Sen. John Fetterman, weeks into his return to the Senate after an extended hospital stay to treat depression, carried out a small act of rebellion that showed a glimmer of the fiery populist who won over Pennsylvania voters last year.https://t.co/OHjkKU7O33
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 26, 2023
Something cheerful, since the Washington Post paywall is down this week:
… Since returning to the Senate in mid-April, Fetterman, 53, has kept a relatively low profile — or as low as possible for a 6-foot-8, bald, goateed man who often eschews the professional attire of Capitol Hill in favor of sweatshirts and shorts. The debt ceiling vote was, in a way, the first defining act of his Senate career…
Fetterman didn’t have that fight in him when he first came to Washington as the winner of the most consequential Senate race in the country. He flipped a seat that had been held by a Republican, allowing Democrats to narrowly hold their majority. In those first weeks in D.C., he could barely get out of bed or muster the energy to eat, his brain consumed by depression’s dark thoughts. Finally, at the urging of friends and colleagues who recognized that he was in crisis, Fetterman sought inpatient treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center — a decision he credits with saving his life.
“I’m looking forward to living my life, and I didn’t want to live my life,” Fetterman said in an interview. “More than anything, I’m just grateful to be here, to be here, because I could have ended it. I came back and can be a functional and principled kind of representative that the people of Pennsylvania voted on and believed in me.”…
Fetterman, who suffered a near-fatal stroke more than a year ago, relies on real-time talk-to-text technology to communicate. During the interview, Fetterman read the reporter’s questions as they appeared in typed form on an e-tablet on his desk and then answered them verbally. After the stroke, doctors diagnosed him with an auditory processing disorder, which makes it difficult for him to differentiate and understand sounds. Another lingering effect of his stroke is that his speech is often halting, and he struggles at times to find the right words.
As a candidate and now as a senator, he has endured intense scrutiny from critics who point to his often-muddled speech as evidence that he’s not well enough to do his job. An official Republican National Committee account recently tweeted a video of Fetterman at a Senate hearing struggling to articulate his thoughts about the Interstate 95 overpass collapse in Philadelphia and another of him jumbling the name of a colleague.
Fetterman’s doctors have said that his lingering auditory and verbal symptoms are not an indication of a larger cognition problem. Weeks before the 2022 election, Fetterman released a letter from his primary care doctor saying that he was ready for “full duty.”…
Full disclosure: *I* have a (mild) auditory processing disorder, especially when I’m tired and/or in a crowded environment. Back when I was in my twenties, at sf convention room parties, if I couldn’t understand what someone had just said to me, I’d ‘type it out’ in my head, ‘read’ the gibberish-to-me, and usually be able to figure out what had been said. But the blank-eyed pause while I did this convinced more than one person I was either a moron, or drunk.
Fetterman said he never considered self-harm because of his three young children but said, “If I was to say I was diagnosed with three months to live, I’d be like, ‘Oh, okay, whatever.’” His children couldn’t understand why he wasn’t celebrating his victory. He said they wondered why they weren’t enough.
“And that just cuts me, still, just thinking about it. And I am so, so proud that my kids got through this,” he said, his voice breaking. “They couldn’t understand, and I still don’t understand it myself. Why aren’t you happy? You won, and they had to watch me spiral down, down, staying in bed and not being engaged in, and just not eating or not doing much.”
Fetterman pulled out his cellphone and swiped to a text conversation he’d been having with his 11-year-old daughter, Grace, that week while he was in Washington and she was back in Pennsylvania. “I love Gracie Pie,” he wrote in one message. “Love you dad,” she responded. She later texted that she’d heard the Beastie Boys playing and it had made her think of him. He replied, “I can’t wait to see you this afternoon!!!”
During the interview his phone chimed. “Look at that!” he said, his voice suddenly jubilant. Grace had texted back, “CAN’T WAIT!!”
More Charges Coming?
Maxim
Excellent news!
I also have auditory processing problems, which I assume is one of the accessories that comes with my full-service autism. I love music, but can’t play an instrument with other people, and sometimes have had trouble when trying to sing in a group. And if I’m in a setting where there’s much in the way of ambient noise, my comprehension of what other people are saying gets very bad.
JPL
Thanks Anne!! 😇
Parfigliano
RNC dinging Fetterman on mental capacity while backing Trump….hilarious.
Frist?
Raoul Paste
Courage and character
That’s exactly what we need these days
Jay
@Parfigliano:
turd,…… : )
I am still struggling with depression, so great on him.
Baud
👍
WaterGirl
I have been seeing First / First a lot, when did that start again? (sigh)
Leto
After President Biden wrapped up his speech to the unions here in Philly, Avalune and I went outside where we easily spotted our 6’-8” Senator out front of the convention center, greeting everyone and taking selfies. Avalune grabbed a selfie with him, while I shook his ginormous bear paw and thanked him for his work and service so far. And yes he was in his trademark hoodie and shorts, and yes it was like 90F.
