Live Blog: President Obama’s final SOTU 2016

The President’s final State of the Union Address is tonight.   We will also get good look at the scowling face of Speaker Paul Ryan–undoubtedly clutching ball bearings and muttering about strawberries–followed by the rebuttal by South Carolina Republican Governor Nikki Haley.  There will be no more crying orange man on the dais so Haley will get to represent Republican “diversity” tonight.  

In his final State of the Union address, President Obama plans to talk about the need to “fix our politics” in order to ensure that opportunity and security in America are strong.

A White House official says this is slated to be President Obama’s shortest State of the Union speech. His shortest State of the Union address to this point clocked in at 52 minutes in 2009.

Below are excerpts of the speech as released by the White House.

“We live in a time of extraordinary change – change that’s reshaping the way we live, the way we work, our planet and our place in the world. It’s change that promises amazing medical breakthroughs, but also economic disruptions that strain working families. It promises education for girls in the most remote villages, but also connects terrorists plotting an ocean away. It’s change that can broaden opportunity, or widen inequality. And whether we like it or not, the pace of this change will only accelerate.

America has been through big changes before – wars and depression, the influx of immigrants, workers fighting for a fair deal, and movements to expand civil rights. Each time, there have been those who told us to fear the future; who claimed we could slam the brakes on change, promising to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control. And each time, we overcame those fears. We did not, in the words of Lincoln, adhere to the “dogmas of the quiet past.” Instead we thought anew, and acted anew. We made change work for us, always extending America’s promise outward, to the next frontier, to more and more people. And because we did – because we saw opportunity where others saw only peril – we emerged stronger and better than before.”

—

“The future we want – opportunity and security for our families; a rising standard of living and a sustainable, peaceful planet for our kids – all that is within our reach. But it will only happen if we work together. It will only happen if we can have rational, constructive debates.

It will only happen if we fix our politics.

Many are characterizing this speech as “optimistic” and related to the upcoming presidential election.

President Barack Obama is set to strike an optimistic and hopeful tone in his final State of the Union address.

The president will focus on cementing his legacy rather than unveiling new policies, officials have said.

Mr Obama is expected to frame some of the key issues in a way that fellow Democrats can embrace during campaigning for the upcoming election.

However, recent polls suggest that seven in 10 people in the US do not share their leader’s optimism.

A response by the Republican party will be delivered by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.

In excepts from the speech released in advance, Mr Obama urges Americans to make world changes work for them and overcome fears.

He will say the future the US wants is only possible if the country “fixes its politics” and works together.

“A better politics doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything… But democracy does require basic bonds of trust between its citizens,” the speech reads.

Many Democrats will be bringing Muslim Americans to the speech to show that the United States has no second class citizens or religions.

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) is urging lawmakers to bring Muslim Americans as their guests to President Obama’s last State of the Union address. (Photo by Linda Davidson / The Washington Post)
Democratic Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Keith Ellison are urging colleagues to invite Muslim Americans as guests to Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. So far, more than a dozen lawmakers — mostly Democrats — have heeded their call.

It’s not uncommon for lawmakers to choose State of the Union guests that make a political statement. Several Democrats are planning to bring guests who have been victims of gun violence, while two members of a Catholic religious order challenging the 2010 Affordable Care Act will attend after invitations from Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.).

The appeal from Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the chair of the Democratic National Committee, and Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim elected to Congress, comes at a time of rising anti-Muslim rhetoric from politicians like Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and a wave of incidents targeting people of Muslim faith.

“This rhetoric and these actions are simply un-American,” Wasserman Schultz and Ellison wrote in a letter to colleagues last week. “They undermine our values and weaken our ability to be a force for good around the world.”

Ellison is one of two Muslim members of Congress. The Minneapolis Democrat, who converted to Islam at age 19, said it’s important for public officials to extend a hand to the Muslim community, in part to counteract rhetoric from the Islamic State, or ISIS.

“Each of these people are going to go back to their community and talk about the fact that they came here at the invitation of a member of Congress, were treated with honor and respect, and they’ll directly counteract the ISIS message, which is that America hates Muslims,” Ellison said in an interview last week.

Meanwhile, the Republicans will troll the President and the Democrats by bringing religious extremists and screaming WE’RE THE OPPRESSED WHITE MAJORITY!  The nuns challenging the Affordable Healthcare Act on the grounds that every one should be denied birth control because of their strict religious beliefs will be there.  Kentucky is bringing the Dread Clerk Kim Davis who all of us had hoped would be relegated to 2015’s 15 minutes of infamous bigot waste bin in 2016. Republicans continue to confuse denying others civil liberties with being judgmental and uncivil.  What better way to demonstrate it than to let all that freakishness fly?   I guess we get to see dueling definitions of religious liberty.  My guess is there will also be a staged wrestling match of bald men where the winner gets a prized comb on Fox.    Red State Republicans will undoubtedly be all aplomb.

The Kentucky county clerk who went to jail over her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples will attend President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, a group supporting her announced.

“While the President will be extolling his ‘accomplishments’ of the last seven years, Kim Davis and Mat Staver will be a visible reminder of the Administration’s attack on religious liberty and an encouragement for people of faith to stand,” the Liberty Counsel wrote in a press release. Staver is Davis’ attorney and the founder of the group.

“For seven years, people of faith have been in the crosshairs of the Obama Administration. The state of religious liberty is dire, but we cannot give up.”

Yes, yes!  They’re so persecuted that none of us can have a reasonable end of the year without their railroaded version of ancient pagan holidays let alone be allowed to follow our own consciousness and creeds. Nothing like looking out at the smug faces of religious fanatics for a jolt back in time to the Iron Age.

Can we just go back to saying there’s a lot of beliefs out there and people need to STFU and keep it to themselves now?  Guess every one should expect the Republican Inquisition these days!!

So, here’s the group of folks that will be sitting with the First Lady.  It will include a vacant seat.

A VACANT SEAT FOR THE VICTIMS OF GUN VIOLENCE

Last week, the President took a series of commonsense steps to help reduce gun violence in America and make our communities safer.

We leave one seat empty in the First Lady’s State of the Union Guest Box for the victims of gun violence who no longer have a voice – because they need the rest of us to speak for them. To tell their stories. To honor their memory. To support the Americans whose lives have been forever changed by the terrible ripple effect of gun violence – survivors who’ve had to learn to live with a disability, or without the love of their life. To remind every single one of our representatives that it’s their responsibility to do something about this.

I wonder what Clint Eastwood will say to the chair?   Will he be Fox’s guest commentator on the topic?

Anyway, it’s a live blog and a historic night.  It should be interesting.  Let’s have at it!!!