#Joe Biden's age

[carolinemillerbooks]

New Post has been published on Books by Caroline Miller

New Post has been published on https://www.booksbycarolinemiller.com/musings/consciousness-of-the-third-kind/

Consciousness Of The Third Kind

A young television commentator recently dissed Joe Biden’s chances of winning reelection in 2024. Barely old enough to qualify as a voter, she had no qualms about her prediction. She explained the President risked losing young voters because he defended Israel’s war on Gaza. He was reaching into the past for political solutions, she said, instead of analyzing the future. What she failed to credit the President in his first term of office with were policies that benefited youth–extending their medical and mental health services; pardoning their marijuana transgressions; strengthening civil and voting rights for minorities and the LGBTQ population; struggling to give citizenship to Dreamers, and for having done his damndest to reduce student college debt.  Not an exhaustive list, but it should prove the “old man” has pulled his weight on behalf of succeeding generations. Of course, only a fool expects the young to be grateful.  Barefoot boys and girls with cheeks of tan seldom are. As chicks newly hatched from their shells, they imagine the world exists to praise them. I recall Mark Zuckerberg’s views when he was in his late twenties. Stuffed into his signature tee shirt and standing before an auditorium filled with his peers, his glib understanding of the scheme of things was that older folks weren’t as smart as younger ones.  Now that he approaches the brink of 40, I wonder what he might say to his younger self if he could. “Sader and wiser,” would seem to be appropriate words.    As for the commentator who was ready to trash Biden’s bid for a second term, her disrespect for history was wanton.  Doubtless a smart cookie, she’d never argue the past had no influence on the present. Vicerally, however, she gave the connection little credence.  If she had followed her thought to its conclusion, she’d have discovered what she feared about  Biden was his experience and knowledge. Like other critics, she also hints that the President, in his eighties, might die during a second term. It’s happened before.  Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy died in office. So did five others. Even so, several heads of state have governed into their nineties, Queen Elizabeth among them.  As far as I know, there are no rules about the appropriate age to die.  At 87, I’ve shed tears for numerous former students.   What’s more, it might surprise this young journalist to know that people reach the peak of happiness and self-confidence in their sixties and beyond. The reason is simple. They’ve learned to enjoy what they have and don’t confuse elation with happiness–a distinction that escapes younger generations and fills them with the fear of never having enough.   We can thank the brain’s amygdala for the disparity.   Ruler of our emotions, It slows down as we grow older. Eventually, Wangnerian-like passions wither, allowing the mature brain to take pleasure in connecting with others. More importantly, once rid of dross like status-seeking, self-aggrandizement, and competition, we arrive at the distillation of self.    When vanity falls away like molted feathers, we can peer into the heavens unencumbered.  Simply put, we enter a state, not of innocence, but of knowing.  Call it consciousness of the third kind.   Don’t hate me when I say I pity the young.  To be honest, I’m embarrassed I needed 87 years to pass before I grasped the difference between the sweet bird of youth and my inner child.  If only I’d have listened earlier to the poet.  He got it right.  The child is father of the man.  

[not-safe-for-democracy]

[reality-detective]

This is NOT how aging works. 🤔

[tomorrowusa]

Republicans and their media allies would prefer to have you fixate on Biden's age (just +3.5 years older than Trump) rather than on Trump's criminality and mental unfitness.

That cartoon was drawn before the State of the Union which may change some perceptions of Biden.

