Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Joe Biden can go out like FDR, not by dying in office, but by crushing the fascists.

We won’t go back.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Everybody saw this coming.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

T R E 4 5 O N

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Thursday Evening Open Thread: Mitch McConnell Is ‘Medically Clear’

Thursday Evening Open Thread: Mitch McConnell Is ‘Medically Clear’

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Mitch McConnell will only leave his Senate office feet-first… possibly some time after he is dead.


Reader Interactions

154Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Amazing that we spent years talking about how Pelosi not stepping down as chair was proof of Democrats being cripplingly gerontocratic

    Too many of *us* allow ourselves to be led by the nose by the media.

  3. 3.

    cain

    @Baud: I bet the media is just going to pivot back to BIden and hyperfocus on his age – they want a scalp. Remember how there was just kinda sullen silence when McConnell stroked out the first time?

     

    sri

  4. 4.

    Another Scott

    APNews.com:

    The Kentucky Republican’s office released a statement from Dr. Brian Monahan saying that he had consulted with McConnell and his neurology team and cleared the senator to continue with his schedule. He did not say if he had examined McConnell personally, and he did not provide any additional details or a diagnosis.

    Yeah, “consulted” does not mean “examined”.

    And a Senate physician has no constitutional office. He can’t somehow forbid Moscow Mitch from doing his constitutional duties.

    It’s mouth noises. People shouldn’t read anything more into it.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  6. 6.

    Jay

    Current word is that it wasn’t a TIA, a mini stroke, a brain fart or an “out side the shell moment”,

    word is the edibles kicked in.

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    @Jay:

    an “out side the shell moment”,

    Someone turned him upside down and left him on a fencepost again?

    Sad. Well, OK, not really.

  10. 10.

    TheOtherHank

    Women are dying because he made an active choice to be evil. So, fuck him. I hope he dies in pain, in public.

  11. 11.

    Tony Jay

    “Senator Mitch McConnell is medically clear… of deaditis. He is non-deceased. His current physical state is a very chipper un-necrotised. He has all the vigour and ruddy-cheeked enthusiasm for his job as any other pre-terminal proto-cadaver. He is, in short, good to go…”

    Thump of something dry and sticklike hitting the floor from behind the door.

    “… back to Kentucky where some important family business has cropped up in the last few minutes. No further questions.”

  20. 20.

    SpaceUnit

    My computer will freeze up sometimes and I have to restart it.  Maybe they could try that.

    Or maybe a good wack to the back of his head.

  22. 22.

    Tony Jay

    Also, may I just say that I have zero problem wishing McConnell would just drop dead at the most inconvenient time for the MAGOP? A natural death isn’t some horrible bolt of karmic ill-will to wish on someone. It’s just a cessation of earthly life. A change in venue. That person just… stops. And since he’s a turd who has dedicated his life to hurting millions of people, him just stopping is a good thing.

    And then Beshear waits until the very last second of the two week limit on choosing from a list of MAGOP successors to say, nope, this is going to Court, and heads explode all across the far-right horizon like those nukes at the start of BSG.

  23. 23.

    Scout211

    @Adam L Silverman: It was a petite mal seizure.

    Most likely. And people prone to petit mal seizures (now called absence seizures) are not at risk in most jobs. So hence, “medical clearance.”

    The issue isn’t his medical diagnosis, the issue is his leadership position.

    Added:  What I mean is the medical diagnosis shouldn’t stop him from working, but the GOP members of Senate should question whether he can reasonably lead their caucus, IMHO.

    Mayo Clinic

    Absence seizures involve brief, sudden lapses of consciousness. They’re more common in children than in adults.

    A person having an absence seizure may stare blankly into space for a few seconds. Then the person typically returns quickly to being alert. This type of seizure usually doesn’t lead to physical injury. But injury can result during the period when the person loses consciousness. This is particularly true if someone is driving a car or riding a bike when the seizure happens.

