Joe Biden 2: President Dark Brandon For The Win!

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

I wasn't referring to Biden's age in 2nd half of my post - 50 years is too long to be in politics period. (possibly excluding a situation where you moved a lot or something)

And yeah 36 years as a senator is too long. You're entrenched. It's ridiculous. People change, population ins  a district changes needs and interests change - And yet the same dude representing you from your birth into your middle age or for most of your voting life? How is that "by the people"

Somebody in high level politics for literally decades - At some point it's just a different sort of entrenched ruling class and I'm not here for it.

American politics more and more favors people who have connections because of the financial ties to big donors plus the costs of campaigns - which adds a level of almost automatic corruption.

If I was some big donor or some business trying to influence - it's a lot easier if you know for 30 years you've been supporting the same guy and you have an "in" with him. If politicians turned over more often it would be harder for them build up those insider connections AND it would be less attractive to big $$ to spend it all on 1 candidate. You'd know that person wasn't going to be in that position for 50 years. JD Vance got 15 million from 1 donor(per forbes, and at least 10 million was just for his Ohio Senate race). That donor wasn't interested in JD Vance freshman senator - that donor was getting in on the ground floor of whatever JD Vance is going to do career wise for the next FORTY years. 

If there was 2-3 term limit on senators - then that's 18 years max. then maybe a presidential run or a high level cabinet office -so *maybe* 30 years and then you're done. Let other people in.

 

[LongTimeLurkerOG]

I was talking with my 70+yo parent earlier and they think how Biden was treated is BS from the "dick wads" and the SC reform definitely should be put in place. I agree. (It's funny when they swear more... Today was off the chain lol) 

They've also been to different political events years ago and one of my grandparents, attended DNC one year at least. Makes me want to get more involved but not running lol 

Edited August 20 by LongTimeLurkerOG
More info

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

I wish I had the mental bandwith to be more involved...and honestly the health. I don't like to admit it to myself but my health is not getting better and all these "next year when I feel  better" plans are not happening. 

I don't like how they pushed Biden out BUT at the same time -that fluidity is what we need. Putting up the same people over and over needs to stop. I voted for clinton because she was democrat and I was excited for a woman. But I would have preferred other options for the same reasons I've stated above. The Clintons are very entrenched and they're not squeaky clean. If we didn't get so locked in on these ideas that the VP is the "natural successor" to the Pres. I think it would help. I don't think democrats "owed" it to biden to stick with him through thick and thin. I don't know a lot about England's parliament and other European style democracies - but it seems like there's ability to change out leadership that isn't working or to accept it WAS working but the situation has changed.I don't have the answers but I think we're facing some serious flaws and a whole political party who has decided to actually purposefully  and openly leverage the flaws against the greater will of the people. And that's a new development.

The Supreme court is utter bullshit I really have nothing else to say. Not only are they making wacky rulings but the way they sat on all the trump/trump adjacent things until the last possible minute--- I just can't have any more contempt for them and their blatant corrupt partisanship.

[noseybutt]

19 hours ago, LongTimeLurkerOG said:

Why the fuck isn't anyone focusing on Trump's cognitive decline? Seriously, not just the joking.

Some people I know are sharper at or near Biden's age than much younger people. The ageism is getting pretty disgusting. Except for effectively shutting down herr orange. 

I am not sure who the "anyone" is that you refer to.

Do you mean me personally? Because yes, Trump's speech has become increasingly tangential and less linear. Since early days he has also been a bully and a lier and very self-centered and those personality traits without cognitive decline are reason enough to run screaming from the room and I don't think cognitive decline on top of that really changes the picture all that much. He will still continue to bully and lie and make decisions that are extremely self-serving. His insight and decision making skills have been warped since forever and the kind of cognitive decline he demonstrates will continue him down the same path.

Do you mean the press? Because I think that is a more complicated question. I don't follow enough specific journalists or news outlets to have a good handle on what is going with the press, but my sense is that they have very much struggled to cover Trump because he is so far Out There that new news doesn't really make him even more Out There. At some point the WTF moments become the norm and thus not really newsworthy.

I also think with Trump that his cognitive symptoms follow a less recognizable pattern--it's harder to put a diagnosis on it because there are so many layers of problematic personality traits.

