I see the media is still flogging the Biden thing, and the “discourse” has been exceedingly stupid. On the one hand, there is something to wonder about how the fuck the best doctors in the world missed a cancer that takes years to get the stage Biden’s is now or if they knew how long did they know and why did they not say something? So I get that.
But what I don’t get is the “OMG WHAT WOULD WE HAVE DONE IF HE DIED IN OFFICE?” I’ll tell you what would happen. We would swear in Kamala Harris as President and she would have served out the remainder of his term. That’s what we would have done. That was the legit “worst case scenario”- we would swear in his chosen successor who we just so happened to have spent over a billion dollars trying to make happen anyway just a few fucking months ago.
Democratic consultants are amazing in that they simply can not see what is right in front of them. Or, they’re racist as fuck and don’t want to admit it. Same with the political press.
There’s so much else going on like the protected status of Venezuelans being revoked, the credit down rating, and all the other bullshit, as you guys all know and don’t need me to get your fired up again, so I am going to fuck off out of here and watch some Mobland, which I am really enjoying. It’s so crazy and nuts and you never know what will happen next.
War for Ukraine Day 1,180: The Cost
RaflW
Democratic consultants are boils on the ass of democracy.
Elizabelle
I hope this tanks Jake Tapper’s book sales so hard.
And we should be sending him, Maggie Haberman, and their ilk condoms, lube and breath mints. As an acknowledgement of what their profession requires of them.
Baud
Ah, the Harry Truman gambit. Sneaky
HobbitsDems.hitchhiker
I love Mobland so much that when I got to the end of the latest episode I went back to the first one and started over. Great show. Love Helen Mirren and her no fucks to give at 79.
Also … I think they can’t stop discussing Biden because the alternative is to dance around/confront the horrifying situation we all face.
Much easier — and somehow comforting — to talk about the kindly and sane old man endlessly. The crusty old thug is just exhausting in his ugliness.
Soprano2
This is so dumb. Some cancers happen fast. I don’t think there was any kind of cover up. I swear they always have to have something breathless to talk about.
It’s pouring down rain here, I hope we don’t get washed away.
zhena gogolia
As many, many people have discussed in the comments here over the past 24 hours, it is not unthinkable at all that the cancer was missed.
A Good Woman
The PSA blood test is voluntary, not mandatory, and not recommended if the anticipated life expectancy is 10 years or less. Biden was not required to take it and there are men who don’t. He may be one of those men.
This is all academic at this point. He has been diagnosed, it has metastasized to his bones and we just wait and see what he chooses to do.
Elie
MMMM —
I am a retired nurse — I practiced in an oncology (cancer) specialty. My understanding about cancer is that the rate or time it takes for cancer severity varies by cancer and the individual and that one does not have to have a particular cancer a long time to have an advanced cancer or one that has metastasized. The genetics of the tumor can sometimes cause a severe form fairly early. I don’t think also that any doctor would knowingly ignore or look past an existing tumor to give a patient a false clean bill of health. That would be incredibly amoral and against the ethics of most serious professionals.
Jackie
Gooo Mariners!
Soprano2
@zhena gogolia: It sounds to me like he started having symptoms so they checked it out.
trollhattan
Profiles in Scourge. Tim Apple: chickenshit.
Jackie
@A Good Woman:
Exactly.
Baud
@trollhattan:
Between their Trump stance and their recent antitrust sanction, Apple has really taken a reputational hit lately.
frosty
I’m cornfused. You’re talking about a TV show? I thought you were describing reality (what is reality?)
Eyeroller
I said this in an earlier thread but I’ll say it again. The amount of cancer misinformation/disinformation that is apparently going on (I avoid the MSM) is disheartening. One of the characteristics of an “aggressive” cancer is that it *grows rapidly* and can seem to come from nowhere. Also metastasis to the bones is not unusual for prostate cancer, even “better behaved” forms. Breast cancer also favors bone metastastis, probably for similar biological reasons. Aggressive cancers can also metastastize before the primary gets all that large. There seems to be some assumption that cancer is a slow-growing disease that can be found early if one just tries and has good health care, and that is frequently not at all the case.
