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You watch. They will only take his congressional seat from his cold, dead hands. He would have to be a drooling vegetable.
Anyway, if Democrats won’t get rid of Feinstein, Republicans sure as hell won’t get rid of McConnell.
It’s going to take these old assholes dropping dead in the Capitol before we start doing anything but bitching about the ages of our congresspeople. And yes, anyone selfish enough run for re-election when they’re over the age of 70 is an asshole in my book
Strom Thurmond was wheeled into the Senate in his hospital bed at 99 years old and died in office in 2003, didn’t change a thing.
That’s still insane and I lived through it. Never got over the shocked pikachu face of that one.
I remember that. Man, that was so weird to watch.
It’s not really about age. There are plenty of older people who are still functioning fine. Hell, Biden is almost as old as Mitch, but he’s physically fit and doesn’t go into fugue states. (And the claims that his stutter and verbal gaffs are evidence of decline are utter bullshit. He’s been that way his entire life.)
Where we’re fucking up is that we don’t have any systems in place to require our elected officials or candidates to be mentally sound. We should require people running for or in elected office to pass cognitive tests the same way we require people on the roads to pass driving tests. Yes, more of the elderly will fail those tests because age is a factor, but the focus should be on “can this person do the job,” not “is this person too old.”
Mitch might be someone who’d be removed from office with a test like that, but it would also potentially catch young guys with catastrophic mental health issues, like Herschel Walker, who got frighteningly close to public office while showing blatant signs of illness.
An independent health exam to determine cognitive fitness every year you serve in public office once you’re over 65 was my thought when I saw this news last night.
It wouldn’t have stopped Walker but it would take care of McConnell and Finnstein. As well as any Supreme Court Justices that go that way.
This would be terribly abused. Imagine who Republicans would shoehorn in there based off their Supreme Court picks…
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You’ll love that the doctor in question, Ronny Jackson, now represents Texas’s 13th district in congress.
He couldn’t get a job doing anything else!
https://nypost.com/2022/11/25/jerome-adams-say-he-couldnt-find-job-after-leaving-trump-white-house/
Precisely because he said Trump was healthy and proved to anyone with a single brain cell that his medical opinion could not be trusted.
Shoehorn into the Supreme Court?
They already factor age into lifetime appointments.l with nominations (look at the median age of Trump’s appointments). I don’t see how requiring public servants be cognitively fit to serve and making them prove it if they’re getting on in years can be abused here.
I think the point is that the doctor making the call could be corrupted, or a corrupt doctor appointed to the position.
That is an issue which is why we’d need an independent agency and transparency.
And yes, that means this would be public medical information. Want the right to medical privacy, resign. It’s a requirement of the position post 65 that you wave that right in this instance.
If you’re gonna do a Cognitive Fitness test it should be for all ages. Would Boebert pass?
She probably is emotionally unstable (along with MTG) but that’s much different than cognitive decline/fitness.
She barely passed the GED on her 3rd try. Decline? She’s never risen above the bottom of the mountain. And she’s never been fit for office.
Think of all the outrage it would cause people getting declared ‘unfit’. People would definitely think there is double play going on…
This has so much potential to be corrupted…
Just like any system in existence.
I’m still not sure that “let’s do nothing and hope for the best” is the best approach in a society where people now live so long that mental decline affects a much larger percentage of the population than it did in 1776.
I think you have a point.
And the claims that his stutter and verbal gaffs are evidence of decline are utter bullshit. He’s been that way his entire life.
I mean, it’s not reason to get rid of him, but he hasn’t had it his whole life.
He had it as a child, but there’s a bunch of footage of him in politics for over 40 years…
The vast majority of that time he didn’t have any stutter or gaffes. I don’t even think it was happening when he was VP.
But as we age we lose that “filter” where we think before we speak. Which often causes the re-emergence of childhood speech impediments along with a lot more serious stuff.
Like I said, it’s not a reason to impeach him, but it’s definitely a reason to ask why we’re expecting him to be president for four more years.
Especially since the main reason he said he ran was the country needed him because only he has the Senate experience to work with Republicans…
And then immediately after assuming office he said he can’t do anything to even get Democratic senators to support the party platform.
So why are we running him again instead of a primary?
