Ageing comes to us all. It is to me, although since I am still in good health and very active at 66, I am reluctant to admit it.
However, I do appreciate that I am finite and that I have many more years behind me now than there are to come. It makes me think about how I want to use my time more carefully.
I also know that this whole process of ageing inevitably means that, at some point, I will slow down, and my energy and mental acuity will decline. Only a fool would deny the fact.
The USA is currently afflicted by two such fools. One is Trump. The other is Biden.
Questions about whether Trump has the mental capacity to be President could have been asked for a long time. It would seem from his speeches that his capacity to concentrate is declining, and the level of his rambling incoherence is growing. Why this is not the subject of a lot of debate is hard to work out.
Biden is subject to that debate. It is clear that he still has the mastery of detail on many issues. It is also clear that all the signs of ageing are becoming more apparent. We all make mistakes and forget names or just what we went upstairs for. That's life. But Biden is doing it too often to ignore.
I do not want to be ageist, but being President of the USA in your 80s is not a good idea, either for the person holding office or for that country. It is physically too much to ask. It is mentally too much to ask. And the risks are too big for the country to take.
The US has an appalling choice in the coming election, but there is at least a chance that Biden might stand down. He should. He is already not up to the job he is doing, and it would be absurd to ask him to do it for another four years.
The trouble is, the Republicans also need to recognise this with Trump. They probably will not, but the Democrats should. Biden has to go. He is simply no longer able to do the job.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Agreed. The contrast between the energetically lying Trump and the slow thinking Biden is now just too apparent, especially after the latest gaffs. Find someone new for the Dems, and the media can obsess about Trump instead — we can all pray that they do.
It’s the forces representing “big money” behind Biden and Trump and their control of the mainstream media who try to pretend there aren’t mental issues affecting Biden and Trump. They still think their interests will be best represented by either of them especially Trump who gave them a big cut in their taxes during his last presidency. Most voters are clueless about the machinations going on behind the scenes.
The reality is that both candidates in many ways are public face proxies for the people that actually ‘handle’ them. Ronald Reagan is probably a good case-study. I guess the real issue is who are their handlers and what are the agendas of those handlers?
Agree he should step down, but you do sound a bit ageist.
Martin Sorsese Francis fFrd Coppola – and others are still making films over 80 – David Attenbrough TV series in his nineties -Rrupert Murdoch – Noam Chomsky – even Kissinger in their nineties.
The presidency is clearly something else – so ideally needs someone younger – just from an energy point of view.
He seems impervious to the concerns of those in his party . He’s beginning to sound irrational – ‘only god can tell me’ etc
He may have Parkinsons – there certainly seems something wrong with him .
I am not being ageist per se
There are very fit 81 year olds
He’s not
You are totally right. And Biden doesn’t just have to win the election in November and take office in January …another 7 months down the road from now …but then he has to steer the ship for the next four years. He will be 86 when that finishes. It’s not really feasible, is it? He needs to either step aside or be pushed, come the Democratic Convention in August.
Interesting that the one candidate everybody thought was ‘too old’ to run in 2020 was Bernie Sanders. And he’s still going like a train, still running around taking care of his constituents, speaking in the Senate, going on TV, visiting people in person, and he’s still very mentally astute. But it just goes to show, when we get older we don’t actually know when the decline will set in. I’m certainly not saying Bernie should be the candidate now . But he sure would have made a good job of the last four years. Ach well….
Ach well, indeed
I agree that he should step aside, Richard, but I’m a bit disappointed to see you being so easily caught up in the ‘panic’ that’s being quite obviously stirred by the main stream media in the US (all owned by Republican/Trump supporting men).
Not only that, but they simultaneously ensure that there’s no coverage of the information that became public (via the release of court documents on July 1st) of Trumps very close association with Jeffrey Epstein (remember how he said he hardly knew the guy), and the numerous cases where it’s alleged that Trump had to settle claims for sexual assault through the 1980s, 90s, and 2000s.