Eyeroller
@Soprano2: It was found on a routine colonoscopy from what I heard, so no, it was asymptomatic.
Betty
@Soprano2: Something similar happened to my good friend’s brother. Seemingly healthy 75 year old suddenly finds out he has prostrate cancer that has already spread to his spine. With relatively new and heroic medical interventions, he lasted a few years, but he suffered a lot. It happens.
Jackie
@Baud:
I was forced to upgrade my iPhone in Dec. due to my dinosaur S6 not capable of updating apps or adding new apps. When the time comes that I’m forced to upgrade again, it’ll be interesting to see the options available. American made? Haha – not sure that’s the future, but who knows?
WTFGhost
I think it’s appropriate to shut down speculation, if only so we don’t have Republicans believing that you get “cancer cooties” that harm your cognition years before the cancer is detectable.
There is no “what did they know, and when did they know it?” He had a clean screen last physical, had questions about urination, saw his doctor, got diagnosed, by doctors who are saying “yeah, it could have suddenly gotten this big, it’s, like, ‘a thing’, and we know about it.”
Betty
@Soprano2: Trouble urinating, as I understand the key symptom. That could be caused simply by an enlarged prostate which is quite common among elderly men.
piratedan
perhaps this is just another example that justice is not up to the deities themselves or perhaps we exist in a world that good is in the minority struggling against evil and indifference.
hells littlest angel
@hitchhiker: I keep waiting for Mirren or Pierce Brosnan to exclaim, “They’re always after me Lucky Charms!” They’re good actors but I think someone’s putting too much ham in their full English breakfasts.
dc
Both > and
Eyeroller
@Eyeroller: Was going to edit but the window closed–some have said there were symptoms, but seems odd a colonoscopy would be the usual diagnostic tool for that.
Elie
@Eyeroller:
Amen to what you say
Eyeroller
@Betty: If he got to 82 without some trouble urinating that would be amazing. So it would be concerning if it was a sudden change, and a reason for testing.
Darkrose
Since Apple decided everyone wanted humungous phones, they will have to pry my 12 mini from my cold, dead, tiny little hands.
bcwbcw
The author of this piece is wrong and should apologize for playing doctor. While most prostate cancers are slow growing some are not. Cancer is a result of accumulated mutations that disable the complex collection of protective genes that keep a cell from growing or kill it when it misbehaves. Every cancer differs in the pattern of broken genes. Other gene mutations affect the growth of supply blood vessels and neighboring cell responses.
PSA levels are a useful but uncertain indicator of abnormal cell growth. It can spike upward for unknown and noncancerous reasons and it can fail to flag actual cancers.
mrmoshpotato
This really could’ve been your entire post. :)
WTFGhost
@Betty: Trouble urinating is one symptom; also, it’s sometimes difficult to empty the bladder, so, there’s a much greater chance of waking up to pee. That’s another symptom.
Because your bladder provides some pressure, but there’s a kink in the urethra/hose, there’s a pressure stepdown, so there might be some dribbling, a need to dab out a couple drops with TP, difficulty starting, and being sure precisely when it’s done, and other such stuff. With bad cases of enlargement, the bladder is sometimes thick walled and muscular from pushing urine past the bump.
So the first symptoms noticed are usually urinary, sure, but, there are minor problems that can be found and felt during an exam. Your prostate is easily palpable, with a finger, though it’s in an embarrassing location. So: even if you have no peeing issues, be a flippin’ man about bending over for the finger up the bum, you could have a hard nodule not big enough to interfere with the urethra yet.
geg6
Actually, this cancer, especially in someone his age, and it’s having metastasized does not necessarily take years or to happen. Whether talk about an aggressive cancer, which is how this is being characterized, by definition is one that is moving quickly and aggressively. Learned all about prostate cancer and all the forms and treatment options when my John was diagnosed with it. He had a much less aggressive form but we got a thorough education on all the possibilities while we waited for his test results.
