Joe Biden on the Budget and Bakhmut* ~bump~

Published on 2/1/23 6:18 AM

The State of the Union address to Americans is coming soon.

For longtime U.S. citizens, this is an important address in our democracy. It's when our president, the executive leader in our government, addresses our nation about where we are in the world, and here at home.

Imagine his speechwriters' dilemma this year:  Are we bankrupting ourselves over Bakhmut? *that's a nice line to work in, because the writers aren't just tasked with providing substance, but also must double-down on delivery: using words, phrases and alliteration that will capture the public's interest, for years to come...

This winter, with the cost of eggs sky high (=cheap protein alternative to fresh meat; superior to nuts and fresh greens), Americans are worried.  Of course we know, unlike rents, egg prices will come down, this is just the temporary result of the avian flu in the poultry market, where so many chickens in recent years have needed to be put down, humanely or otherwise depending on your perspective...  But I digress.

Americans citizens, and all workers and their families here now, are necessarily more focused on the future than the Boomers who came before us, the "growns" who never really came of age having to grow up and get all "serious" in the disposable society America became in the post-World War Two decades -- looking ahead to a century now... Hard to believe almost, isn't it?

Americans today, though, are not so blessed as those who were their grandparents and parents, and our elder brothers and sisters...

Our futures are not so bright, and not everybody is wearing RayBans.  Aviator Joe can't either -- the speech will be held indoors, with Vice President Kamala Harris at his back, and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy replacing the wealthy octagenarian former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, beside her.

No sirree, no hiding behind the shades.  No putting the best positive spin on things, and talking a good game, as politicians of a certain age like Joe and Nancy always though they could do...

The future is here, staring us in the face with the bills the earlier generations of Americans have amassed.  We owe, we owe, it's down to business we must go.

The newcomer workers in America -- who the speech will not be aimed at; they are taken for granted and many will not even yet speak the language of the politicians and the president -- might not even be watching, but their best and brightest children surely will.

Will we hear of America's potential bankruptcy?  Will we learn to geographically place "Bakhmut" on a map?  Right now, the speechwriters surely understand:  in wartime, we must address the war America is currently pumping billions into...

Do they dare downplay the importance of the Russian offensive and stick to the current media script that only cheers the downtrodden Ukrainian people, and only shows suffering citizens to explain why it is immoral for our country not to escalate the destruction and suffering, all in the goal of a "Free Ukraine"?

I think honesty must be on the table in this talk.  These go down in history, the way press releases in the press about military might become crumpled and forgotten, in time.  This is a presidential address, not simply a front-page news story today...

Lest the speechwriters think "everyday Americans" aren't paying attention at all anymore, remember the eggs.  Americans focus on "little things" but any talk of cutting Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid healthcare costs to our elderly, disabled, and most vulnerable...  Why would Americans want a society of needy on our streets here at home if we are helping to shell the same sorts of vulnerable citizens out of their homes... "over there".

We're war weary.  That's not a partisan issue anymore either.  We have seen what decades of war does to a society, here at home...

"What was over there, is over here..."  In the audience at the State of the Union speech will be the surviving family members of Tyre Nichols, hoping to hold it together when they are introduced as "regular people" and highlighted by the president.  It's a tradition President Reagan started, pointing to heroes and helpers, the people in America we think we know through recent news stories, and now... those whose pain we never ever wish to share...

Many Americans, of both parties, have concerns with both under-policing, and the disrespect and total authority given to police officers whose training seems to be similar to those soldiers taught how to protect themselves to survive in our recent foreign wars that killed uncounted civilians... over there.  Many have served, and brought their attitudes and mindsets to our streets today.  

Thank you for your service seems trite.  President Joe Biden surely will address what the pundits seem to either ignore, or are desperate not to talk about...

When America puts force and violence first, and "worships the weapon" over reason and logic and rule of law in wartime, our children learn from such leadership.  Becoming a man today, in many young circles, means carrying a gun, protecting yourself, proving that you have what is needed to survive...

Sadly, there's not personal integrity too much on display by our newsworthy sons (ie/Hunter Biden) or daughters (ie/Elizabeth Holmes).  The "regular" families raising the next generation are not held up as examples, they can barely keep it together it seems -- working outside the house, ferrying the children to competitive activities, asking others to feel their pain, and help support their children via tax transfers...

When we send billions abroad to fight what is promised to be "years long" wars, we have to think some child in the audience might pipe up, "Are We Winning Yet"?

But no Virginia, the truth is, when you worship weapons, and promote destruction over life, war over peace, nobody ever wins.  We can beat our chests and pretend -- for a brief moment in time -- but it's like drug use:  the high quickly fades and you need... more!

