I don’t give a sh*t about the state of the union address

Sources

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“Food Inflation in the United States (1968-2026).” June 30, 2018. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/food-inflation-in-the-united-states/.

“Home Values Have Grown Twice as Fast as Normal Since the Start of the Pandemic.” Zillow, February 27, 2025. https://www.zillow.com/research/pandemic-home-values-rents-34896/.

Kopf, Dan. “The Typical US Congress Member Is 12 Times Richer than the Typical American Household.” Quartz, July 20, 2022. https://qz.com/1190595/the-typical-us-congress-member-is-12-times-richer-than-the-typical-american-household.

Lam-Balfour. “Current U.S. Inflation Rate Is 2.4%: Chart and Why It Matters.” NerdWallet, February 13, 2026. https://www.nerdwallet.com/investing/learn/inflation.

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Transcript

Hi it’s Wednesday, February 25th, 2026, you’re tuned in to Why, America? I’m your lawyer friend, Leeja Miller. Last night, the President of the United States gave his annual state of the union address to Congress and the world. And I have been dreading trying to create this episode because holy shit you guys I just don’t give a fuck about the state of the union address. And I don’t think I’m alone in this. The difference is that I also work and exist in the media environment, where you have to have something new and insightful to say about every major headline, and if you don’t talk about the trending topic of the day then no one will watch your content and you’ll miss out on riding that trend wave. So I decided today’s topic WILL be about the state of the union address but I’m not interested in sitting here going point by point and debunking everything Trump said–we already know he’s a liar, we already know not to trust his talking points, I’m preaching to the choir here. And there’s already 50,000 articles that have been written in the last 24 hours titled “5 key takeaways from the state of the union” and I’m not really interested in trying to add my own “key takeaways” to a long, rambling, lie-ridden snoozefest of a speech. A speech that historically never makes any difference in actual outcomes of policies or elections or the way we live our lives day to day. And no, I did not watch the address live, I have ADHD I need to watch the replay at 2 times speed so I can actually comprehend what’s happening. Instead last night I went and saw The Secret Agent, a beautiful film set in 1970s Brazil depicting life under a brutal dictatorship. So, close. But far more enjoyable than the shit show that unfolded at the capital last night.

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I find that Politifact from the Poynter institute is really helpful for deciphering just the sheer number of lies that come out of Trump’s mouth. Here’s their state of the union headline:, “‘State of the Union fact-check: Trump exaggerates on economy, immigration.” Using the Ground News browser extension, I can get helpful background information on this publication in one quick glance. To get the big picture, I can click on Full Coverage, which will show me coverage of the same story from publications across the political spectrum.

My partner on today’s video, Ground News, is an app and website that offers tools to help you critically analyze the news you read, providing context to understand the full picture. You can follow along at ground dot news slash Leeja. For every major news headline, and headlines you may have missed, Ground News provides you with information and context, like who owns the publication and how factual it is, to help you determine for yourself what is trustworthy and how to interpret the news. I feel empowered by Ground News by getting well-rounded insight into each headline, instead of relying on a single outlet that might have underlying biases and motivations that I’m not aware of. Ground News also ensures that I never miss a headline because of my own information bubble with its blindspot feature, by highlighting stories that are covered on one side of the political spectrum and not the other. Ground News is transparent about its methodology, how it assesses each story and publication, including how it uses 3 independent monitoring organizations to assess the bias rating for each publication. I genuinely think the world would be a better place if everyone had this much context about the news they read.

Because depending on where you or your family members get the news, you’re going to get very different takes on the same story. And listen I’m not the only one who loves Ground News, the Nobel Peace Center even called it "an excellent way to stay informed, avoid echo chambers, and expand your worldview.”

I’m always really impressed with Ground News and genuinely think they’re a great resource. If you want to stay informed on US Politics and more Subscribe through this QR code or my link below at ground dot news slash leeja for 40% off this unlimited access Vantage Plan. It comes out to $5 a month for unlimited access to ALL the features I’ve mentioned. Thanks Ground News!