Joe Biden Got the Job Done

For over an hour on Thursday night, during the State of the Union address, President Joe Biden energetically presented a vibrant progressive agenda and repeatedly stuck it to Donald Trump. Yes, there were stumbles and linguistic slips, but Biden portrayed a vigor at odds with the caricatures that are constantly promoted by Trump and Biden detractors in the conservative media. Caricatures focusing on his age are then bolstered by seemingly endless coverage by the mainstream media. The president was aggressive from the git-go; Dark Brandon was in the room. [ ... ] Biden still looks and moves like he’s 81 years old, but he was engaged and engaging, bantering with and goading the Republicans. Biden talked policy details like a pro. He was far more cogent than Trump ever is during his rambling rants at campaign rallies. [ ... ] The heart (and soul?) of this speech was how Biden differentiated himself from Trump. Trump’s political narrative is dark and full of hate. In his speeches, he depicts America as a land of carnage or, as he recently put it, a “joke.” Poking fun at his age—”I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while”—Biden remarked, “My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy. A future based on the core values that have defined America. Honesty. Decency. Dignity. Equality. To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor. Now some other people my age see a different story. An American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution. That’s not me.” Biden offered a stark definition of the choice in 2024. The other guy is all about anger and division, and he endangers democracy overseas and here. He is fixated on identifying and denouncing his enemies, rousing tribalistic ire, and amassing his own power. Biden presents himself as the guy who cares about the country as a whole and has a long to-do list for the benefit of many. And, perhaps best for Biden, at a time when questions about his age and capabilities have assumed a supersized role in the campaign, he showed he can fight.

Donald Trump is a person who rants about becoming a dictator, declares vengeance against perceived enemies, and has no respect for institutions of American democracy. He should be a candidate for a straitjacket – not the Oval Office.

[troythecatfish]

[nodynasty4us]

That the media are focused on Biden‘s age, while ignoring Trump’s infirmities is absolutely maddening. As James Fallows pointed out, in the New York Times there were headlines on Super Tuesday’s outcomes that Trump romped and Biden has trouble while Biden got a significantly higher percentage of votes than did Trump, which tells us all too much about media bias. Mainstream media may not consciously want Trump to win, but you wouldn’t know it from the frame of the coverage.

Norm Ornstein, interviewed in Salon.com

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Americans’ Social Security checks will get a lot smaller in 2034 if lawmakers don’t act to address the pending shortfall, according to an annual report released Friday by the Social Security trustees.

That’s because the combined Social Security trust funds – which help support payouts for the elderly, survivors and disabled – are projected to run dry that year. At that time, the funds’ reserves will be depleted, and the program’s continuing income will only cover 80% of benefits owed.

The estimate is one year earlier than the trustees projected last year. About 66 million Americans received Social Security benefits in 2022.

Medicare, meanwhile, is in a more critical financial condition. Its hospital insurance trust fund, known as Medicare Part A, will only be able to pay scheduled benefits in full until 2031, according to its trustees’ annual report, which was also released Friday.

At that time, Medicare, which covered 65 million senior citizens and people with disabilities in 2022, will only be able to cover 89% of total scheduled benefits. Last year, Medicare’s trustees projected that the hospital trust fund’s reserves would be depleted in 2028.

LONG-STANDING FISCAL TROUBLES

Immensely popular but long troubled, Social Security and Medicare are on shaky financial ground in large part because of the aging of the American population. Fewer workers are paying into the program and supporting the ballooning number of beneficiaries, who are also living longer. Also, health care is becoming increasingly expensive.

Social Security has two trust funds – one for retirees and survivors and another for Americans with disabilities.

Looking at them separately, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund is projected to run dry in 2033, at which time Social Security could pay only 77% of benefits, primarily using income from payroll taxes. The date is one year earlier than estimated last year.

The Disability Insurance Trust Fund is expected to be able to pay full benefits through at least 2097, the last year of the trustees’ projection period.

Merging the two trust funds would require Congress to act, but the combined projection is often used to show the overall status of the entitlement.

Social Security’s projected long-term health worsened over the past year because the trustees revised downward their expectations for the economy and labor productivity, taking into account updated data on inflation and economic output.

However, the long-term projection for Medicare’s hospital trust fund’s finances improved, mainly due to lowered estimates for health care spending after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, the program is projected to take in more income because the trustees estimate the number of covered workers and average wages will be higher.

ADDED PRESSURE ON CONGRESS

The trustees’ reports are the latest warnings to Congress that they will have to deal with the massive entitlement programs’ fiscal problems at some point soon. But addressing their issues is politically challenging. Elected officials are hesitant to suggest any changes that could lead to benefit cuts, even though that could reduce their options in the future.

“With each year that lawmakers do not act, the public has less time to prepare for the changes,” the trustees warned in a fact sheet.

