Given his age and other worrying signs, senility is the most natural and likely explanation. — hypericin

He's never been a fluent speaker and has often been prone to verbal slips. I presume as the President that he's is subject to regular medical examinations, right? And that if he were displaying symptoms of senile dementia, this is something that these examinations would detect? And that, were it detected, the responsible medical officers would report it and not try to conceal it? So, no, I don't believe he's technically senile, that is another slur that is used by his political opponents. But he is clearly affected by (as I said, enfeebled by) age, so it probably doesn't matter as far as the electorate is concerned. Many will regard him as senile, regardless.

I think Biden should have complete physical and cognitive exams which witll then be released in document form (minimally redacted only for national security) and summarized by his physicians in a public press conference asap. He should also publicly dare The obese, neofascist, criminal Clown to do exactly the same, and let the chips fall where they may with the voters. :mask:

His most recent medical examination report published by the White House.

The substance won't matter, though. Perception is everything, especially in this media-driven landscape. If he's perceived to be senile, then no reassurance from doctors will change that view. And Trump's health or mental stability or lack of it also won't matter. He is going to have to be beaten at the ballot box, there's no credible alternative. And I'm now agreeing with many others, that I don't think Joe Biden is the man who's going to do it.

Regrettably, Trump seemed vigorous and not affected by age in that debate. — Wayfarer

He's also fat and eats a bunch of junk food which goes great with being 78. If he gets a heart attack or chokes on a BIg Mac that wouldn't surprise me.

:pray:

Yes, of course, the ballot box will be the final arbiter but if Biden stays in the race he has to address the "senile, enfeebled" issue with evidence his surrogates and down-ballot Dem candidates can use while campaigning to better inform voters. Biden's duty is to drop out and failing that I think he has a duty to the US electorate to provide medical reason as well as performative deplays which corroborate why he doesn't step aside. And the contrast with The obsese, neofascist, criminal Clown's response to a medical & cognitive exams challenge will not be lost of the still persuadeable +5% of voters in the swings states which will decide the election in the Electoral College.

I think Biden should have complete physical and cognitive exams which witll then be released in document form (minimally redacted only for national security) and summarized by his physicians in a public press conference asap. — 180 Proof

Doesn't matter since the public perception is that Biden is too old to run. If it's a good report his opponents will claim they falsified it and if it's not then they will run with it.

This is of course putting aside the fact that Trump when he was president released an incredibly dubious health report from his physician, who at the time claimed he could "live to be 200 years old". I don't know where that physician is now, but rumor has it that he is serving in the US congress as a Republican.

He did. Ronny someone. Got that reward for being a compliant flunky and saying good things about the Orange Emperor. That'll guarantee you a place in the MAGA pantheon.

Again - hope you're right :pray:

Both sets of exams can be independently verified by a third party (audit) if Biden's campaigb is serious about getting the maximum effect (no matter how marginal). If not, if the "perception" is so irreparable", then he needs to step aside like Lyndon Johnson did in 1968 – of course, VP Harris might also lose (after a brutally divisive convention floor fight) like VP Humphrey lost to Nixon. :brow:

The disgraced puke (former US Rear Admiral) Dr. Ronny Jackson is a MAGA (morons against great america)-stooge congressman from Texas.

Both sets of exams can be independently verified by a third party (audit) if Biden's campaigb is serious about getting the maximum effect (no matter how marginal). — 180 Proof

Doesn't really matter in this post-truth world. We live in an age where Trump can shoot someone on fifth avenue, claim he didn't, and alot of his supporters would take his word.

If not, if the "perception" is so irreparable", then he needs to step aside like Lyndon Johnson did in 1968 – of course, VP Harris might also lose (after a brutally divisive convention floor fight) like VP Humphrey lost to Nixon. :brow: — 180 Proof

That's my solution honestly, for Biden to step aside like he should've months ago.

I actually don't think the convention floor fight would be as divisive as some may fear. The Democrats have proven they are capable of unifying very quickly when necessary. That's actually how Biden became the nominee in 2020 after all, where in the span of 3 days they managed to get all the moderate candidates to drop out and endorse Biden before Super Tuesday in a desperate attempt to block Bernie Sanders from the nomination.