    Absence seizures usually can be controlled with anti-seizure medicines. Some children who have them also develop other seizures, such as generalized tonic-clonic seizures or myoclonic seizures. Many children outgrow absence seizures in their teens..

  24. 24.

    NobodySpecial

    In fairness, it’s not like Republicans have been showing higher brain functions for a few decades now. The Village just expects them to have a drool cup and handlers by this time.

  25. 25.

    Tony Jay

    @Jay:

    If you want to grab him by the legs and bash him on the counter a couple of times to test for rigour-mortis I am totally in accordance.

  27. 27.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Both in yesterday’s freeze and the episode in late July, I went back and studied the videos. Then, for comparison, I watched the video of his floor comments right after Jan 6. What really struck me was that in the two recent “freeze” moments, HE DIDN’T BLINK. He just stared, unblinking. In the January 2022 video, he blinked normally — not super fast, the way Bob Dole used to do, just normal blinking. But in the two freezing episodes, it’s like his eyelids are epoxied open. He just … stares.

    So, I’m curious to know — from medical practitioners or people who have witnessed or experienced similar events — is the extended non-blinking significant? Does it provide any useful information above and beyond the vocal paralysis?

  28. 28.

    Roger Moore

    @cain:

    I bet the media is just going to pivot back to BIden and hyperfocus on his age – they want a scalp.

    It’s the perfect excuse.  Joe Biden  is only one year younger than McConnell.  If McConnell is getting too old to keep doing his job, Biden is too old to run for reelection.  QED

  31. 31.

    Tony Jay

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Does it provide any useful information above and beyond the vocal paralysis?

    Yes. It’s not Lupus. Unless it is, but it’s never Lupus.

    Veteran of all 8 seasons of House. So I’m basically a professional, or close to it.

  33. 33.

    Omnes Omnibus

    The moral rot is seeping out. No kids should see this kind of thing. Nightmare fuel. The Turtle himself? We now know how it would be if Scrooge went with the three spirits but only saw chances to be worse.

  36. 36.

    Mike in NC

    Coincidentally, Moscow Mitch consulted with the same doctor that said Donald Trump could live to be 200 years old, bone spurs or no bone spurs!

  40. 40.

    UncleEbeneezer

    GOOD NEWS: Texas’ book ban #HB900 targeting LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC stories will NOT take effect Sept. 1. When students are denied access to books, they’re denied the opportunity to learn about themselves and the world around them. This is a major win for students’ futures.

    A federal judge has just blocked Texas book ban law. Huge day of wins for trans people in court. These assaults on our freedom of speech and the attempts to erase the history and lives of trans people in the United States will not stand.

  41. 41.

    Alison Rose

    @Tony Jay: Ah, but it WAS Lupus once!

    One of my favorite in-jokes on that show was one time when they’re all sitting around in House’s office, and he pulls a book off a shelf and opens it to reveal that it’s been hollowed out and he has a Vicodin bottle inside. Freeman asks, “You keep your Vicodin in a Lupus textbook?” And House replies, in a very offhand aside way, “It’s never Lupus.” I appreciated the minor fourth-wall breaking there.

  42. 42.

    moonbat

    Okay, Dana Houle wins the entire day with that crack.

    Please note how our “decrepit” Nancy Smash resigned her speakership at the height of her wily powers after holding impeachment hearings that helped create our current indictment heavy news cycle.

    This is all after saving our democracy on 1/6 by reconvening the House to certify the electoral college vote while snapping into a Slim Jim and threatening to kick Trump’s sorry ass should he show his ugly orange mug in Congress.

    Age does not equal health.

  43. 43.

    Ken

    @SiubhanDuinne: is the extended non-blinking significant

    Someone has one of those pocket watches that stops time?

    Kidding aside, I’d think that anything that interferes with an autonomous function like blinking would be pretty serious.

  45. 45.

    RaflW

    Unlike the famous Monty Python bird sketch from decades ago, Mitch would voom if you put 10,000 volts through him.

