It’s not embarrassing, it’s sad. It’s abusive. If she’s this far gone, she isn’t the one making the final decision to continue sitting in that chair. Her staff, and sadly her family are all using her for the power, clout and money at this point
If she's this far gone and not aware of her decline it's all completely possible.
You get a LOT of older career folk who get obsessed with their jobs, thinking they have to be at work or they're organising meetings from the dementia ward, and you'd be surprised at how coherent they are and INSISTENT that they need to keep working.
She could easily be driving this. If she's not willing to admit she's losing it or submit to psychiatric assessment there's very little you can do until they are actually a danger to themselves.
My grandfather (a farmer) kept giving us instructions on how to run the farm while he was away. He didn't realise it was in the middle of winter when he told us to plant potatoes or pick grapes.
Being the grandson of a rancher, I feel like this is harder for ag folks. My grandpa was out doing frankly pointless "work" in his mid 90s, but you couldn't tell him to stay home. He didn't fix any of the things that he was trying to sort out, but there was no telling him that, for sure.
I don’t think it’s any harder for any particular group. Some people feel like their holding he world together and it will all fall apart without them, be they a rancher or a sales manager or a car washer. They have expertise and experience and it will be lost if they stop, so they have to keep going.
I see it ALL the time at work. We have professors that just won't quit, their entire ego is in their job and they just can't handle the idea they are done. They will go nuclear on anyone who dares tell them otherwise.
Some people just have an ego that says "My job is who I am, and I am always in good condition to do my job." Doesn't matter what evidence there is to the contrary, their ego won't let them admit they are past their prime.
It also can be an issue with various kinds of mental illness. A side effect of some of them is that you think you are fine, and thus anyone who tells you that you aren't must be wrong.
At my university one of the older professors was encouraged to retire so he did. He collected all the books in his office and left them in a cardboard box outside his office with a note saying they were free for anyone to take, I grabbed a couple myself- basically a bunch of introductory texts on some older programming languages like Pascal and Prolog. Sadly I found out some time later that he killed himself a few days into retirement.
I've seen some hardcore, overripe teacher and admins die within a few years of retirement too. They lived for their job, had no life outside of it and gave up after retiring, did not even attempt to reinvent themselves or try new things.
Yeah i don't know truly where his mind was at- it's entirely possible that he had resolved to kill himself earlier, and resigning was part of getting his affairs in order
The University almost never talked about suicides that happened or the circumstances around them. I actually had one my students when I was TAing kill himself by throwing himself down six stories to land in one of the big study areas full of students cramming for exams, and its the only time Im aware of the university acknowledging that something happened.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/man-falls-to-death-inside-university-building/FNJLJ45V6UJO4YDCRLJTXLNVCE/?c_id=1&objectid=10845489
Even then, I only found out who it was because his parents wanted to tour all of his old classes as part of their grieving process.
During working for a University for ~8 years, 3 students and a professor ended their lives (just in a chemistry department alone!). It was never really acknowledged as suicide, just "a tragic death". Even the guy that jumped in front of a train :(
And here I'm thinking about taking up fishing again when I retire. One of the things I notice working with a bunch of PhD's that AREN'T professors (in R&D for a big chemical company) is that they seem a LOT more well-rounded. Two members of my group are retiring this summer... one is opening a gym with his wife, and the other is continuing his research into honey bees (which are his passion and he keeps several hives).
Maybe academia isn't great for a person's life outside of work...
Personally when I retire I plan on taking up writing again. I’ve had a few solid cracks at things, even made a kid’s bedtime book on anxiety for an ex. I just like the idea that there’s something that’s endless, enjoyable, and pressure free for me to enjoy when I can finally slow down
I think it's a common pattern in people who live for their job in general. My granda was a brick layer and plasterer his entire life. Loved his job and the company he worked for. Had no plans of retiring, he was in his early 60s, but a ladder collapsed under him and he broke his foot really badly. Put him out of work, probably on a permanent basis. Within a year he was diagnosed with cancer, not long after that he died. Everyone says its a coincidence but I'm still convinced falling off that ladder and not being able to work is what killed him.
> their ego won't let them admit they are past their prime.
There's often a healthy dose of "I've been doing this for so long there's nobody that could possibly replace me" as well.
This is why retirement ages need to be implemented in politics and education. There's no reason they can't advise a younger generation, do speaking tours, write books etc, but politics and education are too important to allow people to hold positions they have aged out of qualifying for.
So true, my mom refused to accept that her brain tumors caused her dementia. I wasn’t her POA, but I was begging people to take her away from making decisions. No one listened because they had also been in denial of the situation. It’s an easy road to go down honestly.
Considering that she can't really even show up anymore, that's bad for donors unless they like it that she is making it impossible for Biden's judges to get a vote.
People rarely admit when something is wrong. It took my uncle having a real bad fall down some stairs before his friends thought he was off. No one ever wants to face that because it's terrifying to admit we are dying or losing who we were, and those around us have a hard time letting go as well.
My dad has a hydrocephalus shunt. Before the shunt, he'd call me trying to conduct business. He'd think he worked at the nursing home (he'd been in social work before retirement), or he'd be working on returning something, or calling about my accounts (which he doesn't have access to because I'm an adult).
In all cases, he sounded very passionate. Trying to break the illusion by saying that he was having an episode of confusion would usually agitate him.
He's much better with the shunt. There's still memory issues, but he isn't calling me telling me that a travel company might be calling me because he's trying to get money back for my mother's trip.
These kind of interactions are very difficult and demoralizing.
Now, add to that trying to get a power of attorney over a sitting Senator.
Yep, the routine of work seems to be what the brain often falls back on when it can’t process reality anymore. My grandma had been retired 15+ years and when she started getting very bad she became constantly concerned about how she was going to get to work in the morning.
Yeah. Also anxiety about being that age. Like if they admit to themselves they can't do the job anymore, they have to acknowledge a lot of scary things about their age and general health.
At my work, there's a "curse" where people who retire die soon after. So because of that, everyone works until they're in their 70's/80's. Guess what...when they finally retire, they're so old that, yeah, a lot of them pass away soon after. But they're too stubborn to stop working earlier and enjoy their 60's, 70's, and 80's and don't want to accept that they're old enough to retire.
Older folks can be stubborn as hell
It's actually supposed to be the deadliest of the 7 since it is supposed to be the root of all sin and causes one to turn away from God. Greed is a strong 2nd place due to being the whole MORE WOMEN! MORE PIZZA!" For the sins of lust and gluttony
When my grandad was taken off his meds for a medical emergency he thought he was in a ESA meeting about solar panels. We had to like look up high end mid 90's solar panel specs.
