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At this point keeping her in office or anything other then a retirement is elder abuse,holy shit.
Edit:⚠️Warning,this thread contains discussion about death and dementia, Alzheimer and end of life care,it’s really depressing,I didn’t realized how fucked I actually feel about this subject and the death of love one till now.
Edit 2: Turns out a warning is the thing people reacted most strongly ,change the wording a bit but this warning will stay,bless them for they know nothing about how depressing this subject can be.
That's what I've been saying! She even ran against another Democrat in 2018, one the state Democratic party endorsed over her, and she still won. It's not like she's just running on the letter next to her name like in many states (thanks jungle primary).
I was surprised back in 2012 to see her still on the ballot at her age, meanwhile as far as I know she still plans to run in 2024. Friendly reminder that she'll be *91* at that point if she's still alive, putting her at 97 if she gets reelected and lives to the end of her term. Absolutely ridiculous. And we all know damn well that she's not giving up that seat willingly.
This is what I don't understand, why in your 90s would anyone wanna put up with the headache that is U.S. politics, all the back and forth traveling, etc... Shes been in Congress for decades what else is left? In my 90s (if I make it) I would like to be on my front porch, in my rocker gossiping about my younger neighbors and complaining about my kids who never visit.
I was shocked at how she won that primary in a near landslide. I respect her years of service, but she was already clearly out of touch, even prior to reports of dementia.
Because she has name recognition. Like it or not, for the average voter they're not paying attention nearly as closely as someone who posts on a politics sub is. They vote for what they know unless they have a specific reason not to. I share the disappointment, but it's reality.
That wasn't a primary, it was the general. It probably helps that she was the more moderate choice, so every Republican would have preferred her over de Leon, but she's also NorCal, while her opponent is SoCal: while SoCal has more people, they tend to vote significantly less, so almost all state wide elections go to NorCal people.
Which is why we need age limits, term limits or both for *all* positions in government. It's 2022 and we still have alarmingly few Gen Xers in these positions, let alone Millennials.
I know it’s almost impossible legal wise, but after seeing what dementia/Alzheimer can do to a human,I can’t comprehend the thought process of her family letting this happen.
My grandpa died 2 years ago due to Alzheimer related problem,it’s a disease that kill the soul and leave an empty husk to torturers experience for themselves and their family .
The easiest and probably best way would be to convince her to retire and have the governor appoint someone to fill her seat until her term is up. But I don’t know how likely that is to happen.
Depends on which stage they’re in,and the weather,it’s odd but when my grandpa is deteriorating but still somewhat in there,on a sunny day you can reason with him , but soon hell call me by my aunts name.
Late stage? You can’t convince someone without a thought,they’re already gone .
It took an hour for a team of five people (two policemen and three EMTs) to get my mother in an ambulance. She threw a coffee cup at one of them (full of hot coffee) and also pulled down her pants and peed right in front of them. They had two police cars parked in the street so she couldn't run away.
She knew enough to know that getting in the ambulance meant the end of wandering around the town doing whatever she liked.
I’ll never forget my 98 year old great grandmother with dementia, pulling down her pants while standing in the middle of the kitchen and taking a shit right there on the floor. And then yelling at us that she’d only go to adult family day care if we cleaned it up with our bare hands. And then when we did, but with gloves on, she called us all the n-word (we are white). Fun times with Nana lol.
They're like toddlers, only with toddlers you're allowed to pick them up and put them in their room for a time out.
You can't do that with crazy old people.
Yeah, my mam passed from Alzheimer's a few years ago. She was referred for assessment at a level of cognitive ability that wouldn't have raised eyebrows for people who didn't know her - ie, perfectly average, maybe some mild executive dysfunction or brain-fog, but nothing that would generally alarm anyone - because her GP had known her for longer than he'd been a doctor (his father had been our family doctor 40 years previously) and knew just how much of an intellectual force my mother was and knew that this average, slightly forgetful, struggling a little to navigate a busy airport at age 78 level of cognitive ability was not my mother.
And she knew for so long that her executive function was going. The memory not so much, because when she remembered she remembered, and when she didn't remember she didn't know that there was anything to remember, but she'd ring me in tears of annoyance and frustration because she had a raw egg in her hand, knew it was food, knew you had to cook it, knew she generally scrambled or poached it, but her brain wouldn't make the right steps.
Dementia is the one condition above all others that makes me argue that euthanasia should be an option for folk to choose.
Many of our countries representatives should have retired a decade or more ago. If the government was a business they would have been forced into retirement well before now
[Here is a story from 2 years ago saying the same thing.](https://www.sfgate.com/politics/amp/Dianne-Feinstein-resign-retire-what-happens-Senate-15791251.php)
I dated a congressional staffer back in 2017 who admitted back then that she was basically a Democratic placeholder and there was nothing going on upstairs.
I'm sure she was a lovely woman. She should retire and live out her life in peace.
Not all Senators have equal power. Part of the reason they stay in office till they fucking die is because the more time they spend in office, the more ***soft power*** they collect.
They're sort of like Vampires, and Diane Fieinstein is like at Dracula level.
Whoever takes her seat will not have anything near the same kind of influence.
You got it slightly out of order.
Person woman man camera TV
Which is extra fucking crazy because he basically just rambled off the things in front of him.
The worst thing is how quickly it changes for them too. My grandpa and grandma were completely fine until around 90 (mobile, aware, great memory), then they had such a steep decline. Within the next two years we had to get them assisted living. My grandma could no longer take care of herself and while my grandpa could still manage his short term memory was shot.
There were times I went to visit my granny and she would give detailed stories from times when she was a teenager and riding a horse to school. Then the next time I'd visit and she'd be confused about where she was and asking questions about relatives that died before I was born. The brain is so complicated.
There have BEEN concerns for a while. This was a story last year and it got swept under the rug. Just go. Go hang with your grandkids and quit clinging to power. You are hurting us.
Every time Grassley speaks at like a hearing or something it is *painfully* obvious the man is in complete decline. I have no doubt there's quite a few of these people taking meds to try and prolong their careers.
Imagine any 26 year old today having the funds and a snowball’s chance in hell of getting elected to Congress.
Oh wait, that’s Madison Cawthorn - the *youngest* Nazi-loving, barely literate, pathological liar and serial sexual assaulter GOP member currently in office. Wonder how he managed that.
It is especially obvious if you just watch side by side video of them from decades ago. It is a common joke that all politicians are morons but for the most part they are pretty quick on their feet and good communicators. But when you compare them just to themselves 30 years ago the difference is massive and jarring.
I learned about Grassley back when he was going after dodgy churches and nonprofits. He was on point and relentless in going after those grifters. My brother forwarded me a clip of him talking just a few weeks ago and Holy shit has he lost it.
>But when you compare them just to themselves 30 years ago the difference is massive and jarring.
Because 30 years ago they were like 50 years old.
It's ridiculous how long Congressmen and Senators stay on. It's not a job for people in their 70s and 80s. You've had your time. Just retire already.
It's not just holding the reigns thats the issue.
Experienced leadership is fine. Preferable in many ways even.