    Which I’m not recommending. But it is a curious thing to imagine, none the less.

  46. 46.

    Kelly

    Mom at 81 wouldn’t let me mow her yard. I only helped on work requiring a ladder. Sharp as ever. Last year at 86 she asked me to mow her yard and check her bank statement. This year at 87 it’s been one thing after another pressure ulcers(bedsores), TIA and C diff. I’m spooked.

    One of my XC ski buddies skied ungroomed trails 6~8 miles until 88. I went on a class 3 whitewater kayak trip with a guy of 87. I have high school a few buddies that started falling apart in their mid 60s. Aging varies a lot.

    Mitch McConnell’s obituary is one I’ll read with great satisfaction.

  48. 48.

    RaflW

    “It was a petite mal seizure.” So what was that whole deal with Mitch being gone for a couple months. Didn’t he have a fall? Like many months before the first freeze?

    Our truly incredible press (and I mean incredible like a forehead slap) was like zero percent interested in why his recovery took far longer than the original claimed issue — bruised legs, I think?

    Did he actually fall and hit his head? TBI is no picnic. A good friend of my partner’s, who was about 60 at the time, slipped on ice in the winter, fell, and ended up taking early retirement because while she was mostly better, it impacted her ability to do her work tasks. She’s still a lovely person and quite well in general, but her injury really had lasting effects.
     

    ETA: Has spell check become actively worse of late?

  49. 49.

    Ruckus

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I am not a doctor.

    I’ve seen seizures up close. It looks like a seizure to me, as Adam states. And yes there are levels of seizures and types of seizures. I agree with Adam, petit mal or absence seizure.  Here is the Mayo Clinic – Absence seizures usually have a genetic cause. In general, seizures occur as a result of a burst of electrical impulses from nerve cells in the brain, called neurons. Neurons typically send electrical and chemical signals across the synapses that connect them.

    He maybe getting to a point that certain acts can cause a seizure. For him, now, the stress of talking with cameras flashing, stage lights and all may cause one. He may not have them normally. OTOH he may and we aren’t being told.

  50. 50.

    Tinare

    McConnell will die in office rather than resign and if I were a betting person I’d take odds that will happen before the end of the year. And yes, age is not the same as health. I’d also take odds that Biden is generally healthier than me and I’m 22 years younger.

  52. 52.

    Cameron

    Just a few minutes’ rest in the coffin, a couple snorts of blood from a young staffer, and he’s back in business.  Can’t keep the undead down.

  53. 53.

    kalakal

    He moved one step too far forward and his extension cord popped out of its socket. Took a few seconds for an aide to plug it back in

  56. 56.

    Tinare

    His human suit is glitching and the mother ship hasn’t made it back to install its software upgrade.

  59. 59.

    Alison Rose

    @Ruckus: Seizures are weird, and they can present in different ways. My dad had a seizure disorder that came on a few years before he died, but his often included falling to the floor and having mild spasms, and then afterward when he would be able to speak, he would just say a bunch of gibberish at first. Like, actual English words, but random strings of words that didn’t make sense, yet he would think he was saying something normal. It was really disturbing to watch.

  61. 61.

    bbleh

    “Medically clear” sounds like a report on a urine specimen.

    Hmm, come to think of it …

  65. 65.

    Maxim

    @Kelly: You just reminded me of a man who came into the office where I was working at the time. He looked, and acted, like a well-preserved 60: vigorous, alert, etc.

    He was 90.

  66. 66.

    Jeffro

    “it would be preferable if the inner mack-in-ay-shuns of the global superpower did not involve necromancy”  LOLOLOL

  68. 68.

    Scout211

    Petite mal  petit mal (pronounced “pettee mall”). And that’s the old name.  Now it’s called absence seizure.

    /medical pedant.

  70. 70.

    stacib

    @cain: Katy Kay did it on MJ today.  The topic was McConnell, and she couldn’t stop herself from talking about Biden’s age being a drag on the Democratic party IF he is the nominee.  It was at that point I quit listening.