As frustrated as you are with me for what I wrote, I have been extremely frustrated that Democrats were minimizing Biden's health and continuing on as if nothing was changing right in front of them. And then saying a Parkinson's specialist didn't visit the White House--oh wait, he did but he saw people beside the president---well, maybe he did see the president. Come on. Biden is a decent person but his health is not the greatest and why is so hard to admit that and go to plan B? It is not our best interest to have a leader with a progressive neurodegenerative disease. I don't doubt that Biden is quite competent at the moment, but a progressive neurological condition by definition means that competence will fade, and it is more likely to fade quickly when he is under stress. 

It is even less in our best interest to have a leader who bullies and lies and has cognitive decline on top of that. I assumed that as a given.
 

[Howl]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but the Deseret News (Mormon church mouthpiece) posted this clueless op-ed: Why Biden failed at achieving unity — and what we can learn from that   Published: Aug 8, 2024, 9:00 p.m. MDT by Zachary Elwood.  Elwood was at one point Utah senator Mike Lee's Chief of Staff.  Mike Lee, as you all may know, is one of those huge Trump humpers who originally called out Trump for being an awful human being. 

I was comforted by reading the comments section, where the author was called out by so many responders on the idiocy of this accusation against Biden, like this guy:

"Sorry Zachary, but your arguments are not persuasive enough to conclude that President Biden's errors are even close to the inane and outrageous bloviating and actions by Mr. Trump. It is Trump who has ignited the flames of division and corrosive interaction to a degree never before seen in America. With my very eyes, I witnessed the unthinkable on January 6th, there is no equivalency to that level of extremism and divisiveness by Trump on Joe Biden's part."

And another response: 

"It’s interesting to see how Mike Lee’s former Chief of Staff is filling the DN [Deseret News] with reporters that skew the Truth of All Things.

We’re to believe Trump is as pure as Captain Moroni and Mike Lee is the God Given interpreter of the Constitution of the United States of America.

Mike Lee covets the past 3 Republican Supreme Court justices that Trump put on the court and even was at the last nominating of Justice Barrett and got COVID along with Donald J Trump but a month later crowned and ordained Trump a Captain Moroni in Arizona where Mike was born..."

[CTRLZero]

15 minutes ago, Howl said:

Wasn't sure where to put this, but the Deseret News (Mormon church mouthpiece) posted this clueless op-ed:

I’ve been studying LDS/Mormon history and find it very useful in understanding how the Republican party morphed into MAGA.  Just my opinion, of course, but it’s very instructive of how you can get a group to believe anything, turn off your own moral compass, go big on “us versus them,” cover up and change history using alternative facts (apologetics), and rake in a lot of money at the same time.  This isn’t the only organization that does this, but it’s a very instructive microcosm.  Thanks for posting the article.  

[Alisamer]

On 8/20/2024 at 6:51 PM, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

I wasn't referring to Biden's age in 2nd half of my post - 50 years is too long to be in politics period. (possibly excluding a situation where you moved a lot or something)

And yeah 36 years as a senator is too long. You're entrenched. It's ridiculous. People change, population ins  a district changes needs and interests change - And yet the same dude representing you from your birth into your middle age or for most of your voting life? How is that "by the people"

Somebody in high level politics for literally decades - At some point it's just a different sort of entrenched ruling class and I'm not here for it.

American politics more and more favors people who have connections because of the financial ties to big donors plus the costs of campaigns - which adds a level of almost automatic corruption.

If I was some big donor or some business trying to influence - it's a lot easier if you know for 30 years you've been supporting the same guy and you have an "in" with him. If politicians turned over more often it would be harder for them build up those insider connections AND it would be less attractive to big $$ to spend it all on 1 candidate. You'd know that person wasn't going to be in that position for 50 years. JD Vance got 15 million from 1 donor(per forbes, and at least 10 million was just for his Ohio Senate race). That donor wasn't interested in JD Vance freshman senator - that donor was getting in on the ground floor of whatever JD Vance is going to do career wise for the next FORTY years. 

If there was 2-3 term limit on senators - then that's 18 years max. then maybe a presidential run or a high level cabinet office -so *maybe* 30 years and then you're done. Let other people in.

 

So much all of this. I keep thinking of Strom Thurmond. In congress for nearly 50 years, he was 100 and still in congress. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD. And still supposedly representing people of all ages, races, and backgrounds.