So instead of going over point by point the regime’s official propaganda about the current state of the union, why don’t we ACTUALLY discuss the state of the actual union. Because what struck me most about last night’s charade was how completely detached from reality it is compared to the day to day lived realities of the people who have to exist in this union. A reporter from The Bulwark did an ask me anything reddit thread on the politics subreddit that I found insightful. In his answers he gave a lot of insight into what happens on the ground and behind the scenes at the State of the Union. According to the reporter, the seating is not assigned and so some lawmakers, you know the people we send to Washington to represent us and do the day to day work of writing laws for us, some of them will camp out for hours and hours before the state of the union so they can claim an aisle seat. They’re called aisle hogs. They do this because they want to be able to get photographed shaking the president’s hand, or looking on sternly and angrily if they’re from the other party. And you can watch this in practice as you see people falling over themselves to get photos and selfies and shake his hand as he makes his way to the podium to begin the speech. And I’m no psychologist or sociologist or whatever expert would be needed to decipher which basic human instincts are kicking in when people act this way, because it’s really weird to watch from afar, and it really puts on stark display how completely detached from reality Washington DC is from all the rest of us. It might as well be a completely separate country. Like it makes me want to burn it all down to the fucking ground. Metaphorically, for legal reasons I’m not being literal or making a threat I’m just SAYING it’s fucking infuriating watching these lackeys fall all over themselves to applaud and stroke the ego of this president, just to shake his hand, to get a quick selfie with him. It’s clout chasing in its absolute worst most vile form because it’s being done on the backs of our literal democracy. Like we’re out here trading our time and energy and labor and literal lives for meager wages to try to survive so we can remain housed and pay rent to landlords because most of us will never own homes and we’re like please sir can I have some healthcare. And they’re like hey Mr. President can I get a selfie. Its wining and dining with lobbyists and lavish dark money funded vacations and rubbing elbows with as many powerful people as possible to hopefully step on some people to get up higher on the rungs of the ladder. It’s millionaires trying to win the favor of billionaires, trying to enrich themselves through some gentle insider trading, trying to enrich themselves through writing their little books and going on their little speaking tours and making millions while they’re supposed to be serving The People. It’s fucking sickening. And so just focusing on what Trump was saying during that speech, or focusing on any individual policy, which I do most days, feels like not enough when discussing the state of the union address. What was most striking about the speech wasn’t the content of it but really the scene in which it unfolded, the milieu, if you will, the context. Because the context is completely detached from the actual reality of what the current state of the union is on the ground.

Here’s the current state of the union, based on available data. 24% of the labor force in the United States is functionally unemployed. These are people who don’t have a full time job but want one, people who are unemployed, and people who are employed but not earning a living wage, which the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity defines as $26,000 per year per individual before taxes, which is modest and not a livable wage in most places in the country, frankly. That rate is even more stark when you control for things like race, gender, and education level, with nearly 50% of people without a high school education functionally unemployed, 30% of women functionally unemployed, and 28% of hispanic people functionally unemployed. This is, in my opinion, a much more important metric than the officially reported unemployment rate, because that number, which just measures who has a job, period, does not paint the full picture of the economic plight in this country. While our members of Congress on capitol hill are all mostly fucking millionaires, while they’re getting multiple six figure book deals and going on speaking tours where they get lavish treatment, the people are out here barely fucking scraping by.

Inflation is at 2.4%, but back in 2022 during COVID, inflation peaked around 10%. When that inflation slows down that doesn’t mean prices DROP, it just means prices go up more slowly. So we are still paying those 10% increased prices, on top of the additional yearly inflation. So the actual rate of inflation means less than the cumulative effect of inflation over the last few years. While our lawmakers hob nob with billionaires whose fortunes absolutely fucking SKYROCKETED during COVID, we’re out here trying to figure out how to make those meager wages cover all our groceries. More and more people are going into consumer debt just to cover the basics. Since 2020, inflation-adjusted wage growth has been pretty much zero. But that also doesn’t paint the whole picture. Prior to the pandemic, according to the Brookings Institute quote “After adjusting for inflation, wages are only 10 percent higher in 2017 than they were in 1973, with annual real wage growth just below 0.2 percent.1 The U.S. economy has experienced long-term real wage stagnation and a persistent lack of economic progress for many workers.” We were sold the promise that in America you can build yourself up, you can be more prosperous than the last generation, you just have to work hard enough. But many many Americans are experiencing the opposite–less economic stability than their parents, more uncertainty, more debt. While our wages have stagnated, home prices have increased by 45% since the pandemic, according to Zillow, and, since 2006, the cost of going to college at an in-state, public university has gone up 107%, or 29% when adjusting for inflation. Reminder that wages have only increased by 10%, when adjusting for inflation, SINCE 1973!!! In that same time, out of pocket costs for healthcare have more than doubled, when adjusted for inflation. In the 1970s, about 25% of renter households were what’s considered “cost burdened” meaning they spend over 30% of their income on rent. Today fully 50% of renters are cost burdened and spending more than 30% of their income on rent, with over 25% of renters spending over 50% of their income on rent.

And I’m spending so much time on the economy because honestly I don’t usually talk about it very much but it is actually the way that the majority of people in the US determine how they feel about the current state of the union. Of course there are polls showing Trump is really unpopular, the anti-immigration tactics the regime is using are going too far, the aggression he’s showing towards foreign countries, both allies and non-allies alike is also incredibly unpopular, I have been living on the ground in Minneapolis and for the last two months the immigration crackdown has been absolutely front and center for us, but when most people are asked to think about their opinion on whether or not the state of the union is improving or declining, they’re thinking about themselves first and foremost, and for most people their quality of life is determined by their access to money and how far that money will take them. And I think that’s deeply underestimated in a lot of circles, and I’m guilty of this, where politics wonks are busy dissecting the gritty details of laws and presidential proclamations and the day to day functioning of government, most people in the US think about politics for like five minutes per week, but they likely think about their finances every single day, whether it’s to feel anxiety about what is or isn’t in their savings account, to check if they have enough for rent, to see what the price of gas is today, to ensure they’re buying the most affordable option for chicken breast, to figure out the best healthcare insurance plan, to check whether their medications are covered and how much it’ll cost them out of pocket, these are the day to day decisions that average Americans are making and that means that every single day we are all being incredibly impacted by the economy, moreso than Trump’s decisions about what to do in Iran or the racist shit he posts on his social media accounts.

