From "Biden Seems Forgetful, but That Doesn’t Mean He Is 'Forgetting'" by Charan Ranganath (NYT). Ranganath, a professor of psychology and neuroscience, is the author of the "Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory’s Potential to Hold on to What Matters."
So... the idea is that Biden is forgetting but not Forgetting.
I noticed something else while reading this article, something that I thought Ranganath was going to talk about but did not. He quotes the famous line from the Special Counsel's report:
“Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
And here's what jumped out at me: That does not say Biden is a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory! It says Biden presented himself as such a person. He did it in the interview and he's likely to do the same thing before a jury. That seems to insinuate that Biden poses as such a character when it serves his interests — that he's faking memory problems to avoid responsibility for bad behavior. Why aren't we talking about that? Why are we stuck on the interpretation that the Special Counsel believed Biden suffers from memory loss?
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92 comments:
Biden can’t remember his lies. Always a bad sign.
The part he is fakcing is the sympathetic, well meaning aspect. The forgetting is who he is right now.
Oh shoot. I completely missed that. Thanks.
Reminds me of my mom’s bad hearing. She mostly can’t hear inconvenient sounds 😏
Sure. Biden is faking issues at this press conference last week as part of a strategy so deep that only academic psychologists can understand it.
Is Biden too old? Yes. Is Biden losing his marbles? Yes, and he’s on the downhill slope of Vegetative Run.
This sort of discussion is nibbling around the edges of simple facts.
Gk aletheia (not-forgetting) is truth. As in river Lethe.
The 'experts' are being dragged out of every country home to tell us how we are to think about what our eyes are seeing, our ears are hearing, and our mind is understanding. Apparently our eyes, ears, and mind have it all wrong.
The dragging out of the experts to cover for Joe and attack the Special Counsel reminds me of Monty Python. Much of our culture these days reminds me of something Monty Python once did. Bring out your dead
Not being able to remember the name of Emmanuel Macron is comprehensible and is a failure of memory retrieval, but remembering Macron as Francois Mitterand, a man who hasn't been France's president in almost 30 years and dead for almost as long, is a much more serious failure of memory. I will give a personal example- a couple of weeks ago I was doing a crossword puzzle where I needed to know two actors from the movie "What's Eating Gilbert Grape"- the answers, of course, were Depp and Dicaprio, but for a couple of minutes, I was drawing a complete blank on Johnny Depp, even though I could literally see his face in my memory. Not remembering Depp's name is a failure of memory retrieval, but if I had, instead, remembered him as Glenn Ford, that would have worried me a great deal and would be the equal of Biden thinking Macron was Mitterand. My father, at the end of his life, could easily retreive memories from his more distant past, and it was obvious that his memory was temporally confused a great deal of the time- for example, he believed I was still in college a great deal of the time in that last year of his life.
"Why are we stuck on the interpretation that the Special Counsel believed Biden suffers from memory loss?"
Because he cites evidence. Including from recordings with his ghost writer, i.e., in a situation when he wasn't "presenting himself" to Hur.
Of course, we on the outside have many instances of Biden suffering from memory loss. In his defense, he has told so many lies with such impunity that swaths of untruth have replaced whatever memory existed.
I thought the special counsel was doing a back-handed insult. The phrasing is about how he "presents" himself but readers are meant to take the "elderly man with a poor memory" part seriously. In fact, one could read it as, "because he is actually an elderly man with a poor memory, he presents himself as "sympathetic [and] well-meaning". With the hope that people will then look past the infirmities.
Hahaha.
Yeah; I had caught that, too.
Kind of psychopathic, no?
One of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombers (over Scotland in 1988 using a boombox filled with explosives) was convicted in 2001 and then released on compassionate grounds with terminal prostate cancer in 2009. He went on to live for four more years, and his release was widely criticized at the time. It was even criticized by Hillary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Release_of_Abdelbaset_al-Megrahi
The release may have been prompted by BP oil lobbying as a way to facilitate Libyan operations.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Pan-Am-flight-103
Old men either fall apart or pretend to be old and decrepit when it serves their purposes. You be the judge of Biden. Per the standards used by Trump's critics, Biden should be removed either way.
