The Frankish Reich

Really not so relevant here, but I stumbled across this while looking for that WP article on Trump's father, and it seems to be based on fact. Just interesting although it doesn't support any argument one way or the other. https://doctorzebra.com/prez/z_x45_trump_family_medical_history_g.htm Trump's father, a real estate developer, died with Alzheimer disease at age 93 in 1998 3. (Obituary: 4) His mental status began deteriorating before his hip replacement in 1991; during that hospitalization he had clear sundowning 1b. By contrast, in connection with his father's will, Trump testified in a deposition that his father had been "sharp as a tack" until just before he died 1c. Trump contradicted his testimony in 2019 by saying that in his father's "last few years he developed -- we probably think it was Alzheimer's" 5. Comment: Trump had ample motivation to lie about the amount of time that his father had Alzheimer disease. Trump stood to inherit more money from a late-life contested will of his father's -- if he could prove his father was mentally intact when he signed it 1d. Trump's mother died at age 88 3, having endured a lifetime of health challenges. In 1944 (circa age 32) she had a miscarriage and was warned against further pregnancies 1h. In 1949, at age 37, nine months after delivering her final child, she was found unconscious at home, amid blood on the floor. She underwent emergency hysterectomy (with oophorectomy -- removal of the ovaries) after "doctors found that serious postpartum complications had gone undiagnosed." This led to an abdominal infection and further complications. At one point physicians said she would not live a day. She underwent two more operations over the next week and was in and out of the hospital over the next six months. 1i Removing her ovaries at this young age led to osteoporosis and painful spontaneous fractures 1j 6. In addition to her osteoporotic fractures, she broke more bones when mugged in 1991 (age 79) 7 8. Her head was driven into her Rolls Royce, causing brain hemorrhage and partial loss of sight and hearing. "When she hit the pavement, her pelvis fractured in several places, and ribs broke" 1k. She was admitted to an ICU with concerns for her life. "It was weeks... before her pain became bearable" 1k. For weeks afterwards at home, she slept on a hospital bed 1l. Trump's mother was an insomniac wanderer who could be found in the morning in unexpected places in the home. "More than once, she ended up having to go to the hospital." For this problem she never received psychiatric help. 1m Biden's medical history from the same site is also interesting. https://doctorzebra.com/prez/g46 On Feb. 10, 1988, in his hotel room after a campaign appearance in Rochester, NY, Biden suffered a classic "thunderclap headache:" the sudden onset of indescribably severe pain. He lost consciousness (for 5 hours 8), but recovered and went to the bathroom where he again experienced dry heaving before falling asleep for the night. Returning home to Delaware with difficulty the next day, he continued to have pain, but believed he could catch his scheduled afternoon flight. He was convinced to go to the hospital (St. Francis, Wilmington, DE), where a spinal tap disclosed blood in his spinal fluid -- a clear sign of a bleeding in the brain. 1h Too fragile for a helicopter ride (plus it was too snowy), he was driven by ambulance to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, though not without getting lost. By dawn the next day he was in the ICU. An angiogram showed an aneurysm in the left side of the brain -- the side that controls speech. Given a 50-50 chance of survival, and the last rights, Dr. Eugene George then operated on him for nine hours. The aneurysm ruptured "the moment they cut into Biden's head." Luckily, the blood jeted toward the wall of his skull, not into his brain. By the next morning, Biden told a staffer, "I'm gonna be all right" 1i. However, his post-operative course was complicated by serious blood clots. The left side of the brain also controls almost all movements of the right side of the body. After the operation, Biden's right upper eyelid drooped and the right side of his forehead was immobile. Six weeks after the operation, "the muscles in his forehead and cheek began to work again." 9 Biden was away from work (the Senate) for seven months 8. Biden had ended his presidential campaign in September 1987. Family members believed that he would have died had he still been a candidate on the following Feb. 10 -- because he would have undoubtedly refused to leave the campaign trail and get medical attention 1i.

So, if Joe committed crimes AFTER he was VP but BEFORE he was POTUS ... I guess he should be prosecuted as soon as he leaves office. But the Republicans can't say that! That would be conceding that Trump can be prosecuted, even for crimes committed before or after he was POTUS. So we have to have this dog and pony show.

Thanks. I know who Cenk is. I read a lot more than I watch ... I'd say Biden is ahead on that measure, by about 4 years ... ... seriously, that's about the age (80) where I see decline in almost everyone. There are a few rare exceptions. I used to appear before a very old judge who was about 80. We all used to say, "damn, he's still sharp." Then it happened, and by 85 (he wouldn't retire) the comments were of an entirely different nature.

No sign of recession on the horizon

WTF is TYT? But they have a point here ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/20/donald-trump-dementia-father-fred-alzheimers-biden/ Uh oh. https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/what-is-alzheimers/causes-and-risk-factors/genetics#:~:text=Family history is not necessary,first-degree relative with Alzheimer's. research shows that those who have a parent or sibling with Alzheimer's are more likely to develop the disease than those who do not have a first-degree relative with Alzheimer’s. Those who have more than one first-degree relative with Alzheimer’s are at an even higher risk. This must be the Iron Clad Rule of Scared Old Men Accusing Each Other of Having Dementia

Huh? Is NC's real name Joe? By the way, whatever his moniker at the time, he also assured us that when Hillary stumbled into a car she was so brain damaged that she would never survive until 2020. He's got a way with those predictions. I thought DR was living in a garden level studio in Van Nuys

That one is going straight into my lexicon, Foghorn Leghorn.