I feel like if they are gonna go through with a new convention all the leaders should simply agree beforehand to fall in line behind whoever the candidate is given the urgency of the situation. That's where I suspect any potential divisions could come from. As for the voters themselves... honestly I'd imagine most would just be happy that they don't have to vote for either Trump or Biden.

I really find it hard to believe that Biden, Harris, or other party elites/their inner circles actually believe their own dire warnings about what a second Trump term would mean. If they really thought it meant "the end of America," and great suffering or even armed conflict then they'd step down and try to engineer the strongest ticket possible as their replacement.

Just off the top of my head, Beshear won deep red Kentucky as a Democratic governor so handily that the election was called almost as the polls closed, and has long be one of the most popular national level politicians with his own constituency. I am sure there are other good options. You could even get creative and see if Charlie Baker, a Republican who handily won two terms in liberal Massachusetts would take the VP spot as a sort of unity ticket.

But nothing like that is remotely possible from what I understand. One of the key reasons Biden isn't stepping down is because Harris seems even less popular, and Harris seems to have indicated to people in a position to know that she won't let the nomination pass to anyone else without a significant fight. Indeed, if "sources close to Biden" in all the papers are to be believed, Biden is using Harris's commitment to receiving the nomination if he backs out as his main argument for staying.

They clearly can't think it's really that dire, at least not as respects their own futures. From the reporting I saw, the way Biden got everyone to fall in line behind him in 2020 was basically by playing chicken and declaring he'd stay in no matter what, split the vote, and give Bernie the nomination. If that's true, I think there is probably no chance he backs out now.

Unfortunately, I do not think he will win, and even worse for the country, he probably will still carry the popular vote by some small margin.

Is Biden a national security threat? His performance and public meanderings make it clear that the first virtual President of the United States is hardly able to close his mouth or walk off a stage, let alone discharge the powers and duties of his office.

Intelligent people shouldn't be taking the US elections at face value, but try to make sense of it through the acknowledgement that in the West too we are living in corrupt oligarchies.

To make this thread more interesting, here are some questions/statements that should stir up some debate.

- Polarizing figures like Biden and Trump are instrumental to keeping the US public divided (thus weak), bickering over subjects that don't matter to the US elites, so said elites can push their own agendas in the background.

- Maintaining a roughly 50/50 split makes it easy for the elites to manipulate the outcome of the election.

- Maintaining a roughly 50/50 split significantly increases the influence of lobbies and voting blocs. (In case anyone is wondering where for example Israel's lobbying power comes from)

- That Biden was going to lose the debate was obvious. Therefore, whoever put him up to it must have had this as their goal.

Let's hear what you have to say.

I presume as the President that he's is subject to regular medical examinations, right? And that if he were displaying symptoms of senile dementia, this is something that these examinations would detect? — Wayfarer

At Biden's last physical, a cognitive test was not given. The doctors gave him a clean bill of health. It seems to me that the doctors didn't look for what they didn't want to find. If your loved one slurred their words and glitched out and fell down, you'd have the doc give them the test. That's why many think Jill's guilty of elder abuse.

From NPR:

Biden just got a physical. But a cognitive test was not part of the assessment

President Biden got his latest physical on Wednesday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center — an evaluation that the White House said drew on the expertise of 20 doctors but did not involve a cognitive exam.

And that, were it detected, the responsible medical officers would report it and not try to conceal it? — Wayfarer

It follows, therefore, that the doctors were being political, and not responsible. Biden's shown signs of age-related cognitive impairment for five or six years. It's gotten much worse the past two years, and much much worse the past several weeks.

As I watched the debate, I said to myself that Biden is relatively lucid tonight. Because he was no worse than he's been for the past couple of months, and at least he didn't glitch out for a minute at a time, as he did at the Juneteenth event.