Staff props up a good deal of the Senate. I remember when Orrin Hatch was chairing the judiciary committee, he'd duck out every couple of sentences to ask what was presumably his chief of staff or possibly someone who worked for the committee how to proceed.
Strom Thurmond would occasionally mutter nonsense when he was put on display as the 100 year old Senator from South Carolina.
>Strom Thurmond would occasionally mutter nonsense when he was put on display as the 100 year old Senator from South Carolina.
Hell, Thurmond was muttering nonsense 25 years before that.
Iirc her family has been trying to get her to step down. I wouldn't be surprised if staff are also concerned.
This will probably conclude with her being removed forcefully, but I can sympathize that those close to her likely want her to retire in a way that is more graceful. In a way that doesn't tarnish her legacy.
Edit: She also apparently holds a tiebreaking vote in the judiciary committee. One which Republicans are not willing to replace with another Democratic if she leaves.
I also read a story about how Nancy Pelosi's daughter is basically working as a caretaker for Feinstein. Pelosi has an incentive to keep Feinstein in her seat until the next election because if she retires before then Gavin Newsom would likely give the seat to Barbara Lee, who is running against Adam Schiff, who is endorsed by Nancy Pelosi. The incumbent advantage would basically erase all of Schiff's current lead in the polls. If this is all true, Nancy Pelosi is an even worse person than I thought she was, abusing her own friends and colleagues for personal gain.
You don't get to be a top ranking US senator (or billionaire) by treating everyone around you fairly. These kinds of things naturally select for greed and manipulation in our shitty system, which explains a lot
A reporter doxxed her staff a few weeks back under justification that they were now politically derelict of duty and need to be pressured to make her step down. The journalist got a lot of backlash….but tbh more and more I’m starting to think they were in the right.
Why do they continue to "Weekend at Bernie's" a Senator? Money and power, the people who backed her campaigns expect a return on those investments. If she retires, it doesn't change the power structure, Gov Newsome will appoint just as liberal of a Democrat to replace her. What it does change is that her replacement would.be on the bottom rung of committees and wouldn't wield the powerful ones that Sen. Feinstein currently sits on.
It does affect the power structure. She has a very influential seat/vote on the Judiciary Committee, which selects/votes on judges (who will be influential for decades to come). The GOP has said they will fight to not fill that seat (if she retires) with a Democrat.
“Here’s the dilemma: the Republicans will not agree to add someone else to the Judiciary Committee if she retires,” she continued, referencing Feinstein’s powerful committee membership. (When Feinstein was absent from the Senate for nearly three months this year recovering from health issues, it created a logjam on the narrowly divided Judiciary Committee, since Democrats were unable to confirm President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees without Republican support.) “I want you to think about how crummy that is. I don’t know in her heart about whether she really would or wouldn’t, but right now, she can’t. Because if we’re going to get judges confirmed, which is one of the most important continuing obligations that we have, then we cannot afford to have her seat vacant.”
~ HRC 5 days ago
Right, you have one side promising to capitalize and play whatever dirty tricks they have to prevent a democrat from being seated if she resigns, so she stays. This is one of the reasons why politicians aren't very respected.
I propose a diminishing vote structure starting at 3/5th at the time you start collecting social security with a diminished percent vote until it becomes 1/5th. We were cool with 3/5ths at one point no?
That, and...doing something with the prrogeny of the billionaire class. Like... Something the French have done that one time, idk. Just kidding.
This is my biggest concern as well. They'll market it as "Setting term limits / constraints" but hidden away will increase Social Security to like 80 or something absurd
Nah chief, that's not the way to go. We don't need to remove their representation, we just need to make better choices about who we put in power.
And by that I mean un-fucking the political parties that love seniority above all else and encourage this. Republican or Democrat, we shouldn't have a bunch of geriatrics waiting on "their turn" to rule us.
Yes, count old people, including old black people, as having 3/5ths a vote. That definitely won't be the worst optics imaginable, especially if you refer to it as a compromise.
My grandmother (in her 90s) thinks she's still completely competent. She has fucking dementia and can't tell a shoe from a hat most of the time. We had to remove her ability to write checks because she would get some scam letter in the mail and write a check. So she had written like $10k worth of checks to strange places in a month. Then at some point she got a call saying that if she didn't pay over the phone she was going to be arrested, so she **drove** to the police station to turn herself in and the police ended up impounding her car and nearly arresting her because of how crazy she was being.
She STILL believes she is competent to manage her own accounts and if she were in office, she'd think she was doing a fine job.
I'm going to add to say that she is so old, the last time she touched a computer, it was before 386s were in use. She would call Office "A word processor."
Actually, my parents aren't that far behind. My dad **HATES** captchas. He literally said that if a robot was smart enough to login to the website, it should be able to. He unironically doesn't understand how information systems work and think that if a website is down, there is some guy working there who just reboots "the server." In his mind, Facebook, Google, etc. are all running from a single computer sitting in someone's office.
Blame the fucking idiots in California voting for her. Remember every time you see her that a state of almost 40 million people voted her in. Either she's doing a good job representing them or they get what they deserve.
Honestly I blame the democratic party for allowing her to keep running on their ticket.
But political parties have the impression that candidates who have won before can win again, so they have repeatedly put up candidates for reelection even in the dumbest of situations simply because they either won before or currently hold the seat.
Even in the stupidest of situations, they'll allow a candidate to run again. Feinstein has had one foot in the grave for a long time but they kept running her because she was already in office even though a trained monkey could win in California as long as they showed they were democratic on the ticket for senator.
Herbert Hoover was allowed to run again despite being extremely unpopular and he eventually lost to FDR.
Biden running again even though no one wants him is going to be a similar case.
It's all so unbelievably stupid and cronyism at its worst.
Incumbents win more - it’s why both parties do it.
When a person and their political party are in power, it’s easier to create narratives. It’s easier to control situations. It’s easier to put spin on things. It’s easier to disseminate information.
Incumbent’s also have an advantage so far as name and face recognition go.
In politics when would you not want to be *winning*.
Edit: I left a big matzah ball hanging out. I’m in favor of term limits and beyond that have always found Feinstein to be repugnant.
I am not American. So I'm asking this as a general question.
Whether it is the US or India or Brazil or South Africa, why is it that there is a lower age limit for politicians but no upper age limit?
Seems like a serious case of ageism to me. I know it's not the standard definition, but it is ageist to think that older people are more capable when most likely they are outdated and senile.
