We’ve all noted the ongoing GOP and Co. drumbeat on Joe Biden’s alleged mental decline/incapacity. C.f. the loathsome Nancy Mace declaring that in the debt limit farrago “Republicans got outsmarted by a President who can’t find his pants.”
This is an obvious dog whistle, (“Be very afraid of the president-in-waiting”) and, as with every GOP/fascist accusation, it is also a confession.
Exhibit A:
I mean: that’s exactly what an organized mind, capable of sequential reasoning and clearly connected to empirically verifiable representations of reality, would say, amirite? (That was from Trump’s response to DeSantis’s Twitter campaign launch fiasco.)
Trump is increasingly reminding me of late first-term, early second-term Reagan. That’s when the cognitive decline was present, but mask-able in most settings, including any in which he was working from a prepared script.
Obviously, I have no more information on Trump’s neurological status than anyone else outside the omertà circle surrounding TFG. But the point isn’t whether Trump is in fact tumbling into dementia, but that he’s already amply demonstrated to those outside the cult that he’s got serious problems distinguishing what he wants to be true from what is, in fact true–and more on point, that he’s not in any meaningful sense a less risky cognitive bet as a potential octagenerian president than Dark Brandon is.
He’s an old guy with crappy diet and exercise habits who possesses none of the habits that support intellectual flexibility as one ages.
But we know this. The question, as always, is how the mainstream media will handle the question of age and mental function.
The answer, as always, is “Badly.”
Open, this is, a thread.
PS: Why yes. I did turn in my MS to my editors.* Why do you ask?…Which is another way of saying that I hope to be a little more present around the joint than I have been. No promises–I may go full time into my beachcomber avocation. But at least there’s a bit more mental space w/in my skull. Nice to see you all…
*Many more stages to come, as the herd of authors here will attest. But a milestone nonetheless.
Image: Anon, print, undated.
Ramalama
What is the manuscript? Con fckin grats.
!
mellowjohn
Red Button??? I thought Stormy called it a mushroom.
Ramalama
@mellowjohn:
Omg, omg thank you.
NotMax
This, part of a comencement speech given by Tom Hanks, flew under my radar at the time.
Omnes Omnibus
Welcome back and congrats on finishing the MS.
smith
Glad you brought up Reagan’s obvious cognitive decline. His incapacity was clear to anyone who was watching, but I don’t recall any drumbeat from the media like what they’re trying to do to Biden now.
It’s also worth pointing out, again and again, that there is only 4 years’ difference in age between Biden and TFG, and when you get to be 70+ the exact number of years is largely irrelevant compared to the state of your health. Easy to see which of them is spry and which can barely waddle.
Omnes Omnibus
@mellowjohn: Has no one heard of button mushrooms?
Alison Rose
@smith: Yeah, it drives me crazy that they attack Biden for his age, as though their guy is some Spring chicken. I mean, if DeSantis were the fave and the frontrunner (LOLOL) then at least there would be some shred of sense, even if it would still be ageist nonsense. Four years apart at that age doesn’t mean much, they’re roughly the same height (I refuse to believe Trump is 6’3″) and Trump clearly weighs a good deal more than Biden. Add in his frat boy diet and like…who is really the risk here.
MattF
It must be stressful for the Trump minions. They must believe he’s the very model of a political genius and The Chosen One— it’s a condition for employment— while observing him rant about his resentments on social media. Pretty typical ‘bad boss’ behavior, except for the political stakes.
Ruckus
Tom, you don’t think that anyone anywhere near close to SFB is going to in any way suggest that he might be approaching a complete and utter lack of any mental capacity whatsoever, do you? I mean they seem to lie like they have no idea what the word lie means. Plus, if they are that close to SFB it should be obvious that they themselves lack all mental capacity whatsoever.
dm
So where does the “can’t find his pants” story come from? Usually these things tie back to some story going around the wingnutosphere.
Trump had a serious case of COVID, and one of the side-effects of that disease can be serious cognitive impairment. He was always a little odd, but it struck me that the double-whammy of COVID and being rejected by the American people seemed to tip him over the edge.
