Tearing It Up

I only watched the last five minutes of the State of the Union address. There wasn't much Union in the part I heard, just a recitation of people's names from our history that seemed a bit random, combined with Manifest Destiny and an unquestioning belief in endless growth (kind of like cancer, if you ask me).

This was before I knew that Mafia Mulligan had bestowed a medal on Rush Limbaugh, of all people. I had seen some mention of that earlier via a quick look at Twitter, but I assumed it was a joke. But no, it was one more chance for him to create Reality TV and own the libs.

But I was watching when Nancy Pelosi started to tear up the pages of Mulligan's speech after he finished. I wasn't sure at first that was what she was doing, because the camera cut away from her just as she turned the first pages sideways. When it cut back to her, there she was, methodically starting on another set of pages, then another.

We have come a long way from Rep. Joe Wilson shouting "You lie!" at Barack Obama during one of his addresses, though that probably was a signal of the shift underway among the Right. Last night, multiple Republican members of Congress changed "Four more years" as if they were at a campaign rally.

Tearing up Mulligan's speech — which was full of lies and exaggerated boasting, plus the extreme offense of honoring a sexist bigot with the Presidential Medal of Freedom — seems about the least Pelosi could do after sitting through all of that.


As Iowa journalist put it a few minutes ago, "The fact that ANYONE thinks Pelosi (or anyone) owes this president any sort of deference is deranged."