By Casey Harper | The Center Square
President Joe Biden delivered the State of the Union address for the first time in his presidency Tuesday night, tackling a range of issues from the invasion of Ukraine and the status of the economy to funding police and securing the border.
“Last year, COVID-19 kept us apart,” Biden said to kick off the address. “This year, we’re finally together again.”
Biden quickly turned to Russia, rebuking Russian President Vladimir Putin for the invasion of Ukraine.
President Joe Biden
“Tonight, I’m announcing that we will join our allies in closing off American airspace to all Russian flights, further isolating Russia and adding an additional squeeze on their economy,” Biden said.
The ambassador from Ukraine attended the address and received a standing ovation. Biden also praised the resolve of the Ukrainian people.
“From President Zelenskyy to every Ukrainian, their fearlessness, their courage, their determination, literally inspires the world,” Biden said.
“Putin may circle Kyiv with tanks, but he will never gain the hearts and souls of the Ukrainian people,” he said. “He will never extinguish their love of freedom. He will never weaken the resolve of the free world.”
Biden took a shot at the tax cuts passed during the Trump administration, which was met by boos from some Republicans and cheers from Democrats.
“Unlike the $2 trillion tax cut passed in the previous administration that benefits the top 1% … the American Rescue Plan helped working people and left no one behind,” Biden said.
Biden called for background checks and a ban on firearms with high capacity magazines and went out of his way to emphasize the need for funding police as he hit a litany of issues.
“Fund them,” Biden said. “Fund them. Fund them with resources and training. …They need to protect our communities.”
Biden touted his Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, calling her “one of our nation’s top legal minds who will continue in Justice Breyer’s legacy of excellence.”
Biden called for securing the border and fixing the immigration system and pointed to new border technology, joint patrols and dedicated immigration judges. He also called for providing a pathway to citizenship for “Dreamers.”
Biden touted job creation last year, a result of the rebound from lifting COVID-19-era lockdowns. He also touted his proposal of a global minimum tax rate for corporations.
“What are we waiting for?” he asked. “Let’s get this done.”
Biden called for lowering energy costs, child care costs and drug prices, saying Medicare should be able to negotiate the price of prescription drugs, emphasizing the cost of insulin.
“They already set the price for VA drugs,” he argued.
Critics pointed out the Biden administration overturned a Trump-era rule that would have lowered the price of insulin.
“Donald Trump cut the price of insulin and Joe Biden ended it,” said Brigitte Gabriel, founder of Act For America.
Biden announced there would be a chief prosecutor for pandemic fraud, which has been rampant since Congress passed pandemic relief funding.
Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds gave the Republican response to Biden’s speech. She compared America today with the America of the late 1970s and early 1980s with soaring inflation, violent crime and a dangerous Soviet Union.
“We shouldn’t ignore what happened in the run up to Putin’s invasion: waiving sanctions on Russian pipelines while eliminating oil production here at home, focusing on political correctness rather than military readiness, reacting to world events instead of driving them,” Reynolds said. “Weakness on the world stage has a cost, and the president’s approach to foreign policy has consistently been too little too late.
“It’s time for America to once again project confidence,” she said. “It’s time to lead.”
Reynolds turned to domestic issues such as inflation and gas prices, saying, “We can’t project strength abroad if we are weak at home.”
“The president and Democrats in congress have spent the last year either ignoring the issues facing Americans or making them worse,” she said. “They were warned that spending trillions would lead to soaring inflation. They were told that their anti-energy policies would send gas prices to new heights, but they plowed ahead anyway.”
Other Republicans released statements in response to the president’s speech and pointed at the economic issues since Biden took office.
“Under President Trump, our economy was booming,” U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said. “We need to replicate that success. Americans are anxious for those days to return. To build optimism and prosperity again, we must ease regulatory burdens, strengthen critical American supply chains, unleash American energy and stop the Left’s extreme spending and socialist agenda.”
Other Republicans pointed to the chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan and Biden’s handling of Putin and Ukraine.
“Are you better off than you were a year ago?” House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said. “For most people, the answer is, ‘no.’ ”
Biden ended his more-than-an-hour-long speech by painting an optimistic picture for the nation.
“The state of the Union is strong because you, the American people, are strong,” Biden said.
Here’s an illuminating video by someone in Kiev: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vdiEABLFoo
So we’re told that the 40-mile Russian convoy is stalled when they come upon resistance, and that the convoy doesn’t have enough food and fuel.