What does the article say about frequency?
Conflating Mexico and Egypt in a publich speech is pretty serious but we've all done something like that. Probably when we were much younger than him, too. Or Mitterand for Macron.
I'd normally be willing to cut a person some slack for that kind of error. A lot more slack if they immediately corrected themselves "...Mexico. excuse me, Egypt"
But he makes gaffes like this all the time. I'm more worried about that than if he did it a couple times a year.
He also makes many other gaffes. Again, I have no problem with the occasional gaffe. I do have a problem with dong them all the time.
The other problem is that he flat out lied to us. He told us that all the secret docs were in file cabinets that were "locked or able to be locked". But the report had half a dozen pictures of cardboard boxes piled around the garage. No filing cabinets at all.
John Henry
We should talk about it all!
Of course, the special prosecutor can't say if Biden is or is not well meaning, and he can not say if Biden is or is not actually forgetful. He's not his doctor.
But either way, it's not good, other world leaders can see it, and so can we. And it is the biggest farce ever that his people think they are hiding it, or that there are people who pretend he *seems* fine.
"That seems to insinuate that Biden poses as such a character when it serves his interests — that he's faking memory problems to avoid responsibility for bad behavior. Why aren't we talking about that? Why are we stuck on the interpretation that the Special Counsel believed Biden suffers from memory loss? "
We don't know which way Hur meant it. (A journalist could ask him!). But is it appropriate to refrain from prosecuting someone who we believe broke the law because we anticipate a potential defense strategy might be successful?
Politicians and scientists. This particular scientist is meeting in that gray area where science and politics overlap. We saw how that went during COVID. The science was settled. COVID didn't spread during BLM protests but motorcycle rallies and outdoor religious observations were danger zones.....Biden's memory lapses are just transitory. His politics are progressive not his mental acuity problems. He won't get any worse in the next four or five years. The science is settled......No scientist lost any standing for being wrong during COVID. No politician ever lost any Democratic Party support for being credulous of Clinton's lies about Monica. They simply transitioned from believing Clinton to believing that everyone lies about sex.....If Biden is a sly, old devil who can present himself as a kindly old gent with occasional memory lapses and use that as a cover for his nefarious schemes, then that presupposes a craftiness that he has never before demonstrated. Biden is most famous for fucking things up and not for his subtle, Machiavellian schemes.
He forgot his son died of brain cancer, in a hospital, not in Iraq as he has claimed.
Althouse asks: "That seems to insinuate that Biden poses as such a character when it serves his interests — that he's faking memory problems to avoid responsibility for bad behavior. Why aren't we talking about that?"
Yes, the report uses careful language, legalistic even, to avoid making a definitive pronouncement (which would amount to a professional diagnosis) about Biden's actual cognitive capabilities.
I submit that no one has taken to discussing this possibility for the simple reason that we all know by now that the cognitive (and physical) decline is real. Biden had a possible motive to appear to be super-forgetful and confused during his deposition, but he has no motive to appear that way in his public appearances.
The United States is in fact saddled with the addled as our Commander-in-Chief.
The most dangerous part for all of us regarding Biden's mental decline, is "who is actually running the show"? He's been a puppet since the day he was installed via voter fraud. Only the most corrupt of assholes would accept the Presidency in such a manner.
Does anyone really believe Biden has made any Presidential decisions in the last three years? Seems he's just going along with the program and doing what he is told.
How does Prof. Ranganath feel about rape vs Rape-rape?
Why can't it be both? Biden has issues remembering and that he leans into to those issues when he believes it suits him.
We talked about Hillary Clinton's memory losses when questioned about her server, as we knew it was pretense. She failed to come across as sympathetic, but she likely came across to the FBI as someone that would scratch their back if they took care of her.
Generally, I agree Ranganath notion of difference in cognitive ability and memory loss, but a phrase such as "There is forgetting and there is 'forgetting'" suggests an effort to provide an elaborate excuse. I often have issue of recall of specific names, but I know it isn't memory loss, because I typically can name several traits of whatever name I'm having difficulty recalling. It is frustrating, but it is not memory loss.
