There's a video clip going around of McConnell starting to vote "nay" with the Democrats and his staff intervening to make sure he changed his vote to "aye" with the Republicans. This is not acceptable. If it was wrong for Dianne Feinstein to cling to her job so her staff would still have jobs and the division of power would remain unchanged, then it's wrong for Mitch McConnell.
I was going to say the same thing! Totally enabling. He voted NO, and then they told him to change to YES. He didn't appear to have a clue what was going on. Elder abuse at the very least...
Coaching an incapacitated man to vote and to do it in accordance with the desired result is yet another criminal act by the GOP. His vote should be nullified. He needs to be removed from office. I am so tired of all this bullshit.
The Senate should have rules ousting incapacitated members. GOP should stop their antics to hold on to seats when the senator is dragged in on wheelchair and looks half dead! Ridiculous!
The more important question is why people vote for candidates that aren't fit for office. I can't tell from the one video I could open, I don't use X, how incapacitated he is. He looks like he's out of it. He already has a retirement plan, and benefits for life. Is there no one who can take him aside and convince him it's time. We should all be so lucky to have the kind of retirement our elected officials have.
For goodness sake if a brick layer's physical fitness declines to the point that he or she can no longer perform the physically demanding duties of the trade this person deserves sympathy but has no business on a building site. There are many jobs such a person would be physically fit enough to perform but not be fit for of the construction industry.
I expect politicians (and for that matter judges) are involved in tasks that require above average mental capacity and abstract thinking. Surely there's no room for people of below average mental capacity (I would suggest merely average capacity) to be making decisions about legislation and its effects on society.
Dementia is a thing, and with increasing age we're going to get more and more of it. Sometimes it strikes early. It usually can't be diagnosed in the early stages (when you long past the stage of being fit for elected office) without a co-operating patient. Clearly we need age limits on elected politicians. Surely the experience of Presidents Biden and Trump alone show we need to make a move in this direction.
But is a bricklayer qualified to do anything else? A person does a trade for 40 years, he can’t instantly become a bookkeeper or an insurance salesman.
I'll bet you're right that THIS Supreme Court would find any amendment with age limititations on public office unconstitutional, but should it involve a Democrat? They'd go for it in a skinny minute.
I, too, argue for age limits, not term limits, meaning that you can’t run for Congress if you’d be X age by the time the next term is over, or some such. That said, I just can’t work up any enthusiasm for the whole business while the country is being looted and burned to the ground and every bag of groceries costs just this side of a hundred bucks.
The US Senate has long been the most expensive and exclusive nursing home in the world. Given that it would appear that Moscow Mitch has no idea where he is (and had to be specifically instructed on how to vote yesterday), he might not be there by his own choice.
This 80-year-old agrees completely. The good news is that the Democrats have an excellent group of relatively and/or very young people ready and able to step in. Let's hope the midterms bring a shift, even a small one.
I’m 86, and cognitively able to live independently. One thing I do remember from civics class long ago is that members of Congress cannot be impeached, they must be expelled by a 2/3 majority of the body in which they serve. I doubt that will happen with McConnell, but it’s obvious to anyone who has watched him in the last 24 hours that he is not cognitively able to vote without help from others. He should be home with his family, not propped up by his colleagues.
I have never liked McConnell. He has always been scheming and untrustworthy. But even I can't comfortably watch this man be dressed up everyday and rolled into the Capitol so people can move him around and park him where they need him. This is elder abuse and I know there is no shame among Republicans, but Jeez, where is his wife in all of this? And where are the family members for any of these incapacitated politicians? No wonder they cannot ever drum up any compassion for Americans, they cannot drum any up for their own party members.
I agree with virtually all you said, but why did you avoid mentioning the 2010 SCOTUS decision in Citizens United? Unlimited corporate (and other) spending favors incumbents in a big way: Big Money tends to be conservative, and who wouldn't prefer to invest in known quantities rather than in a challenger who might not even get elected?
"It’s no coincidence that the trillions of dollars the US government spends on entitlements — all of Medicare, all but the disability portion of Social Security, the majority of Medicaid spending — skew heavily toward older Americans. Even if they’re spry and lucid, aging politicians represent the past more than the future."🤔👎
Tom seems as upset at retirees as he is at the incapacitated politician. Perhaps we should institute the “Logan’s Run” solution. We could solve the old politician and aging population problem (and solve all those financial problems) by killing them at age such and such.
In the book and movie, the age was 30. If we’re going to do this, I’m a dead man walking anyway at 68. How about we pick how old Tom Schaller was on his last birthday?
"Older Americans" paid for social security and medicare..with our own earnings via TAXES. THEY ARE NOT " ENTITLEMENTS". We Earned Them. That "entitlement" crap is pure republican/ maga lingo.
We are entitled to recieve Sgt we pay for... But THAT IS NOT the context in egmhich the word is used in the scenario I responded to. Repubs refer to it in a way that is pseudo speak for free loaders unjustly draining the system for funds/ benefit not legitimately earned from the system.
I've been hearing that rhetoric for years. I know exactly what it is and where it comes from. Semantic gaming doesn't deceive me.
I was genuinely surprised when they wheeled him back into the capitol. I thought for sure he was in a state of permanent rigor tortoise.
Rigor tortoise—that’s funny
There's a video clip going around of McConnell starting to vote "nay" with the Democrats and his staff intervening to make sure he changed his vote to "aye" with the Republicans. This is not acceptable. If it was wrong for Dianne Feinstein to cling to her job so her staff would still have jobs and the division of power would remain unchanged, then it's wrong for Mitch McConnell.