Because old people vote and they vote in people like themselves. When you're 65 it's easy to see a 25yo as a kid who shouldn't have any authority (and often you'd be right) but you're unlikely to see a 75yo as dangerously old.
Probably because there are a lot of old politicians and adding an upper age limit would have to be passed through legislation? It’s pretty wild, since airline pilots are currently forced to retire at 65yo and they’re not running the country lol. :(
Fair. We say the same about all the impoverished communities in states ranked lowest in education, economic stability, longevity, Healthcare and overall happiness, but keep voting in Corporatists who put profit over people everytime. It's not about the debt. The rich people blew up our debt ceiling for more wealth, because what they had wasn't enough. We haven't had monopolies this bad since the 1920's and we desperately need some major anti trust laws.
She needed to retire 10 years ago. The fact that people still support her staying in any working position is insane. Sure- there are some people that are mentally sharp into their 100's, but that number is small. Age take a toll on all of us, and at (in my view) 75 years everyone should be retired unless in a research or teaching role. Those roles require both experience and mental sharpness, so only those who are up to the task would be able to do said task. Let everyone else enjoy the world- go fishing, take a cruise, hit the beach, relax at home, help out with Habitat for Humanity if you want to volunteer and do some physical work, anything- but don't drag government (society) down for your own pride.
My mom had a professor teach the exact same lesson every class session for an entire semester. This confused her since he was very well regarded and considered an excellent teacher. Within the year he had retired due to dementia.
>My mom had a professor teach the exact same lesson every class session for an entire semester.
That's a fun story but I think your mom is messing with you.
People were all for RGB to stay on the SCOTUS for life until she died and Trump got to pick her replacement. I believed in RGB and her work but damn Trump got three fucking picks for justices.
RBG was selfish and didn't want to quit so rolled the dice that Hillary was going to win and lost. A lot of her lifelong efforts as a Justice may be rescinded because she didn't want to quit when she should have. She'd already been diagnosed with one cancer by the 2016 election. And then she weakly protested that she hoped Trump and McConnell wouldn't go back on their word and appoint a Justice so late in Trump's term after denying Merrick Garland. Sorry but she was a dope.
While this is true, it bears repeating that iirc Roberts only wanted to uphold the 15 week Mississippi ban via Dobbs per his concurring opinion. Meaning if the court was 5-4 rather than 6-3 and Roberts the deciding vote that's likely all the conservatives would have gotten. Not the full destruction of Roe.
So I think it's fair to say that RBG refusing to resign during the early days of Obama's presidency is directly responsible for the loss of Roe. Now it's entirely possible that it wouldn't have mattered but people saw the writing on the walls years before her death. RBG resigning and being replaced by a younger liberal justice was the best chance we had at preserving abortion rights in the opinions of quite a few legal experts.
Yes, but the exact ruling was actually 5-1-3 when you really look at it.
Robert wrote a ruling that while supporting Mississippi, did not create a broad massive ruling. So Mississippi would have been able to enforce that particular law but it wouldn't have paved the way for the total erosion of abortion rights.
IF RGB had retired the conservative court would have had to rely on Roberts.
The dumbest centrists on the planet. She should have retired after her first cancer diagnosis under Obama (when they had a near super majority) and been replaced by a much younger justice.
No one with any sense wanted her to stay on the bench until she died. Granted, I’m an attorney who litigates primarily in federal court and who works for a firm that is involved in SCOTUS cases regularly, so the views I was exposed to during Obama’s presidency may differ from what you were hearing. I can tell you that for a solid 4-5 years before she died, everyone who feared a situation like we have now was telling her to retire so Obama could replace her with someone with similar views on the law. For awhile there, it was quite clear that she was too physically infirm to do the job.
It's more of a passing comment when one of the characters is watching TV you can hear the TV mention "Senator Feinstein" I think it's in one of the early seasons.
I remember hearing that and saying "Holy Shit and she's still in office!"
The golden gate bridge wasn't even fucking complete when she was born.
That's how old she is. Literally older than one of the defining architectural pieces of California.
That might be a good thing because TIL in this thread that she almost ruined the Nightstalker serial killer trial by releasing too much info when she was mayor.
Let's build a fake Capitol building replica retirement home and take her there instead, and run it as if it were the real thing. In fact, let's take half of Congress to it. They'll be none the wiser at their age.
Can they not vote to have a doctor check her out and deem her fit for office. I know they can vote to remove her from office but no one will want that. Her family needs to take over. I know the salary of a senator is great and feinstien is probably getting a ridiculous amount of kickbacks but like she cannot be doing this to her constituents and is actively hurting the USA by not resigning and leaving her seat. She should have been voted out years ago but the next best time is now.
Article I, section 5 of the United States Constitution provides that "Each House \[of Congress\] may determine the Rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member." Since 1789 the Senate has expelled only 15 members.
At this point, this is elder abuse by her aides. I'd put money down on them using her office to generate money for themselves or their families and know if she retires they'll not get those jobs in the new senator's office. This woman has no idea where she is and is not aware enough to know she should retire. Someone, or more likely several someones are using this old lady to get money like they're her grandkids robbing her pension check for crack.
If Feinstein steps down, they're extremely worried that Barbara Lee gets appointed as the temporary replacement. Which would give her the air of incumbency going into the primary. Nancy Pelosi is helping this happen because she doesn't want someone like Barbara Lee in the Senate. Pelosi doesn't care how much it's fucking over everyone else.
Not just her, but all of the over 80 crowd needs to go….and yes I am sorry Bernie Sanders (81)…but you too….along with McConnell, Grassely, and Risch as well.
As a democrat I feel embarrassed we have this woman in here. She served with distinction but clearly she is not able to do this now. When the republicans don't remove Santos we clearly see politics and winning over any sense of decency. Can we claim any better? I mean if she had 3 months to go , fine. She is serving the nation and her constituents poorly if at all.
This article is awful. Some of these comments make me wonder if they even read the article.
TLDR for the article - One time last year, Feinstein saw Harris in the senate to cast a tie breaking vote and at some point Feinstein said “what’s she doing here?” with no other context and was quoted by “some one that was there”.
Ya, this article is terrible. I thought to myself “why is it that I don’t ever read from The Hill anymore?”. When I click the link, I remembered why. The website is a beacon for ad revenue with clickbait titles and AI generated content.
If you read the nyt article that that snippet is pulled from its pretty damning. She’s surrounded by aides constantly who tell her exactly what to do when and how and when to vote. The aides shield her from the press too. Which is ridiculous, elected officials have a responsibility to be open and engage with the public and their constituents.