As for Biden's possession of classified material, I doubt either cognitive decline or memory loss was as much as play compared to complete carelessness in what was stamped on the cover. I'm sure Biden has never given a damn what the classification said because he was entitled to see it and have the information. He didn't forget that he never cared. As he hasn't forgotten that we don't have the right to know what he doesn't want us to know.
If I understood correctly, Biden couldn't remember whether or not he was still Vice President. That's Forgetting.
Beyond that, the shear number of these incidents are diagnostic.
And here's what jumped out at me: That does not say Biden is a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory! It says Biden presented himself as that such a person. He did it in the interview and he's likely to do the same thing before a jury. That seems to insinuate that Biden poses as such a character when it serves his interests — that he's faking memory problems to avoid responsibility for bad behavior.
I could definitely see Joe doing that, thinking he's being really slick and fooling Hur. But just look at the fallout!
What was it Obama said about not underestimating Joe's ability to fuck things up?
We are. We aren't.
Leave the poor old crook alone. He forgot he's a crook.
“Faking a memory problem” becomes both easier and more difficult with each passing day.
Seems I can remember some years after Reagan left office it was announced that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s and the immediate speculation began about whether or not it had affected his presidency.
And now it’s happening in real time right before our very eyes and we’re blind.
Fortunately, with our National politics the way it is, we’ll only have to stomach this BS propaganda (unknown scientists swearing that the president is “fine” and you shouldn’t believe your lying eyes) until the next “issue” knocks this stuff off the news cycle. Which will probably be pretty soon.
Unfortunately, that “issue” could be another step towards WWIII with this knucklehead ostensibly leading the country.
Fortunately, that new issue will itself only be in the headlines until some new shiny object is put before us to distract us.
Unfortunately, again, that new issue that knocks the WWIII issue out of the headlines may very well be another Biden gaff where he “Forgets” something or “forgets” something and the press again launches the propaganda campaign to convince us he’s “fine”…
But at least we got rid of the mean tweets, amirite?
Good point. In litigation, the decision whether to settle or go to trial typically hinges on whether a jury would find the adverse party sympathetic. I also have no doubt that such considerations play a part in prosecutions where the evidence is circumstantial. So I'm surprised that Hur, if he thought that Biden was being disingenuous, wouldn't just say so.
All the more reason for Biden to be upset and do that impromptu press conference that didn’t help.
That must’ve been his idea. Pride is a hell of thing to contain.
Which leads to believe that if they want Biden to get out, they have to come up with an out that preserves his pride. Or at least pays lip service. A face saving out.
Maybe an injury, physical injury like that secretary of defence, in and out of the hospital.
Yes they are describing a distinction between the quick recall phenomenon that often accompanies age with distinct signs of dementia- momentarily forgetting the name of your spouse vs forgetting you have a spouse. Yes, there is a distinction but for most of us, including loyal Democrats, there are higher standards for a POTUS. Here’s the test- apply Joe Biden’s ‘not that bad’ standard to any Republican. Go ahead, try it. I know, you can’t accept it…
Have your fun these days though. Your party will let you fantasize about your dream candidate or whatever you want to toy with now. Come August they’re going to squash that shit. You’ll be perturb for a few days, then you’ll get over it and fall in line like always…
Looks like you've been missing a lot of work lately.
I wouldn't say I've been *missing* it, Bob.
Looks like you’ve been forgetting a lot of things lately, Joe. . . .
Alternate headline; Joe Biden is Forgetful, and here's why that's a good thing!
If you, an attentive reader, are only noticing now that Biden was accused of faking his elderly persona when it suits him, then it's no surprise others haven't noticed yet.
Also, I would say that, faker or not, Biden's authentic memory loss is a sore subject for him. He overlooked the other sleight because he's afraid people will notice he isn't sharp. It touched a nerve.
He forgets thing in too many circumstances when it does not serve his interests to come off as “forgetful”.
Because we don't believe it's true. I believe the Special Counsel put the wording there intentionally so he could avoid being Epsteined or mobbed by claiming that your interpretation is what he meant.
The value of a close reading.
Hur was smart to share the shit sandwich he was given with the rest of us.
That seems to insinuate that Biden poses as such a character when it serves his interests — that he's faking memory problems to avoid responsibility for bad behavior. Why aren't we talking about that?