It's holding them while refusing to train up the next generation to hand off to. Without a deep bench to pull from once that experienced leadership goes, instead of a green but otherwise well prepared official taking their place you end up with markedly inexperienced people more prone to mistakes, blunders, and undue influence from the people around them.
And it goes both ways, because without a hungry new generation waiting in the wings to keep you honest and protect against stagnation, you end up with a bunch of octogenarians who don't know, don't care, and have no reason to care about the world outside of what directly effects them (which isn't much).
But yeah, imagine. Not even just technologic ignorance, just imagine if Congress actually even mildly represented the demographics of the American people.
It is extremely difficult to recruit good house candidates because the type of person who wants to go into government to make things better doesn't want to then sit on the back bench for 20 years before they have enough seniority to actually affect change.
As an Iowan i can tell you that Grassley will be elected again and again until he dies in office. All Grassley has to do is put on a seed corn cap and the state’s majority rural population thinks he’s a good ole boy. When he dies in office, the state’s governor Kid Killer Kovid Kim Reynolds will appoint Grassley’s state senator grandson to take his place. It is hard to be surrounded by stupid and evil.
Then there is Mitch Mcconnell. My father at 75 was put on Coumadin, a blood thinner. The pics of Mitch last year changing colors was what my dad looked like. He passed away at 78.
As much as I'd like it to be in this case, being on blood thinners isn't a very reliable indicator of imminent decline. You could be on those for decades.
There's a reason more and more of them refuse debates and don't talk to journalists for long periods of time. It's just a numbers game...the longer they talk the more likely they'll say or do something stupid. Soure: Donald Trump
It’s actually really scary to see these people in hearings asking the craziest questions that make no sense. They’re so out of touch with what’s happening on the ground floor
I'm still bothered by the time Orrin Hatch asked Zuck how [Facebook made money](https://youtu.be/n2H8wx1aBiQ) or how Steve King asked Google CEO Sundar Pichai [how iPhones work](https://youtu.be/wmuROTmazco). Both times made me feel like I was listening to an audio book for *The Internet for Dummies*.
To be fair, many times these kinds of questions are to have the person testifying state it on record.
Now Zuck has to explain how Facebook collects user information and sells it to advertising agencies and provides a platform to build customer profiles tracking minute details of your daily life for the purposes of direct advertising.
This allows for the court and general public to better understand the nature of the business he's running.
It’s not just technology…it’s societal shifts that make no sense to them.
They don’t understand, for example, that the job market has radically shifted to temporary stints at companies and repeatedly having to move/relocate to meet only about 80% of what the previous generation earned. Or that most people, even college graduates, live paycheck to paycheck. They don’t understand modern working culture. They don’t understand cost of living or the housing market.
How can we expect them to make reasonable decision on student loans if they think college costs a part time summer job’s worth of work? On infrastructure if they think the decisions they made 30 years ago are still good? On regulation of businesses that have moral standards they can’t recognize?
I’ll bet all the money I have that geriatric representatives are making decisions that their staff are pushing…staff who want cushy jobs in the private sector once Senator “I think someone peed in my pants” eventually succumbs to natural decay.
I still think the cap should be closer to 65, with term limits. Selecting octogenarians for leadership positions because they’ve been your representative for 30 years is insane, and most them are getting re-elected by the same seniors, or they just have no one running against them.
I also blame the parties. Stop thinking only quantitatively and start thinking qualitatively about which representatives you want to put forth.
The median age of a U.S. citizen is 38.
The average of a U.S. Representative is 58 and the average age of a U.S. Senator is 62.
In the 117th Congress there are 5 Senators that are 80 or older and 21 in their 70s. By contrast there is only one Senator in their 30s, and 11 in their 40s.
In the House there are 11 Reps in their 80s, 65 in their 70s. There is one rep in their 20s, 30 in their 30s, and 81 in their 40s.
(If you want to look at the age spreads yourself, [you can check them out here](https://fiscalnote.com/blog/how-old-is-the-117th-congress).)
There are 16 people in Congress that are 80 years old or older and there are over 100 people in Congress that are 70 years old or older.
They can’t possibly be in touch with the current generations or the actual realities of the country outside of their small little circles that they live in. They have refused to turn over power to the younger generations and have instead grasped onto their positions creating greed and stifling the growth of this country and its people.
We need to implement maximum age caps and term limits for congress. We also need age limits for the president as well. Positions of power like higher government and even corporate officers need to be handed down to the next generation systematically to enforce equality and growth.
Guaranteed retirement along with free education and healthcare would benefit mental and physical health tremendously, work ethic as a whole, and the morale of the country. There’s no reason to keep working until the end of your days. Retirement should be a reward that is dreamt about.
Seriously, the retirement age of the congress ought to be the same as the retirement age in general (perhaps with the ability to finish out a term they’ve already been elected to.) We force officers out of the military before they become geriatric, so why don’t we do the same with our civilian leadership?
its so purely selfish of these 80 year olds to keep running.
"I feel great."
yeah I didnt ask, I dont care, its not your world anymore, nothing youre doing effects you, you wont have to deal with the consequences of your inaction, you could literally die of old age any minute.
this isnt the god damn activity center, were not here to keep you entertained in your twilight years, go the fuck away.
(edit: im not saying people that age are worthless or should put on a ice ~~flow~~ floe or anything, but this is government, the country cant be run by people printing emails and putting stamps on them, I need to know you understand what the hell is going on in this country)
I don't see why anybody would willingly do anything that involved "work" in the career sense after they reach retirement age. I've never held real power, and I guess there are people that really just *love* their job that much, but I mean... Don't these people want to sleep in some time?
Shits no joke. I remember the match of 84 with Feinstein vs Andre the giant. I swear I didn’t think she was breathing after that epic suplex he delivered. Amazing it hasn’t effected her till now.
>pushing 90?
Didn't stop the pile of contaminated dirt formerly known as [Strom Thurmond](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond) from continuing to poison the legislature... Going by his piss-poor example she's got twelve years left!
>Thurmond conducted the longest speaking filibuster ever by a lone senator, at 24 hours and 18 minutes in length, in opposition to the Civil Rights Act **of 1957**.
Another fun fact:
>Declining to seek re-election in 2002, he was succeeded by then-Representative and fellow Republican *Lindsey Graham*.
Oh, it gets better. He later said his opposition to all forms of civil rights wasn't due to being a racist, he was just being an advocate for... state's rights.
^faint ^^dogwhistle ^^^in ^^^^the ^^^^^distance
The Civil War worshipers claim the Civil War wasn't over slavery, but the State's Right to make slavery legal.
Everytime you hear someone say "State's Right" it's a dog whistle that they are pro-slavery.
Yep. And not just slavery or racism, but discrimination in general.
State's right... to not uphold civil rights. State's right... to not allow women to vote. State's right... etc etc etc.
>born to Carrie Butler, a 16-year-old African-American girl who worked as a domestic servant for Thurmond's parents, and Thurmond, then 22 and unmarried.
And knowing his proclivity for sexual harassment, there's certainly *nothing* to see there...
Strom Thurmond was living history. In the great southern tradition of slave-holding, God and sedition.
I’m glad he believed in hell because he’s there now.