The programs’ shortfalls are back in the spotlight this year as President Joe Biden and House Republicans battle over how to address the nation’s debt ceiling drama and mounting budget deficits. GOP lawmakers want to cut spending in exchange for resolving the borrowing limit, while the White House has said it will not negotiate.

In a memorable moment in his State of the Union address in February, Biden garnered public acknowledgment from congressional Republicans about keeping Social Security and Medicare out of the debt discussions.

But “not touching” Social Security means a hefty cut in benefits within a decade or so.

“Change is inevitable because without changes to current law, both Social Security and Medicare Hospital Insurance would go insolvent, subjecting program participants to sudden and severe payment cuts,” said Charles Blahous, senior research strategist at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and former Social Security and Medicare trustee. “The outstanding question is whether change will be tolerably gradual, or instead highly damaging because it is too long delayed.”

Though Biden has repeatedly vowed to protect Social Security, his latest budget proposal did not include a plan to stabilize its finances.

However, his proposal did call for extending Medicare’s solvency by 25 years or more by raising taxes on those earning more than $400,000 a year and by allowing the program to negotiate prices for even more drugs.

Spending on the entitlement programs is also projected to soar and exert increased pressure on the federal budget in coming years.

Mandatory spending – driven by Social Security and Medicare – and interest costs are expected to outpace the growth of revenue and the economy, according to a Congressional Budget Office outlook released in mid-February.

[boytoycowboy]

$6 to use an industrial washer for ONE comforter. what has the world come to.

[nando161mando]

"The average American celebrates only one healthy birthday after 65"... But we NEED to raise the retirement age!!! 🤡

[pugzman3]

The Luciferian United Nations

Starting with Helena Blavatsky.

“Lucifer represents... Life... Thought... Progress... Civilization... Liberty... Independence... Lucifer is the Logos... the Serpent, the Savior.”(‘The Secret Doctrine’ by Helena Blavatsky pages. 171, 225, 255, Volume II

)“It is Satan who is God of our planet and the only God” pages 215, 216, 220, 245, 255, 533, (VI)

“The Celestial Virgin which thus becomes the Mother of Gods and Devils at one and the same time: for she is the ever-loving beneficent Deity…but in antiquity and reality Lucifer or Luciferous is the same, lucifer is divine and terrestrial Light, ‘the Holy Ghost’ and “Satan” at one and the same time.” Page 539

Blavatsky was the founder of the Theosophical Society and was a major influencer of Alice A. Bailey.

Bailey, with her husband Foster started an official NGO within the UN called World Goodwill whose goal is to “cooperate in the world of preparation for the reappearance of Christ”. Bailey claims: “Evidence of the growth of the human intellect along the needed receptive lines [for the preparation of the New Age] can be seen in the 'planning' of various nations and in the efforts of the United Nations to formulate a world plan... From the very start of this unfoldment, three occult factors have governed the development of all these plans.” SOURCE: [Alice B. Bailey, Discipleship in the New Age (Lucis Press, 1955), Vol. II, p.35.]

“Within the United Nations is the germ and seed of a great international and meditating, reflective group - a group of thinking and informed men and women in whose hands lies the destiny of humanity. This is largely under the control of many fourth ray disciples, if you could but realize it, and their point of meditative focus is the intuitional or Buddhic plane - the plane upon which all hierarchical activity is today to be found.” [Ibid. p.220.]

Robert Muller, was an international civil servant with the United Nations. Serving with the UN for 40 years and rising to the rank of Assistant Secretary-General, his ideas about world government, world peace and spirituality led to the increased representation of religions in the UN, especially of New Age Movement. He was known by some as "the philosopher of the United Nations". He created at least 29 schools around the world earning him the UNESCO Peace and Education Prize in 1989. He is also known as the “father of global education.”

“The underlying philosophy upon which the Robert muller school is based will be found in the teachings set forth in the books of Alice A. Bailey (Lucis Trust is the Publishing House which prints and disseminates United Nations (UN) material. Lucis Trust was established in 1922 as Lucifer Trust by Alice Bailey as the publishing company to disseminate the books of Bailey and Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society. Due to public outrage over the creepy name of the publishing company, it was changed one year later to Lucis Trust.)…The school is now certified as a United Nations Associated School providing for international cooperation and peace.” – Muller, R. World Core Curriculum (Preface)

“A world core curriculum might seem utopian today. By the end of the year 2000 it will be a down-to-earth, daily, reality in all the schools around the world.” R. Muller, A World Core Curriculum (n.p., n.d.), p. 13.