The vast majority of that time he didn’t have any stutter or gaffes. I don’t even think it was happening when he was VP.
It was. And the vast majority of the time, it doesn’t happen now. It’s just that when it does, right-wing media seizes on it.
You can find plenty of footage from when he was VP, and when he was in the Senate, where he clearly struggles to say the right words, and sometimes a malapropism slips out. In the past, he’s referred to himself as a “gaffe machine” (that is a direct quote) because of it. So it’s less accurate to say that he overcame his stutter, and more accurate to say that he found workarounds that usually - but not always - work.
It’s only become a big deal now because of his age. Republicans latch onto any slip of the tongue or difficulty speaking as supposed evidence of his decline, but it’s completely disingenuous.
But as we age we lose that “filter” where we think before we speak. Which often causes the re-emergence of childhood speech impediments along with a lot more serious stuff.
Sure, but listen to any of his recent speeches. You’ll find that for the overwhelming majority of the time, he’s perfectly clear-spoken. There will occasionally be hiccups, but find any long speech of his in the last 40 years, and you’ll see the same things.
My point here is that while I’m sure he’s not quite as sharp as he used to be, there’s a material difference between a verbal stumble and what happened to Mitch McConnell. I’m not sure what exactly that was, but McConnell has no medical history of fugue states. That’s new. Biden’s intermittent verbal stumbles aren’t.
Like I said, it’s not a reason to impeach him, but it’s definitely a reason to ask why we’re expecting him to be president for four more years.
I’d much rather have a different candidate, but not because of Biden’s age. I think he’s too willing to go along with Republicans for the sake of “bipartisanship.” Obama had the same problem.
That said, he might actually be the best possible candidate, given the circumstances. He utterly spanked Trump last time around, and keeping the orange shit-gibbon out of office is of paramount importance.
You can find plenty of footage from when he was VP, and when he was in the Senate, where he clearly struggles to say the right words, and sometimes a malapropism slips out
Maybe a handful of examples over 40 years of politics… But no more than any other politician who’s caught off guard.
Here’s two examples of him in high stress public speaking situations where he had zero issues while in his 40s:
Concession speech after his plagiarism torpedoed his campaign:
Heckled by reporters while he insults them:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=D1j0FS0Z6ho
It seems like back then his issues were plagiarism and anger management, I’m not hearing any speech impediments tho…
Because like I said, those are often a childhood thing, then re-appear in your 70s due to completely normal age related mental decline.
This isn’t two people with different opinions, this is you saying science and video evidence is wrong and your opinion is right
It’s not like it always comes up.
Your two examples are a super well prepared and rehearsed speech, and an off the cuff “insult”, which is exactly where it would not happen.
What?
If it doesn’t happen with off the cuff remarks, or we’ll prepared speeches…
Why is it now happening in well prepared speeches and off the cuff remarks?
That just doesn’t make any logical sense unless something changes in the last 35 years like the same normal age related mental decline everyone experiences if they live long enough.
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You might be unaware of them as he wasn’t that important until the mid 1990s
Ouch, way to shit on his 1988 presidential campaign…
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He was a frontrunner leading up to it…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden_1988_presidential_campaign
Originally, Biden was regarded as potentially one of the strongest candidates in the field. In September 1987, however, reports emerged that he had plagiarized a speech by the British Leader of the Opposition and Labour Party Leader, Neil Kinnock. Other allegations of past law school plagiarism and exaggerating his academic record soon followed and Biden withdrew from the race later that month.
Voters just cared more about plagiarism and lying back then. Which is why he couldn’t win a primary until post trump, and that was with around 10 candidates all drop and endorse him in a week.
If trump was never president, Biden wouldn’t be either.
Side note:
No signs of any issues with public speaking back then:
Biden was active on the party speaking circuit from 1985 on, and was considered one of the best orators among the potential presidential candidates for 1988
It might be before you were born, but 1988 isn’t ancient history, we still have plenty of records of what happened back then.
I think it would be completely reasonable to put an upper age limit on elected officials - say you can’t run after 75. You can run right before 75 and serve as an elected official for a few more years, but after that you’re done.
My question is why are Americans electing them? While we have a similar age group structure, if anything our median age is larger, middle age of our parliament is little bit over 47 years.
