U.S. Electile Dementia paralytica 2020

[xilman]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

Presidency for life as currently permitted by the Constitution would not allow Il Duce to do much of anything after 2024.

As best I can recall my US history, we have had eight presidents for life since the founding of the republic.

I'm not very good at US history. Was JFK the last one?

[kladner]

Originally Posted by xilman

I'm not very good at US history. Was JFK the last one?

I don't think we've had another deceased-while-serving president; seeing as how the attempt on Reagan failed.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by rogue

I'm waiting for the Republican push for this. That would allow Trump to be more closely aligned with his hero, Vladimir Putin. Then maybe he can build a demilitarized zone between the US and Mexico to emulate Kim Jun Um and pass his presidency on to his son.

More inane pearl-clutching from the Clintonite Dems - you want to limit Trump to 1 term, how about engaging in an actual democratic primary process rather than a rigged-private-club setup, and actually put forth some concrete affirmative policy proposals to begin to remedy the bipartisan big-money-and-big-war corruption which ails us? But the Dem establishment is committed to never learning from its own mistakes, because that would require admitting same. So they're pushing another set of corrupt establishment neoliberals (Biden, Harris) and trying another round of "Trump bad!" in lieu of actual policies that embody the change they falsely claim to seek. They'd rather lose again to Trump than nominate an actual progressive, just like 2016. It would be clowncar-hilarious if it weren't so tragic for the republic. They've already gerrymandered the only antiwar candidate, Gabbard, out of the next round of debates via a set of nebulous and oh-so-riggable "credible poll" requirements, and have their MSM scribes alternately ignoring and smearing Sanders, again just like in 2016. They really deserve another 4 years of an orange-cheetoh presidency. The rest of us, alas, don't.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by xilman

I'm not very good at US history. Was JFK the last one?

Yes. In order, William Henry Harrison (natural causes), Zachary Taylor (natural causes), Abraham Lincoln (assassinated), James Garfield (assassinated, with an assist from the doctors), William McKinley (assassinated), Warren G. Harding (natural causes), Franklin D. Roosevelt (natural causes), John F. Kennedy (assassinated).

There have also been several "also rans." I know of the following:

Woodrow Wilson had a major stroke while in office, but his condition was hushed up and he survived and partially recovered. Legend has it, his wife was basically acting president when he was too incapacitated to carry out his presidential duties.

There were two assassination attempts on Gerald Ford, though he was not injured either time. In one of them, Manson Family member Lynette Fromme got within two feet of Ford with a loaded .45 pistol and pulled the trigger, but the gun didn't fire. In the other, a woman named Sara Jane Moore fired a shot from 40 feet away with a .38 pistol and missed. In either case, proper familiarization with the weapon would likely have brought success.

Ronald Reagan was seriously injured by his would-be assassin, and his press secretary James Brady had half the top of his head blown off. Reagan kept Brady on the payroll for the rest of his presidency. The would-be assassin had rich parents, and was found Not Guilty by reason of insanity. He was released from psychiatric care in 2016. After the verdict, the law was changed to make it nearly impossible to mount a successful insanity defense in federal court.

[masser]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

More inane pearl-clutching from the Clintonite Dems - you want to limit Trump to 1 term, how about engaging in an actual democratic primary process rather than a rigged-private-club setup, and actually put forth some concrete affirmative policy proposals to begin to remedy the bipartisan big-money-and-big-war corruption which ails us? But the Dem establishment is committed to never learning from its own mistakes, because that would require admitting same. So they're pushing another set of corrupt establishment neoliberals (Biden, Harris) and trying another round of "Trump bad!" in lieu of actual policies that embody the change they falsely claim to seek. They'd rather lose again to Trump than nominate an actual progressive, just like 2016. It would be clowncar-hilarious if it weren't so tragic for the republic. They've already gerrymandered the only antiwar candidate, Gabbard, out of the next round of debates via a set of nebulous and oh-so-riggable "credible poll" requirements, and have their MSM scribes alternately ignoring and smearing Sanders, again just like in 2016. They really deserve another 4 years of an orange-cheetoh presidency. The rest of us, alas, don't.

You know, if Warren and/or Bernie really cared about the progressive cause, one of them would drop out. Given the polls, they only currently serve to keep the other off the ballot. Looks like Bernie would rather lose again to an establishment Dem than have an actual progressive nominated. I'm sure another round of "Establishment Dem bad!" is going to help the cause.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

More inane pearl-clutching from the Clintonite Dems - you want to limit Trump to 1 term, how about engaging in an actual democratic primary process rather than a rigged-private-club setup, and actually put forth some concrete affirmative policy proposals to begin to remedy the bipartisan big-money-and-big-war corruption which ails us?

