The Frankish Reich

So now we officially have KDS. Kamala Derangement Syndrome. The Trumper meltdown is on! It's a coup! It's unfair! But you didn't tell us Kamala would be on the exam!!

I just loved that Thurgood Marshall response. He was 83 or 84 when he retired, obviously wasn't in great health, and reporters were stupidly asking "why are you retiring." No one ever said it better. Because I'm old, you effin idiots!

https://www.statnews.com/2017/05/23/donald-trump-speaking-style-interviews/ In interviews Trump gave in the 1980s and 1990s (with Tom Brokaw, David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey, Charlie Rose, and others), he spoke articulately, used sophisticated vocabulary, inserted dependent clauses into his sentences without losing his train of thought, and strung together sentences into a polished paragraph, which — and this is no mean feat — would have scanned just fine in print. This was so even when reporters asked tough questions about, for instance, his divorce, his brush with bankruptcy, and why he doesn’t build housing for working-class Americans. Now, Trump’s vocabulary is simpler. He repeats himself over and over, and lurches from one subject to an unrelated one, as in this answer during an interview with the Associated Press last month: “People want the border wall. My base definitely wants the border wall, my base really wants it — you’ve been to many of the rallies. OK, the thing they want more than anything is the wall. My base, which is a big base; I think my base is 45 percent. You know, it’s funny. The Democrats, they have a big advantage in the Electoral College. Big, big, big advantage. … The Electoral College is very difficult for a Republican to win, and I will tell you, the people want to see it. They want to see the wall.”

And yet, despite a brain resembling overnight oats, the United States continues to hum right along. Hell, even the markets aren't bothered a bit by the fact that the country is being governed by a dead man sitting. https://www.cnbc.com/us-markets/

What you really want to do is to compare the young Trump to the old man Trump. It's at least as compelling as the change in Biden.

Not a burn. Just the truth. Typically someone of Tarheel's age will have moved on to a supervisory role ...

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a the Woman he Finger Raped.

Yes. The Ozempic is sadly nonselective, reducing bust size too.

Poor Nancy Mace. Tried to pull the female version of the JD Vance pirouette, going from Never Trumper to Trump Humper. Even went all Ozempic on us to gain the great man's attention. (She looks good; now give her a sandwich already) And all for naught. But Hey, Secretary of Labor is out there for those who grandstand!

I stand corrected. 21 years as "Vodkapundit" and I have never received any opinions directly from him. Let's keep it that way.

The question here, "Why did Biden drop out," reminds me of what Thurgood Marshall said upon his retirement from the Supreme Court: https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4552136/user-clip-justice-marshall-old "I'm old. I'm old and I'm coming apart." Sometimes that's all there is to it.

The upshot: his moronic and idiotic behavior has no medical cause.

And again: his own Cabinet members "called it out" and said that he has a pathological inability to concentrate or to digest complicated information. Whether that's age-related or something else (adult ADHD? I don't know), the fact is we have reliable insider reports from some highly successful people (Rex Tillerson, Gen Kelly, etc.) that he is not fit for the job.

Hey, Mikey Flynn's wingman, it looks like you rediscovered QAnon all by yourself! Continue living in your fantasy world. By the way, your description of you job duties confirms my guess: lab tech. Maybe Trump 47 will help to advance your career before you hit 70. Loser.

actually Trump is his VP, according to Biden himself.

You're right. Biden should have called it a sabbatical. Maybe he could run as Kamala's VP

Here's one of the classic "I don't trust my own opinions so I have to copy/paste some unknown pundit's take." There is nothing in this post beyond speculation. So go ahead and give us B-Man's speculations. Unfiltered. Straight from the horse's ass.

Because it's so weird to put the more personal cause before the general one. "I am retiring as coach of the Buffalo Bills in order to spend more time with my family, and to give the Bills franchise that I love the best opportunity to move forward with a new coach who can fully commit to the job."

Oh, we already know they won't be true. I think some people are worried about JD's past! https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-convinced-himself-gay-hillbilly-elegy-trump-vp-2024-7 Just like Obama?

I guess I don't hang on Elon's every word like you do.

I am saying - and have said for a long time - that we shouldn't be electing anyone to national office who will be 80+ before the end of their term. I'd actually go with 75. Reagan was in decline in his second term; I still believe that even in retrospect he was "fit" (and generally successful) to serve. Do you think Reagan wasn't fit?

Ahh, thanks for the diagnosis. Another doctor I guess. This is becoming a doctor's forum. Your Twitter monkeys most have spent some quality time with the DSM to find that one.

Well, thanks, Elon, for the Monday Morning Quarterback post. The insiders all told you when it was coming and exactly when it was coming but you kept that to yourself. I'm impressed.

Again, look at the chart. I've said what we're seeing with Biden is not atypical with a man of his age. And will not be atypical as we see Trump move into that age. So I see that you struggle with comprehension (are you in your late 60s?), but the point is that he is mentally competent to serve as president, but there are very serious concerns about someone of that age committing to an additional four year term. Is fit. May not be fit in 3 or 4 years. Is that really so hard to understand? And apply it to the other guy. I find him unfit not because of his age (yet), but because many of his closest advisers as well as his own VP candidate are on record calling him an "idiot" or "moron." As in "an idiot right now," not "may become an idiot some day." Really, has that ever happened with any other president in history? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Pro Bowler's Association? Yeah. Nobody who's worked closely with him has every called him an "idiot" or an "effin moron."

Applying the NYT chart to myself: I'm in my late 50s. I definitely know that my Spatial Visualization (which fades quicker) is not what it was in my 20s. Part of that was I was in a very different job - one that required that skill - when I was young. So lack of practice. But also just something that requires effort now, that came easily/naturally in my younger years. Vocabulary? Yeah, that's at it's peak. I have fun using unusual words and phrases with the Gen Z'ers and Millennials I supervise. Speed? As in speed of recall? Yeah. Sometimes a name or word doesn't come to me immediately anymore. But it comes. The metaphor is the hard drive in my brain chugging through an old-fashioned "search" function. Reasoning? I don't think I'm being too kind to myself to say that that is at its peak. That's what my job is, and I catch all kinds of logical errors in the legal briefs, etc, that I review. Memory? I don't detect any issues, but maybe my kids do. I don't remember ... Look at the chart. I'm saying that mental acuity with aging is not a linear function, and that there are certain steep declines to be expected in one's late 70s and early 80s. I thought you taught math?