I’m going to claim special understanding of Joe since: we are both from Scranton; Irish American; I’ve followed his story for a long time; and, of course, Free Country!
When he was first elected, I got warm and gifted him with a book of poems by Robert Graves, an Irish revivalist. I knew of JB’s struggle with stammering and his practice, long ago, of reading Yeats and Heaney in the mirror, much reminding me of Demosthenes, who would stuff his mouth with pebbles and shout over the sea to strengthen his voice. And I wrote Joe a letter:
“Of all the Irish poets I’ve heard you mention, I’ve never heard you mention Graves, the last Georgian. He wrote ‘Goodbye to All That’ and ‘I, Claudius’, a great novel about the stammering emperor of Rome, who succeeded and kept alive by pretending to be daft and slow and cultivating his stammer. His adversaries underestimated him and kept him around for laughs, but Claudius had the last laugh!
“I know how you work, Mr. President. You, like Claudius, thrive on being underestimated. You are going to have the last laugh, and I, sir, am laughing with you!”
Joe’s gaffes, I feel, are not all accidental. That big open Irish smile, awww, he looks like warm funny Gramps, well, he seems so easygoing. You’ve been had, my friends! Joe’s gaffes and warm demeanor are playbook camouflage. This is a man with a brain and a plan. His superpower is Teflon and being underestimated, and he pulls it off too well. Even his constituents get fooled.
Remember when Trump said to the Proud Dicks, “Proud boys, stand by and stand back!” Who threw him the suggestion “Proud Boys”. Go to the tape: Joe threw that bait and dumbass swallowed the hook. Now that group is being convicted of sedition.
How about that State of the Union, huh? I haven’t seen anyone work a hostile crowd with that kind of success since Bill Burr (these Irish, I’m telling you). Thanks for walking into the trap, assholes.
When the civil war broke out, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus while congress was out of session, and he had no way of doing that constitutionally. Do you really think that Joe B is going to put his hands in his pockets, let the country default and crash the WORLD into a great depression? Well, do you? He’s saying what he has to say, and some GOP are walking into a trap. I am looking forward to Kevin McCarthy suing to put the country into default. Yeah, you go ahead Kevin, I’ll hold your beer. Justice Roberts, you want me to hold your beer while you enforce your order? Hey Kavanaugh—oh nevermind, Brett. Yeah, help John Roberts enforce that order, yeah, good boy! When the bell rings, go to history fellas. See you there.