The Catholic Message Board

In the past three weeks, Biden has said that he is a member of the US Senate, that Donald Trump is 'the sitting president', that he had a "very productive meeting" with President Mitterand of France (left office in 1995 and died in 1996) and that he also had a meeting with "Chancellor Kohl" of Germany (left office in 19998 and died in 2017).

My mother has dementia and I recognize the signs, not knowing what year it is (when I asked her in 2022 what year she thought it was she said "1992" and when I asked her to name the president she said "Reagan"...then hesitated and after a couple minutes said "Biden"), making references to things that happened decades ago as if they just happened, claiming to have just had a conversation with someone dead for years, often getting confused and not knowing where she is and needing to have someone show her the way (how many videos do we have of Biden wandering around confused only for Jill or a Secret Service agent to take him by the hand like a child and lead him in the right direction? Surely at least a few dozen by now).

And yet, according to the media, people are concerned only because of Biden's age and say nothing of his obviously severely diminished mental capacity, and I mean "diminished" even by the low standards of Biden who has long had a well-deserved reputation for being the biggest moron in Washington.

The signs of dementia are so obvious. He is still at the point where he can get by in the morning but as the day wears on the confusion sets in. Likewise, both my parents had/have dementia. My Dad has passed and my mother is in aged care.

It appears that having elected officials over 70 is peculiar to the USA e.g. presidential candidates, senators
In places like Australia, UK, New Zealand it is rare to have anyone that old. Most politicians at the national and state level are in power for 20 years, retire before 70 and then go onto boards of private companies.
Please explain this phenomenon in the USA.

aussie_aussie_oi_oi wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 12:28 am It appears that having elected officials over 70 is peculiar to the USA e.g. presidential candidates, senators
In places like Australia, UK, New Zealand it is rare to have anyone that old. Most politicians at the national and state level are in power for 20 years, retire before 70 and then go onto boards of private companies.
Please explain this phenomenon in the USA.

I wonder if it's to do with an entrenched sense of the hierarchical right to 'my turn', like royalty? There's talk of how Biden has served a long internship and had earned the 'right' to rule. Trump definitely emits all the vibes of having a birthright to rule.

We had a bit of that mentality in Australia though with Malcolm Turnbull who's still trying to bring the place down for ousting him from his 'right to rule'.

I think the "Mitterand" gaffe is excusable, one can see an older person grasping for a name like "Macron" and saying "Mitterand" instead, but Biden has had many other gaffes that would seem to indicate a degree of confusion. For example, he's repeatedly said that his son Beau died in Iraq (he died in the U.S.in 2015, but the Bidens have blamed the "burn pits" in Iraq for his cancer ... so maybe conflating/confusing the two?). And very recently he mentioned that he discussed "opening the gates" with the "President of Mexico" to let in Gazan refugees. I don't know how you get "Mexico" from "Egypt"

His "dementia" is an act in public.

He knows exactly what he is doing. He is an evil man.

Soooo glad every mistake I make is not thrown across the screens of the world!

I think if you were being interviewed by the DOJ and had time to formulate responses you could remember the dates of family members' deaths and maybe even the years during which you were employed at previous jobs.

Anyway, no one is suggesting that Biden's cognitive decline makes him a bad person, he's just not up to the job of President. Even if he was in 2020, he sure isn't now. And maybe Trump isn't either! And to be clear, this has nothing to do with Biden's views or Trump's, just whether one or the other is up to the task mentally.