The Muller school is the education program for the world as will be enforced by the United Nations. He created the World Core Curriculum that is being seeped into education systems around the world by UNESCO, (search ibe.unesco.org) UNESCO’s vision from their page is “develops educational tools to help people live as global citizens free of hate and intolerance”. (in other words, one world education but through in the terms “hate and intolerance” to make it sound positive).

It’s first Director was Julian Huxley. Huxley was a member of the Communistic Colonial Bureau of the British Fabian Society, signer of the Humanist Manifesto II. An Evolutionist, and member/vice-president (1937-44)/president (59-62) of the British Eugenics Society, and not only a transhumanist but coined the phrase transhumanism. 

Under Huxley’s guidance the UN created a “guidebook” for teachers. Within this guidebook the teachers are reminded that the first step to educating a child to be a World Citizen, is the DESTRUCTION of a child’s love of country and patriotism. (John A Stormer, None Dare Call It Treason, Florissant, Missouri: Liberty Bell Press, 1964 p.112)

In Volume V it reads, “In the classroom children under thirteen years of age: Before the child enters school, his mind has already been profoundly marked and often INJURIOUSLY, by earlier influences…first gained, however dimly, in the home.” 

Also, “the kindergarten or infant school has a significant part to play in the child’s education. Not only can it correct many errors of home training, but it can prepare the child for membership, at about age seven, in a group pd his own age and habits – the first of many such social identifications that he must achieve on his way to membership in the World Society.”

(HEY, REMEMBER THAT TIME BIDEN SAID THAT WE HAD TO START SENDING OUR KIDS TO SCHOOL AT AN EARLIER AGE?)

-“As we have pointed out, it is the family that INFECTS the child with EXTREME NATIONALISM. The school should therefore use the means described earlier to COMBAT FAMILY ATTITUDES”

.-“In our view, history and geography should be taught at this age as UNIVERSAL history and geography… The study of history… raises problems of value which are better POSTPONED UNTIL the pupil is FREED FROM THE NATIONAL PREJUDICES which at present surround the teaching of history”.

UNESCO’s Constitution was written by Archibald MacLeish, a Skull and Bones member.

One of many organizations under UNESCO is SIECUS.

Within the SIECUS positions was this, “it is the position of SIECUS that contraceptive services should be available to all- including minors who should enjoy the same rights of free and independent access to…contraceptive care as do others…It is the position of SIECUS that the use of explicit materials (sometimes referred to as pornography) can serve a variety of important needs in the lives of countless individuals”. (Chronology of Education Quotable Quotes 1994 p.37. 

(YOU SEE HOW THEY STARTED WITH SEX ED, THEN EVOLVED OVER TIME INTO GAY PORN AND TRANSKIDS WITH JACKED UP SENSE OF PRONOUNS?)

Now you may think this is ALL about a SECULAR N.O.W., you would be wrong. 

In 1973, the UN Secretary U Thant formed the organization Planetary Citizens with NEW Activist Donald Keys.  An NGO within the UN specifically “devoted to preparing people for the coming of the new culture”. 

Donald Keys was actively involved with the Findhorn Community in Scotland. He writes, “The New Age groups are focusing and enter a new stage- a world related stage. They are becoming mature enough to begin to shoulder some of the load of humanities burdens… The spread of the New Age values as a unifying “yeast” in the human loaf may be the critical ingredient for successful emergence from the 1980’s onward.” 

Findhorn books are slam full of New Age occultic speech, doctrine, and symbols.