Amir Khalid
I thought this post was going to be about Baud.
Roger Moore
@smith:
In fairness, a lot of that was that the media back then was generally more reticent to talk about that kind of thing. They should have been willing to do it, but that wasn’t the way they rolled. I think it’s generally good that the media is more willing to talk about this kind of thing, but it’s bad that they’re partisan about it.
That said, Reagan’s mental incapacity was something people were willing to joke about, even if it wasn’t talked about in the media. Sometimes the joke was how out of it he was, and sometimes he was shown as genuinely capable and using apparent incapacity as a shield, but people noticed. It just goes to show that some topics can only be approached in comedy.
Ramalama
@Amir Khalid:
Ha ha, you people. Can you tell that I’m pompette?
BlueGuitarist
Congratulations on the milestone!
Jay
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: 💕
BlueGuitarist
@dm:
story source is mentioned above the picture, but easily missed, SC-01 rep
smith
@Alison Rose: Given the obvious nonsense reflected by being worried about Biden’s health and not TFG’s, it’s hard not to conclude that the real problem, as Tom suggests, is the president-in-waiting. I think that even though the Nikki Haleys on the right will eagerly nominate themselves for VP, TFG’s ultimate choice will have the requisite pale skin and required personal plumbing. That’s what makes him safe from a right wing point of view, regardless of his chances of kicking the bucket.
Juju
@mellowjohn: thank you for ruining mushrooms for me.
Alison Rose
@BlueGuitarist: I took their comment to mean did Mace’s comment come from somewhere else. Like, is there some right wing rumor that Biden needs help getting dressed or something.
WaterGirl
@Juju: Not to mention buttons!
Mushroom was ruined for me during the Stormy Daniels reporting. Either she described it that way, or someone else did.
But buttons? Dammit, buttons are supposed to be safe.
Captain C
Isn’t future President Baud the one who can’t find his pants, and isn’t this an intentional thing, rather than an actual inability?
Alison Rose
@smith: But what’s confusing about that to me is like…they’re all acting like Biden has one foot in the grave and they’re trying to shove him the rest of the way in. But then they’d get President Harris! Just weird.
BlueGuitarist
@Alison Rose:
ah, thanks. Everything is always more complicated than i expect
pat
Rob?? Rob who?
Just got here from watching Biden’s speech. Senile? Ha, I think not…
Amir Khalid
@dm:
So where does the “can’t find his pants” story come from?
It could have come from Mace herself, as a wild, made-up “example” of Biden’s supposedly diminished mental capacity. Whereas, as we’ve all just seen, Biden can not only find his pants, he can find Kevin McCarthy’s pants too, and even pick Kevin’s pockets clean before Kevin knows what’s happening.
JPL
@dm: Right wing comment. The new comment has to do with why did it take him so long to negotiate. He’s suppose to excel at this but he waited until we were on the brink.
Roger Moore
@Alison Rose:
I think you’re missing the point. The goal is to use the threat of President Harris to scare bigots who might otherwise see Biden as a safe choice. So yeah, Biden is a nice White guy, but if he kicks the bucket (and you have to worry about his health) then you’ll get the scary Brown woman. Doesn’t that make you want to vote for Trump, who will surely pick a nice safe White guy like himself as VP?
Omnes Omnibus
@JPL: That’s how fucking negotiations work FFS! GAHHH!!!
BlueGuitarist
Biden speech, starts at 16:17
https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/
dmsilev
Ok, let’s take that as a starting assumption. What does that say about the negotiation and strategizing skills of Republicans?
Jay
@Omnes Omnibus:
they arn’t the sharpest crayons in the box,
p.s. I think they eat the crayons, and the glue,…….
Cameron
Sorry, I’m not buying “Dark Brandon has his shit together.” Not once – not once – have I heard him say, “Person – woman – man – camera – TV.” Gotta be a stable genius for that. Haw, haw, haw – pwned again, libtards!
dmsilev
@Omnes Omnibus:
Traditionally, don’t those start with deciding on where to go for dinner and what movie to see?
Omnes Omnibus
@dmsilev: No, that’s planning a date night. The two are easily confused.