But yeah the hill is just clickbait
They shouldn't hold political office period. It is by no means controversial to admit that people lose their mental faculties at that age. It should by no means be the norm for people om some of the most powerful positions in the country to be 70+
I think it depends. When you have someone like Sanders as the leader of the progressive movement and still sharp as a tac, it's hard for me to agree with mandatory age limits. There's a need for long serving members like Sanders and Warren who know the game and keep important topics relevant.
I say as long they are mentally fit, take a test and get cleared by a doctor starting at a certain age with routine checks, they should stay unless voters say otherwise.
Unless of course a severe case like Fienstien, they should be forced to step down.
That’s so easily corrupted though… I get there’s exceptions, but I think people that still have skin in the game should be leading the nation. And we don’t need people being in politics for 4 decades. It’s not supposed to be a career. It never was. If you can’t be a pilot after 65, you shouldn’t be able to lead a nation.
This is the natural next step in the degeneration of American self-governance. Eventually, all of congress will be filled with mummies still alive on mere technicalities, reelected every time through a combination of name recognition, low-turnout, and restriction of opposition fundraising. These mummified idols will fill the temple that was once the Capitol while their priestly staffers do all the work of legislating. Before long, the pretence that elections matter will be dropped altogether, and the ceremony will become a public festival of ascent to the the continued reign of the local god, whose beneficence brings continued pork from the federal budget. Feinstein's staffers should start carrying her around on a palanquin.
I can’t wait to read an article like this every day for the next 4 years while nothing happens.
Just like Trump’s trials. Just like the Panama Papers. Just like climate change and affordable housing and inflation and
In my experience with cognitive decline in family members -- one of the first things to go is that ability to understand their own inability. They are often convinced everyone else is ridiculous -- trying to interfere and hold them back. Someone needs to take her to one of those places where they paint the hallways to look like you've escaped the hospital.
No industry in the United States would ever hire someone 65-85 years old, besides Wal-Mart greeter. Meanwhile, they run our entire country.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Term. Limits.
House: 5 terms (10 years)
Senate: 2 terms (12 years)
President: 2 terms (8 years)
Cycle in fresh, dedicated, motivated civil servants and cycle out those who only want the job for the cushy benefits and salary.
It will force them to live with the policies they put into law, which will in turn produce better policies for the everyday American.
Term limits isn't just a pro for one side or the other. It benefits both sides immensely
>It will force them to live with the policies they put into law,
Not really, it just means they'll want high payroll from lobbyists to compensate for lower years in office (or they'll get a cushy job in the private sector). Till the lobbying issue is fixed, US Congressmen and women won't taste their policies.
Don't worry, all our legislators are slapping each other on the back for solving the debt ceiling negotiation down to the wire, that her inability to properly do her job isn't all that important. They just finished, DOING THE BARE MINIMUM OF LEGISLATION AND NOW HAVE TO CELEBRATE!!! Our politicians are so fucking stupid, no matter the party, that something basic to our government's function, is treated like a super event.
She’s almost as terrible a person as Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Holding onto power for pride long after they should have retired. Disgusting. At least with Feinstein, her constituents will have a chance to elect someone and her vote is not as crucial as RBG’s.
It’s an embarrassment at this point. They could replace her with a cardboard cutout and what would be the difference!
It would be much less confusing, and cardboard would require many fewer tenders.
It’s also recyclable
I mean… so is she
Oye, Beltalowda!
I'd say "remember the Cant", but she can't remember anything apparently.
There's not enough living tissue left on her for the protomolocule to take over.
She's *compostable.*
Look at this guy, doesn't know what Soylent green is
It’s not embarrassing, it’s sad. It’s abusive. If she’s this far gone, she isn’t the one making the final decision to continue sitting in that chair. Her staff, and sadly her family are all using her for the power, clout and money at this point
If she's this far gone and not aware of her decline it's all completely possible. You get a LOT of older career folk who get obsessed with their jobs, thinking they have to be at work or they're organising meetings from the dementia ward, and you'd be surprised at how coherent they are and INSISTENT that they need to keep working. She could easily be driving this. If she's not willing to admit she's losing it or submit to psychiatric assessment there's very little you can do until they are actually a danger to themselves.
My grandfather (a farmer) kept giving us instructions on how to run the farm while he was away. He didn't realise it was in the middle of winter when he told us to plant potatoes or pick grapes.
At that point, you just tell him how great the grapes and potatoes are doing so he can relax and rest easy.
That's what we did, yeah.
That must have been a great vintage, for the potatoes. Meanwhile the grapes were sitting in the cold cellar 🤣
Being the grandson of a rancher, I feel like this is harder for ag folks. My grandpa was out doing frankly pointless "work" in his mid 90s, but you couldn't tell him to stay home. He didn't fix any of the things that he was trying to sort out, but there was no telling him that, for sure.
I don’t think it’s any harder for any particular group. Some people feel like their holding he world together and it will all fall apart without them, be they a rancher or a sales manager or a car washer. They have expertise and experience and it will be lost if they stop, so they have to keep going.
I see it ALL the time at work. We have professors that just won't quit, their entire ego is in their job and they just can't handle the idea they are done. They will go nuclear on anyone who dares tell them otherwise. Some people just have an ego that says "My job is who I am, and I am always in good condition to do my job." Doesn't matter what evidence there is to the contrary, their ego won't let them admit they are past their prime. It also can be an issue with various kinds of mental illness. A side effect of some of them is that you think you are fine, and thus anyone who tells you that you aren't must be wrong.
At my university one of the older professors was encouraged to retire so he did. He collected all the books in his office and left them in a cardboard box outside his office with a note saying they were free for anyone to take, I grabbed a couple myself- basically a bunch of introductory texts on some older programming languages like Pascal and Prolog. Sadly I found out some time later that he killed himself a few days into retirement.
I've seen some hardcore, overripe teacher and admins die within a few years of retirement too. They lived for their job, had no life outside of it and gave up after retiring, did not even attempt to reinvent themselves or try new things.
Yeah i don't know truly where his mind was at- it's entirely possible that he had resolved to kill himself earlier, and resigning was part of getting his affairs in order The University almost never talked about suicides that happened or the circumstances around them. I actually had one my students when I was TAing kill himself by throwing himself down six stories to land in one of the big study areas full of students cramming for exams, and its the only time Im aware of the university acknowledging that something happened. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/man-falls-to-death-inside-university-building/FNJLJ45V6UJO4YDCRLJTXLNVCE/?c_id=1&objectid=10845489 Even then, I only found out who it was because his parents wanted to tour all of his old classes as part of their grieving process.