Omnes Omnibus
Perhaps we should all refrain from speculating about Biden’s cancer since we know exactly fuck all about it.
Gvg
@trollhattan: iPhone prices always go up for new models. They always try to associate it with new features etc.
If it only goes up a bit, like it always does, it shouldn’t be associated with tariffs, but since I hate and fear Trump and I know enough about tariffs and trade wars, I think that is an unlikely scenario. In any case I think everyone who gets listened too has been primed to think an increase is caused by the tariffs so for once the pundits will probably say what we prefer.
I don’t think Tim apple can control this narrative. It will be interesting to see how much it ends up costing. Another scenario is a shortage could happen, which would really raise the price, because no promotional deals. That is the other consequence of trade wars.
Eyeroller
@WTFGhost: I’m not a man but most older men have at least some degree of benign prostatic hypertrophy that causes the same symptoms. It’s not precancerous but it can become rather severe. (And now I’m thinking of all those commercials I used to see for a drug called Flomax of older men running for restrooms when golfing, traveling, at restaurants, etc.)
Jeffro
…as some of us were saying last night, and the night before, but yeah.
It’s pitiful that the snooze media can’t even walk folks through it: “Biden could have died in office, and then the presidency would have gone to the. same. person. he. stepped. aside. for. in 2024, so that Dems could keep disaster from befalling the country.”
well, some Dems. the ones who bothered to turn out.
Elie
@bcwbcw:
Thank you. Much better said than what I did above. It also impugns the character of his medical staff — implying they would look the other way or were somehow incompetent.
different-church-lady
@Omnes Omnibus
I disagree: we should definitely refrain from it.
Omnes Omnibus
@different-church-lady: You don’t speak Upper Midwestern, do you?
different-church-lady
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m not nearly polite enough for that.
Jackie
@Omnes Omnibus:
💯 AGREE! There are more exciting news to talk about – such as Julio Rodriguez’s GRAND SLAM to give the M’s a 5-0 lead heading into bottom of the 9th!
Juju
@Eyeroller: That’s interesting. My mother stopped having colonoscopies at 80 which was protocol, according to her doctor. She’s now 92.
Omnes Omnibus
@different-church-lady: I’ll say it your way then. WE KNOW FUCK ALL ABOUT BIDEN’S DIAGNOSIS SO WE SHOULD SHUT THE FUCK UP. FUCK!!!!
ETA: Does that help?
Eyeroller
@Omnes Omnibus: They did release the information that it was Gleason 9 which is how they stage prostate cancers, so we do know a little about it. That means it was poorly differentiated, which is what “aggressive” generally means biologically–the cancer cells have stopped responding to signals from other cells to act as part of an organ or to stop dividing so much or better yet to please kill themselves. So they are now behaving as if they are independent free-living cells, which they cannot be in the context of living in an organism.
But it was hormone-sensitive so (let’s be explicit) chemical castration can slow it down, possibly a lot depending on how sensitive it is.
Leto
@Jackie: just because I’m a ray of sunshine: Your iPhone’s new AI is Spying on You — And Apple Built It That Way
TONYG
@Elizabelle: For the past week or so, the New Yorker and NPR have been interviewing Tapper about his exciting new book. The so-called “liberal” establishment showing how worthless they are.
Geminid
I discovered New Lines Magazine last December through British/Lebanese reporter Oz Katerj, who is known for his reporting on the war in Ukraine. Katerji recommended New Lines editor Hassan I. Hassan as a reliable source on Syrian matters.
Hassan is a Syrian American based in Washington, D.C. His magazine publishes in-depth articles a wide range of subjects. There’s not a whole lot of coverage of American politics, but today they published an interesting article on the Democratic Socialists of America by Patrick Hayden.
The title is, “The Leftwing Activists Who Want to Change American Politics.” It leads off with a meeting for newcomers sponsored by the New York City DSA chapter. There has been an upsurge of interest in the DSA since last November, and the New York chapter has had to utilize larger venues for its recruiting events.