  71. 71.

    RaflW

    @eclare: I rode to lunch some years ago with my uncle, who was 90 at the time. Same thing, still a good driver, just couldn’t see well at night.

    My dad, his younger brother, was an absolutely terrifying driver by age 70. Thankfully his fiance (engaged for 15 years, never did marry) was a decent driver and also brooked no debate on who was going to be at the wheel when together.

  73. 73.

    patrick II

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    My favorite is a little longer:

    There’s an ancient Greek proverb that goes Society grows great when old men plant seeds for trees whose shade they will never sit in but in America it’s more like society grows most profitable when old men invest in fossil fuels ventures whose fumes they shall never choke on.

    A very thoughtful comedian with a nice turn of phrase.

  74. 74.

    eclare

    @RaflW:

    My aunt’s younger sister is 84.  Her driving has always terrified me because she insists on looking at who she is talking to.

    “Aunt Corinne you know you have a stoplight?!”

  76. 76.

    smith

    @RaflW: My mother was living independently and driving when she was 91, until a few months before she died. My parents had a house built of redwood, with a couple of large decks. She restained it twice, with no help, once when she was 74, and again when she was 82.

  80. 80.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Alison Rose: ​
     

    then afterward when he would be able to speak, he would just say a bunch of gibberish at first. Like, actual English words, but random strings of words that didn’t make sense, yet he would think he was saying something normal. It was really disturbing to watch.

    That happened to my mother once when she was in her late 80s. Turned out to be a subdural hematoma. Like with your dad (but without the spasms or falling), she was speaking perfectly clearly and the words were all normal English words, but the sequence of words was random.

    I was talking on the phone with her at the time. She was at her house in Georgetown, and I was at my office in Suitland, MD. Fortunately there was a housekeeper there to keep an eye on her while I made a mad dash into DC to take her to the hospital. Once they discovered what it was, they were able to relieve the pressure that the hematoma was putting on her brain, and she was as good as she’d been before that scary incident.

  81. 81.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    “the tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can’t.”

  82. 82.

    Alison Rose

    @lowtechcyclist: It was so frustrating because they ran every test known to man and could never figure out why he’d suddenly started having seizures. The doctor was just like “who knows, just take these pills to keep them from happening”. I understand medicine isn’t wizardry or even an exact science, but it was still difficult not to ever have an answer.

  83. 83.

    TriassicSands

    News Flash: Mitch McConnell has been medically cleared to continue freezing in public and private.

  84. 84.

    Ohio Mom

    If they are “only” petit mal seizures, McConnell could choose to own it. Borrow a page from Fetterman and just say, I have this medical condition, I am going to find ways to compensate so I can continue to serve my constituents.

    (Right there is a compare and contrast between the two parties: forthcoming honesty vs. denial and silence).

    But one look at Mitch and there’s lot more going on than just seizures — or in Biden’s assessment, the normal response to a concussion — he looks just plain awful. He looks very, very frail.

    We have a wide range of fields represented among the Jackalariat, but we could use a few medical practitioners .

  89. 89.

    Spanky

    Keith Richards will be 80 in a couple of months, and he’s in much better health than Mitch the Glitch. As is Mick.

  91. 91.

    Ohio Mom

    @Alison Rose: My uncle also had idiopathic seizures, which is doctor speak for “We don’t know the reason or source.” IIRC, a lot of epilepsy patients get that diagnosis.

    It’s the brain, it’s amazing we have as much of it figured out as we do.

  93. 93.

    LAO

    @Spanky: So what you’re saying is sex, drugs and rock and roll” may be the key to longevity? I’m pissed I ate a salad for dinner.

  94. 94.

    Mousebumples

    @Ohio Mom: We have a wide range of fields represented among the Jackalariat, but we could use a few medical practitioners .

    I’m a pharmacist, but I’m not able to be impartial when it comes to McTurtle. I think he should have resigned 20 years ago. 🙃

  98. 98.

