XPost: alt.law-enforcement, talk.politics.guns, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh

“Obviously low IQ”: Former DHS official says “Donald Trump has apparent repeated memory lapses”
Former Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor calls Trump's mental decline "a civic tragedy"

During last week’s State of the Union speech, President Biden fired a
series of broadsides against Donald Trump and his MAGA movement. President Biden fired off this opening salvo and the Republicans in the audience, and more generally, never recovered from it.



Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and
democracy been under assault here at home as they are today. What makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack, both at home
and overseas, at the very same time.

Overseas, Putin of Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos throughout Europe and beyond. If anybody in this room thinks Putin
will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will not.

But Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the
weapons it needs to defend itself. That is all Ukraine is asking. They are
not asking for American soldiers. In fact, there are no American soldiers
at war in Ukraine. And I am determined to keep it that way. But now
assistance for Ukraine is being blocked by those who want us to walk away
from our leadership in the world. It wasn’t that long ago when a Republican President, Ronald Reagan, thundered, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

Now, my predecessor, a former Republican President, tells Putin, “Do whatever the hell you want.”

A former American President actually said that, bowing down to a
Russian leader. It’s outrageous. It’s dangerous. It’s unacceptable.

In an essay here at Salon, Heather "Digby" Parton described Biden’s speech
in the following way:

Everyone was expecting a historic train wreck of a State of the Union
last night and they got it. But it wasn't the one they thought it would be. President Joe Biden's address was powerful and dynamic and no doubt put a
lot of timorous Democrats' worries to rest (at least for a day or so.) It
was Donald Trump's highly touted response that failed dramatically.

Biden came out swinging and knocked the Republicans so far back on
their heels that they had to completely abandon the image of him they've
been building since 2020 — a man so old and feeble that he can't even feed himself — and instead hilariously whimper about his loud macho aggression….Biden gave a barn burner of a speech that wasn't boring, which
is highly unusual for any president but especially unusual for a president
many people have been convinced has one foot in the grave.

At the end of the State of the Union speech, President Biden made a bold
move, landing another salvo on his critics and enemies, who are advancing
the lie of a narrative that he is somehow “too old” or perhaps even
“senile” and therefore should not seek a second term in office.

In my career I’ve been told I’m too young and I’m too old.

Whether young or old, I’ve always known what endures.

Our North Star.

The very idea of America, that we are all created equal and deserve to
be treated equally throughout our lives.

We’ve never fully lived up to that idea, but we’ve never walked away
from it either.

And I won’t walk away from it now.

My fellow Americans, the issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are,
it’s how old our ideas are.

Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are among the oldest of ideas.

But you can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back.

To lead America, the land of possibilities, you need a vision for the future of what America can and should be.

Tonight you’ve heard mine.

Related
“Biden owned the Republicans in every way”: GOP State of the Union hecklers
go down in flames

President Biden was clearly implying that it is actually Donald Trump, and
not him, who especially in these last few days and weeks, has repeatedly
shown that he appears to be facing serious cognitive challenges in terms of
his speech, thinking, and memory.

Sounding the alarm about Trump’s growing dangerousness, Dr. John Gartner explained to me in a widely read conversation here at Salon that, “Not
enough people are sounding the alarm, that based on his behavior, and in my opinion, Donald Trump is dangerously demented. In fact, we are seeing the opposite among too many in the news media, the political leaders and among
the public. There is also this focus on Biden's gaffes or other things that
are well within the normal limits of aging. By comparison, Trump appears to
be showing gross signs of dementia. This is a tale of two brains. Biden's
brain is aging. Trump's brain is dementing”.
Advertisement:

Dr. Gartner’s colleague, Dr. Harry Segal, who is a senior lecturer at
Cornell University and Weill Cornell Medical School, even went so far to suggest that Donald Trump should withdraw from the 2024 presidential
campaign.

Because Donald Trump lacks impulse control and is almost pathological in
his levels of projection, almost on cue following the State of the Union
Speech he accused President Biden on his Truth Social disinformation
platform of being a “psycho.”

"It’s impossible to not see the clips of his antics, and yes, the obvious sloppy, sweaty decline is notable."

At several events last week, as predicted by Dr. Gartner and his
colleagues, President Trump continued to manifest apparent challenges in speech, memory, and cognition.

In an attempt to make better sense of Donald Trump’s obvious cognitive challenges and related behavior in the context of the country’s democracy crisis and the 2024 election, and what may happen next, I recently asked a range of experts for their thoughts and suggestions.
Advertisement:

Will Bunch is a national opinion columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Clearly, Donald Trump is struggling to hold a coherent thought or find the proper word, and I notice it seems to be increasing every time he gives a speech. Everyone ages differently, and I think of my dad who just turned 87
and it totally lucid in conversation although he does occasionally forget a name (as do I, at 65!), I’m not at all an expert on brain health, but based
on what’s observable and also the folks who are experts whose analyses I’ve read I think there’s a real problem.

Voters should have serious conversations about what it means to be
president, what the real issues are around presidential health, and how
Trump and Biden might be different from each other. Generally speaking, I
think the Ronald Reagan “charismatic actor” reinvention of the presidency
makes people forget that we’re actually electing the CEO of a massive organization, with smart people in corner offices channeling the policies
and morals of the boss. No one is bombing Barbados instead of Syria because
an aging president said the wrong thing. That said, I think Trump’s mental struggles should be taken seriously by voters because in his case it seems
to be linked to his moods and his temperament. He’s promised a presidency
of “retribution” and to surround himself with aides who can act on his
whims. That’s concerning. But will most voters care? Probably not. Advertisement:

It feels like the lessons the mainstream media have taken from the Trump
years are exactly the wrong ones: a doubling down on a bland and ultimately phony interpretation of “balance and objectivity.” It seems that
occasionally going out on a limb and calling out Trump for some of his lies from 2017-2021 means they were salivating for a chance to prove they can be just as tough on Biden – whether or not he deserves it. For a time, that stalking horse was “inflation,” but the price increases cooled, and Biden
got four years older, so here we are. So much of this is journalists
indulging voters by focusing on style when the substance in this election
is life or death for America.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)