Especially since lack of mental capacity is a reason not to prosecute only if it's real. Not if it's feigned.
Still, I think Hur put it in there precisely to have the effect it has had. If he recommended prosecution, nothing would come of it, at best it would drag on for years and Biden's successor would pardon him long before anything happens with it. But since Hur recommended no prosecution despite guilt, the reasons given can't be ignored.
"Why aren't we ...." That's an excellent point. I think the answer is that he occurs as a dodderer to most of us. It may be that when coupled with his notorious stupidity and dishonesty that appears to be senility.
This has nothing to do with Biden's age. He's been lying throughout his political career. The media once branded Brandon's gaffes as a "stutter", now they're re-branding him as "forgetful".
Uncle Leo is up to his old tricks.
Why? Because we all remember a younger snappier Biden who didn't: walk like Frankenstein, shake hands with invisible people, get lost every damn time he is at a microphone, claim to have "just met" people long dead, sit with his mouth hanging open and vacant eyes, insert his dead son into every grieving parent's space no matter how wildly out of context, injure himself while nakedly "chasing [his] dog down the alley between the bathroom and bedroom" or break into what is supposed to appear like a vigorous "trot" but is actually a cringy Tim Conway-like "old man move" (without the intentional comedic effect) for exactly two steps and no more when approaching or departing aircraft.
It's not his "memory" that worries us. It's not his "stutter" that concerns us. It's not even the wholesale corruption and meting out of two-tiered "Justice" that keeps us in a state of horrified anticipation. It's the alternately braindead sluggishness broken up by brief moments of amphetamine-like rage and whispers and gibberish capped by a dollop of "I can't help sniffing you" that makes us worry about his Chief Executive abilities and the special button.
https://nypost.com/2024/02/10/news/hunter-biden-pal-in-the-center-of-bidens-document-scandal/
Which leads to believe that if they want Biden to get out, they have to come up with an out that preserves his pride. Or at least pays lip service. A face saving out.
This is why I don't buy the argument that any other GOP candidate would win easily: if Trump were to step aside then it would give Biden some wiggle room to say, "it's time for new blood to lead the Dem party", setting up a contest between the GOP nominee and a more popular Dem candidate. As long as Trump is in the race, Biden's pride won't let him withdraw.
Is this a medical guy talking? Because they use that phrasing, "patient presents as x," all the time. However, my prior longer answer is more responsive to the hypothetical presented.
What explains his recitation of his heroic intervention with Mexico/Egypt that never actually happened? He's senile. He sounds like ChatGPT filling in the blanks where it doesn't know by making stuff up that sounds plausible.
But he and Nancy Pelosi, for two, have long associations with the Mob. The Mob got Biden elected the first time, the Mob has a *lot* of influence in PA elections, and the brother of a convicted Mobster sits on the PA Supreme Court, judges who still remain in office there are known to the Department of Just Us to have been put in office by ballot stuffing. Michael Tracey on Twitter brought that up again a few months ago. how the Mob called a wildcat strike the Sunday before the election where he first took office, because his opponent had paid for an insert that listed Joe Biden's already long then history of unsavory activity, so maybe it would have been an act a while back, but this guy is not the SNL Ronald Reagan.
This is kind of interesting, how Joe Biden lied about his vote for the Iraq War.
https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/1234137520939700226
Not only did he vote for the war, he went to Iraq afterwards and negotiated a $2 billion dollar deal for his brother James to rebuild the homes that he voted to bomb, even though James had no more experience in this than Hunter had to sit on the board of an energy company in Ukraine.
Because Biden is showing all the signs of dementia. He is unable to read from a teleprompter properly. He slurs his words. He seemingly forgets where he is and has to be shepherded to safety, repeatedly. His work schedule is extremely light for a President, such that he gives every impression that (a) they are hiding him as much as possible and (b) there are periods of time when he is essentially non-functional. He skips out on "slam dunk" PR moments, like the softball Super Bowl interview, presumably because he simply cannot do it without the risk of a meltdown of some sort. His staff have to repeatedly walk back things he says, despite him being the President of the United States and that staff reporting to him. He claims to talk to dead people for goodness sake! And this has been going on for years!