WaterGirl
@Leto: That’s awesome!
Sparkedcat
@WaterGirl: Frist!
Jay
@WaterGirl:
hey, we have “turd” now,…….: )
BeautifulPlumage
I’m sorry he has to go through this. The upside is that he’s hard to ignore, so his example can help normalize using assistive technology and not assuming that speech problems indicate low cognitive function.
BeautifulPlumage
@Leto: very awesome
ColoradoGuy
A mensch.
First a stroke, then a really difficult political campaign with the trademark GOP personal smears (hello Nixon!), a spiral into clinical depression, and finally seeking treatment, just in time. What courage!
Echoes of FDR’s overcoming polio and Joe’s workarounds for stuttering. All personally difficult and a testament of their character.
Scout211
@WaterGirl: WaterGirl, are you okay? This looks ominous:
A massive storm is plowing through the Midwest, clearing out smoke with hurricane-force wind gusts
WaterGirl
@Scout211: Yes, I am well, thanks for checking in.
I did write this at 2:53 blog time in another thread:
And this was our air quality for the past 24 hours, from 4pm Wed to 4 pm Thurs.
So things are looking up.
Scout211
@WaterGirl: Yikes! I’m glad you and the menagerie are okay. But wow, what a scary storm. 😳
geg6
I love my junior senator! And my senior senator! And my governor! And the PA House! Still don’t love the PA Senate though.
Scout211
@WaterGirl:
check out the video.
JML
Glad to see Sen. Fetterman is doing well and taking care of himself. Can’t say I’m shocked at all that the GOP would go after him for a medical condition: they’ve always been the schoolyard bullies who pick on anyone who is a little different. (and act aggrieved when anyone calls them on their crappy behavior with their favorite excuse “it was just a joke, GEEZ”)
They do amazing work to help people come back from strokes now, but some things take longer, or are forever different. And depression isn’t unusual either. Thankfully we’re getting better as a society about treating things like depression like the medical conditions they are, rather than as a personal failing. Still a long way to go, and the constant douchery from the GOP doesn’t help, but Sen. Fetterman is an inspiration and will save lives just by being an unashamed example.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
Speaking of Cauvin, he gives the pithiest analysis of today’s SCOTUS decision:
youtube.com/watch?v=jKK8DOvq7kg
Will
Fetterman is one of the best human beings I’ve ever met in person. He has always been willing to meet people and try and speak to them in a honest way. Will never forget him showing up at a 4/20 party. The faces on all these people that a politician showed at this event and showed he cared. When people outside PA ask me how he was able to win after the stroke and how bad it looked in the debate, I always told them it was the people that were at that park, and the many other similar type events he showed up at across PA over the years. The people knew him, and they weren’t going to let the stroke make them change their mind. People of PA had grace, he is a man we wanted to lead and we were more than willing to elect him and give him the time to recover.
WaterGirl
@Scout211: 10 years ago (May 31, 2013) a storm like this crashed my 7 foot diameter silver maple on my house.
This was better than that. :-) But reminiscent.
Dan B
@WaterGirl: To answer your question in the previous post ADF is the Alliance Defending Freedom. They make up suits like 303 Creative and their lawsuits are often filled with fake facts. They’re rabidly anti-LGBTQ+.
WaterGirl
@Scout211: Wow! Thanks for sharing that video!
Yes, my power flickered multiple times during the storm.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: I can’t do it! I got 3 seconds in. He is so close to Trump, I just can’t bear it.
WaterGirl
@Dan B: Thank you. And ugh. Why don’t attorneys and courts immediately check facts when they bring suit? How the hell did this get all the way to the SC?
jackmac
I’d love to see the 6-foot, 8-inch Sen. John Fetterman come up to one of those GQP bullies and ask if they’d care to repeat what they’re saying to his face.
The outcome? MAYBE some stumbling half-apology and more likely loads of poop in their pants.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: It’s one of his most profound.
satby
A derecho seven years ago last week is what dropped the old growth sugar maple onto my house in MI, making it so unsafe that the insurance adjuster refused to go inside to assess the damage. Though I and the critters had to continue living there until I found my current house and bought it. It got safer once they took the tree off it at least, but that took a week.
Dan B
@WaterGirl: The evil 6 have been looking for a suit to end LGBTQ civil rights. I wonder why this Stewart guy didn’t sue the ADF for say8ng he was gay and publishing his email and phone number.
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
It is one of his best. “It’s Mister N—!”
JPL
@WaterGirl: If they agree, they will no longer be able to hide their biases.
