to prevent him from vomiting based on the look on his face. More class than Nancy, at least he didn’t tear up the speech.”
I then consulted one of my fave writers, Matt Labash. He’s an equal opportunity offender.
He thought the president “did just fine,” adding “The Prevagen smoothies appear to be doing their work – he didn’t even accidentally order a waffle cone at the lectern mic, mistaking it for a Friendly’s drive-thru.”
“Democrats,” Matt wrote, “applauded like trained chimps, ready to credit Biden for everything from making the blind see to the lame walk. While Republicans scowled at him as if he were a war criminal (not the “good” kind of war criminal like Vladimir Putin) or a drag-queen-story-hour reader (no offense intended to Republican George Santos, an actual drag queen who tells fanciful tales that could only be believed by dim children and/or Kevin McCarthy).”
And there you have it. In less than 400 words, the bird’s-eye view of the 2023 SOTU address. You are welcome.
(Also, feel free to follow me on Facebook for thoughts of mine between Nevada columns.)
SENATORS AT WORK
And now for something completely different, as the Monty Python show used to say.
Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen tweets this: “It’s simple: No member of Congress should receive a paycheck if we fail to do the basic work of passing a budget and funding the government. This is just one of the ways we can promote more fiscal responsibility in Washington.”
I don’t believe her, but it’s OK if you do.
‘BALLOONS’ EVERYWHERE
Over the weekend, two more mysterious “objects” were shot down by U.S. aircraft, one in Alaska and one in the Yukon. Also, airspace over Montana and Michigan were closed for periods of time.
As of this writing, the Biden Administration ain’t sayin’ nothin’.
I’ll bet that upsets most Nevadans as much as it pisses off me (pardon my French). Are you telling me that there is nothing – absolutely nothing! – the president or one of his reps can tell us about either downing some 48-to-24 hours later?
Seriously? We don’t know jack about them? Who sent them? What were they up to?
That’s hard to believe, given the fact we shot them down on sight. But, look, ever since this administration’s horrifying exit out of Afghanistan, I have a hard time giving Team Biden the benefit of the doubt.
ONE MORE THING
– Dear aliens: This is probably not a good time to fly over Nevada airspace. We’re a little on edge right now with Chinese Spy Balloons and such. We’re not at our best today.
– What makes a person wake up one morning and think to themselves: “What I really need is plastic testicals hanging from the back of my truck.”
Thanks for reading a Battle Born Media newspaper. We still highly recommend that you avoid soreheads, laugh a little, and always question authority.
“Properly Subversive” is commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick, a Nevada Hall of Fame journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@ gmail. com.