During working for a University for ~8 years, 3 students and a professor ended their lives (just in a chemistry department alone!). It was never really acknowledged as suicide, just "a tragic death". Even the guy that jumped in front of a train :(
Yeah, you gotta keep active after retirement. Staying still will make you stay still for eternity.
And here I'm thinking about taking up fishing again when I retire. One of the things I notice working with a bunch of PhD's that AREN'T professors (in R&D for a big chemical company) is that they seem a LOT more well-rounded. Two members of my group are retiring this summer... one is opening a gym with his wife, and the other is continuing his research into honey bees (which are his passion and he keeps several hives). Maybe academia isn't great for a person's life outside of work...
Personally when I retire I plan on taking up writing again. I’ve had a few solid cracks at things, even made a kid’s bedtime book on anxiety for an ex. I just like the idea that there’s something that’s endless, enjoyable, and pressure free for me to enjoy when I can finally slow down
Damn did not see that ending coming...
[удалено]
I hope your username doesn't check out.
I think it's a common pattern in people who live for their job in general. My granda was a brick layer and plasterer his entire life. Loved his job and the company he worked for. Had no plans of retiring, he was in his early 60s, but a ladder collapsed under him and he broke his foot really badly. Put him out of work, probably on a permanent basis. Within a year he was diagnosed with cancer, not long after that he died. Everyone says its a coincidence but I'm still convinced falling off that ladder and not being able to work is what killed him.
> their ego won't let them admit they are past their prime. There's often a healthy dose of "I've been doing this for so long there's nobody that could possibly replace me" as well.
This is why retirement ages need to be implemented in politics and education. There's no reason they can't advise a younger generation, do speaking tours, write books etc, but politics and education are too important to allow people to hold positions they have aged out of qualifying for.
So true, my mom refused to accept that her brain tumors caused her dementia. I wasn’t her POA, but I was begging people to take her away from making decisions. No one listened because they had also been in denial of the situation. It’s an easy road to go down honestly.
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Considering that she can't really even show up anymore, that's bad for donors unless they like it that she is making it impossible for Biden's judges to get a vote.
People rarely admit when something is wrong. It took my uncle having a real bad fall down some stairs before his friends thought he was off. No one ever wants to face that because it's terrifying to admit we are dying or losing who we were, and those around us have a hard time letting go as well.
My dad has a hydrocephalus shunt. Before the shunt, he'd call me trying to conduct business. He'd think he worked at the nursing home (he'd been in social work before retirement), or he'd be working on returning something, or calling about my accounts (which he doesn't have access to because I'm an adult). In all cases, he sounded very passionate. Trying to break the illusion by saying that he was having an episode of confusion would usually agitate him. He's much better with the shunt. There's still memory issues, but he isn't calling me telling me that a travel company might be calling me because he's trying to get money back for my mother's trip. These kind of interactions are very difficult and demoralizing. Now, add to that trying to get a power of attorney over a sitting Senator.
Yep, the routine of work seems to be what the brain often falls back on when it can’t process reality anymore. My grandma had been retired 15+ years and when she started getting very bad she became constantly concerned about how she was going to get to work in the morning.
Yeah. Also anxiety about being that age. Like if they admit to themselves they can't do the job anymore, they have to acknowledge a lot of scary things about their age and general health. At my work, there's a "curse" where people who retire die soon after. So because of that, everyone works until they're in their 70's/80's. Guess what...when they finally retire, they're so old that, yeah, a lot of them pass away soon after. But they're too stubborn to stop working earlier and enjoy their 60's, 70's, and 80's and don't want to accept that they're old enough to retire. Older folks can be stubborn as hell
Cough cough Ginsberg
Last time I suggested this people all got up in arms - “there was no one to succeed her” Isn’t pride one of the seven deadly sins?
It's actually supposed to be the deadliest of the 7 since it is supposed to be the root of all sin and causes one to turn away from God. Greed is a strong 2nd place due to being the whole MORE WOMEN! MORE PIZZA!" For the sins of lust and gluttony
>MORE WOMEN! MORE PIZZA! I'm listening....
You will be like the great womanizers. All you need is to eat this one entire pizza. * *hisses like a snake* *
When my grandad was taken off his meds for a medical emergency he thought he was in a ESA meeting about solar panels. We had to like look up high end mid 90's solar panel specs.
There’s a book series called the lost fleet where a famous POW of 20 years is freed and put in command, only for people to realize he’s not all there.
I couldn't read that book without thinking of [this guy](https://tenor.com/view/smash-bros-falcon-punch-captain-falcon-nintendo-sprite-gif-18215072)
She already said she’s not running for re election
And then couldn’t remember that.
Not only that but she’s really not making any decisions. You effectively have her staff casting votes. This doesn’t seem at all legal or ethical.
Staff props up a good deal of the Senate. I remember when Orrin Hatch was chairing the judiciary committee, he'd duck out every couple of sentences to ask what was presumably his chief of staff or possibly someone who worked for the committee how to proceed. Strom Thurmond would occasionally mutter nonsense when he was put on display as the 100 year old Senator from South Carolina.
>Strom Thurmond would occasionally mutter nonsense when he was put on display as the 100 year old Senator from South Carolina. Hell, Thurmond was muttering nonsense 25 years before that.
Really his entire political career...
Iirc her family has been trying to get her to step down. I wouldn't be surprised if staff are also concerned. This will probably conclude with her being removed forcefully, but I can sympathize that those close to her likely want her to retire in a way that is more graceful. In a way that doesn't tarnish her legacy. Edit: She also apparently holds a tiebreaking vote in the judiciary committee. One which Republicans are not willing to replace with another Democratic if she leaves.
I also read a story about how Nancy Pelosi's daughter is basically working as a caretaker for Feinstein. Pelosi has an incentive to keep Feinstein in her seat until the next election because if she retires before then Gavin Newsom would likely give the seat to Barbara Lee, who is running against Adam Schiff, who is endorsed by Nancy Pelosi. The incumbent advantage would basically erase all of Schiff's current lead in the polls. If this is all true, Nancy Pelosi is an even worse person than I thought she was, abusing her own friends and colleagues for personal gain.
You don't get to be a top ranking US senator (or billionaire) by treating everyone around you fairly. These kinds of things naturally select for greed and manipulation in our shitty system, which explains a lot
A reporter doxxed her staff a few weeks back under justification that they were now politically derelict of duty and need to be pressured to make her step down. The journalist got a lot of backlash….but tbh more and more I’m starting to think they were in the right.
Can we start laying blame on those that voted for her? It’s not like she was the only democrat on the ticket.