Matt McIrvin
@Roger Moore: In 2020 there was an idea going around that Harris was Biden’s puppeteer, the real power behind him.
smith
@dmsilev: And if you’re going out with a Republican, you’re expected to settle on anthrax and tire rims. That must have been Biden’s mistake.
Ruckus
@smith:
ShitForBrains will be 77 in 12 days. He’s never had the mental capability of Joe Biden. Even of the capability that Joe Biden has at 80 yrs old, he’s never been that mentally capable. His father was a wonderful role model – if you had the mental capacity of a potted plant – which is the level SFB has had his entire life.
MattF
@Roger Moore: Except that Biden is not really such a safe choice for ‘conservatives’— considering how he just skinned and filleted McCarthy. This is not to suggest that Harris is a safe choice either.
Alison Rose
@Roger Moore: Well, no, I did not miss that point, because it is quite obvious. My point was that they all act as though he’s gonna keel over at any second and they seem ghoulishly enthused by that, and yet don’t seem to think about what would occur next.
Jay
@Alison Rose:
Uncle Joe is both feeble, and Dark Brandon in their minds, at the same time,
Most normal minds would explode in that sort of situation.
smith
@Jay: Just like Obama was both an evil genius and a slow-learning beneficiary of affirmative action.
JPL
@Omnes Omnibus: They can’t even move the goal posts properly.
MazeDancer
Mr.Biden’s Oval Office address was so uplifting. Really, knowing he is the White House makes me feel safer.
Not safe, of course, because the world is crazy. But at least I know there is a smart grown-up who will handle what happens.
japa21
@Jay: They do that whomever the Dem President is. Obama was the dumb N….. who totally coordinated a major whatever via time travel. Same story with Clinton .
Amir Khalid
@Jay:
For many in the GOP, that’s just a basic piece of Orwellian doublethink.
Jay
@JPL:
that’s because they are installed in concrete footings on the field,//
JPL
@MazeDancer: During the trump years, it was not unusual for me to wake and read a mystery or horror book to lull be back into sleep. A few days ago, I couldn;t sleep so started reading Michelle Obama’s book.
different times.
Ruckus
@Jay:
Has anyone ever truthfully said that conservatives are smart or logical or even smarter than my dog? (BTW my dog has been playing in, well I’m sure not doggy heaven, he was a bit of an asshole (an understatement if there ever was one – he was loyal as hell though) where ever it is dogs end up)
JPL
@Jay: So they can’t even pretend to move the goal posts. ha
Another Scott
@dm: Maybe from something like this:
Danny – the Tourette’s guy:
Dunno.
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@JPL: Sure, they can. They can pretend to do anything.
MattF
@Ruckus: There’s no such thing as a smart fascist.
RaflW
I still don’t understand that Trump ‘blurt’. Is it about his mushroom? If so, what would Dictator Kim know about it?
If it’s about the nuclear football, neither TFG nor Rhonda have it. And again, what on earth would Kim know about the USAs nuclear launch ‘button’?
Trying to grock F(ailed)POTUS is an exercise in futility anyway.
Stuart Frasier
There’s the story that when Fred Trump got dementia, they let him go to an office every day where they pretended he was still working. Maybe we should build a replica Oval Office and let Donald live there and send out pronouncements via Truth Social.
RaflW
@smith: We just hosted my out-laws friends, ranging in age from 70 to 93. The 93 year old was delightful, but not really still of Presidential timber.
Among the rest, several were very on-the-ball. I am also related to a 49 year old who I like but wouldn’t let within 100 feet of important executive decision needs.
Tom Levenson
@Ramalama: it’s the next book, So Very Small, which I swear I started working on before the pandemic, on the history behind and implications of germ theory.
It will come out in 2025, and there will be plenty of stuff here about it before then.