Hayden describes this as the organization’s second “Trump bump,” the first one being after the 2016 election. Then he goes into some history of U.S. Socialism, including the founding of the DSA in the 1970s.
There is more detail on the DSA’s recent years, including controversies concerning the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. It seems like fairly objective reporting and may interest people willing to read a long article.
Now I will engage in direct action by attempting a link:
https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-left-wing-activists-who-want-to-change-american-politics
It works!
rikyrah
My mother was going to the doctor, getting blood work all the time. Then, one day we got a Stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis. She hadn’t smoked in over 25 years. When I tell you that I can still remember the shock of that day😪😪
burnt
@Darkrose: I am so with you. I am keeping my iPhone-13-mini until it is no longer supported. My phone’s battery is currently at 85-percent of what it was when I purchased it, so I will be replacing it at some point. My ideal phone size would be an iPhone 4 (insert old man shakes fist at cloud image).
rikyrah
@dc:
Both…and
Eyeroller
@Juju: Having had quite a few colonoscopies due to a genetic tendency, they are stressful and any colorectal cancers discovered in old people are usually slow-growing, so the treatment is typically considered to be worse than the disease. So no surprise they’d stop them, at least in people with no history of polyps.
Jackie
@Leto:
So they’re ahead of DOGE? I’m collecting SS, so I assume I’m screwed, regardless.
Juju
@burnt: I loved my iPhone 4.
TONYG
@TONYG: I am just so tired of this shit. Biden and Harris were not the root cause of Trump’s election last November. The root causes were twofold: 1) About half the people in this country are fucking idiots. 2) The corporate news media — even the “liberal” corporate media — wanted Trump to win, and helped him to do so.
@Jeffro:
Jeffro
@TONYG: yes?
Jackie
And, for those who care… THE MARINERS WIN! THE MARINERS WIN!!! :-D
scav
@Baud: Oddly enough, it corresponds with the first Apple ads that suddenly disgust me with the physical human body and with the exhibited personality traits of the actor involved. That mouth-breathing slack-jawed sociopath preening in mirrors is disconcerting me by the vehemence with which I hate his very fiber. I normally don’t even notice ads. This century is getting to me.
Juju
@Eyeroller: My mother had a history of polyps. They did colonoscopies about every 2-3 years because she never had a polyp free colonoscopy. Her last one was at age 80, just before her 81st birthday.
PJ
This post is so fucking stupid. Cancer can advance very quickly, and easily between annual physicals. Prostate cancer is asymptomatic; it’s either detected by elevated PSA levels or by a proctology exam during a physical, or, if it metastasizes, by the effects of the NEW cancer on other parts of the body. One year no test detects it, the next year one does, or the next year you’ve got the new cancer that is fucking you up. (And, of course, an elevated PSA or a bump in your anus does not necessarily mean that you have cancer, either.)
Furthermore, autopsies show that pretty much every male is going to get prostate cancer if they live long enough. It may never advance far enough to be a problem (because you die of something else), but if you are male, you are going to get it, and if and when you find out about it, it will very likely be a surprise.
(Cole is right, though, that a good bit of the animosity from American elites towards Biden stems from having the temerity to run with a black woman as his VP.)
Eyeroller
@TONYG: Nobody cares about the New Yorker but WTF is with NPR. Nice Polite Republicans indeed. Reminds me of Soprano’s reports from last year of NPR’S daily hammering of inflation inflation inflation. Why is Tapper’s magnum opus worth a week’s worth of interviews? (Rhetorical question obviously–the media love to interview themselves and apparently he is the coolest of the cool kids.)
geg6
@PJ:
And having been a subordinate to a Black man. Do not discount this.
Leto
@Jackie: they’re way ahead of DOGE, and they’re cooperating with most government law enforcement agencies in ways we don’t know about, and can’t opt out of. Just the usual dystopian stuff, except it’s not some “in the future” setting, it’s now. The future is now! (Can’t remember who had that slogan)
mrmoshpotato
@Jackie: Quite an achievement against the Chicago Worst Sox. :)
(Cubs also lost – to the Fish! But still in first by 1.5 games.)