Martin
My auditory processing has declined a fair bit. I used to have zero problem sitting in a room with a TV going, someone in the background talking on the phone to somebody and two people trying to have a conversation with me.
Now, thats basically impossible. I can’t isolate the people talking to me and get intensely frustrated. If I can limit how much signal processing I need to do, it’s fine. I don’t think it’s a hearing issue, which is can be for some people, just a cognitive dip. Getting older. I can work around it provided the people around me show at least a touch of consideration.
Pennsylvanian
@WaterGirl: Because that is what the Federalist Society paid for. And boy are they getting their money’s worth.
Dan B
@Pennsylvanian: I wonder how the 303 Creative case will impact states like Washington that have anti discrimination laws. Will this only have teeth in red states?
Scout211
@Martin:
Martin, you just described in detail a hearing issue. Have you had your hearing checked lately?
topclimber
@Pennsylvanian: IANAL but as officers of the court aren’t the plaintiff attorneys responsible for vetting their factual claims, as would a prosecutor if this were a criminal case?
I cannot picture CJ Roberts being amused by such antics, which further undermine whatever credibility he thinks his court has. He might lean on Kavanaugh to make a majority for throwing out the case on procedural grounds, which happily means whatever justice was charged with writing the decision was just powned.
Pennsylvanian
@Dan B: I have no idea, but they continue to chip away, from every angle, at anything that does not favor the rights of the white heterosexual male.
They are a cowardly and sickly lot, but they are winning bit by bit. I take them at their word and was not even remotely surprised after Dobbs. Birth control is next. They have already told us.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack: The linking up of the “Trump SCOTUS” and Fred Trump’s rental policies is brilliant.
geg6
@Martin:
I have noticed the same in myself. But I’m 100% sure it’s hearing loss. Too many rock shows at all different kinds of venues. Because my boyfriend played in a band, I was often backstage or in a front row in the smaller venues they played. And can’t forget practices. Plus, I tended bar all through college and for about six years afterward, part time, as I tried to get my career off the ground and worked on my master’s. Those bars had live bands. Plus earphones for home listening because I liked it loud. It’s all catching up with me now.
NotMax
Too coo-coo for Bizarro world, Alina Habba spouts more spm (sh*t per minute) than the most active of imaginations can conjure.
sab
@geg6: Check with audiologists, because from what I have been told if you will need hearing aids you need to get them early. Your brain won’t be able to process if you wait too long. That is what my dad did (waited too long) and what my husband is determined to do.
Kay
Sean Hannity, Glenn Greenwald, Joe Rogan and Elon Musk. That’s who RFK Jr is “surging” with.
Scout211
Yeah, same with Mr. Scout. Hearing loss, especially the kind that develops gradually can lead to cognitive problems that then can lead to dementia. Mr. Scout has had hearing aids for years but should have started wearing them years before.
Sure Lurkalot
@NotMax: I got through about 3 minutes of Habba’s brain farts and gave up. Eventually, 90% of the people he draws in get thrown under the bus, it’s well documented and predictable. He siphons a like percentage of every grift. I guess I’ll croak before I understand why people can’t see what is clearly full frontal.
geg6
@Kay:
That motherfucker. His Uncle Ted must want to come back from the dead and strangle him. Ted’s legacy as the greatest proponent for Americans’ health care may be as great or, I think, greater than most of what his brothers accomplished and he has this failson to end all failsons sullying the family name like this.
ETA: And I have lost all respect for Cheryl Hines, an actress I have enjoyed in many things but especially in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Can’t see her the same now.
frosty
@sab:geg6: My audiologist said the same: if you think you’re going to get them, don’t wait. I’m going to do it later this year.
I blame Grand Funk Railroad at the LA Forum. Black Sabbath was the opening act. My ears rang for the next day and a half. Now, of course, they ring all the time. :-(
zhena gogolia
@frosty: Black Sabbath fucked up my ears too.
sab
@geg6: We had to talk down my dad’s nurse’s aide who was excited about a Kennedy running. She had no idea his life has been spent fighting kids getting MeaslesMumpsRubella vaccines.
Helen Keller went blind and deaf as a toddler because of measles. Measles also wipes out all your previously acquired immunity from other previous diseases. I have had mumps. It hurts a lot. If you are a grownup it will probably make you sterile. Rubella ( german measles) causes birth defects in your fetus and possibly a miscarriage.
RFK Jr is an idiot and possibly evil besides. We really need to get out there word of mouth and stop this. Democratic normies are susceptible.
dexwood
@zhena gogolia: The Who all five times for me. Well, there’re was that Beatles show in 64, too, with all the screaming.
geg6
@frosty:
There are countless bands I blame, famous, not famous and almost famous.