Dammit, now I've gotta go look for old 2020 posts where DR's Ghost a/k/a Research Triangle Lab Tech tells us that Joe would die or step aside for Kamala before the midterms...

I clicked "agree" because what you set forth would be a reasonable/defensible inquiry. So why aren't they doing that? Two possible reasons: 1. They don't really have anything on that. 2. They have something on that, but it's kind of boring and Joe has plausible deniability on it, so better to use the time to push the more easily digestible "he was making deals with communist China!"

Good one. And I won't put up an argument against it. These days we have to choose the lesser idiot.

Very helpful comments, very colorful language as usual. I love how you've figured out how to defeat the robo-censor. You must be a Ph.D. too. Meanwhile: it seems you've convinced me that Hunter Biden should be prosecuted for something. Which is exactly what is happening. Sorry that you put your trust in another creep telling tall tales about Burisma, but that's on you.

This is why I trust Ray Epps

Sorry, but AOC is absolutely correct here. See about 2:15 onward. The Burisma/Hunter/Joe things was why they began this "inquiry," and now they're talking about something completely different since that thing was all blown up by the lying informant. And she's also right: no possible crime has been identified. The witness (a non lawyer, so he should've just said "I'm not a lawyer") blabs about RICO and FARA (foreign agents registration act) without any theory of how Joe would've fit under either. Like I said: it's about using Congress for campaign purposes. [cue the obligatory "but the Dems used the Trump perfect phone call for the same purposes!" That call actually happened while Trump was actually President]

Yes, it sure looked like a possibility to me when you had a presumably credible FBI informant saying that's what happened! That's why I thought a Congressional investigation was warranted. But that all went up in smoke, which leaves the Committee with a generalized "Joe Biden did things after he was VP that look pretty sleazy" dog and pony show. Fine. Use that in campaign ads. You're not "investigating" anything, you're just promoting something.

Like flies to horsesh!t, the performative ignorer gonna performatively ignore. Isn't there a breaker that needs to be cleaned by the senior lab tech?

@Tommy Callahan responded with the usual EYEROLL. So what's the impeachable offense that's being investigated here?

So where's the impeachable offense? Everything in this "impeachment inquiry" hinged on the alleged involvement of current VP Biden in international deals, including with Ukraine. That all evaporated when their top witness was revealed to be a lying clown. So now we're investigate private citizen Biden's activities while out of public office? Did Donald Trump and his family engage in any international deal making after he left office?

May 2, 2017: Joe Biden was a former VP, a private citizen, not a candidate for any office, and as far as we know, planning to be out of government for the rest of his life.

Weirdo. Why would he be "free (sic, "fair") game? If he's doing something political, sure. But as far as I know he never has. Hey, what's he doing next year? College? Where?

A little story: 2007 - Bush 43 administration wanted to show that it was serious about immigration enforcement. The idea was to make a show of it ("we can really do enforcement" - this came after an earlier "catch and release" policy was highly criticized) to help get an immigration reform package passed. They had ICE raid a number of meat packing plants around the country. The one in Colorado employed hundreds of illegal/non-work authorized Mexicans, Guatemalans, etc. They arrested and deported about 300. The company had previously been warned and had ignored those warnings. Of course, there was a firestorm of criticism, but that's beside the point here. What did the company do? Did they have a big hiring fair, raise wages, and recruit hundreds of American workers to do the jobs "Americans just won't do?" No. They recruited a different category of aliens: Somali refugees and asylum seekers with work authorization. Overnight a Somali community was created in Greeley, Colorado. My takeaway: maybe there are jobs Americans just won't do. At least not without a huge wage increase that would raise the price of meat by about 50% ... EDIT: based on this, I'm a little skeptical about the claim that Tyson is cutting jobs held by "Americans" in favor of new asylum seekers. Remember, what happened before is they substituted one category of aliens for another. What percent of the workers in the current plant are citizens? I'm gonna guess it's pretty low.

Bigger picture: I found this interview fascinating (courtesy of the marginalrevolution blog): https://www.statecraft.pub/p/how-to-run-a-cia-base-in-afghanistan?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=7b960&triedRedirect=true It's with a former CIA Chief of Base in Afghanistan. Excellent discussion of what the CIA does, and also of why the ultimate mission was doomed to failure.

Excellent point. Now, for the 2nd Amendment ... that's one of the "right of the people" ones. Traditionally there's been a lot of confusion about that. When it comes to the 4th Amendment's prohibition on illegal search and seizure, courts have treated "the people" as something that extends to citizens, permanent residents, and other aliens alike. When it comes to the 2nd Amendment, we've always treated non-permanent resident aliens differently; they don't have a right to bear arms. Until now? [this is the mess that the Supreme Court decisions have created ... no aliens in the militia, hence no right to bear arms for aliens. At least that's how it should have been decided]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/19/jared-kushner-gaza-waterfront-property-israel-negev Sometimes just keeping your mouth shut is the greatest skill of all, Jared.

Meanwhile, Trump drew probably the biggest Trump loyalist on the entire federal bench for his classified documents trail in Florida, and she continues to issue headscratchers of rulings that any fair observer can only describe as "results oriented."