Citizen Alan
@rikyrah: My mother passed away about 4 months after her cancer diagnosis. Tapper and the media are being asinine about this.
Lyrebird
100% believe you and feel the shock reverberating still.
Citizen Alan
@TONYG: I would say 2/3 are fucking idiots. You left out the fools who didn’t bother to vote at all. Otherwise, I agree 100%.
M31
not giving up my iPhone SE version 1 until I absolutely have to (same size as the 5S, one of their most attractive designs)
ugh which is going to be pretty soon as some apps already don’t work
put in a new battery which was fun (lol not really, I almost broke it, and the screws that hold it all together are amazingly small)
Jackie
@PJ:
That’s exactly what my dad’s VA Dr said. Dad was one of the early PSA detected prostate cancer noted – in 1991. He was told at age 67 that he would likely die of something else before prostate cancer. He chose to disagree, and elected to receive radiation seeding – which required him to go to the Seattle VA. We’re from the Tri-Cities – famous for the Hanford Nuclear Site. After nuclear seeding, dad was on a gurney being transported to his recovery room. His gurney had the big triangular sign stating “RADIOACTIVE.” Dad, being dad told all in the area “I’m from Hanford!” with a huge grin. People immediately scattered as far away as possible. It was funnier than hell!
Eunicecycle
@M31: you’re all trained to work in the iPhone factory now!
Jackie
@mrmoshpotato: This after sweeping San Diego, who aren’t exactly slouching. So <sticking tongue out emoji> to you!
Leto
@PJ:
I can bet you cold hard cash I’ll never have it. Contact a front pager to setup the details.
Omnes Omnibus
@M31: I am still using a 1st Gen SE as well. I like the size and it still does everything I want. I had a new battery put last summer.
sab
@Jackie: Siri interrupts comversations between me and my husband when nobody has asked her anything.
Darkrose
@mrmoshpotato: God, via Pope Southside Robby, is trying to tell Reinsdorf to sell the team.
Darkrose
@burnt: I replaced the battery on mine last year when it dipped below 80%, and it’s been great since then. $90 > however much they want for a new one was an easy choice.
azlib
@Soprano2:
I am a prostate cancer survivor. It was detected early and had not spread. My understanding is some types of prostate cancer are very aggressive and spread quickly. I had a friend die of prostate cancer and he went very quickly.
Prostate cancer is survivable and is not an automatic death sentence. Although having it metastize is not a good sign. Apparently, the current hormone therapies can be effective in slowing the spread.
Jackie
@sab: I don’t have Siri enabled on my phone. Or anything, for that matter.
mrmoshpotato
@Darkrose: LOL!
Also,
Very nice. (Though I’m already sick of the news stories about the new Pope.)
different-church-lady
@Jackie: I took the battery out of my phone. Just to be safe.
Melancholy Jaques
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hear hear! Even if it didn’t contribute to the shit the Republicans are doing, it’s unseemly.
Nettoyeur
@A Good Woman: The predictive accuracy of PSA testing has been openly questioned by the researcher who developed it. Lots of false positives. I had one myself, a bump from < 1 to 5. Doc said he had to recommend a biopsy which was very negative. We ultimately determined the std dose of testosterone I was getting was too high (makes prostate grow larger) so switched to weekly injections of half that dose, no further issues years later. Prostate cancer is generally slow, many men die with it but not from it.
Jackie
@different-church-lady: LOL!
Other MJS
How Could Biden Have Aggressive Prostate Cancer Despite Top Medical Care?
scav
How could so many have sudden-onset deafness and blindness while still managing to type in a forum that has actively expressed an utter lack of interest in their bullshit.
bluefoot
@Betty: My mother was in excellent shape, active, working part time teaching at a local junior college. Then one week she wasn’t feeling well, two weeks after that diagnosed with a rapidly progressing cancer. She died only a couple months later. She had literally just had her annual physical and a regular visit to her cardiologist the month before she started not feeling well. Absolutely no red flags.