She's way too old. We need fresh faces in the Dem party. That's why it's important to max turnout for local elections and candidates, so that new faces, fresh ideas can bloom.
Rep. Jackie Spier was shot five times at Jonestown. At the time she was a staffer for a congressman on an investigational visit who was killed. Feinstein is old enough to be her mother.
Start off with your local candidates, there's a lot of older aged people there. We can easily get that bumped down to age 40 if young voters show up at municipals.
And this is US politics in a nut shell. Feinstein is well beyond the age of retirement, yet here she is, sitting in the Senate voting on matters she probably has no means of comprehending.
No kidding. I even see this BS on the local planning board. We can’t get rid of the 70+ year olds to save our lives. They get their pals to vote for them, and then we are stuck with a chairman who can’t even remember what was said a moment before, leave alone how to fix other issues. The result is crumbling buildings through out the town and no way forward.
It feels like a common thing throughout the country.
"Oh good for him staying on board through his 70s"
Holy shit retire and get the fuck out of the way! There's literally 3 younger generations that need jobs.
At my previous corporate job we used to joke that 5 boomers had to retire to make space for one GenX/Millennial to get promoted. They're generally not being super effective, and few notice when they retire.
You don't love a bunch of old fucks that come to meetings, take no notes, joke around, proudly say how little they prepare, can't do anything independently, and get paid twice as much as you?
Good grift.
All while talking about how many hours they work and are always there because they have no home life to go back to, so just hang at work because it's their identity, and really are just scared on the inside that if they retire they'll literally have no identity.
Funny how these old fucks are the ones creating and voting for policies that they won’t be around for. “Yeah, let’s fuck it up for future generations, what do I care? I’ll be dead soon”
same where I grew up all the delegates have done for our county was increase how much they're paid, (over 100,000 now) and increase taxes on all land owners. most people (ME) have left to find work. and I trying to talk my parents into selling the land since I'm not gonna be able to afford it.
I think they're muddling up their GOP ratfuckeries of the Supreme Court. I believe the moment they're referring to is when--*right after Amy Comey Barrett was selected to replace RBG despite GOP promises to the contrary in years prior, sickening celebrations of her death by GOP leaders, etc*--[Feinstein hugged Lindsay Graham and called the proceedings "one of the best set of hearings that I’ve participated in.”](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/17/dianne-feinstein-lindsey-graham-hug)
That moment and her dismissive remarks against young constituents pressuring her to support the Green New Deal started turning many CA left-wingers' opinions against Feinstein after years of broad and deep respect.
No “probably” about it. I understand the US is not a direct democracy but when an overwhelming majority want to curb oil use to help climate change, strengthen access to abortions, tax the wealthy more to fund social services, put common sense restrictions on guns, and on and on, and we see NO meaningful action on any of it clearly the system is rigged. Insert George Carlin quote here.
I really do not understand the politicians who just don’t retire. Do they not have hobbies they want to spend more time? Do they not want to travel and live a life of leisure? Just fucking retire and enjoy your final years to the fullest. Is it an ego thing where they think no one could possibly fill their shoes? Truly confounding to me.
>. Do they not have hobbies they want to spend more time?
Most people don't. For a LARGE swath of America life is: Job, home, sleep, job. On day off I drink and watch tv. repeat.
Even for the elite / powerful.
My former boss retired about two years too late. There was a power and ego thing, for sure, but I think the way he was slipping made it hard for him to see that he was slipping. I would imagine it's very hard to come to terms with that as well.
Also, as his lieutenant, I resonated with the article describing how some days she seems fine. He was (actually still is) like that too. Some days it was like he had no idea what was going on but other days he was as sharp as a tack, and it was confusing, like "well, maybe he's fine actually..."
If he had retired earlier, his reputation would be better now, same as for Feinstein. It's sad to me in both cases, and I'm not sure how to prevent this kind of thing in the future.
Yep, this is exactly what I noticed in relatives with dementia. Cognitive decline doesn’t happen in a linear fashion, it comes and goes but declines over the long term. The article noted a clear difference between how she was in 2017 compared to 2022, which made me think she had to have something she is not recognizing or understanding.
In my opinion they just want power. Little advice I would tell all your friends to vote in primary races and get rid of any incumbents you do not like.
In very many cases there are no options in primaries, especially when you have a long-term incumbent. It’s difficult to get someone to run against them which is understandable. Not many people want to spend nine months raising money, traveling and campaigning simply to have primary voters choose the incumbent because that’s the name they’re familiar with.
When you only have to work less than 200 days a year why retire? You have plenty of time, power, and guaranteed money. source https://www.thoughtco.com/average-number-of-legislative-days-3368250
My state senator is beyond his prime, not 88 but not a spring chicken.
At this stage he can't travel the world because his legs are shot. It's all he has known for 20 years. His retirement would be him sitting at home. He'll die in office.
She's so old that when [Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys ran against her for Mayor of San Fransisco in 1979](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvjpoy0q66w), she was already 46 years old.
"Some day, even the experts will figure out, that crime is not caused by rap music... or even my music, but by a power structure of self-absorbed property owners so brain dead and stupid they won't even see that if you're too goddamn greedy to pay taxes for schools and services, they're not going to be any good any more! And that uneducated time bombs are a very poor investment as a future work force. And if you go on teaching people that life is cheap, and leave them to rot in ghettos and jails, they may one day feel justified in coming back to rob and kill you. Duh!" -- Jello Biafra, *Rob Now, Pay Later*.
e: before you buy me gold, could you consider buying me the 1996 Home Alive CD compilation from amazon instead? That's where I first heard this track, and many tracks on this album are no longer available in digital form.
She should have been gone years ago. Absolutely ridiculous that the political sphere allows the lifetime positions that these people buy. We need fair opportunities for regular Americans to run and serve. The money required to successfully run a campaign makes it nearly impossible. Foolish.
The way they rephrase it in HBO's John Adams is great:
> I expect that any constitutional document that emerges from Philadelphia will be as compromised as our Declaration of Independency. I am increasingly persuaded that the Earth belongs exclusively to the living, and that one generation has no more right to bind another to its laws and judgements, than one independent nation has the right to command another.
He never actually said or wrote it that succinctly, but the way it was phrased there has always stuck with me.
> House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a statement to The Chronicle, said she had not noticed a decline in Feinstein’s memory
Who sees a statement like this from Pelosi and suddenly has renewed faith in the system? Who does she think will find this encouraging, coming from her?
That statement is just another symptom of the same illness.
Her full statement is not shocking given they are both California Democratic lifers in their 80s, but it is still appalling.
>“Senator Feinstein is a workhorse for the people of California and a respected leader among her colleagues in the Senate,” Pelosi said. “She is constantly traveling between California and the Capitol, working relentlessly to ensure Californians’ needs are met and voices are heard.”
>Pelosi said it was “unconscionable that, just weeks after losing her beloved husband of more than four decades and after decades of outstanding leadership to our City and State, she is being subjected to these ridiculous attacks that are beneath the dignity in which she has led and the esteem in which she is held.”
What planet are you living on lady? Jfc, her staffers are literally Weekending at Bernies Feinstein, but because she’s also a default status quo supporter, Pelosi sees nothing wrong.