Ribbit
Both parties should agree they’ll force McConnell to step down if Feinstein is also forced to step down.
Would you give up your queen for a rook?
Depends on the position of the board.
McConnell is still a powerhouse in the senate. Feinstein is basically a babbling sack of flesh that votes as she’s told.
Moscow Mitch is Queen and Feinstein is Rook in above metaphor
Is Santos still there?
He’s the new Strom Thurmond
A lot of these guys want to be zipping around in those beeping, star trek chairs. Just a room full of beeps as they still try and “talk” over each other.
Republicans are more likely to drop McConnell than Dems are to drop Feinstein before 2024. Trump keeps blasting on McConnell and turned the MAGA crowd against him.
Lol I love these articles always “calling for resignation” of Congress people. Mitch will resign when he’s dead and not a moment sooner, this slimy piece of shit has more power than the president and he has the position for life. And he’s evil enough to wield it very effectively. He’ll never give it up.
Pretty much. The Fed is more and more becoming an assisted living center and those being assisted will go out when they’re dead. We need term and age limits, but that will be one issue the aisle is crossed many times to put down.
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In context it’s pretty obvious I’m talking about the federal government in general. Nit picking that is just an excuse to start something.
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Cool, so you’re just looking for an argument. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day for you.
He started it as polite as possible because people are going to potentially misunderstand you because nobody ever has used The Fed to refer to anything other than The Federal Reserve. I’ve had feds, with the s explicitly, refer to the whole federal govt more than I’ve heard The Federal ever refer to anything other than The Federal Reserve.
You went straight into dickhead territory because you can’t handle someone trying to help prevent a misunderstanding that would be your fault.
Removed by mod
deleted by creator
Nitpicking. Colloquial use can change colloquially. Source: have heard lots of assholes call the federal government “the fed”; similar to how the FBI et al are “the feds”.
Let’s be real, it is a valid correction that was prefaced as “Pedantic nitpick”, so it’s odd to see you continue calling it one as it had been established at the onset. Seeing how you take this correction and double down on it shows that it was a good one to make, as it seems that you remain confused as to what “the Fed” refers to for one reason or another.
You are mistaken, and that’s not such a bad thing. I enjoy being (correctly) corrected because I would rather know the moment I utter something incorrect, than go around being incorrect to everyone I know.
Nitpicking as in “pointless”. Making the rest of your pedantry even more pointless. I’m ok with people beginning to call the Federal government “the Fed”, because most of us are intelligent enough to differentiate based on context.
The Fed conjures a particular meaning for people aware of the term. So someone referring to The Fed when they mean congress makes me and others take them less seriously. If I made that error and someone pointed it out I would think a simple ‘crap, thanks’ followed by an edit would be appropriate. Nobody is perfect but we get better when we have the humility to accept corrections and learn from them.
I am aware of the term. It did not conjure that meaning for me when I read the comment. If someone tried to correct me in such a situation, I would think they’re putting on airs, to put it mildly. Humility involves bypassing needless pedantry over more recent colloquial use of already colloquial terms, particularly if there is no confusion caused to anyone with a 5th-grade reading comprehension level or above, conservatively.
Fediverse, I assumed you meant.
Yet his constituents keep voting for him
Kentucky voting numbers are absolutely embarrassing
https://elect.ky.gov/Resources/Pages/Turnout.aspx
14% turned out to vote but that’s not because voters don’t want to vote, the state just makes it impossible for the majority to even cast a vote
and even doesn’t even know what’s happening enough to make a decision whether or not to resign, his staff will keep him propped up for as long as they can wring a little bit of power out of his husk.
just like feinstein’s staff have been doing.
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People are pissed about that, but we know from experience that repugnicans don’t resign over that.
I’ll still never get over Bill Clinton resigning over a blowjob but Trump paid for a hooker and got off scott free
Clinton didn’t resign, but he did get impeached.
So did Trump.
Twice
It’s called hypocrisy.
One side’s calling for it because he’s destroying democracy
The other side is calling for it because he’s not destroying democracy fast enough.
How much Kentucky land has he sold off to to foreign businesses? Guy has been a walking security nightmare.
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They think in his current state he will be less effective in screwing over his republican voters
Dude’s bones are barely propping him up. Why are these geriatrics allows to continue to run our government?