Russia is not some backwater, like the places our soldiers saw action beginning in the bush/cheney war years.  Russia is not a fictional place where we fight the Dragos, who took on our beloved Rocky and got what is coming to him, nor is the current fight we are in an invasion of U.S. soil where we are all "Wolverines!"  (Rocky IV-- 1985;  Red Dawn-- 1984)

We're not the same affluent country, demographically or in innocence, that we were when the Boomers were announcing we needed to steer clear and 'specially protect their "Babies On Board".

No, the speechwriters this year have their jobs cut out for them.  They need to be inspirational, but address reality.  They need to acknowledge the essential goodness of America -- it remains, the leading light of promise to so many in this world -- with the simple reality that if we live by the gun, we also sentence our schoolchildren to die by the gun...

May the odds ever be in your favor?  That's not really acceptable anymore either.  The affluent too are starting to understand that if evil storms the gates, even those in well-gated communities will be affected.  That if you travel by public transport, maybe someone you love will be pushed into the path of what is coming.  No body is immune anymore.

Is it too late to start investing not in wars, and paying the salaries of the "defense" industry contractors, and lobbyists, and allied salaries, that made the government- and media-employed residents of DC and environs so successful, but in the rest of the country and our own needs here at home?  Luckily, this is a question more for the thinkers, not those mere speechwriters tasked with telling us about the State of Our Union today.

But remember, you can't really pull no bullshit, Biden -- as young Ahmad told Coach Buttermaker from his tree perch all those years ago (Bad News Bears, spring 1976) processing the team loss.  We've come a long way since the Bicentennial, and we all know the cost of eggs today.

Instead, we need to unite, to be realistic about what we are doing, and where the taxpayer money is going.  If Russia is planning their offensive to make it clear to those simply consuming the U.S. media mouthpieces that indeed they are not doing so badly in capturing regions of Russian-speaking citizens, then maybe America should not be preparing to transfer more and more to ... well who really knows where these billions will end up?  The weapon systems especially.

If wiser minds in Europe are balking at sending F-16's to escalate the civilian suffering and destroyed countryside, maybe America might humbly follow, and not always insist we lead with our taxpayer dollars?  Maybe one day, America will learn that the best way to build independence in our allies, like our children, is to stop sending money and bailing them out of every scrape they continually land themselves in, by their own actions often?

Bankruptcy, Bakhmut, the worship of guns -- there and here -- and the difficulty of reining in the warriors we have empowered, even on our own streets... 

The costs of eggs, education, and the increasing difficulty of living in the disposable society the Boomers inherited, and are counting on passing on to their own, as the only way for their young to survive today. (unless like in Sandy Hook, innocence too is breached, and all bets are off) ...

The themes the simple straight-out-of-college speechwriters will have to play with today... let's just say, I don't envy their jobs.  Real people are watching, and real people in America today aren't buying bullshit.  Joe Biden will not only have to stand (for a half-hour at least) and deliver, but he'll need to be fed some fine words that promote the promise that America always has within her, while addressing the undeniable problems we have created here at home too, personified by Tyre Nichols' family in the audience...

There's no "us" and "them" in America anymore really:  the democrats and republicans trying to promote that will be as swamped as Ron DeSantis, the first non-Boomer presumably coming up to grab for the brass ring by further promoting national division.  (It's not gonna work. We vote, and nationally, we're better than that.)  (and, No, obama was not genx, but a pampered boomer through and through...)

I'm sure they are up and working on Joe Biden's speech already this morning:  there's no time to waste, and hoo howdy boy!, the job they are tasked with, and presumed being paid handsomely for...

I wish them well, but unfortunately, they've only got so much to work with.  Spinning gold from straw, beating guns into plowshares, changing the way we police our streets, divvy up our spoils, and take care of our mentally ill, unhoused, newcomers and fatherless children... that's what this 2023 speech really needs to be addressing.  Not trying to convince us that our billions are "protecting" people... over there.  Nobody buys that anymore, no matter what the polls pretend...

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* Bakhmut, not to be confused with Bermut (the organized police force formed in Ukraine after the Soviet Union was disbanded):

Initially specialized in fighting organized crime, Berkut transitioned into a gendarmerie used by the Ukrainian Militsiya for public security, operating semi-autonomously at the local or regional level. The term "Berkut" came to be used for any professional special police unit in Ukraine. Prior to the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, the Berkut had a history of illegal activities against Ukrainian citizens, such as racketeering, terrorism, physical violence, torture, anti-Ukrainian sentiment, voter intimidation and other secret police tactics...

...and what was over there, is over here. So you scream from behind your doors, say what's mine is mine and not yours... I may have too much, but I'll take my chances 'cuz God stopped keeping score. and the wounded skies above say it's much much too late, so maybe we should all be Praying for Time. 1990  (RIP George Michael.)