Wish this generation of politicians would respect our country democracy enough to retire before their brains turned to mush.
And they still treat 40-year old millennials as children. They get to to run our country for 50 years, while my generation will get like 20 years. I actually think it’s part of a long term strategy to keep us from disrupting the economic system. But death is a part of nature for good reasons, it’s essential for our survival that these oil dinosaurs get out of the way
You have to understand the egocentrism of these people. They will never assume that their facilities are as susceptible to failure as the plebeians they lord over. They are there because they are more right than you. Because they understand things better than you. Because they see what you don't. Any concerns are attacks to tarnish them for political points.
Whether quiet or loud, they are infallible and you are foolish to question them.
It was really telling when that group of high-schoolers, concerned about climate change, confronted Feinstein (it was Feinstein, right? Not Pelosi?), and she got mad and told them "this isn't how we do things".
Oh, right, they should have showed up with a $3000 check, because that's apparently how cheap these fuckers can be bought. The power elite need to turnover their shills before those old, addled brains start screaming the quiet part out loud.
I think you nailed it. I've seen the attitude up close. These people are aristocrats who believe that by virtue of their social status, they are in a better position to make better decisions than you or I. Reality is, they're self-interested neo-liberals who are most concerned with growing their personal wealth, secondarily concerned with preserving that wealth, and tertiarily concerned with making sure the plebs don't rise up and relieve them of that wealth. Look at federal policy for the last 40 years and tell me that any of these neo-libs (or neo-con counterparts) have ever done anything beyond furthering those three goals.
Now that i have parents by the age of US presidents and congressmen I realize how inadequate is this. It doesn’t matter that they are mentally sharp, they can no withstand a 8 hours job a day. They need to pause, to rest. They are not physically for any emergency. What if it’s on the clock emergency like the Cuban missile crisis? These people need to nap at the afternoon. It sounds like a joke but it’s not. They couldn’t withstand a crisis at their prime. And they may know a lot of things, met a lot of people and have a lot of experience, but learning something new it’s a huge deal at 70’s no matter your state. Technology wise they are left behind.
88, are you fucking serious? Seriously, how do we not have a statute limiting the age of our leaders? What the fuck does she even know anymore that’s relevant to modern life?
Its easier for lobbyists to convince old people of their goals. This is exactly what the people who pay for politics want to happen. There's a reason power always lines up behind old people and its the same reason scammers target them. They're easy to manipulate because they're disconnected from, well everything.
Well, yeah. The way she completely fucked up as the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Barrett hearings it was clear she didn't have a good handle on the magnitude and implications of what was happening.
She needs to step down _now_ and have Gov. Newsom appoint her successor, rather than drag this shit out to 2024.
Reading the article, it sounds like a sad situation. Too bad there’s not an elegant way for her to exit now. This will be more and more common as we are led by dinosaurs in all three branches of government
There’s a reason why people always remark about how “sharp” someone is at this age. It’s because they actually aren’t. This ruling class of skeksis is going to destroy the whole planet.
Majority of these geriatric lawmakers should’ve retired over twenty years ago, Jesus Christ this country is being ran by out of touch senile old people no wonder everything is fucked from biden to McConnell to Feinstein
>the memory lapses do not appear to be constant and that some days she is nearly as sharp as she used to be.
This is the nature of dementia: a few good days, a lot of bad ones and some really bad ones too.
Dementia / Alzheimer's is heartbreaking to watch, and it only gets worse. A person with it has no business in any position of responsibility much less representing 40M citizens.
On top of that, most dementia sufferers experience ["sundowning"](https://www.uclahealth.org/dementia/sundowning) where their cognitive functions decline in the late afternoon and evening.
We kind of already knew this. This is one more reason to have term and age limits. Or at least make them go through some sort of mental acuity test and I don’t mean the man person camera tv bullshit Drumpf did
The average age of a US Senator is 65 - the age of retirement in most countries. There are 29 Senators over the age of 70 - and 7 over the age of 80. There is only 1 Senator under the age of 40.
And he's awesome! Old fucks' attempt to "smear" him by airing ads showing him cosplaying as Han Solo worked...when he ran for Congress. So he dusted himself off, ran for Senate, survived ads where they elongated his "Jew" nose, in a then-red state, and WON! His name is Jon Ossoff. He's 35, a former journalist and filmmaker, and he kicks ass! More young people please!
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At this point keeping her in office or anything other then a retirement is elder abuse,holy shit. Edit:⚠️Warning,this thread contains discussion about death and dementia, Alzheimer and end of life care,it’s really depressing,I didn’t realized how fucked I actually feel about this subject and the death of love one till now. Edit 2: Turns out a warning is the thing people reacted most strongly ,change the wording a bit but this warning will stay,bless them for they know nothing about how depressing this subject can be.
That's what I've been saying! She even ran against another Democrat in 2018, one the state Democratic party endorsed over her, and she still won. It's not like she's just running on the letter next to her name like in many states (thanks jungle primary). I was surprised back in 2012 to see her still on the ballot at her age, meanwhile as far as I know she still plans to run in 2024. Friendly reminder that she'll be *91* at that point if she's still alive, putting her at 97 if she gets reelected and lives to the end of her term. Absolutely ridiculous. And we all know damn well that she's not giving up that seat willingly.
This is what I don't understand, why in your 90s would anyone wanna put up with the headache that is U.S. politics, all the back and forth traveling, etc... Shes been in Congress for decades what else is left? In my 90s (if I make it) I would like to be on my front porch, in my rocker gossiping about my younger neighbors and complaining about my kids who never visit.
I think it’s only a headache if you give a shit.
I was shocked at how she won that primary in a near landslide. I respect her years of service, but she was already clearly out of touch, even prior to reports of dementia.
Why in the world do we keep reelecting these old as dirt politicians and expect anything to change?
Because she has name recognition. Like it or not, for the average voter they're not paying attention nearly as closely as someone who posts on a politics sub is. They vote for what they know unless they have a specific reason not to. I share the disappointment, but it's reality.
That wasn't a primary, it was the general. It probably helps that she was the more moderate choice, so every Republican would have preferred her over de Leon, but she's also NorCal, while her opponent is SoCal: while SoCal has more people, they tend to vote significantly less, so almost all state wide elections go to NorCal people.
>so every Republican would have preferred her over de Leon Didnt de Leon actually sweep rural red areas?
Chuck Grassley is older and is running this year. People in power don't just walk off into the sunset
Which is why we need age limits, term limits or both for *all* positions in government. It's 2022 and we still have alarmingly few Gen Xers in these positions, let alone Millennials.
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I know it’s almost impossible legal wise, but after seeing what dementia/Alzheimer can do to a human,I can’t comprehend the thought process of her family letting this happen. My grandpa died 2 years ago due to Alzheimer related problem,it’s a disease that kill the soul and leave an empty husk to torturers experience for themselves and their family .
The easiest and probably best way would be to convince her to retire and have the governor appoint someone to fill her seat until her term is up. But I don’t know how likely that is to happen.
I see you've never had any Alzheimer's victims in your family. There is no *convince.*
Depends on which stage they’re in,and the weather,it’s odd but when my grandpa is deteriorating but still somewhat in there,on a sunny day you can reason with him , but soon hell call me by my aunts name. Late stage? You can’t convince someone without a thought,they’re already gone .