But anyway, before writing off Biden further I’d urge you and everyone else to watch this balanced assessment – balanced being the key word. It needs to be watched in full.
https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-biden-speaks-to-nato-and-afl-cio-after-trump-read-a-teleprompter-full-of-lies-214624325572
To add to my previous comment, here’s bloke only three years younger than Biden talking absolute shite – and reading it from a teleprompter, and meanwhile all the attention is on the fact that Biden misspoke twice in his post-NATO address (god knows how many times I misspoke over the years when giving lectures).
https://x.com/piyushmittal/status/1810892351918797156
And here’s a link to the news about Trump and Epstein that strangely enough is not being reported by the MSM (though it did get a mention in the Independent) but is trending on X. And no, the court documents are not fakes.
https://x.com/ProgressiveTex/status/1811536417161454053
Thank you, Ivan.
Are you sure about Biden, as per https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/07/how-many-people-knew-about-biden-turns-out-a-lot.html.
Thank you.
How about the 300 British nationals and residents, not just Prince Andrew, named in the Epstein documents. Let’s get over the TDS.
TDS = Trump Derangement Syndrome ???
I fear you might be falling into the trap:
https://www.theissue.io/how-they-controversialized-joe-biden-self-fulfilling-social-collapses-and-why-elites-reject-leaders-who-threaten-them/
“The choice before America is pretty simple.
An old guy, who’s doing an okay job, and no, there’s nothing wrong with being old, or…a fascist with a 1000 page plan to literally turn society into a theocratic totalitarian state.
That’s not a complicated choice.
You can complicate that choice if you want, but it’s not in any way complicated. Anyone sane should say: I’ll take anyone over the guy who wants to shred democracy. The old guy. My plumber. My local librarian. Doesn’t matter.”
Oops! I didn’t mean this as a reply to your comment, but as a separate comment.
There could be a younger person not doing Project 2025
I do not believe there is a viable candidate for the Democrat Ticket who can beat Trump other than Biden.
As Kirsten Gibbs posted above, GETTING RID of Trump is the #1 order of business.
Thank you, KG.
What do you call the corporate wish list of NAFTA and three strikes and you’re out if not fascist?
I’m sorry, but fascism wrapped in old glory predate Trump.
I read somewhere the other day that a recent opinion poll had Michelle Obama 11 points ahead of Trump.
Michelle Obama has NO interest in running.
National polls mean nothing! Hillary Clinton ALWAYS polled ahead of Trump nationally but lost the Electoral College and therefore lost the election.
There is no one else available, at this time in space, who can beat Trump but Biden.
Thank you, Richard.
I won’t comment about Trump, but draw attention to https://consortiumnews.com/2024/03/18/chris-hedges-joe-bidens-parting-gift-to-america/.
I used to work for HSBC and often travelled between NYC and Buffalo and Boston. I also know Louisiana, where there are fellow Creoles, well. What did the Dixiecrats and centrists expect?
As for Biden, I don’t know how Strom Thurmond’s mate and prime mover behind NAFTA and Clinton’s repression (including extension of cheap prison labour) can appeal to progressives, but then I’m not surprised because most aren’t well informed. In reality, Biden is the Dixiecrat version of 30p Lee, including Lee’s connections in Nottinghamshire. Shed no tears for the Bidens.
Chris Hedges details it well on X, Juneteenth edition.
Not everyone in the USA views NAFTA as a problem in same way that not everyone in the UK views(ed) the EU as problem.
Thank you.
I don’t necessarily disagree about, especially about the EU, which is a different beast to NAFTA.
What I will say is that people living nice middle class lives, as I do, take many things for granted, including cheap labour and access to goods and services that are beyond the reach of most people.
@Colonel Smithers,
Please forgive! I thought you were “complaining” about NAFTA.
Colonel
I am a great admirer of Chris Hedges. Not so much of Consortium news. I was initially pleased to find a more radical website to balance the usual news output. They -rightly in many cases-reveal the shortcomings of the ‘Empire’. The comments are full of ‘think you for telling us the truth’ posts. However, one sided accounts, even when I am in agreement with much of it, do cause me reservations. Bad US actions don’t justify others doing the same sort of thing.
They seem to give a free pass to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I have made comments, polite and based on facts and after the first two never published. Some of the articles are by writers who don’t seem to have any qualifications.
The hope, as I see it, for the Democratic party is with their social democratic wing such as we see with Sanders and AOC.
On facebook there is a website called the other 98%. It indicates a lot of people would welcome it.