Because people keep voting for them, or they simply run unopposed.
They run unopposed because the people voting for them are literally brainwashed
They live in Kentucky. Saying they have a brain is far fetched.
They have brains, it’s just knowledge doesn’t magically appear in someone’s head…
It’s no coincidence the states lowest in education and republican states are more of a circle than a Venn diagram
Ribbit
While I understand the urge to come to this conclusion, it’s a simpler hypothesis that they just like the policies these people have pushed for, so much so that they disregard all the negatives that seem to be connected to Republican control (lower life expectancy, ineffective government programs[^1], lower standard of living, etc. You might call it “brainwashing” but that term in this context is too vague; they could claim we are also brainwashed with the same amount of accuracy.
Also, while it isn’t your point, this would be a reason they keep getting voted in-- not a reason they run unopposed.
[1] This may be seen as a good thing, for some of them.
If you are in the 99% and voting for republicans then you are voting outside of your best interests due to brainwashing. They may like it but it’s due to brainwashing. Fox News and propaganda is remarkably powerful.
I don’t buy this. I am a cis, white, middle-class male. Should I vote only for my best interests, or should I take a wider view, and vote even if it will personally disadvantage me?
Voting against one’s own best interests is not brainwashing, necessarily.
And this is still within my first point. They are definitely voting against their best interests, but it could just be that they find this an acceptable trade off to getting something else they want-- like more codified religion in the law, or bringing back the good ol’ days (/s) of overt racism.
The point is that “they’re brainwashed” is a cop out. And, not for nothing, a corollary to them being brainwashed is that they are not responsible for their actions, isn’t it?
The current trends are a result of most voting in the interest of their own pocket book.
It is a great leash tool when combined with mortgages, tuitions, and general inflation.
It’s not policies, it’s a “he’s one of us” and they are “not one of us” mentality.
Because a lot of our government runs off seniority, so people that have been around for decades are disproportionately powerful.
And the party leaders for both sides won’t support age/term limits, because they’d be the first ones affected.
The ones next in line don’t want to change the system, because it’s almost “their turn”.
So only the most junior politicians have a reason to support it, and they know if they do, it’s a death sentence to their political careers because senior leaders will take it personally
Dont forget the bonus money that comes from holding key committee assignments.
Agreed.
The power of being an incumbent and having all that money from special interest groups paying you to influence your policies is hard to run against.
Democrat or Republican, why would they walk away from that cash cow? They’re all out for themselves and not for who they represent.
They forgot to feed him enough poor people this week.
He’s eaten enough poor people, they forgot to give him his daily head of lettuce.
Emergency treatment was nutra-blend of low-income household babies.
Thoughts and prayers
;)
My thoughts are a dead Mitch and my prayers are invocations that he dies.
Because I am not crude I am not going to present my altered version of I am dreaming of a White Christmas with Mitch getting microstrokes.
Inshallah 🍆💦🙏☪️
Cool. Now do President Joe Biden and Donald Trump… and about 50% of the other politicians.
Please can we make Feinstein a named offender in this?
I really think every level of politician should have age and term limits. Get more people in there, maybe there will even be one with some grasp on reality.
Should at a minimum be the retirement age that the country is set at. If that’s 65, then that’s the number.
The problem with setting thier limit to retirement age is they’ll raise the retirement age just so they can stay longer.
there is an age limit for the president, but the wrong one. The limit is that they can’t be younger than 35. We need one for when they go senile too
That limit should be the same as for anyone else - retirement age, 65 and ciao. This holding on to the power with limp hands while half dead is just stupid AF.
I agree with the sentiment, but wouldn’t old fucks clinging to power just have further incentive to raise retirement age then? They’re fine with having us perform backbreaking labor into our 70s and 80s if that’s the only consequence to getting to keep their jobs and power.
It’s almost like our elected officials should not be allowed to go past retirement age.
Both him and Biden shouldn’t be in political office, in fact there should be a cutoff and that should be you can’t run after you’re 70. Democrat or Republican people that should be at home retired tending to their garden or fishing shouldn’t be running the country.
It’s scientifically proven your cognitive ability is significantly declining by that age, and not to mention they are almost always out of touch with the modern world we live in.