Juju
My mother has dementia. I am her caretaker. As far as my experience goes, Biden is in great shape mentally and physically for a man his age and even younger. I would be thrilled if my mother was half as cognitively capable as Biden. The moment I really took notice of Trump’s mental decline was when he was holding one of his “ Dear Leader” cabinet meetings and Rudy Guilliani was sitting right across from him and he didn’t recognize him and stated that Guillani wasn’t there that day. My mother has done that very thing with her grand children and daughters in law. Trump has always been a bit of an inarticulate moron, but not recognizing a dear friend is a real bad sign. I don’t get the pants comment. Biden is always impeccably dressed and never been seen in public without some sort of pants. At least there are no pictures of Biden playing tennis while his shorts are giving him a major wedgie. That was an asinine comment by Mace.
Since this is open thread, what the hell is wrong with those people who said it took three men to help Biden get up after his tumble? What I saw was three men who were doing what a normal person would do and help a person get up after a fall. What should they have done? Point and laugh?
Jackie
@Stuart Frasier: Doesn’t TFG have an Oval Office replica at Bedminster?
smith
@RaflW: I’m sure my perceptions are colored by the fact that both my parents were mentally quite sharp well into their 80s.
Stuart Frasier
@Jackie: Snopes says false. That would make it easier, though.
Juju
@WaterGirl: I think the description was a comparison to a Pickachou character that looked like a mushroom. I’m not at all familiar with the Pickchou stuff except as a good aunt I would order and send card packs to my nephews who collected those cards. I never really looked at the stuff. Their mother just told me where and what to order. I have never heard the mushroom thing before because I hit the mute button a lot during the Trump years. Oops. Sorry I used the B word.
zhena gogolia
@Amir Khalid: ME TOO
bbleh
@dm: @Amir Khalid: @Another Scott: I think it’s just a random cruel make-fun-of-old-people remark. Can’t find his pants, can’t find his teeth, forgets to put his pants on, yada yada yada.
Mace knows better, but she’s decided there’s more mileage in channeling her Inner Mean Girl, and this is what she’s come up with. And the Cult will yuk-yuk-yuk along, because that’s what a good cultist does.
Jeffro
@Alison Rose:
They’re trying to terrify their voters into the thought of having a President Harris (and an unelected* one at that!)
*as in, “no one elected her president!” Well yes, sir, let me explain to you how the Constitution and presidential succession works…
But that’s what this is about. BIDEN OLD => BLACK WOMAN WILL BE PRESIDENT ANY DAY NOW, ESPECIALLY IF YOU GIVE BIDEN ANOTHER FOUR YEARS
ETA: or what Roger Moore and others already said
zhena gogolia
@Stuart Frasier: He already uses some kind of fake presidential seal when he gives an “address.”
Jeffro
@Jay: I think the RWNJs eat the crayons and sniff the glue…
beckya57
@Roger Moore:
This is it, exactly. If TFG is the GOP nominee their best chance is to convince voters in swing states that Harris is his true opponent. We already know from 2016 that this could very well work. The Dems better have a good counter-strategy.
zhena gogolia
@Tom Levenson: Oh, I saw the title and thought that was about the mushroom . . . .
RaflW
@Stuart Frasier: They should let him use the 7/8th scale replica at the Johnson library. Make mister “truck go vroom!” FPOTUS feel like an even bigger giant among men.
Jackie
@Stuart Frasier: I don’t know whether to be disappointed or relieved LOL
NotMax
Oh my. Something not good going on backwise after lifting and shifting several not massively heavy (but not light either), cumbersome and awkward to grab boxes and small furnishings as part of a project have been slowly tackling for the past several days, some of which involved moving things back and forth the 60 feet or so outdoors to the garage of the main house on the property (which also necessitates navigating a total of nine stairs, five from the porch to the ground, another four from the lawn to the driveway). Pulled something in the lower left quadrant.
On the up side, the project is completed as of today. Was contemplating getting mowing done this weekend but putting that on the back burner for the nonce.
Jeffro
@beckya57: true, and they’ll try, but despite all their nonsense about Biden being too old, too out of it, etc, Biden’s still out there and still delivering. I think most folks are taking note of that.
More importantly, despite any reservations some may have about Biden, a nice-sized majority of voters know that between trumpov and Biden it’s no contest. (and that’s GOP hack extraordinaire Marc Thiessen saying that!)