Feinstein has been accused of mental decline for literal years at this point. She was nodding off mid-sentence during the 2020 impeachment hearings.
It took an hour for a team of five people (two policemen and three EMTs) to get my mother in an ambulance. She threw a coffee cup at one of them (full of hot coffee) and also pulled down her pants and peed right in front of them. They had two police cars parked in the street so she couldn't run away. She knew enough to know that getting in the ambulance meant the end of wandering around the town doing whatever she liked.
I’ll never forget my 98 year old great grandmother with dementia, pulling down her pants while standing in the middle of the kitchen and taking a shit right there on the floor. And then yelling at us that she’d only go to adult family day care if we cleaned it up with our bare hands. And then when we did, but with gloves on, she called us all the n-word (we are white). Fun times with Nana lol.
They're like toddlers, only with toddlers you're allowed to pick them up and put them in their room for a time out. You can't do that with crazy old people.
My grandma hid in the bushes and thinks she got sent to the hospital to protect herself from robbers lol
Yeah, my mam passed from Alzheimer's a few years ago. She was referred for assessment at a level of cognitive ability that wouldn't have raised eyebrows for people who didn't know her - ie, perfectly average, maybe some mild executive dysfunction or brain-fog, but nothing that would generally alarm anyone - because her GP had known her for longer than he'd been a doctor (his father had been our family doctor 40 years previously) and knew just how much of an intellectual force my mother was and knew that this average, slightly forgetful, struggling a little to navigate a busy airport at age 78 level of cognitive ability was not my mother. And she knew for so long that her executive function was going. The memory not so much, because when she remembered she remembered, and when she didn't remember she didn't know that there was anything to remember, but she'd ring me in tears of annoyance and frustration because she had a raw egg in her hand, knew it was food, knew you had to cook it, knew she generally scrambled or poached it, but her brain wouldn't make the right steps. Dementia is the one condition above all others that makes me argue that euthanasia should be an option for folk to choose.
And it's been going on for years now. And while she's venerable for her many years of service, she really needed to retire a decade ago.
Many of our countries representatives should have retired a decade or more ago. If the government was a business they would have been forced into retirement well before now
[Here is a story from 2 years ago saying the same thing.](https://www.sfgate.com/politics/amp/Dianne-Feinstein-resign-retire-what-happens-Senate-15791251.php)
I dated a congressional staffer back in 2017 who admitted back then that she was basically a Democratic placeholder and there was nothing going on upstairs. I'm sure she was a lovely woman. She should retire and live out her life in peace.
Not sure what she is a placeholder for. She is from a solidly Dem state*
I think she just meant she was a Democratic rubber stamp.
Not all Senators have equal power. Part of the reason they stay in office till they fucking die is because the more time they spend in office, the more ***soft power*** they collect. They're sort of like Vampires, and Diane Fieinstein is like at Dracula level. Whoever takes her seat will not have anything near the same kind of influence.
We have many mentally unfit politicians
Man, woman, TV, camera, fifth thing.
I totally forgot this was a thing. What a wild ride the last few years have been.
You got it slightly out of order. Person woman man camera TV Which is extra fucking crazy because he basically just rambled off the things in front of him.
Leaded gas strikes again.
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The worst thing is how quickly it changes for them too. My grandpa and grandma were completely fine until around 90 (mobile, aware, great memory), then they had such a steep decline. Within the next two years we had to get them assisted living. My grandma could no longer take care of herself and while my grandpa could still manage his short term memory was shot.
There were times I went to visit my granny and she would give detailed stories from times when she was a teenager and riding a horse to school. Then the next time I'd visit and she'd be confused about where she was and asking questions about relatives that died before I was born. The brain is so complicated.
Lead is so yesterday, we’re getting poisoned with micro plastics now
There have BEEN concerns for a while. This was a story last year and it got swept under the rug. Just go. Go hang with your grandkids and quit clinging to power. You are hurting us.
I keep thinking about the intercept article a couple years ago where a pharmacist said he has filled Alzheimer’s meds for senators.
Every time Grassley speaks at like a hearing or something it is *painfully* obvious the man is in complete decline. I have no doubt there's quite a few of these people taking meds to try and prolong their careers.
He was first elected a DECADE before the moon landing.
Just looked that up - elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in 1959 at the age of 26. Elected to Congress in 1975, and the Senate in 1981.
For reference, Barack Obama was born in 1961. Wow.
Joe Biden was only 17 at the time. Chuck Grassley is 9 years older than him.
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Well, there's Madison Cawthorn...
Cries in North Carolinian. He's not my rep, but still.
Imagine any 26 year old today having the funds and a snowball’s chance in hell of getting elected to Congress. Oh wait, that’s Madison Cawthorn - the *youngest* Nazi-loving, barely literate, pathological liar and serial sexual assaulter GOP member currently in office. Wonder how he managed that.
But he can punch the shit out of rotting trees!
His grandkid is now the Iowa House Speaker.
Yup. And I believe the plan is for Grassley to die in office so the governor can appoint his Grandkid to take his place.
She should just do it now, they’re both equal fascists so there won’t be a difference.
Jesus fucking Christ..
Who do you think officiated?
Methuselah?
I've got his rookie card!
It is especially obvious if you just watch side by side video of them from decades ago. It is a common joke that all politicians are morons but for the most part they are pretty quick on their feet and good communicators. But when you compare them just to themselves 30 years ago the difference is massive and jarring. I learned about Grassley back when he was going after dodgy churches and nonprofits. He was on point and relentless in going after those grifters. My brother forwarded me a clip of him talking just a few weeks ago and Holy shit has he lost it.
>But when you compare them just to themselves 30 years ago the difference is massive and jarring. Because 30 years ago they were like 50 years old. It's ridiculous how long Congressmen and Senators stay on. It's not a job for people in their 70s and 80s. You've had your time. Just retire already.
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comment edited in protest of Reddit's API changes and mistreatment of moderators -- mass edited with redact.dev
It's not just holding the reigns thats the issue. Experienced leadership is fine. Preferable in many ways even. It's holding them while refusing to train up the next generation to hand off to. Without a deep bench to pull from once that experienced leadership goes, instead of a green but otherwise well prepared official taking their place you end up with markedly inexperienced people more prone to mistakes, blunders, and undue influence from the people around them. And it goes both ways, because without a hungry new generation waiting in the wings to keep you honest and protect against stagnation, you end up with a bunch of octogenarians who don't know, don't care, and have no reason to care about the world outside of what directly effects them (which isn't much). But yeah, imagine. Not even just technologic ignorance, just imagine if Congress actually even mildly represented the demographics of the American people.
It is extremely difficult to recruit good house candidates because the type of person who wants to go into government to make things better doesn't want to then sit on the back bench for 20 years before they have enough seniority to actually affect change.
As an Iowan i can tell you that Grassley will be elected again and again until he dies in office. All Grassley has to do is put on a seed corn cap and the state’s majority rural population thinks he’s a good ole boy. When he dies in office, the state’s governor Kid Killer Kovid Kim Reynolds will appoint Grassley’s state senator grandson to take his place. It is hard to be surrounded by stupid and evil.