I was going to say the same thing! Totally enabling. He voted NO, and then they told him to change to YES. He didn't appear to have a clue what was going on. Elder abuse at the very least...
Coaching an incapacitated man to vote and to do it in accordance with the desired result is yet another criminal act by the GOP. His vote should be nullified. He needs to be removed from office. I am so tired of all this bullshit.
The Senate should have rules ousting incapacitated members. GOP should stop their antics to hold on to seats when the senator is dragged in on wheelchair and looks half dead! Ridiculous!
Why limit it to the Senate? Though granted a 6 year term makes it particularly necessary.
It shouldn't be limited to the Senate. Anyone in government service should be removed it they can't do the job!
The more important question is why people vote for candidates that aren't fit for office. I can't tell from the one video I could open, I don't use X, how incapacitated he is. He looks like he's out of it. He already has a retirement plan, and benefits for life. Is there no one who can take him aside and convince him it's time. We should all be so lucky to have the kind of retirement our elected officials have.
Exactly
Hats off to the mortician, that's the most lifelike corpse I have ever seen.
For goodness sake if a brick layer's physical fitness declines to the point that he or she can no longer perform the physically demanding duties of the trade this person deserves sympathy but has no business on a building site. There are many jobs such a person would be physically fit enough to perform but not be fit for of the construction industry.
I expect politicians (and for that matter judges) are involved in tasks that require above average mental capacity and abstract thinking. Surely there's no room for people of below average mental capacity (I would suggest merely average capacity) to be making decisions about legislation and its effects on society.
Dementia is a thing, and with increasing age we're going to get more and more of it. Sometimes it strikes early. It usually can't be diagnosed in the early stages (when you long past the stage of being fit for elected office) without a co-operating patient. Clearly we need age limits on elected politicians. Surely the experience of Presidents Biden and Trump alone show we need to make a move in this direction.
But is a bricklayer qualified to do anything else? A person does a trade for 40 years, he can’t instantly become a bookkeeper or an insurance salesman.
He wasn't able to fasten his own seatbelt, or maybe I'm not up on protocol and all senators have someone do this for them.
I'll bet you're right that THIS Supreme Court would find any amendment with age limititations on public office unconstitutional, but should it involve a Democrat? They'd go for it in a skinny minute.
I, too, argue for age limits, not term limits, meaning that you can’t run for Congress if you’d be X age by the time the next term is over, or some such. That said, I just can’t work up any enthusiasm for the whole business while the country is being looted and burned to the ground and every bag of groceries costs just this side of a hundred bucks.
The US Senate has long been the most expensive and exclusive nursing home in the world. Given that it would appear that Moscow Mitch has no idea where he is (and had to be specifically instructed on how to vote yesterday), he might not be there by his own choice.
This 80-year-old agrees completely. The good news is that the Democrats have an excellent group of relatively and/or very young people ready and able to step in. Let's hope the midterms bring a shift, even a small one.
I’m 86, and cognitively able to live independently. One thing I do remember from civics class long ago is that members of Congress cannot be impeached, they must be expelled by a 2/3 majority of the body in which they serve. I doubt that will happen with McConnell, but it’s obvious to anyone who has watched him in the last 24 hours that he is not cognitively able to vote without help from others. He should be home with his family, not propped up by his colleagues.
I have never liked McConnell. He has always been scheming and untrustworthy. But even I can't comfortably watch this man be dressed up everyday and rolled into the Capitol so people can move him around and park him where they need him. This is elder abuse and I know there is no shame among Republicans, but Jeez, where is his wife in all of this? And where are the family members for any of these incapacitated politicians? No wonder they cannot ever drum up any compassion for Americans, they cannot drum any up for their own party members.
Where's his wife? Maybe in China.
Maybe so. She is always busy making her billions
Apparently she flew over soon after itch's fall (or was she already there, and just didn't come back?)
He's another evil to the core scourge...just like Trump.
I agree with virtually all you said, but why did you avoid mentioning the 2010 SCOTUS decision in Citizens United? Unlimited corporate (and other) spending favors incumbents in a big way: Big Money tends to be conservative, and who wouldn't prefer to invest in known quantities rather than in a challenger who might not even get elected?
You lost me at
"It’s no coincidence that the trillions of dollars the US government spends on entitlements — all of Medicare, all but the disability portion of Social Security, the majority of Medicaid spending — skew heavily toward older Americans. Even if they’re spry and lucid, aging politicians represent the past more than the future."🤔👎
Tom seems as upset at retirees as he is at the incapacitated politician. Perhaps we should institute the “Logan’s Run” solution. We could solve the old politician and aging population problem (and solve all those financial problems) by killing them at age such and such.
In the book and movie, the age was 30. If we’re going to do this, I’m a dead man walking anyway at 68. How about we pick how old Tom Schaller was on his last birthday?
"Older Americans" paid for social security and medicare..with our own earnings via TAXES. THEY ARE NOT " ENTITLEMENTS". We Earned Them. That "entitlement" crap is pure republican/ maga lingo.
It's an "entitlement" precisely because we pay into it, but the methodology for funding is not sustainable.
It was indeed sutibabkecvefire Reagen robbed the fund and never paid it back. If anything our fund should be "entitled" to reparations.
'It was indeed originally sustainable' .. (Typo/auto c correction).
We are entitled to recieve Sgt we pay for... But THAT IS NOT the context in egmhich the word is used in the scenario I responded to. Repubs refer to it in a way that is pseudo speak for free loaders unjustly draining the system for funds/ benefit not legitimately earned from the system.
I've been hearing that rhetoric for years. I know exactly what it is and where it comes from. Semantic gaming doesn't deceive me.