    Ohio Mom

    @LAO: It’s widely recognized that there is no explanation for Keith Richard’s health but Mick Jagger is an exercise nut. He’s the Jack LaLanne of rockers (am I dating myself with that reference?).

  101. 101.

    cain

    @Tony Jay:

    And then Beshear waits until the very last second of the two week limit on choosing from a list of MAGOP successors to say, nope, this is going to Court, and heads explode all across the far-right horizon like those nukes at the start of BSG.

    And when they start yelling at him – he just says “MERRICK FUCKING GARLAND”

  105. 105.

    Jackie

    Anyone watching Chris Hayes? Raskin is on discussing Kushner… Jamie’s hair is BACK!!!

    SOOOOO HAPPY!

  106. 106.

    Scout211

    Business Insider  asked physicians to weigh in on McConnell.

    These spells are evidently more severe than simply somebody losing their train of thought, said Dr. David Thaler, neurologist-in-chief at Tufts Medical Center, in an interview with WCVB-TV.

    He added: “This looks different in duration and severity, where he really seems to have lost the ability to communicate momentarily.”

    Thaler said the “most likely explanation is little, tiny seizures, which are electrical changes in the brain.”

    The supposed seizures could be connected to a series of falls and a concussion in March experienced by McConnell, Thaler told WCVB-TV.

    “I don’t think whatever is causing this to happen caused the fall, but the fall and the head injury could theoretically be related to these episodes,” he explained.

    Similarly, Dr. Keith Vossel, a professor of neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles, told DailyMail.com that he also suspects seizures could be the explanation.

    Vossel told the news outlet: “So, to me, this looks like an absence seizure.”

     

    I guess we are all high quality neurologists here on balloon-juice.  😉

  109. 109.

    Captain C

    @Tinare:

    His human suit is glitching and the mother ship hasn’t made it back to install its software upgrade.

    This will be my headcanon going forward.

  110. 110.

    laura

    Yep, that was me. I’m so wrung out, but still vibrating from the songs and such like. I’m still pondering how she envisioned and designed this show. Just so happy to have been there.

  111. 111.

    Jackie

    @smith: My dad was a real estate broker plus the general manager of the building his office was in. Which included general maintenance. He had to climb a ladder to the roof to change the AC filter and at age 81 I reminded him he had a 17 yr old grandson who could do that for him. A few months later he actually asked grandson to help change the filter. YAY!!! Dad let grandson hold the ladder.🤦🏼‍♀️

  112. 112.

    eclare

    @laura:

    Yeah, as I watched the video I kept thinking “who dreams this stuff up?”

    She really takes everything to the limit in her shows.  Homecoming was also stunning.  I can’t imagine the work put in to this.

  115. 115.

    mrmoshpotato

    Mitch McConnell will only leave his Senate office feet-first… possibly some time after he is dead.

    “Mitch McConnell’s cold corpse is ‘medically clear’ to continue fucking your (Democrats’) “sacred” “democracy.”

    It’s a constitutional republic, you IDIOTS!”

    -GOP Twitter

  116. 116.

    suzanne

    @eclare: So I have been thinking about aging a lot as of late. SuzMom is supposed to have her hip replaced one week from tomorrow. I have had to take some time off work this week to take her to a whole slew of medical appointments. Her older brother, my uncle, came to visit over the weekend, and he was looking really bad. Has lost a ton of weight, had no energy, none of his typical spark. Then we got a text today saying he tested positive for Covid. And their sister, my aunt, also wants to come visit, but she doesn’t feel like she can drive any more and is too afraid to take the train alone. So…. no one’s doing great.

    And I got crapped on by a bird.

  118. 118.

    eclare

    @suzanne:

    That is a bad few days.  Hopefully once your uncle gets over covid he will feel and look better.  Does he need to see a dr?