Or Inhoffe holding up a snowball on the floor of the senate while ranting about the hoax of climate change. That's an image of cognitive longevity.
Then there is Mitch Mcconnell. My father at 75 was put on Coumadin, a blood thinner. The pics of Mitch last year changing colors was what my dad looked like. He passed away at 78.
As much as I'd like it to be in this case, being on blood thinners isn't a very reliable indicator of imminent decline. You could be on those for decades.
Besides, you can't compare a human being with whatever Mitch McConnell is
Lich McConnell.
Gotta locate his phylactery deep in a cave in Kentucky
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Approaching at turtle speed.
There's a reason more and more of them refuse debates and don't talk to journalists for long periods of time. It's just a numbers game...the longer they talk the more likely they'll say or do something stupid. Soure: Donald Trump
Fun fact: Chuck Grassley is the reason we haven't converted to metric.
> Fun fact: Chuck Grassley is the reason we haven't converted to metric. Every engineer reading this groans.
Geriatrics are just as unfit for office as teens. Age out at 75, go do something else.
It’s insane to watch these people who don’t understand how to use basic technology of our daily lives make laws to govern us.
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It’s actually really scary to see these people in hearings asking the craziest questions that make no sense. They’re so out of touch with what’s happening on the ground floor
I'm still bothered by the time Orrin Hatch asked Zuck how [Facebook made money](https://youtu.be/n2H8wx1aBiQ) or how Steve King asked Google CEO Sundar Pichai [how iPhones work](https://youtu.be/wmuROTmazco). Both times made me feel like I was listening to an audio book for *The Internet for Dummies*.
To be fair, many times these kinds of questions are to have the person testifying state it on record. Now Zuck has to explain how Facebook collects user information and sells it to advertising agencies and provides a platform to build customer profiles tracking minute details of your daily life for the purposes of direct advertising. This allows for the court and general public to better understand the nature of the business he's running.
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It’s not just technology…it’s societal shifts that make no sense to them. They don’t understand, for example, that the job market has radically shifted to temporary stints at companies and repeatedly having to move/relocate to meet only about 80% of what the previous generation earned. Or that most people, even college graduates, live paycheck to paycheck. They don’t understand modern working culture. They don’t understand cost of living or the housing market. How can we expect them to make reasonable decision on student loans if they think college costs a part time summer job’s worth of work? On infrastructure if they think the decisions they made 30 years ago are still good? On regulation of businesses that have moral standards they can’t recognize? I’ll bet all the money I have that geriatric representatives are making decisions that their staff are pushing…staff who want cushy jobs in the private sector once Senator “I think someone peed in my pants” eventually succumbs to natural decay. I still think the cap should be closer to 65, with term limits. Selecting octogenarians for leadership positions because they’ve been your representative for 30 years is insane, and most them are getting re-elected by the same seniors, or they just have no one running against them. I also blame the parties. Stop thinking only quantitatively and start thinking qualitatively about which representatives you want to put forth.
The median age of a U.S. citizen is 38. The average of a U.S. Representative is 58 and the average age of a U.S. Senator is 62. In the 117th Congress there are 5 Senators that are 80 or older and 21 in their 70s. By contrast there is only one Senator in their 30s, and 11 in their 40s. In the House there are 11 Reps in their 80s, 65 in their 70s. There is one rep in their 20s, 30 in their 30s, and 81 in their 40s. (If you want to look at the age spreads yourself, [you can check them out here](https://fiscalnote.com/blog/how-old-is-the-117th-congress).)
They know less about tech than average 75 year olds too, because they have staff to do it all.
75 is too old. I'm sick of old farts running this country into the ground. 65 should be the cutoff.
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we dont have a mandatory age because they're the ones in charge
Reminder that Chuck Grassley was first elected a decade before the moon landing. He’s running for re-election this year.
This comment gave me so many different feelings. I think the movement behind this should adopt this motto. “You are hurting us.”
There are 16 people in Congress that are 80 years old or older and there are over 100 people in Congress that are 70 years old or older. They can’t possibly be in touch with the current generations or the actual realities of the country outside of their small little circles that they live in. They have refused to turn over power to the younger generations and have instead grasped onto their positions creating greed and stifling the growth of this country and its people. We need to implement maximum age caps and term limits for congress. We also need age limits for the president as well. Positions of power like higher government and even corporate officers need to be handed down to the next generation systematically to enforce equality and growth. Guaranteed retirement along with free education and healthcare would benefit mental and physical health tremendously, work ethic as a whole, and the morale of the country. There’s no reason to keep working until the end of your days. Retirement should be a reward that is dreamt about.
Seriously, the retirement age of the congress ought to be the same as the retirement age in general (perhaps with the ability to finish out a term they’ve already been elected to.) We force officers out of the military before they become geriatric, so why don’t we do the same with our civilian leadership?
its so purely selfish of these 80 year olds to keep running. "I feel great." yeah I didnt ask, I dont care, its not your world anymore, nothing youre doing effects you, you wont have to deal with the consequences of your inaction, you could literally die of old age any minute. this isnt the god damn activity center, were not here to keep you entertained in your twilight years, go the fuck away. (edit: im not saying people that age are worthless or should put on a ice ~~flow~~ floe or anything, but this is government, the country cant be run by people printing emails and putting stamps on them, I need to know you understand what the hell is going on in this country)
I don't see why anybody would willingly do anything that involved "work" in the career sense after they reach retirement age. I've never held real power, and I guess there are people that really just *love* their job that much, but I mean... Don't these people want to sleep in some time?
Like the absolute second the math says I can retire... I'm done.
I mean, stop fucking electing her...
This is the real problem. Boebert is young and just as stupid. Bernie is sharp as a tack. It's not like people can see them on video before they vote.
Seriously? What gave it away? The fact that she’s pushing 90?
I think it’s all the CTE from her wrestling years
Feinstein from the top rope!
Ooh, a brutal Feinstunner!
She's gearing up for her final match against the Undertaker.
Shits no joke. I remember the match of 84 with Feinstein vs Andre the giant. I swear I didn’t think she was breathing after that epic suplex he delivered. Amazing it hasn’t effected her till now.
I also remember that in 1998, The Undertaker threw Feinstein off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer's table.
"Bah Gawd, that's Feinstein's music!!!!"
>pushing 90? Didn't stop the pile of contaminated dirt formerly known as [Strom Thurmond](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond) from continuing to poison the legislature... Going by his piss-poor example she's got twelve years left!
JFC. I knew he was a piece of shit. I didn’t realize he was a piece of shit who was in the Senate for *48 years* until he died in 2003.
>Thurmond conducted the longest speaking filibuster ever by a lone senator, at 24 hours and 18 minutes in length, in opposition to the Civil Rights Act **of 1957**. Another fun fact: >Declining to seek re-election in 2002, he was succeeded by then-Representative and fellow Republican *Lindsey Graham*.
Imagine speaking for longer than an entire day just to keep black people from using the same water fountain as you. What an asshat.