I mean, sure, this could be a huge con and Biden is obfuscating senility in this particular case, but that would (a) require ignoring all the other things that happen all the time in public and (b) assume that Biden is able to pull off the con. He is a pathological liar and skilled at navigating the political machine, but otherwise he has been a perfect blowhard, bullying buffoon, incompetent that anything that would make him actually useful, and while he has a lot of experience lying his lies are so obvious that a skilled lawyer would see right through it with minimal research.
Blogger Original Mike said...
We don't know which way Hur meant it. (A journalist could ask him!).
Hur is not a psychiatrist and did not do a psychiatric evaluation. I took his meaning at face value, Brandon seems to be an old man with memory problems. If he had said "is", he could be criticized "What are your qualifications for such a judgement, huh?" and "How can you tell that without testing?" and so on.
But it is hard to question Hur's impression that this is how Brandon presented himself to Hur.
But is it appropriate to refrain from prosecuting someone who we believe broke the law because we anticipate a potential defense strategy might be successful?
I hate this idea of a two tiered justice system as much as anyone and agree that it would not normally be appropriate. But in this case that horse has already flown the coop.
Not prosecuting Brandon, whatever the reason, gives our president emeritus to claim selective persecution. Brandon's crimes against documents were, apparently, far, far worse than PEDJTs. But PEDJT gets prosecuted and Brandon doesn't?
I don't know how much this might help him in court. Perhaps a lawyer can opine. But it certainly seems to be something PEDJT can use in his campaign.
John Henry
Irish Alzheimers:
Forget everything but the grudges
John Henry
Joe needs notecards with pictures of journalists, the order to call on them, the questions they will ask, the answers he is to give. The cards contain stage directions, reminders not to say anything, and reminders to repeat important statements. Notes with talking points is fine. Notes with directions that effectively pull the strings of a sitting puppet president is not.
KJP, Mayorkas, others state that in private Joe is incisive, ask deep questions, drills people until they give up, etc. That description is in stark contrast to what Biden shows us every day he shows up. Could he be >that< deceptive?
Well I'll cut Biden some slack. I'll go with John Henry's "two gaffes a year" are allowed rule. Then I'll note that Joe is way over the limit.
Or, they could find a donor willing to pay Biden off to get out. It wouldn’t be the first time, might be the last time, Biden takes a payoff.
Throw in a blank for one night, to sweeten the pot. I can’t say that without running afoul of the blog rules or something.
Could President Biden do a New York Times crossword puzzle?
It's pretty clear to me what happened. Biden is guilty, but Hur needed a reason not to indict him. So he latched onto an excuse which had the virtue of being true; Biden isn't all there anymore. And he needed to make that reason public to defend both the DOJ's and his own personal reputation.
Great point, councilor. Everyone in all political trials and hearings testifies that they don't recall. Why is Biden different?
It makes me recall a poker game in the back of the Cobb Mountain Lodge with roughnecks and an old drunk who could barely keep up for the first couple hours, then ended up with everybody's money by dawn.
Sandbagger
That seems to insinuate that Biden poses as such a character when it serves his interests — that he's faking memory problems to avoid responsibility for bad behavior. Why aren't we talking about that?
Pardon me, but:
Rabel said...
"Aren't people reading that wrong. Hur didn't say that Biden was "a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory," but that Biden would "present" himself to a jury as such.
My early read is that Hur saw it as a front."
2/8/24, 3:05 PM
Someone on our Discord noted that the Biden handlers are trying to resurrect the the "Dark Brandon" meme, even though no one with an IQ above body temperature thinks Biden can even play checkers any longer. That is true desperation.
"That seems to insinuate that Biden poses as such a character when it serves his interests — that he's faking memory problems to avoid responsibility for bad behavior. Why aren't we talking about that?"
Maybe because given a choice between:
"In the right lighting, if you turn your head just so and squint a little, it looks like Joe is just acting."
and
"What you get with Joe is exactly what you see."
It's pretty clear which of those all but the most deluded partisans are going with. Hell, Democrats are starting to get on the "Joe is senile" train right now, and not in costumes to hide their identities.