Let’s think about that. In preparing for the invasion, there were no generals or majors or lieutenants who thought to include fuel and food trucks in the convoys? So they set up convoys with no food trucks and no fuel trucks and they said, here you go, boys, good luck?? That’s what they did? And now they can’t move forward because the Russian military is so weak that they fall back when encountering resistance, or they haven’t enough food and fuel to move forward? It was all “poorly planned”?
We all know that the real “State Of The Union” is dire and the America that we know and love is circling the drain. It seems that the speech writer who penned the transponder material for the event may have forgotten that it’s focus is on America’s health’s a nation and not Russia or Ukraine.
…America’s health as a nation…
Sorry for the typo
Bidens current CIA director is opposed to Ukraine policy:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/02/28/former-russian-ambassador-and-current-cia-director-bill-burns-knew-exactly-what-would-trigger-vladimir-putin-to-enter-ukraine/#more-228789
Tucker:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/03/01/col-douglas-macgregor-talks-common-sense-with-tucker-carlson-about-the-russia-ukraine-conflict-video/
Must Read:
https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-03-02-the-economic-suicide-of-the-west-is-now-under-way.html#
UKRAINE ON FIRE produced by Oliver Stone, and THE PUTIN INTERVIEWS, by Stone as well, and both released within the last six years, are must watches for anyone caring to know the real timeline of events that have led to the present in Ukraine.
Don’t be a useful idiot for the globalists by failing to do your due diligence.
You CAN still cognite, right?
Here: https://www.bitchute.com/video/FznOodbmLbQZ/
Greg Reese gives it to you in 5 short minutes – the full UKRAINE ON FIRE documentary is here:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/4MBCXIPFrnjX/
Could have been done today.
kindly cease insulting TNR readers Allison – we’re not as dumb as you think and in case ya haven’t noticed most have great opinions no thanks to you
and no disagreeing does not make me a Chinese Communist Party member lol
A totally uninspiring word salad speech that failed to address America’s current problems which are
caused by the current misadministration. Even his friendly coverup media had to call him out of
touch with reality. More spending programs that end up as payola for the corrupt politicos will only
increase inflation not decrease it. His claim of restrictions on Russian oil are Bull crap as there is no
where to make up the difference after he killed our energy independence. We are buying 10million
a day in Russian oil now in essence funding Putin’s war shall we cut off heating oil to the north or gas
to the power generation plants in the south… Oh and his best line was plagiarized from a STOU
speech by President Trump.. All previous speeches have been a chance to show tell your
accomplishments to the citizens but when you don’t have any you punt, in his case into the outfield.
In his speech, Biden was promising a flood of goodies that were exactly what Dem/Progs wanted to hear, but that will not have a snowball’s change in Hades to pass after November 2022.
He did not mention how it would be paid for, and who would do the paying.
He mentioned BBB
“BUILD BACK BETTER” WOULD COST $4.490 TRILLION OVER THE NEXT DECADE, IF PROVISIONS WERE MADE TO LAST 10 YEARS
He mentioned wind and solar and energy
BIDEN 30,000 MW OFFSHORE WIND SYSTEMS BY 2030; AN EXPENSIVE FANTASY
He mentioned sanctions on Russian gas, but it would require up to ten years to replace 200 billion cubic meter per year going to Europe and Turkey
Here is a New Way to Make Solar and Wind More Attractive
Just create a massive shortage of oil, gas and coal, such as by means of a war, and their spot prices will go up, and wind and solar, supported by expensive batteries, etc., will FINALLY become attractive, even without HUGE subsidies.
Germany is using the Ukraine war as an excuse to keep nuclear plants in service for at least 10 years, because it will take that long to partially replace Russian pipeline gas with LNG
The LNG will sell at astronomical spot prices of $40 to $50/million Btu, vs US Spot prices at $5/million Btu.
Natural Gas Price in Europe Smashes All-time High
https://www.rt.com/business/551028-european-gas-price-soars/
European natural gas futures spiked above $2,200 per 1,000 cubic meters on Wednesday for the first time in market history. The escalating crisis between Russia and Ukraine has raised fears of supply shortages.