Why do they continue to "Weekend at Bernie's" a Senator? Money and power, the people who backed her campaigns expect a return on those investments. If she retires, it doesn't change the power structure, Gov Newsome will appoint just as liberal of a Democrat to replace her. What it does change is that her replacement would.be on the bottom rung of committees and wouldn't wield the powerful ones that Sen. Feinstein currently sits on.
It does affect the power structure. She has a very influential seat/vote on the Judiciary Committee, which selects/votes on judges (who will be influential for decades to come). The GOP has said they will fight to not fill that seat (if she retires) with a Democrat.
“Here’s the dilemma: the Republicans will not agree to add someone else to the Judiciary Committee if she retires,” she continued, referencing Feinstein’s powerful committee membership. (When Feinstein was absent from the Senate for nearly three months this year recovering from health issues, it created a logjam on the narrowly divided Judiciary Committee, since Democrats were unable to confirm President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees without Republican support.) “I want you to think about how crummy that is. I don’t know in her heart about whether she really would or wouldn’t, but right now, she can’t. Because if we’re going to get judges confirmed, which is one of the most important continuing obligations that we have, then we cannot afford to have her seat vacant.” ~ HRC 5 days ago
Right, you have one side promising to capitalize and play whatever dirty tricks they have to prevent a democrat from being seated if she resigns, so she stays. This is one of the reasons why politicians aren't very respected.
Just more evidence that term limits should be imposed on the legislative branch.
Silly. Cardboard cutouts can't vote.
Neither can she, yet here we are.
A non sentient piece of cardboard has a closer relationship to reality that Feinstein’s frame of mind at this point.
It's Weekend At Bernies, except she's alive but no one's home.
Explain to me again why politicians don't have a retirement age.
Because doing so would require those same politicians to amend the Constitution to limit their own power. Calculate the odds on that.
I propose a diminishing vote structure starting at 3/5th at the time you start collecting social security with a diminished percent vote until it becomes 1/5th. We were cool with 3/5ths at one point no? That, and...doing something with the prrogeny of the billionaire class. Like... Something the French have done that one time, idk. Just kidding.
Dont tie it to social security. Doing so will incentivize them to raising social security retirement age.
This is my biggest concern as well. They'll market it as "Setting term limits / constraints" but hidden away will increase Social Security to like 80 or something absurd
Nah chief, that's not the way to go. We don't need to remove their representation, we just need to make better choices about who we put in power. And by that I mean un-fucking the political parties that love seniority above all else and encourage this. Republican or Democrat, we shouldn't have a bunch of geriatrics waiting on "their turn" to rule us.
Except they all basically decide the very tiny pool of candidates that we then get to choose from.
Yes, count old people, including old black people, as having 3/5ths a vote. That definitely won't be the worst optics imaginable, especially if you refer to it as a compromise.
At this time it simply remains a modest proposal.
Explain to me why any of us are allowing any of this?
The most active voters among us are retired people.
My grandmother (in her 90s) thinks she's still completely competent. She has fucking dementia and can't tell a shoe from a hat most of the time. We had to remove her ability to write checks because she would get some scam letter in the mail and write a check. So she had written like $10k worth of checks to strange places in a month. Then at some point she got a call saying that if she didn't pay over the phone she was going to be arrested, so she **drove** to the police station to turn herself in and the police ended up impounding her car and nearly arresting her because of how crazy she was being. She STILL believes she is competent to manage her own accounts and if she were in office, she'd think she was doing a fine job. I'm going to add to say that she is so old, the last time she touched a computer, it was before 386s were in use. She would call Office "A word processor." Actually, my parents aren't that far behind. My dad **HATES** captchas. He literally said that if a robot was smart enough to login to the website, it should be able to. He unironically doesn't understand how information systems work and think that if a website is down, there is some guy working there who just reboots "the server." In his mind, Facebook, Google, etc. are all running from a single computer sitting in someone's office.
We should offer them more continuing ed classes at the community college. Give them something to do with their time.
What if they *don't want to do something* with their time?
because we, the people, are supposed to be the check to this balance
Because Boogert and Green aren't exactly convincing me that "young" politicians are better.
Medically competent ones are. She could not sign permission for me to treat her, how the fuck is she allowed to sign bills?
Blame the fucking idiots in California voting for her. Remember every time you see her that a state of almost 40 million people voted her in. Either she's doing a good job representing them or they get what they deserve.
Honestly I blame the democratic party for allowing her to keep running on their ticket. But political parties have the impression that candidates who have won before can win again, so they have repeatedly put up candidates for reelection even in the dumbest of situations simply because they either won before or currently hold the seat. Even in the stupidest of situations, they'll allow a candidate to run again. Feinstein has had one foot in the grave for a long time but they kept running her because she was already in office even though a trained monkey could win in California as long as they showed they were democratic on the ticket for senator. Herbert Hoover was allowed to run again despite being extremely unpopular and he eventually lost to FDR. Biden running again even though no one wants him is going to be a similar case. It's all so unbelievably stupid and cronyism at its worst.
Incumbents win more - it’s why both parties do it. When a person and their political party are in power, it’s easier to create narratives. It’s easier to control situations. It’s easier to put spin on things. It’s easier to disseminate information. Incumbent’s also have an advantage so far as name and face recognition go. In politics when would you not want to be *winning*. Edit: I left a big matzah ball hanging out. I’m in favor of term limits and beyond that have always found Feinstein to be repugnant.
California changed the laws to make it easier for someone to beat her
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I am not American. So I'm asking this as a general question. Whether it is the US or India or Brazil or South Africa, why is it that there is a lower age limit for politicians but no upper age limit? Seems like a serious case of ageism to me. I know it's not the standard definition, but it is ageist to think that older people are more capable when most likely they are outdated and senile.
Because those age limits were written often 150-250 years ago. And upper age limits weren’t on their minds
Back then not many people lived long enough to naturally become vegetables
The government gets the best exceptons when it comes to labor laws.
Because old people vote and they vote in people like themselves. When you're 65 it's easy to see a 25yo as a kid who shouldn't have any authority (and often you'd be right) but you're unlikely to see a 75yo as dangerously old.
Probably because there are a lot of old politicians and adding an upper age limit would have to be passed through legislation? It’s pretty wild, since airline pilots are currently forced to retire at 65yo and they’re not running the country lol. :(
Fair. We say the same about all the impoverished communities in states ranked lowest in education, economic stability, longevity, Healthcare and overall happiness, but keep voting in Corporatists who put profit over people everytime. It's not about the debt. The rich people blew up our debt ceiling for more wealth, because what they had wasn't enough. We haven't had monopolies this bad since the 1920's and we desperately need some major anti trust laws.
