So maybe Joe Biden does have memory issues

benfell

Okay, I’m up way past my bedtime catching up on email and preparing this, so light up some midnight oil. I’ll surely be sound asleep. Like real soon.

Neoliberalism

Democratic (neoliberal) Party

Joe Biden


Fig. 1. Joe Biden and Pope Francis, unknown photographer, April 29, 2016, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

I’ve been blocking people on social media as ageist for accusing Joe Biden of dementia:

[W]hile the report withheld condemnation of [Joe] Biden on legal grounds, it presented a harsh portrait of his conduct and mental faculties. . . .

In the report, Special Counsel Robert Hur, a well-respected former U.S. Attorney, explained the president’s “lapses in attention and vigilance demonstrate why former officials should not keep classified materials unsecured at home and read them aloud to others, but jurors could well conclude that Mr. Biden’s actions were unintentional.” . . .

One of [Biden’s] attorneys, Bob Bauer, took umbrage with the portrayal, accusing Hur of “essentially, ‘trashing’ the subject of an investigation” with extraneous, unfounded and irrelevant critical commentary.” Biden’s attorneys also wrote directly to Hur and his team before the report’s publication to complain about the focus on the president’s memory lapses. As documented in the report, they called the focus “gratuitous” and urged Hur to revise his summarizations, saying it was beyond his “expertise and remit.”[1]

Biden himself also objected[2]—I don’t know how he even could let this stand when he’s running for re-election—but it seems he couldn’t remember accurately when he was vice president or when his son Beau died. The “memory lapses” dated even to his time as vice president[3] and, I would certainly expect, have gotten worse since. Indeed it seems he also confused Mexico with Egypt[4] (potential or real cross-border migration flows are relevant with both countries so I don’t think this is quite as weird as it sounds). I’d be inclined to give him benefit of the doubt here, but I’ll bet you my mother could tell you to the minute—certainly the hour—when her husband (my stepfather) passed away and, at least to the month and year, when she retired. Biden apparently wasn’t even close.[5]

I’m guessing it’s too late for Biden to pull a Lyndon Johnson. Johnson chose to abandon his expected quest for re-election as it became clear that the Vietnam War was in fact going very poorly and protests against it swelled.[6] But this country needs to do far better.

Betsy Woodruff Swan, “Special counsel passes on charging Biden but paints damning portrait of him,” Politico, February 8, 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/08/biden-classified-documents-charges-special-counsel-00140509

Matt Viser and Tyler Pager, “Biden responds angrily to special counsel report questioning his memory,” Washington Post, February 8, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/08/biden-hur-response/

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump
Coup attempt

2024

Fig. 2. Cartoon by Ben Jennings, January 24, 2024, via the Guardian,[7] fair use.

The consensus I saw on social media that the Supreme Court will rule to keep Donald Trump on the Colorado ballot seems to be largely borne out in the reporting and analysis I’m seeing really pretty much across the board in the email newsletters I see.[8]

Alan Feuer and Charlie Savage, “Takeaways From the Trump Ballot Case,” New York Times, February 8, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/us/politics/supreme-court-trump-ballot-takeaways.html

Chris Geidner, “Supreme Court almost certain to allow Trump to remain on Colorado’s primary ballot,” Law Dork, February 8, 2024, https://www.lawdork.com/p/supreme-court-trump-colorado-section-three

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 3. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,[9] fair use.

Joe Biden seems finally to be realizing that his position on Israel has been a vote-loser. So it’s good to see Antony Blinken lecturing Israelis on the need to not dehumanize others[10] and good for Biden to admit that the Israel Defense Force has been excessively brutal.[11] But on the other hand, the U.S. gives Israel considerable diplomatic cover, especially in the United Nations Security Council and billions of dollars in financial and military aid. There are concrete things that Biden can do. Deeds matter much more than words.

Yasmeen Abutaleb, “Biden says Israel’s military conduct in Gaza has been ‘over the top,’” Washington Post, February 8, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/08/biden-israel-gaza-speech-netanyahu/

Lazar Berman, “Israel cannot use Oct. 7 as ‘license to dehumanize others,’ Blinken warns in Tel Aviv,” Times of Israel, February 8, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-cannot-use-oct-7-as-a-license-to-dehumanize-others-fumes-blinken-in-tel-aviv/

  1. [1]Betsy Woodruff Swan, “Special counsel passes on charging Biden but paints damning portrait of him,” Politico, February 8, 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/08/biden-classified-documents-charges-special-counsel-00140509↩
  2. [2]Matt Viser and Tyler Pager, “Biden responds angrily to special counsel report questioning his memory,” Washington Post, February 8, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/08/biden-hur-response/↩
  3. [3]Betsy Woodruff Swan, “Special counsel passes on charging Biden but paints damning portrait of him,” Politico, February 8, 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/08/biden-classified-documents-charges-special-counsel-00140509↩
  4. [4]Yasmeen Abutaleb, “Biden says Israel’s military conduct in Gaza has been ‘over the top,’” Washington Post, February 8, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/08/biden-israel-gaza-speech-netanyahu/↩
  5. [5]Betsy Woodruff Swan, “Special counsel passes on charging Biden but paints damning portrait of him,” Politico, February 8, 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/08/biden-classified-documents-charges-special-counsel-00140509↩
  6. [6]Paul S. Boyer et al., The Enduring Vision, 8th ed. (Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2014).↩
  7. [7]Ben Jennings, “Ben Jennings on Donald Trump’s progress along the Republican nomination trail – cartoon,” Guardian, January 24, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/jan/24/ben-jennings-on-donald-trumps-progress-along-the-republican-nomination-trail-cartoon↩
  8. [8]For examples: Alan Feuer and Charlie Savage, “Takeaways From the Trump Ballot Case,” New York Times, February 8, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/us/politics/supreme-court-trump-ballot-takeaways.html; Chris Geidner, “Supreme Court almost certain to allow Trump to remain on Colorado’s primary ballot,” Law Dork, February 8, 2024, https://www.lawdork.com/p/supreme-court-trump-colorado-section-three↩
  9. [9]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
  10. [10]Lazar Berman, “Israel cannot use Oct. 7 as ‘license to dehumanize others,’ Blinken warns in Tel Aviv,” Times of Israel, February 8, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-cannot-use-oct-7-as-a-license-to-dehumanize-others-fumes-blinken-in-tel-aviv/↩
  11. [11]Lazar Berman, “Israel cannot use Oct. 7 as ‘license to dehumanize others,’ Blinken warns in Tel Aviv,” Times of Israel, February 8, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-cannot-use-oct-7-as-a-license-to-dehumanize-others-fumes-blinken-in-tel-aviv/↩

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.