Too many people, including those who should know better, take a “football team” approach to international politics. Some countries are in “our team” and others are in the “other team.” As a result there are those who will condemn Russia’s genocide in Ukraine but not Israel’s in Gaza and vice versa. I’m not sure this is always conscious as they often have quite sophisticated rationalizations for their views.
Historically, most countries have done some pretty awful things, but also quite a lot of good things. I just wish people would be a bit more consistent in how they judge things.
I think Owen Jones sums the situation up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU6PuJ-8yCg
That’s good
He must use teleprompt though
It’s such a pity. He could have stepped down with dignity after one term, and after doing a pretty good job, and left good memories behind him. If he insists on selfishly clinging on, it will probably prove disastrous and he’ll end up being vilified. Maybe it would matter a bit less if the alternative – Trump, plus his allies of choice, together with Project 2025 – were not so terrifying. It strikes me as ominous that Putin’s messenger boy Victor Orban goes to the US and visits Trump, but not the President.
Maybe I’m too optimistic, but I think Biden will be replaced by the end of this month. Let’s hope it can be done without too much rancour and in-fighting. The Democrats need to concentrate their energy on winning over the electorate, not back stabbing.
“It strikes me as ominous that Putin’s messenger boy Victor Orban goes to the US and visits Trump, but not the President.”
You have no idea how trump works!!!!!
Listening to reports of Clooney’s supposed advice to Biden to withdraw reminded me of his famous line as Everett McGill, “Damn! We’re in a tight spot.”
Democrats may have navigated their way back towards domestic prosperity but their failure to plan for their likely nominee’s unavoidable aging has put them between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
In a nutshell, stick with Joe and possibly win, change candidate and probably lose. Ignore all of the noise, there’s a lot of it to dismiss so it’s not easy, and the real position is that despite stellar performance in many areas, the Democrats have manoeuvred themselves into a position where the incumbent is at more risk of losing than tradition would normally dictate.
The blame for the current situation doesn’t lay entirely at the feet of the Democratic Party. The bulk must lie with Trump supporters who are detached from reality, not their personal reality, and have been persuaded by a con man and his promoters to accept a range of spurious reasons for their unhappiness.
Some blame must also sit with the lack of alacrity with which Trump has been pursued for his leading role in the J6 riot and the ongoing denial of the 2020 election results.
So what’s the answer? It may seem obvious that a younger person would be able to run rings around Trump, but that completely ignores the reality of the last 8 yrs. The Democrats have run rings around the Republican narrative for 8 yrs. Trump cultists don’t care.
After pondering the options and listening to opinions I value, the conclusion I have come to is that the only option is to pray. Pray that one of the criminal cases starts, pray that the falsification of business records verdict is not overturned, pray that the US media go to town on Project 2025, pray that independents vote for Joe to stop the Christo-fascists, pray that Americans understand why it’s a two person ticket, pray that voters can see that Trump is as old as Joe and pray that the Democrats unify, quickly.
Well I have no vote is the US but I would not vote for Biden for the same reason I would not vote for Labour. I am not going to support someone who supports genocide. Having said that I don’t understand why the failure of the Democratic party is largely because of Trump supporters. Trump has not changed dramatically as far as I can see, he lies and rambles and always has. He is entertaining and I understand why some people like him. His supporters, I would guess are mostly the same ones as 4 years ago. Biden supports were, I guess more concerned about electing a capable leader than an entertaining one and now those concerned about human rights may not vote for him because of his total support for genocide, massive war crimes,call them what you will, and others will not vote for him because he appears to be losing his memory. That is the fault of the Democrats isn’t it, in not deciding earlier to replace him
Find it baffling that the democrats cannot find a leader from their pool that is better than Biden. Seems a very low bar to me
If one was eligible, on the basis that American foreign policy is rarely free of non-American casualties I suspect one could find a humanitarian reason to not vote for any US presidential candidate.
For me, Republicans hold the biggest share of the blame because despite their presumptive nominee failing in office and inflaming tensions through falsely claiming that he won in 2020, they are determined to reelect an uneducated fabulist. There cannot be a civil debate nor policy based contest if one of the participants is Trump.
Under the spectre of MAGA, Democrats have calculated that the benefits of incumbency outweighs the risks of a new nominee, even though Biden is clearly feeling his age. I wonder whether Biden would even have gone for a second term if the GOP candidate had been more conventional and rational.
We will never know.