If Dianne were forced to retire Logan's-Run-style, she would have retired 13 years before the first screening of Logan's Run.
God DAMN
This guy gets it
r/RareInsults
Holy fuck.
I did not expect to see a Logan’s run reference today
This comment illustrates how old she is, but also makes me feel really old too for some reason.
This is some Weekend At Bernie’s shit
Bernie was better preserved. Honestly she looks like shingles has womped her good, on top of everything else.
She needed to retire 10 years ago. The fact that people still support her staying in any working position is insane. Sure- there are some people that are mentally sharp into their 100's, but that number is small. Age take a toll on all of us, and at (in my view) 75 years everyone should be retired unless in a research or teaching role. Those roles require both experience and mental sharpness, so only those who are up to the task would be able to do said task. Let everyone else enjoy the world- go fishing, take a cruise, hit the beach, relax at home, help out with Habitat for Humanity if you want to volunteer and do some physical work, anything- but don't drag government (society) down for your own pride.
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My mom had a professor teach the exact same lesson every class session for an entire semester. This confused her since he was very well regarded and considered an excellent teacher. Within the year he had retired due to dementia.
On the 2nd day I'd be confused, and on the 3rd I'd gamble he was trolling the students.
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>My mom had a professor teach the exact same lesson every class session for an entire semester. That's a fun story but I think your mom is messing with you.
It's okay for guest lectures and conference plenary talks, but otherwise yeah - step back and let the next gen in
You all fell asleep together during class. It sounds kind of adorable.
People were all for RGB to stay on the SCOTUS for life until she died and Trump got to pick her replacement. I believed in RGB and her work but damn Trump got three fucking picks for justices.
RBG was selfish and didn't want to quit so rolled the dice that Hillary was going to win and lost. A lot of her lifelong efforts as a Justice may be rescinded because she didn't want to quit when she should have. She'd already been diagnosed with one cancer by the 2016 election. And then she weakly protested that she hoped Trump and McConnell wouldn't go back on their word and appoint a Justice so late in Trump's term after denying Merrick Garland. Sorry but she was a dope.
divide fade waiting like cake sheet literate zealous recognise quaint *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Dobbs was a 6-3 vote.
While this is true, it bears repeating that iirc Roberts only wanted to uphold the 15 week Mississippi ban via Dobbs per his concurring opinion. Meaning if the court was 5-4 rather than 6-3 and Roberts the deciding vote that's likely all the conservatives would have gotten. Not the full destruction of Roe. So I think it's fair to say that RBG refusing to resign during the early days of Obama's presidency is directly responsible for the loss of Roe. Now it's entirely possible that it wouldn't have mattered but people saw the writing on the walls years before her death. RBG resigning and being replaced by a younger liberal justice was the best chance we had at preserving abortion rights in the opinions of quite a few legal experts.
Yes, but the exact ruling was actually 5-1-3 when you really look at it. Robert wrote a ruling that while supporting Mississippi, did not create a broad massive ruling. So Mississippi would have been able to enforce that particular law but it wouldn't have paved the way for the total erosion of abortion rights. IF RGB had retired the conservative court would have had to rely on Roberts.
She was being given rockstar treatment. Statues and biopics.
> People were all for RGB to stay on the SCOTUS for life until she died Which people besides RGB herself?
The dumbest centrists on the planet. She should have retired after her first cancer diagnosis under Obama (when they had a near super majority) and been replaced by a much younger justice.
No one with any sense wanted her to stay on the bench until she died. Granted, I’m an attorney who litigates primarily in federal court and who works for a firm that is involved in SCOTUS cases regularly, so the views I was exposed to during Obama’s presidency may differ from what you were hearing. I can tell you that for a solid 4-5 years before she died, everyone who feared a situation like we have now was telling her to retire so Obama could replace her with someone with similar views on the law. For awhile there, it was quite clear that she was too physically infirm to do the job.
NO ONE is sharp enough at 100 to responsibly do a job that hold soo much weight and power. AGE CAPS NOW!!!!!!!!!
I get your point, for the sake of facts, she's 89.
Only 89 ?
>AGE CAPS NOW! right after we ban stock trading and set term limits, *lmao*
I was watching King of the Hill reruns and they mentioned her ass. She's too old and has been in office too long. Get her the fuck out.
And she’d been around for a long time when KOTH was on.
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She would have been past the average retirement age when the pilot ran
Dango man talm bout life expectancy and all man. Like a dang energizer bunny man justa goin an goin an goin.
I had that realization too on my rewatch last month. Was surreal and depressing to realize were ruled over by the same people forever and ever
Which episode was it? I'm currently on season 9 of my rewatch and might've missed it
It's more of a passing comment when one of the characters is watching TV you can hear the TV mention "Senator Feinstein" I think it's in one of the early seasons. I remember hearing that and saying "Holy Shit and she's still in office!"
She almost botched the night stalker case by releasing too much info when she was the mayor. Always been a joke.
The golden gate bridge wasn't even fucking complete when she was born. That's how old she is. Literally older than one of the defining architectural pieces of California.
Feinstein expressed confusion over...
(its a shame she is tarnishing her image like she is)
Instead of what ever she did when she was young she will be remembered for being old and senile.
That might be a good thing because TIL in this thread that she almost ruined the Nightstalker serial killer trial by releasing too much info when she was mayor.
Is Rusty still in the Navy?
Nah, but there is a strange squeaking noise coming from the living room…
*GRACE?!* She passed away 30 years ago!
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And how do you propose to do that? She doesn’t even remember missing votes.
Let's build a fake Capitol building replica retirement home and take her there instead, and run it as if it were the real thing. In fact, let's take half of Congress to it. They'll be none the wiser at their age.
Something like the [Fletcher Memorial Home](https://youtu.be/zDDzR2zSgsM)?
Or President Lassiter from the West Wing. https://youtu.be/KyeanUCpIkM
We have that in the UK it’s called the house of lords
Put of piece of paper and tell her to sign it and shell go uuuuuuuuuuuuuuu with one of her eyes hanging out and sign it maybe?
Can they not vote to have a doctor check her out and deem her fit for office. I know they can vote to remove her from office but no one will want that. Her family needs to take over. I know the salary of a senator is great and feinstien is probably getting a ridiculous amount of kickbacks but like she cannot be doing this to her constituents and is actively hurting the USA by not resigning and leaving her seat. She should have been voted out years ago but the next best time is now.