He was old enough to have heard the news when the Titanic sank. He was a teenager when the first ever commercial flight took place. He was a young adult when radio became common. He was well into adulthood when TV became commonplace in homes - and then only homes with decent incomes. He was well past the usual retirement age before the internet became commonly available to average people. He was an adult when Betty White was born and when Alexander Graham Bell died. He was born the same year as the first time an American president ever rode in an automobile. He was 67 when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon. He grew up in the segregated South with black servants (one of whom he knocked up when she was 15 and he was 22 - he paid for his daughter's college tuition but kept her existence secret until after his death) and was 50 before the civil rights movement began in earnest - and he vehemently opposed the civil rights movement. 

And until January 2003, he was still in congress. 

It's very cool that he went from radio and telephones being a fancy new exciting technology to being able to speak to and see anyone anywhere on the planet - or beyond - at any moment... he was 25 when the first transatlantic phone call was ever made! It must have been fascinating to see air travel begin, flourish, and then at the end of his life see - and be able to communicate with in real time - people literally living in a space station in orbit. 

But holy crap he was 100. What the heck was he doing in congress? Or still working at all? How exactly was he supposed to accurately represent people born and growing up in such a totally different world?

I feel like elderly people are important - their opinions are valuable, their experiences are invaluable, and being a living link to our history is an amazing thing. I think they should be listened to and consulted and their stories recorded. But for pete's sake, retire already. Be a mentor, take up a hobby, do whatever makes you happy, but when you are old enough you can gather the entire population of the state who are older than you into one mid sized hotel conference room, you are not likely to be adequately representing your state!

[kpmom]

Very interesting comments regarding the Op-Ed piece @Howl
thanks for posting. 
 

As one of commenters wrote, it’s his Supreme Court picks, and the end of Roe v Wade that people like the op-ed writer appreciate. And they’ll put up with lies, chaos, and even a mob of Americans attacking their own Capitol to get it. 
 

 

 

[SassyPants]

21 hours ago, Alisamer said:

So much all of this. I keep thinking of Strom Thurmond. In congress for nearly 50 years, he was 100 and still in congress. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD. And still supposedly representing people of all ages, races, and backgrounds.

He was old enough to have heard the news when the Titanic sank. He was a teenager when the first ever commercial flight took place. He was a young adult when radio became common. He was well into adulthood when TV became commonplace in homes - and then only homes with decent incomes. He was well past the usual retirement age before the internet became commonly available to average people. He was an adult when Betty White was born and when Alexander Graham Bell died. He was born the same year as the first time an American president ever rode in an automobile. He was 67 when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon. He grew up in the segregated South with black servants (one of whom he knocked up when she was 15 and he was 22 - he paid for his daughter's college tuition but kept her existence secret until after his death) and was 50 before the civil rights movement began in earnest - and he vehemently opposed the civil rights movement. 

And until January 2003, he was still in congress. 

It's very cool that he went from radio and telephones being a fancy new exciting technology to being able to speak to and see anyone anywhere on the planet - or beyond - at any moment... he was 25 when the first transatlantic phone call was ever made! It must have been fascinating to see air travel begin, flourish, and then at the end of his life see - and be able to communicate with in real time - people literally living in a space station in orbit. 

But holy crap he was 100. What the heck was he doing in congress? Or still working at all? How exactly was he supposed to accurately represent people born and growing up in such a totally different world?

I feel like elderly people are important - their opinions are valuable, their experiences are invaluable, and being a living link to our history is an amazing thing. I think they should be listened to and consulted and their stories recorded. But for pete's sake, retire already. Be a mentor, take up a hobby, do whatever makes you happy, but when you are old enough you can gather the entire population of the state who are older than you into one mid sized hotel conference room, you are not likely to be adequately representing your state!

My family visited senate hearing in the summer of 2002, and we actually saw Thurmond on the floor. He was wheeled in by a HC professional in a reclined wheelchair. The attendant stayed with him throughout the session. There is no way ST had any idea of what was happening that day.

My own parents are 90ish and in frail health. They live in their own home. Last week they were laying bricks in their yard and winterizing their home in the 100 degree heat. They are stubborn and refuse to use any assist devices. Yes, they are driving my sibs and me mad. 

[Ozlsn]

It surprises me that firstly people kept electing him and secondly that there was no push back from local party reps to him continuing to run. But to be essentially incapacitated in the Congress - surely there is a mechanism to recall and hold a by-election here.

[GreyhoundFan]

I hear ya, Joe...