“Cancer” isn’t a single disease but a whole constellation of types and course. And outcomes.
Bupalos
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m with you here. The only thing I find interesting about this and only metastasis I would speculate about is the rapidly spreading collapse of public trust. Conspiracy is almost a default assumption in every instance that allows it.
Marc
@Nettoyeur: 8 years ago I got a PSA of 22.5, up from my normal 3 or so. Since I have other issues, they did an MRI of the lower abdomen, ultrasounds of the prostate and bladder, plus a look at the bladder from the inside (not for the squeamish). Conclusion: my prostate was enlarged. Reason: Maybe you have prostatitis? Wait 6 months and see if the PSA goes back to normal. Which it did. Yes, lots of false positives.
Manyakitty
@Omnes Omnibus: this. And any doctors publicly stating they know for sure are talking out of their asses.
Jay
Found a vid of a canoe/kayak trip through the lower canyons of BC’s Chehalis River*.
One of my favorite places to fish in BC. Saw lot’s of lovely spots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x59PIX7HDWQ
This is early fall, low water.
*Washington State has it’s own Chehalis River. Quite different.
Chetan Murthy
I am -enraged- at the tone of the reporting and commentary about Biden’s cancer diagnosis. So the fuck what if he got cancer? So what if in fact he knew about it back when he was running the country, and for re-election? The ony reason it could -possibly- matter, is if you believe that him running the country, or winning re-election, would have been bad for the country, you fucktard Jake Tapper!
If in fact you think that Biden was doing a great job, that Harris would make an excellent President, then he was -sacrificing his last years for all our sake-.
But that’s not the way that fucktard Tapper sees it. The fucking MSM are all fucking traitors.
Ishiyama
The mega-donors think that they run the Democratic Party. The consultants think that they can manipulate public opinion with their “media strategies”. And the politicians, largely, let the donors and consultants do the thinking, instead of doing it themselves.
“But then the prospect of a lot of dull MPs, in close proximity, All thinking for themselves is what No man can face with equanimity.”
Jay
So, the Chehalis has sea run coastal cutthroat trout, resident cutthroat trout, Fraser Valley rainbow trout, 5 species of salmon, ( almost six), coho, pinks, chum, white and red Spring Salmon, sockeye, Dolly Varden Char and Bull trout, summer Steelhead and Winter Steelhead.
prostratedragon
@Soprano2:
Healthline article on aggressive prostate cancer. It is thought in general to appear very suddenly and progress rapidly.
ETA: Or, what reired oncology nurse Elie said.
JGreen
@Ishiyama: Hey! I know that one. It also has a leader of the House of Lords say: “I have a great respect for brains–I often wish I had some myself”. And this was in the 1880’s. (Explanation of references available on request).
cain
@trollhattan:
Ha, like I would trust someone names “John Gruber”. We know your brother, Hans, John! WE KNOW YOUR BROTHER, HANS!
Yippee, Kai, ya, yai!
cain
@Baud:
They suck. They are the Porche of 1945 Germany.
Jay
So, I anyone wonders why I posted the Chehalis vid, in this thread.;
Former President Joe Biden has cancer.
Okay, that’s Dr Jill Biden, Former President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and their friends “issue” along with his Medical team’s to deal with.
I am not going in any way, to “reward” click bait.
I wish them the best, Fuck Cancer, but that is it.
There are much, much worse things happening in the US.
prostratedragon
Hands Across Ogden Ave made the Rachel Maddow Show! Whole segment is interesting, with an example from Serbia recently of how public action can snowball its way into having an effect. But the link cues 10 minutes in, to USA news, including Aurora, IL which a Jackal said they would attend.
NotMax
Just watched the Garbo documentary new to Netflix. Rather, slogged all the way through it.
They managed to make everything about her life, her career and her persona gray and dull. Even the narration is rife with ennui, approaching somnolent.