  119. 119.

    suzanne

    @eclare: His doctor got him on Paxlovid, so I think he is okay to just recover at home. Now we are just crossing our fingers that SuzMom didn’t get it, because she is in terrible pain and we don’t want anything to delay her surgery. She developed avascular necrosis after having screws put in her hip earlier in the year, and the screws are basically loose and constantly grinding against the bone. So, she’s got that going for her, which is nice.

  121. 121.

    frosty

    @suzanne: ​ Many years ago I was standing at the West Baltimore platform one morning waiting for the MARC commuter train when a bird flew over and it’s crap landed on my shoulder. I looked at my fellow commuters and said:
    “Usually I don’t get shit on until I get to work.”

  122. 122.

    eclare

    @suzanne:

    Oh gosh, that is awful.  I had not put that risk together.  Is your uncle willing to isolate, I hope, til he tests negative?

  123. 123.

    piratedan

    Since the GOP is all about political dynasties, maybe we can do ol’ Mitch a favor and appoint one of his daughters to the Senate when he decides to fatally plank.  It’ “keeps it in the family” and then she can spend pretty much her entire career undoing Dad’s legacy.

  124. 124.

    karen marie

    @Kelly: I won’t read it. I already know about all the bullshit he’s been up to. Few, if any, obits will tell the truth about the negative effect he’s had on this country.

  125. 125.

    eversor

    As someone who’s had a couple TBIs in their life due to various reasons (sports, military service, just being a jackass) I can quasi sympathize with Mitch.   From like the outer reaches of Mars.  It sucks and it’s no fun having the odd moment where you slur for a moment or two, phase out, or just seize the fuck up and everyone looks at you odd.  You get the old “were you drunk, stroking out, having a seizure” and then having to explain that you are fine and it’s no big damn deal, happens off and on.  It’s quick and then you are fine.

    For me I have moments where I know I’m going to start slurring and trembling and I’ll just sit there and grip myself and wait like five mins and then move on.  Hands start shaking, voice goes, and I know I’m going to get asked about if I try to do anything so I just sit there and act like a rock even though I’m totally coherent till it fades.  Don’t fight it, lean into it, it will pass.

    But that’s a seizure, full stop.  And I can’t summon an ounce of pitty for someone who would strip care from people who have seizures when they personally know what it’s like.  So as someone who’s had them, I hope he chokes on his own vomit.  It sucks, it’s degrading, it’s hard to tell people about.  So you’d think he’d have the grace to grant people the care he has.

  126. 126.

    Alison Rose

    BTW if you’re looking for a unique and fascinating book to read, check out The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa. Just finished it and absolutely loved it. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I think it’s the kind of book where if it works for you, it REALLY works for you, like it did for me. (My GR review.)

  127. 127.

    Bupalos

    @Roger Moore: call it an “excuse” with a kind of paranoid “the media is in control” narrative, or call it organic reality. We’re trying to run a literal octogenarian because our strategy against Trumpist anti-democracy was “go white and male and from 1960 and comfortable.” Which barely squeaked it out, and here we are. Praying we don’t have to do a weekend at Bernie’s to drag democracy over another temporary finish line.

  128. 128.

    Elizabelle

    @Bupalos:  We are running a literal octogenarian with no fucks left to give, a long institutional memory, longstanding interpersonal relationships, and the ability to get stuff done without being a drama llama.

    Are you auditioning for the pie filter?

  129. 129.

    Tehanu

    Mitch McConnell will only leave his Senate office feet-first… possibly some time after he is dead.

    Are you sure he isn’t dead already?
    @Spanky: ​
      Yes, we should all be concerned about the kind of world we’re leaving for Keith Richards and our grandchildren. I’m 5 years younger than Keith and to this day I love him for being the living refutation of all the crap my parents’ generation gave us about how sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll were going to kill us all before we hit 30.

  130. 130.

    Bupalos

    @Elizabelle: Best president of my lifetime.

    Also a huge risk and kind of sad that we’re here and throwing this particular die.