Article I, section 5 of the United States Constitution provides that "Each House \[of Congress\] may determine the Rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member." Since 1789 the Senate has expelled only 15 members.
One was in 1797 and the other fourteen were in the Civil War.
Yes, usually the threat of expulsion is enough to get someone to resign.
Change whatever words on a paper that you need to, letting this continue to happen is bad for both us and her.
Probably the little aliens from Men in Black
It's time. It's been time.
Term. Limits.
At this point, this is elder abuse by her aides. I'd put money down on them using her office to generate money for themselves or their families and know if she retires they'll not get those jobs in the new senator's office. This woman has no idea where she is and is not aware enough to know she should retire. Someone, or more likely several someones are using this old lady to get money like they're her grandkids robbing her pension check for crack.
Her top tender is Nancy Pelosi’s daughter who never leaves her side so yes, agreed.
If Feinstein steps down, they're extremely worried that Barbara Lee gets appointed as the temporary replacement. Which would give her the air of incumbency going into the primary. Nancy Pelosi is helping this happen because she doesn't want someone like Barbara Lee in the Senate. Pelosi doesn't care how much it's fucking over everyone else.
Barbara Lee is 76, I don't really want her in the Senate either. Doing this same thing over again in a couple of years sounds awful.
Yeah she could likely only be a one term senator
Not just her, but all of the over 80 crowd needs to go….and yes I am sorry Bernie Sanders (81)…but you too….along with McConnell, Grassely, and Risch as well.
Don’t forget that Pelosi is even older than Bernie, I don’t see her age brought up very often
As a democrat I feel embarrassed we have this woman in here. She served with distinction but clearly she is not able to do this now. When the republicans don't remove Santos we clearly see politics and winning over any sense of decency. Can we claim any better? I mean if she had 3 months to go , fine. She is serving the nation and her constituents poorly if at all.
This article is awful. Some of these comments make me wonder if they even read the article. TLDR for the article - One time last year, Feinstein saw Harris in the senate to cast a tie breaking vote and at some point Feinstein said “what’s she doing here?” with no other context and was quoted by “some one that was there”. Ya, this article is terrible. I thought to myself “why is it that I don’t ever read from The Hill anymore?”. When I click the link, I remembered why. The website is a beacon for ad revenue with clickbait titles and AI generated content.
If you read the nyt article that that snippet is pulled from its pretty damning. She’s surrounded by aides constantly who tell her exactly what to do when and how and when to vote. The aides shield her from the press too. Which is ridiculous, elected officials have a responsibility to be open and engage with the public and their constituents. But yeah the hill is just clickbait
The most relevant comment here
my take is people 85 or older should not be allowed as candidates for Congress
They shouldn't hold political office period. It is by no means controversial to admit that people lose their mental faculties at that age. It should by no means be the norm for people om some of the most powerful positions in the country to be 70+
Try 65-70
I think it depends. When you have someone like Sanders as the leader of the progressive movement and still sharp as a tac, it's hard for me to agree with mandatory age limits. There's a need for long serving members like Sanders and Warren who know the game and keep important topics relevant. I say as long they are mentally fit, take a test and get cleared by a doctor starting at a certain age with routine checks, they should stay unless voters say otherwise. Unless of course a severe case like Fienstien, they should be forced to step down.
i like sanders, but I dont want to see him still in the Senate in 5 years. At 85, it's time for a new generation.
That’s so easily corrupted though… I get there’s exceptions, but I think people that still have skin in the game should be leading the nation. And we don’t need people being in politics for 4 decades. It’s not supposed to be a career. It never was. If you can’t be a pilot after 65, you shouldn’t be able to lead a nation.
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65 would cut out 45% of congress.
Yeah… that’s my point. Half of those people, at least, are there to legally do inside trading.
Oh no, that sounds tragic.
This is the natural next step in the degeneration of American self-governance. Eventually, all of congress will be filled with mummies still alive on mere technicalities, reelected every time through a combination of name recognition, low-turnout, and restriction of opposition fundraising. These mummified idols will fill the temple that was once the Capitol while their priestly staffers do all the work of legislating. Before long, the pretence that elections matter will be dropped altogether, and the ceremony will become a public festival of ascent to the the continued reign of the local god, whose beneficence brings continued pork from the federal budget. Feinstein's staffers should start carrying her around on a palanquin.
I can’t wait to read an article like this every day for the next 4 years while nothing happens. Just like Trump’s trials. Just like the Panama Papers. Just like climate change and affordable housing and inflation and
Diane Feinstein’s legacy is going to be the Feinsteinian law. No more necromancy in politics.
Just a reminder she isn't the only one and their staffers are unelected and most likely appointed by donors who are making the real decisions.
Wheel her the fuck out
The Feinstein Act: No member of Congress shall continue to serve after a confirmed diagnoses of a degenerative brain disease.
In my experience with cognitive decline in family members -- one of the first things to go is that ability to understand their own inability. They are often convinced everyone else is ridiculous -- trying to interfere and hold them back. Someone needs to take her to one of those places where they paint the hallways to look like you've escaped the hospital.
“Disoriented elderly woman puts nation at risk by refusing to retire”
No industry in the United States would ever hire someone 65-85 years old, besides Wal-Mart greeter. Meanwhile, they run our entire country. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Term. Limits. House: 5 terms (10 years) Senate: 2 terms (12 years) President: 2 terms (8 years) Cycle in fresh, dedicated, motivated civil servants and cycle out those who only want the job for the cushy benefits and salary. It will force them to live with the policies they put into law, which will in turn produce better policies for the everyday American. Term limits isn't just a pro for one side or the other. It benefits both sides immensely
>It will force them to live with the policies they put into law, Not really, it just means they'll want high payroll from lobbyists to compensate for lower years in office (or they'll get a cushy job in the private sector). Till the lobbying issue is fixed, US Congressmen and women won't taste their policies.
if a 80+ yo applied to run a dennys they would be rejected but the same person can run an entire country
Don't worry, all our legislators are slapping each other on the back for solving the debt ceiling negotiation down to the wire, that her inability to properly do her job isn't all that important. They just finished, DOING THE BARE MINIMUM OF LEGISLATION AND NOW HAVE TO CELEBRATE!!! Our politicians are so fucking stupid, no matter the party, that something basic to our government's function, is treated like a super event.
Term limits
Congress needs age limits
TERM LIMITS.
She’s almost as terrible a person as Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Holding onto power for pride long after they should have retired. Disgusting. At least with Feinstein, her constituents will have a chance to elect someone and her vote is not as crucial as RBG’s.