Ruckus
@Eyeroller:
There seems to be some assumption that cancer is a slow-growing disease that can be found early if one just tries and has good health care, and that is frequently not at all the case.
I agree. Sometimes cancers are not obvious. Sometimes cancers age very fast, sometimes not. I’ve had 2 kinds and have been treated and they seem to be in remission. None of us know how long we have. One of my cousins made 6 months, mom made 95 years. There is no guarantee for any of this living stuff. Humanity has gotten used to better than life was, say a hundred years ago. We have better healthcare but this always ends the same for all of us. That better healthcare can and often does make for a better and longer life. And yet there is still that end of it bit that we all have to go through. Better is better but it still hasn’t replaced the concept of it. It still starts, has a middle and an end, with zero guarantee of how long or how good the middle is. We have better medicine. We know more about living, but it always ends up at the same place. It’s just when and how. In my lifetime we’ve pretty much gotten rid of a few diseases that most of us old farts lived through. We have vaccines that did not exist when I was born, for many diseases. Most people I grew up with, went to school with for 12 years, had these diseases. There was one vaccine when I was born. And that was rather new. The world has changed significantly in the last 75 years, mostly for the better. Not all mind you, but most of it is better.
Tony Jay
Which I presume is the basis of the ‘scandal’ that they’re circle-jerking their way around without actually coming out and saying it.
Isn’t it terrible that Joe Biden hid his cancer from the American Public in the hopes that he could foist Kamala Harris on a country we now know didn’t want her? Aren’t we great public servants for pushing the Biden Iz Old narrative so hard that he was forced to step aside and let democracy do its thing?
Once they’ve squeezed all the juice they can out of that rotten fruit, I’d expect them to move bonelessly onto the Scandal 2.0 version, insisting on investigations to ‘prove’ that the entire Democratic Establishment was in on the conspiracy that they can mine for juicy headlines for years.
Anything but cover The Pustule’s antics honestly. Anything but admit they were wrong to promote and protect his campaign.
tl:dr – These people are crap. Judge them accordingly.
Oh, and the only thing to say about Biden’s diagnosis is “That’s fucking awful. Fuck cancer.”
Betty Cracker
@Jay: Never been fishing in the PNW, but that sounds exciting!
I don’t fish, but have lounged around in boats or onshore reading or fiddling with my phone while others fish all my life, and I will gladly cook the catch.
Did you see the photos long-time commenter Raven posted the other day of his tuna haul? Impressive!
Elizabelle
@Tony Jay: Hello you.
Yeah. I am OVER U.S. media. Ship of fools. Judas goats. Fuck ’em.
Elizabelle
Does anyone have a snail mail address we can use for President and Mrs. Biden? Would love to send them a handwritten note or two.
Geminid
The odious, sex-trafficking Tate brothers are having a sad over the Romanian election, where their guy lost. They say they will not return to the scene of their crimes. Tristan Tate:
Someone reposted this with the comment:
Aussie Sheila
Off topic entirely. The conservative coalition in Australian has just split. Meaning the rural rump of conservatives here have decided to go it alone. They are a well organised Party and can rely on their partisan base. The urban conservatives, the Liberal Party have now lost a very long standing conservative Sydney electorate to an independent. In Australia 85% of the electorate live within 60ks of the coast. Or the verandah as we call it.
The centre left have now won 90%+ of the verandah.
It’s a wipeout even I couldn’t envision.
Good for another decade.
Baud
@Aussie Sheila:
Good for you. I’m jealous.
Tony Jay
@Elizabelle:
There’s nothing to be gained from being ‘shocked’, for want of a better word. They do what they do because of their ownership and their business model, which is to launder the Right’s radicalism to the public through misinformation and distraction.
Acknowledge what they are and the damage they do and forget about trying to shame them into doing any kind of adequate job. That ship has sailed, sunk, and is now home to a colony of rapacious moray eels.