Of course, the R's get a bye on all of this because their guy is the incumbent seeking re-election.

But, judging by the R's primaries and debates last time around, since their guy did win the election I guess the Democrats should swing for the fences with policy proposals. And they shouldn't be concerned about such irrelevancies as facts or the law. I can see it now:

"No, I don't think predatory financiers or corporate-welfare parasites should be thrown in jail. Line them up and shoot them, I say!"

[rogue]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

More inane pearl-clutching from the Clintonite Dems - you want to limit Trump to 1 term, how about engaging in an actual democratic primary process rather than a rigged-private-club setup, and actually put forth some concrete affirmative policy proposals to begin to remedy the bipartisan big-money-and-big-war corruption which ails us? But the Dem establishment is committed to never learning from its own mistakes, because that would require admitting same. So they're pushing another set of corrupt establishment neoliberals (Biden, Harris) and trying another round of "Trump bad!" in lieu of actual policies that embody the change they falsely claim to seek. They'd rather lose again to Trump than nominate an actual progressive, just like 2016. It would be clowncar-hilarious if it weren't so tragic for the republic. They've already gerrymandered the only antiwar candidate, Gabbard, out of the next round of debates via a set of nebulous and oh-so-riggable "credible poll" requirements, and have their MSM scribes alternately ignoring and smearing Sanders, again just like in 2016. They really deserve another 4 years of an orange-cheetoh presidency. The rest of us, alas, don't.

I agree with most of this.

One challenge the Dems have is that the Republiclowns have equated liberalism with socialism. Too many of my conservative friends think that all Democrats are socialists.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by rogue

<snip>
One challenge the Dems have is that the Republiclowns have equated liberalism with socialism. Too many of my conservative friends think that all Democrats are socialists.

I noted this campaign tactic back in early March. Apparently repetition is effective. Especially if the listeners want, desperately, to avoid having to think. I am sticking to my prediction. And, since the "status quo ante" candidates are already distasteful, it looks like our boornado-in-chief is headed for easy re-election

[ewmayer]

o The West Wing is 20 years old. Too many Democrats still think it’s a great model for politics.: | Vox: On the classic White House drama, the best speech always won. That’s not how it works in reality.

Yah, about that "best speech" bit - even worse, the Dem brand-fumes-inhalers seem oblivious to the clear fact that Biden, in addition to his career-of-horrid-policies history, is at this point of his life such an incoherent, out-of-touch babbler that it's literally painful to watch:

o Biden’s Brain Is Swiss Cheese And It’s Creepy That We’re Not Talking About It | Caitlin Johnstone, Medium. Includes some excerpts from Biden's 'performance' in the last Dem farce-masqueraing-as-debate:

“Number two: make sure that we bring into the help the — [closes eyes] the student, the, the teachers deal with the problems that come from home. The problems that come from home. We need — We have one school psychologist for every fifteen hundred kids in America today. It’s crazy. The teachers are reca — Now, I’m married to a teacher. My deceased wife is a teacher. They have every problem coming to them. [Closes eyes briefly] We have make sure that every single child does in fact have three, four, and five year-olds go to school — school, not daycare.”
...
“Play the radio, make sure the television, [closes eyes tightly] the — ‘scuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night, the-the-the-the phone, make sure the kids hear words. A kid coming from a very poor school, [closes eyes] a very poor background, will hear four million words fewer spoken by the time they get there.”

o Who will Survive in America? | MSPaintHelp

The reason I’m still talking about this more than a year later is because when you toss two of this American century’s most prominent and polarizing cultural figures in your Vitamix, the red-white-and-blue mush you end up with is an incredibly genuine look into the heart and soul of the USA. If you ask me, Kanye and The Donald are so famous thanks to their uniquely outlandish reflections of the rabidly unstable yet so often predictable id that lurks inside of the American identity we all share. What I mean is that when they speak, they speak for you. Kanye does it through his art and Trump through his tweets; pay attention to what they really say and it’ll reveal a whole lot.
...
Kanye’s talent as an artist is rooted in what must be some mutant innate understanding of symbolism and iconography. It’s the same reason he’s seen so much success in his other major endeavor, fashion, wherein he’s turned his own name into a billion dollar brand behind the most recognizable sneakers of the decade, earned a better rate of royalties than Jordan did for Jordan, and sold people ugly sweaters on discount for $999. Call this a knack for branding or good old marketing, but the real reason he’s got hordes of upper-middle-class clout-chasers under his thumb is that everyone is drawn to a good symbol, and Kanye knows one when he sees one.