I was shocked to find all the Dems and liberals horrified to see his condition, and the very next day to see the New York Times calling for him to step out of the race. It seems that a lot of people on the left have only been watching MSNBC and reading the NY Times, which as recently as June 21 was calling Biden's cognitive decline a right wing conspiracy theory.

How Misleading Videos Are Trailing Biden as He Battles Age Doubts

A flurry of recent clips, many of them edited or lacking context, laid bare a major challenge for the president as he tries to persuade voters he has the energy for a second term.

It's all a right wing plot according to the Paper of Record. Six days later their editorial board called on him to quit. And when Biden loses the New York Times, it's like LBJ losing Cronkite over the Vietnam war.

When Robert Hur called Biden, "an elderly man with a poor memory," did you think he was just one of Orange Hitler's minions? (Fess up, you probably did). When Joe glitched out at the G7, did you believe KJP when she called the video a cheap fake? It still looked every bit as bad when you saw the version with the parachutist in the frame.

Wayfarer, you and your fellow Dems and liberals have been gaslighted by the media. Those of us who read alternative media and even (gasp) scurrilous right wing media, have been watching Biden glitch out for months. We've noticed that he doesn't do interviews except with the most friendly journalists. That he gets cheat sheets at his infrequent press conferences, telling him who to call on and what questions they're going to ask. We watched him campaign from his basement in 2020, which he got away with due to covid. Even during the 2020 primaries, when he was doing badly before the Clyburn deal (when everyone else dropped out), he was showing early signs of age-related cognitive impairment.

To those of us no longer on the Dem plantation (for the record, I used to be), Biden's sad decline has been blatantly obvious for years. I'm amazed he made it this far.

All I can say to the millions of liberals who saw Biden's infirmity for the first time the other night is, where have you been? The real point is not just that Biden's that far gone. The real point is that Biden's been that far gone for a long time, and the Democrats and media have been lying to you about it all along. Those close to him surely knew. The world leaders he met at G7 surely knew. Everybody knew except for the people who get their news from the New York Times.

Ronny someone. Got that reward for being a compliant flunky and saying good things about the Orange Emperor. That'll guarantee you a place in the MAGA pantheon. — Wayfarer

Brother you've got it bad. A smart guy like you getting played by the New York Times and Rachel Maddow for years. How'd that happen? Aren't you even a little angry that everyone around the president knew about Biden's condition, and lied to you about it? Not just the pols, but the media too. "BIden's got a stutter." "Biden's always talked slowly." "Biden's sharp as a tack." And now? Every one of those pols and media jackals is sticking a knife in the man's back.

You mean Ronny Jackson, Obama's physician as well as Trump's. Currently a Congressman from Texas. Former Rear Admiral of the Navy.

Well, what now for the Dems? They could have dealt with the Biden situation last fall, when his infirmity was clear and there was time to have a serious primary contest. Now? Every option looks bad.

According to party rules, the delegates that Biden won during the primaries (no actual primary competition allowed, and how's that decision looking today?) are bound to Biden. They can't vote for anyone else at the convention unless Biden releases them. And Biden says he's staying, and more importantly, Doctor Jill is not going out quietly. She likes the power and Joe does what she says. Did you see her praising him after the debate? "Joe you got all the questions right! You knew all the facts!" Someone said that's how they talk to their cat.

Kamala's unpopular. Newsom's male and pale, can't leap over Kamala. Pritzker, Whitmer? I've heard talk about Pennsylvania governor Shapiro, but it's not a good year for guys named Shapiro in the Democratic party. Not popular with the Hamas wing. And by the way, why does your party even have a Hamas wing? Aren't you embarrassed about that? Queers for Palestine, baby, Up the Revolution!

There is only one Democrat who could leap over Kamala and not split the party in two. You know who I mean. SHE Who Must Not Be Indicted. Yes the Hildebeast herself, Hillary Clinton.

Trump versus Hillary. The inevitable denouement of our long national psychodrama.

You read it hear first. It's Hillary. She's got a brand new book out last week. You think she's not ready to rumble? She could win. God knows Trump's a flawed man.