 Their spokesman was once David Spangler, (I say once because Spangler seems to be scrubbed from their works along with ties to the UN, and he wasn’t the only on I found like this).David Spangler is quoted, “The true light of Lucifer cannot be seen though sorrow, through darkness, through rejection. The true light of this great being can only be recognized when one’s own eye in the inner sun. Lucifer works within each of us to bring us wholeness, and as we move into a New Age, which is the age of man’s wholeness, each of us in some way is brought to that point which I term the LUCIFERIAN INITIATION, the particular doorway, through which the individual must pass if he is to come “fully” into the presence of light and his wholeness…Lucifer comes to give us the final gift of wholeness”. David Spangler, Reflections on the Christ (Scotland, Findhorn Publications 1977 p.43-44). (THAT SOUNDS A LOT LIKE ALBERT PIKE AND MANLY P HALL)

This was almost a week worth of research, just in order to whittle it down to this short post. The amount of info, ties, and connections between occultism, nations, Rome, and politics, secret societies, and more was exhausting. There is so much more, going on for so long, and nothing is going to stop this. So wherever you are when it comes to God, this is where we are being led. Wherever you are when it comes to a political candidate, remember these things next time you hear them going on about the “issues Americans care about”. Because the whole time they have distracted us with borders, taxes, inflation, scandals, the size of a candidates hands, and on and on, this shit right here...has kept growing and growing like cancer. No one side talks about it because they all know. They are all a part of it, playing a role to distract each of us.

[carolinemillerbooks]

New Post has been published on Books by Caroline Miller

New Post has been published on https://www.booksbycarolinemiller.com/musings/is-trump-more-to-be-pitied/

Is Trump More To Be Pitied?

Watching a reporter interview historian Timothy Snyder one evening, I sat up in my chair when he laid out his thoughts about  Donald Trump’s strategy for the current 2024 Presidential election.  Snyder presumed the former president knew he would lose the contest and was taking unpopular positions against Social Security and the Affordable Care Act not to secure victory but to lay the groundwork for a second insurrection. Insane as the idea sounded, I couldn’t dismiss it out of hand.  A distorted mind might seize upon the claim of being victorious in defeat. Trump had tried it before.  The fear that history might repeat itself set my little grey cells spinning.  The media has paid little attention to the state of Trump’s mind, choosing to focus on the age of his opponent, Joe Biden. Those who speculate that the incumbent is too old to run for a second term forget that a scant three-year difference lies between the two contenders.  Reporters would serve the public better by exploring the difference between an aging brain and a demented one. Biden’s speech gaffs, which many hold against him, aren’t entirely due to his age.  As a child, he stuttered. The impediment reasserts itself on occasion. But it is also true that as a man of 81 years, he speaks slowly and takes mental pauses. These are signs of a brain aging normally, not evidence of one that has lost its reason. Bidne’s verbal mistakes are a far cry from Trump’s failure to distinguish Nikki Haley from Nancy Pelosi or for him to speak as though he were running against Barack Obama. Ronald Reagan’s conduct during his final years in office might be a better measuring stick with which to compare  Trump’s behavior.  The  40th U. S. President also exhibited memory gaps and confusion during public appearances.  Alzheimer’s was never confirmed during his time in office, but members of his staff did report they saw signs of the disease before he returned to private life.    Psychologist, Dr. John Gartner makes no bones about Trump’s mental illness.  He warns that the former president’s outbursts aren’t those of a strong leader flexing his muscles.  They are the tantrums of a diseased brain.    Though he was never Trump’s doctor, Gartner insists what he offers is not an opinion but a diagnosis based on reality.  Others in his field agree but few have spoken out so publically. Gartner believes his colleagues have failed to do so because they are intimidated. Like physicians practicing in anti-abortion states, they’ve come to fear there is a good chance they would lose their jobs if they went on the record, not to mention other forms of retaliation… Some journalists may have remained silent for the same reason. Gartner points out that they make little of Trump’s slurred words, invented words, unfinished sentences, and blank, expressionless pauses. Instead, they characterize the Presidential election as a competition between two old men.  When Regan took office at the age of 73, he was the oldest President to that date. Whether the early stages of Alzheimer’s had set in, we shall never know, but he was wise enough to surround himself with honorable men and women. By contrast, the roll-call of Trump’s many cohorts is a list of disreputables. Should Trump return to power, that number is likely to grow, boding ill for the country. Nor can we overlook the many felony counts against the former president. His legal woes have left him strapped for funds. Winning re-election, he could erase the federal charges against him with a presidential pardon, but he has no power to absolve himself from state charges.  Without sufficient funds to defend himself, Trump is vulnerable to opportunists who are ready to give him cash in exchange for undue influence.    Opportunists are the people we should fear, not members of the Christian Right as many have assumed.  The latter’s objectives are too out of step with the majority of voters.  Their brief hour on the stage will be less than a hiccup in the course of history.    When money and the levers of government become too cozy, says John Grey in his book The New Leviathans, it threatens democracy and encourages the rise of more and not less totalitarianism.   ( “Who’s Afraid of Freedom?” by Helena Rosenblatt, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2024, pg. 154.) The dynamic is simple, the author explains.  Like other animals, humans are addicted to pleasure. Money satisfies that addiction but the pursuit of it has consequences. Those with the most wealth imagine they are better than others–a perspective that encourages them to imagine people in lower economic circumstances are less human. From there, Grey posits, it’s a short hop to inhumanity, a place where the poverty of others is a justification for eliminating them.   (Ibid, pg. 154)  Whether that causal connection between money and tyranny is direct, I don’t know.  But, science has affirmed that wealth and compassion exist in an inverse ratio.  In a capitalist society, greed, if left unchecked, could end in a tug-of-war between those with enough money to influence the government and the majority who are governed by it. A 2019  Gallop Poll confirmed that dynamic.  Concerning the federal budget, the wealthy preferred to see service cuts to social security to sustain it.  A majority of Americans disagreed. Money has a loud voice in politics, though most of us wish it weren’t true.  Nonetheless, we must accept that Trump’s financial setbacks put him at the mercy of oligarchs. No longer able to pose as one of them, he suffers the humiliation of a man stripped of his theater.  His delusions are exposed, and he stands naked before us.  The only words to suit the occasion are these. Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hast been wise.   (King Lear, 1, v.)