One more question: Swap in Trump for Brandon- would the MSM be making these sorts of efforts to explain what everybody can see with their own two eyes?
Bueller? Bueller?
AlbertAnonymous,
That was my favorite book as a child.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0689716605/
There is a third option. Biden is not faking memory and cognitive issues but his defense would (and did) seek to create sympathy for and explain away his inability to provide coherent answers as related to normal aging, providing a hook for a Democrat-infested DC jury to avoid convicting him.
Biden's eyes look empty, that is what I see. Is it an accurate indicator? I have no idea.
If you remember things that never happened, that makes up for the stuff that you can't remember at all. Sort of a conservation of energy for memories.
Joe Biden is in Stage 5 of dementia.
Stage 5 dementia symptoms:
Pronounced memory loss, including personal details and current events
Wandering
Confusion and forgetfulness
Disorientation and sundown syndrome
Further reduced mental acuity and problem-solving ability
Within a year at most he will be in Stage 6, with these dementia symptoms:
Sleep difficulties
Urinary or fecal incontinence
Aggression and anxiety
Personality changes including paranoia or delusions
Inability to perform Activities of Daily Living
Pronounced memory loss
Inability to recognize loved ones and caregivers
Stage 7 dementia symptoms:
Inability to speak
Lack of physical coordination and the inability to move without help
Impaired bodily functions
Then he dies from whatever his form of dementia is, like Reagan did from his Alzheimers.
I note that the NIH did a nice study of how addled Reagan was: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6922000/
And here is a report on Biden:
https://www.caclubindia.com/wealth/joe-biden-dementia/
Biden will be in stage 6 by the end of the year. God help us all.
Joe Biden is in Stage 5 of dementia.
Stage 5 dementia symptoms:
Pronounced memory loss, including personal details and current events
Wandering
Confusion and forgetfulness
Disorientation and sundown syndrome
Further reduced mental acuity and problem-solving ability
Within a year at most he will be in Stage 6, with these dementia symptoms:
Sleep difficulties
Urinary or fecal incontinence
Aggression and anxiety
Personality changes including paranoia or delusions
Inability to perform Activities of Daily Living
Pronounced memory loss
Inability to recognize loved ones and caregivers
Stage 7 dementia symptoms:
Inability to speak
Lack of physical coordination and the inability to move without help
Impaired bodily functions
Then he dies from whatever his form of dementia is, like Reagan did from his Alzheimers.
I note that the NIH did a nice study of how addled Reagan was: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6922000/
And here is a report on Biden:
https://www.caclubindia.com/wealth/joe-biden-dementia/
Biden will be in stage 6 by the end of the year. God help us all.
Allow me to correct the record. I went back and re-read some of this. While Biden could not recall the beginning and ending dates of his terms as Vice-President, it is not accurate to say that he didn't know if he was still Vice President.
It's an interesting situation, trying to figure out what is an act and what is really dementia, when you're dealing with a fabulist like Biden. My MIL had a similar approach to the truth, making up stories and changing events to suit her even before she aged. It got worse as her (real, actual, diagnosed) dementia worsened. For example, every time you brought up a topic she would have a story to go with it, so if we said "we're going to Ireland on vacation" she'd tell you about when she went to Ireland for work (it never happened, but it was sort of the way she related to what you'd told her). She would also use her memory loss to her advantage, and you'd be left wondering if she was messing with you or not - "you never told me that, I don't remember", she'd say. True, or is she messing with you (one of her hobbies) or just excusing the fact she didn't want to do what you told her and so pretends she doesn't remember? It was a constant theme of her last years, and made the dementia even more exhausting. Every time I see a Biden story like this I am reminded of what she was like.
It says Biden presented himself as such a person. He did it in the interview and he's likely to do the same thing before a jury.
I caught that. So what?
That seems to insinuate that Biden poses as such a character when it serves his interests — that he's faking memory problems to avoid responsibility for bad behavior.
Well duh! He’s been a slimy bastard since before the Clarence Thomas hearings, and his only change has been to get worse.
Why aren't we talking about that? Why are we stuck on the interpretation that the Special Counsel believed Biden suffers from memory loss?
