The spectacle of the State of the Union address epitomizes the ludicrous way we cover politics. We obsessively observe a president’s behaviors, policies, speeches, lies, and tweets for two years, after which we pretend that his reading of a few (or in this case, many) lines off a teleprompter somehow holds a deep, sweeping meaning. Skip the punditry and the breathless morning-after analysis. The one person who had the appropriate response to the SOTU was Joshua Trump, a kid invited by the first family after they learned he had been bullied for his last name. He came, he saw, he fell fast asleep (or as his namesakes call it, executive time).

+ WaPo: In dissonant State of the Union speech, Trump seeks unity while depicting ruin. Plus, 5 takeways from the speech, and some fact-checking.

+ Of course, the biggest falsehoods were reserved for immigrants, the border, and the wall debate. Texas Monthly: These El Pasoans Are Rejecting Trump’s False Claims About the City’s Border Fence and Crime Rate.

+ “Trump has contributed to these obstacles with racist, sexist, anti-transgender, anti-science rhetoric. Until now, his words have worked at almost every turn to fuel HIV’s spread.” James Hamblin: Stopping HIV Would Require an Entirely Different Trump.

+ For the president, the biggest number of the night was likely the ratings, and they were good. For the Dems, it was all about the visuals, including the Congresswomen dressed in white, and of course, the Pelosi clap heard (and memed) ’round the world.