If the GOP nominated a non-trump-worshipping, semi-sane candidate…AND if the GOP base could rally around that candidate without trump stirring the pot/threatening to go independent/actually GOING independent…then maybe they’d have a prayer.
But as it is? Whether it’s trump or trump-lite, Biden wins.
RaflW
@Jeffro: Paste is for eating, glue is for huffing. Though sniffing is an acceptable alternate term when abusing glue.
#moaryouknow
Jeffro
@Jeffro: even more recent:
Jeffro
@RaflW: huffing, sniffing, to-may-to, to-mah-to
Nancy Reagan and Len Bias (RIP) kept me off anything harder than light beer through my formative years, so there you go…
RaflW
@Jeffro: To that last quote from Scott, yeah. Except I’d be living practically anywhere that would take me within the shortest reasonable timespan after Nov. 2024, should that come to pass.
Not gonna wait to “see how it goes” if the country is insane enough to return to that corrupt chaos creep. The test drive was already terrifying.
UncleEbeneezer
@Ruckus: You mean aside from every Republican? Haven’t you heard? They are all the foremost experts on Economics, Climate, Crime Stats, Vaccines and now Gender. People like my Dad who is an old-school, Buckley-worshiping conservative who thinks Buckley, George Will and Jonathan Turley are the real intellectual giants of our world, and thinks that because he is fairly good at math and Engineering (HARD SCIENCE!!) he’s smarter than those of us who actually follow scientific consensus and defer to epidemiologists etc.
Ruckus
@MattF:
So you are saying that he is far stupider than my dog.
Well that is true, if they were at all smart they wouldn’t be a fascist asshole. As they have the brain of a flaming bag of dog shit, their sole premise is to stink everything up with that smell of burning dog shit.
M31
ugh, watching PBS news hour and all they talk about wrt the debt ceiling bill is horserace bullshit with a nice helping of how it really strengthened McCarthy
fuck you you fucking fuckers
yeah yeah I know, my fault for watching it
frosty
@NotMax:
Here’s the book raven recommended:
Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery by Cathryn Jakobson Ramin.
An investigative reporter suffering from back pain all her life, she goes through what you shouldn’t do, then wraps it up with what works. TL;DR various forms of exercise and posture improvement. It’s helped me.
Ruckus
@UncleEbeneezer:
They are all the foremost experts on Economics, Climate, Crime Stats, Vaccines and now Gender.
That’s true, just ask them……
Of course there is that trust issue whenever rethuglicans actually speak. I mean the odds here are far, far, far better than any odds in Las Wages that whatever comes out will be shit. No matter which end it comes from.
TS
@Amir Khalid:
There was an Australian PM who “lost his pants” back in the 80s – although I don’t know how many RWers in congress would know the story
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3003441/The-night-Malcolm-Fraser-lost-trousers-seedy-Memphis-hotel-popular-prostitutes-drug-dealers.html
TriassicSands
If Trump has dementia, his ignorance and stupidity hide it pretty well. Or another way of saying that is when someone is as ignorant and stupid as Trump is, it is difficult to tell whether the combination of stupidity and ignorance or dementia is responsible for his always coming across as a complete idiot.
Q: If Trump is suffering from dementia, should we feel sorry for him or simply hate him for the miserable POS he’s always been?
I’m going with the latter.
TriassicSands
Let me guess. He called Donald Trump for advice.
Ruckus
@frosty:
I have a herniated disc and have to sleep on a very firm surface. So I made my own bed. Welded it together from 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 x 1/8 angle iron and surface on top of that is 3/4 plywood. My mattress is a 1 inch layer of firm foam, topped by a 1 inch layer of memory foam. I sleep very well on it. Have been for 11 yrs and my back is fine. I do have to replace the foam every so often, say every 2-4 yrs.
Jeffro
OT: I don’t know if it’s new or not but I just saw an ad w/ Casey DeSantis (in a fake Air Force flight jumpsuit?) trying to make a campaign pitch for “RD 24″…no Ron to be found.
I don’t think they’re sending their best to take down their worst, is what I’m saying…
Jeffro
@Jeffro: And I see that Brian Kemp is slamming trumpov for congratulating Kim Jong Un
Whoa nellie!