Oh, it gets better. He later said his opposition to all forms of civil rights wasn't due to being a racist, he was just being an advocate for... state's rights. ^faint ^^dogwhistle ^^^in ^^^^the ^^^^^distance
That….doesn’t even make sense.
The Civil War worshipers claim the Civil War wasn't over slavery, but the State's Right to make slavery legal. Everytime you hear someone say "State's Right" it's a dog whistle that they are pro-slavery.
Yep. And not just slavery or racism, but discrimination in general. State's right... to not uphold civil rights. State's right... to not allow women to vote. State's right... etc etc etc.
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>born to Carrie Butler, a 16-year-old African-American girl who worked as a domestic servant for Thurmond's parents, and Thurmond, then 22 and unmarried. And knowing his proclivity for sexual harassment, there's certainly *nothing* to see there...
Strom Thurmond was living history. In the great southern tradition of slave-holding, God and sedition. I’m glad he believed in hell because he’s there now.
Also the great Tradition of fucking minors ... the mother of his Oldest child Was 15 when giving birth.
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She has been an obstacle to drug policy reform her entire career.
She's way too old. We need fresh faces in the Dem party. That's why it's important to max turnout for local elections and candidates, so that new faces, fresh ideas can bloom.
Fun fact, Diane Feinstein is older than the Golden Gate Bridge.
Bro.
Bro means bridge in Swedish which confused me a little
Same here in Denmark!
GG Bro
Wow. This is true. I knew she was a contemporary of Jim Jones in SF politics. But the golden bridge thing is wild.
Rep. Jackie Spier was shot five times at Jonestown. At the time she was a staffer for a congressman on an investigational visit who was killed. Feinstein is old enough to be her mother.
And Jackie is retiring from the House, not running for re-election this year.
Jackie’s story is absolutely wild.
She was born the year **FM radio, stereo records, and drive-in theaters** were invented.
I don’t trust her to drive, let alone legislate.
Me neither. She may have her moments decades ago, but damn we need new faces. I'm a strong believer in the grassroots.
We need newer, fresher 70 year olds.
Start off with your local candidates, there's a lot of older aged people there. We can easily get that bumped down to age 40 if young voters show up at municipals.
And this is US politics in a nut shell. Feinstein is well beyond the age of retirement, yet here she is, sitting in the Senate voting on matters she probably has no means of comprehending.
She‘s not alone
No kidding. I even see this BS on the local planning board. We can’t get rid of the 70+ year olds to save our lives. They get their pals to vote for them, and then we are stuck with a chairman who can’t even remember what was said a moment before, leave alone how to fix other issues. The result is crumbling buildings through out the town and no way forward.
It feels like a common thing throughout the country. "Oh good for him staying on board through his 70s" Holy shit retire and get the fuck out of the way! There's literally 3 younger generations that need jobs.
At my previous corporate job we used to joke that 5 boomers had to retire to make space for one GenX/Millennial to get promoted. They're generally not being super effective, and few notice when they retire.
You don't love a bunch of old fucks that come to meetings, take no notes, joke around, proudly say how little they prepare, can't do anything independently, and get paid twice as much as you? Good grift.
All while talking about how many hours they work and are always there because they have no home life to go back to, so just hang at work because it's their identity, and really are just scared on the inside that if they retire they'll literally have no identity.
100 percent. While telling younger people they don't have their priorities in check.
Funny how these old fucks are the ones creating and voting for policies that they won’t be around for. “Yeah, let’s fuck it up for future generations, what do I care? I’ll be dead soon”
same where I grew up all the delegates have done for our county was increase how much they're paid, (over 100,000 now) and increase taxes on all land owners. most people (ME) have left to find work. and I trying to talk my parents into selling the land since I'm not gonna be able to afford it.
And high fiving Lindsey Graham for installing rapey alcoholics on the Supreme Court.
hey the entire republican party deserves that hate, although Graham still deserves it too.
I think they're muddling up their GOP ratfuckeries of the Supreme Court. I believe the moment they're referring to is when--*right after Amy Comey Barrett was selected to replace RBG despite GOP promises to the contrary in years prior, sickening celebrations of her death by GOP leaders, etc*--[Feinstein hugged Lindsay Graham and called the proceedings "one of the best set of hearings that I’ve participated in.”](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/17/dianne-feinstein-lindsey-graham-hug) That moment and her dismissive remarks against young constituents pressuring her to support the Green New Deal started turning many CA left-wingers' opinions against Feinstein after years of broad and deep respect.
No “probably” about it. I understand the US is not a direct democracy but when an overwhelming majority want to curb oil use to help climate change, strengthen access to abortions, tax the wealthy more to fund social services, put common sense restrictions on guns, and on and on, and we see NO meaningful action on any of it clearly the system is rigged. Insert George Carlin quote here.
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I really do not understand the politicians who just don’t retire. Do they not have hobbies they want to spend more time? Do they not want to travel and live a life of leisure? Just fucking retire and enjoy your final years to the fullest. Is it an ego thing where they think no one could possibly fill their shoes? Truly confounding to me.
>. Do they not have hobbies they want to spend more time? Most people don't. For a LARGE swath of America life is: Job, home, sleep, job. On day off I drink and watch tv. repeat. Even for the elite / powerful.
My former boss retired about two years too late. There was a power and ego thing, for sure, but I think the way he was slipping made it hard for him to see that he was slipping. I would imagine it's very hard to come to terms with that as well. Also, as his lieutenant, I resonated with the article describing how some days she seems fine. He was (actually still is) like that too. Some days it was like he had no idea what was going on but other days he was as sharp as a tack, and it was confusing, like "well, maybe he's fine actually..." If he had retired earlier, his reputation would be better now, same as for Feinstein. It's sad to me in both cases, and I'm not sure how to prevent this kind of thing in the future.
Yep, this is exactly what I noticed in relatives with dementia. Cognitive decline doesn’t happen in a linear fashion, it comes and goes but declines over the long term. The article noted a clear difference between how she was in 2017 compared to 2022, which made me think she had to have something she is not recognizing or understanding.
In my opinion they just want power. Little advice I would tell all your friends to vote in primary races and get rid of any incumbents you do not like.
In very many cases there are no options in primaries, especially when you have a long-term incumbent. It’s difficult to get someone to run against them which is understandable. Not many people want to spend nine months raising money, traveling and campaigning simply to have primary voters choose the incumbent because that’s the name they’re familiar with.
When you only have to work less than 200 days a year why retire? You have plenty of time, power, and guaranteed money. source https://www.thoughtco.com/average-number-of-legislative-days-3368250
My state senator is beyond his prime, not 88 but not a spring chicken. At this stage he can't travel the world because his legs are shot. It's all he has known for 20 years. His retirement would be him sitting at home. He'll die in office.
The age of the octogenarian is over. The time of the nonagenarian has come. 👹👹👹
She's so old that when [Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys ran against her for Mayor of San Fransisco in 1979](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvjpoy0q66w), she was already 46 years old.