Because 1000 m3 contains 1000 x 35.315 ft3/m3 x 1000 Btu/ft3 = 35,315,000 Btu, the futures price becomes $2,200/35.315 million Btu = $62.30/million Btu, versus the US spot price at $4.5/million Btu
The April gas futures at the TTF hub in the Netherlands soared from around $1,500 to $2,226 per 1,000 cubic meters, or $213 per megawatt-hour (i.e., $213/3,412,000 Btu) in household terms, by 09:30 GMT, hitting an all-time high, data from the London ICE exchange shows.
The spike in prices follows sanctions placed on Russia by a number of Western states due to Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine.
A huge increase in applications (i.e., demand for gas futures) is raising the price by the minute, Kaushal Ramesh, senior analyst at Rystad Energy, told Vesti.
He said it had also been affected by fears of supply outages due to: 1) possible damage to infrastructure in Ukraine, through which the majority of Russian gas is delivered to Europe, and 2) the possibility of supply restrictions on Russian oil and gas.
It looks like anything made in Europe will become very expensive, far more expensive than if that same product were made in the US.
The US/UK-led NATO, baiting Putin to start a war in Ukraine, is one way for the US to become more competitive in international markets, at the expense of Russia, and the EU, and everyone else.
The gas shortage condition would be in place for up to 10 years, because it would take that long to build up additional:
– Gas production capacity, elsewhere in the world, to replace Russia’s 200 bcm/y of pipeline gas.
– LNG production plants and sending ports
– LNG carriers; average capacity 170,000 cubic meter of LNG
– LNG receiving ports and gasification plants
– Connections to existing onshore pipe systems, all while:
1) EU inflation would be off-the-charts
2) EU exports would dwindle.
NOTE: The above production and infrastructure build-ups would be in addition to what is required for the projected world-market growth of LNG
“The US/UK-led NATO, baiting Putin to start a war in Ukraine, is one way for the US to become more competitive in international markets, at the expense of Russia, and the EU, and everyone else.”
Cynical but probably true. Ukraine is just collateral damage on the global stage orchestrated by warmongers.
If we accept the fact that any justification for war– NATO in Ukraine– could have been easily removed without anyone getting a black eye (there was a longstanding understanding that the NATO wouldn’t expand eastward beyond Germany, violated several times,) then the question becomes: why wasn’t it?
So glad you can see the forest *and* the trees Mr Freitag 😉 just look @ how much you’ve learned by just breathing the fresh clean conservative TNR air las opposed to odious Democrat echochamber stench… aintcha glad the Communists shut down We The People’s voices even if ya hafta create sockpuppet account to hide in and converse with self as all you receive from community is rightly deserved crticism lol 😉
Russia will systematically take control of one city after another, and destroy infrastructures until nothing functions in Ukraine.
Some cities will surrender without a fight, because they do not want the cities ruined
There will be a special treat, such as a 24/7 mortgage barrage, for the Nazi-loving extremists, on the separation line, who have been committing genocide of the Dombas people for 8 years
great comment Willem…among those crimes against humanity outlawing Russian language and now holding Indian students hostage by refusing to let them leave until India’s president supports Ukraine
NATO, a US/UK Handmaiden to Pressure, Contain, Diminish Russia
The US/UK combo has used NATO to advance US/UK policy goals to pressure, contain, diminish, demonize first the USSR, then Russia, which is unlike the USSR, but has been demonized just the same.
The US/UK policies do not serve the policy interests of the EU, which aim to gain power/influence by means of profitable international trade, instead of military muscle-flexing.
As a result, only a few NATO members fulfil their pledge to spend at least 2% of GDP on their military defense.
The US/UK has almost no trade relations with Russia
France, Germany, Italy, etc., have major trade relations with Russia that are very profitable
Sanctions on Russia, eagerly imposed by the US/UK, and reluctantly imposed by the EU, have had little adverse impact on the US/UK, but major adverse impacts on the EU.
Russia’s response to sanctions has been countersanctions, and adaptations to minimize adverse effects of sanctions, including closer military and commercial alliances with China and India.
The adaptations have improved the diversity, independence and efficiency of the Russian economy.
NATO’s military infrastructure expansions into east Europe and the Caucasus since 1998 may have increased European security, but certainly diminished Russian security, in violation of the principle of indivisibility of security, per the Helsinki Agreements and the Russia-NATO Founding Act
NATO has a convenient policy, which states each sovereign country has a right to make its own security arrangements.
Russia is surrounded by sovereign countries, such as Belarus, Kazakhstan, etc.
Does that mean all these countries are fair game for NATO-color-revolution-style regime change, so NATO can move its infrastructures even closer to Russian borders?