Because we see enough unscripted episodes of senility in his behavior that the most reasonable interpretation is that he presents himself as a senile, forgetful old fool with dementia because he really is a senile, forgetful old fool riddled with dementia.
I think it's a mistake to suggest that Hur is implying that he's faking; he would have made that explicit. They're just saying that that's how they think a jury is likely to see him.
I noticed the “present himself to a jury” framing right away, but the significant part to me was not “present himself” but the reference to a jury. Hur (and Garland) are operating under an ethical restriction: prosecutors are ethically prohibited from bringing charges if they believe a jury won’t convict after a trial. I think Hur and Garland had two jobs: (1) don’t bring charges against Biden and (2) don’t do anything to undermine the case against Trump. Hur could not simply find that Biden’s document retention was legal (or insignificantly illegal), because of (2). Nor could he find that Biden’s document retention was illegal, but unlike in Trump’s case, the illegality was cured by Biden’s cooperation after he was caught. That might work as a PR gambit, but there is no legal basis for it. So what real difference is there between the Biden case and the Trump case that could justify prosecuting only the latter? Well, if the prosecutor thinks that a DC or Delaware jury is likely to convict Trump but acquit Biden when presented with similar evidence of wrongdoing, then the prosecutor may ethically charge Trump but is ethically bound not to charge Biden. That’s the “no reasonable prosecutor” standard, and it’s not about what some abstract reasonable jury would do, it’s about what the jury you’re likely to get will do. I believe Hur’s specific reference to Biden’s sympathetic presentation “to a jury” was meant to invoke the ethical prohibition without unduly elaborating on what the different Trump outcome says about our justice system.
woody allens "Sleeper"
Smoking is good for you. Chocolate cake is good for you.
Enjoy your demented old racist
"Not prosecuting Brandon, whatever the reason, gives our president emeritus to claim selective persecution. Brandon's crimes against documents were, apparently, far, far worse than PEDJTs. But PEDJT gets prosecuted and Brandon doesn't?"
Trump and the documents: "Those documents I had? Did I forget to tell you I declassified them before I left office? Well, I did. Sorry about that." Forgetting seems to excuse Brandon regularly, so why not Trump, too?
Lawyer talk.
Occam's razor applies to Biden's mental condition. Stop overthinking and falling down the rabbit hole. What the Administration and media are doing is firing-off chaff to confuse those who seek the real truth of Biden's disability.
Because if we read "He'd convince the jury that he's a well-meaning [the biggest lie of all] old guy with memory loss" as a performance, it would make the whole idea of not prosecuting clear crimes even more farcical than it was to begin with.
When you get the briefing on how to handle classified material they flat-out tell you that your INTENTIONS don't matter: if you break the rules, you will be punished. As people noted, there have been prison terms served for things in the background of photos, or for forgetting to have two witnesses with you when you opened or closed a safe, etc., etc.
Yet for their favored friends the security agencies will move heaven and earth to make excuses--even when, as is the case with both Hilary Clinton and Biden, the excuses don't ACTUALLY exculpate them from the clear wording of that statute.
We will see your professor and raise you a doctor: Doctor Sounds Alarm On Biden’s ‘Mental Lapses’ And ‘Anger’
“We’re not talking about somebody’s grandfather here, we’re talking about the president of the United States,” Siegel asserted. “And one moment of confusion could be all we need for disaster. But that aside, I’d like to see the cognitive assessment over time here, and I’d like to see the MRI… It’s time that we stop calling these gaffes. They’re not really gaffes… they’re mental lapses and they can be tied into a problem with judgment, and they seem to be.”. (emphasis added)
Siegel is right. These aren't "gaffes". We need to see cognitive test results and MRI scans of Biden.
If Biden isn't mentally gone, he needs to be prosecuted for mishandling top secret docs. He shared them with his ghostwriter who does not have clearance.
Same argument as Trump waving documents to some writers, too.
But we no longer have rule of law anymore.
mikee wrote:
> Within a year at most he will be in Stage 6, with these dementia symptoms
No, that's not how dementia and other cognitive decline works. There isn't a specific calendar that it follows. The stages 1 through 7 progression is (mostly) correct. The amount of time between stages is variable by person.