It’s illegal to discriminate based on older age. This sounds like whataboutism. Always expect someone to bring it back to attack Biden.
If congress can enforce a mandatory retirement age for airline pilots, they can have a mandatory retirement age for anything.
Unfortunately, the people making the rules dont want to put themselves out of a job…
Is it discrimination to say “this person no longer has the cognitive capacity to do this job” ?
Not to mention that people who won’t be around to see the consequences of new laws shouldn’t be making them.
I’d like to see representation in government that fits the demographics that are being represented, more or less. There’s no room for change in government though, too few seats and too much money involved. “We’ve always done it this way” is in charge.
I agree, there are plenty of other people from this generation capable of running government. It’s time for these people who have been in power for over 30 years to retire.
After 20-30 years they don’t add anything as a politician imo. There should be a max of 3 term limits in most political offices on the state and federal level.
Can you link me to this scientific proof that cognitive abilities are significantly in decline by age 70 please?
You really need me to give you a link to prove that we decline as we age? Really?
That’s also something you could easily google yourself but I have no problem providing some info to you:
More specifically, read the part about “Executive Function”. But the whole thing is worth a read for a good overview.
There is significant variability in age-related cognitive changes from individual to individual.
Second time I’ve seen you post this study with little reflection outside your narrative. Cognitive decline, one must assume.
Well yeah case to case with anything specific is going to be unique, but that is the overall general trend.
This also isn’t one study, it’s a synopsis of lots of data and studies.
Just like you might have the rare 80year old run a 5k, that doesn’t disprove that overall our bodies aren’t physically declining significantly overall by then.
I mean, it’s not straight science, but have you met people over 70? They are not in their prime when it comes to work performance.
Depends on the person. Some people are on an obvious decline in their 50s. Others are still quick as a whip in their 70s.
Most of them don’t have the kind of medical care you get when you’re a Senator/President.
Ok, fair. But Reagan’s cognitive ability didn’t really benefit much from all that care, did it?
Not only do we decline mentally and physically (naturally) there’s also the increased risk of dementia.
Resign? Nah, the show is just about to get interesting!
That look on his face is exactly what would happen at the start of Quantum Leap. Grab some popcorn and see what historic wrong Dr. Samuel Beckett rights in this episode!
Pretty sure I heard him say “Oh boy” as he was being led away
Solid headcanon here. Appreciate you sorting all of this out while sitting in that weird time-travel lobby.
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Next one in the feed is a favorite https://youtu.be/tH8v0ZuaA3s
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Except Kissinger left politics decades ago. There’s a HUGE list of senators and house reps who are ancient and utterly out of touch but keep getting reelected because they live in one-party states. The real problem is places where a single party keeps winning, if every district were a battleground you’d see candidates working hard to justify their existence.
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Holy crap, he’s like a million. Ah fudge still probably younger than Feinstein. At least Kissinger isn’t voting on laws directly impacting you and me?
At least here, in Illinois, we periodically arrest our politicians, to keep things fresh
I love to play a game with myself when I read about a (us) politician getting a corruption charge: “Is it from Chicago or Not Chicago?”
Usually it’s Chicago.
I like to think it’s possible to have a world where politicians don’t need arresting. I think there was a small slice of time where this was the case in human history, before the village leader decided nobody could own a club or spear or sharp thingy with a size over 75% the size of his.
Oh that’s interesting I thought it might be becausre he’s a psychopathic liar that people are calling for his resignation
They haven’t cared about that for decades. Why would they start now?
It’s a feature, not a bug.
Wish the old coot would drop dead.
Know why all these old pieces of shit never suddenly die in office?
These fuckers have FREE access to great healthcare.
Countless amount of Repugnants can’t even grasp how they’re fucked over every paycheck by paying into their company health coverage, while these puke balls in DC, get a free ride.
I dunno. I think he finally just realized what he did to the American people. Makes me speechless sometimes too.
Dudes eyes started looking in two directions from the video I saw. Micro stroke.
My nan gets them. At least that’s what we think they are. There’s evidence of previous mini strokes.
Mid conversation she’ll just stop and her gaze will drift upwards and fix on a point for a few minutes. Then she pretty much carries on where she left off.
I just keep thinking of Priscilla from Rango.