Meanwhile, the median net worth of our members of congress is over one million dollars, which is nearly TWELVE TIMES HIGHER than the typical US household. Congress has 330 millionaires. Out of 535 total. That naturally creates an atmosphere that is detached from the lived realities of the people they are meant to be serving. These people don’t care about the price of gasoline, not in their day to day lives at least, maybe politically they do because they want your vote and they know you give a shit, but they’re getting driven around in black cars they’re not filling up their tanks. They would not notice if a loaf of bread cost 5 dollars or 15 dollars. When you have that level of economic stability, the change in the cost of day to day necessities does not matter. There’s only so much one human can eat over the course of a month. Even if you’re spending $1000 on groceries every month, if that goes up 10% and now you’re spending $1100 on groceries every month, but you’re a millionaire, you do not notice that extra $100 the way someone with a much smaller income, who pays a larger percentage of their income for groceries every month, feels that increase at the grocery store. Because it accumulates. It’s at the grocery store and at the gas pump and at the doctors office and paying rent, meanwhile we’re watching the richest people in America bend the knee to a billionaire president, and we’re all fucking furious about it. And it can feel like we have absolutely zero power over any of it. And the reality is that we don’t, really. And I think that’s why I’m so fucking uninterested in the state of the union address or giving you my five big takes from Trump’s big speech, because it doesn’t fucking matter until we get money out of our politics and start actually enforcing anti-trust laws. I also don’t care about the speeches given in rebuttal by Democrats or whatever, because it’s all a big show to them. They care about getting an aisle seat to shake the president’s hand, they care about getting that tweet or that sound bite that really cuts Trump down, if I have to read another fucking “Gavin Newsom Zinger” I swear to fucking god. The Supreme Court Justices made Trump into a fucking tyrant king and then show up and sit in the front row and stay stone faced the whole time because no no they could never join in with the cheers of the Republicans or the taunting of the Democrats, they have to maintain their appearance of impartiality, meanwhile they’re making the most disgraceful fucking rulings of our generation and have absolutely undermined any credibility they had as a fair and impartial body.

And if you think about it all of that, too, comes down to money. All we all think about is fucking money, but for 99% of us it’s like wow will I ever buy a house, how much will gas be when I stop to fill up my tank, wow a pound of chicken costs how fucking much? But for them it’s I need to get re-elected so I can write my book so I can keep going on my speaking tours so I can keep rubbing elbows with my rich friends so I can get the clout I need to feel worthy as a human so I can make enough money for my re-election campaign so I can keep getting insider information I can trade on, and on and on and on it’s about greed and money and power for them and for us it’s about just fucking surviving. We’re not even asking to be thriving IN THIS ECONOMY? In These Trying Times? Thriving isn’t even on the table for us like it was for our parents and grandparents. We’re just begging for fucking table scraps at this point, and they don’t give two shits about us. That is the true state of this union, no matter what Trump decides to ramble about or the Democrats decide to try to rebut with tidy little sound bites.

And what we do about it is the same thing I’ve been screaming about for months I don’t know probably years frankly at this point, and that is to fucking divest from it all. Don’t hero worship politicians, don’t hero worship billionaires and rich people they don’t give two fucks about whether you live or die. Don’t pay their subscription fees, don’t buy from the rich peoples’ stores, don’t give them your data by using their apps. Honestly for me anger is a real fucking motivator, if I can do something out of spite I know I will absolutely follow through so GET MAD, stop giving them anything, and meet your neighbors and your local leaders instead. Get out of your fucking house, set down the fucking phone, and go live your life as fully as you can in the real world in ways that don’t require having a lot of cash, get active, get involved in community groups, go to dinner at your friends houses, bring back analog everything, put on an old record and sip some tea and have a heart to heart with your pals or your neighbors, create, be creative, make music make pottery, have a picnic, run through a field I don’t know, if you’re watching this you’re a living breathing human being, or maybe a dog I don’t know what you guys show to your pets, but most of you are probably humans, which means you are alive which means you can go live your life however you choose, and I hope you choose to get angry and to divest from these fucking creeps. I don’t mean boycott I mean DIVEST. Permanent. Sustained. Deprioritizing of these creeps from your one wild and precious life. Go out there and live. Fuck the state of the union address.

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And if you liked this episode, you’ll like my episode from monday about what happens next with tariffs.