I am also going to get checked later this year. I’m hoping it’s just a wax buildup, but am realist enough to know that’s almost definitely not the problem.
Eolirin
@Scout211: I am sub 40 and don’t have hearing issues, but do have ADHD and have that problem, especially when tired. It’s not always a fault in the ears.
Kay
@geg6:
Yeah the lying is really malicious. It’s Trumpian, in that he doesn’t care if the people he’s lying about are still around and can defend themselves – Jake Tapper, Joan Walsh. He tells elaborate lies about people with huge media platforms – he has to know they will call him out. Another nut case with a giant ego.
I love how he himself has gotten only top drawer medical care. He got cutting edge treatment for his throat condition. He tells the rubes they don’t need medical care but when it comes to his precious skin he’s off to the Mayo Clinic for a titanium medical device implant. Big Implant Industry! Shoudn’t it be made out of wood and implanted by a shaman or something?
citizen dave
@geg6: “ETA: And I have lost all respect for Cheryl Hines, an actress I have enjoyed in many things but especially in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Can’t see her the same now.”
Same. I can’t fathom why she married the weirdo or remains with him.
Re: Hearing. After I saw the Who 12/7/1979 at the Silverdome, my ears “rang” for 4-5 days. The 1982 shows though, did not; nor a couple much later ones. Those were at normal rock show volumes…which don’t appear to be ear damaging these days.
sab
@frosty: My dad was a normal guy but his dad was trying to be a hunter industrialist like Dick Cheney. So my dad had to go blast pheasants to please his dad. His ears have been ringing for seventy years.
I have been insanely careful of my hearing for most of my life. My stepkids think I am crazy, but none of them have inside voices any more.
I think my auditory issues might be me being slightly on the autism spectrum. I really have a hard time processing complicated stuff I am told. I have to see it in writing, and process it later. My co-workers in accounting laugh that we cannot all be auditors. Those guys are weird and only think on their feet.
Eolirin
@Eolirin: Being out of the edit window; I also can’t read when people around me are talking if I’m tired. My problem is not that I can’t differentiate sounds but that I can’t stop listening to the things that need to be turned into background noise so I can focus on what I’m trying to do.
sab
@sab: Back when I was in accounting grad school my auditing professor wouldn’t let us take notes. He thought it distracted us from listening. I cannot listen seriously without taking notes.
I had to stomp off to the dean of the accounting school and demand a refund of my tuition for that course if I was not allowed to take notes. Told him I could audit Auditing at my local state funded college if they couldn’t oblige.
I wasn’t taping anyone. I was just taking notes in class. I am still angry, and as an alumna I have never given them a dime.
Bozos.
Will
I feel like that scene in Mean Girls when they say stop trying to make fetch happen. Media needs to stop trying to make RFK Jr happen, no one is interested in it or buying it.
Betty
@geg6: I hope they get the PA Senate fixed soonest. The Republicans are just awful.
sab
@dexwood: My husband was lucky enough to see Janis Joplin at Blossom ( Cleveland) before she really broke big. 6000 people in a 25,000 venue and most of the tickets were for the lawn. She invited everyone inside under the roof, and husband ended up front row not center.
On the other hand I saw acoustic James Taylor the next year as a warm up to a couple of bands, and the idiots booed him off stage because acoustic. I was incandescent with rage but the drunks on the hill did not care.
Shalimar
One of the stories Microsoft tried to put in front of me today was a New York Post article about how Fetterman was under 40% or whatever number popularity in some new poll. He just won 6 years in office, I don’t care at all where he is polling right now and neither does anyone else. It’s just a way to reinforce a negative image of Fetterman. So I right-clicked to make sure they never give me New York Post articles again.
Kayla Rudbek
@topclimber: I am a lawyer but I’m a patent lawyer, so things are different. If you lie to the US Patent and Trademark Office while you’re trying to get a patent or a trademark, and the lies come out in court, your patent or trademark will get canceled. The case I remember reading about the most vividly was a patent case, four coinventors, two of the inventors were brothers. Brother A told the USPTO during prosecution that brother B had died. Patent issued, owner was trying to enforce it in court. It turned out that brother B was alive and well. Instant cancellation of the patent, lawsuit was over.
SomeRandomGuy
“Having a mild auditory processing disorder, especially when tired,” is precisely what fatigue is like. When fatigued, everything gets harder, but, obviously, some things will be harder than others, depending on a bunch of factors. But we’re all better at some things,, and better listeners would probably notice a different problem first.
Knowing signs of fatigue in yourself can be hella useful – for most folks it’s a good warning that one is approaching burnout, either acute or chronic. It’s scary how long a person can be fatigued, and not quite realize it. Fatigue dulls self-assessment probably faster than anything else.