JB
Very aggressive cancers are often such abnormal cells that they don’t make PSA. A friend had some urologic symptoms in his mid-50s, went to his doctor and a new lump was discovered that had appeared since the preceding year’s exam. He had a normal PSA and has never had an abnormal value. He was also found to have metastases to bone at diagnosis. Eleven years later, his main problem is side effects from the chemo drugs and his second problem is that he’s worried that he’s going to lose his job as a scientist at the NIH thanks to you-know-who.
My dad had a cancer level PSA from the earliest days of testing until he stopped getting tested at 80. He died of Alzheimer’s at 93.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Where are those rapist creeps now? Hopefully not here. I figured they’d never go back to Romania after Trump applied diplomatic pressure to lift their travel ban.
Baud
@Aussie Sheila:
Also too, you’re welcome.
Aussie Sheila
@Baud:
Thank you! I know that your political travails contributed somewhat to the win. But actually at a granular level it was about climate change. The LNP decided that the best way to deny the reality of climate change was to propose ‘nue nuclear’ power instead of solar. If there’s one thing Australia has a lot of, it’s Sun. So much in fact that we lead the world in skin cancers!
Yay us!
This is something that everyone knows. And I mean everyone.
The National Party rural rump opposes solar as an ideological issue. The urban Liberals are split on the issue.
Their ‘social liberal/fiscal conservative ‘ base is clear. It’s solar and wind and ‘where the fuck is the electrical grid up to’.
The Nats are solid. Solidly stupid.
The urban conservatives are split.
Shorter.
They’re fucked.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Eyeroller: Something as “benign” as a hypertonic pelvic floor can cause all of those symptoms too.
AnonPhenom
@Baud: “Ah, the Harry Truman gambit”
AKA: The Henry Wallace Hosing.
or
“Why, Yes There Have Always Been *Those* Kinda Dems.”
MagdaInBlack
@Omnes Omnibus: This.
Baud
@AnonPhenom:
In fairness, FDR changed Veeps like people change the underwear.
raven
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I have an appointment with a pelvic floor therapist next month. Right now I’m on my way to get my heart shocked and Thursday I get a synovial cyst aspiration. Getting old ain’t for sissies!
AWJ
@Leto: I would take that article with an enormous grain of salt, after looking at some of the articles that Substack has written about Ukraine. The writer appears to be a GlobalResearch/Grayzone style wingnut.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I don’t know where the Tates are now. Those Romanian charges haven’t been dropped, so the brothers may eventually have to find some nation that won extradict them. The U.S. might be safe for now. The Romanians may be reluctant to press for extradition.
Miss Bianca
@Baud:
You mean…every four years? *Shudder*.
MJN
@Elizabelle:
The only contact information I’ve found listed The Biden Institute and The Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children.
The Biden Institute: 44 Kent Way, Newwark, DE 19716.
The Beau Biden Foundation: P.O. Box 7819, Wilmington, DE 19803
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@A Good Woman: A high PSA test result is not always a good indicator that the person has prostate cancer and a person can have cancer and have a low PSA. A digital rectal exam is a much better indicator. Some prostate cancers grow very fast and by the time they are found they are treatable but not curable. There is no cover up and I don’t think his docs missed it. A dear friend of mine had vague symptoms for about a month went to the doctor, was referred for further tests and diagnosed with a very aggressive prostate cancer, already stage 4. They did what they could but it had already spread to his bladder, brain and bones. He died three months later. He was 42.
worn
@Betty: Haven’t read through all the commenhts, but popping up to second this. Last March, my 80 year old father suffered a minor fall just seemed to knock every bit of wind out of his sails.
After a week of him doing rather poorly, we forced him to go to his PCP and requested of her that she send him to the hospital. Tests while there discovered lung cancer that had metastasized to his brain (and this with him having had a lung x-ray just a couple of months earlier where nothing was found).
He passed away 4 weeks later. It was a shockingly fast process. I am still reeling from it all.
Fuck cancer.
worn
My heart goes out to you, rikyrah. I can deeply emphasize about how much of a gut punch it is to receive such a diagnosis (see my #122).
Ol' Fezziwig
Are you still masking?