    I remember how uncomfortable I was with the Obama script using Biden’s “old steady white grandpa” presence on the ticket to ease nervous old Ohio “blue collar Democrats” when I did phone banking in 2008.

    All I’m saying is this isn’t how it should be, and there’s a cost we don’t see.

  132. 132.

    Elizabelle

    @Bupalos:  Citizens United brought us this.  And no public financing of campaigns.  And the ugly negative campaigning, as ugly as they can get away with.  You have to run the surest bet you can, in the face of the fucking Electoral College and low information voters.  Social media disinformation campaigns.  It is getting so much worse, not better.

    Joe Biden is a president for the ages (tee hee), but he really is superb at being POTUS.

    With fascists on the menu, America cannot demand a smorgasbord.  And I am proud to be a Democrat, supporting President Biden.

  133. 133.

    catclub

    so how is the Kentucky Law written?  sanctions on the governor if he refuses to name a senator?

    Sanctions if he names one not on the list proposed by the GOP?

  134. 134.

    Bupalos

    @Elizabelle: Biden’s late career success is bitersweet to me. It’s basically been a sop to America’s racism, misogyny, and the dominance of boomers.

    All that said, he’s clearly a real pro, a kind of miracle of sunny long-term vision in the face of virulent, angry short-termism, and the best president of my lifetime.

    In short, the Joe Biden experience is a land of contrasts. And I’m scared shitless he’s going to start drooling next week and scaring even more dumb normies that make up a third of the electorate.

  136. 136.

    Betsy

    @Roger Moore: This is exactly what NPR did today – they reported on McConnell’s freeze, then used that as a “reason” to immediately pivot to a bigger “think piece” about our horrible gerontocracy, and ancient politicians generally, using President Biden as their primary example.

    This is why I don’t contribute.

  138. 138.

    Steeplejack

    @Bupalos:

    When he is reëlected Biden can continue his “best president of my lifetime” work for you, and if by chance he dies or becomes incapacitated the highly qualified and capable Kamala Harris will step right in. You want to throw all that away for a snipe hunt for someone “younger”? (Presumably not Harris, since you haven’t mentioned her at all.)

  141. 141.

    Timill

    @catclub: No – no sanctions.

     

    63.200 United States Senator — Procedures for filling of vacancy.

    (1) (a) The Governor shall fill vacancies in the office of United States Senator by appointment and the appointee shall serve until a successor has been elected and qualified under subsection (2), (3), (4), or (5) of this section.

    (b) The appointee shall be selected from a list of three (3) names submitted by the state executive committee of the same political party as the Senator who held the vacant seat to be filled, shall have been continuously registered as a member of that political party since December 31 of the preceding year, and shall be named within twenty-one (21) days from the date of the list submission.

    The problem with this is the 17th Amendment:

    When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

    The legislature can constrain the election, but (maybe) not the appointment.

  147. 147.

    Another Scott

    @Betsy: Public radio is much, much more than the morning and evening NPR rews shows.  You can support the former while criticizing the latter.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  150. 150.

    Paul in KY

    @patrick II: I planted a beautiful shingle oak and a bi-colour oak (cross of a red oak and a white oak)  at my former property about 20 years ago. Was talking with my former neighbor one day and I remarked ‘Both of those trees will really look great in a 100 years or so. Of course, we’ll all be long dead by then.’ He had a good laugh on that one.

  152. 152.

    Paul in KY

    @Ohio Mom: When Keith dies at 95 or so (maybe longer). Science will investigate his DNA and find out that he would have lived to 145 if he’d taken better care of himself.

  153. 153.

    Paul in KY

    @suzanne: So sorry about the things going on with your family…and the getting crapped on. Generally speaking that only happens once in one’s life (so you got that out of the way).

  154. 154.

    Paul in KY

    @Bupalos: Oh fuck off about that shit. Joe is fine and is looking forward to wiping the floor with whatever MAGA loon (probably Cheetolini) that the GQP vomits up.

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