It's *possible* he will be in Stage 6 tomorrow, end of the year, or sometime in 2030 (if he lives that long). But, we do not *know* when he may progress to the next stage.
I don't think there is any basis to suggest that the Special Counsel was trying to "insinuate that Biden poses as such a character when it serves his interests — that he's faking memory problems to avoid responsibility for bad behavior."
The context for the Special Counsel's comment was the requirement under DOJ regulations for him to submit a report to the Atty Gen explaining his charging decision. That part of the Special Counsel's report is ostensibly discussing whether a prosecution, if brought, would likely be successful. In describing how Biden would "present" himself, the Special Counsel is making the common-sense assumption that Biden's attorneys would use everything available to them to convince a jury not to convict. What matters, of course, is how the jury would likely react to that "presentation," and whether it would be a defense even if they believed it to be true. Very hard to fault the Special Counsel here, since (i) he didn't make the decision to release his report, and (ii) most Americans have already reached the conclusion that Biden is physically and mentally debilitated.
The biggest concern may be that he'll start forgetting to lie.
I’m almost 38 and sometimes it takes even me 2-3 seconds to recall and recite all my kids’ birthdays.
Know what dates is etched in my mind for all eternity? The day my daughter died.
Nothing short of dementia or a brain injury could possible prevent me from instantly recalling that date.
Joe Biden, Wake up... Joe. Biden, wake up.
LOL
"Great point, councilor. Everyone in all political trials and hearings testifies that they don't recall. Why is Biden different?"
Then Biden should release the transcripts and make this whole thing go away.
My favorite part is how his ghost writer destroyed evidence. Flat out destroyed it, not in a hypothetical sense, or an "it might be argued" sense, but flat out destroyed evidence of Biden's crime.
One more question: Swap in Trump for Brandon- would the MSM be making these sorts of efforts to explain what everybody can see with their own two eyes?
They tried to tell us he was mentally incompetent when he was president and the only problem was that they didn't understand hyperbole and metaphors. You would think journalists never made it through tenth grade English class. Some of Trump's speech sounds like creative brainstorming where people will just say whatever comes to mind in the hopes that their possibly outlandish comments will spark an idea in someone else that will work. It's an excellent tool with the right people in the right environment.
The House Oversight Committee is requesting AUDIO and VIDEO of President Biden’s disastrous interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur.
Maybe Howard will get his wish and we will all get to see that this is just nonsense on stilts cooked up by Hur!
I doubt Biden's memory problems are feigned. With his cognitive decline and shuffling gait, he presents as someone past his expiration date to run for office. He is 12 years older than Reagan in 1980, whom my father at the time thought was too old to be president. Dad ended up voting third party that year, as will I probably this year.
My wife — who unfortunately has reason to recognize it — thinks Joe Biden is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Hope she’s wrong.
"I doubt Biden's memory problems are feigned."
To be clear, it's not that they are feigned, it's that in his interviews with Hur, he exaggerated their extent for his benefit and Hur expected him to do the same in front of a jury.
I believe that Hur saw through this, resented it, and responded by including references to it in his report.
Biden has, and has had, mild to moderate dementia which has progressed surprisingly little since 2020 - until recently with the increasing memory issues.
He's not a "vegetable" and it does little to advance the cause of taking back the country to exaggerate the situation, which is bad enough as is.
I'm sure retrieval failure improves with age.
Cremes points out that the timetable of dementia well, depends. We don't know what Biden's neurological issues are, other than his supposedly corrected brain aneurism. Biden already demonstrates three symptoms of Stage 6 dementia. Cremes is correct. He might remain the stumbling, senescent, forgetful, paranoid, angry old man he is for several years or he might lose his ability to speak from a ministroke overnight any day now.
The fact remains that Biden exhibits all symptoms of moderate dementia and some symptoms of more severe dementia right now.
My conclusions remain that Biden is not gonna get any better than he is right now, will continue to decline in mental and physical health, and is but a figurehead for those running his administration.
"The biggest concern may be that he'll start forgetting to lie."
Joe Biden: "We have put together I think the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics."
Natatomic: no effective words, but deeply sorry.
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