[kingofmyborrowedheart]

It’s quite funny to me how Twitter progressives are absolutely seething over Jon Stewart calling Joe Biden old. Like that’s just a fact, the man is old and it’s not mean or rude to say that.

[ravenkings]

you know, with every passing election cycle, i become even more convinced that Sigmund Freud Was Right

[shredsandpatches]

Sometimes I meet someone who has my exact conversation style and then I want to go apologize to everyone I know

[tomorrowusa]

In 2016 we had But Her Emails. In 2024 we have Biden Is Too Old. The sources of these two lines haven't changed: the flailing GOP with an assist by bothsiderist news media.

Yes, it's the same old distraction technique to draw attention away from the leader of the Republican Party who is an adjudicated sex offender who just lost a gigantic lawsuit based on his past use of fraud.

It's time to push back and aggressively. And successful messaging is repetitious messaging – get used to repeating things if you wish to cut through the noise.

But the main thing is not to freak out and to play offense instead of being defensive. For example: Why are so few people on our side bringing up Trump's unhealthy lifestyle? Drinking 12 Diet Cokes® a day and copious chomping of double cheeseburgers wouldn't be recommended for somebody half his age. And what kind of drugs is he being prescribed?

[A]ll of the #BidenTooOld coverage is about as new and revelatory as #ButHerEmails. If nothing else, it proves that a scandal holding that the president forgets things is always going to go down smoother than a scandal in which a special counsel flagrantly violated a long-standing Justice Department practice and protocol not to “criticize uncharged conduct.” As Sullivan was quick to point out, CNN and the New York Times and every U.S. corporate media entity and its cousin jumped onto the bandwagon. [ ... ] Perhaps one way to navigate yourself through this seemingly insoluble morass would be to ask yourself why Biden, who is stipulated #Old, has managed to helm the most successful presidency in modern history. Booming economy, eye-popping jobs reports, first gun violence reduction bill in decades, $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan plus COVID relief, Inflation Reduction Act, infrastructure prioritized, judges seated. Pick your metric—there have been a lot of wins. And the reason this old man who sometimes forgets things like dates has gotten all this done? He has, for the most part, surrounded himself with experts, genuine scientists, respected economists, and effective governmental actors and advisers. Governance is not an action film. There is no minute-to-minute psychodrama involving someone in a tight black T-shirt mincing along the outdoor ledge of a skyscraper, ninja-kicking his lonely way down to the stairwell, where he karate-chops the well-armed baddies and then commando crawls his way into an empty vault with the glass chest where the nuclear reactor sits. No. Despite our fascination with the Great Man theory of American lawmaking, the presidency is an office that largely turns on superb staffing, visionary planning, deft political negotiation, and artful execution. Joe Biden doesn’t actually have to remember every single detail himself—he has to use his judgment to employ and empower a large contingent of skilled experts to execute upon their agreed-upon vision. If you are unconvinced, the best evidence that we keep falling for Great Man fantasy propaganda is the unmitigated failure of the first Donald Trump presidency. Here we had a self-described loner literally trumpeting his I-alone-can-fix-it worldview, all embodied in Great Man megalomania. He managed to accomplish virtually nothing: Almost none of his promises for single-handed economic revitalization, world domination, or intrepid urban crime-solving panned out. His great dreams were either strangled in infancy by staffers or halted by courts. And whether you believe that this happened because Donald Trump surrounded himself with incompetent yes