Speaking of symbols:
[picture of MAGA hat]

The Hat. We all should have known the second Donny put on the hat that he was going to win. This hat and its emblazoned slogan are strokes of genius, the magnum opuses of a guy who would’ve been a revolutionary artist if he didn’t have the misfortune of being born with so much money. Kanye West and Donald Trump may be frothing narcissists strongly lacking in certain elements of critical thinking, but they’re also, undoubtedly, two of the most talented iconographers of our time. Just look at this:
[picture of Trump Hotel in Las Vegas]

Yes, it’s gaudy and tacky and decadent; in every possible aspect it is completely appalling. But this is America, baby, and I challenge you to portray capitalist triumph any better than a solid gold building in the middle of the desert with your name stamped on in more gold on the top. Say what you want about Trump Las Vegas, but the one thing you can’t avoid noticing when you look at it is that this guy is fucking rich.

I don’t care what the New York Times says about his tax returns, what Forbes says about his net worth, or what his ghostwriter says about his business acumen; show me a gilded desert oasis or a jet black Trump Tower looming over Fifth Avenue, and I and every other hard-working American will tell you we’re looking at the legacy of a man who’s done damn well for himself. NYT exposés and Forbes rankings can be hand-waved away as Fake News, but no one can argue with four seasons as head honcho on The Apprentice and the resulting public image of billionaire cosmopolitan.

You also can not argue with a hat. Hence the power of symbolism. Liberal critics of Trump who deride his bankruptcies and chastise his policies are rolling rocks up a hill, too stupid to realize that’s supposed to be eternal punishment. Truman’s Democrats may have brought the boys home, but I Like Ike; Trump may be a racist, but the guy literally hugs the flag and wants to Make America Great Again. Who can’t get behind that?

Kanye West was telling us who the whole time. Remember what he actually said about why he refused to take the hat off? It wasn’t because he’s way into lowering corporate taxes and deporting immigrants; it’s because American liberals are a bunch of annoying fucking bullies. “They’re laughing at me. You heard them? They screamed at me. They bully me. They bullied me backstage. They said ‘Don’t go out there with that hat on.’ They bullied me backstage. They bullied me.” I’m not asking you to shed tears for the billionaire narcissist that people were mean to backstage on SNL, but I am saying that if this is how he feels, how the fuck we should we have expected the people of Sweetwater, Michigan to feel in 2016? I get that they may not at all times be the easiest crowd to garner sympathy for themselves, but they’re either with you or against you; I’ll let you decide which is better.

Spend five minutes in Trump’s Twitter replies or five seconds on the frontpages of NYT or WaPo to realize the same thing Kanye did: the closest thing the Democratic party and its voters have to an overarching identity—a symbol to get behind—is smug elitism. And they fucking love it!
...
The gap between cultural and political power in this country is staggering ... American liberalism is a losing ideology that has next to no say in what happens on the national stage at the time of this writing and yet at the same time it is somehow everywhere. Hollywood. Universities. Netflix originals. Facebook. The news media, all the way from CNN to Buzzfeed to Teen Vogue. Practically every relevant cultural institution in the U.S. is controlled by the losing team and they’ve capitalized on it by doubling down on tanking material like a one-hit comic. They have the infrastructure to be running the most devilishly effective propaganda campaign in history, and they lost to a hat.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Yah, about that "best speech" bit - even worse, the Dem brand-fumes-inhalers seem oblivious to the clear fact that Biden, in addition to his career-of-horrid-policies history, is at this point of his life such an incoherent, out-of-touch babbler that it's literally painful to watch:

o Biden’s Brain Is Swiss Cheese And It’s Creepy That We’re Not Talking About It | Caitlin Johnstone, Medium.

Your "Biden's brain is swiss cheese" link gave the dreaded Error 404. After a bit of searching I did find this article -- right title, right author.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

Your "Biden's brain is swiss cheese" link gave the dreaded Error 404. After a bit of searching I did find this article -- right title, right author.

Thanks - fixed. Somehow a CR got in between the end of the URL and the right-] in my posting, causing the forum software to insert a link-mangling html <br>-style tag there, which one can no longer see in my fixed-up version of same but is visible via hovertext in your quoted snip of my original posting.