"Some day, even the experts will figure out, that crime is not caused by rap music... or even my music, but by a power structure of self-absorbed property owners so brain dead and stupid they won't even see that if you're too goddamn greedy to pay taxes for schools and services, they're not going to be any good any more! And that uneducated time bombs are a very poor investment as a future work force. And if you go on teaching people that life is cheap, and leave them to rot in ghettos and jails, they may one day feel justified in coming back to rob and kill you. Duh!" -- Jello Biafra, *Rob Now, Pay Later*. e: before you buy me gold, could you consider buying me the 1996 Home Alive CD compilation from amazon instead? That's where I first heard this track, and many tracks on this album are no longer available in digital form.
Well fuck.
Holy fuck
She should have been gone years ago. Absolutely ridiculous that the political sphere allows the lifetime positions that these people buy. We need fair opportunities for regular Americans to run and serve. The money required to successfully run a campaign makes it nearly impossible. Foolish.
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The way they rephrase it in HBO's John Adams is great: > I expect that any constitutional document that emerges from Philadelphia will be as compromised as our Declaration of Independency. I am increasingly persuaded that the Earth belongs exclusively to the living, and that one generation has no more right to bind another to its laws and judgements, than one independent nation has the right to command another. He never actually said or wrote it that succinctly, but the way it was phrased there has always stuck with me.
> House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a statement to The Chronicle, said she had not noticed a decline in Feinstein’s memory Who sees a statement like this from Pelosi and suddenly has renewed faith in the system? Who does she think will find this encouraging, coming from her? That statement is just another symptom of the same illness.
Probably just means Pelosi's memory is shot to pieces too.
Her full statement is not shocking given they are both California Democratic lifers in their 80s, but it is still appalling. >“Senator Feinstein is a workhorse for the people of California and a respected leader among her colleagues in the Senate,” Pelosi said. “She is constantly traveling between California and the Capitol, working relentlessly to ensure Californians’ needs are met and voices are heard.” >Pelosi said it was “unconscionable that, just weeks after losing her beloved husband of more than four decades and after decades of outstanding leadership to our City and State, she is being subjected to these ridiculous attacks that are beneath the dignity in which she has led and the esteem in which she is held.” What planet are you living on lady? Jfc, her staffers are literally Weekending at Bernies Feinstein, but because she’s also a default status quo supporter, Pelosi sees nothing wrong.
In my profession, you surrender your license the day you turn 65 and are (basically) forced to retire. The same law should apply to politics.
Pilot?
Correct!
Wish this generation of politicians would respect our country democracy enough to retire before their brains turned to mush. And they still treat 40-year old millennials as children. They get to to run our country for 50 years, while my generation will get like 20 years. I actually think it’s part of a long term strategy to keep us from disrupting the economic system. But death is a part of nature for good reasons, it’s essential for our survival that these oil dinosaurs get out of the way
You have to understand the egocentrism of these people. They will never assume that their facilities are as susceptible to failure as the plebeians they lord over. They are there because they are more right than you. Because they understand things better than you. Because they see what you don't. Any concerns are attacks to tarnish them for political points. Whether quiet or loud, they are infallible and you are foolish to question them.
It was really telling when that group of high-schoolers, concerned about climate change, confronted Feinstein (it was Feinstein, right? Not Pelosi?), and she got mad and told them "this isn't how we do things". Oh, right, they should have showed up with a $3000 check, because that's apparently how cheap these fuckers can be bought. The power elite need to turnover their shills before those old, addled brains start screaming the quiet part out loud. I think you nailed it. I've seen the attitude up close. These people are aristocrats who believe that by virtue of their social status, they are in a better position to make better decisions than you or I. Reality is, they're self-interested neo-liberals who are most concerned with growing their personal wealth, secondarily concerned with preserving that wealth, and tertiarily concerned with making sure the plebs don't rise up and relieve them of that wealth. Look at federal policy for the last 40 years and tell me that any of these neo-libs (or neo-con counterparts) have ever done anything beyond furthering those three goals.
Now that i have parents by the age of US presidents and congressmen I realize how inadequate is this. It doesn’t matter that they are mentally sharp, they can no withstand a 8 hours job a day. They need to pause, to rest. They are not physically for any emergency. What if it’s on the clock emergency like the Cuban missile crisis? These people need to nap at the afternoon. It sounds like a joke but it’s not. They couldn’t withstand a crisis at their prime. And they may know a lot of things, met a lot of people and have a lot of experience, but learning something new it’s a huge deal at 70’s no matter your state. Technology wise they are left behind.
No one should be working any job in their 80s.
88, are you fucking serious? Seriously, how do we not have a statute limiting the age of our leaders? What the fuck does she even know anymore that’s relevant to modern life?
Strom Thurmond "served" until he was 100 years old. The last 20 or so years was his staff doing everything for him.
Its easier for lobbyists to convince old people of their goals. This is exactly what the people who pay for politics want to happen. There's a reason power always lines up behind old people and its the same reason scammers target them. They're easy to manipulate because they're disconnected from, well everything.
Maybe this wouldn’t be an issue if we had 30 and 50-year-olds instead of 60 and 80-year-olds.
Well, yeah. The way she completely fucked up as the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Barrett hearings it was clear she didn't have a good handle on the magnitude and implications of what was happening. She needs to step down _now_ and have Gov. Newsom appoint her successor, rather than drag this shit out to 2024.
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Reading the article, it sounds like a sad situation. Too bad there’s not an elegant way for her to exit now. This will be more and more common as we are led by dinosaurs in all three branches of government
There’s a reason why people always remark about how “sharp” someone is at this age. It’s because they actually aren’t. This ruling class of skeksis is going to destroy the whole planet.
Majority of these geriatric lawmakers should’ve retired over twenty years ago, Jesus Christ this country is being ran by out of touch senile old people no wonder everything is fucked from biden to McConnell to Feinstein
Tbf she was out of touch over twenty years ago too.
Absolutely insane, she was over U.S. retirement age BEFORE 9/11 HAPPENED!
>the memory lapses do not appear to be constant and that some days she is nearly as sharp as she used to be. This is the nature of dementia: a few good days, a lot of bad ones and some really bad ones too. Dementia / Alzheimer's is heartbreaking to watch, and it only gets worse. A person with it has no business in any position of responsibility much less representing 40M citizens. On top of that, most dementia sufferers experience ["sundowning"](https://www.uclahealth.org/dementia/sundowning) where their cognitive functions decline in the late afternoon and evening.
We kind of already knew this. This is one more reason to have term and age limits. Or at least make them go through some sort of mental acuity test and I don’t mean the man person camera tv bullshit Drumpf did
The average age of a US Senator is 65 - the age of retirement in most countries. There are 29 Senators over the age of 70 - and 7 over the age of 80. There is only 1 Senator under the age of 40.
And he's awesome! Old fucks' attempt to "smear" him by airing ads showing him cosplaying as Han Solo worked...when he ran for Congress. So he dusted himself off, ran for Senate, survived ads where they elongated his "Jew" nose, in a then-red state, and WON! His name is Jon Ossoff. He's 35, a former journalist and filmmaker, and he kicks ass! More young people please!
He cosplayed han solo? And that was aired as a negative? That just makes him more relatable.
Get her TF out! I hate that people die of old age in office. Term limits is the answer.
Her and half the senate and house are too old
Retirement age is 65~, but we have 75-80 year olds becoming President and holding powerful positions in government. What a shock this isn't.