men or steely adults in the room, both versions serve to offer proof of concept: Donald Trump accomplished close to nothing because the people around him were either too inept to put his vision into practice or too skillful at blocking him to allow him to put his vision into practice. Put another way, if you or anyone you know finds themselves reacting to the Biden Is Old revelations with the thought that, sure, Donald Trump is a 91-indictments-richer, adjudicated sexual abuser, defamer, liar, violator of national security, self-enriching, fascist-boosting insurrectionist, but it’s OK because he will surround himself with people who might check those impulses—well, doesn’t it rather intuitively make more sense to instead vote for the highly effective, internationally respected, but yes, sometimes forgetty guy who is surrounded by people with day planners?

A president is a lot closer to being a CEO than a superhero. And when it does come to being businesslike, Trump has declared bankruptcy six times – approximately six more times than Biden. Trump's business "skills" lean heavily towards fraud, deceit, and bullying.

The real reason we all keep falling for Great Man horse race stories is because they are good for fueling fantasies of all-powerful big daddy presidents who control every tiny aspect of governance in their tiny wee hands. If that is your jam, well, it would make sense to vote for the only candidate who believes in the same dream. If it’s not, the question is reducible to rather simple stakes: Do you want the Big Daddy who surrounds himself with sycophants and nutters and people with shared last names, or the one who surrounds himself with competence and expertise? This doesn’t seem, on balance, like a really tricky call. Do we prefer presidents who can backflip and ninja-kick their way to total world dominion? Perhaps. To my knowledge, nobody ever made a Tom Cruise movie about listening and learning and compromising. But if you still believe governance to be a sober and serious enterprise, vote like the alternative is chilling, because it is.

Trump flatters himself as a "stable genius". But it is Biden who brought stable governance back to the US. Being a constantly ranting gasbag is not an indicator of competence.

Very little attention is being paid to psychological age. Trump is just 42 months chronologically younger than Biden, but Trump acts like a toddler who is not yet 42 months old.

Parents with kids who were constantly having temper tantrums and being frequently disruptive would consider taking those kids to a child psychologist. Being a disruptive narcissist in his late 70s does not make Trump seem youthful but instead more like a case study for arrested development as a toddler.

[nodynasty4us]

From the February 22, 2024 opinion piece by Alex Conant, who worked on Marco Rubio’s campaign:

In the last midterm elections, voters on both sides of the aisle put little stake in mental acuity: An 89-year-old Republican senator was reelected in Iowa, while a Democratic Senate candidate with serious cognitive health concerns was elected in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, both our current and previous presidents set age records after beating younger opponents in the primary and general elections.

The truth is that octogenarians and nonagenarians are far more likely to die in office than lose reelection.

Why? Because a politician’s personal traits — including age, honesty and fidelity — only become salient campaign issues when they are tied to real-world matters that directly impact voters. In most cases, if elected leaders are advancing policies popular with their constituents, voters are willing to look past personal shortcomings and give them another term.

...

It’s possible the high number of voters who describe Biden as a “weak leader” could blame his advancing age on mishandling issues they care about. But conservatives’ argument that Biden is too old to effectively implement his own dangerous left-wing policies is an obvious contradiction.