When Robert Hur called Biden, "an elderly man with a poor memory," did you think he was just one of Orange Hitler's minions? (Fess up, you probably did). — fishfry

No, but I think it was cherry-picked by many of them. As you probably know, Jim Jordan has tried to take the Justice Department and Attorney General to court to get his hands on the original recordings.

According to party rules, the delegates that Biden won during the primaries (no actual primary competition allowed, and how's that decision looking today?) are bound to Biden. They can't vote for anyone else at the convention unless Biden releases them. — fishfry

We'll see. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

We'll see. — Wayfarer

Agree with you there, long way to November.

I still reckon there's a possiblity that if a new nominee appeared at the eleventh hour, there could be a huge rush to them, just on account of him/her (probably 'him') being an alternative to the godawful mess that now exists.

I still reckon there's a possiblity that if a new nominee appeared at the eleventh hour, there could be a huge rush to them, just on account of him/her (probably 'him') being an alternative to the godawful mess that now exists. — Wayfarer

Bobby Jr! Another long shot idea.

He's just a spoiler. Pity the worm didn't have a better appetite.

I have exactly zero trust in the average intelligence of people. They do not have a historical perspective so don't understand fascism.

it's only 4 years. Probably that is the main consideration to do fuck all. I've said it before and I'll say it again: US elections are for Democrats to lose or win. The GOP ought to be largely irrelevant due to its dwindling base resulting from demographic changes, but here we are with them goosestepping in line with the orange clown actually having a serious chance to win.

I have exactly zero trust in the average intelligence of people. They do not have a historical perspective so don't understand fascism. — Benkei

Plato couldn’t have said it better.

US elections are for Democrats to lose or win. — Benkei

:up:

Bobby Jr! Another long shot idea. — fishfry

The 70 year old anti-vax conspiracy theorist who has dealt with literal brain worms... we really have a great slate of candidates this year.

The 70 year old anti-vax conspiracy theorist — Mr Bee

You should probably listen to what the guy has to say first, instead of parroting slogans peddled by political rivals.

This is exactly why you don't get better candidates, you see?

In fact, this whole thread seems to be a microcosm for why that is. Many here seem to deem themselves above all the bullshit, yet are playing the exact same game as the masses.

You should probably listen to what the guy has to say first, instead of parroting slogans peddled by political rivals. — Tzeentch

Look at this point I just want somebody who's not insane, not a criminal, and below the expected retirement age. Is that too much to ask?

All of it reads to me like it assumes some modicum of cunning and foresight. I don’t think there is a conspiracy of any sort because most are too dumb to pull it off. What we’re watching is simply the result of the insane and self-interested (and now dementia-ridden) in their natural state when they’ve achieved a little bit of power. The state of the world is the result of their choices, sure, but I don’t think they’re trying to divide people, for instance.

At Biden's last physical, a cognitive test was not given. The doctors gave him a clean bill of health. It seems to me that the doctors didn't look for what they didn't want to find. If your loved one slurred their words and glitched out and fell down, you'd have the doc give them the test. That's why many think Jill's guilty of elder abuse. — fishfry

It is obvious for every neutral party. The world knows the president of Yankees has pathological cognitive decline. It is only those coping with their political affiliation that must deny it no matter what.

Everybody who has been around dementia patients will see what is going on. The patient's regress to a child-like state is symptomatic of dementia:



The occasional moments of lucidity are not, as some think, proof that Biden is fine. On the contrary. People in the earlier stages of Alzheimer's and dementia oscillate in their cognitive state, have moments of clarity to then relapse.

I don’t think there is a conspiracy of any sort because most are too dumb to pull it off. — NOS4A2

Dumb and no conspiracy, yet they keep managing to send people's children off to wars no one asked for.

Wow. It’s quite embarrassing that the president of the United States must be spoken to like a child, but his stupid grin says it all.

It was funny because during the debate someone from the Biden campaign ran to the media and told them he had a cold. They reported it dutifully. His whole presidency has been a blizzard of lies, but this particular one was perfect as it encapsulates how Biden has gotten away with it for so long—plausible deniability.