Far be it from me to throw the GOP a lifeline (instead of an anvil) here but Kemp would make really good candidate/palate-cleanser for the party.
Oh well. Maybe 2028, or never!
Ruckus
@TriassicSands:
I’m going with the latter.
Me too.
It’s easier and faster and he’s worked hard to maintain his stupidity, and the assholiness that is so well earned so why deny him that? BTW that is the only thing he’s earned in his entire life. Assholiness. Earned fair and square.
WaterGirl
@Juju: That’s okay! :-)
WaterGirl
@Jeffro: Yeah, but you spelled it out quite clearly.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: rut roh. Take it easy.
Bill Arnold
@RaflW:
The first is (it is said) about the red Truth Social button for posting a “Truth”/.
People do not know (from a brief search) how Kim Jong Un is involved; it seems to suggest private communications with Kim Jong-Un. Which would be a potential Logan Act violation, potentially even treason; the Korean War is technically ongoing, and Kim Jong-Uh has been rattling his nuclear sabre a lot.
TriassicSands
@Ruckus
Agreed. Address him as Mr. Ptresident? Not when Your Assholiness is available.
Miss Bianca
@smith: Rikyrah nailed it, I think, by posting this tweet re VP Harris’s reception among a HS audience – who will be of voting age in 2028:
The non-stop GOP sniping about Biden’s age masks their fear – abject terror, really – of a Black
PlanetWoman President.ETA: And I see you already arrived at that conclusion on your lonesome, right on!
UncleEbeneezer
The Love Boat in 1982 (tis Tok link) treating Transgender People with more empathy and grace than the GOP and TERFs will anytime soon.
JaySinWA
I thought buttons play a significant role in “bodice rippers”? Doesn’t sound all that safe to me.
Manyakitty
@Amir Khalid: #reasonable
Manyakitty
@Jeffro: I remember that awful Len Bias thing. Tragic.
Jackie
Holy Toledo! TFG goes after “WOKE!” This must be the one and only time I agree with him!🤢
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-woke-desantis-like-rcna87352
JaySinWA
@TS: I wondered what the inspiration for the song “Walking in Memphis” was. Now I know.
JaySinWA
@Jeffro: RD 24 sounds like a competitor to WD-40.
dm
@BlueGuitarist: Thanks, but I meant where did Mace get the idea for that particular alleged Biden disability?
Though why I would want to plumb the depths of right-wing fever-dreams, I’m not sure.
That comment sure came around to bite her, given how Biden pantsed the Republican House.
dm
@RaflW:
There was an early Trump tweet at Kim Jong-Un (probably after a North Korean missile test) about how his “Red Button” was bigger.
As someone up thread mentioned, in this context, it probably is referring to Truth Social, but then Trump free-associated from “Red Button” to his early tweet at Kim Jong-Un
cain
@UncleEbeneezer:
That’s just amazing – I used to watch that show as a kid all the time. I don’t remember that episode.
But damn, that was pretty good. Well played.
RaflW
@UncleEbeneezer: +1 what cain said. I watched a lot of Love Boat in my slightly pathetic high school years. Don’t remember that story line, but there were a lot of episodes and multiple threads per show.
Seems odd in 2023 to cast a cis woman in the role, but for 1982, seems very well done. Capt. Steubing seemed forced in his disdain, that part didn’t ring very authentic, he was typically very nice (and to my proto-gay eyes, also kinda gay himself).
kindness
Trump’s people are remoras. They know he’s unfit but they hang around for the scraps they figure a crazy man will shred and leave all around him. Power and money. That is why Trump has anyone hanging around him at all.
Dopey-o
Can’t find his pants? Enjoy Luckovich’s take on the debt ceiling deal.
Ruckus
@TriassicSands:
Everyone has had 4 yrs experience with Shit For Brains. That’s what I call him. I like your’s as well – Your Assholiness. Either seems appropriate.
yellowdog
@Alison Rose: What happens next is Harris is impeached and McCarthy is President.
In their dreams!
yellowdog
@frosty: I always recommend acupuncture for pain. Worked for my carpal tunnel and my SO ‘s shoulder problem.